I can’t believe this. I’m playing this game using this budget gamepad, this Motorola phone, and this Samsung TV—I mean, the Android ecosystem. Okay, for the past two years we have been hearing one UI this, one UI that, the Samsung ecosystem, so when Motorola brought their new Hello UI, there were a bunch of features, which was surprising, and I am making a bold statement: I believe it’s time for a new Android OS King in 2024, especially in the budget and mid-range sections.
This is going to be a fun article. Before getting to the exciting stuff, let’s quickly have a look at the user interface and experience of both HelloUI and OneUI. So the HelloUI comes with a completely bloated and ad-free software experience here, whereas the OneUI also offers almost bloated and ad-free software, almost because the OneUI comes with pre-installed Samsung apps, which is fine. But along with some third-party apps installed like Outlook, LinkedIn, OneDrive, etc., which can be uninstalled easily, Now, back to HelloUI, if you look through the app drawer, settings page, notification panel, etc., it looks like traditional Android but with a modern look and feel. Now people think of Motorola’s skin as basically stock Android with a bit of features here and there. But see, this is Pixel’s notification shade, and this is Motorola’s notification shade. This is Pixel’s setting page, and this is Motorola’s setting page. I think it’s about time we stopped saying Motorola comes with stock Android. It’s now a proper Android skin. On the One UI, you can customize the quick setting panel. If I enable this quick setting, instant access If I swipe from left, the notification panel comes down, and if I swipe from right, the complete quick settings appear, which is good. Apart from just one UI, you do get customization options, but with a good lock module, the customization possibilities are endless. On the Hello UI, if you see, you get the option to switch between the classic style and the modern style with quick settings. I know this modern style quick settings looks familiar somewhere, but out of all the UIs I have used, I like that here it adapts to the material you theme, and if I go here to personalize, you get some options to change fonts, icon shapes, fingerprint animation, etc.
So one UI, you do get customization options, but with a good lock module, the customization possibilities are endless. On the Hello UI, if you see, you get the option to switch between the classic style and the modern style with quick settings. I know this modern style quick settings looks familiar somewhere, but out of all the UIs I have used, I like that here it adapts to the material you theme, and if I go here to personalize, you get some options to change fonts, icon shapes, fingerprint animation, etc. So in the user interface experience, I think both the Android skins are different but good. Now, let’s come to UI features. In Hello UI, if you go to the gestures option in the Moto app, you will see some features here like the Moto style and chop chop for flash, but there are new additions to it, like this quick launch. See, if I double tap on the back, GPO opens. This way, it gets very convenient to pay via UPI. Do you want me to send the money to your country, man? Oh, oh, oh, next Moto update. Also, if I keep three fingers on the screen, it will take a screenshot. And see here you have Moto Secure, where you can set up a secured folder so I can install Instagram and log in and use it with my other ID. You also get the classic Moto Pinpad scrambler, so every time you unlock the phone, the digits will be scrambled, so if someone is watching over your shoulder, it’s hard to make out the exact pin. Now coming to OneUI, you basically get all these features; in fact, all these features came to OneUI first. Additionally, you get a Samsung wallet. So previously, when we were at MECD, there was no network coverage to pay via UPI, but I can use my card here to tap to pay, and boom, payment is done without internet. Also see here: if I scan the QR on the train ticket, the ticket gets automatically added to my Samsung wallet, and you can also check the PNR status of your ticket or the current running status of the train. Along with this, you can also import your Aadhaar card, PAN card, driving license, etc., like whatever you get with Digilocker. Next would be this private sharing. So, for example, if I have to share my Aadhaar card with some customer executive or some person from the bank who has to make a credit card, So see, I can go to Quick Share, and now I can tap on these three dots and open private sharing.
And if I set the timer to one minute, while the photo is received on this phone, after one minute, the photo gets automatically deleted. You cannot even take a screenshot of the photo, and if you take a photo of that exact Aadhaar card, there’s a watermark visible. So many handy features, but it only works from Samsung to Samsung phones. Next would be the Galaxy AI features, but as of now, you get them on very limited models like the S23 series, the S24 series, the FE, etc. But the good lock modules are the ones that bring another level of customization to Samsung. Let’s see here: I’m reading an article, and I can just double tap on the back, and it takes a screenshot automatically and directly opens the share page. This is a quite nifty feature; use it every day. The name of the good luck module is Reggie Starr, by the way. So from the UI feature point of view, I think the One UI takes the lead. Now, both on One UI and Hello UI, you get some extra features in terms of connectivity with your TV and laptop. So on One UI, if you see, you can connect your phone to your Windows laptop via the phone link app, and you can do some basic stuff like view notifications, take calls, etc. This is for every Android phone. But then there are some Samsung exclusive features, and I found this quite useful. Suppose your friend wants your phone for placing food orders via Zomato because you have Zomato Gold, like, come on, Hashtag bachelor life. And you have that really important WhatsApp chat going on, like… Then you can open the Zomato app on your laptop, and simultaneously, you can continue using the WhatsApp chat on your phone while your friend places the order on Zomato. It’s a win-win situation here for both.
You also have a multi-control feature, so I can use my laptop’s trackpad and keyboard to control my phone. Also, see here: I can grab a file from my laptop and drag and drop it on my phone’s WhatsApp. Boom, file sent. Another interesting feature here is that if I have a tablet, I can use it as my secondary display on my laptop. While all of these features are good, the problem here is that the multi-control using tab as a second display thing will only work if you have a Samsung phone, laptop, or tablet. And you can connect your Samsung phone to a TV and use it to mirror your phone or use DeX mode, but another important thing to note here is that this only works with a Samsung phone and a Samsung TV or a display that supports Miracast. Now HelloUI comes with this Ready For app, so you need to install this app on your laptop from the Windows App Store, and once you have paired your phone with this app, see on the Recents menu if I’m swiping apps in Midway there is this option for app streaming. As soon as I swipe up, it goes on to the laptop super smoothly. Also in Ready for I can open the phone apps on my laptop and simultaneously use the phone as well and this has cross control so I can use my laptop’s keyboard and mouse to use phone and I can also use my phone’s camera as a webcam which you get a couple of features like subject tracking see if I move left or right it automatically tracks me and keeps me in the center you also have the option of blurring the background but this one feature is the mind-blowing one you go to video mask option here you tap on smart loop it records a five-second video of me like making the usual meeting gesture yeah yeah all of that and now it keeps playing that video on loop now I think team tech advisor is wise enough to know where and when to use this, if you know you know. Now you can connect your phone to the TV. I get the option here of mobile desktop, TV, video chat, and games, and the phone becomes the trackpad here. So the mobile desktop version looks and works similar to Samsung decks here, but if you see when I connect my phone to the TV, the whole interface looks like just an Android TV. So I watched Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning on Prime Video, and the experience here was seamless, and the movie was also good. And now comes the interesting part of the of the game mode. So I opened COD Mobile and paired my controller, and the gaming experience was okay, but I think there is some issue with the optimization from COD’s end, like at times there are some parts where I need to open the game on the phone and tap on continue to proceed, and then open the game back on TV. Also, I played Asphalt 9. The gaming experience here was also smooth with the controller. The best thing is that all these features work with any Windows laptop or any TV that even has Chromecast or Miracast, so hello, UI, for the openness of it, takes the lead here. So what’s the point here, like, what’s the conclusion out of the two UIs?
Which is the best? Now, I’m going to say this: I think it might create some vivaan, but for me, right now, Hello UI is the best smartphone UI when it comes to budget and mid-range phones. Now hear me out: Apple introduced this ecosystem thing, and in Android, Samsung took up the challenge to bring the features to Android, which is good, but the problem is, the iconic features or the flagship features work best if you have Samsung products. Motorola, if you see, took the ecosystem features one step ahead of Samsung, and most importantly, this whole ecosystem thing is open. It works with any Windows laptop or any Android TV, for which Android really stands. Open source. Now I know Motorola lacks in providing timely software updates; that’s there; they should really work on that. A few phones haven’t yet received Android 14, while Android 15 is due to launch in June. But credit where due; if you notice, their software update doesn’t bring in tons of bugs compared to others, which is also good. But then again, a commitment is a commitment, so Motorola should start working on updates. And then again, smartphone UI is the one thing to consider while buying a phone, not the only thing.
