Stock Android vs. Android with a custom UI

Which experience do you prefer?

  • Total voters
    26
Quiz

Quiz

Gawd
Joined
Aug 25, 2010
Messages
647
Do you prefer the stock Android experience on Nexus devices or a custom UI from brands such as Sony, Samsung, LG, HTC, etc.?
 
You forgot to add neither or I don't care to the poll the answer that the vast majority of the world would probably choose. I do not give a rip if I have stock android or not what I care about is does the phone have the functions and features I am looking for. For instance stock android has been devoid of features at times that it should have had, companies stepped in to fill in these features. At that point I am not going to pick a stock android experience. Actually I have found that no company today and especially not google has done a good jump really putting any phone OS together. If I could make my own custom rom I would probably steal the stock capabilities from all different ROMs to get what would really make me happy. While some people will argue that OEMs change the stock android to try to trap people in their system I will argue that google has been too slow to implement features and that forced OEMs to make their own skins and implementations in order to stay competitive.

I view android just like windows. When a desire or need is identified someone makes a solution through an app most likely first, then the OEMs start to implement these things into the OS for better integration. If a need for hardware and software to work together exists the OEMS are first to solve the problem. Think the galaxy note and its digitizer and the software surrounding that. Eventually in the end google finally creates a universal solution to the problem in the OS. This is pretty much exactly how the desktop OS world has worked for decades.

Making a big deal out of the look or organization of the OS is ridiculous. Mostly because even if you like google better in a year or 2 they could change it all around just because they want to. And you can whine and cry about it or you can accept it for what it is, just an OS who gives a rip how exactly they do it?
 
Yeah, should have a "doesn't matter" option, as I've had and have stock and skinned Android devices and can appreciate both if done right. I currently have an HTC M8 on the stock/rooted Lollipop ROM and have no complaints. I'm actually looking forward to Sense 7 for the added theming and nav bar customizations it adds. I'm sure I can do the same things through Xposed since I'm rooted, but getting these things straight from the OEM in the stock ROM are much better implementations with a negligible risk of stability issues.

I actually prefer some of Sense's UI changes over stock Android too, such as the multitasking menu showing multiple tiles at once rather than a bunch of cards you have to scroll through (which it still gives you the option of using in Lollipop). There also seems to be little to no impact on performance with Sense, which is most important to me.

Really the only downside to the OEM skins at this point is the delay they're responsible for when a new Android update comes out. Though it has gotten better for the most part, HTC promises to update their flagships within 90 days after an Android release, which is reasonable, IMO. They missed that window with Lollipop, but I believe it was due to Lollipop having some rather nasty bugs in the source to begin with and I don't blame them for delaying it until Google fixed it.

It seems Samsung fixed most of the performance issues they had in their Touchwiz UI in the S6 as well, but that may be due to the much faster hardware (specifically the big jump to UFS 2.0 NAND memory), so I'm not sure that performance boost is going to make it to the older Note 4, S5, and previous flagships, which is sad because there's no reason why those devices should noticeably lag behind other devices on similar hardware.
 
His poll DOESN'T fail... why? He is giving you two options. Pick the one you prefer. Don't want to participate? Go find another thread to crap on. :)
 
QwertyJuan said:
His poll DOESN'T fail... why? He is giving you two options. Pick the one you prefer. Don't want to participate? Go find another thread to crap on. :)
Click to expand...

But I like both equally for their own reasons. So which do I choose..? Lol :p
 
I much prefer stock Android. That said the latest versions of Sense aren't bad. They're still fairly stockish while making it a nice different. LG's skin isn't bad. Pretty stockish and they even give you the option to make it more stockish. Moto is pretty stockish as well.

TouchWiz is just a pile of steaming shit no matter what.
 
1. Stock Android that does get updated straight from Google
2. Stock Android that doesn't get updated from Google but will be updated by the likes of CM or Paranoid (oxygen)
3. Stock Android that doesn't get updated like in them Blu devices

These stock experiences are vastly different from each other. So I'm throwing my vote away by not voting for stock. Making it not unanimous.
 
T4rd said:
It seems Samsung fixed most of the performance issues they had in their Touchwiz UI in the S6 as well
Click to expand...
I doubt it. We go through this every year with Samsung, initial reviews show that all of their problems are resolved and then ownership ends up being a total nightmare. My wife's Note Edge is a disaster and I remember hearing about how the 5th generation was the Galaxy's savior. Turns out it's just as awful as ever.
 
I just got an update on my Galaxy S5 that makes the phone almost unusable. Almost every time I hit the home button, it opens up Google Now. The only way that I was able to get rid of of it was a soft reset. Annoying, to say the least.
 
This is a tough one. When I'm using a Samsung device sometimes I'll want the stripped down stock android. Then when I'm using a nexus I want a little more to the UI.

LG has gotten good with the g2 and g3 ui, Motorola is also pretty good as well.

I always end up with a galaxy device tho because they are sold by ton and I always find a killer deal on their phones
 
TheOneKnownAsMe said:
I just got an update on my Galaxy S5 that makes the phone almost unusable. Almost every time I hit the home button, it opens up Google Now. The only way that I was able to get rid of of it was a soft reset. Annoying, to say the least.
Click to expand...

Factory reset, and if that doesn't fix it, then send a love letter to Samsung.
 
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