Database Info

AOSP vs Sense vs MIUI. Discuss your favorite!

Which do you prefer and why? Pros and cons please!
Rank from most liked to the least.
My favorite=MIUI
Pro: The beautiful UI and very easy, high customization of everything.
Con: Takes a little more battery life due to UI.
Second=AOSP
Pro: Always works flawlessly and doesn't feel bloated. Simple and clean.
Con: IMHO, none.
Third=Sense
Pro: Again, I'm a UI guy, and Sense is very nice in that aspect
Con: Unlike MIUI, even though it is heavily themed, it always feels slowed down on every device I have tried it on, not matter all the tweaking.
Feel free to put multiple pros and cons

Considering ive never owned an htc device im just gonne do touchwiz
Touch wiz pro: fast and has many cool features
con: Sort of ugly (in my opinion)
Miui
pro fast and simple
con: i want an app drawer ):
Aosp.. im assumin thats what cm7 is?
pro: fast very smooth
cons: to simple for me im a ui guy aswell

Thread moved
Android without Sense it´s kinda boring, even ICS...
In my opinion

orb3000 said:
Android without Sense it´s kinda boring, even ICS...
In my opinion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd definitely take sense and miui over aosp

I got a HTC Desire. Went like this:
Sense 1.9 > Sense 2.1 + 3.0 > AOSP (CyanogenMod) > MIUI.
And well, I'm still on MIUI.
I loved Sense 1.9. Sense 2.1 + 3.0 was also great.
AOSP felt really empty and lacking, especially coming from Sense.
MIUI felt iOS-ish in beginning, but customizing it changes that all. I love it and been using it quite a while now.
Love all the simple touches of MIUI.
- Hold Menu on lockscreen for torch.
- All settings toggleable from notification bar.
- Volume Down + Home takes a picture from screen. (So no software needed)
- Double tap on lockscreen for music widget to come up.
The only thing I don't like is that the default music app doesn't support playlists of any open format. So you just gotta shuffle everything you have or use a 3rd party music player. And the default widgets are lacking.
Tip: TypoClock looks great with MIUI.

orb3000 said:
Android without Sense it´s kinda boring, even ICS...
In my opinion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing more to add
I've got a Desire S and I think I've tried probably every available ROM out there.
My Ranking
1. Sense
2. MIUI
3. AOSP
I like the speed of the AOSP roms and the look of MIUI, but I really love the way Sense is working. First, the widgets. Second, and that's actually much more important, is the way it the different apps are interlocking (I hope that's the correct translation, sorry if not). I mean I can browse my contacts, see their Facebook albums, I can easily stream my media to my laptop and vice versa and so on. I love it

Not that much between the three as they're the best user interfaces imho.
Nr1 for me is AOSP (stock ICS).
Nr. 2 is MIUI v4 (Nr. 2.5 would be the older MIUI)
Nr. 3 for me is Sense, although it is a nice UI but just doesn't match the other two in terms of clean beauty

I wish I could take some of the themes from MIUI and put them into normal AOSP, like the messaging and music player.
As for Sense, favorite of the OEM skins lookswise but it's a memory hog.

1. AOSP- clean and quick. You can theme it however you want.
2. Sense- love HTC and Sense is beatiful
148. Miui- for the Iphone lover at heart

I haven't had the chance to try Miui yet, but so far I think I like AOSP ICS.
I was using Sense for quite some time, but as others have mentions it does have lag at times. Plus, I was using Sense since I got my phone so I was really sick of it.
There are things I do miss about it though.

Sense
OEM based custom
AOSP

My favourite is MIUI, with a few CM tweaks. That's best of both words.
(Called WIUI on Defy)

MIUI v4, but i'm slightly biased since I'm a mirror
If you don't like the lack of app drawer you can use a lancher pretty easy.
If you don't like the iphone-ness (agreed) you can use blackandroidtheme.blogspot.com/p/miui.html which also happens to be made by an miuiandroid dev.
NS with v4 and SG-NS-ICS_24012012 kernel with tweaks.

Sense - Pros: Everything works, HTC Apps & Widgets. Cons: Can't use HTC Sense widgets with other launchers.
MIUI - Pros: Fully Customizable UI. Cons:no 4g, no 720p, it looks like the Iphone UI.
AOSP/CM7 - Pros: Semi-Customizable UI and Many Tweaks. Cons: no 720p.

All these people saying MIUI looks like iOS: Yes, the launcher has no app drawer (that's why I always imediately replace it,just as I do with almost every other standard launcher) and some Iconslook similar (But there are tons of themes that change the icons). That's it! In general the UI looks beautiful imoand the customisation is a huge plus, just like the lot of other custom apps and tweals thatcan't be found anywhere else, neither on iOS not on CM7/ AOSP.

I really like Sense. Unfortunately, it's slow and I have an old-ish phone, so I don't use it. Also, I know HTC isn't gonna release ICS for my phone, so I've started using CyanogenMod. CM9 is great but the UI is lacking in small ways--the launchers have dead space around the widgets and icons. The status bar doesn't say the date. I haven't noticed that many issues, though.

Sense comes first, slow compared to others though
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA App

I prefer MIUI over Sense and AOSP. MIUI's user interface just looks much more polish than AOSP and much more customizable than Sense. I never make my Android look like an iPhone, which is why I use other themes, mine looks somewhat like Meego now...

I have tried all of them and I personally like AOSP but at the same time each have their own pros such as miui's ability to customize everything so easily in any way you want but sense is also a very clean ui everything just works nicely with it.

AOSP is my favorite! and MIUI is good,,,and sense is not my type

[Q] TouchWiz Features in custom roms

Are the TouchWiz features added into custom roms like CM or slim bean? I don't see anything about the motion features that come with stock touchwiz on the SIII. Are they apps I can flash after installing a custom rom? Would love to use the 4.1.2 slim bean, but not if I have to lose some of the cool motion features (like dialing the contact on the screen by moving the phone to your head).

shazbot said:
Are the TouchWiz features added into custom roms like CM or slim bean? I don't see anything about the motion features that come with stock touchwiz on the SIII. Are they apps I can flash after installing a custom rom? Would love to use the 4.1.2 slim bean, but not if I have to lose some of the cool motion features (like dialing the contact on the screen by moving the phone to your head).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Touchwiz features do not work without Touchwiz. They are tied into the TW framework. Same as Sense features don't work if you strip out Sense on HTC. Those on AOPK/AOSP/CM are only looking for the speed of the hardware and basic stock Android OS and not the features. There are some 3rd party apps such as camera and wave apps that mimic some of the features you lose depending on if they are compatible with the sensor code.

athe smart alert motion control is the only thing I miss going from TW to AOSP roms.
I almost went back to TW, but I learned to live without them. (it wasnt hard)
Make a nandroid and try slimbean. If you dont like it you can always revert back quickly.

prdog1 said:
Touchwiz features do not work without Touchwiz. They are tied into the TW framework. Same as Sense features don't work if you strip out Sense on HTC. Those on AOPK/AOSP/CM are only looking for the speed of the hardware and basic stock Android OS and not the features. There are some 3rd party apps such as camera and wave apps that mimic some of the features you lose depending on if they are compatible with the sensor code.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh bummer.
ddurandSGS3 said:
athe smart alert motion control is the only thing I miss going from TW to AOSP roms.
I almost went back to TW, but I learned to live without them. (it wasnt hard)
Make a nandroid and try slimbean. If you dont like it you can always revert back quickly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I might do this. There are enough negatives in TW that ditching it for stock will outweigh the positives of TW I think. :fingers-crossed:
Thanks for the answers.

I would really love to find someway to port some of the TW apks to an AOSP rom. The one thing I can't stand is the AOSP contacts. I actually like some of the TW apps such as the messenger, calculator, calendar, and the camera, but I would sacrifice them to run an AOSP rom.
It seems like it should be fairly simple, albeit slightly out of my field of knowledge (although I'll still give it a shot over the weekend) but shouldn't it be as simply as pulling the necessary resources from the TW Framework and baking them into the apks themselves? or is there deeper coding that would need to be changed in order for this to work?

Smart stay and smart alerts I'd like to see portable, if anyone felt so inclined.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

ddurandSGS3 said:
athe smart alert motion control is the only thing I miss going from TW to AOSP roms.
I almost went back to TW, but I learned to live without them. (it wasnt hard)
Make a nandroid and try slimbean. If you dont like it you can always revert back quickly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that and the camera app for me!

What kind of custom features do you want for your Galaxy S4?

Well considering we have a good month to actually play with our phones before any real custom development begins, we could use this time to come up with ideas that would be great to have on custom ROM's specifically for the Galaxy S4. I myself believe the next two years are gonna be insane and month is nothing compared to the fun we are all about to have!
So let's hear, what do you want your GS4 to do that it can't do right now. I personally would like to see someone make use of air wave more effectively and air view.

I just want some SlimBean love.

4.2.2. Stock. That's all I want.

I want to be able to change themes on my phone with EASE!

Mass delete of the 14.7 million crapware apps that come pre-installed....

just to be able to mod the hell out of it battery,clock,wifi,themes etc.....have kick ass kernal with kick ass battery life...

Cyanogen.

a lag reduction of 290%

I'm going to be developing a slimmed down Touchwiz rom with an AOSP feel but keep the TW framework for camera and other misc features. Samsung does add quite a few software enhancements that are nice to have that AOSP will break.

akira02rex said:
I'm going to be developing a slimmed down Touchwiz rom with an AOSP feel but keep the TW framework for camera and other misc features. Samsung does add quite a few software enhancements that are nice to have that AOSP will break.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I can't wait for

Ongoing Wifi Notification removed and change the Phone dialer from the playskool looking white to dark theme. Other than that I am happy with TW till we get AOSP...:highfive:

akira02rex said:
I'm going to be developing a slimmed down Touchwiz rom with an AOSP feel but keep the TW framework for camera and other misc features. Samsung does add quite a few software enhancements that are nice to have that AOSP will break.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly what I was hoping for. There's no point in buying a phone with so many "exclusive features" and immediately flashing CM and having the exact same user experience you had on your last phone. I mean, do I love AOSP? Of course I do. But why not try to get the best of both worlds? Can't wait for it, akira!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

Keep stock touchwiz with aosp speed, also in the notification switches, the ability for flashlight, and play and next media buttons, also thumbs up/down button if possible
Sent from my PC36100 using Xparent Skyblue Tapatalk 2

I am generally happy with my S4. Screen is great, the features I am interested in, Navigation, Translation (sTranslate), tethering ( I am on the plan), Bluetooth, and many others working. I am waiting until my 2 week return period is over before rooting and then debloating. I am using Nova launcher and have had no problems with lag. I did find that the home button with the smaller lower bezel than my SIII sometimes causes me to hit one of the dock icons; will require getting used to. Here is what I don't like and would like to see change:
1.The phone dialer. the white is awful
2. Contacts. Also in white, awful
3. Battery icon. Would love to be able to change it.
4. I personally like the 4.1 lockscreen with weather and time. I installed dashclock and used that a one of my Lockscreen widgets but still am not happy. I would love to see the opportunity to change the lockscreen style and type.
I am sure that I will find others, but that is it for now.

All Samsung features with the look & customization of AOKP, PA, Rootbox or Xylon.

idea of the year right here
and i can't believe it wasn't implemented by samsung and shown off at all the demos..
almost every website on the net today incorporates hovering the mouse to expand menus, show list options, features, toggle content, etc
this i would argue is THE biggest shortcoming of not just android, but all mobility today. there's no solid solution to imitate this on a mobile phone.
the galaxy s4 is the first phone which can overcome this shortcoming with its ability to support scree hovering. but what did Samsung choose to implement instead? a zoom in option baked into their stock browser .. which they removed flash support for, crippling one of the biggest breakthroughs in mobile innovation we've seen yet.
any developer who implements this will make front page of xda for sure
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

Extended desktop mode, the status bar takes up to much screen real estate. Pie controls love them on my nexus 4!

Id love to be able to re-map the double-click of the home button. More options to edit toggles. No need to have that many toggles Im never going to use. Dark themes throughout UI. More apps that can be utilized in Multi window. Using the calculator with the browser or banking apps for example. Swipe the status bar for brightness control, no need to have the slider taking up space in the notification drawer. Swipe between tabs on phone app, same in any other tabbed touchwiz apps. Let me use Wallet dammit!
Love the idea of AOSP/touchwiz mashup. There actually are some features Id like to keep. Too bad Samsung's design team is still stuck on Gingerbread aesthetics...

Remote
A cool feature would be a timed t.v. remote to go off say at 6:30 to wake me up for school

Some PA love would be ideal! DPI changes are necessary with this awesome screen! Plus PIE and Halo would be awesome to have! Oh and remapping of hw buttons is a must for me.

CM10.1 Scrolling not as smooth as stock

Complete newbie here. After a lot of reading how-to's here and other sites, I managed to migrate from the stock to CM10.1 (JB 4.2).
Like almost everything except the rough 'screen scrolling stutter' for example in facebook, browser etc. The stock ROM on most devices (for example my other LG escape with android 4.0.4) seem to be buttery smooth. Is there a setting (would that be some kind of h/w acceleration?) or something to make it smooth?
Though I love the new ROM, this is almost becoming a deal breaker and makes me want to go back to the stock rom.
Thanks for any help.
ps: Sometimes, it is so bad that when I flick the screen up, it would try to go up and then rebound downwards...

What version of cm 10.1 are you on? You might try the latest nightly. If your browser is chrome, it seems to be an issue with chrome, others have reported that problem. I'm on the 7/25 nightly and it's running well. I don't use chrome though.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app

panny2 said:
Complete newbie here. After a lot of reading how-to's here and other sites, I managed to migrate from the stock to CM10.1 (JB 4.2).
Like almost everything except the rough 'screen scrolling stutter' for example in facebook, browser etc. The stock ROM on most devices (for example my other LG escape with android 4.0.4) seem to be buttery smooth. Is there a setting (would that be some kind of h/w acceleration?) or something to make it smooth?
Though I love the new ROM, this is almost becoming a deal breaker and makes me want to go back to the stock rom.
Thanks for any help.
ps: Sometimes, it is so bad that when I flick the screen up, it would try to go up and then rebound downwards...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try fixing permissions and then wipe dalvik/cache. if that don't work, redownload the newest nightly, CHECK MD5, reinstall

I flashed the stock 4.1 ROM back. It was not all that different from a scrolling smoothness perspective. So it seems that the other phone (LG escape) is doing a better job either by s/w (most likely) or h/w.
Given that, I moved away from the stock again, this time to slimbean, and I like it better than the cyanogenmod.
Thanks.

panny2 said:
I flashed the stock 4.1 ROM back. It was not all that different from a scrolling smoothness perspective. So it seems that the other phone (LG escape) is doing a better job either by s/w (most likely) or h/w.
Given that, I moved away from the stock again, this time to slimbean, and I like it better than the cyanogenmod.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
care to mention what was that you like slimbean better than cyanogenmod 10.1

Slimbean vs Cyanogenmod on the Skyrocket
raptorddd said:
care to mention what was that you like slimbean better than cyanogenmod 10.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would say more tasteful/minimalistic customization options. As a very small example choosing to display the battery percentage does not unnecessarily show a battery icon in addition, and also it was customizable to be of different colors while charging/not charging...
More importantly, the notification light via the hardware keys worked on slim bean and not with the cyanogen. This was nice since the skyrocket does not have a dedicated notification light.
Other differences I saw include:
1) The HDR option in the camera is missing in the slimbean, but that is understandable probably since there is no stock HDR option on the camera, and the HDR option that the cyanogenmod came with did not account for even tiny handshake and was unusable.
2) Asking to upgrade to the prime launcher (for $4) was a bit of a bummer with the slimbean. Only the upgrade allows to hide apps etc.
3) On slimbean, press and hold a app icon gives you a small menu to edit/remove/uninstall which is nice.
4) One slightly annoying thing on the slimbean however is the wake up delay after the screen turns off. I have a thread on that here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2383338
5) On slimbean, I also like being able to turn off the screen by long pressing the menu button (configurable) instead of reaching for the power button.
6) The APN settings on cyanogen worked right out of the box, whereas on the slimbean I had to add a new APN and choose that to get data connection.

panny2 said:
I would say more tasteful/minimalistic customization options. As a very small example choosing to display the battery percentage does not unnecessarily show a battery icon in addition, and also it was customizable to be of different colors while charging/not charging...
More importantly, the notification light via the hardware keys worked on slim bean and not with the cyanogen. This was nice since the skyrocket does not have a dedicated notification light.
Other differences I saw include:
1) The HDR option in the camera is missing in the slimbean, but that is understandable probably since there is no stock HDR option on the camera, and the HDR option that the cyanogenmod came with did not account for even tiny handshake and was unusable.
2) Asking to upgrade to the prime launcher (for $4) was a bit of a bummer with the slimbean. Only the upgrade allows to hide apps etc.
3) On slimbean, press and hold a app icon gives you a small menu to edit/remove/uninstall which is nice.
4) One slightly annoying thing on the slimbean however is the wake up delay after the screen turns off. I have a thread on that here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2383338
5) On slimbean, I also like being able to turn off the screen by long pressing the menu button (configurable) instead of reaching for the power button.
6) The APN settings on cyanogen worked right out of the box, whereas on the slimbean I had to add a new APN and choose that to get data connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tbh you just don't know what you're doing. A simple kernel and launcher switch will cover most of those differences.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

xcrazydx said:
Tbh you just don't know what you're doing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please read the OP.
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/newbie

panny2 said:
Please read the OP.
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/newbie
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I said, do some more reading. Your issues are simple things.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

panny2 said:
1) The HDR option in the camera is missing in the slimbean, but that is understandable probably since there is no stock HDR option on the camera, and the HDR option that the cyanogenmod came with did not account for even tiny handshake and was unusable.
2) Asking to upgrade to the prime launcher (for $4) was a bit of a bummer with the slimbean. Only the upgrade allows to hide apps etc.
3) On slimbean, press and hold a app icon gives you a small menu to edit/remove/uninstall which is nice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As to 1-HDR isn't really possible with the Skyrocket's hardware due to its slow shutter speed.
As to 2-It would be extremely unethical, and probably illegal (not a lawyer, so I can't say for certain) for any developer to distribute the paid version of an app in a release without compensating said app developer for the distribution.
As to 3-Install Nova on CM and you get that option back.

Looking for a custom ROM

I've just now had a somewhat unhappy experience with applying a custom ROM to my Nexus 5. I decided to apply Dirty Unicorn and to my dismay found 2 things out: the GApps zip flashes but install nothing and "OK, Google" stopped working altogether.
For now, I started with returning to the stock ROM. I have no intention of going without my "OK, Google" and Google Now on the leftmost side of my homescreens.
What I'm looking for in a custom ROM, and would like suggestions for one that would satisfy:
"OK, Google" must work from all homescreens, as well as have Google Now off to the left of said homescreens.
Option to get as many of the currently very white apps (like the dialer and People app) in black and blue or any other color really.
Some basic customization, nothing serious or very fancy.
Any ROM that will do at least these will be welcome. I had RootBox on my SGS2 previously and enjoyed it enough, despite not using anywhere close to it's full potential.
Thanks in advance for any help.
(I'm hoping this topic is in the right forum.)

Anaxim said:
I've just now had a somewhat unhappy experience with applying a custom ROM to my Nexus 5. I decided to apply Dirty Unicorn and to my dismay found 2 things out: the GApps zip flashes but install nothing and "OK, Google" stopped working altogether.
For now, I started with returning to the stock ROM. I have no intention of going without my "OK, Google" and Google Now on the leftmost side of my homescreens.
What I'm looking for in a custom ROM, and would like suggestions for one that would satisfy:
"OK, Google" must work from all homescreens, as well as have Google Now off to the left of said homescreens.
Option to get as many of the currently very white apps (like the dialer and People app) in black and blue or any other color really.
Some basic customization, nothing serious or very fancy.
Any ROM that will do at least these will be welcome. I had RootBox on my SGS2 previously and enjoyed it enough, despite not using anywhere close to it's full potential.
Thanks in advance for any help.
(I'm hoping this topic is in the right forum.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rootbox rom was a mix of PA, aokp, Cyano, Slim etc...
I tried lot of roms, but the only good for me is Cataclysm Rom
because it's smooth and stable like no others
Also Purity is cool
I tried also aosp based rom like Vanir, codename, psx, but
Were buggy and not so stable
Never tried cyan, aokp, PA, beanstalk, madhi
I tried droidkang, really cool rom, fast and stable Cyanogenmod based rom, with a lot of mods & features.. Really really cool rom. If you need mods I think this will be the best for you
Also madhi is receiving lot of positive feedbacks
For me the best is cataclysm, a stockish rom with few but useful mods

Anaxim said:
I've just now had a somewhat unhappy experience with applying a custom ROM to my Nexus 5. I decided to apply Dirty Unicorn and to my dismay found 2 things out: the GApps zip flashes but install nothing and "OK, Google" stopped working altogether.
For now, I started with returning to the stock ROM. I have no intention of going without my "OK, Google" and Google Now on the leftmost side of my homescreens.
What I'm looking for in a custom ROM, and would like suggestions for one that would satisfy:
"OK, Google" must work from all homescreens, as well as have Google Now off to the left of said homescreens.
Option to get as many of the currently very white apps (like the dialer and People app) in black and blue or any other color really.
Some basic customization, nothing serious or very fancy.
Any ROM that will do at least these will be welcome. I had RootBox on my SGS2 previously and enjoyed it enough, despite not using anywhere close to it's full potential.
Thanks in advance for any help.
(I'm hoping this topic is in the right forum.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried pressing/holding the Home button and then swiping up? That should get you to the Google Now screen from any launcher/ROM. I'm on a Beanstalk build using Nova Launcher and it works that way.
Otherwise, you could use the default Google Launcher, that should come with any standard GApps you'd install; there's got to be a forum posting with it available for download around here somewhere, just in case you're missing it. I'm just wondering if it's a ROM issue you're experiencing, where you might otherwise enjoy the ROM, or an apps issue.......

enricocid said:
Rootbox rom was a mix of PA, aokp, Cyano, Slim etc...
I tried lot of roms, but the only good for me is Cataclysm Rom
because it's smooth and stable like no others
Also Purity is cool
I tried also aosp based rom like Vanir, codename, psx, but
Were buggy and not so stable
Never tried cyan, aokp, PA, beanstalk, madhi
I tried droidkang, really cool rom, fast and stable Cyanogenmod based rom, with a lot of mods & features.. Really really cool rom. If you need mods I think this will be the best for you
Also madhi is receiving lot of positive feedbacks
For me the best is cataclysm, a stockist rom with few and useful mods
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, Cataclysm is the most stable so far.