Samsung’s latest Galaxy S23 series comes running with the company’s One UI 5.1 software, which is its custom skin that is featured on top of Android 13. Unfortunately, early adopters will soon find out that this software version is consuming 60GB of storage, so it is advised to pick up the higher internal memory variants.
For context, Windows 11, an entire desktop operating system, requires only 30GB to install
The same Android 13 version running on the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro only consumes 15GB of internal storage, so something must be up, right? That is correct because Android Authority reports that Samsung has included a ton of bloatware with each Galaxy S23 model you purchase. This means that if you purchase the base version, which is going for $799.99 in the U.S., you are pretty much using up almost half that storage as soon as the phone powers on for the first time.
The report states that Samsung has cloned Google’s pre-installed applications on the Galaxy S23 to give the customer the impression that the Korean giant has its own software ecosystem. What is happening here is that instead of one, you are getting two similar apps installed on a single device. Additionally, Samsung sells space to other companies to let their apps get pre-installed on the Galaxy S23.
So, for instance, if Facebook or Instagram makes a deal with Samsung, these companies can have their apps installed on the system partition, increasing the total space consumed. The worst part about all of this is that there is a possibility that, as a Galaxy S23 owner, you might not be able to uninstall these programs. So what can be done about this?
Unless Samsung backtracks on its decision to consume 60GB of internal memory on each Galaxy S23 model, you should hope that you are given the option to effortlessly uninstall these apps to make some space available. Otherwise, you will have to spend more money and get the higher storage configurations, which might not be an attractive route for everyone, especially considering that none of Samsung’s latest flagships offer expandable storage.
