Best Android manufacturer?

[Hyperchild]

Hey,
I thought this would be an interesting one to post.
Who is the best Android device manufacturer?
And also,
What is the best Android UI?
Be it Sense, TouchWiz, Stock Vanilla or even a third party Market App?
Post your opinion.
P.S.
I'm pretty sure around 70% of answers will be HTC.

 

[vincentp]

My opinion:

I was a huge fan of the Droid so I would have chosen Moto based on that. I can't stand Motoblur phones though, to be honest, so it's kind of a biased response. In light of their newfangled locked bootloaders though, I'd have to switch my response to HTC.

As far as UI, I prefer the stock Android UI because there's more that I can do with it and it doesn't get in my way. I don't like Sense - just personal preference, but I would give it the top spot if I were comparing the available overlays.

 

[marefin]

Personally I think the best Android phone out in the market right now is the Motorola Droid X. And after that it's a tie between the Captivate and EvO because then it comes down to a purely personal preference. I personally like my Captivate better than the Evo my friend has.

 

[lonesarah]

Personally I think the best Android phone out in the market right now is the Motorola Droid X. And after that it's a tie between the Captivate and EvO because then it comes down to a purely personal preference. I personally like my Captivate better than the Evo my friend has.

I don't anything about cellphones like this guy by all means choose the droid x. However, I recommand the evo because of 4g and wifi hotspot.

 

[ari-free]

Samsung is the best OEM because they innovate. They know how to make cameras, TV's etc. They came up with hummingbird gpu, s-amoled and they included 6-axis control and FFC so that the IP4 couldn't be unique even in that regard. I have a feeling with the SGS that they are capable of so much more than this. Definitely a company that google should be lucky to have in its corner.
2nd would be Motorola. They are trying to make a comeback and they are getting there but they aren't in as comfortable position as Samsung.

 

[chrlswltrs]

I currently think motorola is the best but I have not tried a samsung android phone. In the past I have always had bad experiences with samsung. Hardware quality has been pretty bad from htc so far, and sense is way to intrusive and I don't like it at all.

As far as UI goes, vanilla android is the best. No extra crap running that I don't want and I can find anything I need to customize my way in the market, that is my only complaint with my droid X. Motorola hardware is by far better than any other manufacturer right now.

 

[eddieb1983]

After a little over a year, I thought I'd bring this thread back to life to get more opinions.

 

[Joe Dirt]

I'll break down my opinion

Motorola: good hardware, okay screens, crap UI, crap encrypted bootloaders.

Samsung: great screens, unlocked bootloaders, touchwiz is a pain, hardware feels cheap.

HTC: good hardware on the higher end phones. Cheap plastics on the low end (cha cha) . OK screens, locked bootloaders suck but they will be unlocking by request. Sense can be buggy and sluggish.

LG: i've only ever used the G2x. I liked It. Good screen, fast and smooth. Heard It had some bugs, I hope they fixed those.

 

[roadkizzle]

When looking at new electronics, the Motorola versions just always seem to be most ideal for me.

I'm on AT&T, my first Android phone was the Bravo, and then a month ago my wife took that phone and we bought an Atrix for me.

Before I chose any of my phones, I looked very hard at the different options. In my opinion, the Moto options I've looked at normally have the best blend/choice of battery size, screen size, build quality, and hardware specs.

I do not like large screened phones. The ideal size is 4" imo.

I personally do not like SAMOLED screens. Every Galaxy S phone I've looked at has a really weird blue color to it when not looking directly at the screen, which gets on my nerves constantly. Also I've heard many more hardware issues with Samsung phones than the other manufacturers, which leads me to believe they don't use as high-quality parts.

HTC makes solid quality looking phones to me personally. My big problem, and the reason I won't get their current offerings is they are known for putting the smallest batteries possible in their phones, and I hear constant complaints about their battery life.

The only issues I have with Motorola are Motoblur, and the locked bootloaders. I have never turned on any of the social network aspects of Motoblur, so it really doesn't have much of any impact on the usage of my phone, although I wish I could more easily access the "helicopter mode"/zoomed out view of my homescreens, and get settings toggles in my notification bar. Other than that, with Eclair/Froyo I liked the size and position of the phone icon, and with GB the UI seems to be little changed from what I know of vanilla Android.
The locked bootloaders have not affected me, because although I have my phone rooted, I have not gotten into the whole ROM'ing scene yet, but if it produces a more reliable product (I have no idea if it does), then I guess it's probably for the better, although geeks who know the risks should still have the option to tinker.

 

[Ryanscool]

It is all preference but in my opinion the best one is Samsung. The only downside is some phones feel cheap, but they do have the best processors and now screens. (My Infuse 4g which is way better then my friends Atrix has a screen that entirely blows it away. The new Super Amoled Plus is incredible.) And just stating it does not really matter that Touchwiz is laggy, get a different rom which is not to hard. With a different rom it does not matter that Samsung does have the worst updating time.

 

[Shocky]

These are the top three, just my opinion of course.

1. Samsung are overall the best, best hardware by the a long way, lightest phones, good build quality, best performance in most if not all areas and TouchWiz 4 is actually very good regardless of what the haters like to think.

2. HTC would come in second, however the performance and screen quality is not really up to the same level but still competitive, I've never liked the designs and Sense is decent, however the latest version is the worst yet, HTC need to put Sense on a diet or give their phones more memory. On the plus side build quality is probably the best but this results in increased weight which I'm not a fan of.

3. Motorola would be my 3rd place, again performance is competitive, I tend to think of them as Mr average, average design, performance, screen, good performers and solid build quality which probaby isnt fair but that's the impression I've always got from their devices, there good but rarely anything to get excited about.

 

[Ryanscool]

Im just going to state that two good friends in a day with there pretty new motorola phones one a droid another was something on T mobile both phones are now ruined because of there motoblur ruining the system for some reason to the point of always freezing. That may be something that may be important to mention...

 

[substring]

I agree with Shocky. Samsung is the undisputed number 1 vendor for Android devices. The fact that they outsold any other Android device manufacturers makes it a clear winner. Samsung is the first Android manufacturer that truly understands not every consumer is a computer geek and not every consumer crazes Star War. One of the reasons why Apple products are so popular is because they are stylish and not geeky. Then the Super-AMOLED screens just out-shine any competition.

I also agree that HTC is the number 2. They are starting to understand that consumers like stylish devices. And HTC has been producing solid mobile devices for decades. I still think that they should get rid of the large clock as their default home screen.

In my humble opinion, Motorola is a distant 3rd. For some unknown reason, they seem to be living in their own geeky world and fail to understand what the vast majority of the consumers want. They really need to get rid of these Star War and robotic theme, and start hiring some real product designers for their phones.

 

[!on]

I have moto & friend has Samsung, I agree Samsung make quality handsets. I like moto because of motoblur ( ) & I really like moto, despite some QC issues. I say follow your heart (after reading up on them first).

HTC have come a long way. They used to make the Orange SPV (first Windows smartphones) & the build quality was terrible (in my experience). Cheap tacky plastic & dodgy keys. I think Android comes along & makes them into something really good.

 

[chrlswltrs]

Right now I think overall samsung is the best. That should soon be changing. Moto makes the best hardware, and since they were just bought be Google today, I am expecting great things very soon...

 

[happy0506]

i'm quite surprised to see such love for samsung phones. i'm guessing their phones have gotten better since the original galaxy s phones were released in the US. i had a vibrant for 2 weeks and returned it for a multitude of reasons. bad hardware - gps, bad reception, touchwiz omissions of basic functions on the calendar, and overall lack of support of the phone. after reading the outrage from behold II customers and my experience with the vibrant, i swore off samsung phones, but i'm starting to reconsider them for my next phone. i agree their screens are by far the best available, so i would welcome a sammy phone if the other issues were figured out.

my vote for best phones would be htc. maybe they don't have a feature that completely outpaces the competition, but as an overall package, their phones seem to be the most well rounded, reliable, and supported.

 

[chrlswltrs]

The nexus s was is a great phone that I have been very happy with, which is why I am ok with samsung. I attribute that more to google than samsung though.

I will never own an HTC phone until they quit screwing up android with sense though. It bogs down the system so much with useless crap that I can't stand it. Even the MT4G with the extra RAM wasn't enough to make the phone worth keeping.

 

[Lombardi]

I would have to go with HTC sense first, samsung touchwiz, then motoblur, I don't like motoblur but I like the hardware. Touch wiz is kinda plain. I use some of the stock android settings with touchwiz. I also hate the fact, samsung always beats HTC with their products to market. They beat them with the galaxy tab and the infuse. I used to like htcs hardware better but samsung has taken the lead on that with the infuse and galaxy sII

 

[ImmaSlave4U]

I'm a personal fan of HTC & their Sense interface.

 

[chrlswltrs]

Now that this thread has come back to life I am reading over the responses again. I think that the only manufacturer that has a shot over Moto due to Google's acquisition is samsung, due to their recent acquisition (CM).

I am really looking forward to the next Nexus to say the least!!!

 

[chanchan05]

I am friggin looking forward to TouchWiz 5 and the next gen Samsung phones if the Cyanogen brains are now working for Sammy.

 

[Shocky]

bad hardware - gps, bad reception, touchwiz omissions of basic functions on the calendar, and overall lack of support of the phone.

GPS was an issue for the first Galaxy S granted, but reception? touchwiz 3 was decent enough however allot of the blame for the lag was put on touchwiz but it had nothing to do with it, it was the file system Samsung used on that phone, which did improve with later firmwares, but never as good as EXT4.

Support was down to the US carriers, have you seen the US versions of the Galaxy S II? they've even managed to screw those up. I feel a little sorry for US users, if you want a Galaxy S/2, import one.

 

[chanchan05]

GPS was an issue for the first Galaxy S granted, but reception? touchwiz 3 was decent enough however allot of the blame for the lag was put on touchwiz but it had nothing to do with it, it was the file system Samsung used on that phone, which did improve with later firmwares, but never as good as EXT4.

Support was down to the US carriers, have you seen the US versions of the Galaxy S II? they've even managed to screw those up. if you want a Galaxy S/2, import one.

Well, my SGSL (newer model than SGS) is way worse than my 5800 in terms of GPS. My 5800 can get a lock at my position in 2secs using AGPS, my SGSL takes what, 10-15min using AGPS, about the same time my Nokia gets the position using no AGPS. The Nokia also holds the signal better and has a better quality antenna, able to detect 8 satellites when the Samsung would only detect 3.

 

[mrqs]

i'd say htc, tho' they are hardly perfect either

- i don't like the bloatware (granted every manufacturer has this problem to some degree) and would like an easy way to remove sense

- i also don't like how little internal memory htc put on their phones - games take a lot of space and they work faster from internal memory than an external sd card; plus my 16 gig card is almost full of mp3s so i can't move any large stuff like videos around with the phone (quite an htc specific problem)

- last but not least, i don't like capacitive buttons - some people such as myself live in a country with actual winters where gloves are a necessity for a few months every year and answering the phone with my nose is a bit undignified (this again applies to most android manufacturers)

i loath samsung because i used to have the galaxy (i7500, not S) and it was the buggiest phone ever made and they never updated it past cupcake (except in italy for whatever reason). i'm also not a fan of their plastic stuff and iphony design

motorola & lg i don't really have any experience with, since they're pretty niche over here
props to motorola for making the ip67 certified defy tho' - there aren't many strengthened androids around

i like zte for their value for money (blade), low amount of bloatware and the fact that they put a cool looking android on the back of the skate - i wish more manufacturers did that sort of thing

2. HTC would come in second, however the performance and screen quality is not really up to the same level [as samsung]

i'll take higher resolution over better contrast any day of the week

 

[Shocky]

i'll take higher resolution over better contrast any day of the week

I would much prefer better contrast, colours and higher brightness than a sightly higher resolution I would probably never notice.

Well, my SGSL (newer model than SGS) is way worse than my 5800 in terms of GPS. My 5800 can get a lock at my position in 2secs using AGPS, my SGSL takes what, 10-15min using AGPS, about the same time my Nokia gets the position using no AGPS. The Nokia also holds the signal better and has a better quality antenna, able to detect 8 satellites when the Samsung would only detect 3.

I don't think that was exclusive to the SGS, it was the SGS and most of the variants including the SGSL, GPS on my SGS2 is fine.