This post is brought to you by Samsung.
Over the years, Samsung has been progressively refining its Android-based operating system, One UI. With each iteration of One UI, Galaxy users have been treated to new features, improved user experience, and smother performance.
As such, Samsung’s latest One UI 5.1 has a collection of features that can help make your life a little easier. And what better device to experience these features on than the all-new Samsung Galaxy S23 series. Here are 5 highlight features.
PC-like experience with Samsung Dex
When connected to an external display, the Samsung Galaxy S23 series launches Samsung Dex which outputs a PC-like desktop environment. Here, you can perform similar actions like you would do on a Windows PC such as running multiple apps simultaneously with room to spread out and resize their window thanks to the larger external display.
Samsung makes it easy to navigate the Dex UI with support for a mouse and keyboard. You can either choose to use a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard or plug in a USB C dock to connect a wired mouse and keyboard. There’s even support for mice and keyboards that use a Plug and Play wireless USB dongle.
Using the mouse, you can snap app windows to sections of the screen just as you can on a Windows PC to quickly create a split view with up to 4 apps. Thanks to the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, you can treat the Galaxy S23 series as a mobile workstation. And if you wanted to, you could still use your Galaxy S23 as Samsung Dex runs independently.
Automate your phone with Modes and Routines
Have you ever found yourself doing a repetitive task on your phone when you get in the car or arrive at work? Well, Modes and Routines can help automate those tasks for you.
Modes consist of a preset list of common actions like Sleep, Driving, Relax, and Work to name a few. Routines on the other hand allow you to customise your own actions with “if this” then “that” triggers. Essentially, both features help you quickly configure your Galaxy smartphone for that specific task.
For example, the Driving mode can be triggered when the phone detects that you have connected to the car’s Bluetooth. You can then set the phone to automatically turn on location, launch Google Maps, navigate to work, and start your favourite music playlist on Spotify.
Or you can customise your own actions with “if this” then “that” triggers. So, you can set the action of your alarm going off at 7am to turn off do not disturb, turn off the blue light filter, change the wallpaper to something that cheers you up, play your morning music playlist through Spotify Connect on your smart speaker, and so on and so forth.
Once you have everything set up, your phone will always be correctly configured for your current task, situation, or location.
Automatically cut out a subject in a photo
Object recognition and separation comes to One UI 5.1, and it allows you to automatically cut out a subject in a photo and copy it to the clipboard. From here you can go into any supported apps and paste the image you just cut out. The best part is that it works with just about any photo and is not limited to photos shot on the phone’s camera.
For example, when creating an Instagram story, you can cut objects from other photos and insert them into your story post. Moreover, because the Samsung keyboard has a clipboard, you can cut out a couple of images and insert them all at once instead of switching between Instagram and the Gallery app.
Copy text directly from the real world
Samsung has integrated the capable optical character recognition system from Bixby Vision into more first-party apps like Samsung Notes, Gallery, Internet and Samsung keyboard to name a few.
Have you ever had to type out a long address filled with words containing a lot of letters? It can be quite tedious and time-consuming, especially if you’re in a hurry. Well, with the optical character recognition feature built into the Samsung keyboard, you can use the camera to scan the text of the address and paste it directly into the chat box of any messaging app.
On a side note, if you quickly want to copy the text in an image on the web, the Internet web browser app will display an option to copy the text in the pop-up menu when you tap and hold on the image.
Useful and Smarter Widgets
Widgets can provide useful information at a glance or quick actions right from the homescreen without even needing to open the app. On One UI 5.1, there are some cool widgets that can help make your life a little easier. The new battery widget lets you quickly check the battery level of supported Galaxy accessories like Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Watch in a single place.
Drag and drop the Smart Suggestions widget to the homescreen to get recommended actions based on your usage patterns. If you frequently call your partner after work to check if they need anything from the grocery store, the Smart Suggestion widget will automatically display the contact info of your partner around that time.
There are plenty more features on One UI 5.1 that help to make your life that much easier. Experience the best of what One UI 5.1 has to offer on the Samsung Galaxy S23 series today at samsung.com.my, or visit the nearest Samsung Experience Store or Samsung Authorized Dealers.
