Samsung is rolling out the One UI 7 update for the Galaxy A34, which brings hidden GPU tools for gamers. The company has taken extra time in initiating the rollout for this particular device, but the scope seems vast.

One UI 7 update installs Vulkan and GPU Watch tools onto the Galaxy A34. These hidden tricks are pretty useful for gamers, offering crucial metrics. That said, the One UI 7 brings much beyond a rich new user interface to the device.

Samsung’s One UI 7 update aims to improve GPU performance and adds graphics monitoring features. The famous Vulkan and GPUWatch tools are now available on the A34, allowing you to monitor GPU activity.

GPUWatch is a nice tool developed by Samsung for the developer community. When activated, it allows users to observe GPU activity, containing metrics like GPU Load, FPS. Detailed information is overlaid onto the screen in real-time.

The GPUWatch tool can be activated on Galaxy devices through Developer Options. You can do it easily by navigating to Settings > Developer Options > GPUWatch. When enabled, it shows FPS, CPU and GPU load, ID, API, resolution, and driver type.

Vulkan is the second major addition that replaces the legacy OpenGL. As compared to the previous solution, Vulkan brings notable improvements to graphics, while retaining efficiency to improve gaming performance.

Source: Tsuruugi / Reddit

All in all, GPUWatch is a graphics monitoring tool, while Vulkan, replacing OpenGL, improves GPU performance. One UI 7 has widely adopted the Vulkan graphics API on Samsung devices to level up experiences without hurting the battery life.

Samsung’s One UI 7 rollout is taking place gradually on the Galaxy A34. While the update’s available in most countries, a broad release may take some time. You can check for the updates via Settings > Software update > Download and install.

Samsung made a whopping 64 million Galaxy phones in early 2025, up 21% from last quarter’s 52.4 million, according to TrendForce. New Galaxy smartphones and extra stock before possible US tariffs fueled this boost.

The worldwide market flagged 289 million smartphones made in Q1 2025, a 3% dip from 296 million last year. Still, Samsung’s numbers soared, leaving rivals behind as its focus on shiny new flagship models paid off big time.

As predicted by TrendForce, the worldwide smartphone market sales would be sluggish in Q2. Meanwhile, Samsung’s stellar start to 2025 proves the company is ready to tackle challenges like US tariffs and tricky market changes head-on.

Apple, on the other hand, slipped to second place. Its production dropped 40% to 48 million phones from 80.1 million last quarter. The report mentions that Apple struggled in China, where sales slowed and subsidies didn’t help.

Worries about US tariffs pushed Samsung to act fast. The Korean tech giant built more phones to ship before new US rules could raise prices. This smart move helped Samsung grab the number-one spot in global smartphone production.

Source – TrendForce

China-based vendors, including Xiaomi, took third place, making 42 million phones, driven by China’s subsidy program. Oppo made 27 million, Vivo 24 million, and Transsion (Tecno) brought up the rear with 22 million units in Q1.

Tariffs are shaking things up

President Trump’s talk of a 25% tax on foreign-made phones could hurt sales. Research firms like IDC and Counterpoint now expect 1.233 to 1.839 billion phones shipped in 2025.

Samsung and Apple, producing in countries like India and China, face potential price hikes if tariffs hit. SigmaIntel even suggested shipments could drop to 1.1 billion units, with Samsung at 208.7 million and Apple at 202 million units.

T-Mobile teamed up with CLEAR to beef up employee login security through face logins. The carrier is using CLEAR1, a system that checks identities with selfies, ditching conventional passwords or those annoying one-time codes for something more secure.

To be noted, T-Mobile has had some rough patches with cybersecurity, such as data breaches and SIM swap scams. CLEAR1 is the latest move by T-Mobile to secure access, which utilizes face scans to verify employees’ identities.

Employees need to hand over a valid ID and do a face scan, and CLEAR handles all the biometric stuff. Some employees are worried about privacy since CLEAR might keep more data than needed; however, T-Mobile is addressing their concerns.

As T-Mobile grows and handles more customer info, security is a huge deal. The company is trying to balance tough protection with making sure employees are okay with using new tech like CLEAR1 without feeling creeped out.

This shows T-Mobile is pretty serious about fixing its security problems after facing them for years. Face scans could be a game-changer for security, but the carrier will need employees to trust the system for it to really work out.

Apple has released iOS 26 as the biggest design overhaul in a decade, featuring a liquid glass UI, but early testers have found that the new upgrades have made some sections of the UI highly invisible. Meanwhile, Samsung has brought a unique UI change in One UI 8.0 with a glass effect that you may not have noticed.

Last year, Samsung redesigned its mobile software interface with One UI 7.0 and introduced some of the major reforms throughout the operating system. The software blended this new UI with intuitive animations, which makes the interactions better than the previous generation. A major implication of this new design can be seen on the control panel, which now serves as a separate feature.

Its base layer has a semi-transparent background, tiles creating a frosted finish; this is a combination that balances the UI element visibility.

Despite having two separate layers, the control panel’s background and the tiles in One UI 7.0 lose the sense of visibility when they overlap in certain bright and dark spot scenarios created by the underlying wallpaper.

Comaprison

The image below shows the difference in tile shape and how it blends into the background, where the dark and bright pixels are merging. For example, check the Nearby devices and SmartThings tiles on One UI 7.0. Their left and right side faded away into the background.

On the other hand, One UI 8.0 has added a thin white outline around the tiles to highlight their shapes. That’s not it, the outline is also complementing the frosted texture and making it look like a piece of glass.

One UI 7.0 (left), One UI 8.0 (right)

This outline creates a dynamic effect because it’s not visible on the bright background compared to the darker region. Overall, this subtle improvement in One UI 8.0 provides better visibility compared to the previous version.

Note: One UI 8 is currently under beta testing, and its features are subject to change by the stable release.

Samsung is reportedly working on two premium tablets. Recently, Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Tab S11 has been spotted in early benchmark rankings, revealing its chipset, operating system, and potential memory configuration.

The company previously launched the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus and Ultra. There was no successor to the Tab S9 tablet. This time, the company seemingly has no plans to bring a successor to the Plus variant of last year’s Tab lineup.

Meanwhile, the Geekbench listing reveals key specs of the Galaxy Tab S11 tablet, via AbhishekYadav. The evidence nearly confirms that the next Tab lineup will utilize MediaTek’s flagship Dimensity 9400 chipset.

Adding to this, the Galaxy Tab S11 benchmarked on Geekbench with an octa-core processor. It featured four CPU cores running at 2.4GHz, three CPU cores running at 3.3GHz, and one CPU core running at 3.73GHz.

The chip is said to be packed with the Immortalis-G925 GPU, which MediaTek features in Dimensity 9400 and Plus variants. The tablet, meanwhile, scored 1,420 points in the single-core test and 5,312 points in the multi-core test.

As far as the RAM is concerned, the Galaxy Tab S11 was paired with 12GB of RAM. It’s likely to be the base option for RAM as Samsung is betting big on AI and Generative AI functionalities, which require more RAM for seamless functioning.

Samsung may debut the Galaxy Tab S11 series with Android 16 pre-installed. The One UI 8 will introduce enhanced multitasking features. Galaxy AI would also see a notable boost in order to improve usability and productivity.

The company is currently focusing on its July Unpacked, where new foldable phones, smartwatches will be unveiled. For the new flagship tablets, we assume a potential launch to happen later this year or early next year.