The LG Star poses for the camera. Again

[Bateluer]

http://androidandme.com/2010/11/phones/lg-star-prototypes-pose-for-the-camera-show-off-new-ui/

Just like the leaked Motorola Olympus, this Tegra 2 phone is also running Android 2.2. Originally we heard LG was going with a stock build of Android, but the new screens reveal a UI that looks a little like Samsung’s Touchwiz UI with HTC’s Sense UI widgets thrown in.

Boo. I hate most UI overlays with a passion, but it remains to be seen what security the community will have to circumvent in order to unleash this phone's potential. The Quadrant score was a little underwhelming, my Droid 1 bests that easily. However, Androidandme points out that Quadrant isn't optimized for multicore CPUs, in addition to its other short comings.

Anybody know if the LTE networks will require a SIM card? One of the screen shots shows No SIM Card Inserted. Implies AT&T or T-Mobile as a launch partner, with current networks.

 

[basslover1]

http://androidandme.com/2010/11/phones/lg-star-prototypes-pose-for-the-camera-show-off-new-ui/



Boo. I hate most UI overlays with a passion, but it remains to be seen what security the community will have to circumvent in order to unleash this phone's potential. The Quadrant score was a little underwhelming, my Droid 1 bests that easily. However, Androidandme points out that Quadrant isn't optimized for multicore CPUs, in addition to its other short comings.

Anybody know if the LTE networks will require a SIM card? One of the screen shots shows No SIM Card Inserted. Implies AT&T or T-Mobile as a launch partner, with current networks.

Yes, but you're in luck:

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/11/22/verizon-4g-lte-sim/

 

[shortylickens]

UI looks nice, but cant we have all that on phones already available?

 

[Bateluer]

UI looks nice, but cant we have all that on phones already available?

From whats seen in the blurrycam, I hope its just a tests and gets scrapped for vanilla Android, for whichever version it launches with. Vanilla Froyo is better than TouchWiz, by far.

Dang handset makers should concentrate on things that matter, build quality, hardware specs, and other innovative features. Not trying to continuously reinvent the wheel, waste of money.

 

[Raduque]

I don't know why people are hating so much on the manufacturer skins. Vanilla Android, of every kind, is so boring and blah and desperately needs to coat of polish and spit-shine that TouchWiz, Blur and Sense brings to it.

BTW, I hope somebody ports that clock/weather widget to the Vibrant.

 

[gsaldivar]

I don't know why people are hating so much on the manufacturer skins. Vanilla Android, of every kind, is so boring and blah and desperately needs to coat of polish and spit-shine that TouchWiz, Blur and Sense brings to it.

I agree. Manufacturer skins definitely have their use. Sense UI on my pre-2.2 phone was a godsend because of the added Exchange ActiveSync functionality that was developed by HTC and shipped to customers before Google added these features in Froyo...

Unfortunately, the greater purpose of these skins is to provide differentiation and to enable carriers to increase pricing for "premium" features. Similar to factory-installed "features" on automobiles (i.e. anti-rust coating, window tinting, etc.) more often than not these features are neither requested nor desired by customers but must be purchase as part of a package.

So while, for the moment I'm a fan of HTC Sense UI, I can understand why many Android users are opposed to manufacturer skinning and do support consumers having the option to remove these skins if they desire.

 

[Bateluer]

I don't know why people are hating so much on the manufacturer skins. Vanilla Android, of every kind, is so boring and blah and desperately needs to coat of polish and spit-shine that TouchWiz, Blur and Sense brings to it.

BTW, I hope somebody ports that clock/weather widget to the Vibrant.

People hate on them because 1)They slow the pace of OS updates, in some cases, to an indefinite standstill(Samsung), 2)They add unnecessary bloat to the phone, increasing lag and sucking down valuable storage/processing power, and 3)They make it more difficult for themers to apply their much prettier and functional wares, 4)They add their own slew of bugs, glitches, and issues that are often not easily resolvable by the community as the code for the overlay is proprietary, and 5)the UI overlays are usually completely unremovable. You can install LPP/ADW, but the end result is that you have LPP/ADW running on top Blur/TW/Sense running on top Stock. If the end user could uninstall the UI overlay, as well as any apps preinstalled by the carrier/manufacturer, there wouldn't be nearly as much hatred on the subject.

Saying Stock Android is boring and dull is like saying the USS Ronald Reagan looks bland because its painted gun metal gray. Its functional and does what it needs to. That's what counts.

 

[MrX8503]

Here's a video of the LG Star vs iPhone 4

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/30/lg-star-struts-its-stuff-on-film-toys-with-an-iphone-4-video/

Unfortunately, even with the mighty dual core Tegra 2, the OS is still choppy. Its really up to Google now to fix this as no amount of CPU horsepower is going to fix it.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

http://androidandme.com/2010/11/phones/lg-star-prototypes-pose-for-the-camera-show-off-new-ui/



Boo. I hate most UI overlays with a passion, but it remains to be seen what security the community will have to circumvent in order to unleash this phone's potential. The Quadrant score was a little underwhelming, my Droid 1 bests that easily. However, Androidandme points out that Quadrant isn't optimized for multicore CPUs, in addition to its other short comings.

Anybody know if the LTE networks will require a SIM card? One of the screen shots shows No SIM Card Inserted. Implies AT&T or T-Mobile as a launch partner, with current networks.

Does this even have to come to the US? I don't know yet.

UI overlays might not be nice, but custom ROMs should solve this anyway right?

 

[zerocool84]

Here's a video of the LG Star vs iPhone 4

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/30/lg-star-struts-its-stuff-on-film-toys-with-an-iphone-4-video/

Unfortunately, even with the mighty dual core Tegra 2, the OS is still choppy. Its really up to Google now to fix this as no amount of CPU horsepower is going to fix it.

Well what you give up in smoothness you gain in many other areas. Just like some people are willing to give up freedom for smoothness, some people are willing to give up some smoothness for more freedom. Of course CPU power will reach a point where it'll make it smooth just you as everyone else wants it offloaded on to the gfx chip.

 

[Bateluer]

http://www.androidpolice.com/2010/1...n-video-complete-with-custom-lg-facebook-app/

Not sure if its the same video or not, can't view them here. :/

Are these videos showing a custom UI? Thats likely the source of much of the lag, considering that my 800Mhz D1 with CM is damn smooth. Its also likely a beta build too. I know the Viewsonic Gtablet uses the Tegra 2 and the default Viewsonic build is a pathetic joke, but the Cyanogenmod beta for it flies like lightning, according to posts at XDA.

 

[Raduque]

People hate on them because 1)They slow the pace of OS updates, in some cases, to an indefinite standstill(Samsung), 2)They add unnecessary bloat to the phone, increasing lag and sucking down valuable storage/processing power, and 3)They make it more difficult for themers to apply their much prettier and functional wares, 4)They add their own slew of bugs, glitches, and issues that are often not easily resolvable by the community as the code for the overlay is proprietary, and 5)the UI overlays are usually completely unremovable. You can install LPP/ADW, but the end result is that you have LPP/ADW running on top Blur/TW/Sense running on top Stock. If the end user could uninstall the UI overlay, as well as any apps preinstalled by the carrier/manufacturer, there wouldn't be nearly as much hatred on the subject.

1)Honestly, as long as the device is fast, stable, and does everything i need to do, I don't chomp at the bit for updates
2)no, the carriers do. of course, even if the phone came with nothing but google apps, people would still cry "BLOATWARE@!@_#)(*$#_!@#$+)(&*#_!!@@@!!!"
3)themes, meh. everybody's fixated on stupid boring black themes. black themes were played out back when i was cooking WM6 roms.
4)ok, point.
5)Touchwiz launcher is not at all running on my Vibrant w/LauncherPro+. it's still there, but the apk uses like 700kb on my /system partition

Saying Stock Android is boring and dull is like saying the USS Ronald Reagan looks bland because its painted gun metal gray. Its functional and does what it needs to. That's what counts.

And yes, stock android is functional, but it's still ugly. Why can't we have both looks and function? That's what the manufacturer skins add. Personally, I love the TouchWiz contacts app, swiping to call/txt is a gift from above.

 

[MrX8503]

I think the only way to go if you want form and function is to get a custom rom.

 

[Bateluer]

bateluer, Touchwiz launcher is not at all running on my Vibrant w/LauncherPro+.

And yes, stock android is functional, but it's still ugly. Why can't we have both looks and function? That's what the manufacturer skins add.

Not all UIs are created equal. MotoBlur, for example, continuously runs even when you've selected LP or ADW as your launcher. However, they all slow the pace of OS updates, something critical for all smartphones regardless of OS.

Unfortunately, the manufacturer UIs are all even uglier than stock Android. Engadget's review of the Epic 4G stated '5 minutes with TouchWiz made us want to punch Samsung's UI designers in the face.'

Its these UIs that are causing fragmentation of Android, Blur, TouchWiz, Sense, Espresso, whatever LG calls theirs, etc.

Edit - Just watched the video. Seems like its just as fast as the iP4 in the UI, and it loaded their website pages faster than the iP4. Couldn't understand the narrator though, no clue if they were on a 3G cellular network or wifi. It also seemed that the Star was running very low on battery, with the 15% notice popping up multiple times in the video. Could be some clock throttling going on behind the scenes? Still, its UI was just as fast and smooth as the iP4 it was compared to. Now, just get rid of the TouchWiz-like UI and there's a good chance I'll buy this phone . . . provided its easy to root.

 

[MrX8503]

Just watched the video. Seems like its just as fast as the iP4 in the UI, and it loaded their website pages faster than the iP4. Couldn't understand the narrator though, no clue if they were on a 3G cellular network or wifi. It also seemed that the Star was running very low on battery, with the 15% notice popping up multiple times in the video. Could be some clock throttling going on behind the scenes? Still, its UI was just as fast and smooth as the iP4 it was compared to. Now, just get rid of the TouchWiz-like UI and there's a good chance I'll buy this phone . . . provided its easy to root.

The UI is similar in speed to the iP4, but not in smoothness. I reckon this is due to software. Android doesn't have the snap, bounce, acceleration, easy ease, etc aka physics like iOS.

As for the browser, the pages load faster than the iP4, so +1 there. As for scrolling, the Android device is both slower and choppier. I'm willing to bet that zooming/panning gives the same result.

I wish the reviewer would of turned flash off to give a fair comparison. From the myriad of Android devices I've seen so far though, even with flash off, it probably wouldn't of mattered.

There's just no way around it, its really up to Google to address it if they deem it a big enough issue. Remember that WP7 devices has a paltry Adreno GPU, but its UI responsiveness is on par with iOS, or even better.

EDIT:

Another thing to remember is that the quality of the capacitive screen affects the responsiveness of the UI as well. The iPhone has had a top notch touch screen since 2007, whereas the original Motorola Droid was simply terrible. I'm not sure if current Android phones has addressed this, but I'm not surprised that the current iP4 has a great deal of polish over other devices after baking in the oven for so long.

I guess thats the benefit of total control over the device.

 

[s44]

Any Voodoo-enabled Galaxy S is super-smooth.

LG's Touchwiz Jr. looks hilarious. End users may like it, but it just slows down updates... but no more than US carriers do.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Well what you give up in smoothness you gain in many other areas. Just like some people are willing to give up freedom for smoothness, some people are willing to give up some smoothness for more freedom. Of course CPU power will reach a point where it'll make it smooth just you as everyone else wants it offloaded on to the gfx chip.

Ok but freedom and smoothness aren't mutually exclusive. Freedom is one thing, and I'm not saying it to defend Apple or anything, but it's a thing certain manufacturers do to maintain quality control or product uniformity. That's a whole separate thing.

Smoothness is just basic usability. Whether your OS is open, closed or whatever the shit, it needs to have a decent UI. You could give Android all the openness in the world, but looking back, could you run a Stock Droid 1 and call that acceptable? With all the tweaking we get, it's not even perfect yet and still stands a level behind WP7 or iOS4. The fact is what about every other user? I see some people pull out their Droid X's and it's like a freaking slideshow as I stare at them across the restaurant. Like seriously?