Beyond the Alphabet is a weekly column that focuses on the tech world both inside and out of the confines of Mountain View.
Oh the woes of living on the edge. Earlier this week, Samsung started rolling out the first One UI 7 beta. Naturally, it's first being made available to those that own one of the Galaxy S24 flagship models (sorry, S24 FE.)
However, when the rumor mill picked up steam leading up to the official announcement, I was hoping to spend my weekend messing around with One UI 7 on the Galaxy Z Fold 6. The announcement came and went, and there was no mention of the Fold 6 being included in the beta program.
In fact, there wasn't any mention of Samsung's flagship foldable phones at all. Instead, they've just been roped in with the rest of the company's lineup, with Samsung stating "In line with Samsung’s commitment to extend its OS upgrade policy, the update will gradually roll out to other Galaxy devices."
I didn't actually expect the Galaxy Z Fold 6 to be included in the One UI 7 beta program. Especially considering how many times rumors have surfaced about Samsung needing to delay the rollout. It's apparent that this isn't just your run-of-the-mill update, as more Galaxy AI features are on the way, along with the new "Now Bar" and improved camera controls.
Obviously, Samsung is going to prioritize its slab phones over foldables, but there's just something that leaves me feeling a bit disappointed.
We're heading into year 6 of the foldable phone experiment, with Samsung arguably providing the most useful and reliable software experience of them all. So why is it that the Galaxy Z Fold 6 or Flip 6 aren't even mentioned in a footnote for being included or next in line?
Yet again, it feels as if foldable phone enjoyers are being treated like second-class citizens who have a first-class budget. Samsung has made it abundantly clear that it is more than willing to ship out the same phone for three years in a row, raking in profits and then apologizing for "failing to innovate." Only to release a phone with the changes we've been wanting, but limit it to just one specific region.
Foldable phones are a niche product category, I get it. And I know that within that niche, there's an even smaller group that would entertain the idea of installing beta software. But here's my counterargument — if I already know that I'm part of an experiment, what makes you think that I wouldn't want to be included in another one?
It's been more than two years since I wrote about my experiences living in the "beta lifestyle," but nothing's changed. Well, I take that back. The devices and some of the apps have changed, but everything else I expressed in that article still rings true.
Some of it definitely has to do with FOMO, as there are some intriguing additions coming to One UI 7. However, there's also a sneaking suspicion that this might be a sign of things to come. Not that Samsung is going to ditch its foldable phones, but that we might be heading for a rough patch with One UI software updates.
We've had the stable version of Android 15 since mid-October, yet here we are almost two months later, and there's no clear timeline for when it will come to the Fold. And if Samsung is having this much of an issue already, what does that say for older models like the Galaxy Z Fold 5 or even the Galaxy S23 Ultra?
I was going to just bypass the money argument until I realized that the $850 Galaxy S24 gets a taste before the $1,800 Z Fold 6. Yes, I know that I answered the reason as to why this is the case already, but my point still stands.
It's not like we're talking about a company with limited budgets and resources that might issue one or two updates, six months after the release. This is Samsung. You know, the company that generated almost $60 BILLION in revenue in Q3 2024. In my mind, there's really no excuse for any of its flagship phones to be left behind, even if they aren't as popular or selling as well.
Hell, Google not only included the Pixel 9 Pro Fold in its first Android 16 Developer Preview release, but it's also available for the original Pixel Fold. Sure, some features are bound to be missing, but that's to be expected given that Google fumbled the release anyway.
The point is that if Google can do it, why can't Samsung? If it wanted to, Samsung could, and for reasons that are below my pay grade to know, chose not to.
