This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 family is shaping up to be almost everything one could ask for in an Android flagship launch: the Galaxy S22 model will get a bit more compact to please small phone lovers, the Galaxy S22+ is expected to remain that great middle ground, and the S22 Ultra is coming with a built-in S Pen and the iconic rectangular Note design coupled with industry-leading periscope zoom cameras.
UI responsiveness needs a fix ASAP
The first place where I notice this the most is the swipe up gesture that you use to go back to the home screen. This is one of the most common gestures and that stutter quickly becomes irritating.
The situation is so embarrassingly bad that even budget phones these days handle gesture navigation far better than the most premium Samsung flagships.
Reddit users suggest giving unrestricted access to One UI Home, but unfortunately that does not solve the problem
I’d be curious to hear whether this fix works for you. Unfortunately, on my end, this only helps a tiny bit, but the microlag still remains very much present on all three Galaxy S21 phones even after this tweak.
Navigation gestures in general feel broken
The stutter that accompanies the swipe up gesture is just part of a larger problem, however, and that is the way Samsung phones handle gesture navigation.
Switching between cards by swiping left and right in the bottom part of the screen is a standard gesture that works consistently across most Android phones, but not on Galaxies, where it’s hit or miss.
Swiping up and pausing midway to reveal the recent cards menu works the same way across all Android phones, but not on Galaxies where instead the UI decided to automatically take you to the previous app, a strange decision that does not make much sense. Those inconsistencies are hard to explain.
TouchWiz is gone, but part of the issues remain
Samsung has been optimizing One UI for years, and some of you may even remember the company decided to switch away from the TouchWiz branding it used previously, exactly because TouchWiz came with a reputation for overwhelming features and… yes, stutter.
The company has surely improved quite a bit, and One UI 4.0 is our favorite version so far, but it has done nothing to fix the issues with gesture navigation, and I have to speak out.
And it is all on Samsung here, as even budget phones handle gesture navigation perfectly well. So let’s keep our fingers crossed and spread the word, it just might finally reach Samsung and help make the Galaxy S22 the no-compromise phone we all want it to be.
Also, do let me know if you have noticed this micro-stutter issue and whether this is something that bothers you as much as it bothers me. Looking forward to your thoughts in the comments below.
