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Sense UI - I don't get it

jonobrain

Lurker
Jan 12, 2010
3
0
Hello

Took delivery of a lovely Nexus this morning, been playing with it non stop... love it.

I did have a HTC Hero and the Nexus is just so much better. I went from an iPhone 3GS to the HTC Hero and although I preferred the OS it did feel sluggish and the screen wasn't as nice. The Nexus in my oppinion is a far better phone than the 3GS iPhone.

Anyway I don't know if I'm missing something but there so far apart from a couple of widgets on the Hero I can't see what difference HTC sense actually made? I haven't come across anything yet which I think the HTC improved, am I missing something? I prefer the keyboard on the Nexus but I'm guessing thats because of the speed.
 
what does this even mean??? He has had a 3gs, hero, and nexus one. Sense is not "superior" for everyone; that is up to preference.

Also, I'm not sure if I understand you question but the Nexus One runs on Android 2.1, not HTC sense (correct me if I'm wrong).

(Sense is run on top of android, HTC Hero sense runs on Android 1.5)
 
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To me Sense UI made me not want to buy the phone (actually, any phone with modified Android UI), although I'll admit I was somewhat taken with the extra prettiness they added. When new versions of Android are released, you'll first have to wait for HTC (/other manufacturer who has edited the UI) to update all its stuff before it gets pushed to you, if i'm not mistaken.

Which is why some people with the Samsung Galaxy are all up in arms as they are 'stuck' on 1.5 (I think?) and Samsung cannot be bothered to update their UI so users will be unlikely to see it come to their phone.
 
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Samsung has no custom UI on Galaxy. It just cannot be bothered for no particular reason )

wow, really? that is pretty poor. i was totally in love with samsung and was about to buy the galaxy without doing any research purely due to my previous good experience with their phones. so glad i didn't now, the lazy.. um.. so-and-sos....
 
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haha. please check out our forum before buying it:
Samsung i7500 - Android Forums

s'ok, ordered my nexus a few hours ago :)

my initial thoughts stand though - having a modified UI = waiting longer for OS updates and is reliant on manufacturers continuing support. But then again, people tend to get themselves new phones every year or so, so that might not be a deal-breaker for some :)
 
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s'ok, ordered my nexus a few hours ago :)

my initial thoughts stand though - having a modified UI = waiting longer for OS updates and is reliant on manufacturers continuing support. But then again, people tend to get themselves new phones every year or so, so that might not be a deal-breaker for some :)

Wait longer for the UI updates perhaps, first off not by much (both Verizon Droid phones are getting updates during the same time frame, Q1). But you also know the kinks have been worked out. We've already seen issues with the N1 which could be with Android 2.1.
 
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I like the Facebook and Twitter widgets a lot. The people one, too, of course.

How are those two on the N1? Also, is there a people widget?

Facebook is integrated with Android 2.1 heh. As of twitter, when I used my HTC Hero I rooted my phone and removed peep as I think it's not a very good twitter client. Use twidroid instead ;)

Unfortunately, no people widget but you can create shortcut called "Direct Dial" or "Direct Message" for the different contacts. It works similarly as people's widget. Of course Android has Starred Contact folder as well for your favorites :eek:
 
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I don't know... Sense UI was really quite nice. My problem with the Hero was it was very laggy (I thought they 'fixed' that before release). That plus the issue that was mentioned about relying upon the manufacturer for the software updates.

I went from a 1st gen iPhone to Hero to N1.
What I liked about Sense that the N1 doesn't have:
Better weather/clock widgets (yes I know you can DL replacements)
Better default Twitter, Mail and Calendar widgets.
I also liked seeing status updates on my contacts list.
 
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comparing HTC Sense on the Hero and Android 2.1 is not fair. To understand the benefits of Sense you have to compare to a stock 1.5 Android phone with its 3 home screens etc. As I understand it 2.1 incorporates a lot of stuff as standard that Sense UI adds to 1.5. The fact that you can't see much difference between a hero and 2.1 shows what a good job HTC did with 1.5.
 
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Some people love Sense and won't buy an Android phone without it. Some people hate Sense as it adds lag and hogs 100mb of memory. And some have yet to experience it, but know that Android needs this kind of UI/UX because the native experience is just so-so. Sense has components that Android desperately needs:

- a nicer music interface
- a better way to handle contacts
- a better twitter/FB widget
- a nicer gallery interface

Simple things that Android could probably do, but chose not to do. Hopefully, Flan?
 
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Sense UI widgets are fantastic.

But people are right the expresso ui ?? Holy god its ugly.

Sense UI is fantastic compared to 1.5 but not so 2.1.
More home screens , the App/Home button , and slightly improved contacts make it not worth all the memory hogging.

I do wish Google contacts would consolidate all communications the way Sense does. But apps like Asurion do this so its not really missing just not as convenient.
 
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