Samsung rolled out the stable One UI 8.5 update on May 6, 2026, beginning with the Galaxy S25 series in South Korea, followed by a global expansion on May 11. The update soon reached the Galaxy S24 series, Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7, Z Fold 6, and Z Flip 6. Despite being a major upgrade, users quickly reported issues across Samsung Members forums, Reddit, and tech sites. Common complaints included severe battery drain, missing camera features, app crashes, and interface changes. Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra owners noted excessive battery consumption, with one user reporting an 85% drain in a single day despite only 3 hours and 46 minutes of screen-on time. This issue also affected some S24 Ultra devices updated between May 9 and 11. Samsung advises users to allow 7 to 14 days for system re-optimisation after the update. If battery drain persists, solutions include wiping the cache partition, resetting battery stats via *#9900#, updating all Samsung apps through the Galaxy Store, running Galaxy App Booster in Good Lock, and adjusting background usage limits for heavy apps like Facebook and TikTok. T-Mobile users face a specific problem linked to the Mobile Services system app. A Samsung US community moderator confirmed that the latest version causes abnormal battery drain. The temporary fix is to uninstall the update for Mobile Services in Settings > Apps, after enabling system apps in the filter. For the Voice Recorder app, users report crashes during recording summarisation due to a bug in the Galaxy Enhance-X integration. Samsung has acknowledged the issue and released a Galaxy Store update to resolve it. Some features available on the Galaxy S26 series are missing on the S25 Ultra, including Now Nudge, Notification Highlights, 24MP camera mode, Horizon Lock, autofocus controls, 8K recording during Smart View, 30x remaster, and AI-powered file summaries in My Files. Samsung has not explained why these features were excluded.
Samsung launched One UI 8.5 with fanfare but shipped it missing flagship features present on unreleased devices. The exclusion of core AI tools like Notification Highlights and 24MP camera mode from the Galaxy S25 Ultra suggests artificial segmentation rather than technical limits. If Samsung is withholding capabilities available in the same software layer, it risks alienating early adopters who paid a premium for top-tier hardware.
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