Samsung Galaxy S6 Review: Software
Is TouchWiz going to TouchWiz?
“TouchWiz is so ugly. There are too many needless features that you cannot disable. Samsung just tries to shove Samsung down your throat whether you like it or not. It mutilates the Android experience Google has designed”
Remember to read Part One of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Review Trilogy, focusing on the hardware, right here.
Another tidbit of the narrative I have every time someone asks me why I do not prefer Samsung devices. While some might prefer Samsung’s flavor of Android, I am not one of those people.
With the introduction of the Samsung Galaxy S6, I was told that Samsung had turned a corner with software. It was rumoured that TouchWiz would be toned down with Lollipop. Samsung had already proven they can show restraint and discipline with design. Would that same magic carry over into the TouchWiz software experience?
Speed
I wrote in the Hardware review about some worrisome stuttering and performance issues that I discovered using the Galaxy S6. In my constant use of the Samsung Galaxy S6, the stuttering issues seemed to be tied back to TouchWiz more so than the underlying hardware. There have been multiple instances of complete and utter pause on the Galaxy S6. I will interact with the device, only to have it completely ignore my request or get to it when it gets to it. In a world of wicked fast iPhones, Nexuses, Moto X’s, and the like. Samsung cannot afford to have the performance hiccups that I have experienced. With a device that has a premium price tag, it demands to premium performance.
This isn’t to say it is all bad. The speed and responsiveness issues were not constant. When the device worked as advertised, it worked incredibly well. I noted in the Hardware review that gaming performance was fluid and phenomenal. This fluidity carries over into the overall software experience most of the time. When the Galaxy S6 was working correctly, I could fly through multitasking with ease, scroll with no issue, and had a very enjoyable experience.
The underlying hardware of the Samsung Galaxy S6 is fantastic and leads this class of Android smartphones. But there is work to be done on the software side to tidy up the stuttering and lag that persists.
Stability
Another positive of the Galaxy S6 is how stable it is. I have not seen a single random reboot or system freeze at any point in my usage. Apart from the intermittent stuttering, the Galaxy S6 is a stable and consistent monster of a device. Devices like the OnePlus One and Nexus 6 had minor issues with random reboots.
Bugs
Continuing on the stability front. Software bugs do tend to happen, especially close to the release of a device. Unfortunately for Samsung, some pretty nasty bugs are present. In my time with the Samsung Galaxy S6, I have yet to maintain a consistent bluetooth connection to anything at all. My Moto 360, a friends car stereo, and my Bluetooth speaker are all at the liberty of the inconsistency of the Galaxy S6 bluetooth chip. During two separate runs, I failed to have live tracking on my Moto 360 because of these issues. Listening to my music in my car or through my bluetooth speaker could never happen because the Galaxy S6 would not maintain a consistent connection.
Other than the frustrating bluetooth issues, Samsung has no other bugs that bog down the experience. But with the LTE issues I touched on in the Hardware review and now this bluetooth issue, Samsung needs to find a fix.
TouchWiz
Ah, TouchWiz, the most criticized, scrutinized, and loathed flavor of Android. I swore off TouchWiz in 2011 after my frustrations with the original Samsung Galaxy Note. Since then, I have kept a keen eye on their “advancements” in software. With Android 5.0 Lollipop, Google brought forth Material design and a plethora of gorgeous, useful new features. One of my biggest worries with owning a Galaxy S6 was that Samsung would choose to weigh down Android with antiquated TouchWiz design. With the Lollipop rendition of TouchWiz, there is a lot to like, a lot to dislike, and a lot that makes me question my sanity.
-Good
Believe it or not, there are some things that Samsung has done right with the Lollipop rendition of TouchWiz.
Starting with the drop down notification tray, you have a shortcut to the settings and an Edit button. If you tap the “Edit” button, you will be able to enable the persistent Quick Settings that are embedded in the Notification Tray. Unlike Stock Android Lollipop, which has the Quick Settings behind the Notification tray, accessible from another downward swipe. The ability to pick and choose which Quick Settings you want is a great addition to the Android software that has been used in other Android flavorings(Cyanogen, OxygenOS). This is one of the useful additions that Android that OEMs should be focusing on adding. It simplifies the experience for most users, making the smartphone more accessible.
Samsung has always had a way with muddying up the Settings in Android. In past releases, settings were divided up into tabbed menus that seemed to go on forever. On the Galaxy S6, the hectic Settings menu is still there. But, you can add a page of frequently used settings at the forefront of the Settings menu. On the S6, you can add up to nine settings to have at quick disposal. A feature that tames the madness of TouchWiz’s settings with thoughtful function.
Thoughtful function carries over into the “recents” app switcher in TouchWiz. At the bottom of the recents menu, you have the option to clear all of your open apps. Another great addition I am hoping to see added to all flavors of Android.
Another nifty feature that Samsung has added is the “Motion and Gesture” options within the settings. Within this section of the settings menu, you can activate four settings: Direct Call, Smart Alert, Mute, and Palm Swipe to Capture.
With Direct Call, you can tap on the info or text message of a contact, then place the phone to your ear and the Galaxy S6 will make the phone call.
Smart Alert is a rather interesting feature. If you have a notification, the phone will vibrate whenever you pick up the device. As someone who receives various notifications throughout the day(and often forgets to check his phone for hours at a time). It is immensely useful to have a quick vibrate notify me I have forgotten something when I go to mindlessly pick up my Galaxy S6.
With the “Mute” feature, you can put your hand over the device or flip the phone onto it’s screen to silence alarms or calls. While for calls, it was fun to flip my Galaxy S6 like I would a table to silence those who bother me. Alarms, on the other hand, were tricky. I definitely did not want to accidently silence my alarm in the morning while I fumble around in the dark trying to find my phone. Another feature that is useful for some, but did not fit my exact needs.
Palm Swipe to Capture was a cool way to take a screenshot. Swipe your hand over the Galaxy S6 screen from left to right, boom, screenshot. While it is quite cool to use from time to time, the tried and true Power Button/Volume Down combo is my preferred method. A method I could not get to work on the Galaxy S6 no matter how hard I tried.
The addition of the “Motion and Gestures” section of the Galaxy S6 is a welcomed one. While not all settings were useful to me, it added a little extra function that was welcomed into the Android experience. But if none of those sound good to you, they are easily disabled and can be quickly forgotten.
Ultra Power Saver is an addition Samsung has added in TouchWiz. This shouldn’t be mistaken for Lollipop’s “Battery Saver” mode that most have come to know and love. This takes it a step further with “Ultra” in the name. What the feature does is actually quite dramatic. The screen turns off all color, leaving you with a gorgeous 2560x1440 AMOLED grayscale panel. It also cuts off all background syncing to preserve as much battery life as possible. Texting, calling, and a basic web browser are all that will function immediately. You can add apps such as facebook, twitter, and Google+. But if your goal is to preserve battery, I would not recommend it. This feature actually works immensely well. When my device hit 5%, I turned on Ultra Power Saver mode and was able to use my phone for another two hours before I hit 3%. If you’re in a pinch and need the battery life, Ultra Power Saver is the way to go.
If we look at Samsung devices, we have to see what user base Samsung is truly aiming for. It is pretty clear to see what demographic they aspire to cater to with the inclusion of Knox and Easy Mode. Knox is Samsung’s enterprise grade encryption available on their Galaxy devices. It lets you encrypt your Galaxy S6 to keep sensitive work and documents safe and sound. Taking it a step further, Knox can separate your apps based on work and personal use by downloading the My Knox app from the Play Store. The Knox featureset is aimed at the employee who can bring their own device and needs some beefed up security.
Easy Mode is there for our, ahem, less technologically inclined parents and grandparents. The ability to stay relevant with all the snapchats, twitterverses, facebookings, and intsawhatevers is definitely daunting to the uninitiated. Most parents(mine included) just want to call, text, take photos, and email from their phones. Easy Mode does just that. Easy Mode adds large icons for the essential phone, messaging, music, photos, internet, and camera apps. While you have a page dedicated to quick contacts to the left, and other pertinent apps to the right. For those of us in the tech space who drag our elders kicking and screaming into the internet era, this is their oasis. A mode that does nothing but the essentials with no fuss or setup.
-Meh
There are also things in TouchWiz that simply aren’t very useful, but are not degrading to the experience of using the device. For instance, when you first power on your Galaxy S6. You will find over thirty apps pre-installed that you cannot uninstall. While, Facebook and Uber might be useful for some. Not everyone wants them. Luckily, you can disable them. But for some, the thought that there are apps they did not install will haunt them every day until they lose their sanity.
Side by Side apps are a really neat addition to TouchWiz. In larger screen phones, the ability to side by side multitask is a really great feature to have. But the Samsung Galaxy S6 is not a phone with a large screen. I understand including the feature, and to some it might be useful. But for my personal usage, I rarely touched the feature because the split apps were too small to productively use(one thing to note, I have large hands).
In the base TouchWiz launcher, you can customize the app drawer to your hearts content. While this would be a great and welcomed feature(because it really is useful for those of us who have an organizational hierarchy to uphold). But the process of organizing everything took way too long to be inherently useful. Opening folders that you have added apps to takes more than one tap or swipe. Apps will sometimes choose to create a new page because they weren’t placed within a three pixel range. Other than those two gripes, it is great to see that you can have creative control over your app order. If the process was more refined, it would be a great feature all around. For some reason, you cannot change the location of the app drawer on the dock as well. I understand the reasoning is for familiarity. But it was a hard transition as someone who is used to having the app drawer in the center of the dock.
TouchWiz is also clearly present in all of Lollipop’s new toggles and icons. Inside every toggle, you will see an “on” or “off” icon. To the side of the clear notifications button, you have the word “Clear” in case the icon confused you. Samsung wants to hold your hand throughout the entire Android experience. While this isn’t bad for the average consumer, for those of us who like the intuitive nature of Lollipop, it is a little annoying.
Another option for making the device more personal to you is Samsung’s Theme shop. Within the settings, you will find an option labeled, “Themes”. From there, you will see a myriad of different themes you can install to personalize your device a bit. While the feature is a welcomed one, it is quite barren. Other than a few Samsung made themes, the theme shop is seemingly empty. It would likely gain usefulness if you could have the option to mix and match aspects of different. themes, much like Cyanogen’s Theme engine.
-Bad
It wouldn’t be TouchWiz without some head scratching, rage inducing decisions, right? While Samsung has taken great strides since I last picked up a device made by the company, there are still caveats and features that are just plain dumb.
Starting with the lock screen. In Android 5.0 Lollipop, you can double tap on a notification to unlock the phone and open that notification. A great, intuitive interaction that wastes no time. Well, Samsung chose to throw that out the window with their lock screen interaction. In order to open a notification, you must first tap the notification THEN swipe to unlock the lock screen. I understand the original thought process here. You tap to select the notification, then you unlock the screen like normal. But with how intuitive Stock Android 5.0 Lollipop has shown double tapping to open a notification is. It is immensely puzzling to see a deviation from that function.
Smart Lock also only seems to disable the password on the Galaxy S6. If you have any security enabled with Smart Lock, you cannot unlock the phone into a notification in the way I have just laid out. If I’m connected and unlocked via Smart Lock, I fully understand that I want my device unlocked. Another puzzling and frustrating portion of TouchWiz.
Moving onto puzzling and infuriating things found in Samsung’s Messaging app. The volume up and down buttons do not turn the volume up and down while you are in Samsung’s Messaging app. That would be too sensible and simple. The volume up and down buttons in Samsung’s messaging app resize the font within the app. I don’t get it, you probably don’t either. But hey, there are plenty of alternative messaging apps in the Play Store that don’t do this.
Also in Samsung’s messaging app. If you have your phone set to vibrate, it won’t vibrate notifications on Android Wear. On loud and silent it will, but not on vibrate. This caused a lot of trouble as I normally keep my phone on vibrate and rely on Android Wear to feel notifications coming in. The messaging app having functions that make no sense is truly disappointing. Because within the Samsung messaging app, you can quick reply, a phenomenal feature that I want to see in every messaging app. But these two issues I had with Samsung’s messenger app on the Galaxy S6 became a dealbreaker for my use of the app.
Samsung also prefers their apps over all others. Which is understandable, given this is the Samsung Galaxy S6 after all. But for their keyboard to keep re-enabling itself after I have set my input method to Google’s keyboard is incredibly annoying. I made my choice, Sammy, get over it.
In addition to having Multi-Window on the Galaxy S6, you can also have a “picture in picture” like experience with apps. If you drag in from the top left or right corner of the screen, you can shrink apps and resize them. This is cool and all, until you accidently resize an app for the thousandth time when you’re just trying to check a notification. Even better, you cannot disable this feature. A feature that had minor utility at first that quickly became a constant frustration.
Other Notable Features
Also present in TouchWiz, you have the ability to change the settings of your screen. You can cycle between Adaptive Display, AMOLED cinema, AMOLED photo, and Basic. Each are different presets that change the temperature and saturation of the display.
You can customize the font with a myriad of different choices and size options. Though, there is a font named Samsung Sans. Other minor customizations like changing how the Lock Screen unlock animation happens and touch key light duration are present.
Smart Stay uses the front camera to see if you are focused on the display in order to keep the backlight on for longer than your set time allotment. I could never tell if this feature was working or not. Maybe it was working that well.
S Health is quite full featured for a health and fitness app. You can track your heart rate, stress levels, sleep, water and caffiene intake, and a plethora of different workouts. As some0ne who is invested loves Google Fit, the Samsung offering fared quite well in comparison
That’s the essence of TouchWiz, really. There are a lot of things to like about TouchWiz on the Samsung Galaxy S6. But with every feature that I have grown fond of, there is another feature that is detrimental to the overall experience. While none of the features were particularly deal breakers, I should enjoy using my phone day in and day out, right? While seventy percent of the time I would thoroughly enjoy the Galaxy S6, TouchWiz included. TouchWiz would also cause frustration that would deteriorate the overall experience.
That isn’t to say TouchWiz is all bad. There are plenty of additions to Lollipop that are really useful. But TouchWiz is still going to TouchWiz at the end of the day, I presume. While Samsung is slowly learning that a kitchen sink is not necessary for a great experience with a smartphone. They are turning the gears towards a wholly delightful experience a little too slowly for my liking.
Persistent bugs with Bluetooth and intermittent performance hiccups also vastly deteriorated from the overall experience. These issues are inexcusable for a premium device like the Samsung Galaxy S6. These are things that need to be addressed quickly.
