iPadOS 26 is so bad I’ve replaced it with Android

It’s a tale as old as time. iPads are better productivity machines than Android tablets. At least, that’s what people want you to think. As an iPad owner (2020 iPad Pro 11) and a Galaxy Tab S10 Plus user, I think the opposite is true. Aside from one or two specific uses, I can get more done on my Tab S10 than I can on the iPad for one reason: iPadOS 26 sucks. It’s bad enough that, after five years of enjoyment, I hate using my iPad now.

As I said in the introduction, I’m using a six-year-old iPad and a Samsung tablet that’s about a year and a half old. The differences in performance and power don’t factor into what I’m writing about today, though. All of my issues with iPadOS 26 are based on the software design, not the performance of the device.

Before iPadOS 26 came along, the iPad’s multitasking features were limited but easy to use. You could only have two apps split side-by-side at once until you launched Stage Manager, which provided more freedom and a more desktop-like experience. There were frustrations with it; there was no way to snap windows into common layouts, for example, but it was enough for most users.

iPadOS 26 fixes those limitations. That sounds like a good thing, and it would be if the way it addressed those annoyances didn’t ruin everything that used to be good about it. You can’t drag and drop apps into split-screen from the app switcher anymore. Now you have to drag one app and flick it to the side of the screen and repeat the process with the other app, or long-press on the MacOS-inspired traffic lights and choose whichever window-snap layout you want.

So, what’s the problem with this new UX? For starters, the UI is tiny. Trying to tap the traffic light buttons or anything in the menu bar is difficult to do quickly without tapping the wrong thing. Having to slow down and make a conscious effort to select the right thing is annoying, and it only gets worse if you’re using an iPad Mini.

Slideover apps have been heavily nerfed in iPadOS 26 as well and were actually missing entirely until iPadOS 26.1 came out. In older iPadOS versions, you could have as many slideover apps open as you wanted, and you could easily switch between them. In iPadOS 26, you can only have one slideover app at a time. Adding another one sends whatever app you already had there back to the app switcher. The only upgrade slideover apps got was the ability to resize them, but that doesn’t make up for the limitation of one app at a time.

The biggest mistake Apple made in iPadOS 26 was making all of these changes in the iPad’s default mode. I’m the go-to tech support for a large group of older family members and family friends, and the iPad has always been something I recommend. Ever since iPadOS 26 came out, almost all of those people have needed help to learn the new window management UX, with several of them feeling anxious that somehow their iPad is broken. All of these changes should’ve been made a part of Stage Manager, leaving the default behavior as it was. Instead, the product that’s supposed to “just work” and be simple to use feels nothing of the sort.

Take a look at One UI 8 on Samsung’s tablets, and the situation couldn’t be more different. Samsung’s split-screen and multitasking features have always been easy to use, and a redesigned DeX mode builds on that foundation.

In older versions of One UI, DeX mode was treated like a different operating system to where you did everything else with your tablet. Turning on DeX mode would make you wait through a boot screen, and you couldn’t bring apps that were already working in the conventional Android space over to DeX. One UI 8 overhauled DeX mode, bringing it into the core Android experience and making it seamless. Instead of having to launch DeX and wait for it to boot up, all you need to do is swipe into the overview screen and tap the add desktop button on the right.

DeX lets you have multiple desktops, too, which you can swipe between with the touch screen or keyboard shortcuts. The changes Samsung has made in One UI 8 are more intuitive, but most importantly, they haven’t interfered with the normal operation of my Tab S10 Plus. If I never open a desktop on it, then the tablet carries on as it always was: no broken or nerfed features, nothing new to learn for those who aren’t as tech-savvy.

That’s not to say things are perfect. Samsung’s DeX mode only lets you snap two windows side-by-side, even though you can have three columns of apps in the standard Android environment. That’s embarrassing on a 12.4-inch display, especially when iPadOS 26 can tile four windows at a time on tablets significantly smaller than my Tab S10 Plus.

I don’t do any hardcore work on my tablets. You won’t find me hooking up a mouse and keyboard and using them to write. I do use them for researching work, though, and that always involves extensive use of whatever multitasking features the device has. I’m one of those madmen who uses split-screen apps and pop-up windows on a 6.2-inch Galaxy S25, so you can only imagine how far into the weeds I get on a tablet.

Neither Samsung nor Apple has perfected tablet multitasking. The iPad on its latest OS version is difficult to use without a mouse and has nerfed fan-favorite features, and the Tab S10 Plus on the latest version of One UI has some quirks that limit window snapping. When I’m picking between the two, I’m choosing which set of compromises annoys me the least, and that’s hands down Samsung’s implementation. On a tablet, One UI 8 is easier to use and, more importantly, hasn’t led to my getting dozens of phone calls from confused people who think their tablets are broken or have a virus, unlike iPadOS 26.

Do you agree? Do you find the latest version of iPadOS 26 a frustrating mess compared to iPadOS 18, or do you prefer it to what Samsung’s done with One UI 8? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.