Earlier this month, at the Galaxy Unpacked event, Samsung launched the much-anticipated Galaxy S23 series of smartphones. Apart from upgraded hardware specs, the new phones also ship with the latest One UI 5.1 based on Android 13. As it turns out, the smartphone maker is now rolling out the latest update to its previous flagships like the Galaxy S22 series, Galaxy Z Fold4, Galaxy Flip4, Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S20 series.
One UI 5.1: What’s new
While One UI 5.1 is an iterative upgrade, it does introduce several new features and improves on existing functionalities. The update brings the Expert RAW camera app features to the Galaxy Camera app.
The developers have also made improvements to the Photo Remaster functionality, which uses artificial intelligence to fix brightness and make colour corrections, fine-tune details in backlit scenes and helps removes unwanted shadows and reflections in photos.
Samsung’s Gallery app also got some new features like the ability to create shared photo albums. Users can now simply tap a face in a photo to search for more photos of the person within the Gallery app and choose where to save screenshots and screen recordings.
Talking about device customisation, the latest version of Samsung’s user interface introduces a new dynamic weather widget, which analyzes the current weather conditions and changes accordingly. Samsung’s Modes and Routines feature can now enable custom wallpapers, touch sensitivity, ringtones and even change fonts.
The smart suggestions widget can now take into consideration user activity and recommend Spotify songs and playlists. Samsung also introduced a new battery widget that lets you check your device battery along with the battery status of your connected wearable devices.
One UI 5.1 also improves the integration between laptop and mobile devices. Users can now use a mouse, keyboard or trackpad to control their mobile devices, copy-paste text, and drag and drop images from using the Galaxy Book to mobile devices. The Link to Windows app now supports the Samsung Internet app and lets users continue browsing the same pages on their PC.
Multitasking on mobile devices has been improved as well. To minimise or maximise an app without having to open the options menu, all you need to do is drag one corner of the screen and you are good to go. When splitting apps on the screen the most used apps will now be visible below the list of recently used apps for quick access.
Bixby can now take calls on your behalf and answer calls automatically to know why the person on the other end is calling. In a text chat, users will be able to see what the caller is saying and even type responses which will be read aloud to them.
