Robert Triggs / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Samsung is limiting some new One UI 7 features, like AI Audio Eraser, to newer Galaxy S series flagships.
- A Reddit user alleges many of these “exclusive” features work fine on older Galaxy S23 hardware after porting them over.
- This has led to accusations of planned obsolescence as users question why capable older phones are being left out.
Much of Samsung’s pitch for the Galaxy S25 series revolved around AI smarts through software, as the hardware barely evolved year on year. One UI 7 brought several new features to the Galaxy S25 series, and users of older Samsung flagships were waiting with bated breath for the platform update to bring them these features too. However, in typical Samsung fashion, the company is holding some features like Now Brief exclusive to the Galaxy S25 flagship series. As it turns out, that’s not all, as older flagships are missing a lot of features that their hardware can support, but Samsung simply didn’t port them over.
Samsung’s feature lockout for older flagships
Reddit user tyrisodin went on a rant, lamenting Samsung’s feature lockout on the Galaxy S23 series and calling it a “Mushroom Kingdom-level betrayal.” The user has good reason to be angry, as they claim to have ported the Galaxy S25’s One UI 7 ROM to the Galaxy S23 to test several of the latest “exclusive” features, only to find that there’s nothing really holding Samsung back from bringing these features to the Galaxy S23 series.
Samsung didn’t comprehensively list which new One UI 7 features are missing from older devices and why. The company partially shared this information, only to the extent of One UI 7 camera features that are coming to older devices. Even then, you can see that many high-profile camera features are locked to phones released within the last year but not to older flagships.
So the Reddit user went around porting and testing several newer features and found that they work well on the Galaxy S23 series.
AI Audio Eraser on the Galaxy S23 series
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Samsung released a surprisingly great AI Audio Eraser tool with One UI 7 on the Galaxy S25 series, but extended the feature to the Galaxy S24 series with its One UI 7 update. However, the feature didn’t make it to the Galaxy S23 series.
The Reddit user ported the Audio Eraser module to their Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered Galaxy S23 Ultra, and it seems to work well enough. The user processed a 1080p video with street noise, and it did so within five seconds, working without any crashes or lags, allegedly delivering a crisp output.
Log video
The Galaxy S25 series launched with Log video support, and the Galaxy S24 series received it through One UI 7. But the Galaxy S23 series is left behind.
The Reddit user ported the Log video camera mode. They then shot a 4K video in log, and their Galaxy S23 Ultra handled it “like a champ.”
Motion Photos
The Galaxy S25 series supports Motion Photos, capturing 1.5 seconds of video before and after a photo is taken. Samsung extended the feature to the Galaxy S24 series with One UI 7, but not to other older S flagships.
The Reddit user enabled Motion Photos through ROM tweaks, which they say worked as well as expected.
Samsung Health: AI-driven health insights
With the Galaxy S25 series, Samsung Health can process collected data with AI to deliver health insights, like personalized sleep tips or workout tweaks. The feature works with the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S24 series.
The user forced the Health Assist module to run on their Galaxy S23 Ultra, gave it sleep and step data to process, and according to the user, Samsung Health promptly gave out personalized tips.
Photo Ambient Wallpaper
Photo Ambient Wallpaper uses AI to dynamically adjust your wallpaper based on the time and weather. This is a One UI 6.1.1 feature that launched with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and was rolled out to the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the Galaxy S24 series, but not to the Galaxy S23 series. The general theory still stands here: Samsung is artificially locking older flagships out of features they can still support.
The user sideloaded the wallpaper engine on their Galaxy S23 Ultra, and it seemingly rendered the dynamic wallpapers “flawlessly,” with weather updates every 10 minutes.
Is the One UI 7 update just another step in planned obsolescence?
Joe Maring / Android Authority
The Reddit user continues their rant by alleging planned obsolescence by Samsung, arguing that the Galaxy S23 series with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor has enough horsepower to handle these features. The user also alleges the Galaxy S25’s “Snapdragon 8 Gen 4” (sic) just has a “20% better NPU.” However, I have to step in here to mention that the Galaxy S25’s Snapdragon 8 Elite is claimed to have a 45% better NPU than the 8 Gen 3, which in turn boasted of 42% better performance from the 8 Gen 2 — so the numbers are a fair bit off. Nonetheless, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 remains a competent processor.
We’ve contacted Samsung for comments on this matter, hoping to learn why the company has limited some of these One UI features to the Galaxy S25 and the Galaxy S24 series. We’ll keep you updated when we learn more.
