Android 13 vs One UI 5.0 – Which better implements Dynamic theme?

Samsung’s One UI 5.0 software is based on Google’s Android 13 operating system. The Korean company adopts most of the features from Android 13 but implements them on Galaxy devices in a different way. So let’s check out how the Android 13 Dynamic theme differs from One UI 5.0.

The Dynamic theme is basically a feature of Android 12 and by now everyone might get familiar with it. It enables users to personalize their devices to align tonally with the color scheme of their personal wallpaper through a selected color in the wallpaper picker.

One UI 5.0 Dynamic theme:

On Samsung smartphones, the Dynamic theme is known as ‘Color Palette’, which offers 16 different themes that sync with the current wallpaper of your lock screen or home screen. At the same time, One UI 5.0 software also offers 8 single plus 4 dual tone Basic colors to theme your UI.

When you choose one palette, the whole theme will be applied to menus, buttons, backgrounds, and apps throughout your phone. The new software further expands the dynamic theming to more Samsung, Google, and other third-party applications so that when you apply the color palette to app icons, all applications will look similar.

Other than these, the company also provides users with the ability to completely disable the Color Palette so if they won’t like to add a color foul tough to the system UI they can go for the default – Blue, Black, and White theme combination.

Android 13 Dynamic theme:

With Google’s Material You, it became possible for Pixel phone users to have their whole system and even some apps recolored to match their wallpaper’s colors. The company has further expanded the functionality by offering multiple color palettes with Android 13 OS.

As expected, the theme matches the app icons on your home screen with the colors from your wallpaper to provide Pixel phones with an even better look. Obviously, not all third-party apps support these features, therefore, their icons don’t apply this theme.

However, the good thing is that you can still give your app screen a similar theme by not applying a dynamic theme to the app screen, at the same time, you can apply it on the home screen so the home screen will look fully personalized. Yes, Google has the ability that only enables the theme for home screen app icons and not for all app screen icons so both your screens will have a pleasant and neat look.

Android 13 vs One UI 5.0 – Dynamic theme:

Well, in my opinion, both Android 13’s and One UI 5.0’s Dynamic theming are best in their own ways. However, what I like about the stock Android 13 feature is that it offers the ability to apply the theme only on the home screen.

With this functionality, we can add applications that support dynamic themes on the home screen and apply themes to them and all these will look similar even without spoiling the look of the App screen that will show some app icons themed and others regular.

At the same time, this is the only thing I don’t like about the One UI 5.0 Dynamic theme, it applies a theme to the whole app screen and makes it look ugly. See the image below, Dynamic theme applied on Pixel 7 Pro and Galaxy S22 Ultra’s app screens.