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The new Touchz

I did not expect to like Touchz as much as I do on the Galaxy S6. ed, it’s still the same blue-hued interface that Samsung’s put on its Android phones since day one, but with the right wallpaper an appropriately colored keyboard, the interface really isn’t so bad.

Forgive me, diehard Androidians, but Touchz looks a little iOS-y. The phone itself already resembles an ione on the outside, but I could see novice techies attracted to this particular device precisely because it offers an Apple-like experience, without actually being an ione. I even had a friend exclaim she was excited to try out this phone because she wants an Apple experience without actually buying into the ecosystem.

I appreciate that Samsung managed to maintain much of Android llipop’s little quirks. The multitasking menu, for instance, used the Cards motif, though Samsung added a few of its own bits to it. You can tap an icon to engage Multi-ndow, for instance, or tap Close l at the bottom to dismiss every app all at once—that’s something stock llipop doesn’t currently do.

Annoyingly, you can’t move the Application Drawer icon. It lives to the right of the main icon dock, whether you want it to or not. You can pick choose which apps are your default, however

Before after

t’s get into some of what’s changed between Touchz on the Galaxy S5 Galaxy S6. Samsung greatly pared down the blue, though it’s still prevalent in the Notifications shade. The Quick Settings are still busy lengthy, though I’m thankful Samsung kept the Brightness slider where it did. If you want, you can use the neighboring S Finder feature to browse files folders on your device, like OS X’s Spotlight, there’s also a shortcut for Quick connect. Thus far, I haven’t found the option to remove either of these features from the drop-down shade. rhaps there will come a time when I’ll feel compelled to use the, but for now they remain untouched. 

The application drawer has also greatly improved in the last year. Samsung stuck with Android llipop’s way of doing things rather than revert to the usual busy drawer interface it’s implemented in the past. Applications can be sorted alphabetically or by order of which apps you use the most. Curiously, some apps that live on the Home screen don’t appear in the Application drawer. I haven’t figured out why just yet.

Samsung has finally settled on a proper layout for its Settings interface it’s so much more sophisticated than before. You can choose to customize a batch of Quick settings at the top of the Settings panel based on your needs. Then, you can scroll down to see the rest of the Settings all laid out the same as on llipop. If you really can’t find what you need, you can simply use the search function at the top of the page.

The Application Manager in the Settings menu also lets you pick choose your defaults individually, rather than having to visit each app choose whether you want that as your default. It’s much more accessible from this particular menu than on other versions of Android.

Bloat or no?

Samsung’s cut down on how many applications it bundles with its flagship device, but unlike previous reports the apps aren’t removable.

The Galaxy S6 comes with a few key Microsoft applications—OneDrive, OneNote, Skype—but that’s because the two have started holding hs recently. You do get about 115GB of cloud storage with OneDrive, however, so that’s nice, The carriers, however, are still maddeningly packing in apps you probably won’t use that you can’t uninstall.

Since I have the T-Mobile variant of the Galaxy S6, it came pre-loaded with apps like Facebook Messenger the okout security suite. I’ve never consistently used a security suite for Android, except for the few times I’ve written about them, I don’t plan to start now. Unfortunately, T-Mobile won’t allow me to uninstall either okout or Facebook Messenger—I can only disable them from bugging me the rest of the time I have with the phone. It’s a bummer, because both apps take up 100MB of space together, the Galaxy S6 is no longer equipped with an expansion slot.