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'normal' android vs. 'not normal'

L

LA.Boi.93

Lurker
ok, here is something that confuses me beyond belief, as im going to my second android device (after 2 years) i keep hearing 'oh regular/vanilla android is so much better than android w/ a cover such as touchwiz'

can someone please tell me why? i heard something about updates to 2.3 and later versions would be quicker, but is that actually true? because withy my first android (by motorola, SUCKY-EST COMPANY EVER) they never sent updates/upgrades... besides this, is there any speed difference, or power usage?

basically, why is it so important? thanks
 
Better is in the eye of the beholder. I think people say vanilla is better since it effectively removes all limits and is your to tweak to your heart's content. Vanilla devices also get software updates much sooner, generally speaking.
 
Better is a relative term. The devices with plain vanilla android (the Nexus 1, Nexus S and G1) do not have any bloatware, so to speak, and they are the first to get OS updates. Conversely, they do not have the integrated desktop sync'ing that some of the UI's provide and several of the widgets that people find very useful are only available when using the particular UI.

Granted, you can install alternate launchers on HTC, Samsung, Motorola, etc. phones, but you can't (without flashing a custom ROM) remove their UI, only disable it.

I have a Nexus 1 and a Captivate. I installed Launcher Pro on the Captivate, but it doesn't completely eliminate TouchWiz. The Nexus got Gingerbread several weeks ago, while the Captivate might possibly get it by the end of summer ... if we're lucky ... and all the planets align during a full moon at midnight on the exuinox.

As for the value of the OS updates, Cupcake to Eclair and Eclair to FroYo were biggies. FroYo to Gingerbread, not so much.
 
lunatic59 said:
As for the value of the OS updates, Cupcake to Eclair and Eclair to FroYo were biggies. FroYo to Gingerbread, not so much.
Click to expand...

Depends on your perspective. And yours is in terms of raw features. My tests of Gingerbread tell me that they spent a lot of time making the user experience more friendly. Rather than cramming in new features, they took the time to polish what they had. It's rare in the software industry to see that. And IMO, vanilla Android needed a bit of polishing.

Gingerbread is the first vanilla Android I'd be willing to run with full time. On my Evo running stock Froyo, I prefer the Sense overlay.
 
I use Sense and I like it. I haven't tried any other UI skin or plain Android, so I don't know if I would like anything else more.
 
thanks, out of the interface alone, between the mytouch 4g and the tmobile g2 (mytouch is heavily skinned; g2 is bare) and i have to say, the playing android isnt that much quicker, or atleast what i can tell without benchmarking, the bare, looks like my old phone because of no fancy skins... which im not sure, i like the look of skins, the whole sense and touch wiz just look better; however i went to tmobile today and att (since att bought them out) they both said that w/ bare android, upgrades come out within a month, if its skinned its going to take a few months... i talked to others and they said that from 2.2 - 2.3 there isnt much of a difference...

so i think im going to go with a skinned version
 
snapper.fishes said:
For me, it's Touchwiz >> Vanilla >> Sense.

For most other people it's the other way around.
Click to expand...
Let me put that in another order:
Vanilla >> Sense >> Touchwiz.

Vanilla is the pure UI for me where I can put only the things I want. Sense brings its benefits with different well-made apps/widgets. Touchwiz is irritating for me, but MotoBlur is the worst I've seen.
 
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