So, what's so great about stock Android?

[thedosbox]

No it isn't. Touchwiz is the ugliest thing since the Pontiac Aztec.

Samsung's sales seem to indicate the aesthetics of their skin aren't a problem, but I happen to agree with you. Hence, YMMV.

 

[Apex]

Using the S4, I've gone with a few stock Android ROMS, and have always come back to Touchwiz (rooted, debloated, Greenified, with Nova launcher).

The issue for me is with this phone, the Touchwiz camera is easily better than AOSP, the calendar is miles better since you can see your appointments all at a glance on the month page (though uglier), the proximity sensor works great (I have a wallet case and opening the wallet turns screen on), and the stock TV control app works well (Peel's WatchON).

When stock Android can handle these things well, I'm jumping ship again. This is my first phone that I haven't moved to some sort of AOSP/AOKP.

 

[Crono]

stock UI is fast and simple. I always half the animation speed for a snappier experience. Best imho. I absolutely can't stand TouchWiz. I like the new Sense 5 but I have no chance to use it since Verizon still doesn't carry the One.

I thought Verizon carries it now?

 

[shortylickens]

Actually, i think stock is awesome. just what i think.

 

[fstime]

Before we got the beefy specs we have today, we had wimpy single core processors which didn't run as smooth on Touchwiz, Sense, Motoblur, etc. Not only that, these UI's were not as polished as they were today.

Now, even last gen phones like the SGS3 or One X have no problem running Touchwiz or Sense. I used to prefer stock android, but now that there is no performance disadvantage, it just looks and feels so plain and boring.

Sense just looks so much better and has some really nice widgets and features.

So to answer your question, at one point, stock was a smoother, and less tacky experience. Today, it's just a stripped down, plain version of Android.

 

[MrX8503]

Some people like stock for its speed and small footprint. If they have Nexus they have prompt updates.

Android +Touchwiz takes up 8GBs of space.

 

[sze5003]

I run a custom sense Rom on my droid DNA. It's super smooth and is up to date with jelly bean. I wasn't a fan of Aosp but it too is very resource friendly. It's simple and clean and some prefer that. First thing I noticed on my DNA when I loaded a stock android Rom was that I needed to download the apps manually like gmail and play store for some reason.

 

[foghorn67]

I run a custom sense Rom on my droid DNA. It's super smooth and is up to date with jelly bean. I wasn't a fan of Aosp but it too is very resource friendly. It's simple and clean and some prefer that. First thing I noticed on my DNA when I loaded a stock android Rom was that I needed to download the apps manually like gmail and play store for some reason.

Legal procedures. You can't make a AOSP ROM and bundle it with Google Apps. Some ROM devs will bundle them separately.

 

[Eug]

Before we got the beefy specs we have today, we had wimpy single core processors which didn't run as smooth on Touchwiz, Sense, Motoblur, etc. Not only that, these UI's were not as polished as they were today.

Now, even last gen phones like the SGS3 or One X have no problem running Touchwiz or Sense. I used to prefer stock android, but now that there is no performance disadvantage, it just looks and feels so plain and boring.

Sense just looks so much better and has some really nice widgets and features.

So to answer your question, at one point, stock was a smoother, and less tacky experience. Today, it's just a stripped down, plain version of Android.

I still think stock is a less tacky experience than TouchWiz, but I agree that the latest quad (or fast dual-core) CPU and 2 GB RAM equipped phones are more than fine to handle the bloat.

P.S. For the others, just to be clear, Motoblur doesn't even really exist anymore. The Motorola OS is near-stock. I'm not sure if this is because Google bought Motorola or not. It still takes half a year for Motorola to update its phones to the latest OS though... like Samsung.

And like I said before, it just makes Android across models seem so damn inconsistent, and the wait for OS updates is irritating.

 

[lothar]

If the first thing you do, after you buy a notebook, is to format and install a clean OS then stock android is for you.
If the first thing you do, after you buy a notebook, is to check all the "cool" apps that came with it, then go with a skinned version.

Is as simple as that

This.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

If the first thing you do, after you buy a notebook, is to format and install a clean OS then stock android is for you.
If the first thing you do, after you buy a notebook, is to check all the "cool" apps that came with it, then go with a skinned version.

Is as simple as that

I remember when my Dell 600m arrived before I went to college, I popped in a Windows XP disk right after the first boot. My friend asked "Why?" Heh...

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

All Android devices have a Home button, whether physical or on screen. Samsung takes a lot of flak for their crappy physical home buttons though, especially years after on screen buttons made their debut and showed everyone how to do it properly. :/

So? The home button is a FAST way of waking up a phone. I tend to use it on my iPhone 5 and on my GS2. I know there was all this hype about Slide2Wake or whatever, but I never discovered why it was even useful til I got my Nexus 4. It's because the home button wasnt there for a quick wake. No picking up of the phone to fumble around and find the power button.

Look, Google said one thing about on screen buttons, but their opinion of how things should be done isn't some clear cut right or wrong. There's many people who do like hardware buttons, myself included. The sad thing is there's not much we can do about the change. I can deal with this shift towards non-removable batteries, no SD cards, no hardware buttons deal if it must be, but just because Google said this is good doesn't mean we have to agree. Let's stop acting like Google makes the best decisions for consumers if we shat all over Steve Jobs every time he opened his mouth about the way things are on iOS.

 

[cliftonite]

So? The home button is a FAST way of waking up a phone. I tend to use it on my iPhone 5 and on my GS2. I know there was all this hype about Slide2Wake or whatever, but I never discovered why it was even useful til I got my Nexus 4. It's because the home button wasnt there for a quick wake. No picking up of the phone to fumble around and find the power button.

Look, Google said one thing about on screen buttons, but their opinion of how things should be done isn't some clear cut right or wrong. There's many people who do like hardware buttons, myself included. The sad thing is there's not much we can do about the change. I can deal with this shift towards non-removable batteries, no SD cards, no hardware buttons deal if it must be, but just because Google said this is good doesn't mean we have to agree. Let's stop acting like Google makes the best decisions for consumers if we shat all over Steve Jobs every time he opened his mouth about the way things are on iOS.

Why don't you use an iPhone instead of constantly whining about Android?

 

[ControlD]

So? The home button is a FAST way of waking up a phone. I tend to use it on my iPhone 5 and on my GS2. I know there was all this hype about Slide2Wake or whatever, but I never discovered why it was even useful til I got my Nexus 4. It's because the home button wasnt there for a quick wake. No picking up of the phone to fumble around and find the power button.

Look, Google said one thing about on screen buttons, but their opinion of how things should be done isn't some clear cut right or wrong. There's many people who do like hardware buttons, myself included. The sad thing is there's not much we can do about the change. I can deal with this shift towards non-removable batteries, no SD cards, no hardware buttons deal if it must be, but just because Google said this is good doesn't mean we have to agree. Let's stop acting like Google makes the best decisions for consumers if we shat all over Steve Jobs every time he opened his mouth about the way things are on iOS.

Or you could just, you know, get a device from a manufacturer that still has all of those things. Pretty sure it starts with a "S".

 

[desura]

Well, first of all,

Samsung's customizations are horrendous. Horrible.

Like, I have a Galaxy Tab 7.7. Do you know what they felt was a good idea to put as default on the menu screen, besides the home and back and switch programs button? A capture screenshot button. Boggles the mind they thought this was a good idea to include by default.

and it was slow. Horribly slow. I put Cyanogenmod on the thing and it is much more responsive.

As for HTC's sense, I don't see what's so great about it. At best it seems like it adds some animations that make switching around it feel like a 3d cube or something? That's unimportant.

Stock is fine and gets the job done.

 

[Raduque]

Well, first of all,

Samsung's customizations are horrendous. Horrible.

Like, I have a Galaxy Tab 7.7. Do you know what they felt was a good idea to put as default on the menu screen, besides the home and back and switch programs button? A capture screenshot button. Boggles the mind they thought this was a good idea to include by default.

and it was slow. Horribly slow. I put Cyanogenmod on the thing and it is much more responsive.

As for HTC's sense, I don't see what's so great about it. At best it seems like it adds some animations that make switching around it feel like a 3d cube or something? That's unimportant.

Stock is fine and gets the job done.

What you fail to realize, is that what you want and what the average smartphone consumer wants are polar opposites.

As well, your opinion is not the be-all, end-all of the way smartphones should be. Neither is Google's.

Thank god for the manufacturers who change Android for the better!

 

[Red Storm]

What you fail to realize, is that what you want and what the average smartphone consumer wants are polar opposites.

As well, your opinion is not the be-all, end-all of the way smartphones should be. Neither is Google's.

Thank god for the manufacturers who change Android for the better!

And for Google who make the Nexus Phones, so we can have our stock and leave Touchwiz/Sense for the masses.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Or you could just, you know, get a device from a manufacturer that still has all of those things. Pretty sure it starts with a "S".

I could, but that isn't stock Android is it? I'd like a Nexus device with development capabilities.

 

[npaladin-2000]

Stock Android is like a blank slate, that is easy to customize at will. By itself, however, it isn't much of a much. Even CyanogenMod offers stuff above and beyond stock. Power users love this sort of power

TouchWiz, Sense, and OptimusUI are basically pre-customized setups, the sort of thing that frankly most off-the-shelf phone buyers are looking for. They're still more customizable than an iPhone but a lot of the basic, more standard sort of things are pre-done in one way or another, including social network integration.

 

[Raduque]

And for Google who make the Nexus Phones, so we can have our stock and leave Touchwiz/Sense for the masses.

:thumbsup:

Nexus 4 is truly the best device at it's price point.

But I'd probably have an iPhone if the Nexus was the only available Android device.

 

[cliftonite]

I could, but that isn't stock Android is it? I'd like a Nexus device with development capabilities.

Get a google edition of the S4 or the One.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Get a google edition of the S4 or the One.

That certainly is a possibility, but for me I also like the developer-friendly Nexus phones because they tend to get working ROMs fast and a ton of development. The S4 GPE would be my second choice.

I'll be waiting to see how the N5 turns out, but if it can hold its own against the flagship phones I'll probably jump on it. If it's another gimped phone without LTE or whatever, then I may have to go with the S4.

 

[gmaster456]

I like it because it is clean, simple, fast, I can build up on it and it only contains what I want and nothing I don't need such as bloated lagwiz. And I get updates immediately should I want them.

 

[sweenish]

For me, stock Android is the better playground.

Stock is as Google built it, and it's far more unified in appearance than any port of Android. I may have to "download this and that" to get some more features, but I'm in control of what I want, and how I want it to work. My file explorer, widgets, calender, etc. are all of my own choosing, and I don't have duplicates lying around because my phone wanted to assume it knew what I wanted.

I don't even like that CM comes with its own file explorer and "torch" and some of the other crap it has.

Touchwiz is a visual abomination that's stuck in the Gingerbread days. I understand phones using it sell well, but you can NOT make all these random corollary connections and assume causation.

 

[ControlD]

I could, but that isn't stock Android is it? I'd like a Nexus device with development capabilities.

I can see that. I guess I was figuring once you gain root / flash custom recovery you could just run whatever version of Android you prefer.

I guess I am in the minority here. I have run stock and I have run Touchwiz. I prefer to keep the TW enhancements so my middle ground is running a custom TW based ROM which seems to give me the best of both worlds.