Samsung has launched its new family of flagship phones for 2023, with the magnificent Galaxy S23 Ultra being at the top of the ladder. These devices are just getting into the hands of reviewers, with the latest version of One UI - 5.1.

Samsung's reworking of Android includes one element that conflicts with the refinement you'll find elsewhere in the device: the apps tray scrolls horizontally.

"So what?" you might ask. Horizontal scrolling is fine, but it's a usability disaster and it's time Samsung changed it, or gave users the option. Most phones offer vertical scrolling, so when you swipe up from the bottom of the device, you just scroll up or down, find your app, tap it and off you go.

Instead, Samsung wants you to swipe up, then swipe from left or right to leaf through pages of apps. It's hardly fluid, needing a change in direction before you get to your app, but that's not the biggest problem.

The big problem here is that it makes the phone more difficult to use one-handed, because you have to stretch all the way to the top corner to reach apps on every single page. Sure, the problem affects all devices where you swipe up: on a big phone, it's probably about nine apps in the top corner that are hard to reach, but on a Samsung phone, it's those nine apps on every page.

Looking at our Google Pixel 7 Pro (which is also a pretty big phone), it's a stretch to get to those nine apps, but everything below can be scrolled to a convenient position and then opened with ease. On the Samsung Galaxy S23 UItra with the same app load-out (with some Samsung bloatware bulking it up), we have five pages of apps - that's 45 apps that are more difficult to reach than they need to be.

Of course there are ways to get around this. You can use voice to open apps, you can use the search bar to get to apps (use the one from the home page, because the one in the apps tray - yes you guessed it - is at the top of the page where you can't reach it), or there's a full range of customisation options to rearrange your home screen or your apps tray.

We have a full guide to customising your Samsung Galaxy home screen right here.

Samsung has a lot in its devices to enhance the experience beyond what you'll find in Android 13, but over the years, we've seen many aspects drift towards Google's core offering. It's still a surprise that horizontal scrolling remains mandatory, especially given the preference for larger phones.

Isn't it time to change, Samsung?