4 ms·
No to both? -- Do not buy. Good for you. Why is it so difficult for hardware manufacturers to refrain from putting their poor attempts to improve stock androi
by huggyface 14y ago
No to both? -- Do not buy.
Good for you.
Why is it so difficult for hardware manufacturers to refrain from putting their poor attempts to improve stock android on their devices
In the <Android 2.3 era those skins were critical in making the operating system usable. I would argue that they still offer huge value for an average consumer.
There is a world of hundreds of millions of smartphone users who are not like the people who visit HN. Who appreciate when they have a camera and information on the lockscreen, a quick selector in the drag down, and on and on. Little things added first in skins, improving the Android experience. That isn't me or you, but good god the boring "stock Android or GTFO" comments need to stop. They are ignorant and detached from reality.
- fossuser 14y agoI would argue that the skins hurt the average consumer far more than they help them. They delay updates (sometimes permanently) they caused noticeable performance issues - especially early on. The changes made to apps (with HTC's sense in mind) ruined a lot of the design of the default applications and made it hard to use different android devices. While the giant glossy widgets and laggy animations may have impressed some, the overall damage caused wasn't merely bad for the power users - but everyone. What made this issue worse was that until the Nexus line it was essentially impossible just to run stock android on a modern phone. Cyanogen is cool, but in practice it has it's share of problems (gps not working, radio issues, having to unlock, root and flash the phone).