To say that fans are disappointed with Samsung's handling of One UI 7.0 public would be an understatement. It's been a few months since the first beta was launched and yet there's still no sign of the stable version being released for devices like the Galaxy S24 series, Galaxy Z Fold 6/Flip 6, and more.

There hasn't been any justification for this delay. Samsung hasn't even addressed the elephant in the room: why must it continue to keep these devices on the beta while the Galaxy S25 series ships with One UI 7.0?

There is little justification for the delay

It's evidently ready for public release. Two budget phones, the Galaxy A06 5G and Galaxy F06, already launched running One UI 7. With many upcoming Galaxy A series models expected to ship with One UI 7.0 as well, it becomes a lot harder—near impossible, in fact—to justify this.

Fans are taken aback by how uncharacteristic this is for Samsung. The company has done an incredible job with its software updates over the past couple of years. We have seen with early iterations that Samsung would wrap up the beta program in about two months. The first stable builds would then roll out before the end of the year.

Samsung had already said users will have to wait for longer this time around because One UI 7.0 is a substantial upgrade, confirming at the Samsung Developers Conference in October 2024 that this update won't arrive until next year.

Even accounting for the additional time needed to sort everything out, it's all a bit too much now. It's not like there haven't been significant One UI updates in the past that Samsung hasn't been able to get out the gate fairly quickly.

The currently rumored release roadmap—that One UI 7.0 may not come to existing devices until April—doesn't inspire confidence. While Samsung employees have suggested the rumors may be inaccurate, there's a chance that many of the other One UI 7 eligible devices may not get it until well into the summer.

This delay could even force Samsung to abandon One UI 7.1 because there just wouldn't be enough time to prepare it for the new foldables that launch in July or August 2025. So, what gives?

One theory is that perhaps Google has asked Samsung to take it easy with the roll out because it doesn't want hundreds of millions of additional devices tapping into its AI infrastructure, which are integral to many of the new AI experiences that One UI 7.0 brings.

The other theory, if true, could end up being a disaster for Samsung in the future. Some believe that perhaps the company wants to boost sales of the Galaxy S25 series, so it's effectively leaving customers who want to experience the latest software with no other option than to buy a Galaxy S25 phone right now, or wait for a few months.

Delaying major OS updates to force customers to upgrade is not a good idea

Major upgrades for every new iteration of a flagship device are now few and far between. This is the case industry-wise. The technology has advanced so much that you don't get the kind of monumental changes that you did a few years ago.

This means there's less of an incentive now for customers in the high-end segment of the market to upgrade their phone every year. The trend of people keeping their flagship phones for longer has become evident over the past few years.

That is going to be the case for years to come now. That's why Samsung is having to expand its lineup with models like the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition and the Galaxy S25 Edge. Such devices will offer customers something different that they can justify giving up their existing phone for.

If the One UI 7.0 delay becomes the new normal, and customers who want to experience One UI 8.0 as soon as possible can either buy the Galaxy S26 series phones or wait until Q2 2026 to get the update on their existing device, Samsung will quickly find out that this is going to irritate many of its most loyal customers.

This isn't a choice that will thrill customers. If anything, it's only going to make them look elsewhere. Remember, One UI 7.0 doesn't exist in isolation, it also brings Android 15. If the rumored roadmap is accurate, by the time eligible devices get Android 15, Google would be close to rolling out Android 16.

It would be unfair to expect people to pay for what would effectively become a substandard software experience, while also diminishing the seriously impressive job Samsung has done by providing industry-leading software support for its devices so far. The company should not back itself in a corner that it may find difficult to come out of.

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