Samsung’s caught a lot of flak in the past for loading its smartphones up with pre-installed apps, commonly referred to as bloatware. The company is aiming to change that with the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge, touting a “refined and fully optimized user experience” that simplifies apps. And now it looks like Sammy has indeed followed through with its promise.
An xda-developers forum user recently got hold of a pre-release Galaxy S6 edge and discovered that the device will let you disable or uninstall a large number of the preinstalled apps. Those include Samsung apps like S Health and S Voice, Microsoft apps like Skype and OneDrive, and even many of Google’s own apps.
There are still a few built-in apps included with the GS6 that don’t seem to be removable, including S Planner and the Galaxy Apps store. Still, the fact that you can disable or delete so many bundled apps — including many of Samsung’s own apps — is a big and welcome change, and it’s another feature that makes the GS6 quite a bit different than its predecessors.