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HTC’s Sense skin for Android has long been a bloated skeuomorphic mess, with aluminium ring pulls, flip clocks and fancy weather animations. If these leaked screenshot are accurate, though, that all looks set to change — for the better.
These images were posted by XDA developer mdeejay, who claims to have a working port of the forthcoming Sense 5 skin. If they’re the real deal, HTC users can breathe a sigh of relief: the design looks flatter, cleaner and less cluttered. There’s no reliance on brushed metal and retro design cues here — instead, all that’s replaced with sleek fonts, clean lines, and simple but striking design.
That seems to be echoed in HTCs icon design, too: the camera and message icons, for instance, are far neater than HTC’s current offering. If — and it’s still a big if — these are genuine, then HTC’s software just got one almighty design shot in the arm. [XDA via Android Central via Engadget]
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I don’t have a problem with Sense 4+ on my current phone, it seems smooth and I quite like the design… the only gripe I have with it is the ring pull on the lock screen, it can be a pain in the ass when trying to answer a call or snooze an alarm, other than that it’s fine
I had to install Jelly Bean screen saver for my Desire S, what a kerfuffle!
What? Stock Android still looks much better than this!
True (IMO), but it’s a step in the right direction.
This is a brilliant thing! My last phone was a HTC Wildfire S and when I moved on to the Galaxy S III and TouchWiz, I wondered how I ever managed to actually use the HTC. It was an even older version of Sense (2.1) that was very, very clunky and bloated.
To be fair, the Wildfire S wasn’t exactly top of the range hardware, that may have effected your user experience. You should try vanilla Android though.
The Wildfire S wasn’t the best phone, no. I was unemployed when I got it though so I couldn’t afford anything better than mid-range phone.
Also, I suppose I should try vanilla Android at some point, yeah.
I have only ever owned three Android Phones;
LG GT540 Optimus
HTC Wildfire S
Samsung Galaxy S III
I’m only on my 4th
HTC/T-Mobile G1
HTC Desire
Samsung Galaxy Nexus
LG Nexus 4
I started of with Wildfire and now Desire S, apart from not liking their UI and not being able to root, it does the job actually.
Are Phone makers allowed to use stock Android or do they have to use a skin/interface? I wondered if Google make them…
Nope, they are free to use vanilla Android.
Then they are all mad as hatters trashing the default.
To be fair Vanilla Android was not so pretty till Gingerbread and wasn’t really stylish till ICS. That and the desire to add proprietary stuff is the reason all the OEMs have their own interfaces.
Completely agree. Since ICS I have been using CM9/10 on my lowly SGS. Using any other interface feels like a downgrade.
Yep, Android was born fully functional unlike cripple iOS and only this was missing the eye-candy, the groovy, until ICS came along and completed it.
Better than current Sense, but it reminds me of the Chinese Lewa OS. The current weather widget is better though.
Weirdly enough, the fonts remind me of the game black ops 2 which is utterly gash and can’t stand it, aghhh! Closing this window now.
Now they just need to make sure the underlying code is just as sleek and minimal. Oh, and provide updates more quickly and for more phones.
I installed vanilla Jelly Bean on my Sensation (or as close to Vanilla as possible) and it’s like a new phone. Seems to be about twice as fast as the stock ICS + Sense.
They are not encouraging rooting anymore which I’m not liking, HTC built is solid.
Tell me about it. Just trying to get S-OFF after the ICS update on my phone was a real PITA.
My attempt to flash image was an epic fail, could not root my Desire S. The only way possible is to downgrade in older version and then root, which I find a lot more hassel which put me off a lot. Good things come to them, who wait, Nexus 4 it is then.
I remember having to downgrade my Hero to install a custom ROM. They went even further with the Sensation though. The update locked it in such a way that software alone can’t get S-OFF any more, even if you downgrade. You have to use a bit of wire at a specific point in the process. Like some 80s phreaker.
My next phone will be a Nexus too, if they ever sort out the supply.
Dear Lord! They have sealed their own coffin! No more HTC for me on that note.
I don’t see why anyone would believe this is better than current Sense, I can understand if you’ve had bad experiences with older phones i.e. Wildfire, Hero or Desire but wow. This looks so “touchwiz-esque” and thats the only thing that puts me off the sgs3 (or sgs2 for that matter)… Its a phone not a toy, I don’t want bright kiddy colours all over it damn!
Phones i’ve had include:
HTC Hero/ TMobile G1
HTC Desire
HTC Evo 3D
All of those have been great and obviously a step above the other, now im looking to get a Nexus 4 when they’re finally back in stock. However my Evo had Sense 3.6 i believe & I’ve never encountered a problem at all, unlike the older gen phones so I beg the questions, what are you all moaning about?!
In before scaramoosh’s “TouchWiz way better than this!”
(I prefer this over old Sense, looks cleaner)
Yeah man. Gotta say I like this much more than the ‘Tron’ look of stock android
Finally, glad HTC is heading the right path, hopefully their M7 can turn some heads, I really do want to go back to HTC, but recently they’ve done nothing but just crap, except for the HTC DNA that was a boss!
I don’t know if you was aware of a little phone release last year, made a few headlines, can’t for the life of me think what it was called…
/sarcasm