What's the obsession with stock Android?

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I do think that stock KitKat does look bland with what we've seen of Lollipop.
 
Mr Swine said:
Problem is with bloatware and Gui and other stuff that phone manufacturers add to their Android OS which makes it not as responsive as stock android.
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Exactly. I had an HTC phone years ago and HTC Sense eventually turned it into a slow, no responsive brick.

I currently have a Nexus 7 with stock Android and I it's just as fast as when I bought it. If I ever get another Android phone it has to have stock Android or else I wouldn't even consider it.
 
I've been noticing my S5 is pretty laggy (and only has 25% of its RAM available even when no apps are open), so I'm interested in trying some custom ROMs. Any recommendations?
 
I'm with you OP. At least on the Internet we are in the minority. I like Sense personally, always have. The ability to disable apps takes care of the bloatware so I don't see the big deal with them. I rooted and messed with roms for years I'm so done with that crap. Always something that doesn't work right. My M8 is just about perfect as is.
 
I installed a custom ROM (carbon) and never looked back. Really closer to stock but some incredibly useful customization features that don't boat the phone down. My phone boots and shutdowns like 10x faster than when on touch wiz on my note 3.

I kind of miss some of the s pen features, but I didn't use them all that much.
 
Sounds like some very trivial UI decisions. If I had to choose between them and a phone that doesn't have piles of garbage apps on it by default, I'll choose the latter.
 
jamsy said:
So I've had a Samsung Note 2 for over two years now and, as you're probably aware, it has TouchWiz, which is Samsung's Android skin. Every review I've ever read about Samsung devices have always mentioned this as a negative and bitched about how it's too "heavy" and "cumbersome" and "sluggish" over stock Android. In fact, every review of a phone or tablet that did have Android in its pure form (ie the Nexus line of products) have praised the experience.

My girlfriend got a Moto G (2nd gen) phone yesterday. It runs stock Android Kit Kat (4.4). I had to help her out since she's only used iPhones before, and I was actually pretty surprised at what I found.

Stock Android kind of sucks. It's missing small and yet substantial features that I've enjoyed on my Note 2 for years.

Example 1: It doesn't display your battery percentage. There is no option for this. This really boggles the mind. I had to search and install some 3rd party app on the Play Store, which doesn't work half the time.

Example 2: You cannot close all your open applications at once. You need to close them one by one. Samsung gives me a button to close all apps with one press.

Example 3: To access the screen brightness slider (something which I use a lot), you need to pull down the notification tab from the top, press the button on the top right, then press the brightness button. Touchwiz had the brightness slider right in the notification tab.

In addition, I don't have to search the countless shitty apps in the Play Store and widgets to get basic things like weather widgets, or flashlight functionality or video player that plays any format I throw at it, etc. I can go on, but I think you get my point.

These things may not seem like a big deal, but after using TouchWiz for 2 years, I want no part of stock Android. This is not to say Samsung's version of Android is the best (I'm sure LG's or HTC's versions are simillar), but Google missing basic features like this is a huge turnoff. So I really don't understand people's obsession with having a lack of basic features such as this, since as far as I can tell, stock Android has no visible performance superiority and I never experienced any "sluggishness" or whatever else on my device.
Click to expand...

Example 1: it displays how much battery you have. The exact percentege is inaccurate and not something you should obsess over.

Example 2: Android was engineered so you don't close applications, it manages them automatically based on your usage.

Example 3: Why are you not using automatic brightness?

To me these 3 examples perfectly demonstrate why Samsung's additions are poor and haven't gone through well thought out design. They have you trained to waste time micromanaging your phone, despite using a system that was specifically designed to free you from that.

kabel said:
You discovered the reason why some people prefer Linux and hate Windows..
Click to expand...

Well, on Linux there's GNOME, which is one of the best designed user interfaces out there, with a big focus on simplicity and 'just work'ing.
 
Marty Chinn said:
I'd like to know the obsession with on screen buttons. Seems like a waste of screen real estate space to me.
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Seriously this is the best thing about galaxy. I don't have one but I love that they have a physical button. Ideally I would prefer 3 buttons or touch "buttons" that aren't on the screen (ala Nokia Lumia).

I have HTC One M8 with touchsense and I'm not too bothered by it. I would go back to stock android but there are some things I really like such as having a search button in my app drawer (and I'm dumbfounded as to why my Nexus 5 never had such a thing).

Though if it means getting lolipop faster I will absolutely go stock, Lolipop looks great.

EDIT: Wtf you can use two fingers to swipe down on notifications and instantly go to settings? Game changer. Still annoying since I browse typically with one hand but wow. Any more useful tips that are kept secret?

EDIT2: Now seems a good place to ask as any, I installed the cover app (where you swipe right and it has your most recently used apps that you can immediately jump into) but 50% of the time it usually just unlocks to my original unlock screen. Aka most of the time I unlock my phone to unlock my phone.

Not sure if that made sense dawg. But there it is, and it's annoying. Any fix?
 
ahoyhoy said:
I've been noticing my S5 is pretty laggy (and only has 25% of its RAM available even when no apps are open), so I'm interested in trying some custom ROMs. Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

Installed xposed and download the gravity box module. It gives you all the customization of roms without having to install them.

Also check out this toolkit. It's a desktop program that lets you flash/unlock/root/backup and lots more with a press of a button wow!

ZkBsIim.png
Click to expand...
 
Had a Motorola Droid 2 with Motoblur (ughhhhh) that was locked and couldn't do anything with, and was one of the main reasons why I bought an iphone since there were no stock android phones available without verizon or anyone elses fuckery on it at the time (or even now iirc). Anything but stock sucks so much.
 
The entire point of "stock" is that it is barebones and is ready for customization. Not everyone wants or needs little extra features and would rather have the stock basic experience that they can alter and add things to.
 
DedValve said:
I really like such as having a search button in my app drawer (and I'm dumbfounded as to why my Nexus 5 never had such a thing).
Click to expand...

1) Cause applications are listed alphabetically in your app drawer.
2) Google Now can search your phone for apps
 
ahoyhoy said:
I've been noticing my S5 is pretty laggy (and only has 25% of its RAM available even when no apps are open), so I'm interested in trying some custom ROMs. Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

I have an S5 that feels pretty fast to me (Then again, I went from a iPhone 3GS). One of the things I found online to make Touchwiz perform faster is:

-Go to settings
-open About device
-tap the Build Number section a bunch of times.
-After a while it'll say that you unlocked the developer options button in settings
-open Developer options
-Turn off things like
-Window animation scale
-Transition animation scale
-Animator duration scale
I noticed a pretty decent improvement after that.
Click to expand...

I think Touchwiz is like Ubuntu and stock android is like Archlinux. Either way you're going to be spending time uninstalling crap you don't want or crap you do want. Touchwiz still offers the same speed and features as stock you just have to get it there.
 
Nicktendo86 said:
Those mentioning the battery percentage, you do know it is there on stock but hidden, right? You just need to install this app, turn the percentage on, uninstall the app and you are good.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.kroegerama.android4batpercent
Click to expand...

why is it so important to know the exact %? The icon is clear enough to communicate what you need to know. Unless you have almost no battery left and worry about making a phone call or something I don't see how it's useful/makes any difference(in which case you can just double swipe to get the %).
 
jamsy said:
So I've had a Samsung Note 2 for over two years now and, as you're probably aware, it has TouchWiz, which is Samsung's Android skin. Every review I've ever read about Samsung devices have always mentioned this as a negative and bitched about how it's too "heavy" and "cumbersome" and "sluggish" over stock Android. In fact, every review of a phone or tablet that did have Android in its pure form (ie the Nexus line of products) have praised the experience.

My girlfriend got a Moto G (2nd gen) phone yesterday. It runs stock Android Kit Kat (4.4). I had to help her out since she's only used iPhones before, and I was actually pretty surprised at what I found.

Stock Android kind of sucks. It's missing small and yet substantial features that I've enjoyed on my Note 2 for years.

Example 1: It doesn't display your battery percentage. There is no option for this. This really boggles the mind. I had to search and install some 3rd party app on the Play Store, which doesn't work half the time.

Example 2: You cannot close all your open applications at once. You need to close them one by one. Samsung gives me a button to close all apps with one press.

Example 3: To access the screen brightness slider (something which I use a lot), you need to pull down the notification tab from the top, press the button on the top right, then press the brightness button. Touchwiz had the brightness slider right in the notification tab.

In addition, I don't have to search the countless shitty apps in the Play Store and widgets to get basic things like weather widgets, or flashlight functionality or video player that plays any format I throw at it, etc. I can go on, but I think you get my point.

These things may not seem like a big deal, but after using TouchWiz for 2 years, I want no part of stock Android. This is not to say Samsung's version of Android is the best (I'm sure LG's or HTC's versions are simillar), but Google missing basic features like this is a huge turnoff. So I really don't understand people's obsession with having a lack of basic features such as this, since as far as I can tell, stock Android has no visible performance superiority and I never experienced any "sluggishness" or whatever else on my device.
Click to expand...


Think of it like going to a coffee shop and getting cup of pure filter brewed coffee or going to Starbucks and getting a Grande Decaf Mocchachino with cinnamon.
 
i like the software as long as it works.i am not picky infect more options are better for me so i do not mind company doing work and giving me more things. vannila android is boring.I like android because it can be customized
 
What I really miss about Touchwiz is its clock app. It had this really soothing alarm that I liked (read: didn't hate) waking up to.
 
Not quite stock, but I reformatted this Galaxy Note 12.2 and I'm running the Google Launcher. It's such a smoother experience than the stock magazine interface. Quicker too.
 
I have no problems with TouchWiz. Then again, my first smart device was a Samsung and I have had all Samsung phones since then, so I guess I am used to their UI by now.

That said, it looks like the Note 4 has a new skin of TouchWiz that makes it look more like a hybrid between iOS 8 and stock Android?
 
I have had a few android phones & i have had a Moto 4G LTE since it came out & it's the best android phone i have had yet, i have zero bloatware at last.

As for battery display, i have that at the top if my screen, it has always been there, as for everything else the OP mentioned you can get apps for them & they will work better than anything that the mobile operators make.
 
i dont really like stock android either but i like the way it looks so i use nova launcher.

tbh i think they should allow users to select stock android or their android skin at first time setup.

maybe as an option in advanced settings.
 
Skins get too much hate, while stock gets too much praise...the truth is somewhere in the middle.


You could nitpick about a dozen things on stock, such as,

Stock has the worst quick toggles ever made out of all 'skins'. So unintuitive and confusing its ridiculous. (Some buttons are 'hold' some are press, wtf is up with that)

Stock is very limited in ringtone selection. 30 secs or bust and no choice of a full mp3.

Camera software is shit.

Battery life is shit.

Color calibration is shit.

But I must say I'm biased though, my phone history: sgs1 with stock, gnex stock, nexus 4 stock, n7, n7 2013 stock.
 
Stock is amazing. No bloat, simple and a great base for adding whatever you via Xposed Framework. Once Xposed works on Lollipop it's a wrap.

Hell, I don't ever see myself getting anything but Nexus devices from now on. I don't need my carrier or the OEM clogging up my phone with crap I will never use
 
The moto g wouldn't be the amazing phone it is without stock android, stock is just so fast and without any shit bloatware. I'll admit that it is bafflingly backwards in some areas feature wise compared to the skinned roms e.g. no battery percentage, no screen orientation toggle, etc.
 
Skinpop said:
why is it so important to know the exact %? The icon is clear enough to communicate what you need to know. Unless you have almost no battery left and worry about making a phone call or something I don't see how it's useful/makes any difference(in which case you can just double swipe to get the %).
Click to expand...
I agree, I'm just saying the option is there for those who really want it.
 
The biggest issue with stock Android -- and it's huge -- is the camera processing. It's atrocious.

I've heard it's better with Lollipop, but I haven't had a chance to play with it yet so I can't say.

Touchwiz absolutely does slow a phone down though -- it's not even debatable. Hold a Touchwiz phone next to a Nexus and just flick through the interface. It's obvious. LG's skin, I think, may be the best -- it's nearly as fast as stock.
 
I like Touchwiz on my SGS5 more than stock Android on my Nexus 7. I agree with the OP's sentiment about Touchwiz making it faster to get to commonly used settings like brightness control. This is improved somewhat in the Lollipop preview, but it's still faster in Touchwiz.

The main complaint I have about Samsung's software is all of the pre-installed extra programs like S Voice, the Samsung media store, etc.

I'm new be nice said:
Aren't these things coming in Android L?
Click to expand...

It still takes 2 actions to get to the brightness slider and toggles in Lollipop (swipe then tap). In Touchwiz, it's only 1 action (swipe).

I also have to say that I'm not a fan of the new window management in L. Maybe it will grow on me eventually, but for now, I find it takes me longer to locate the window I'm looking for than it did in the old interface. This is one area where I used to prefer stock over Touchwiz, but Touchwiz may be better than what is in L.
 
lunchtoast said:
Installed xposed and download the gravity box module. It gives you all the customization of roms without having to install them.

Also check out this toolkit. It's a desktop program that lets you flash/unlock/root/backup and lots more with a press of a button wow!
Click to expand...

Jams775 said:
I have an S5 that feels pretty fast to me (Then again, I went from a iPhone 3GS). One of the things I found online to make Touchwiz perform faster is:



I think Touchwiz is like Ubuntu and stock android is like Archlinux. Either way you're going to be spending time uninstalling crap you don't want or crap you do want. Touchwiz still offers the same speed and features as stock you just have to get it there.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm leaning towards just eliminating features I don't want rather than doing a complete flash as I'm not sure the benefits outweigh the hassle. I don't need very many features with my phone, I just want what tasks I do perform to do better.
 
SMattera said:
Touchwiz absolutely does slow a phone down though -- it's not even debatable. Hold a Touchwiz phone next to a Nexus and just flick through the interface. It's obvious. LG's skin, I think, may be the best -- it's nearly as fast as stock.
Click to expand...

That is not a problem caused by bloat, it's a difference in the defaults between the Touchwiz launcher and the stock launcher.

If you prefer faster transitions, just go to Developer Options and reduce the transition time. Or install a different launcher.
 
All the OEMs have small design choices like that which are missing from Stock Android.

However, OEMs bloat Android too much to the point where it runs slower and provides a less satisfying experience. As someone who went from the Samsung Galaxy S3 to the Nexus 5, I'd rather have a faster experience than some okay design choices with a bloated version of Android.

TouchWiz is terrible and I never want to go back. Samsung is the worst OEM of the bunch by far.
 
I've got a OnePlus One with CM11s. A great way to get stock with extra features. But, at the end of the day, pure stock is extremely fast, stable, and reliable.

LG software is close though. The G3 is a great device.
 
I think of it as the comparison between a fresh install of windows versus what you get when you buy a new HP computer or something. The HP will have a bunch of garbage you do not want preinstalled.
 
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