By PocketNow have gotten their hands on an early build of Android 4.0 – one they say we should expect to see on the phones HTC will announce this February – and were kind enough to post their first impressions. They note that Sense will feel a lot better than it has in recent years with the different design and style changes HTC’s made.
Many things such as the lockscreen, browser and homescreen have all been improved, as well as minor look and feel tweaks here and there. For instance, the biggest change users have been asking for from HTC – and any manufacturer, really – is native support for landscape mode on the homescreen.
HTC has also apparently changed the way app controls behave when the phone goes into portrait mode. Instead of keeping icons and buttons at the bottom of the display they will move to the side to create more vertical screen real estate.
There are a ton of other changes, apparently, so be sure to read PocketNow’s rundown of it all here. No screenshots can be had but we won’t have to wait long to see it in action hopefully.
No pics, no point.
“let these words paint a boring picture”
Im with you.
Pics or it didnt happen………
> “Many things such as the lockscreen, browser and homescreen
> have all been” crufted up and made to work inconsistently with
> the rest of the system and generally rendered uglier.
There. fixed that for you.
You see they mentioned a very good email client which fixed things up for androids stock option. Which HTC has done very well. The issue is to me, still, that Sense is a very resource hogging battery intensive skin. You noticed the major battery difference when rooting the phones and running a AOSP rom, which i did with my Evo 4G. It was an instantaneous difference. Sense shouldnt have been cutesy as they mention in the article from the get go. Its strongest points for me was the organization it gave to the dialer and contacts section, its very good email client, its very good Friendstream client….and thats it. They dont need animated lockscreens, tho very cool. They dont need a fancy skin to replace the stock android look and all types of bells and whistles. They should be able to take a lil from AOSP roms especially in the Drop Down Menu, add their good points like i mentioned and they have a sure fire battery saving product that provides organization and coherence to HTC phones
I don’t know about animated lock screens.. but the drag and unlock combo is handy.
Nothing about improving performance. Sense is still a pile of shitty bloated skin
Hopefully they have some larger devices that can take advantage of the new landscape mode.
i’m done with Sense and bloatware. G-Nex here i come!!!
You’ll love it! I have been an avid HTC fan. Had the Diamond, Hero, EVO, Incredible, and Thunderbolt. The Nexus has been the best phone I’ve ever had.
>According to a trusted source, HTC Sense 4.0 devices will not have on-screen keys as found on the Galaxy Nexus. Also, devices in the near future will go with a 3-button configuration for Ice Cream Sandwich devices, instead of the current 4.
no on-screen keys?????? hard buttons?
FAIL Chou FAIL!!!!!!
Yea that’s complete bullshit. It’s like OEMs are deliberately trying to keep from taking on the coolest features of android.
Did they fix the clock / weather widget? I love getting the weather for a location 2,000 miles away…
Whether they go onscreen or capacitive they need a freaking search button! I use that most often!
I added a search button to my Nexus, and changed the color of the buttons : )
I swear I’m done with these guys. They insist on using shitty SLCD screens, they EOL phones too quick because of their rapid fire releases. Why was the Sensation real eased with the Amaze right behind it by only a few months.
Because Motorola isn’t doing that?
They are, and I’m not buying them either. I prefer Samsung (and now actually Nokia) when it comes to hardware manufacturer.
Not to mention sticking sub 1750 mah batteries on their top tier phones..
Don’t you people realize that onscreen or not the screen would be the same size. The buttons take up a lot of space on the Gnex so there is no difference in the Gnex and the HTC Vivid….just saying
Actually, there are two differences. 1. You have 4.7 vs 4.5″ for media watching. The buttons disappear. 2. Less bezel, since the buttons are on screen.
Actually, the GNex bottom bezel is still quite large for a phone with no capacitive buttons. One of the major gripes when the phone pics first leaked out.
What? The Nexus has the smallest bottom bezel of any smartphone on the market. The buttons are screen, not bezel. Now, the top bezel is a bit too large.
I said “for a phone with no capacitive buttons”. Imagine that strip at the bottom is your capacative buttons. There’s enough room for another row of capacitive buttons down there! what’s the point of putting the buttons on-screen when there’s enough space for a row of actual hardware buttons anyway?
And I agree with the top, though.
This is what I meant. I dug it out from a comment I made here in Phandroid months ago. lol.
LOL i love Disqus. I unearthed another image I posted last time.
This one, I got rid of the extra bezel and made the GNex shorter.
Ooops. Image didn’t attach.
There it is, lol. Squeezed the top and bottom bezel. Makes for a more stubbier and nice-looking phone. The proportions remind me of the Nexus One, actually.
Edit
I currently don’t use a single feature of Sense. I have a 3rd-party unlock screen, launcher, browser, keyboard, email, weather, and music app. Sense is ugly and outdated, and I don’t have very high expectations for Sense 4. I’ll stick with stock Android, thank you very much…
The first part of your post contradicts the last part. Are you running for office? Cause you got my vote… Just sayin’.
Are there any screens? This seems a new awesome experience
This all sounds reasonable. It’s basically HTC sense for ics…