Droid Life asks: Whats the worst OEM Android skin?

[Bateluer]

http://www.droid-life.com/2011/05/05/thursday-poll-the-worst-oem-skin-in-android-is/

Out of the 8 devices lying around my office, only 2 of them were left untouched by an OEM: the original DROID and the Nexus S. That’s it. So 75% of the devices I own are filled with a skin that a manufacturer decided would make the experience on my phone more enjoyable to me. And you know which device I’ve found myself using more and more over the last 2 weeks than any of them? The Nexus. There is nothing better than a Google Experience device.

Not surprisingly, Moto Blur is the most hated at 48%. Followed slightly by Samsung's TouchWiz at 34%, then LG Home at 8%, and Sense at 6%.

Personally, after using my TB with Sense, AOSP stock roms cannot come soon enough. Even de-Sensed Das Bamf doesn't get rid of all the Sense junk.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I kind of like Sense. Although there being some widgets that I'll never use annoys me some. Granted, I haven't tried stock android for comparison either.

 

[s44]

Blur is the worst.

Touchwiz is so bad, CM7 and Sense stole its features. That is to say, it sucks that it's deep in the framework and kernel, but the actual stuff isn't that bad.

 

[XJustMeX21]

Don't even have to look Blur is that bad.

This is why I'm hoping the Lg Revolution has an unlocked bootloader

 

[foghorn67]

I hate Sense. It's the worst as far as aesthetics go. Ugly widgets that looked like they were okay for Windows XP era crap. Oh, thanks HTC, for putting gibberish in my contacts. I'll take Blur's minimalism artistic design over Sense any day. Both are equally intrusive and equally useless.

 

[zerocool84]

I hate Sense. It's the worst as far as aesthetics go. Ugly widgets that looked like they were okay for Windows XP era crap. Oh, thanks HTC, for putting gibberish in my contacts. I'll take Blur's minimalism artistic design over Sense any day. Both are equally intrusive and equally useless.

I like Sense the best out of all the skins but of course I`d rather have none.

 

[QueBert]

Sense rocks, if HTC released their widgets on the Marketplace I would buy them. Stock Android's ugly and boring as shit. Blur's not much better, Touchwiz is like a bad mixture of Sense and iOS. I'm getting an EVO just so I can have a phone with Sense on it.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Not sure why TouchWiz is so low-ranked. I like it better than stock Android launcher for sure.

TouchWiz on Gingerbread is even better. Runs a ton smoother and much more usable than past versions.

 

[thescreensavers]

^ All skins are fail, wtb stock!

 

[Bateluer]

Not sure why TouchWiz is so low-ranked. I like it better than stock Android launcher for sure.

TouchWiz on Gingerbread is even better. Runs a ton smoother and much more usable than past versions.

What? TW is hideous, and lags like crazy. Installing LP on an Epic 4G is night day difference.

 

[DirkGently1]

Bloatware in any shape or form is about as welcome as a fart in an elevator.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

What? TW is hideous, and lags like crazy. Installing LP on an Epic 4G is night day difference.

its better than the launcher moto put in the droid at least.... lol

 

[WelshBloke]

I definitely prefer Sense above all others (even stock).
I've tried lots of ROMs but always go back to a sense one.

It's nice to have the choice though.

 

[Monster_Munch]

What? TW is hideous, and lags like crazy. Installing LP on an Epic 4G is night day difference.

It doesn't feel laggy on my new Galaxy S 2. But I agree it does look like a poor mans iOS.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Not sure why TouchWiz is so low-ranked. I like it better than stock Android launcher for sure.

TouchWiz on Gingerbread is even better. Runs a ton smoother and much more usable than past versions.

Agreed. While I didn't like TouchWiz at first it has numerous small improvements that you come to miss on phones running other skins.

IMO TouchWiz 4.0> Sense> TouchWiz 3.0> LG >>>>>>Blur.

 

[ew915]

I think TW is pretty good, people just don't like it because it is similar to iOS but who gives a damn, is not like apple invented the smartphone.
Actually TW has one of the best dialers in the android realm.
Sense is just too much BS like childish and girly, Sense is just slightly better than blur because it doesn't run like a pregnant turtle. But other than that sense and blur are in the same league.

 

[Deeko]

I hate Sense. It's the worst as far as aesthetics go. Ugly widgets that looked like they were okay for Windows XP era crap. Oh, thanks HTC, for putting gibberish in my contacts. I'll take Blur's minimalism artistic design over Sense any day. Both are equally intrusive and equally useless.

Sense has useful widgets, but the aesthetics aren't great. They were a lot better on the smaller, lower resolution screens - but I feel like Sense didn't really scale well to larger devices.

Not sure why TouchWiz is so low-ranked. I like it better than stock Android launcher for sure.

TouchWiz on Gingerbread is even better. Runs a ton smoother and much more usable than past versions.

Agreed - TouchWhiz is definitely smoother than stock in my experience, and it definitely adds some nice features - like the power controls in the notification shade. Underrated, IMO.

What? TW is hideous, and lags like crazy. Installing LP on an Epic 4G is night day difference.

Its the smoothest default launcher I've used. Comparing it to LP is somewhat outsite the scope of this discussion, isn't it?

 

[Raduque]

Stock android is fugly. It needs skins. These manufacturers simply need to figure out how to get them to run well.

 

[AstroManLuca]

For me, the launcher that comes with your phone (whether it's stock Android, Sense, TouchWiz, or another one) isn't really important because on every Android phone I've always replaced it with Launcher Pro.

The other aspects - such as messaging, contacts, browser, and other apps - are usually decent. Sense apps are pretty nice. TouchWiz ones aren't as good but they're not bad. And you can always get third party replacements if you want.

 

[hanoverphist]

ive asked in every thread about this what everyone hates about blur. the only thing i can gather is the lag. since i havent used any other android phone as my own besides my droidx, i really dont have a comparison to stock or any other skin. why do people hate blur so much? is there tiny spikes that come out and stab your ear that i havent found or something? so far the phone doesnt really lag that much, the widgets i have from the blur collection seem to work pretty well, and the layout isnt counter intuitive at all. what am i missing by still using blur?

 

[Puddle Jumper]

ive asked in every thread about this what everyone hates about blur. the only thing i can gather is the lag. since i havent used any other android phone as my own besides my droidx, i really dont have a comparison to stock or any other skin. why do people hate blur so much? is there tiny spikes that come out and stab your ear that i havent found or something? so far the phone doesnt really lag that much, the widgets i have from the blur collection seem to work pretty well, and the layout isnt counter intuitive at all. what am i missing by still using blur?

It's incredibly slow and incredible ugly, not exactly a winning combo. Also doesn't the Droid X get a lighter version of blur? If so you need to look at a phone like the Atrix or Bravo to see how bad blur really is.

 

[hanoverphist]

ah, ok that may make the difference. i dont see much scroll lag at all unless i have a ton of stuff open/ running. only other phone ive messed with at this point is an optimus V, but i havent done much else but set it up for another to use. as for the ugly part, mine is completely my own look. ive changed pretty much everything you can change about the look. aside from the 7 screens, i cant see how 3 dedicated icons at the bottom could make the whole interface ugly. all the widgets i have on there from stock arent too bad, they are small enough to be out of the way and not brash colors/ bad images. overall, im happy with the experience so far. im gonna seek out an atrix to see the differences tho.

 

[Bateluer]

This is what Android Police had to say about TouchWiz in their Droid Charge in their review.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/0...ge-or-how-slow-buggy-software-ruined-a-phone/

TouchWiz blows. Sorry, Samsung – I can’t think of a single reason anyone would want this polished turd of an overlay. It adds nothing to the user experience, unless you really want your Android phone’s UI to look just similar enough to an iPhone to raise the eyebrows of Apple’s lawyers.

TouchWiz 3.0 has many exciting features – like hardware accelerated menus! And two lock-screen styles. Are you excited yet?
Samsung’s many TouchWiz widgets are great for one thing, and one only: slowing down your phone. Homescreen scrolling, out of the box, is embarrassingly slow – and it’s all because of these nightmarish widgets. Samsung’s apps, like MediaHub, are equally unimpressive in their performance.
One other fun aspect of Samsung’s software is the hilariously long time it takes to wake the Charge’s display. I counted over a full second. This leads to constant second-guessing and double-taps when you hit the power button, resulting in what we in the business call "nerdrage."
Also, bloatware. 17 Verizon-installed apps. I’d list them, but frankly who cares what they are? You can’t take them off, and half of them aren’t even apps – they’re just shortcuts to preview videos or VCAST download links (relatedly, the VCAST app store is the single worst piece of software ever spawned by humanity).
VZW Navigator was my favorite – upon launching, the app needed to download a bunch of data for its maps and what not. Alright, fair enough. Then (yes, after downloading all the map data), it asked for an update from the Market (which did not automatically show up when you hit the "My Apps" list). Then, after launching the updated version, it had to download all of the map data again. This whole process took 2-3 minutes, enough for the average user to give up, never touch VZW Navigator again, and just use Google Navigation. Word to the wise, Verizon: when people use navigation apps, they typically need directions right now. Also, VZW Navigator really wants you to know that if you’re connected to Wi-Fi, it’ll load Google maps-sourced 3D buildings in major cities, and populates your notification bar with an icon indicating it’s waiting for Wi-Fi for that purpose, even when VZW Navigator has been exited. Presumably the last part of that annoyance is a bug.

They also tore up Samsung's build quality, or lack thereof.

 

[Deeko]

Most what what they talked about while bitching about Touchwhiz actually had nothing to do with Touchwhiz. *shrug*

 

[thedosbox]

If getting the HTC mail client (multiple Exchange account support) and Media player (mutes when voice dialler comes on) means having HTC Sense, then sign me up.