Galaxy S23 users feel betrayed by Samsung’s One UI feature lockout
A Reddit user alleges that several S25 and S24 series features work very well on the Galaxy S23 series, but remain absent.
- 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.
