Blur is so well-liked...

[s44]

that Moto wants to abandon the name:

The Photon runs Gingerbread, but it?s a heavily customized Motorola experience. Interestingly, Moto doesn?t want to call its skin Blur anymore.

(From TIMN's Photon preview.)

 

[Red Storm]

They can call it whatever they want, but at the end of the day shit is still shit.

Not that I care, I think I'm done with Moto.

 

[hanoverphist]

every time one of these anti blur threads pops up i always ask what people dislike about it specifically. only android ive really used to any real extent has been my droidX, so i really dont know whats blur and whats not. so, ill ask yet again. what specifically is so bad about blur? do they change the icons? take longer? look ugly? what is it thats so bad? ive never had even one person answer this question, and id really like to know. i dont want to buy a bare bones phone to figure it out.

 

[Red Storm]

Poor performance, among other things.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

The versions of blur I have seen were also pretty awful looking but it seems that they may have fixed that for the 2.3 version.

Didn't the Droid X get a lighter version of Blur compared to other phones like the Atrix.

 

[soulcougher73]

I use Launcher Pro so i could care less that it came with Blur.

 

[Bateluer]

every time one of these anti blur threads pops up i always ask what people dislike about it specifically. only android ive really used to any real extent has been my droidX, so i really dont know whats blur and whats not. so, ill ask yet again. what specifically is so bad about blur? do they change the icons? take longer? look ugly? what is it thats so bad? ive never had even one person answer this question, and id really like to know. i dont want to buy a bare bones phone to figure it out.

These questions are answered in every thread on the subject. Not sure how you missed them, but here they are again.

Its slow/sluggish compared to stock.
It adds little, if any, functionality to stock.
It introduces bugs/problems that were fixed/don't exist in stock.
It slows the pace of OS updates to virtual standstill.
Often manufacturer UIs are poorly intuitive.
The Manufacturer skins do less than community launchers(LP, ADW, Go) while taking more resources to run.
They are next to impossible to remove, Blur is the worst of the manufacturer skins in this regard. Even slapping LP/ADW on my Sense TB doesn't get rid of Sense entirely, you have to flash Vanilla Bean or Ginger Bean to get rid of all HTC's crapware.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I use Launcher Pro so i could care less that it came with Blur.

Exactly. Install Launcher Pro, use it for a week, and you could tell me everything wrong with Blur.

 

[dainthomas]

My wife just got an Incredible 2, and to be honest I'll take Blur over Sense any day of the week. Of course I liked the stock Android on my OG Droid even better, but it seems Blur is much closer to this than Sense is.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I use Launcher Pro so i could care less that it came with Blur.

There is still a ton of Blur junkware that runs even though you use launcher pro.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I use Launcher Pro so i could care less that it came with Blur.

Even with LP and no Blur widgets, your device will be slow as shit. Tell that to the slideshow-like Atrix I played with. Remove Blur completely for a fast experience.

 

[Bateluer]

There is still a ton of Blur junkware that runs even though you use launcher pro.

This is one of the biggest reasons people despise Blur, its so bloated that large services run regardless of what launcher you install.

 

[zerocool84]

Even with LP and no Blur widgets, your device will be slow as shit. Tell that to the slideshow-like Atrix I played with. Remove Blur completely for a fast experience.

Exactly, which is why the two Android phones I've owned have been stock Android.

 

[ew915]

Blur was actually quite good on the Atrix

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Blur was actually quite good on the Atrix

A lot of people would disagree. I've heard a number of people say that they though the Inspire or Captivate felt faster than the Atrix despite both of those phones having much weaker specs.

Motorola's management must be beyond stupid though. If Blur is so hated that they can't even mention it by name anymore why not dump it entirely and start shipping phones with stock Android? The poor sales of the Atrix should be a clear indication that customers aren't happy with what they are offering.

 

[hanoverphist]

These questions are answered in every thread on the subject. Not sure how you missed them, but here they are again.

Its slow/sluggish compared to stock.
It adds little, if any, functionality to stock.
It introduces bugs/problems that were fixed/don't exist in stock.
It slows the pace of OS updates to virtual standstill.
Often manufacturer UIs are poorly intuitive.
The Manufacturer skins do less than community launchers(LP, ADW, Go) while taking more resources to run.
They are next to impossible to remove, Blur is the worst of the manufacturer skins in this regard. Even slapping LP/ADW on my Sense TB doesn't get rid of Sense entirely, you have to flash Vanilla Bean or Ginger Bean to get rid of all HTC's crapware.

thank you for answering, now im going to start paying attention to similarities between mine and my daughters optimusV phone. ive read every post about it, and was still confused at the lack of detail on why it was bad. also, ive never seen anyone give specific bug/ problems that it introduces or anything. i guess ill have to rom it to a blurless one to see the differences first-hand.

 

[lothar]

every time one of these anti blur threads pops up i always ask what people dislike about it specifically. only android ive really used to any real extent has been my droidX, so i really dont know whats blur and whats not. so, ill ask yet again. what specifically is so bad about blur? do they change the icons? take longer? look ugly? what is it thats so bad? ive never had even one person answer this question, and id really like to know. i dont want to buy a bare bones phone to figure it out.

You seem to be asking the same question in almost every anti-blur threads and it always usually gets answered. It has been answered here yet again.
Do you only run stock manufacturer ROMs on your phones?

 

[lothar]

If it looks like a Blur and it acts like a Blur, then it is a Blur.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Tell that to the slideshow-like Atrix I played with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdrs9rwG0Xg&playnext=1&list=PL182BFB869FD7F961

I know you keep saying that over and over, that is a video of some guy that doesn't seem impressed at all with Blur, but the Atrix a slideshow?

Its slow/sluggish compared to stock.

Which Moto phone did you run stock Android and with Motoblur side by side to check? Really interested to hear this one.

It adds little, if any, functionality to stock.

Battery life seems to be considerably better on Blur devices then any of the others. If that is a function of Blur, or if the other manufacturers just make really, really crappy hardware I'm not sure, but if you cross compare it in the way most people do Blur offers roughly tripple the battery life of Sense, that is a rather significant difference in functionality by itself.

How about file management? I find it rather handy to not have to DL Astro on Blur devices, or Webtop- functionality that obviously can't be emulated by stock Android(since it's running a traditional Linux build). There are many things in Blur that stock can't do, some things that are worse to be sure(why did they change the media interface? ugh).

It introduces bugs/problems that were fixed/don't exist in stock.

Honestly curious as to what those would be?

Often manufacturer UIs are poorly intuitive.

My close to 70 year old mother figured out my 1.5 Blur device faster then her iPhone 3GS(after I had to activate it for her, show her how to put apps on it etc). Contact widgets on the home screen updated straight from her GMail with Facebook tied in and all. I got crap from her for telling her to get an iPhone over a Blure device. She doesn't remotely resemble a power user(she likes Android better because opening your apps from an icon on the bottom of the screen "just makes sense") and it seems that is exactly the type of person Blur is built to appeal to.

The Manufacturer skins do less than community launchers(LP, ADW, Go) while taking more resources to run.

Those half baked launchers are a lot better then half baked Blur/Sense, only due to the increased customizations, and even then they normally don't replace the music player, movie player, file manager, media management etc.

They are next to impossible to remove, Blur is the worst of the manufacturer skins in this regard.

Root then deodex, it isn't difficult in the least for people into modifying their phone. Not even a little bit.

Do you only run stock manufacturer ROMs on your phones?

I run them all, out of the manufacturers skins I think Stage is the best, but noone ever talks about that for some reason. For my daily use, I run SPB. I'm not a fan of Blur, but the way people talk about it makes them seem foolish. I've spent ~$35 on the various launchers, Blur has pros and cons versus any of them depending on who is using them. At this point, it's just a bunch of anti Moto people ranting about it without actually owning the devices. Yes, Blur isn't perfect, but honestly I think it is closer then Sense.

 

[Icepick]

These questions are answered in every thread on the subject. Not sure how you missed them, but here they are again.

Its slow/sluggish compared to stock.
It adds little, if any, functionality to stock.
It introduces bugs/problems that were fixed/don't exist in stock.
It slows the pace of OS updates to virtual standstill.
Often manufacturer UIs are poorly intuitive.
The Manufacturer skins do less than community launchers(LP, ADW, Go) while taking more resources to run.
They are next to impossible to remove, Blur is the worst of the manufacturer skins in this regard. Even slapping LP/ADW on my Sense TB doesn't get rid of Sense entirely, you have to flash Vanilla Bean or Ginger Bean to get rid of all HTC's crapware.

This, right here, is (in my opinion) the biggest and most annoying problem with Blur. All of the above items can be fixed by software updates from the community. However, if I can not remove Blur then that basically turns the phone into a brick in my opinion. I will not purchase a Motorola phone until this goes away.

 

[Raduque]

At this point, it's just a bunch of anti Moto people ranting about it without actually owning the devices.

Haters gonna hate.

Personally, I like the skins over stock android. Stock android is ugly and has less features than the skins. In TouchWiz3's contacts apps, I can swipe left across a name to text or right across it to call the default number. That functionality comes built in to my phone, while stock android users have to buy it. I also have a better looking MMS app, and I have a task manager built-in.

 

[s44]

FWIW, I thought this was interesting mostly as an amusing followup/counterpoint to Jha's comment about Blur saving consumers from crapware. Sure doesn't seem like people believe you on that, do they Sanjay?

 

[_Aurel_]

Say what you will about Android skins, but most of them are getting better with each iteration. The new Blur actually is pretty decent... with the only annoying thing that comes to mind being the overused transitions. People should be focused on getting carriers to allow us to uninstall the increasingly large number of apps they pre-install with the phone because that is what's causing the performance and battery life issues with phones. I think when Motorola blamed the apps for battery life they didn't realize that it might have been the pre-installed ones that came with their products.

 

[Bman123]

I'm a big fan of sense and will only buy HTC phones from here on out. My mom has a Droid 2, my buddy has a Droid x, I don't like either of them at all

 

[YoungGun21]

I look forward to the day when these skins no longer exist. Or maybe the day when you actually have an option to install it.