Some observations on the switch from Samsung

[Kelly Kearns]

Oh and one more thing..

Personally for me, Marshmallow on my Nexus 5 has a UI that reminds me of Donut and Froyo on LG and Samsung devices. It looks old on my Nexus 5. I don't want frilly things on my phone, but even my settings menu.. I like something that looks like more than just some text I scroll through. Themes on the Note 5 change the colors a lot and I don't even care about that part. This just looks better and fresher to me that the same thing on my Nexus.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

This is the same screen on my Nexus. This is Marshmallow and the above screenshot from my Note 5 is Lollipop. To me, this looks like an older version compared to what is on my Note 5.

 

[hpilot]

There are probably a lot of good apps out there, we just aren't familiar with them and aren't used to having to search for them. Pure android is really no frills and can be hard to get used to when you are used to the stock apps that many OEMs put on their phones.

They call it vanilla android for a reason..

That's exactly what I love about it - not having crap OEM apps that I can't get rid of. I had that with my HTC One, and I hated it.

 

[hpilot]

Samsung comes with an email app that is a standard email app. I've used it before and it did well for me.

I forgot about the dialer, I don't like that either. I don't like the big pictures of starred contacts on the dialer app and I can't find a way to turn that off. I have them starred for a reason, but not to have their pictures on my dialer app. The only way I can see to turn that off is to unstar them.

I like the calendar app, it does well for me and I can sync to my desktop and people in my office can add things to my work calendar.

I like the Samsung clock app much better than the Google clock app.

Google Photo, I only use it for cloud back up, but I hate having to try and find a photo on it after I delete it off my device.

If I have a "screenshot" folder or a "wallpaper" folder on my device, I want it to upload the folder and update folders. If I add a new wallpaper to my wallpaper folder every week, when it uploads that to Google Photo I would like it to see "wallpaper" had two new pictures added to it so "wallpaper" on Google Photo is updated with the two new pictures. As it is now, I can have the "wallpaper" folder on Google Photo, but I have to go back in an manually move the uploaded pictures to the specific folders I want them in.

I keep wallpapers and other pictures on my device because it is just too much trouble to go search for them on Google Photo.

Why did you buy this phone?

 

[Kelly Kearns]

That's exactly what I love about it - not having crap OEM apps that I can't get rid of. I had that with my HTC One, and I hated it.

I can get rid of any apps that I want with Package Disabler Pro.

Why did you buy this phone?

Because I wanted an inexpensive Vanilla Android phone to have more experience with it and see what it is like. It isn't my main phone, it is a secondary phone.

 

[anon(11078)]

Oh and one more thing..

Personally for me, Marshmallow on my Nexus 5 has a UI that reminds me of Donut and Froyo on LG and Samsung devices. It looks old on my Nexus 5. I don't want frilly things on my phone, but even my settings menu.. I like something that looks like more than just some text I scroll through. Themes on the Note 5 change the colors a lot and I don't even care about that part. This just looks better and fresher to me that the same thing on my Nexus.

All it does is remind me how much I absolutely hate Samsung design styles. I have a Samsung Galaxy 5 that is my work phone and I can't stand the way it looks. Busy, cluttered and garish to my eye. Whenever I delve into the G5's settings menu I want to avert my eyes. However, I recognize that this is something that differs based on individual tastes.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Kelly Kearns]

All it does is remind me how much I absolutely hate Samsung design styles. I have a Samsung Galaxy 5 that is my work phone and I can't stand the way it looks. Busy, cluttered and garish to my eye. Whenever I delve into the G5's settings menu I want to avert my eyes. However, I recognize that this is something that differs based on individual tastes.

Posted via the Android Central App

I use Nova Prime launcher on my phone, I don't particularly like the look of TouchWiz, the icons or the icon size. I also use Nova on my Nexus 5, but Nova doesn't change those setting menus, etc.

The S5 again, IMO, is the worst of the S line and Note line, that was made. I don't want my phone to look like Walt Disney threw up all over it, but I also don't want it to look like a list printed out in an old dot matrix printer.

 

[Almeuit]

No it doesn't all happen automatically that way and it is really, inferior to the Samsung Gallery. It is just not the same at all.

I have to disagree here. My photos app behaves just like the many gallery apps from various OEMs (Samsung, LG, HTC, etc.). I can either stay in the camera folder or go out to all my others (Downloads, Pictures, Messenger, Screenshots, Etc.)

 

[Kelly Kearns]

I have to disagree here. My photos app behaves just like the many gallery apps from various OEMs (Samsung, LG, HTC, etc.). I can either stay in the camera folder or go out to all my others (Downloads, Pictures, Messenger, Screenshots, Etc.)

In that I'm talking about using Google Photo as the Gallery, instead of the Samsung Gallery. When I go to device folders in Google Photo, everything is under "Camera" minus "Album" folders. The only other album I see is "Download".

Under DCIM on my phone, I have the albums, Camera, Screenshots, Wallpaper and Photo Editor. None of those folders are there. All the pictures in all those albums are there and they are just like Google Photo on the cloud, they are all lumped together and in date order. The albums are gone and it looks no different than the way they are synced on the cloud, they are in the order they were put on my phone.

Now with Gallery, they are sorted by album and I can see each folder album. When I go to My Files, I see the folders and the pictures are on the folder they automatically go in. "Wallpaper" is the only folder I have to manually move pictures into, the rest, taking a picture, taking a screenshot, a saved edited picture or screenshot, goes into Photo Editor.

I see no albums on my phone when viewing through Google Photo. It puts it in the right place with whatever action I do, Google Photo just ignores that folder and puts it all under Camera, by date.

 

[Almeuit]

In that I'm talking about using Google Photo as the Gallery, instead of the Samsung Gallery. When I go to device folders in Google Photo, everything is under "Camera" minus "Album" folders. The only other album I see is "Download".

That may be a Samsung issue though on how it handles putting these screenshots into place. As you can see below on my 6P everything has its own place -- very neatly. When I go to share (the last picture) it shows all my photos backed up to Google (top), Camera, screenshots, download, etc.

I can easily pick where I want to pull a photo from and also set the backup right there if need be. If I want to look into that folder more I simply tap the bottom right (with the number) to scroll through the album.

 

[anon(11078)]

I use Nova Prime launcher on my phone, I don't particularly like the look of TouchWiz, the icons or the icon size. I also use Nova on my Nexus 5, but Nova doesn't change those setting menus, etc.

The S5 again, IMO, is the worst of the S line and Note line, that was made. I don't want my phone to look like Walt Disney threw up all over it, but I also don't want it to look like a list printed out in an old dot matrix printer.

Nova does not fix the settings menu, or the flow, or the incredibly useless feature sets that I have no interest in using. I used the Nova launcher when I had my S3. It mitigated things, but nothing more than that.

From my perspective Samsung has some great hardware buried under a pile of Samsung software crap. I presume from a Samsung users perspective you love the extra "features" that are closely tied to Touch wiz and find nexus bland. The difference is that I can go out into the Android app market and season things the way I want, in contrast, it is difficult to unseasonably a spice you don't like.

But let me try another perspective. You mentioned that you can deal with some of the Samsung thorns by using an app that disables bloatware, or slapping Nova on top of the device. Assuming that's true, if you don't like the Google clock, why not use something like Timely, or a different Gallery app? It's the very same process, just done on a nexus.

The Nexus is not a Galaxy trying to make it one won't work. The same is true in reverse.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Kelly Kearns]

That may be a Samsung issue though on how it handles putting these screenshots into place. As you can see below on my 6P everything has its own place -- very neatly. When I go to share (the last picture) it shows all my photos backed up to Google (top), Camera, screenshots, download, etc.

I can easily pick where I want to pull a photo from and also set the backup right there if need be. If I want to look into that folder more I simply tap the bottom right (with the number) to scroll through the album.

Yeah, doesn't do that for me. I really don't like GP for the cloud picture either. They are listed the same way, hard to find something when you don't know the date.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Nova does not fix the settings menu, or the flow, or the incredibly useless feature sets that I have no interest in using. I used the Nova launcher when I had my S3. It mitigated things, but nothing more than that.

From my perspective Samsung has some great hardware buried under a pile of Samsung software crap. I presume from a Samsung users perspective you love the extra "features" that are closely tied to Touch wiz and find nexus bland. The difference is that I can go out into the Android app market and season things the way I want, in contrast, it is difficult to unseasonably a spice you don't like.

But let me try another perspective. You mentioned that you can deal with some of the Samsung thorns by using an app that disables bloatware, or slapping Nova on top of the device. Assuming that's true, if you don't like the Google clock, why not use something like Timely, or a different Gallery app? It's the very same process, just done on a nexus.

The Nexus is not a Galaxy trying to make it one won't work. The same is true in reverse.

Posted via the Android Central App

Can't even compare the S5 and S3 with what is running now.

I don't like Timely and I'm not crazy about the newer Samsung clock.

I know I can go into the market and search and find any app I want. I just don't particularly want to go through looking around for the basic apps to work the way I want them to work and like, as I said several posts back.

Also as I said, I searched for and found a different Gallery app, though I didn't find it in the Play Store. I know the process and how it is done.

I'm not trying to make my Nexus a Galaxy, never said that, never even indicated that. I'm also not trying to make my Galaxy a Nexus.