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| Sense 4 - Motorola UI - TouchWiz 5 |
The world of Android is constantly evolving. With every new version, Google is bringing more innovation to the palms of our hands. With their latest version, Jelly Bean(4.1), they've improved the speed and performance dramatically. Along with those improvements came Google Now and the new Google Voice Search, which in my opinion, is much nicer than Siri.
But what about when you don't buy a phone directly from Google? What if you don't have a Nexus?
This is where the view of Android can become very distorted...
These days, when you buy an Android phone, you're also buying the manufacturer's custom overlay. Weather it's Samsung's TouchWiz, HTC's Sense, or whatever Motorola is calling their's now, you're getting a skin on top of Android.
Love it or hate it, unless you get a Nexus, it's there.
In this video, Jon from Techno Buffalo makes a very good point: we should be able to choose weather or not we want to run a manufacturer's skin, just stick with stock Android.
I do see how these skins can be useful. TouchWiz has notification toggles for quick settings, Sense has a huge assortment of beautiful widgets, and Motorola's UI looks very close to stock while adding a few functionality improvements as well. LG's UI? No...just no. While their latest version of their overlay, debuted on the Optimus G, has a very nice lock screen as well as very graphically pleasing transitions, it makes Android look like a toy. But I digress.
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| LG's UI icons, it's all I could stand to look at... |
But I think if we had the option to run stock Android, it wouldn't be as confusing for people to use, for example, a Samsung phone after coming from a Moto device.
Not only that, but a lot of the core Android features are overlooked because they are masked behind these skins. While I'm a Sense fan, every now again I've tried AOSP roms, just to see what it's like on the other side. But not everyone wants to root their device, and flash a custom recovery just experience Android the way Google intended. But since Android is open-source, anyone expand upon it; improve it. So I think the core of what Google designed is often lost in the shuffle.
Not only that, but a lot of the core Android features are overlooked because they are masked behind these skins. While I'm a Sense fan, every now again I've tried AOSP roms, just to see what it's like on the other side. But not everyone wants to root their device, and flash a custom recovery just experience Android the way Google intended. But since Android is open-source, anyone expand upon it; improve it. So I think the core of what Google designed is often lost in the shuffle.
I agree with Mr. Rettinger, we should have options. But how do you feel? Do you love your preferred skin, or are you wishing for a purer experience? Let me know in the comments!
I completely agree with you man. I do think we should have options but it seems like it is nearly impossible unless of course you do root your device and install a custom rom.
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