I found my old Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ while reorganizing the house, and for a second, I couldn’t remember why I’d stopped using it.
When I bought it, it was one of the best Android tablets you could get. It ran great for years, until I rolled over on the screen while sleeping, got the classic Samsung green lines, and shelved it in a drawer.
So I had the screen fixed, charged it up, turned it on, and ran all the pending updates. I immediately noticed the difference. The tablet ran much slower than I remembered.
It connected to Wi-Fi, downloaded apps, and did everything it was supposed to do, but I couldn’t get through more than a few taps before the lag became annoying.
I was concerned because I knew the hardware was good. A Snapdragon 865+ and 8GB of RAM shouldn’t suddenly become junk in five years.
Something else was going on, and I had a free afternoon to figure out what it was.
Why my Android tablet is now my favorite work tool (and not just for fun)
My tablet went from Netflix screen to full-blown workstation
Why an old tablet feels dead
The hardware usually isn’t the problem
Most people think a tablet or phone gets slow because the chip has worn out, but that’s not exactly right. Usually, it’s because the software on it does too much.
My Tab S7+ shipped with One UI 2.5. By the time I got it running again, it had been put through years of major updates, all the way up to One UI 6. And every one of those updates is bigger and busier than the last.
A lot of that weight comes from the OEM software layer, and the heaviest part of it is the launcher.
Samsung’s home screen alone runs animations, widget refreshes, and background services, using up memory the tablet would rather spend on what you’re actually doing.
I couldn’t undo years of OS bloat, but I could remove that one heavy layer and see how much performance I could get back.
What I wanted to use the tablet for
The only reason I bothered setting up a launcher
I almost gave up before I started because I couldn’t think of what the tablet was even for anymore.
But then, I’d been thinking about the perfect dedicated e-reader, and I had one right here. The Tab S7+ has a massive 12.4-inch display, but I bought it because of that size. It’s perfect for reading books, comics, and manga.
A phone is too small for this, and reading on a laptop or a big monitor isn’t the same, but the tablet is right in the middle. Easy to carry around, large enough that I could get every detail of the art.
That was enough motivation; I wanted my comics tablet back.
How I cleaned it up
Mostly one change, plus a little housekeeping
Before touching the launcher, I uninstalled the bloatware first. Some of them came off normally, but a few needed developer options to disable.
I also uninstalled the apps I’d downloaded years ago and never used again, since I only wanted the tablet to do one or two jobs now.
Then I went into the developer options and turned the animations off. This doesn’t really make the tablet faster, but it stops it from showing you how slow it is, which counts for something.
However, the biggest change was swapping out the stock Samsung launcher. After looking through some options, I decided on Niagara Launcher.
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A quick cleanup helped me use my phone more mindfully
Why Niagara Launcher made the difference
Less running in the background means more for you
I downloaded Niagara from the Play Store, opened it, and after a quick intro, it asked me to pick a few favorite apps. I set it as the default launcher, and my new home screen loaded.
The best thing about Niagara is that there’s almost nothing on screen. Your favorite apps are in a short list on the left edge, and that’s the home screen. There’s no grid of icons, menu pages to swipe through, or widgets littering the screen.
To reach the other apps, there’s an alphabet running down the right edge. If you tap a letter or drag your finger along it, it scrolls straight to the apps under that letter. I’d tried this minimalist style on my Google Pixel before, so it felt familiar.
It’s even nicer on the big 12.4-inch screen, since I can reach everything one-handed instead of stretching across a bunch of icons.
Notifications are on the same list. When something comes in, it shows up as a line under the related app, so texts are under your messaging app instead of stacked in a tray up top.
When you swipe right on any app, its notifications and shortcuts show up in a little pop-up.
What really saved my tablet is what Niagara doesn’t do. It’s a small, light app built for exactly this kind of older device.
It doesn’t have constant widget refreshes that use up memory, unnecessary background processes, ads, or even pop-ups to buy the Pro version.
The Samsung launcher was the opposite. Swapping it out freed up the memory it had been sitting on and killed the background work that came with it.
As a result, my tablet feels almost as fast as when I first bought it.
Niagara Launcher wants to take the hassle out of finding your perfect home screen
One touch can change it up
New life for an old favorite
It’s been a while now, and the tablet is still running great. Niagara even claims it gets smoother the longer you use it, and I can’t say it’s wrong.
The S7+ is fast becoming my main entertainment center for at least another year. I read on it most nights, and now and then it pulls double duty as a smart display or somewhere to watch a video.
All it took was an afternoon cleaning up the bloat forcibly installed on it.
Now, I’m eyeing other gadgets in the house, wondering what I can do with them.
