<\/p>\nAndroid<\/p>\n
Nan%<\/p>\n
<\/button><\/p>\niPadOS<\/p>\n
Nan%<\/p>\n
<\/button><\/p>\nI don’t use a tablet<\/p>\n
Nan%<\/p>\n
<\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
iPadOS 26 is a mess<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n\n
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Zack Q-Dennis\/Android Authority<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As I said in the intro, I’m using a six-year-old iPad and about a year-and-a-half-old Samsung tablet. However, what I’m writing today doesn’t cover the difference in performance and power. All of my issues with iPadOS 26 are based on software design, not device performance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Before iPadOS 26 arrived, the iPad’s multitasking features were limited but easy to use. Until you launched Stage Manager, you could only split two apps together, which offered more freedom and a more desktop-like experience. There were disappointments with this; For example, there was no way to snap windows into a normal layout, but that was enough for most users.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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iPadOS 26 fixes those limitations. That sounds like a good thing, and that would be so if the way it addressed those troubles didn’t ruin everything that used to be good about it. You can no longer drag and drop apps from the app switcher into split-screen. Now you have to drag an app and flick it to the edge of the screen and repeat the process with the other app, or long-press on the macOS-inspired traffic light and choose whatever window-snap layout you want.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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So, what’s the problem with this new UX? For starters, the UI is buggy. It’s difficult to tap the traffic light button or anything in the menu bar quickly without tapping the wrong thing. Having to slow down and make a conscious effort to select the right thing is annoying, and it only gets worse when you’re using an iPad mini.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Slideover apps have also been largely deprecated in iPadOS 26, and in fact were missing entirely by the time iPadOS 26.1 arrived. In older iPadOS versions, you could have as many slideover apps open as you wanted, and you could easily switch between them. In iPadOS 26, you can only have one slideover app at a time. Adding another sends any apps you already have back to the app switcher. The only upgrade Slideover apps got was the ability to change their size, but it doesn’t meet the limit of one app at a time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The biggest mistake Apple made in iPadOS 26 was making all these changes to the default mode of the iPad. I am the go-to tech support tool for a large group of extended family members and family friends and the iPad has always been something I recommend. Ever since iPadOS 26 came out, almost everyone has needed help learning the new window management UX, with many of them feeling worried that their iPad is somehow broken. All of these changes should have been made part of the Stage Manager, leaving the default behavior as it was. Instead, a product that should “just work” and be easy to use feels like nothing at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
One UI 8 on Galaxy Tab is great work from Samsung<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n\n
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Zack Q-Dennis\/Android Authority<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Take a look at One UI 8 on Samsung’s tablets, and the situation couldn’t be more different. Samsung’s split-screen and multitasking features have always been easy to use, and a redesigned DeX mode builds on that foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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In older versions of One UI, DeX mode was treated like a separate operating system where you did everything else with your tablet. Turning on DeX mode will force you to wait through the boot screen, and you won’t be able to bring up DeX apps that were already working in the traditional Android space. One UI 8 improved DeX Mode, bringing it into the core Android experience and making it intuitive. Instead of launching DeX and waiting for it to boot, all you need to do is swipe up on the overview screen and tap the Add Desktop button on the right.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Zack Q-Dennis\/Android Authority<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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DeX also gives you multiple desktops, which you can swipe between with the touch screen or keyboard shortcuts. The changes Samsung has made to One UI 8 are more intuitive, but most importantly, they haven’t interfered with the normal operation of my Tab S10 Plus. If I never open a desktop on it, the tablet runs as it always does: no broken or bad features, nothing new to learn for those who aren’t tech-savvy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
dex mode<\/span><\/button>normal android<\/span><\/button><\/div>\n\n
That doesn’t mean things are perfect. Samsung’s DeX mode lets you snap just two windows together, even though you might have three columns of apps in a standard Android environment. That’s a shame on a 12.4-inch display, especially when iPadOS 26 can tile four windows at a time on a tablet much smaller than my Tab S10 Plus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
One UI 8… has caused me to not get dozens of phone calls from confused people who think their tablets are broken or have a virus, unlike iPadOS 26.<\/q><\/p>\n\n
I don’t do any hardcore work on my tablet. You won’t find me connecting a mouse and keyboard and using them to write. However, I use them for research work, and this always involves extensive use of the multitasking features present in the device. I’m one of those maniacs who uses split-screen apps and pop-up windows on the 6.2-inch Galaxy S25, so you can only imagine how far I reach for the tablet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Neither Samsung nor Apple has mastered tablet multitasking. The iPad on its latest OS version is difficult to use without a mouse and has fan-favorite features, and the Tab S10 Plus on the latest version of One UI has some quirks that limit window snapping. When I’m choosing between the two, I’m choosing which set of compromises bothers me the least, and that has to do with Samsung’s implementation. On tablets, One UI 8 is easy to use and more importantly, unlike iPadOS 26, I don’t get dozens of phone calls from confused people who think their tablets are broken or have a virus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Do you agree? Do you find the latest version of iPadOS 26 disappointing compared to iPadOS 18, or do you like it more than the version Samsung did with One UI 8? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Zack Q-Dennis\/Android Authority This is a story as old as time. iPads are better productivity machines than Android tablets. At least, that’s what people want you to think. As an iPad owner (2020 iPad Pro 11) and a Galaxy Tab S10 Plus user, I think the opposite is true. Apart from one or two specific<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[1601,1411,19695,3721],"class_list":["post-57029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-devotionals","tag-android","tag-bad","tag-ipados","tag-replaced"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57034,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57029\/revisions\/57034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}