Samsung started rolling out its One UI 6.1 update last week, bringing its Galaxy AI features to the Galaxy S23 series and other Galaxy phones and tablets. Unfortunately, it looks like the update is doing more harm than good.
Over the last couple of days, there have been seemingly endless reports of One UI 6.1 wreaking havoc for Galaxy S23 owners — including everything from unresponsive touchscreens, fingerprint sensors not working, and more.
Here’s a quick overview of what’s going on and why you should probably avoid the One UI 6.1 update for now if you own a Galaxy S23.
Unresponsive touchscreens
We’ll start with one of the biggest issues. According to user reports on Reddit and Samsung’s community forums, One UI 6.1 is causing the touchscreen on some Galaxy S23 models to be completely unresponsive.
One Galaxy S23 Ultra owner on Reddit says that, after installing One UI 6.1, “my screen is totally unresponsive to finger touch and only works when I use the S Pen.” Samsung’s forums are filled with similar reports. There, one Galaxy S23 user comments, “After hitting the 6.1 update, I’m stuck with the same problem: the touch screen is totally unresponsive. It’s downright disheartening. Can’t believe a brand would drop an update this messed up.”
Broken fingerprint sensors
But touchscreen issues are just the start. Other threads on Reddit indicate that One UI 6.1 is also breaking the fingerprint sensor for the Galaxy S23.
Digging into posts on the r/GalaxyS23 and r/GalaxyS23Ultra subreddits, the fingerprint sensor isn’t completely broken. However, it’s also not working as intended. As one user explains, “After updating to One UI 6.1 yesterday, my fingerprint sensor randomly doesn’t register my input when trying to unlock the phone. There is no error whatsoever, the fingerprint icon animation re-appears once I touch the screen and I have to touch that part again to get the phone unlocked.”
Another S23 owner reports a similar issue, saying “when you tap on the fingerprint scanner, it disappears and you have to tap again to unlock the device.” There are multiple commenters below each thread reporting similar experiences, indicating this is a pretty widespread issue.
Slow charging
We’ve also seen reports of One UI 6.1 causing slower charging speeds for the Galaxy S23 series. Specifically, some people have reported that their S23 maxes out around 15W for wired charging speeds — even when using a 25W adapter.
The folks at SamMobile tested this out and found their Galaxy S23 was still charging at the expected 20W, indicating this particular issue may not be as common as some of the other ones on this list. However, it’s still popped up enough across Reddit and Samsung’s forums that it’s worth mentioning.
Phones overheating
Last but not least, One UI 6.1 also appears to be making some Galaxy S23 phones run hotter than normal. This one is a bit harder to pin down, though one Redditor claims that One UI 6.1 made their Galaxy S23 Plus get “quite warm to touch even when its idle and connected to WiF.”
Should you download One UI 6.1?
Given all of these issues, should you still download One UI 6.1 on your Galaxy S23? It’s difficult to say exactly how widespread these bugs are, so there’s a chance you could download the update and be perfectly fine. That said, there are enough complaints out there that it seems like something is clearly broken.
If you have a Samsung Galaxy S23 and haven’t installed One UI 6.1 yet, maybe hold off on doing so for a few more days so Samsung can (hopefully) patch things up. One UI 6.1 is a fairly exciting update, adding Samsung’s Galaxy AI features to the S23 family, but it’s not worth the headache it’s causing for so many people.
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