TLDR: Vulcan API Graphics are better and more efficient on possessor and battery than Open GL (previous API).
Vulkan rendering was enabled throughout the One UI 7 beta on the Galaxy S23 series and worked flawlessly. It delivered smoother animations, reduced stuttering, and most importantly, a noticeable improvement in battery life—around 10% more efficiency when combined with normal power-saving mode.
However, the stable release of One UI 7 reverted to OpenGL, which significantly degraded the overall user experience. The system feels slower, less responsive, and animations are not as fluid. Vulkan clearly enhanced the performance and efficiency of the device and should be reintroduced in One UI 8 for the Galaxy S23 series and beyond. Please reconsider enabling Vulkan as the default renderer again.
Please address the issue or atleast or provide a proper statement on why the feature was disabled because this update mostly out and still feels slow with extensive users facing the same issues of battery drain and inefficiency. Currently it looks like Samsung approach is planned obsolescence in older devices?
Edit: Tested 3 on Galaxy devices S23 series (Base/+ and Ultra series)
Storage on across all devices is 50% 64 GB Used of 128 GB
The Automatic restart seems to do a warm boot which looks to keep Vulcan enabled. Currently I've experienced this 2x with Auto Restart on so I believe it can be done. For One UI 8 Vulcan must be enabled to fulfill Android 16 requirements having Vulcan enabled fully and implemented. Hopefully they can figure it out and get on top of it compared to the One UI 7 rollout.
