• By Alex David
  • Tue, 22 Apr 2025 12:20 PM (IST)
  • Source:JND

Samsung’s upcoming One UI 8 update for the Galaxy S25 Ultra has been previewed in an exclusive hands-on by SamMobile, and early impressions suggest it may be underwhelming. While the build brings minor UI tweaks and visual refinements, there’s little that feels groundbreaking or fresh—especially for a next-gen flagship like the S25 Ultra. Interestingly, this sneak peek at One UI 8 comes while Samsung’s One UI 7 rollout is still in the pipeline, with many users still waiting to receive that update. The early One UI 8 build seems to follow a safe, incremental approach, raising questions about whether Samsung is holding back major innovations or simply refining what already works. For now, excitement remains muted as users await something more impactful.

In this article we will be describing the exact changes and new features that Sam Mobile claims to have uncovered while analysing the early build.

"One UI 8 may be the most boring One UI update ever” – Sam Mobile 

Disappointingly, it seems like One UI 8 is going to be a promise not kept. Somehow, more Array 8 features were added in the Exynos 25 series flagship Z Flip 6, making it somewhat interesting. Previously in 7, with the addition of a few sporty touches. I guess we will have to see for ourselves.

What are the features updates?

The new features are better streamlined in the latest Array 25 Ultra, having better controls over sharing via quick share. The easiest one is a new addition for Receive mode to allow making the phone discoverable for file transfers from other services for a prolonged duration.

Apart from these, we did not see much. Not that Samsung is known to change its UI colors but with 8 they became bold enough to add couple more including new wallpaper colors.

What about the Bugs?

The firmware we evaluated seems to be quite skippy. The most problematic issue that we saw is that Now Bar live notifications do not function, which is the case on One UI 8 on Galaxy Z Flip 6. With all due respect, bugs are part of the territory when dealing with unfinished software, especially when Samsung is still in the process of deploying the previous One UI and Android update to a majority of devices. 

A pattern that we observed while testing One UI 8 on S25 Ultra and Z Flip 6 is that this is one supera superficial update. In fact, this could be the first example where a significant new version of One UI almost entirely shifts from adding features to the UI to just applying Google's modifications to the OS Android on a deeper level.   

Assuming our contacts are correct, the official One UI 8 update could begin to go live in the next few months “if they’re to be trusted”, so this is likely the final product they show during these test firwares.