Updated: November 19, 2025
Smartphone, the final frontier. These are the ... Well, you get the idea. Long story short, I have a device in me possession. It's one Samsung A54. I got it in 2023, and ever since, it's annoyed me ever so. But then, a couple of months back, it received its Android 15 upgrade, and the process went quite smoothly. I was surprised, in a most positive way, and I changed my stance somewhat.
A few days back, I received a notification that there was a new update available. One UI 8.0, Android 16. What. So soon? Well, as it turns out, my phone received its '15 upgrade a bit late, hence the short time span between the two Android versions. In other words, the '16 is right on time, whereas the previous edition arrived months behind the would-be expected schedule. Not that it matters much to me, but hey. All right. Let's see what gives. Typically, I dread upgrades, so I wasn't keen on this endeavor, but proceed we must.
Fifteen minutes later ...
'Twas done. The phone's upgrade completed. On first boot, it told me that I could "set up" my phone. Effectively, the only thing offered was for me to create a Samsung account (which I refuse). I skipped this step, and the Home screen launched. This was it. Nothing else.
Look and feel? The same. One UI 8.0 looks identical to One UI 7.0. Okay. I opened Settings and started searching for stupid things to undo, as I always practice. To my utter amazement, there was nothing to do. Really nothing. Not a single toggle has been naughtily undone, not a single permission reset. No new apps, no silly things. No pointless additions like SafetyCore or Gemini (which stayed disabled).
Everything remained unchanged ... No new nothing really.
Confused, I opened Samsung's release notes and read about would-be new things in One UI 8.0. About 90% of the text and imagery was about AI this, AI that. But, if you disable Gemini, do not use any digital assistants or helpers or whatever, and refuse to sign into the Samsung ecosystem, then all of these would-be new features are completely irrelevant to your experience - or in this case, mine.
There has to be a catch, I thought.
Days later ...
There wasn't. I simply couldn't find anything that would upset or annoy me. Nothing Draconian, Big Brother, low IQ, or all of the above. The A54 continued behaving as I had tweaked it after the Android 15 update, with no new additions or problems. The performance remains identical. The battery usage is unchanged.
I found something called Call captions, but the option was set to off. The weather application has been slightly redesigned, and while the new background is slightly less ergonomic, making the text and numbers harder to read at a glance, it ain't that bad. Fairly innocent, I'd say.
Breaking news about Jamaica for Milan as a location. A bit dramatic, no?
Eventually, after quite some digging, I discovered one new annoying option - Quick edit. If you try to share images, it will ask you to make "quick" edits before sending. Pointless, and yes, of course, it means, the image gets "processed" in some manner. But you can turn the feature off, and you won't be bothered anymore. It also makes sharing faster, without the interim step. And that's it.
Yup, that's it. I really have nothing else to share at the moment!
Conclusion
I feel dejected. Samsung has robbed me of an opportunity to rant for hours and hours. All that rancorous energy, gone. I had prepared myself for a battle, ready to wrestle with my phone and then blightly report about this tribulation. But there ain't no battle, no tribulation. Only a positively surprised curmudgeon, brimming with these unfamiliar positive feelings. What sort of sorcery is this?
To be a bit more serious, I wish all smartphone upgrades were like this. Fast, painless, non-disruptive. So consider this a rare praise for Samsung. Then, on the security side, the company already added into Android 15 lots of the features that were meant to be unveiled in Android 16. Another plus. This makes the experience even more positive. So yeah, if you're terrified of device upgrades, and you feel you're about to waste hours of your life undoing "modern" features, then with the A54 and its One UI 8.0 upgrade, this dread is unwarranted. The entire procedure was seamless, anti-climactic, user-friendly, and privacy-preserving. Feels like I've stepped into an alternate universe. Well done. Of course, we shall see what happens in the coming months, as there could be a rollercoaster ahead. After all, this has happened many times, so, we, shall, see. See you around.
Cheers.