Android Version Debate: Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich vs Touchwiz vs HTC Sense

[King_Bean]

I am usually ok with a new phone for about 6 months then I start getting the itch for a new one. I have been good with my Nexus S for about 10 months, so better than most. I can't manage to keep a phone longer than a year though Before I have to get a new one

It's usually a year and a half for me before I start getting that super strong urge for something new...lol!

If 6 months is your typical turnover time, then Android is the perfect platform for you because there's ALWAYS something 'coming soon' to spark any phone fanatic's interest.

 

[A.Nonymous]

I think of all the overlays Sense is by far the best. None of the others are close. Will Vanilla run faster? Sure. No arguments there. But running Sense next to Vanilla Cyanogen (which I've done) offers very little difference in how the phone runs. You can see the difference, but it's hardly significant IMO when you look at what you give up with Sense. Sense is a far, far slicker interface. The widgets look nicer. It looks like a very, very nice phone. Vanilla just looks blah to me. Can you spend time and money on different launchers and widget packages? Sure. But with Sense you don't have to and there's little trade off in terms of speed.

 

[floosy]

I had a Desire for 18 months and now I have an SG2. Sense at first seemed great to me but after the first couple of months the limitations started to annoy me (and I never really like the style of the Sense widgets), so i ran with variously LP Pro and Go Launcher. My biggest gripe with Sense is the shortcut bar.. I really really hate not being able to customise those bottom three buttons!

When I needed a change a few weeks ago I tried the Sensation XE and the SG2. Both were not perfect but I just felt that Sense 3.0 was still too limiting and too annoying and that the SG2 with TW 4.0 was just quicker and less obtrusive. Dont get me wrong there are quirks in TW4.0 that annoy me (Default homescreen has to be screen 1?! Really? Why!!?). Ive since tried LP Pro and Go on the SG2 and gone back to TW4 because I find that despite its niggles it actually gives a very nice user experience. The swipe left or right on contacts I absolutely love for instance. What I would like to see is ICS on my SG2 to compare it with.

 

[King_Bean]

I think of all the overlays Sense is by far the best. None of the others are close. Will Vanilla run faster? Sure. No arguments there. But running Sense next to Vanilla Cyanogen (which I've done) offers very little difference in how the phone runs. You can see the difference, but it's hardly significant IMO when you look at what you give up with Sense. Sense is a far, far slicker interface. The widgets look nicer. It looks like a very, very nice phone. Vanilla just looks blah to me. Can you spend time and money on different launchers and widget packages? Sure. But with Sense you don't have to and there's little trade off in terms of speed.

I totally agree. I've tried every home replacement and I'm not crazy about any of them. Maybe if I had the patience to seriously mod my phone, I'd be less beholden to Sense. But for me, I'm looking for the best out-of-the-box experience and, in my opinion, nothing else even comes close. I haven't used Touchwiz much but it does look like it could be a second runner up.

 

[A.Nonymous]

I totally agree. I've tried every home replacement and I'm not crazy about any of them. Maybe if I had the patience to seriously mod my phone, I'd be less beholden to Sense. But for me, I'm looking for the best out-of-the-box experience and, in my opinion, nothing else even comes close. I haven't used Touchwiz much but it does look like it could be a second runner up.

I tried Touchwiz and hated it. It came on my Galaxy Tab. The icons just looked large and cartoonish and the functionality did nothing for me. I love the Sense launcher. The phone button is right in the middle where it should be IMO. It's a phone first and foremost. Why put the phone button on the left hand side? Put it right square in the middle and big as day right where it should be. I've not seen any other launchers that do this. They all emulate the stock launcher in some way.

 

[jerofld]

but they don't have a functional demo of any htc phone, so i can't get a first hand feeling.

Go to a T-Mo or Sprint store. They should have a few HTC models to play with.

 

[Crashdamage]

Been using Android since I got a G1 on pre-order, from the beginning. I will never, ever use anything but vanilla. ICS just reinforces that conviction.

 

[A.Nonymous]

Been using Android since I got a G1 on pre-order, from the beginning. I will never, ever use anything but vanilla. ICS just reinforces that conviction.

Why may I ask? ICS introduced a lot of features that stock Android didn't have but skinned overlays did.

 

[Fire_Bird]

The phone button is right in the middle where it should be IMO.

This is where we differ, and is obviously something that would bother me about sense. I use sms thousands of times more often than my phone. on my iphone, the phone app is not only not on the dock, but its in a folder of unused apple apps!

the call still pops up no matter what when someone calls me. and if i need to call someone, its typically a contact, and most of the time i'll go into my contacts list and call from there.

not being able to change that bottom tray may bother me quite a bit.

 

[Crashdamage]

@A.Nonymous: Because vanilla will always be faster, smoother, more stable, more compatible, quicker and easier to upgrade, etc. etc. And bloatware like Sense or Motoblur have never offered anything that appealed to me. I work by the KISS rule.

 

[Slug]

not being able to change that bottom tray may bother me quite a bit.

The current Sense allows four user-defined icons on the lockscreen which are activated by dragging them into the "ring pull" used to unlock. With dialer and contacts on there you'd rarely need to see your home screen.

My handsets are all currently running vanilla builds, but I do appreciate the "look and feel" of Sense. TouchWiz imo lacks the tight integration of Sense but has its own set of advantages. Like Android handsets themselves, we're fortunate to have a varied choice of UIs with which to make the device our own. The only 'right' choice is the one that works for you the user.

 

[Fire_Bird]

What I really wish I could do was tri-boot the damn phones. try vanilla for a month, try sense for a month, try touchwiz for a month, then decide which works best for me...

 

[BabyBlues]

What I really wish I could do was tri-boot the damn phones. try vanilla for a month, try sense for a month, try touchwiz for a month, then decide which works best for me...

I know there are people multi-booting. As for any specifics I am clueless but my memory is pretty good and I know I've seen at least one person say they are able to do it.

First, the demo of Ice Cream Sandwich from the other night looks amazing! Looks like that they took a lot of the things that people liked about Touchwiz and Sense, and added them into the mix. Which begs the question, what is next?

I'm currently on iPhone, and want an android. Only would be looking at best phone running one of the three, sense, touchwiz, or vanilla ICS. Correct me if i'm wrong, but these would be respectively, Sensation, Galaxy SII, and Galaxy Nexus.

What are people's thoughts? If you have experience with Sense, given the demo of ice cream sandwich, if you were thinking of getting a new phone, would you be going vanilla for ICS? or would you wait for HTC's new sense adaptation of ICS?
Same question to those of you using touchwiz?

wait? or dive right in?

I have loved Sense from the first day I started using my Incredible. The integration is great and their widgets are really nice.

After seeing ICS I am leaning heavily towards trying it vanilla. It seems like they made this with a lot of the user requests and wants in mind and if you look at the track record of the Google phones you know it will continuously get updated.
I know HTC will eventually figure out to put Sense and ICS together but, IMHO, I don't see it as happening very quickly. (That's not to say the devs won't have us up and running with it as soon as the code is released though).

 

[King_Bean]

I know there are people multi-booting. As for any specifics I am clueless but my memory is pretty good and I know I've seen at least one person say they are able to do it.







I have loved Sense from the first day I started using my Incredible. The integration is great and their widgets are really nice.

After seeing ICS I am leaning heavily towards trying it vanilla. It seems like they made this with a lot of the user requests and wants in mind and if you look at the track record of the Google phones you know it will continuously get updated.
I know HTC will eventually figure out to put Sense and ICS together but, IMHO, I don't see it as happening very quickly. (That's not to say the devs won't have us up and running with it as soon as the code is released though).

Yeah, I kinda agree with this. As much as I love Sense, ICS has me considering giving vanilla Android another try.

Since I'm not eligible for an upgrade any time soon, I should have plenty of time to compare vanilla ICS to Sense/ICS before I actually purchase another phone.

 

[BabyBlues]

I am considering adding another line depending on my discount vs new line pricing

 

[Stormray]

TouchWiz just doesn't do anything stellar for me, and this is coming from someone whose used only Samsung TouchWiz phones. I hate the blue battery and the ugly grayish status bar with MS Paint looking icons on the drag down menu.

Been looking for a vanilla rom for my Epic for some time.

 

[A.Nonymous]

@A.Nonymous: Because vanilla will always be faster, smoother, more stable, more compatible, quicker and easier to upgrade, etc. etc. And bloatware like Sense or Motoblur have never offered anything that appealed to me. I work by the KISS rule.

I've never found anything that "wasn't compatible" with Sense yet. My phone is stable enough for me. Is Vanilla faster, quicker and easier to upgrade? Sure. But you trade a lack of features for that. I would rather have a more fully featured phone. You'd rather have less features but slightly more speed. That's fine. There are advantages to both. Personally, I want the features.

 

[chrlswltrs]

I've never found anything that "wasn't compatible" with Sense yet. My phone is stable enough for me. Is Vanilla faster, quicker and easier to upgrade? Sure. But you trade a lack of features for that. I would rather have a more fully featured phone. You'd rather have less features but slightly more speed. That's fine. There are advantages to both. Personally, I want the features.

What features? I don't know of any features that sense has that I don't have

 

[Fire_Bird]

i'm in the same boat with many others. before ICS, i don't think i would have considered going vanilla. but ics looks pretty dope. but i cant imagine what companies will be doing to build on it! the feature set of ics as far as I can tell is awesome but what could be around the corner?!? AHH

I live in canada, world of the three year contracts, so i more or less have to make the right choice the first time then hold my breath... thats why i'm debating whether to get the galaxy nexus or the next htc/samsung flagship device... sad panda...

 

[chrlswltrs]

i'm in the same boat with many others. before ICS, i don't think i would have considered going vanilla. but ics looks pretty dope. but i cant imagine what companies will be doing to build on it! the feature set of ics as far as I can tell is awesome but what could be around the corner?!? AHH

I live in canada, world of the three year contracts, so i more or less have to make the right choice the first time then hold my breath... thats why i'm debating whether to get the galaxy nexus or the next htc/samsung flagship device... sad panda...

I'm sure the OEMs will find some way to screw it up like they have with previous versions of android.

 

[thedosbox]

Does ICS add:

- keyboard with arrow keys and long-press for alternate symbols?
- Mail client that can handle multiple IMAP/Exchange accounts, complete with calendar integration?

If not, I'll stick with Sense. Those are the two biggest reasons I chose a HTC phone. Not having to search for third-party apps/widgets that accomplish much of what comes standard with Sense also had value for me.

On the flip side, it's good to see Android getting a more unified design language, and the ability to uninstall any app (even carrier ones) will be a crowd pleaser.

 

[chrlswltrs]

the ability to uninstall any app (even carrier ones) will be a crowd pleaser.

I didn't see anything about that. So bloat can be uninstalled without rooting?

 

[Fire_Bird]

haha we have some VERY solid opinions here! you'd think we're debating against something like iphone lol!!

some hate sense, some hate touchwiz.

 

[A.Nonymous]

What features? I don't know of any features that sense has that I don't have

Better widgets
Nicer looking launcher
More colorful and nicer looking icons and menus
Easier set up for Exchange accounts
Better looking widgets
Visually the whole experience is snappier
Better lock screen

 

[thedosbox]

I didn't see anything about that. So bloat can be uninstalled without rooting?

Exclusive: Matias Duarte on the philosophy of Android, and an in-depth look at Ice Cream Sandwich | This is my next...

But there are deeper changes. Matias tells me that starting with Android 4.0, users can uninstall any application they like, such as the native browser or email client — and that seems to go for carrier software as well.

The more unified look should be no surprise given the designer of webOS is involved.