4 ms·

Am I the only one that finds the Android UI (esp with HTC Sense) way better looking than the iPhone UI? I think this is beautiful: http://www.androidspin.com/w

• nlh 16y ago
  Static bits of the Android UI do like pretty nice. The article hits on an extremely good point that I haven't heard enough (but strongly feel myself): Android's UI is just nowhere near as smooth as the iPhone's. "Clunky" is the exact right word. Scrolling on the iPhone is perfect - you can tell Jobs obsessed over making it zero-lag, perfectly smooth. That makes the whole UI -feel- better. And for a lot of users - me included - that's a big deal. Everytime I pick up an Android phone to play with it - hoping they've fixed this - my immediate impression is "wow...this doesn't scroll as well, doesn't move as smoothly, and feels like an ancient UI." It is - quite literally - like Windows XP vs. Mac OSX. I think if they figure out a way to NAIL the UI in Android, that will close the gap significantly....
  • usaar333 16y ago
    I agree scrolling was an issue in the past. However, using android 2.1 + JIT (sort of a pre-froyo) on an htc hero, I find scrolling almost on par with the iPhone. I imagine Nexus One's with Froyo are near-perfect.
    • mberning 16y ago
      Nope, still not close. The 2.2 update did make a difference, but it is still far from perfect.
  • buro9 16y ago
    On Friday I discovered a simple thing that shows 'clunkiness' on the Android. Basically... from the home screen drum your fingers across the screen. If you've drummed them from left to right it will interpret the multiple finger input as a single swipe from left to right and it will move the screen to the right. Drum from right to left and it will read that as a swipe to the left and will move the screen to the left. This differs from the iPhone 3 & 4 (which I also have on my desk). On the iPhone a drum of fingers isn't interpreted as a swipe... only an actual continuous movement from one side to another would be considered a swipe. On the iPhone the first finger is counted as the input, and the others are ignored as noise. So whatever app was under the first finger of your drumming would open up. This is a very minor thing, but it does show that the Android is misinterpreting and not handling touch input very well. The iPhone correctly determines that a drum is not a swipe, and the Android does not. I don't have deep knowledge of how either the Android or iPhone handle gestures, so I can't comment on the internals. As to whether it matters... well I'm using an Android and love it more than I did my iPhone. So I would argue it doesn't matter to me (I value cloud + choice above the polish). But I also wouldn't defend the Android against charges of clunkiness because it's pretty visible throughout the system.
• mambodog 16y ago
  Is the weather/frost covering important UI elements a default/manufacturer/carrier feature or something that's installed?
  • wgren 16y ago
    It's part of HTCs Sense weather/clock widget. You can disable the snow/rain/sun lensflare effects in the settings for the widget.
• jsz0 16y ago
  The iPhone UI looks dated compared to this? http://bit.ly/cdfQkM http://bit.ly/cdfQkM
  • c1sc0 16y ago
    Oh sweet mother of interface chaos. That screenshot doesn't even come close to the interface clutter I get on my Android when running a few apps. While backgrounding is nice, I wish developers would resist the urge of throwing an icon in that top dock-thingy for every single process running.
• technomancy 16y ago
  I can't get over the fact that every single iPhone app icon has the exact same cookie cutter shine to it. It's already starting to look dated--very trendy for 2005.
  • mcritz 16y ago
    It's called a "UI standard" and Android apps would do well to acquire some.
• othermaciej 16y ago
  I would call that screenshot "tacky" rather than "beautiful". It's a jumble of mismatched UI elements.