Touchwiz: Will it hinder my S3 Experience?

[Zulu Warrior]

Hey guys,

I'm pretty new to androids, but I have been reading through these forums quite liberally for the past month or so. I'm pretty excited about the GS3, but there's one thing I'm still not too sure about: Touchwiz. I've yet to actually own an android (planning on making this my first) but I have played around with them quite a bit in stores, friends phones etc. Sense 4.0 on the new HTC One series seemed to be pretty smooth and nice looking to me. I haven't had the chance to play with the newest Touchwiz yet, but how does it compare to Sense, and Vanilla android? I wasn't a big fan of the older versions of Touchwiz, so just wanted to see what you guys thought. What's the best android skin in your opinion? Why?

 

[soothslyr]

personally, i prefer Sense 4.0 (the UI for the new HTC phones), but it ultimately boils down to personal preference. i know some that prefer the Touchwiz approach. for me, Sense 4.0 just clicks better because it's visual, simple, and VERY stylish, yet functional at the same time.

as for your question of it hindering your experience, it really boils down to what your personal tastes are of UI tools. Sense 4.0 is VERY visual. it has a lot of little animations, and tends to eat up ram because of it, while Touchwiz does not.

remember that you're going to be using android now. if you don't like the OS, just root your phone, and flash another rom in it's place. this is the power of an open source OS. there are many tutorials here on how to do just that, and tons of support for when you inevitably mess it up lol.

also, if it helps, i am an old ios veteran myself. so i know the growing pains of switching systems. hope this helps

 

[jjb70]

Or without rooting and flashing, you can just install one of many many third party launchers and it will completely replace Touch Wiz. The first thing I will install is ADW Launcher EX and say bye-bye to TouchWiz.
In other words, don't NOT buy this phone because of TouchWiz. That's the beauty of Android. You can do whatever you want.

 

[Zulu Warrior]

Thanks for the quick replies guys.

I have seemed to prefer the sense 4.0 interface as well. It is just very simple and sleek. It looks very nice. Honestly, I really liked the HTC One X quite a lot when a sampled it, but it has a couple deal-breakers on it (Lack of expandable storage, removable battery, and multitasking sucks). I am pretty excited to get the GS3, as it looks like a great all-around phone.

As you both pointed out, that's one of the main things i'm looking forward to with an android phone. I will keep those launchers in mind, do you find them in the google play store, or just find them off the web somewhere? Since I do like the hardware on the GS3, I'll probably end up picking it up as soon as I can, keeping in mind I can rid the device of Touchwiz if it ends up bothering me. Now to wait a week for it to be available.... gonna be a long week.

 

[nkd]

Or without rooting and flashing, you can just install one of many many third party launchers and it will completely replace Touch Wiz. The first thing I will install is ADW Launcher EX and say bye-bye to TouchWiz.
In other words, don't NOT buy this phone because of TouchWiz. That's the beauty of Android. You can do whatever you want.

aren't there better launchers than ADW ex now, specially for ICS. Like Apex and Nova.

 

[jjb70]

There are lots of them. I prefer ADW because it's lightning fast and that's my main focus.
And to the OP, just do a search for "Launcher" into the Play store and start trying them out.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Android Central Forums

 

[Dreissig]

I personally like the Touchwiz interface on the GS3. I previously had a Evo 4G and I found that Sense looked nice, but it made the performance of the phone suffer. The layout of Touchwiz is also more to my fancy. But if you find you don't like it, you can always do what the others have said and just put on a different launcher or rom.

 

[KSmithInNY]

OEMs UIs have really matured because they are a selling point or possible distinguishing feature in the cell phone wars. I heard so many terrible things about blur, when i finally picked up a moto (photon) i loved blur. Much better for me then that pig sense. Give it a try, you might be surprised by the UI. If you don't like it root, flash and enjoy but you might be selling your experience short unless you go in open minded.

FYI - One of my pet peves is OEMs who change things just to change them. Dont give me fluff .... you want to touch the framework then ship it to me with notification toggles (like sammy is) and toss in 100% while you're making changes. Add functions or features or just leave it alone.

 

[Paul627g]

I agree with KSmithInNY, Sense for the little I used it I always thought it was very sluggish and resource hogging. Touchwiz I actually preferred it was a fun UI for theme devs to play with IMO. I enjoyed doing themes for rooted devices based on TW.

Now TW coming with the expanded toggles available makes it even more appetizing to me and from the looks of the video and reviews on the international version it seems to run very smooth.

Again it all comes down to personal preference.. Don't like it, install one of the many 3rd party launchers or root your device and wait for Cyanogen Mod 9 to get that vanilla ICS which probably won't be far behind after launch..

 

[BOSSY TEXAS CHICK]

Hey y'all,

Am anxiously awaiting S3 like the rest of y'all, and to me it appears from all the videos that THIS version of Touch Whiz is the best yet. However, even tho they give you the option to have the 4 lockscreen icons appear or NOT appear, it seems on the homescreen u STILL cannot make them go away altogether, so that is why i too will be loading 'ol faithful ADW Launcher EX.... (Love leaving my screen clean with nothing but a shelf at bottom)

My question is, will the Motion functions STILL work (tap to top/launch camera by holding lanscape & pressing on middle/swiping palm against screen for screenshot, etc) if i have selected ADW as my primary launcher?

Thanx!

BTC

 

[jjb70]

I'm 99% sure they will. I think those are Samsung special sauce items but not part of Touch Wiz. The motion settings work just fine on my current Skyrocket with ADW as my launcher.
3 more freakin' days!!!