Database Users

Not down with the TouchWiz UI

I just upgraded from a G1 to the Vibrant and I gotta say, I'm not impressed with the iphone like UI. Is there a way to install the stock android UI on the Vibrant?

I don't like it either. Give launcherpro a try...
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

LauncherPro (what I'm using) or ADW will get rid of *some* of the iPhone-ish Touchwiz UI -- but not all of it. The drawer is much improved, but it leaves some of the decent Touchwiz features -- like the pull down capability to switch wi-fi, bluetooth, gps, etc.. Pretty cool, actually.
Give 'em a try.

I think the Touch Wiz UI improves on and polishes the Android UI quite as bit. I will say I'm not a fan of the app drawer nor do I like any of Samsung's included widgets. I do love what they did with the contacts menu. I think the whole swyping right to call or swyping left to text a contact is genius and original. Samsung also made it easier to navigate through the contacts. I also find the WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and silent toggles built in to the notification bar come in handy quite a bit.
I could go on but I need to get to bed.
If you can get past the visuals in TW it really isn't a bad UI.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I personally have no problem with it aside from the supposed performance issues and prefer it to the stock android user interface and some other custom android IU implemented by other companies.
Positives:
App drawer scrolls horizontally, which seems more natural to me(like turning a page in a book).
Wi-fi, bluetooth, GPS, and Vibrate controls integrated into the notification bar removing the need of the power control widget
Music App appearing notification area when screen saver is up removing the need to unlock the phone to switch songs
I still use launcher pro, though

Are you aware of the fact that the Launcher is NOT the only aspect of TouchWiz UI? Nope.. Stock Android is fugly.

heygrl said:
Are you aware of the fact that the Launcher is NOT the only aspect of TouchWiz UI? Nope.. Stock Android is fugly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, give another vote for TW from me. I always hated vanilla Android, on my G1 I used to change themes daily cause of it. I used LP for a bit but went back to TW. I Use that pull down toggle way too much.

TouchWiz actually had me against getting this phone before it came out. The whole "iphone-looking" app drawer icons was a huge disappointment. But being a big ADW supporter (and knowing this phone would have plenty of development behind it), I checked it out on launch day and walked out of the store with it.
Granted, I installed ADW before even paying for the phone. Plus side...the power and music controls are still there. I'd definitely give TW a thumbs up (minus the app drawer icons).

LauncherPro (my choice) and ADW are the best of both worlds. You get some of the more polished TW apps and skins, but no BS iPhone clone homescreen.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

The fact that the only thing people can complain about it is that it looks too much like an iPhone means to me that it's a pretty solid interface.
I love it in any case.
People need to get over their iPhone to Android superiority complex.

heygrl said:
Are you aware of the fact that the Launcher is NOT the only aspect of TouchWiz UI? Nope.. Stock Android is fugly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, to be fair, 2.2 android looks good, but when compared to touchcwiz, doesn't even compare. even on my nexus, I always run skins.
Anyway, I personally like the way vibrant looks.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I personally don't care for appearances, I prefer having the latest features and newest versions of Android. I care more about the features that is included rather than how it looks because honestly.. skinning isn't that difficult but waiting for these manufacturers to port their custom skins take too long. Skinning is just so simple in Android with metamorphing, alternative launchers etc.
Take a look at Nexus One, it already has Android 2.2 while other phones have to wait so much longer. Or even Motorola Droid, they're supposedly getting 2.2 this week and running vanilla Android. I rather have the latest and skin it on my own. This of course will definitely all change when CM6 is released for the Vibrant.

heygrl said:
Are you aware of the fact that the Launcher is NOT the only aspect of TouchWiz UI? Nope.. Stock Android is fugly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeppers. Big Android fan but the default Android UI is like the default UI on a Linux system, plain and boring.

Love ADW but need to port the TW widgets over, or at least install some of the stock widgets. One of these days...
For the moment I don't set a default for either and just select whichever one I need when I press home. I know it's an extra button to press but I like the option.

TW would be great if there was a way to customize things more. Like getting rid of the horizontal app drawer and changing the default home screen when the numbers of screens are changed.
I read on another post that LauncherPro might be causing a little extra battery drain. I just switched from LP to ADW to see if I can notice a difference.
The samsung video app is so much better. I had to use DoubleTwist to convert every movie I put on my myTouch but with my Vibrant almost every file I've tried works. The contacts app is nice but a little buggy for me sometimes.
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant using the XDA app

badaphooko01 said:
Agreed, give another vote for TW from me. I always hated vanilla Android, on my G1 I used to change themes daily cause of it. I used LP for a bit but went back to TW. I Use that pull down toggle way too much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That pulldown toggle is still there when you switch to launcherpro or adw.
sent from my Samsung Vibrant

I can't stand the ugly blue tabs they put on all their apps. They look like the 80s vision of 'futuristic' (and they're way too big). Also, they hid a lot of features of the stock google apps -- for instance, you can't set your alarm ringtone in calendar.

MIUI rom - why?

I've just checked out a couple of vids on Youtube of the MIUI rom on the Mytouch 4G. It has some nice looking animations, but I don't otherwise get why an Android user would want this rom. It looks like an iPhone - the system takes a big steaming dump of apps all over your home screens, and no launcher. It seems like a step backwards to me.
Can someone who uses this rom please convince me otherwise? What does it have that I can't get elsewhere?

I used to think the same, but when I gave it a bash it was VERY smooth! And with Launcher Pro on it, near perfect.
But there are so many more settings you can fiddle with on CM, I always go back to the best.
Flashed a CM7 nightly this morning,.... AMAAAAZING!

So you CAN install a launcher on it? I got the impression that you couldn't. Hmmm, I might give it a try when I have some time. What's battery life like - one video (admittedly for the MT4G) said it was pretty crap. That same video also said that RAM usage was considerably lower than Sense, which interests me.

Yeah man, standard MIUI launcher is junk IMO, no app drawer? Huh? Definitely get your launcher of choice on there straight away.
From what I remember (since November ish) battery life was ok, RAM was vgood. Yeah give it a bash,... the guy who has done the port has updated quite a few times since I tried it.

I love the standard launcher after 2 years of seeing either stock android launcher or ones similar to it , it is a nice change of pace

I didn't like miui at first but it grew on me. I was constantly trying to find the app launcher it runs fast and you can customize the heck out of it!
Sent from my Pear phone.

I was really impressed with it, actually. Very lightweight on the system.
If you don't like the lack of drawer (I hate it...thinking a hybrid with an app drawer would be perfection) you can get stuff tucked away in folders, or use launcher pro.
It just looks and feels so fresh and clean...but it's just not what I personally love about Android. A great option that's totally different.
It's also a great UI for iphone converters...
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

setspeed said:
I've just checked out a couple of vids on Youtube of the MIUI rom on the Mytouch 4G. It has some nice looking animations, but I don't otherwise get why an Android user would want this rom. It looks like an iPhone - the system takes a big steaming dump of apps all over your home screens, and no launcher. It seems like a step backwards to me.
Can someone who uses this rom please convince me otherwise? What does it have that I can't get elsewhere?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats exactly it, MIUI is just like an I phone without restrictions! You can add, take away and do anything You want with it maintaining its beauty and speed! Ive tryed every rom, after playing w/ rom's UI for a few minutes I went bak to MIUI. Theres nothing like it try MIUI and you'll never go bak.

MIUI = ew
That's just me though, I'm a CM fanboii

omarsalmin said:
MIUI = ew
That's just me though, I'm a CM fanboii
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm inclined to agree with you. I gave it a try, but those iPhone-esque menus had me running for the hills - it just seemed wrong!
In the last couple of days I've been through the stock Sense rom (too heavy on the hardware), MIUI (just no), Enomther's Official (battery life poor) and CM 6.1.1 (battery life poor). I'm currently draining the battery so I can charge properly and wipe batt stats on CM - hopefully that will help. But if not then I'm going to have to roll back to the stock rom, which is a real shame because all the others run so quick even at 800mhz...

setspeed said:
I've just checked out a couple of vids on Youtube of the MIUI rom on the Mytouch 4G. It has some nice looking animations, but I don't otherwise get why an Android user would want this rom. It looks like an iPhone - the system takes a big steaming dump of apps all over your home screens, and no launcher. It seems like a step backwards to me.
Can someone who uses this rom please convince me otherwise? What does it have that I can't get elsewhere?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats exactly it, MIUI is just like an I phone without restrictions! You can add, take away and do anything You want with it maintaining its beauty and speed! Ive tryed every rom, after playing w/ rom's UI for a few minutes I went bak to MIUI. Theres nothing like it try MIUI and you'll never go bak.

Try It!
i have been running CyanM since went to Android with tthe N1 and I can say its making me think! I like the polish. The initial setup was a little slower because of the lack of app draw and having to tuck things away. After that I can say I am really digging the Rom

I really like the notification put-down with the toggles at the bottom. Looks so good and super functional.
Edit: but I use virtuous as my daily.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

I've finally settled on a ROM - Sparksmod Extra HotSauce. Basically CMod with loads of pretty icons and animations. I love it so much, it's satisfied both the need for speed/lightweight on RAM, and having the eye candy to show off.
Install a decent laucher like ADW EX or LauncherPro (which now has transition animations too), and it blows anything else away. I can't recommend it highly enough. My iPhone-toting friends are jealous as well.

At first I didn't like it... Then it grew on me.... Then I didn't like it again (had too many apps on homescreen)... Now I like it again..... I like just installed Touchwiz launcher (I know.. Wut? ) and love it again IMO Touchwiz launcher is like MIUI's with an app drawer xD (I prefer though )

my question is : why not
the easy theme-ing + change icons / pull down widget = win
if u dont like the iphone-ish look, put ADW EX on top of it
i do like how i can organize stuff with the folders
that + the ease of uninstalling apps when i dont like them,
it sucks having to wait to go through setting and wait 30 secs to generate the whole list.
oh the smoothness too

Seriously... why not?? I use miui for a few reasons..
1. Bad ass lock screen.. by far the best. IMHO (Music control, custom wallpaper, quick launch phone and messaging app) yeah you COULD just use widget locker.. but that slows phone down and drains battery life.. not as sick as default miui I think.
2. Themes.. the themes available look amazing, completely customize all your icons, better than you can get with adw, lp or any made for cyanogenmod.. and you can mix and match what themes parts you want applied.
3. Notification bar.. toggles on the pulldown are great.. ya you can do basically the same with cyanogenmod, but not as polished IMO..
4. battery life isn't an issue for me.. or ram.. basically the same as cyanogen 6.1.1... haven't tried cm7. So no input there.
5. Updated every Friday. which is nice..
Yeah its iphone-ish since all the icons are uniformed.. and menus, I don't spend all my time changing settings so menus don't bother me.. easier to navigate then stock android IMO but with icons I actually like that about it.. I use adw launcher ex. So I have a launcher.. I don't use the stock launcher with miui. Personally I don't care for it.. i hate apps on my homescreen... IMO they belong in the launcher.. widgets belong on the homescreen. But that's just me.. to each there own. I switch between cyanogen mod 6.1.1 and miui... I just nand backup each so I can switch between both whenever I feel the need. there both esentially set up the exact same. Same apps and launchers.. I'm been on cyanogen mod since I had a mytouch 18 months ago till miui was ported.. it mixes things up, I don't think it takes away from android.. it gives you the best of both worlds in my opinion..
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

I have to say, that Im loving the Miui. Sure, it comes with no app drawer and it looks too close to an iphone, but one thing I give credit to apple, is the glossy and high resolution look to their icons and layouts.
I use Launcher pro and it makes me a happy Android fan. I get to load new themes with the least amount of effort whatsoever. Its amazing how quickly you can change the look of your phone.
The lockscreen is the best ive seen. I dont experience lags for a rom that is quite stylish and has so many features. The customization on this rom is out of this world. There's a setting for anything Ive wanted to change (minus changing the color of the notification bar).
So, to summerize: It runs fast, it looks really good with easy theme changing ability and it lets you customize the heck out of it.
The battery life is decent. I havent noticed a major difference between any of the roms ive tried when it comes to that. Btw, I have been on CM 6.1.1 and supervillianz and the default sense. This is the only rom that made me NOT change and try other roms. Im quite happy with what I have. Why look elsewhere

Sense 5, your verdict.

So, by now One has reached lot of people and lot of people have been using it for a while.
I am not new to sense. My last sense phone was Droid DNA, so I have used Sense 4 and had love hate relationship with Sense back from HTC Hero days.
Now coming to Sense 5. What do you guys think. This is suppose to be very light weight, improved version of Sense, and to some extent it is.
But personally I cant seem to live with it day in and out. Blinkfeed annoys me. Plain and simple. Sources there are simply not what I read. And it is very intrusive and cant be disabled while keeping rest of the Sense. The App drawer........................ Less I talk about it the better. That is a vack step in my book. But I guess this can be subjective. But lot of wasted space and the painful vertical scrolling which Google threw out of door with ICS makes the comeback.
Even though I did not always like Sense completely on my previous HTC devices, I had never replaced the Sense before completely and forever on any of those devices. I tried desensing DNA before but I quickly went back to Sense ROM.
But Sense 5, I dont know. I wont be able to live with it as it is now. I have installed Nova Launcher on ARHD ROM. Using AOSP ROM will not be an option because I dont want to lose the critical camera functionality including the metering and HDR and even Zoe.
Personally I cant fatham how HTC design and UI department thought this is a big improvement over Sense 4. At this point I would take Sense 4 on One over current Sense 5.
But as we all know different people think differently. And hence this thread to discuss and see what others think of Sense 5.

I am liking it
Funkym0nkey said:
So, by now One has reached lot of people and lot of people have been using it for a while.
I am not new to sense. My last sense phone was Droid DNA, so I have used Sense 4 and had love hate relationship with Sense back from HTC Hero days.
Now coming to Sense 5. What do you guys think. This is suppose to be very light weight, improved version of Sense, and to some extent it is.
But personally I cant seem to live with it day in and out. Blinkfeed annoys me. Plain and simple. Sources there are simply not what I read. And it is very intrusive and cant be disabled while keeping rest of the Sense. The App drawer........................ Less I talk about it the better. That is a vack step in my book. But I guess this can be subjective. But lot of wasted space and the painful vertical scrolling which Google threw out of door with ICS makes the comeback.
Even though I did not always like Sense completely on my previous HTC devices, I had never replaced the Sense before completely and forever on any of those devices. I tried desensing DNA before but I quickly went back to Sense ROM.
But Sense 5, I dont know. I wont be able to live with it as it is now. I have installed Nova Launcher on ARHD ROM. Using AOSP ROM will not be an option because I dont want to lose the critical camera functionality including the metering and HDR and even Zoe.
Personally I cant fatham how HTC design and UI department thought this is a big improvement over Sense 4. At this point I would take Sense 4 on One over current Sense 5.
But as we all know different people think differently. And hence this thread to discuss and see what others think of Sense 5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am definately liking it and personally I am a fan of Blinkfeed.

OMG! After voting can't believe I'm the only one who voted the sense 4 over 5 @[email protected]

I agree with most everything you said. Sense 5 almost feels like a beta version. Blinkfeed would be less annoying if it had more options and flexibility. There are other little annoyances like weather only in 24 hour format, missing widgets, missing settings, ect. I hope there are some significant updates coming.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

propagandax said:
I agree with most everything you said. Sense 5 almost feels like a beta version. Blinkfeed would be less annoying if it had more options and flexibility. There are other little annoyances like weather only in 24 hour format, missing widgets, missing settings, ect. I hope there are some significant updates coming.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It shouldnt be possible to vote for all 5.
I actually like Sense 5!

HTC have finally got it right with Sense 5, i remember using HTC Sense a few years back and it was a resource hog and the phone was never really fluid and there was always some lag preset but Sense 5 is much different, it not only looks good but isn't a resource hog like Sense was previously.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Sense 5 is clean, fast and looks different. Out of all of the manufacture skins I prefer Sense 5.
I hate touchwiz, LG is ok but I hate the look, Sony is laggy, Motorola is close to stock but the icons are ugly.
I dont mind pure aokp but I still prefer sense.
It's one of the main reasons why I got the One.
I hope with future updates there are more options in blinkfeed. They need to let us add subreddits on blinkfeed. I would like that a lot.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

Riyal said:
OMG! After voting can't believe I'm the only one who voted the sense 4 over 5 @[email protected]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not anymore... came from One X and abs loved Sense 4

I actually quite like Sense 5, too. Sorry, but I think it's a huge improvement over the bloated mess that was Sense 4 and Sense 4+, which both felt like Gingerbread-era skins which made the One XL run way slower than it should have - which you could obviously see if you installed any AOSP ROM.
Sense 5 both meshes well with the Holo style of Android, while at the same time doesn't unnecessarily bog the phone down, and it's hard for me to complain about that. The best thing I can say about Sense 5 is that it doesn't make me miss CM10.1.

Being a Nova user for very long time the Sense 5 is a very pleasant surprise. It's very fast and stable. I use it.

jhonsok said:
Sense 5 is clean, fast and looks different. Out of all of the manufacture skins I prefer Sense 5.
I hate touchwiz, LG is ok but I hate the look, Sony is laggy, Motorola is close to stock but the icons are ugly.
I dont mind pure aokp but I still prefer sense.
It's one of the main reasons why I got the One.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Sense 5 is so much cleaner and faster than 4, and the best manufacturer skin.
I have set my home screen to a different one to Blinkfeed as I'm not too bothered about it.
This is my 4th HTC Android phone, and the first one where I haven't installed GoSMS, another dialler or keyboard. I love the default look.
I occassionally use my Sensation as a backup and that feels very laggy now. Sense 4 was ok last year, but feels dated now.

Sense 5 is nice. Blinkfeed is dumb.
I switched my home screen to the middle option and used some widgets I prefer and I have blinkfeed for some news and crap when I'm bored off to the left screen now.
Maybe I'm rare but I don't have a facebook and I don't give 2 craps to knowing every little update. I just have some news on Blink along with my calendar and that's it.

If I could do this with Sense I'd give it a try (6 rows of 4 icons plus the dock row):

I love it, finally vertical scroll back in the app drawer, I really hated horizontal scroll, it made my thumb hurt and it is much harder to follow the scrolling with your eyes, it gives me a nystagmus. I use blinkfeed and it has some great potential but I wish there were more sources though the ones that are there are almost sufficient. The only things I miss from previous sense version are a find my phone and ring phone from computer and the temperature graph in weather.

Epic!
Am loving sense 5 at the moment.
The last time I used sense was on my (wait for it - Legendary) HTC Desire back in the days. I am liking the minimalist changes HTC decided to implement in this new version.Love the remote app too can control my TV setup with ease.
The amount of times I have just turn on my phone to drool on the lockscreen/homescreen. Sense 5 with this brilliant screen is too much lol.

Love Sense 5.
I like the blinkfeed concept, just not as a homescreen.

I have used:
HTC "cube" from the HTC Touch (winmo 6.0)
Manila 2d and 3d, brand name "TouchFlo", still winmo
And.......sense from winmo, then Android (old sense, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, 3.5, 3.6, 4.0)
Of all, Sense 5 is hands down the best.
I could only ask for two things.......bring back and expand customization.
Under personalize, there used to be two options:
1. Scenes
This was fantastic, if you use your phone for work and home you could save all your home screen setup as a scene and switch back and forth. I used this lots.
2. Skins
Who doesn't like customization? I feel HTC should have expanded this, not scrapped it. Give out free developer / theme tools and let people make their own to upload to HTC hub......so much wasted potential. I used to theme for winmo. My first projects were different color and themed Manila (sense) flip clocks. Theming was easy, no hidden files, no paid tools required. The way it should be. On my old Touch, I had over 200 sense skins.
Really, these are the only two features I miss. Sense is now closer to stock, flat, and fast.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

I had a nice long post written up and my Nexus 10 locked up....
In short I like it a lot... FML
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

The only thing I miss are since of the widgets. Used the mail and messages about.
I like Blinkfeed ALOT and use it a lot. Just wish there were a few more feeds.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

Sense 5 is becoming more and more disappointing the more I use the phone.
I got rid of HTC's crappy launcher and immediately replaced it with Apex, a much better and more fully featured launcher. However, sense extends beyond there...
First there's the gallery. In short, it's horrible. I'm not sure why they decided to set my images to be sorted by 'events' by default but suffice it to say I can't find anything until I change it to gallery mode.
In addition to that, there are the battery stats. The stats don't tell you how much battery the screen is draining (why on earth would they omit that?) and only shows app usage. It just displays less info in general.
Finally I tried to share a photo over Facebook today and HTC shoved their crappy 'HTC Share' thing into my face. So I said to myself, what the hell, let's try it. Well my post/picture showed up on Facebook...minitiarized and with HTC's branding all over it. I may actually flash an AOSP rom if this stuff can't be fixed with roms and/or mods. Sense 5 is not horrible, but it's far from great.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

I love Sense... Confessions of a AOSP lover

I've been a die hard AOSP guy. Came from a OG Droid then went to the Tbolt and helped port AOSP/Miui with that RIL but I hated it because it wasn't a full AOSP supported device. I got the Galaxy Nexus then a N7, N10 and finally a GSM Galaxy Nexus.
I swore I would be on AOSP the moment I got the device, but I held out. I tried it and I love it. There are some things I hate like the lack of quick notifications (4.2.2 issue more than anything) and a few quirks here and there. But I am in l am in love with the beautiful interface, perfect keyboard (AOSP, Swype, & Swiftkey had a three way and this is it's baby) and most of all I am in love with the gallery and camera app. It's a very intuitive interface on the camera although autofocus can be wonky. BUT that's all made up for by the gallery.... The events (initially annoying) is fantastic. I love Zoe because it adds just that little bit to the memory and I am loving the way highlights creates a montage of images to music. I wish the music had more choices but it is almost perfect. I have a 10 month old and it makes the memories that much more special...
Thanks HTC for putting your heart and soul into this device and coming out with the best smartphone I have ever used
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

altimax98 said:
There are some things I hate like the lack of quick notifications (4.2.2 issue more than anything)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can expand some notifications in sense by zooming (pinching) out, there are no toggles though (altough older versions of sense used to have quick toggles before anyone else got them but somehow htc decided to ditch them in sense 4...)

Until we get 4.2... I have WidgetLocker and NiLS that gives me notifications on the lock screen.

Honestly, i am also an AOSP lover and i was pleasently surprised by sense 5, the only things that i miss now is the notification panel for my shortcuts, but i can get by pretty easy.
Also, hi there One community

There is messing a lot of things on this unfortunate and basic sense 5. Widgets, most practical sense widgets gone, skins (there are not any) only three different a kinds of unlock, application list never gone, always there. If you close your phone and open it, application list is there. Like blink feed but useless if you cannot add more feeds... So sense is very nice but there is munch things that missing...

godutch said:
you can expand some notifications in sense by zooming (pinching) out, there are no toggles though (altough older versions of sense used to have quick toggles before anyone else got them but somehow htc decided to ditch them in sense 4...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use Power Toggles or Notification Toggles apps... download from PlayShop

I agree, Sense 5 is much better than previous versions of sense, but the app drawer really doesn't do it for me, still prefer almost everything about AOSP

altimax98 said:
I've been a die hard AOSP guy. Came from a OG Droid then went to the Tbolt and helped port AOSP/Miui with that RIL but I hated it because it wasn't a full AOSP supported device. I got the Galaxy Nexus then a N7, N10 and finally a GSM Galaxy Nexus.
I swore I would be on AOSP the moment I got the device, but I held out. I tried it and I love it. There are some things I hate like the lack of quick notifications (4.2.2 issue more than anything) and a few quirks here and there. But I am in l am in love with the beautiful interface, perfect keyboard (AOSP, Swype, & Swiftkey had a three way and this is it's baby) and most of all I am in love with the gallery and camera app. It's a very intuitive interface on the camera although autofocus can be wonky. BUT that's all made up for by the gallery.... The events (initially annoying) is fantastic. I love Zoe because it adds just that little bit to the memory and I am loving the way highlights creates a montage of images to music. I wish the music had more choices but it is almost perfect. I have a 10 month old and it makes the memories that much more special...
Thanks HTC for putting your heart and soul into this device and coming out with the best smartphone I have ever used
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm right there with you. I usually prefer the look and feel of AOSP - I couldn't stand Sense 4 or Sense 4+ - but Sense 5 is surprisingly good. It's almost as coheisve of a user experience as AOSP, if not more so.
I prefer a few things about Sense to AOSP – most notably the camera and the e-mail app. It also has some nice widgets, though nothing I couldn’t live without. I’ve actually come to kind-of like Blinkfeed when I have a few minutes to kill, but again, it’s nothing I couldn’t live without.
Occasionally, it even feels more cohesive than AOSP – for example, you can swipe left and right through e-mails in the e-mail app, the same way you can in the Gmail app. The last time I tried the AOSP Android mail client, it still didn’t support that, which was mildly infuriating.
Finally, Sense 5 is at least polite enough to try and compliment the Holo theme of AOSP – TouchWiz and Sense 4, on the other hand, look and feel like someone glued Gingerbread to Jellybean.
(I will still be SwiftKey 4 Life, though )

I never even setup Blink Feed... Thought it was stupid from the get go.
I installed Nova and have been loving the drawer and all the other great features.. the stock app drawer is lame though
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

Yeah I'm not a fan of Sense and put another launcher on pretty quickly. I would love to move to something like CM10 but until I hear things like the camera has no loss in quality or the IR sender is working then it's a no go. I just hope that HTC at some point change the layout and allow the notification panels. Also their lockscreen is like arse!

What do you mean with notification panels, you mean the extended notifications with reply, read etc? Because these have already been implemented in sense.

Silellak said:
(I will still be SwiftKey 4 Life, though )
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I do find HTC's keyboard really great and full of features but I too think SwiftKey is the greatest (wish they had more themes)
...at least till Minuum takes over the wold
altimax98 said:
I never even setup Blink Feed... Thought it was stupid from the get go.
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I think BlinkFeed is awesome. No more "what to do I'm bored" whenever I have a 2 minutes to check my phone. All the content I'm interested in is right there, waiting for me on the homescreen

I absolutely love sense 5 on this phone. I admit I have had to as Nova and other launchers run like ass on it, but it's faster and smoother than any other launcher anyway, and blinkfeed is brilliant.
AOSP CM etc are so ugly and featureless compared to sense. There is no single feature on 4.2.2, CM, AOSP or any launcher, I would now take over sense.
All I would take is the gallery app fom HTC One X or from the Xperia Z
Well done HTC.

+1 to the OP!
I love Sense 5, running my device stock/unrooted for a week since I got it and really don't miss full AOSP atm. Great work by HTC devs with Sense 5.

Ok... Here's my confession... I love TouchWiz. Sense too. These two skins are far better than AOSP.
Sent from my HTC Droid DNA using XDA Premium HD

Hi, my name is xcomputerman and I'm a Sense lover.
My previous phone was a Galaxy S II. I managed Touchwiz for a few months but couldn't stand it anymore, so I finally went back to AOSP. For a while I spent time with ParanoidAndroid, then later gave up the joys of hybrid phabletism for the sheer purity of CM10.1. It was Android nirvana. Or so I thought.
HTC's Sense 5 has blown me away. It is better than stock Android. Flat out better. I'll say it. I do have a couple of niggles with it (I'd rather have BlinkFeed as a home screen widget instead of the way they have the launcher set up), but man. Sense is slick. Slick, refined, polished. The email client is five times better than the stock Android one. The SMS app is gorgeous. The dialer is so sexy. The fonts are clean. I had this longstanding annoyance with AOSP email in that the formatting in Exchange email replies was always a little different/weird, but HTC does it right. Everything looks cohesive and well thought out. The camera app is brilliant. The syncing is really well done.
I'm not looking to go back to an AOSP ROM anytime soon. As it is, despite my annoyances with the sense launcher, I'm even hesitant to replace it with my favorite (Nova).
Well done, HTC. Well done.

rizevnarastek said:
I do find HTC's keyboard really great and full of features but I too think SwiftKey is the greatest (wish they had more themes)
...at least till Minuum takes over the wold
I think BlinkFeed is awesome. No more "what to do I'm bored" whenever I have a 2 minutes to check my phone. All the content I'm interested in is right there, waiting for me on the homescreen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me though BlinkFeed doesn't seem grown up enough. The selection is very limited and the app drawer is a nightmare lol
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

The things you like have nothing to do with the skin of the phone. HTC could have just made a new gallery, camera and keyboard app without changing anything else.
Just because someone is an AOSP lover doesnt mean that they love all the stock android apps as well.
And lol at the person who said that cm10 looks bland, well you know you can just theme it however you like!
Sent from my Nexus S using xda app-developers app

Gambler_3 said:
The things you like have nothing to do with the skin of the phone. HTC could have just made a new gallery, camera and keyboard app without changing anything else.
Just because someone is an AOSP lover doesnt mean that they love all the stock android apps as well.
And lol at the person who said that cm10 looks bland, well you know you can just theme it however you like!
Sent from my Nexus S using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Most themes are horrid . If you like a clean theme your going to have hard time with cm. And sooner or later everyone gets over flashing. I did it for 3 years but now I know it's not even worth it and for such people sense is more then perfect. Clean simple and elegant.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

I love Sense 5 too, but I miss the big Gallery widget very much! Don't understand why they threw out so many of the old widgets.

[Q] So, has anyone come to like TouchWiz?

After a tried & true CM guy (running it on my 3 tablets, 3 different phones), I'm not sure I can stand to lose some of the features that TW provides (unless of course they were runnable in AOSP):
- voice control of lock screen/camera
- air gestures
- all the S4 specific sensors
- and one lil thing I've come to like more than swiping between pages in the app draw: the pagination dots! I've come to really like those, especially since I've got like 8 pages of apps
I just wish I had the look of AOSP, configurability, control, etc.
One TW thing that irks me: apps drawer on the far right & not movable.

I use Nova launcher which lets you customize the look quite a bit. And all the TW goodies are still available.

I like touch wiz it ain't bad over all especially with some tweaking.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

Didn't like it when I got my epic 4g, but I got used to it after awhile.

After 4 years with Sence, I'm loving the look and features of TW.

I'm getting used to it. I got sick of Sense so its nice to have a change anyway. I just hate how resource hoggy it is.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda app-developers app

gharlane00 said:
I use Nova launcher which lets you customize the look quite a bit. And all the TW goodies are still available.
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Click to collapse
Great suggestion. I've got both Nova and Go launchers on my phone, and like what they do for me w/o messing with TW. I like Go a little better because it rotates the home screens with the device, something Nova does not.
I'm a fan of TW so far. I also came from the HTC Sense world, and while there are pluses and minuses to both, I'm overall happier with TW.

I really like the small things like the swiping texting or call when I contact lists, the direct call when you have a contact pulled up.
I like the number of texts, email or missed calls displayed on the app
So i have definitely grown to like tiuchwiz
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda premium

yea i love touch wiz and sense.. this is my 2 samsung phone.. i was with htc for a while.. i like the change.. i hate aosp.. i just cant get used to it..

I love TW!!! Coming from every rom you can find on my Evo3d the GS4 rocks!

jejb said:
Great suggestion. I've got both Nova and Go launchers on my phone, and like what they do for me w/o messing with TW. I like Go a little better because it rotates the home screens with the device, something Nova does not.
I'm a fan of TW so far. I also came from the HTC Sense world, and while there are pluses and minuses to both, I'm overall happier with TW.
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Click to collapse
For the record Nova lets you rotate your home screen as well.
I have never understood to intense hatred that still exists for TW. True at one point it was a smothering overlay that killed performance but now it is a smooth "MOD" that I like more than "Pure" android especially since Samsung's best goodies live on TW.
Let the flames begin!

This is the 11th Android phone I've owned, and for the first time ever I'm not in any hurry to flash an AOSP rom. TW really does offer a lot of features that I would miss if I went to AOSP. I'll probably try CM when we have a stable build, but in the meantime I really couldn't be more happy with this phone as it came out of the box.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda premium

gharlane00 said:
For the record Nova lets you rotate your home screen as well.
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Click to collapse
Thanks! I figured out where to select it. So now I'm back on Nova. But both are great launchers.

Me! I love TouchWiz from the SIII and onwards!
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium

Now if only TouchWiz + Halo together...

I was a big sense UI fan from the hero, Evo, Evo shift. I always kepts it on Sense ui even tho CM was a hell of a lot fast on it and didnt kill the battery as much. I liked the look and feel of sense ui. Then i went to the Sii and took some getting use to and since the SII i went to the SIII and now on the S4 and I have grown to love it. I still have Nova Launcher for a quick change if i get bored but i always end up back on TW.

The one thing I can't stand is the fact that the location of the app drawer is fixed.. If it weren't I would at least consider not using Holo Launcher

twaffle said:
Now if only TouchWiz + Halo together...
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I'd sh!t my pants... I PRAY that it come true soon. With all these amazing devs I wouldn't be surprised!

Joe0113 said:
I'd sh!t my pants... I PRAY that it come true soon. With all these amazing devs I wouldn't be surprised!
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I would think it'd be possible, depending on what TouchWiz does under the covers.
Really, I actually *like* TouchWiz on the S4. I haven't started playing with any ROM's even though I'm now rooted because I like the functionality I have and I'm afraid I'd lose it.

twaffle said:
I would think it'd be possible, depending on what TouchWiz does under the covers.
Really, I actually *like* TouchWiz on the S4. I haven't started playing with any ROM's even though I'm now rooted because I like the functionality I have and I'm afraid I'd lose it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TW custom ROMs have all of the TouchWiz features... hence why they are TouchWiz ROMs lol.