Hello all!
A friend of mine who is far more tech savvy than I has Android 2.1 on his Droid, and I got to try it out for a few hours.
Here's what I noticed about the changes:
-The new gallery is way cooler LOOKING, but also much slower to load on the Droid than the old gallery. I think the Multitouch gallery is still the best option out there. The swiping motions to move left and right have been implemented though.
-The new menu is WAY more smooth, and definitely offers eye candy with it's rolling design. However, just one thing: I remember what I liked on my Droid as opposed to ALL the other Android phones (except the N1) is that when I opened the app drawer, you could see 5 rows of apps (i.e. 20 apps at a time). However, with the scrolling animation, you can only see 4 rows now (so 16 apps). Not a big deal. But I'm thinking for other phones, you might be able to see even less. Additionally, scrolling is slower. In my app drawer, you can do a scrolling swipe and it will go from the top of the drawer to the bottom. Here, a similar scroll will only move about 2-3 rows.
-The 'cards' thing is way less cool than people think, though it is useful. You basically long press on the dots on the bottom of the home screen (the ones that indicate which screen you're on. For example, if you're on the middle screen, you will see 2 dots on the left and 2 on the right), and it will show you little 'cards' off all 5 of your home screens. IMO, it's simply for show, since long pressing and then clicking a homescreen card takes longer than just doing 2 or 3 swipes to the left or right. Still a nice option though.
- Live wallpapers seem cool, and the ones I tried are really fun, but I'm worried about how they will affect CPU and Battery performance. However, it's fun to have, so I hope they are not too power-intensive.
As far as speed, I honestly didn't notice that much of a difference on the Droid. I'm assuming the speed enhancements will be more for the other phones that are a little slower to begin with. The phone is still as fast as normal, with the same amount of stutter when flipping through the app menu or between home screens.
If anyone has any questions, just let me know. I figured it would be useful to post this from my novice perspective so that people who aren't as tech-savvy can envision what 2.1 will do on a day-to-day basis.
A friend of mine who is far more tech savvy than I has Android 2.1 on his Droid, and I got to try it out for a few hours.
Here's what I noticed about the changes:
-The new gallery is way cooler LOOKING, but also much slower to load on the Droid than the old gallery. I think the Multitouch gallery is still the best option out there. The swiping motions to move left and right have been implemented though.
-The new menu is WAY more smooth, and definitely offers eye candy with it's rolling design. However, just one thing: I remember what I liked on my Droid as opposed to ALL the other Android phones (except the N1) is that when I opened the app drawer, you could see 5 rows of apps (i.e. 20 apps at a time). However, with the scrolling animation, you can only see 4 rows now (so 16 apps). Not a big deal. But I'm thinking for other phones, you might be able to see even less. Additionally, scrolling is slower. In my app drawer, you can do a scrolling swipe and it will go from the top of the drawer to the bottom. Here, a similar scroll will only move about 2-3 rows.
-The 'cards' thing is way less cool than people think, though it is useful. You basically long press on the dots on the bottom of the home screen (the ones that indicate which screen you're on. For example, if you're on the middle screen, you will see 2 dots on the left and 2 on the right), and it will show you little 'cards' off all 5 of your home screens. IMO, it's simply for show, since long pressing and then clicking a homescreen card takes longer than just doing 2 or 3 swipes to the left or right. Still a nice option though.
- Live wallpapers seem cool, and the ones I tried are really fun, but I'm worried about how they will affect CPU and Battery performance. However, it's fun to have, so I hope they are not too power-intensive.
As far as speed, I honestly didn't notice that much of a difference on the Droid. I'm assuming the speed enhancements will be more for the other phones that are a little slower to begin with. The phone is still as fast as normal, with the same amount of stutter when flipping through the app menu or between home screens.
If anyone has any questions, just let me know. I figured it would be useful to post this from my novice perspective so that people who aren't as tech-savvy can envision what 2.1 will do on a day-to-day basis.
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