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I have been an Android user for a year now. I started with a Nexus One. I really enjoyed the whole experience and flashed a lot of ROMS. I was a Cyanogen devotee. I really enjoyed stock Android.
I have found from using my various android phones, Nexus One, Vibrant, G2, MyTouch 4G, that each of these UI's have their good points.
Honestly, Stock android is boring. Let's all be honest with ourselves, CyanogenMod is not stock Android any more than MySense is stock android, or MotoBlur.
The reason we flash different roms is because we are looking for functionality that we need for our daily usage. People bicker and argue over what rom or what UI is the best, but that is like arguing that chocolate is better than vanilla.
My opinion on stock android is that it is a great platform to begin with, but it lacks features that everyone wants and needs. If stock android was so great then you wouldn't any additional apps and there would be no android market.
Any way, my rant is over, so vote on what is your favorite UI.
So far this version of Sense "MySense" or whatever, on the MyTouch 4G is my favorite UI.
I've tried MIUI and while I like certain pieces of it (speed mainly), it was too Iphone-like for me. I don't really like having all my apps on every home screen, and if you have a lot of widgets it is a pain to navigate to the widgets you want to put using the editing screen. IMO if you slap LauncherPro on top there's really not much point in using MIUI, might as well use Cyanogen.
My favorite of the non-Sense ROMs was always Enom's for Nexus One. It had the combination of stability, features, and speed (those are the order of importance for me) that I liked and had enough theming out there to customize it.
I've also tried the Desire port (what I'm currently running on my N1), Cyanogen, and a few others.
But like I said, of all of them, this UI on the MyTouch is my favorite, love the Dialer, love the quick change of themes, the outline of app icons are easier on my eyes, Sense Widgets, Media Room, etc.
BTW Gr8gorilla, I've used one of your N1 themes in the past. It was quite a while ago but it was a sweet theme.
I got the phone last night, charged it up and started playing with it. My last phone was the G1, rooted, Sparksmod Froyo ROM.
My personal opinion:
1. While I like stock Android, for me the Sense UI is quite nice. It looks nice, it's smooth, the widgets are beautiful, it just feels polished overall.
2. If Sense is all about personalization and making it your own, I wish HTC and Tmo would actually let you truly customize it, such as allowing you to choose whatever icon you want on the dock, having multiple docks (like Launcher Pro), multiple size widgets, etc. without having to root.
3. I don't like the bubbles around the app icons, but I do like that it makes the icons look symmetrical.
4. MyModes is cute, but once again, you're quite limited in what you can select when creating a custom mode. If you give me the opportunity to make a custom mode, then please let me select the things I want to customize. However, this is not something you find in stock UI, so hats off to HTC for this.
5. The media room is fantastic, but again, I wish it would let me customize which app to put in there. While the stock video player it came with was nice, I use ArcMedia. It would be nice to be able to add that in the media room app. Same thing with Pandora. Wish I could add that alongside Slacker. But again, it's more than stock UI had, so props goes to HTC again for that.
Overall though, the system looks very nice out of the box, and for 99.99% of the users out there this is perfect. For the Android savvy or techies, it may feel too gimmicky, but as an intermediate Android user, this is actually very polished and very presentable (especially when you're showing it to the iphony fanboys).
So im converting my mom to a thunderbolt from a blackberry, and i was wondering your guys opinion. Of course most people here are goin to prefer the stock android experience compared to the sense. But for a woman who is relatively un-tech savy, would you guys recommend a Vallina Rom or a more stock one closer to the sense experience, for the best user experience?
astefanik said:
So im converting my mom to a thunderbolt from a blackberry, and i was wondering your guys opinion. Of course most people here are goin to prefer the stock android experience compared to the sense. But for a woman who is relatively un-tech savy, would you guys recommend a Vallina Rom or a more stock one closer to the sense experience, for the best user experience?
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I bet a very basic user would appreciate the polished sense look. Their widgets look great and serve the basic needs of a user like your mom.
Beastclaw said:
I bet a very basic user would appreciate the polished sense look. Their widgets look great and serve the basic needs of a user like your mom.
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+1, I would have to agree here. I'm biased though, as I have only owned sense phones. Of course, CM is nice and that is what I ran on my eris.
astefanik said:
So im converting my mom to a thunderbolt from a blackberry, and i was wondering your guys opinion. Of course most people here are goin to prefer the stock android experience compared to the sense. But for a woman who is relatively un-tech savy, would you guys recommend a Vallina Rom or a more stock one closer to the sense experience, for the best user experience?
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I kinda disagree..I think most of us do prefer Sense over vanilla. (as shown on a recent poll on droidlife too).
Sense not only gained more votes than stock android.. but it also surpassed the competition (like touchwiz and motoblur) by significant numbers.
You will love Sense.
It's all what you like best. Everyone here has their own preference on setups, icons, themes, kernels, roms, etc... Try them both out for a couple days to a week and see which one you like the best, and suits your needs the most.
alright well i guess well my next question would be, do u think das bamf or just a stock debloated one would be best considering user experience is the highest priority. So I guess what im trying to say the one with the least bugs and most stability.
g00s3y said:
It's all what you like best. Everyone here has their own preference on setups, icons, themes, kernels, roms, etc... Try them both out for a couple days to a week and see which one you like the best, and suits your needs the most.
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I know this and i know what i prefer the most which is speed, i dont really care about a shiny pretty interface with beautifl widgets. But my mom is obviously different and I'm going to be goin in a few days so i just wanna make sure shes setup before i leave.
astefanik said:
alright well i guess well my next question would be, do u think das bamf or just a stock debloated one would be best considering user experience is the highest priority. So I guess what im trying to say the one with the least bugs and most stability.
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My 2 cents worth.. go with Stock .. for a while at least.. It is fast and stable and you'll see how zippy it is compared to a lot of custom roms. Form your benchmark with stock first and then when you run custom rom's you'll see the improvement/depreciation in speed and response.
I haven't had a single reboot/gps issue after going back to stock.. also when you go to a themed rom, remember that it slows down the "zippiness" unless the kernel is tweaked .. which mean it could be draining your battery more..There is a reason why Sense and a lot of apps are monochromatic for the most part.
there are pros and cons to everything.. you'll have to try it all out and see what you like best.. that's the beauty of android .. you have choices
I got the nexus 4g and I'm happy but I love the sense and htc phones in general. I have my phone rooted and had some custom roms but I end up trying to make them like sense anyway. I know the screen is no as good but the speaker is and the are way more options for roms for the evo even sense 3.0 (I've done my homework). All the reviews are comparing the phones are straight stock and not with kernels over clocking ect... Did I mention I love sense ui. I don't have the money for the 3d and I hear it's a little over rated. If anyone can help me decide on overall experience with roms ect. Thanks.
if you are interested in modding your phone, evo is the way to go. the evo has a much bigger community (here on xda) than the nexus s. bigger community=more development=more roms and kernels=more fun (maybe) and customization (definitely)
Thanks, that's pretty much exactly what I wanted to know. Much appreciated.
Forgive me if i am mistaken but i am new to the NS4G(as im sure a few of u know) & did not see a Q&A for us but i have a question.
No disrespect but i come from Evo 4g & was curious Y there is very limited roms available for NS4G???
I've heard many a great reviews for the Nexus S but i have not seen any reason y??? My Evo was just as good, mayb even better compared to my now owned Nexus. Roms were a plenty, speed just as fast, better camera, etc...
Like i said i am new to the Nexus S 4g & still learning. But from my understanding the Nexus S was first???
I like the Nexus for its size, not as bulky, but whats size compared to usage?
I still have my Evo & consider giving my nexus to my wife for alot of reasons. I hear of this "so called" ICS update, but im sure the Evo will be sure to get it(rom)...
If u feel my opinion is wrong, PLEASE, feel free to share your thoughts.
Again I bring no disrespect just curiousity...
Thank you for your time & patience.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
Most phones with manufacturer skins (sense, blur, touchwiz) the ROM makers are striving to create AOSP ROMs. We as Nexus owners already have this. The ROMS you see are mainly tweaks to AOSP with the 2 main exceptions being CM7 and MIUI.
So we don't need the same amount as the other phones. Quality over quantity in these parts Hope that helped and answered your question
NYYFan325 said:
Most phones with manufacturer skins (sense, blur, touchwiz) the ROM makers are striving to create AOSP ROMs. We as Nexus owners already have this. The ROMS you see are mainly tweaks to AOSP with the 2 main exceptions being CM7 and MIUI.
So we don't need the same amount as the other phones. Quality over quantity in these parts Hope that helped and answered your question
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Here's a good question, I'm sure its been asked many times and ill probably answer it myself, but I'm looking to get the ns4g soon. Can the ns4g run any roms in the ns development section or no because of the difference between the internation and us radios?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
.OmEgA said:
Here's a good question, I'm sure its been asked many times and ill probably answer it myself, but I'm looking to get the ns4g soon. Can the ns4g run any roms in the ns development section or no because of the difference between the internation and us radios?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
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The NS4G only runs NS4G ROMS.
NYYFan325 said:
Most phones with manufacturer skins (sense, blur, touchwiz) the ROM makers are striving to create AOSP ROMs. We as Nexus owners already have this. The ROMS you see are mainly tweaks to AOSP with the 2 main exceptions being CM7 and MIUI.
So we don't need the same amount as the other phones. Quality over quantity in these parts Hope that helped and answered your question
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Click to collapse
So... no 3. 0, 3. 5,sense, rosie, 3d widgets, etc...???
I know these are mainly "looks" but isnt that what phones are for???
"Look what my phone can do??? "
Yea we got "wallet" but REALLY???
So if we are "aosp" shouldnt we be able to do this(tweaks)???
No disrespect but like i said earlier, my evo did everything...
My nexus does 60% of this... (unless i am mistaken???)
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
Well I had an evo for a year and just got the nexus several months ago and I can say I would never go back. Here's my list of reasons:
1. The screen. I used to be a huge HTC fan, but after using a super amoled screen I don't think I could go back to an LCD. The blacks are so deep, contrast is great and color saturation is amazing.
2. The amount of ROM available is a huge deal for me. On a sense ROM I was lucky to have 200-300mb free for apps. The best I could do was with cyanogen @ 500mb. With my nexus I have about 1gb free space and I don't have to manage what apps I have installed (I usually have 160+ apps installed).
3. Graphics. The two phones might look the same on paper, but they are very different. The nexus is way better at playing 3d games than the evo. If you look in the market you will see the majority of gameloft games are not available for the evo, but they are all available for the nexus. Another example is my n64 emulator. On my evo games like star fox and banjo kazooie would be choppy and slow. They run very smooth on my nexus.
4. The camera is better on the nexus. Yes the evo might be 8mp, but its not about mp's its about the optics. The optics on the evo suck. My pictures were always grainy, and the colors were always washed out. Whereas the pictures on my nexus are smooth and have better contrast and color representation. Yes the camera on the nexus is not omg amazing but its way better than the evo (although I do wish the stock camera had touch to focus).
BUT there are some cons...
1. There is no HTC sense. I don't know what everyone means when they say vanilla android is better, it isn't.
The stock dialer sucks, no t9 dialing. The stock messaging app is ugly.
The stock launcher is crap (I have to load launcher pro just to make it useful)
Lack of any useful Widgets (no Facebook/friend stream, no calendar-the stock one is ugly, no useful clock)
The stock keyboard is okay, the sense one is way better.
The lock screen is useless (sense gives you a preview of your notifications)
Yeah I can, and have found apps and Widgets to fix most of my complaints dialer2, handcent, launcher pro, simple calendar, fancy Widgets, widget locker. But my point is that I shouldn't need too if stock android was so much better. Plus all those extra apps bog down the system and use up a lot of ram which leads me to my next point.
2. Lack of RAM. Yes the nexus has superior graphics performance, but that's because the GPU uses a lot of the RAM up, they should have put in a little more to compensate for it.
But despite my complaints, I'd still never switch back to my evo.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk
treezy26 said:
So... no 3. 0, 3. 5,sense, rosie, 3d widgets, etc...???
I know these are mainly "looks" but isnt that what phones are for???
"Look what my phone can do??? "
Yea we got "wallet" but REALLY???
So if we are "aosp" shouldnt we be able to do this(tweaks)???
No disrespect but like i said earlier, my evo did everything...
My nexus does 60% of this... (unless i am mistaken???)
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
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The Nexus S is guaranteed to be first (or at least in the first group) to receive an OS update with fully functioning roms like CM pretty quickly after, so all the ICS eye candy (and jellybean later and so on) will be on the NS first.
You can't compare sense to aosp. Oranges & apples. Sense roms use sense frameworks. If those phones were aosp phones, it would be exactly the same. Also the evo has 2 years of development behind it. Most of those roms are in the same boat. Pretty much you can either have an aosp rom , an aosp based rom, a sense rom or a modded sense rom, or a miui rom.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G
What's this jellybean u speak of?
snandlal said:
What's this jellybean u speak of?
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Following the naming system J is the next letter and Jellybean is generally agreed to be a suitable code name until we have more info.
Thanks again for everyones input. I am starting to enjoy my nexus s. It gets the job done.
As of now i am rockin CM7.1.0.1 Red ginger theme & minimalist red ADW theme. Looks awesome. Speeds are good, looks good, what else do i need? (wink wink) lol
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
So I decided to take the plunge and try out a stock Android rom. I'm a fan of Sense. I actually prefer all of the overlays from the various manufacturers but I decided to see what all the fuss was about with stock.
To me, stock Android just seems boring. Sense, to me, seems more polished. The widgets are nicer and more useful. The stock Android widgets are plain and boring.
I don't notice the speed difference, that people claim is so substantial, at all. In fact, the sense roms we have seen to be speedier.
So, my question is, why all the fuss over stock Android? I know people complain about Sense taking up a ton of resources, but I don't notice a dip in performance at all.
P. S. Remember, these are my opinions. You may not agree. Don't flame me for it.
Sent from my One X using xda app-developers app
SkizzMcNizz said:
So I decided to take the plunge and try out a stock Android rom. I'm a fan of Sense. I actually prefer all of the overlays from the various manufacturers but I decided to see what all the fuss was about with stock.
To me, stock Android just seems boring. Sense, to me, seems more polished. The widgets are nicer and more useful. The stock Android widgets are plain and boring.
I don't notice the speed difference, that people claim is so substantial, at all. In fact, the sense roms we have seen to be speedier.
So, my question is, why all the fuss over stock Android? I know people complain about Sense taking up a ton of resources, but I don't notice a dip in performance at all.
P. S. Remember, these are my opinions. You may not agree. Don't flame me for it.
Sent from my One X using xda app-developers app
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Because it's a blank canvas. Check out mycolorscreen.com, justreveal.net for some examples of what I mean.
Also, if the stock Android ROM you tried was on this device...then you haven't really experienced stock Android yet. There are still lots of bugs and what not that are being ironed out which cause lags in performance and other issues, so it's not really fair to judge the experience if it did occur on the One XL.
I do strive for AOSP on all my devices, but Sense is the ONLY tolerable manufacturer "skin" as far as I'm concerned. I dealt with Sense right up until a couple days ago since having my device. When I had my Samsung devices, Touchwiz was gone ASAP.
nooomoto said:
Because it's a blank canvas. Check out mycolorscreen.com, justreveal.net for some examples of what I mean.
Also, if the stock Android ROM you tried was on this device...then you haven't really experienced stock Android yet. There are still lots of bugs and what not that are being ironed out which cause lags in performance and other issues, so it's not really fair to judge the experience if it did occur on the One XL.
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Yeah buy a nexus 7 or a galaxy nexus if you to experience aosp.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
I do agree that the Sense widgets are awesome and much better than what is available on stock, HD Widgets is pretty nice though but still prefer the Sense ones IMO. And I too like the Sense launcher, at least with 4.0, seems to be much improved upon HTC's previous Sense versions. I'm no developer, but if it was at all possible to port the widgets to stock ROMs and launchers, that would be incredible.
All-in-all though I think I still prefer stock ICS/JB to Sense (can't wait for new stable AOKP and CM10!). I think part of the reason many people prefer stock is that although Sense is very nicely polished in places, many tasks feel like they take more actions to complete than it would on stock. Another part would be customization, especially if you go with stock-styled launchers like Apex or Nova, you have more control. And finally I think simplicity plays a part, stock ICS and JB have a very simple, clean, but still aesthetically pleasing interface IMO.
This is also I think was really puts Android above iOS and WP, the choices. It's really what you want to make of it.
Honestly, Sense is the only reason why I own an android device. I tried to like TouchWiz or stock, but I just couldn't. To me it feels like using a powerful computer on windows xp, but sense to me is like being on windows 7. Don't know if this is understandable. Anyways, that's just my opinion.
Sent from my HTC One X using Xparent SkyBlue Tapatalk 2
I don't mind sense. Been using it over its various generations. Modern versions are far less resource-hogging than the older ones.
Stock android i find far more appealing bar a couple of things like the calendar widget, but i had replaced the android one with Pure Grid calendar anyway so I wasn't missing anything there
i love stock android, its a much cleaner platform to me than sense, but I still have much love for sense.
I love both. Sense for me is just easier to use though. But if a fully working CM10/AOKP build came out, I would definitely switch.
I use to have a SGS and I hated the TW. Nova was my default launcher.
But I kind of like Sense. The only think I don't like are the Dialer app ( very ugly... I use exDialer instead ) and messaging app ( using jellybean Aosp)
Other than that widgets are pretty cool. They are all themed and they change when you switch to another theme.
Good job on that HTC... But really Phone app is horrible.
Personally, I am loving AOKP/Stock for a few reasons. Note that I'm going to try to keep this to Stock-specific things, since I know AOKP adds a bunch of cool (but non-Stock) functionality.
1. Accurate signal quality, rather than AT&T's bull**** "4G" icon (this is a small one, I know)
2. Stock multitasking (both interface and performance). I don't know why HTC changed the multitasking interface with Sense, because seeing one app at a time is a lot less efficient than seeing 4-5. I use the multitasking switcher a lot more sense installing a stock ROM.
3. This is related to #2, but things generally seem to "work better". I think this is due to the Sense skin's over-ambitious task killing, but for example, in Sense, sometimes my background Pocket downloads would randomly get stuck. Same with Store app updates. Haven't had this problem on Stock yet. Also, Stock didn't seem to want to kill RunKeeper while I was in the middle of an activity, so that was nice.
4. The general "feel" is more consistent, because apps that use the Holo interface are designed to "blend" better with Stock Android. I also prefer the transition animations in Stock. Overall, Android just feels more "right" because this is how it's intended to be used. It's hard to explain beyond that.
Those are the big things. Notice there aren't all that many, and it's (mostly) about personal look-and-feel preferences...that's because Sense really isn't bad, and there are even some things I prefer, like social network integration and (of course) the camera. If I was forced to use Sense, I would still love this phone, because really, we're splitting hairs at this point. This is an amazing piece of hardware, whether it's running Sense or Stock.
Of course, its hugely a matter of personal preference, especially as far as aesthetic differences go. But XDA folks seem largely in favor of AOSP ("vanilla") ROMs versus manufacturer skinned versions of Android like Sense. On older devices, this was largely understandable. On those devices, Sense looks nice, but leads to huge lag. But with the One X, you don't really have that. Maybe some minor lag in a few places, like opening the app drawer, but really its not significant. The hardware has finally reached a point that it can handle Sense smoothly (plus HTC's streamlining of Sense with version 4). There has also been the argument that Sense takes up too much memory. But that seems largely solved with 4.0.4.
Sense has some nice widgets and apps. But while some may see these as a "pro", other may see it as a "con". If you don't use them, they can be seen as bloatware. Personally, many of the widgets and apps are superior to what you can get on the Play Market. More functional, and the fact that they are themed to match the overall UI is very nice. Getting Stocks and other apps/widgets from the Market for use on AOSP ROMs just makes it feel like a messy mish-mosh. One thing I am continually shocked about is that AOSP ROMs don't have a built-in timer and stopwatch. Seems like a no-brainer to have these integrated into the clock, just like alarms. When I've been on AOSP ROMs, it was always a bummer to have to use 3rd party stopwatch/timer apps. Even though there are dozens of choices, they are all fugly and clumsy compared to what HTC has integrated into the clock.
Again, it all comes down to your own preference. The great thing is that the devs give us a variety, and let us choose whatever we like better!
I used to be all about aosp roms, customizing them is easier, on older devices they were noticeably snappier. However, on this hoxl, and specifically sense 4.0, I have been converted. Customization is less, true, but sense 4.0 really adds quite a bit to our phone that I can't seem to let go.
I've tried many roms here on xda, aokp, cm9, cm10, clean rom, three different roms from xsmagikal, and I discovered with the aosp roms that I missed fully working roms, and many features from sense roms and would flash back within two days.
I did the ota, and honestly, after being on stock (rooted, unlocked, but bone stock 2.20 ota) for five days or so, I almost think I could stay stock through the next year,and I would be satisfied with my phone.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2