Samsung has changed its attitude to bloatware and the new Samsung Galaxy S8 is proof of this tendency.
Earlier on, customers were vexed with the bloatware present on Samsung devices and there used to be so much of it, that users could neither disable them nor uninstall them. Most of the bloatware was stuff that Google could do perfectly well and was only duplicating apps.
Continuing the Trend
Beginning with the Samsung Galaxy S6, the company has started changing its attitude and the latest Samsung Galaxy S8 is proof that the trend will continue. Users can benefit greatly from this change in the attitude of Samsung. Though such bloatware in the form of software deals for the company can benefit the latter, users find that it only ends up clogging their smartphones. All they could do in the past was to disable some of them and live with the other duplicate ones.
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Removable Apps
In case of the Samsung Galaxy S7, 32 GB version, about 8 GB of the storage was consumed by the ROM along with some pre loaded applications. In case of the new Samsung Galaxy S8, 64 GB version about 12 GB has been taken up even before you remove the plastic off the device. However, though you have lost 12 GB of internal storage to the Samsung system, it is surely not that bad, because most of the apps on the Galaxy S8 are removable.
Apps that come pre installed on the device and cannot be removed or disabled are ultimately a drain on the battery of the device, so it is better if the device allows you to disable apps that you don’t need.
Samsung Galaxy S8 Apps
The pre-installed applications on the Samsung Galaxy S8 are 37 in number, in case of the unlocked global variant. As far as the Samsung Galaxy S6 was concerned, it had 50 apps, excluding the carrier bloat. For the Galaxy S8, there are only a dozen of the apps that users cannot disable or uninstall, and most of these are useful, such as the dialer.
Getting Rid of Carrier Bloat
As for those of you who have extensive carrier bloatware in the US, you can remove the other apps as well, which Samsung will not allow users to disable. Users have to decide whether it is worth $1.50 to get rid of the apps. This will result in disabling the unwanted apps and not uninstalling them. However, you cannot get the storage space back for your phone. The advantage is that it will stop the apps from eating up the battery resources of the phone and you don’t need to see them in the app drawer. There are apps like the BK Package Disablers and by installing the app and giving the permissions asked for, the bloatware can be disabled.
Paying to Disable
Users can also get the apps back again by relaunching the disabler app and unchecking the box near the apps. The downside is that users will have to resort to a paid application for removing or disabling apps on the Galaxy S8. Around 25 apps can be removed directly while you have to pay $1.50 for disabling the rest of them. The situation is not an ideal one, but better than before.