Why does Samsung insist on making its emoji so awful?

With the Galaxy S8's unveiling yesterday, we got to take a good look at Samsung's latest UI refresh. Even though most of what we've seen so far is pretty good-looking, one particular problem sticks out like a sore thumb – the emoji are still abhorrent.

These are simply terrible – they feature the very same faux-3D effect that was so prevalent in mid-00's graphic design, even though the rest of Samsung Experience, formerly known as TouchWiz, moved to flat, more stylish design a long time ago. But it's not just that – while we wouldn't go ...