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Just pre-ordered an HTC One X + from AT&T today. Comes with JB 4.1 I believe. Coming from iPhone (jailbroken of course.) I see there was also a recent announcement, something about 4.2 being released by Google to VOSD. Read some of the improvements in 4.2 and would love to have them. But frankly, I don't want to spend hours futzing with my phone or risk bricking it. On the other hand, I don't want to wait 6 months for HTC to release a 4.2 update.
Without any prior experience can someone throw me a bone. Will there be a 4.2 ROM here I can download that will be stable and how long do you estimate before it is available versus waiting for HTC?
I've heard good things about Sense, but if I consider myself to now be a lifelong Android user, isn't it better to get used to using a vanilla version of the OS instead of using some manufacturer-specific overlay like Sense? So should I install a custom ROM no matter what from that perspective or will I loose to many conveniences/features specific to the phone?
Finally, will I be able to go back to stock HTC ROM (whatever is the most recent version) for warranty/resale purposes if I don't wait for the HTC upgrades?
I believe the JB 4.2 was only released yesterday with the sale opening for the Nexus 4/10. I am not really bothered as there are only "cosmetic" updates anyway like this orb pic shooting cam setting and dop down notification.
I got my HOX+ yesterday, after being very happy with the HOX since it was releases in April. And I have to say, so far unlocking/rooting the HOX + is not really necessary or a thing that needs to be done as soon as the batterry has charged to full the very first time you have it in your hands.
HOX+ with HTCs Sense is running very well, smooth as hell. And while I don't like the Sense launcher as it is restricting too much my daily use, I find alternative launcher much better..they provide amazing eye candy. In particular the Apex launcher is worth to have a look at.
But the integration of Sense is the background is just great, Contacts/phone/social media integration is basically perfect, as is the Google calender and in particular Google Now.
There also is a noticable improvement with the sound quality, and sound is mind blowing with the alternative player PowerAmp.
Development will take off for the HOX+ soon, and devs are already on it. Once CWM is up and running I will also unlock/root, if only for for the adblock
I am not a fan of AOSP as it is too stripped down for me. But that is pure personal taste.
Give the development a few weeks, in my opinion the HOX+ is already coming out of the box an amazing piece of technology, and Sense together with JB 4.1.1 is a very good user experience!
So in a way, it seems you could consider Sense a package of apps/features, that you might otherwise install over the vanilla OS anyway? I suppose when I think about it, I spent hours to jailbreak and install Cydia apps on my iPhone to customize how the lock screen works, notification works, the spring board works, the wallpapers work, etc. So even though iOS interface is consistent from version to version, I always modify it to my liking - essentially building my own "Sense" for iPhone.
One thing I don't like is bloatware - apps installed that I don't need but can't install. And I'm sure the AT&T One X+ comes with plenty of it? (At least in Windows PC's you can uninstall the stuff.) So my gut is telling me I will still probably end up rooting and going with a custom ROM anyway. I'm mainly looking for stability and consistency for years to come, despite what device I own. Not that learning a new interface "flavor" has a steep learning curve, but it would be nice to "standardize" on one "flavor" be it Sense or CM10 + some specific launcher app, etc etc. To be honest I don't have hours and hours to experiment anymore so it may be best to take what HTC gives me and be done with it. But I know I will crave 4.2 when available just to see what's improved (I've read about it - not groundbreaking but better), so I guess I'll probably cave and give at least one custom ROM a try. Makes the phone more unique too, which is kind of a novelty. But ya, this stuff we are talking about is foreign to probably 90% of the smartphone users out there. So the devices wouldn't sell as well as they do if they had issues or were hard to use out of the box!
hardstuffmuc said:
I believe the JB 4.2 was only released yesterday with the sale opening for the Nexus 4/10. I am not really bothered as there are only "cosmetic" updates anyway like this orb pic shooting cam setting and dop down notification.
I got my HOX+ yesterday, after being very happy with the HOX since it was releases in April. And I have to say, so far unlocking/rooting the HOX + is not really necessary or a thing that needs to be done as soon as the batterry has charged to full the very first time you have it in your hands.
HOX+ with HTCs Sense is running very well, smooth as hell. And while I don't like the Sense launcher as it is restricting too much my daily use, I find alternative launcher much better..they provide amazing eye candy. In particular the Apex launcher is worth to have a look at.
But the integration of Sense is the background is just great, Contacts/phone/social media integration is basically perfect, as is the Google calender and in particular Google Now.
There also is a noticable improvement with the sound quality, and sound is mind blowing with the alternative player PowerAmp.
Development will take off for the HOX+ soon, and devs are already on it. Once CWM is up and running I will also unlock/root, if only for for the adblock
I am not a fan of AOSP as it is too stripped down for me. But that is pure personal taste.
Give the development a few weeks, in my opinion the HOX+ is already coming out of the box an amazing piece of technology, and Sense together with JB 4.1.1 is a very good user experience!
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Just to chime in. I'm coming from 4 years of iPhone (still have my 4S and from the day I turned on the X+, I was in wow factor! Device runs SMOOTH as heck, responsiveness is more than I expected, just overall Great experience overall. That being said, I still want to be able to customize it even more. My iPhone had all the tweaks, theming, etc that truly made it my experience. So, i'm new to the whole "rooting" for Android devices as I'm a Mac guy also, but have a PC on standby waiting for instructions.
I'm really excited to actually take the dive in Android and especially with this particular device!
sense UI is the best for me among all the launchers.
i don't mind 4.1.1 vs 4..2 i don't think there's much changes anyways.
I have Jellybean 4.2 on my Nexus 7 and my old GNex. It is really buggy and the UI changes suck. There is battery drain, slow charging, instability and BT is broken. I rather have a stable Jellybean 4.1 and get a stable 4.2 in a few months on my Hox+.
Hellion said:
Just to chime in. I'm coming from 4 years of iPhone (still have my 4S and from the day I turned on the X+, I was in wow factor! Device runs SMOOTH as heck, responsiveness is more than I expected, just overall Great experience overall. That being said, I still want to be able to customize it even more. My iPhone had all the tweaks, theming, etc that truly made it my experience. So, i'm new to the whole "rooting" for Android devices as I'm a Mac guy also, but have a PC on standby waiting for instructions.
I'm really excited to actually take the dive in Android and especially with this particular device!
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I had a 4S for a time. Customising it was a pain in the arse. I'll be glad if I never see cydia again . You can customise a lot of android without needing to root. But some things like taskbar icons, transparency effects for system apps, bootlogo's, system transition effects ect. You need to be rooted for.
AndroHero said:
I had a 4S for a time. Customising it was a pain in the arse. I'll be glad if I never see cydia again . You can customise a lot of android without needing to root. But some things like taskbar icons, transparency effects for system apps, bootlogo's, system transition effects ect. You need to be rooted for.
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Is there a verified working root for us ATT users yet? Saw a lot of talk about one which is why I'm asking. If so, any moon steps on how to root? I need it mainly for titanium backup to backup data files too and more tweaks.
Also hope someone can fix the broken Steele headset controls for this dang phone. All u can do is pause and play tracks from your wired or Bluetooth headset. Can't change tracks nor adjust volume from your stereo headset, huge fail for me! At the gym 5 days a week for hours and nothing worse then pulling this link out of my pocket the whole workout to manually change tracks and adjust volume for certain songs.
So I've seen this word thrown around a lot since switching to Android from my old iPhail 3G (yes, I actually lived with that horrible laggy device for ~4 years) and in comparisons between Android and iOS (which I'm not trying to get into here). I've also read lots of people saying Jelly Bean was supposed to be 'snappier' compared to ICS. I wasn't sure if they were referring to lag as in fps or a delay in reaction. My Note II is currently stock 4.1.1, but I'm definitely noticing some delay in games, such as Air Hockey, between moving my finger on the screen and the paddle moving in the game, for example. It's quite noticeable in apps like Maps too. I had the Galaxy S III for a short time before I decided I wanted the bigger (and better specs) Note II, but not long enough to make any comparisons. My question is, is there a way to increase the snappyness without doing anything too dramatic, such as flashing a different ROM, etc. Or will a ROM like beanstown106's Jelly Beans help? Or is this a problem that is inherently part of Android operating system/devices? Thanks in advance.
marcmy said:
will a ROM like beanstown106's Jelly Beans help? .
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I can tell you that flashing beans ROM made absolutely no speed difference whatever over my previous debloated/rooted stock ROM (and I didn't really expect it to)
One thing is, it is noticeably laggy when running the inferno galaxy live wallpaper, but pretty much instant response with regular WP.
The "snappieness" in individual apps is really down to the app itself combined with phone specs.
Poorly coded apps may have lag.
High end apps may push the hardware harder and cause lag.
I would bet its mostly the former when it comes to the Note 2.
Samsung also put touchwiz on these phones, which does affect overall performance to some degree. If we get the ability to remove much of it in favor of AOSP versions, then it should perform a little better overall.
The differences between iPhones and Android... is that Apple focuses on user interaction over all other things. So this means they will sacrifice performance in other areas to ensure that user interactions are kept smooth, or at least keep the appearance of smoothness. For example, iOS will stop loading web pages when you start to scroll the screen, so the CPU can focus on smooth scrolling. This means that the page will never finish loading if you keep scrolling around on the screen. Android does not do this or these kind of things. The new "project butter" implemented in JB is designed to help smooth out the interface and user interactions, without sacrificing performance in other areas. Its not perfect though, and it requires good specs and more power than the iOS way of "one thing at a time".
Great response ty very much. I guess next question is will we be able to get those AOSP versions later on or are we SOL in that department?
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app
Depends on which version you have.
I am on Verizon, so my device is locked down, other versions are not.
This device is also unique in the fact it has a Wacom stylus and functionality, so that must be considered.
Often times, you can swap things out without too much issue. AOSP lockscreen instead of touchwiz lockscreen... AOSP launcher instead of touchwiz launcher... without too much trouble. Problem is, underneath the ROM is still touchwiz... or at least that is how it worked on HTC Sense phones. (this is my first touchwiz device) HTC do a lot of work to the underlying framework which meant wholesale replacement of everything wasn't possible, so it depends on how much Samsung changed Android to put touchwiz on it.
Basically they "DE-Touchwiz" the phone and do some background tweaks for added performance, plus they "de-bloat the ROM. (they remove all the unnecessary crap that the carriers and Samsung put in, that served them some benefit, but not benefit the users) The advantage of this method is that you can keep much of the functionality of the stylus.
Another method is to use a ROM based on stock, but tweaked and de-bloated. This usually retains all the functionality of the device as it came out of the box... but the performance is usually only a little better than stock, and less than one where the AOSP stuff has been put in. This method does allow you to keep most of the stylus functionality.
As far as straight up custom ROMs based on AOSP...
They usually offer the best performance for a given device, having no extra crap, and being tweaked for performance... But you will lose most if not all the stylus functionality. Some ROMs may have limited stylus functionality, but they have to put that in themselves, meaning more work on their part.
As far as performance gains... I can only speak of HTC Sense devices with sureness. Where pure AOSP usually had significant improvements to performance/battery life. (mostly due to how extensive Sense is, touchwiz may be better in this regaurd) "De-sensed" ROMs where they removed all of the Sense stuff they could and replaced with AOSP equivalents, had good performance increases. "De-bloated" and tweaked but otherwise stock ROMs had some improvement.
But as was said, the stylus functionality is something that must be considered when looking at ROMs
After using AOSP ROMs quite extensively in both of my two Galaxy 3s, I have no desire whatever to run those type ROMs in my Note 2 (and lose things like pen functionality).
I could never see any performance difference whatever (except maybe in useless benchmarks) between a completely debloated TW ROM with all the features working perfectly and a buggy AOSP ROM in my G3s (and I tried every G3 ROM available at least twice).
Posters where constantly claiming this ROM is PERFECT when discussing any AOSP ROM but two posts later someone else would post "can anybody get NFL Mobile to work??" The next post would say "that has never worked in AOSP but I never use it anyway so who cares........"
Good call. I'd rather keep most functionality
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app
You could go into a store and try some of those games out on a DNA. Hopefully some are free so you don't have to put your google account in the play store and then clear the data. The DNA's gpu is much faster. It sounds like it's the app coding though. I don't have any input lag with on screen buttons playing GTA or N64oid, and emulators are pretty heavy on the processor.
Are you comfortable in your own skin? Is your phone comfortable in its skin? Rate this thread to express how you deem the skin on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. A higher rating indicates that you love it: it adds just the right amount of features, it's visually pleasing, and overall it's additive to the experience. If this is a Nexus phone (you didn't think we hand-wrote all of these prompts, did you?) then use this rating to indicate how the latest version of Android looks to you.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
Icons are a bit boring, side panels need more work and you cannot create your own themes.
I'm a Nova user but so far I'm on board for TouchWiz. I applied some basic themes (Vanilla, Android 6.0) and those assuaged any issues I had with the skin/icons. I also realized you still keep Samsung Pay and Edge panels even using another launcher so for me that's another nod to TW/Samsung for not hiding killer features while using another launcher. The Settings UI is much better and easier to digest. All the gimmicky "s" modes are gone or buried away from the Quick Settings. So I could roll either way. Overall I'd give this high marks knowing if I get bored I can always go back Nova.
Tolerable after disabling bloat.
touchwiz is better, but still not as good as nova. putting nova prime on it, and a new darker theme, this thing is slick. i love it. but i absolutely HATE the new, so called security feature, that makes you put in your password after a reboot, instead of just allowing you to use fingerprints. i mean, that's why we setup fingerprints, and i'm yet to understand how typing in your password in front of strangers is more secure than just using your fingerprint?
ive never disliked tw and don't understand why prefer opted for vanilla android, i mean N is only now bringing features that samsung phones have had for literally, years.
design is mediocre
not much change from samsung n8010 ui
as soon as root possible without losing any abilities/priviledges including google pay, samsung pay & my knox
Its a lil boring but better than ios. Looking forward to N.
The only bad thing with this year's Samsung skin is that we will recieve android 7 later. But we already have android n features like split screen view,clear all...touchwiz is full of features and that's why i like it. I don't care if i will have a 5k boost in score on antutu if i only have my phone to call and message people. Touchwiz is awesome.
Again,the only bad thing is that the devs need a lot of time to skin newer versions of android
I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet, but the emojis for the S7E are IMO hideous (not stock Android) and impossible to change without rooting and voiding your warranty.
I can't link to them, but you can easily find them yourself and see if they fit your style.
I use Nova Prime and bought a custom TW theme from the theme store to give me the look I want in SystemUI, Phone, Messages, and such. I use a Cobalt Icon set, and custom wallpapers. It's very tolerable with this setup.
apprentice said:
Icons are a bit boring, side panels need more work and you cannot create your own themes.
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Samsung theme editor...
stevae said:
touchwiz is better, but still not as good as nova. putting nova prime on it, and a new darker theme, this thing is slick. i love it. but i absolutely HATE the new, so called security feature, that makes you put in your password after a reboot, instead of just allowing you to use fingerprints. i mean, that's why we setup fingerprints, and i'm yet to understand how typing in your password in front of strangers is more secure than just using your fingerprint?
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That's an Android thing now not a Samsung or TW thing. It does that on both my S7E and Nexus 6P.
RileyIssKing said:
Samsung theme editor...
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My post was back in March, I bought a Note 7 but after the recall I am now back with the S7 Edge and it's much better now, especially with theming
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The camera features are very difficult to access, thanks to the tiny buttons which fail to register everytime unless you are a sharp 'shooter' with your thumb. I wish they increase the size of in-camera buttons such as that of Large Eyes, Manual Focus arrows, etc. What do you all think of this?
Hello again everyone,
Interesting conversation I want to have with users here; which Android skin do you like most and why?
Obviously AOSP != what Pixels run.
What if a future Honor device ran Android One/Go? Would that be enough to convince you buy one? What if Kirin hardware was still used even with Android One?
What do you like and not like about EMUI?
Really want to get your all's input and feedback.
AOSP has always been my favorite, primarily because it adheres to Google's design standards, and theoretically allows OEMs to deliver faster updates overall.
Skins like EMUI deter from Material Design a fair bit, and it makes it fragments the experience in that sense. It looks too much like iOS, but honestly, I don't mind it too much, because the features it brings with it are actually useful rather than bloat (I'm not saying EMUI is exempt from bloat). Overall, it's a good stock experience, but not something I'd run.
AOSP is also very flexible with projects here on XDA, and it allows for the ease of development and synchrony.
The code is generally cleaner than the additional stuff that OEMs add, and there usually a performance benefit. Skins usually overdo it (I'm looking at you Amazon), and it detracts from what we come to expect from Android itself.
And finally, I'm not sure why, but devices that ship with AOSP-esque ROMs generally feel more premium. Probably because there is less useless garbage.
Those are just my quick thoughts. I hope Honor puts the feedback to use
EMUI tries too much to be like ios. EMUI doesnt incorporate Googles material design. EMUI needs to follow Android design guidelines and features. The share menu looks and functuion like IOS why? We need a better lqauncher. the icons are ios inspired.
Miui und EMUI feel like the interpretation of a 13 years old fan boy of how his phone should work and look like. While AOSP looks much more mature in total feel.
I switched from a phone running Near-AOSP Android 7.1 and now 8.0 to my first EMUI 8.0 device.
EMUI 8.0 on my Mate 10 Pro is a flaming piece of sh*t.
I don't even care about the design. Yeah, it looks like iOS puked all over Android KitKat after a drunken stupor - but that can mostly be remedied with a custom launcher and/or an EMUI theme.
I don't even care that the settings menu feels like it was organized by someone trying to hide their porn collection inside a labyrinth of subfolders back in the 90s. It's stupid, but you get used to it.
I *do* care about the insane amount of things that Huawei/Honor actively broke, removed or replaced with ****tier versions of the same thing.
That things that don't work is staggering:
* Many widgets don't reliably update, they simply die after a while and never show new information. Even Google Widgets are affected, like Google News & Weather.
* Notifications are unreliable. If you don't use an app for a while, don't expect to get any more notifications until you open it - even after fully whitelisting it from everything. I missed several important Facebook Messenger messages because of this. And if Do Not Disturb is enabled, notifications aren't just silenced, they frequently simply disappear into nowhere.
* Some apps simply can never show notifications when in the background on EMUI for more than half an hour, no whitelisting possible.
* Forget about running apps in the background long term, they are frozen eventually, regardless of your settings. And, no, not via Android Doze but via Huawei's own battery management that has all the surgical precision of a sledgehammer.
* You can't disable many system sounds. They also ignore the do not disturb setting and play full volume regardless (like the battery charging sound).
* You can't enable "Do not disturb" for x minutes/hours - that was removed for no reason at all.
* The AOD is essentially useless, it only supports Huawei's own apps, nothing else.
* Lock screen messages can't be expanded or interacted with - the arrow to expand them exists but doesn't do anything.
* You can't even set WiFi connections as metered, the feature was removed - you can't limit background traffic for those connections in EMUI. Forget about ever using a mobile or otherwise metered hotspot with EMUI.
* AdGuard doesn't survive a network connectivity change. When it reconfigures the VPN connection the battery manager kills it, regardless of whitelisting. The only workaround is to never let it reconfigure.
* You can't configure your billing cycle. If it doesn't start at the beginning of the month you are out of luck. One of the many, many native Android features that were simply removed in EMUI with a sledgehammer for no sane reason at all.
* You can't reliably set default apps or even launchers, EMUI loves to reset them back to default randomly. So you launcher of choice decided to roll out an update on the Play Store? Time to enjoy Huawei's launcher again from now on ...
* The same goes for many settings, even in Huawei's own apps - many settings just don't "stick" and are reset after some hours or weeks.
* By default the battery management eventually even stops Chrome from running in the background. Which is the sole WebView provider - breaking just about anything that uses WebView. Insane. At least here the manual whitelisting works as a workaround.
* The camera shortcut was moved from the power button to the volume button for no sane reason, which means it doesn't work when you listen to anything or when the screen is on.
* It has a ludicrous amount of Bluetooth compatibility issues. You though Bluetooth on Stock Android could be iffy? It's compatibility heaven compared to what Huawei somehow managed to do with it.
* Huawei removed Google's Smart Lock and replaced it with ... Huawei Smart Unlock, which currently *only* supports Bluetooth unlock, nothing else, and naturally doesn't even do that reliably.
* You enjoy "OK Google"? Well, Huawei has "OK Emy" as the only assistant capable of waking the phone. It literally has exactly two features (find phone, make a call) and the only semi useful one does not work - at all.
It's the dumbest, most infuriatingly, most idiotic take on Android I have ever experienced.
I still *love* the hardware of the Mate 10 Pro. It's near perfect for me: It's beautiful, fast, great display, amazing build quality and the best battery life and fastest fingerprint sensor of any current flagship.
But I hate EMUI's guts after a couple of months with it. And I really, really tried to like it.
Seriously, why anyone would prefer EMUI over AOSP, or pretty much any other Android skin, is beyond me.
I just miss an Android experience that just works and that I don't feel like I'm constantly fighting. I still love Huawei's hardware, but I'll avoid future EMUI phones like the plague.
freibooter said:
Seriously, why anyone would prefer EMUI over AOSP, or pretty much any other Android skin, is beyond me.
I just miss an Android experience that just works and that I don't feel like I'm constantly fighting. I still love Huawei's hardware, but I'll avoid future EMUI phones like the plague.
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Just trying to understand users. Some like features from skins that AOSP doesnt offer.
Really appreciate what was stated. I too wish notifications on the lockscreen were improved. Hope to continue the trend to make improvements with EMUI and listen to our users
[email protected]_USA said:
Just trying to understand users. Some like features from skins that AOSP doesnt offer.
Really appreciate what was stated. I too wish notifications on the lockscreen were improved. Hope to continue the trend to make improvements with EMUI and listen to our users
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Please try a stable custom rom like Omni ROM and you will understand that most people here on XDA just want good developer support. AOSP doesn't have features but it is designed well and less in your face like EMUI. And those that are here on XDA probably root it and install a custom ROM that is based on AOSP with added features without the cartoon like UI that some custom skins like Samsung, Huawei, LG provide.
syl0n said:
Please try a stable custom rom like Omni ROM and you will understand that most people here on XDA just want good developer support. AOSP doesn't have features but it is designed well and less in your face like EMUI. And those that are here on XDA probably root it and install a custom ROM that is based on AOSP with added features without the cartoon like UI that some custom skins like Samsung, Huawei, LG provide.
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I've personally used custom ROMs through my android history of close to 2 dozen devices. AICP, DU, AOSPA, LOS, Slim, RR, etc etc. been apart of the XDA community for close to 8 years.
I really want to support the dev community and have a passion for it. :good:
[email protected]_USA said:
Which Android skin do you like most and why?
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I prefer pure Android itself over OEM's skins. Why? It is not only the cleanest, but it's also way smoother and i have also nothing to complain about AOSP. One example (of many out there) could be Huawei Nova which I've owned. It was way smoother with LOS 14 and also had much better battery backup. It might be featureless compared to OEM's skins, but how many of us actually use all the features implemented by OEM? I personally don't.
Sometimes simplicity is the best.
What if a future Honor device ran Android One/Go? Would that be enough to convince you buy one?
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Only Honor ones? Anyway, yes, that'd convince me. I don't care about Android One program, but I do care about AOSP.
What if Kirin hardware was still used even with Android One?
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No, then I wouldn't consider it. The reason I've bought Huawei Nova was because it had Qualcomm, otherwise I wouldn't have bought any Huawei. Qualcomm is popular and easier to develop for (correct me if I'm wrong). IMO, this is one of the reasons why XDA forums for Huawei are dead.
What do you like and not like about EMUI?
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Things I like:
Lockscreen - I really like how the lockscreen looks, especially with a cool wallpaper. I'd choose this lockscreen anytime over AOSP's one as I like that's not "blurred", that I can see the wallpaper properly on a good screen. It just looks gorgeous. The widgets which can be accessed from the bottom is also nice. Would've been nicer if we could also choose own actions for that widgets.
White-blue themed - I love this man. I've always wanted this kind of theme.
Things I don't like:
Phone Manager - Man, this is just bull****. Apps are getting killed even after disabling the options in Phone Manager to not kill them. It's the most annoying thing. It's known that task killers are harmful for Android, yet that's what you're doing. Just let Android handle the things how it was meant to, it doesn't need task killers or some kind of RAM management. I also don't like the fact that battery stats is implemented in that and after removing Phone Manager, you no longer can see the battery stats, and if I remember properly, the option to block calls is also gone. That virus scanner is another ****. I mean, come on... It would have been so much better without this ****, Phone Manager. It's not only a bloatware, but it's also harmful.
Kernel - it's a mess. Just few examples: root scanner and some other protection which I don't remember right now (was related to rw system if I'm not mistaken), some configs in defconfig with "HISI" in the name are enabled on Nova which has Qualcomm. On top of this, you're providing the kernel as tarball making it hard to remove your **** for someone which is not pro, like me. I'm not the only one who said that your kernels are a mess.
Dark notification panel - Why black? Just why? Why didn't you make it white-blue themed just like the rest of the skin? It would have looked so much better. Dark one just doesn't make sense IMO when EMUI is white-themed. I'd have understood if EMUI was black themed, but it isn't.
Bloatware - removable, but still.
Privacy - I care so much about this and I doubt about it on EMUI, no matter what you would say. I haven't checked, but I'm sure that's possible to check out if there's something going on in the background. It's not like you would be the only OEM doing it though.
Screen Recorder - it's laggy and you better wouldn't have added it. I've recorded my Nova's screen when I've been on AOSPExtended even when gaming and there's no lag when I'm watching the recorded video. It was same on LOS, but I think it was slightly better on AEX. I haven't tried to record screen through terminal command on EMUI though, so I don't know if it could be better.
There were more things I like / don't like at EMUI, but right now nothing else cross my mind.
I had a list with things I like and I don't like in an app on my Nova and there were more things, but I've forgot what I've wrote there. Since it's broken, I can't access it, but I think I had a backup of that app made with Titanium Backup, so maybe I'll grab it through TWRP and restore it on my old phone to check.
I remember though that on the list I don't like was persistent notifications and seeing 0mb at apps in Developer Options > Running services, but when I've tried the last update they were actually solved (persistent notifications were really persistent and I could see the proper RAM usage at apps).
Why I won't buy Huawei anymore as of now:
I'd say that the percent is 99%.
EMUI - already listed some things I don't like and some of them are annoying af. As I've said, I have nothing to complain about AOSP, no annoying things or whatsoever.
Huawei support - this is a joke IMO. Lemme give examples. Huawei Nova came with Marshmallow (EMUI 4.1). You've updated it to EMUI 5 and even today it doesn't have a rollback update to go back to EMUI 4.1. Basically, people are stuck with EMUI 5 and obliged to accept your new changes which may not like. There's no full EMUI 4.1 firmware on Firmware Finder and the only way to go back to EMUI 4.1 is to unlock the bootloader, install TWRP and restore a backup of EMUI 4.1, only if you're lucky to get one from someone else. When I've asked Huawei support about rollback update, they've said about going to service. Well, **** that.
Second example is about the kernel source. You've uploaded EMUI 5 kernel source for a Chinese model of Huawei Nova and there was no EMUI 5 kernel source uploaded/mentioned for CAN-L11 and the other models. I've asked several times Huawei support about publishing the source for CAN-L11 and I've been told the same thing always. After a long time (couple of months), I've seen that there was a new category on their opensource website, with EMUI 5 kernel source for CAN-L11 and other models. I've downloaded it and compared it with the first EMUI 5 kernel source released which was for a Chinese version and I was surprised to see that's the ****ing same source code. Basically you've uploaded the same source after a long time and made a new category on your website where you've added the rest of the models at one source when you could mention the compatible models from the beginning or editing your website...
The kernel is a mess - already said it before...
Kirin chipsets - I've never used one and i would never use one.
XDA support - kinda all Huawei phones are dead on XDA. Some of the things listed before should be helping this.
That's pretty much all I had to say. If you're really looking into making changes, then I'll also be looking forward to those changes. I hope you're actually willing to make changes and that this thread won't be useless.
I'd really consider Huawei again if it's gonna have AOSP / Android One and Qualcomm chipset.
PS: Just noticed that there was a typo ("bloatwait" instead bloatware lol). I'm sorry if there's more typos/mistakes. I've wrote on my old phone which is a Galaxy S Advance with 4 inch screen and the keyboard is small...
I have used every single OEM based distro since the beginning of android. I have to say that out of all of them Sense was the one I liked the best. Here are my reasons why.
1. They had their own style (original Sense versions) They didn't copy anyone else. This is a big deal really. I personally am not a fan of material design. It looks very childish and unprofessional.
2. Added features that didn't bog down the UI (Hey Samsung)
3. They didn't add useless features just because everyone else did.
Now these things have changed as of late and I wouldn't use the new HTC sense (was part of their beta group at one time. They didnt listen)
With people using things like custom launchers, icon packs, themes and wallpaper apps like KLWP the over all UI of the OS really doesnt matter as its almost never seen. I mean how many times does someone really go into settings outside the first time setup? The notification shade is the major thing of the underlying OS that people see the most.
Android Go is really pointless unless you plan on lowering the specs of the honor devices. They lose functionality which is pointless if the hardware good enough for the standard version.
As for the chip. Well really that will only matter if the team puts in the time to help developers with documentation for working with the chip. This is the reason for the support of qualcomm chips. They have gone out of their way over the years helping developers with documentation and apis for working with the chips. You provide this and it will help alot.
I want to say Aosp will make you guys a Huge hit all around the globe. Especially if you bring Aosp over One flagship and one budget phone.
Personally i love emui. But market more oriented to Aosp
I'd take the Nokia approach to this matter. Since Huawei uses their AI mostly in the camera app, I'd love if there was an honor flagship running android one software and Huawei / honor camera app. Also, the background user data analysis for better battery and resource optimisations, claimed to be in EMUI 8 are being implemented in android P, so it's a win win for both the company and the customers
For those that are claiming aosp is the way to go atop and think about this. Samsung is the biggest Android oem and it is not because it get aosp. It's because of the features that touch Wiz offers that Google doesn't. Aosp really is bare bones enough that it can be compared to running Linux on a pc. It works but not as full featured or as well as something built for the hardware.
zelendel said:
For those that are claiming aosp is the way to go atop and think about this. Samsung is the biggest Android oem and it is not because it get aosp. It's because of the features that touch Wiz offers that Google doesn't. Aosp really is bare bones enough that it can be compared to running Linux on a pc. It works but not as full featured or as well as something built for the hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Completely agree with you man, but Honor doesn't really have much hardware differentiation like Samsung has infinity displays and S pen. All other EMUI features like Knock gestures are barely used and features like app twin can be done using a third party app like parallel space. But the benefits that Android one like ROM offers, like smoother UI experience and enabling faster updates with little to no feature exclusions. So I beg to differ in my opinion that OEM skin (EMUI) offers any benefits over Aosp.
iamsabresh said:
Completely agree with you man, but Honor doesn't really have much hardware differentiation like Samsung has infinity displays and S pen. All other EMUI features like Knock gestures are barely used and features like app twin can be done using a third party app like parallel space. But the benefits that Android one like ROM offers, like smoother UI experience and enabling faster updates with little to no feature exclusions. So I beg to differ in my opinion that OEM skin (EMUI) offers any benefits over Aosp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But see android one is a watered down version of android really. To be honest honor software is over all crap. I'm not sure who they ha E writing the software but they should be demoted.
zelendel said:
But see android one is a watered down version of android really. To be honest honor software is over all crap. I'm not sure who they ha E writing the software but they should be demoted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was just stating my opinion and I truly believe android one or stock android, for that matter, make a midrange phone, with lesser CPU power and RAM, perform equal to Honor / Huawei's 2017-18 flagship, the View 10 or the Mate 10 pro, running EMUI, and having better battery backup. I agree that EMUI is okayish to an extent because it is better than any other custom skins except Oxygen OS, but fragmenting the UI into region based firmware is a completely useless thing to do, considering that it slows down updates, takes more human resources to develop updates to separate regions and not to mention that they state regional feature prioritisation as the reason, but most of the basic features are common and they just add bloat like Paytm integration in Indian version and stuff like a separate Huawei app store on the international version, which is essentially useless because of all the stocks being updated either through the playstore or OTAs. Just My Opinion and I speak only for myself.
iamsabresh said:
I was just stating my opinion and I truly believe android one or stock android, for that matter, make a midrange phone, with lesser CPU power and RAM, perform equal to Honor / Huawei's 2017-18 flagship, the View 10 or the Mate 10 pro, running EMUI, and having better battery backup. I agree that EMUI is okayish to an extent because it is better than any other custom skins except Oxygen OS, but fragmenting the UI into region based firmware is a completely useless thing to do, considering that it slows down updates, takes more human resources to develop updates to separate regions and not to mention that they state regional feature prioritisation as the reason, but most of the basic features are common and they just add bloat like Paytm integration in Indian version and stuff like a separate Huawei app store on the international version, which is essentially useless because of all the stocks being updated either through the playstore or OTAs. Just My Opinion and I speak only for myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It won't make it equal to a flagship, it will just make a mid range not suck as much.
zelendel said:
It won't make it equal to a flagship, it will just make a mid range not suck as much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly my point. But when you take a powerful midranger like a Nokia 7+ and compare it with an honor flagship running EMUI, say a View 10, I agree that the raw power of the CPU or the SoC would make the flagship open apps much quicker and load much faster, but since we are talking about UI experiences, we must touch the issues like memory management, resource allocation, battery optimisations, etc. I'd say based on my usage that once the apps are loaded onto memory on both phones, I find switching apps and multitasking a bit smoother on the stock android (android one) and with very comparable battery sizes (3800 vs 3750 mAh), the Nokia 7+ provides a bit more extended D battery life on heavy usage. Light to moderate usage yields very much the same battery life of around 7.5 - 8 hrs SoT, but think of what honor phones with flagship specs could achieve with android one or stock android. I'd say that at this point, with very comparable hardware on almost all flagships, UI makes a lot of difference and I think EMUI, though providing a lot of features and is almost as fast as android one, I'd say the extra features added only weigh it down in terms of raw performance.
Pure Android is always better choice over other custom UIs. It is fast, smooth and lag free.
It is fine even if it doesn't have some customizations that other UIs offer.
EMUI memory management makes some apps does not work properly.
[email protected]_USA said:
Hello again everyone,
Interesting conversation I want to have with users here; which Android skin do you like most and why?
Obviously AOSP != what Pixels run.
What if a future Honor device ran Android One/Go? Would that be enough to convince you buy one? What if Kirin hardware was still used even with Android One?
What do you like and not like about EMUI?
Really want to get your all's input and feedback.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Problem wid skin like emui is, OEMs take longer to bring android updates. More the skin is close to stock android more easier it is to give timely updates.
Honor itself has pathetic record in rolling out updates, that's the thing i dislike about emui
I’ve got a Pixel 2 and was weighing the pros & cons of upgrading to a Pixel 3 vs the S9 and was curious if anyone has any comments on this.
On paper, the S9 seems to be a better phone with a great screen and SD support but was wondering what the practical differences are. It’s been a while since I’ve owned a Samsung phone and it always seemed there were little quirks that would drive you nuts. In many ways the Pixel 2 is sooo boring, everything seems to work or at least I’ve had no major problems.
I have a Samsung Galaxy S9 and have ordered a Pixel 3. The S9 is a nice phone but I am irritated by all the Samsung stuff installed which I never use. I keep getting notifications about Samsung app updates and I usually haven't a clue about the app concerned. It's as if there are two layers of software and services - Google and Samsung and the Samsung layer keeps fighting with the Google layer. I suppose in real terms it doesn't matter and you just use the apps you want to use. I just don't like it there is a whole ecosystem there in which I have no interest but can't get rid of. There are even two app stores, the Play Store and the Samsung Store. The default cloud service is Samsung and your phone settings, photos etc. are backed up to Samsung by default. You can, of course, install Google Drive and have things baked up to the Google cloud but it's up to you to switch off the Samsung syncing. Photos go into the Samsung Gallery app and while you can install Google Photos your photos don't sync with the Google Photos app unless you open the app after taking some photos and then they appear. You delete a photo from the Gallery and it is still in Google Photos. You delete it from Google Photos and it's still in Samsung Gallery. If you set up the S9 to save your photos to an SD card then Google Photos can't delete them to save space. Lots and lots of things like this. If you are remotely OCD you won't be happy.
Im stepping away from Sammy for a little. Tired of same thing. Plus some things just give errors, like google maps... Samsung has this problem.... I love the phones tho, best of everything in them. Like I said i just phone something new.
My grape with Pix 3 is that the screen is small. I dont care for speakers. Oddly to say this but i wish Little pixel had a notch.
I did not order mine yet as i want to play with both sizes and see if I can commit to either. I really hope i will like Pixel 3 display.
thats why i cant stand samsung phones.. love the hardware, but the software is just bloated with tons of stuff that someone like me.. slightly minimalistic, and OCD, cant stand. i even bought an unlocked galaxy phone and still all the stock samsung crap just kept fighting. the pixel 3, is far better, sure maybe not as fancy with the curved screen, or whatever, but simple, and easy is better in my opinion. also, all the edge functions from the galaxy, now have edge apps to use on the pixel.
Personal opinion here:
Had an s8 before and agree with what everyone said. Brilliant phone and amazing hardware however the software experience wasn't the best. Hate the fact there were loads of apps I couldn't get rid of and because of it most experiences weren't seamless as they should. Ended up rooting it and installing a rom that didn't have a lot of bloat but some problems still persisted as there isn't lineageos for the s8 and I much prefer vanilla android .
Have had a pixel 3 for 3 weeks now and I can tell you this is the best Android experience I've had up until now. Everything is super smooth and the Google integration is flawless . The camera is brilliant and the no frills os just works as it should. I think the only downside is the battery life but hey,can't have it all!
I came from an S8 and I love the Pixel 3 Experience so far. I also owned a OnePlus 6T - which I returned.
The camera is fantastic (especially noticeable to me when the subject is in motion).
Battery life is fine (4+hrs SOT over 17 hours to 5%), way better than my 2 year old S8.
I like the simplicity of Pure Android
I do really miss a ringer button in the notification shade, though I am sure I will get used to the change
I also HATE that they (Google) opted for their own proprietary charging - makes it more like Apple and harder to switch (I have a bunch of chargers that fast charged my S8, 6T and every other phone I've owned that don't work the same on the P3). HATE THIS.
After only a few days, I miss the 6T launcher - very Pixel-esque BUT better gesture controls. I miss the 6T's battery life too. I really didn't like having a hardware switch for changing between ringer modes. That and lack of wireless charging, a so-so camera and a couple of other issues led me to try the Pixel.
ckelly33 said:
I also HATE that they (Google) opted for their own proprietary charging - makes it more like Apple and harder to switch (I have a bunch of chargers that fast charged my S8, 6T and every other phone I've owned that don't work the same on the P3). HATE THIS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be fair, Google is using Power Delivery which is a USB spec. The others are the ones using proprietary technology: "Qualcomm has its Quick Charge technology in a number of handsets. OPPO and OnePlus offer varieties of VOOC. MediaTek has Pump Express." Source: https://www.androidauthority.com/usb-power-delivery-806266/.
Apparently the new Quick Charge 4.0 is PD compliant though - so if Samsung moves to that in years to come (I think they still use 2.0 in their phones) then QC4.0 chargers will be more 'universal'
Are you sure you have chargers that fast charge Samsung and OnePlus? Not that I've looked hard, but I haven't seen chargers that do both Quick Charge and VOOC (Dash Charge)
Could be wrong but I sent that 6T back to it's maker.
piccit said:
To be fair, Google is using Power Delivery which is a USB spec. The others are the ones using proprietary technology: "Qualcomm has its Quick Charge technology in a number of handsets. OPPO and OnePlus offer varieties of VOOC. MediaTek has Pump Express." Source: https://www.androidauthority.com/usb-power-delivery-806266/.
Apparently the new Quick Charge 4.0 is PD compliant though - so if Samsung moves to that in years to come (I think they still use 2.0 in their phones) then QC4.0 chargers will be more 'universal'
Are you sure you have chargers that fast charge Samsung and OnePlus? Not that I've looked hard, but I haven't seen chargers that do both Quick Charge and VOOC (Dash Charge)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
I was having the same debate with myself on what phone to get. I also really like the s9s hardware, but I just can't freakin stand Samsung's bloat infested annoying software. If Samsung had made an android one S9 I would have been all over that.
Went with the pixel 3 and really like it, but miss the sd card and headphone jack.
I had those phones too. I keep on trying to get rid of my S9 by switching to pixel2xl, op6, op6t, pixel3xl but I always return to S9 for many reasons:
* VR
* perfect size (for me)
* everyday use is just simpler than stock android (example: slide left or right to sms or call)
* amazing speakers
* dolby atmos and general sound experience
* dual Bluetooth headsets support (rare but useful for me)
* outdoor screen visibility
* flashing custom roms and kernels simpler than on Slot A/B phones
* all features (I need) are already builtin and only need root to be enabled by csc (network monitor+firewall, call recording, unknown numbers recognition...)
* wonderful camera
* s-health and its assistance
* with root, most of the bloatware can be removed
...etc
We can be angry toward samsung as we wish but we can also acknowledge that they also have really good practical flagships.
googy_anas said:
I had those phones too. I keep on trying to get rid of my S9 by switching to pixel2xl, op6, op6t, pixel3xl but I always return to S9 for many reasons:
* VR
* perfect size (for me)
* everyday use is just simpler than stock android (example: slide left or right to sms or call)
* amazing speakers
* dolby atmos and general sound experience
* dual Bluetooth headsets support (rare but useful for me)
* outdoor screen visibility
* flashing custom roms and kernels simpler than on Slot A/B phones
* all features (I need) are already builtin and only need root to be enabled by csc (network monitor+firewall, call recording, unknown numbers recognition...)
* wonderful camera
* s-health and its assistance
* with root, most of the bloatware can be removed
...etc
We can be angry toward samsung as we wish but we can also acknowledge that they also have really good practical flagships.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I stopped rooting but this above explanation is a reflection of my experience as well, so not repeating. It's just that I use the bigger plus or notes for bigger battery & screen. I keep coming back to Samsung for nitpicking stuff, even though I do not like Samsung for several other reasons.
scgf said:
I have a Samsung Galaxy S9 and have ordered a Pixel 3. The S9 is a nice phone but I am irritated by all the Samsung stuff installed which I never use. I keep getting notifications about Samsung app updates and I usually haven't a clue about the app concerned. It's as if there are two layers of software and services - Google and Samsung and the Samsung layer keeps fighting with the Google layer. I suppose in real terms it doesn't matter and you just use the apps you want to use. I just don't like it there is a whole ecosystem there in which I have no interest but can't get rid of. There are even two app stores, the Play Store and the Samsung Store. The default cloud service is Samsung and your phone settings, photos etc. are backed up to Samsung by default. You can, of course, install Google Drive and have things baked up to the Google cloud but it's up to you to switch off the Samsung syncing. Photos go into the Samsung Gallery app and while you can install Google Photos your photos don't sync with the Google Photos app unless you open the app after taking some photos and then they appear. You delete a photo from the Gallery and it is still in Google Photos. You delete it from Google Photos and it's still in Samsung Gallery. If you set up the S9 to save your photos to an SD card then Google Photos can't delete them to save space. Lots and lots of things like this. If you are remotely OCD you won't be happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you serious about how backing up to Google works on a Samsung phone? That really sucks. I'm even happier now that I don't have a Samsung phone.
jimv1983 said:
Are you serious about how backing up to Google works on a Samsung phone? That really sucks. I'm even happier now that I don't have a Samsung phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that the google photos app didn't sync only if opened is because it was hibernated by the system as it was detected as a high battery consuming app !
Also, the same gallery vs google photos double use happened to me on Oneplus6 and on every phone which has its own dedicated gallery app.
If you want to fully benefit from google photos app, just use it exclusively and don't forget to exclude it from battery optimization (battery impact?). Simple as that.
googy_anas said:
I think that the google photos app didn't sync only if opened is because it was hibernated by the system as it was detected as a high battery consuming app !
Also, the same gallery vs google photos double use happened to me on Oneplus6 and on every phone which has its own dedicated gallery app.
If you want to fully benefit from google photos app, just use it exclusively and don't forget to exclude it from battery optimization (battery impact?). Simple as that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never had Google Photos consume a lot of battery. Glad I have a Pixel 2 XL.
While rooting is a solution to the Samsung crapware, it trips the Knox flag and therefore voids your warranty. I've done my share of rooting and ROM installs on other devices, but those were either out of warranty or able to be restored back to a stock config to maintain warranty.
It's nice to have a phone where rooting and all that isn't necessary because it doesn't have much/any extraneous crap.
As I said, if Samsung had made a GPE/Android One version of the S9 I would have bought it over the pixel 3 for sure.
Hopefully the pixel 4 will bring back the jack and the SD card, keep the stereo speakers, and further reduce the bezels with no notch on the non-xl.
I currently have a s9+SM-G965U1 and on the fence about trading it for a pixel 3 xl. I love the s9 hardware, but hate the software side of it.
If I find a good enough sale on black Friday, or cyber Monday for a pixel 3 xl I think I'll pull the trigger on the switch
ckelly33 said:
After only a few days, I miss the 6T launcher - very Pixel-esque BUT better gesture controls. I miss the 6T's battery life too. I really didn't like having a hardware switch for changing between ringer modes. That and lack of wireless charging, a so-so camera and a couple of other issues led me to try the Pixel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I installed an app called Fluid Navigation on my Pixel 3. It replaces the Android Pie navigation with something much better and does not have any on-screen controls. You just swipe like on the iPhone XS. The big benefit is that you gain the extra screen space previously taken up with the Pie navigation controls. It requires an adb command to allow it to write to the system but once this has been done you can use it and switch back and forth very easily should you wish to. Lots of optins - a quick flick up from the bottom of the screen takes you home, a flick up and hold momentarily shows open apps. A swipe from the right edge goes back and a swipe and hold allows you to switch between the two most recent apps. All swipes are configurable. I have turned off audio feedback and just use haptic feedback. Very nice.
I have S8 at the moment and thinking if it is worth to switch to Pixel 3. I always liked pure Android but with Pixel 3 as it is I have a lot of doubts. I would like to the Pixel camera but overall hardware design is not nice with bad screen to body ratio and all the issues with RAM management people are complaining scare me. I suppose that Google is going to fix it at some point in time - probably later than sooner, but it should not be present at all for Android flagship.
So is it really worth to switch or not?
scgf said:
I have a Samsung Galaxy S9 and have ordered a Pixel 3. The S9 is a nice phone but I am irritated by all the Samsung stuff installed which I never use. I keep getting notifications about Samsung app updates and I usually haven't a clue about the app concerned. It's as if there are two layers of software and services - Google and Samsung and the Samsung layer keeps fighting with the Google layer. I suppose in real terms it doesn't matter and you just use the apps you want to use. I just don't like it there is a whole ecosystem there in which I have no interest but can't get rid of. There are even two app stores, the Play Store and the Samsung Store. The default cloud service is Samsung and your phone settings, photos etc. are backed up to Samsung by default. You can, of course, install Google Drive and have things baked up to the Google cloud but it's up to you to switch off the Samsung syncing. Photos go into the Samsung Gallery app and while you can install Google Photos your photos don't sync with the Google Photos app unless you open the app after taking some photos and then they appear. You delete a photo from the Gallery and it is still in Google Photos. You delete it from Google Photos and it's still in Samsung Gallery. If you set up the S9 to save your photos to an SD card then Google Photos can't delete them to save space. Lots and lots of things like this. If you are remotely OCD you won't be happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get the pixel 3. I just got it and I am Soo happy to be free of all the Samsung crapwear on my old s7 edge. I totally agree with you about the double ecosystem thing.
I had a s9 before..and the double apps from Samsung kill me..why do I need a email app if Gmail is included..why I need a calendar app (s-planer) if you can use Google calendar..why I need a Samsung photos app if Google photos is included..i could wrote forever more examples for this..now with the pixels 3 it feels so pure and homecoming..also the updates.. everyone say why Android phones had such a bad update circle for the software..I don't understand people why they buy other non Google phones ..
Just my 2 cents