Is HTC Sense (3.5 or 4.0) going to ruin the ICS experience?

[jdg1]

Just saw the new ROM posted by scrosler (great work by the way!) which I believe is from the leaked ICS build for the Rezound.

I have been waiting for a while to make a decision on which phone to upgrade to recently. The radio/reception and volume issues with the Galaxy Nexus had me holding off on that device to see if an update would fix all its woes. Hasn't yet so I think the thrill is gone.

The price drop on the Rezound and all the opinions that its radio/reception and volume is better than my current rooted TB had me about to pull the trigger for a shiny new Rezound until I saw this ROM posted today.

Has nothing to do with scrosler's work by the way, but for some reason seeing what appears to be the Sense 3.5 with slightly modded Rosie killed it for me for some reason. My TB works well right now with no complaints. Sure better reception, sound, and screen would be nice but after seeing Sensed ICS on it it just doesn't seem to be a big enough jump to fork out even the reduced $200.00 bucks. I don't see facelock, drag apps to folders, recent/running apps, enhanced notifications, etc. Granted it maybe all under the hood. Don't get me wrong, I personally like Sense and some of its features. I guess I was looking for a new enhanced Sense like ICS is to Gingerbread.

For you who have the Rezound I am slightly jealous now. If any of you were in the same boat as me recently feel free to chime in.

 

[jsmuli2]

Here's a leaked screenshot of what sense 'might' be looking like on ICS

From the website

 

[Dovahkiin]

Disregard the leaks and early builds as being our official ICS.
Any OEM is still quite a few months away from even having a beta ICS version. Just sit tight.

 

[Wanda]

Not familiar with the ROM situation for the Tbolt but couldn't you just flash an ICS ROM to it and get your Android 4.0 on that way?

I was using the AOSP ICS for the original Inc during the last few weeks before I made the switch to the Rezound and honestly I don't see what all the fuss is about. I'm sure the Inc was missing some features like face unlock but other stuff was there like the folders, the menu's, the basic layout and functionality of ICS. To me it seemed like Google had switched stuff around (like the way apps are added to the home screens) just so they could say they had done some work to it.

There are Sense-ICS and AOSP-ICS ROMS in the works for the Rezound so if you rooted your Tbolt I would assume you would root the Rezound (its fairly easy to do by the way). That way you could have everything you want at once...nice new more powerful phone, better reception, any flavor of ICS you want...Sensed or AOSP.

 

[MrSmith317]

Isn't ICS going to carry Sense 4.0? Wasn't that the word from HTC? Could be the same...could be completely different....We won't know until we get the official word...so until then enjoy playing with the new toys. I'm guessing these are more fun than the official one will be anyway.

 

[humpagardengnome]

Just saw the new ROM posted by scrosler (great work by the way!) which I believe is from the leaked ICS build for the Rezound.

I have been waiting for a while to make a decision on which phone to upgrade to recently. The radio/reception and volume issues with the Galaxy Nexus had me holding off on that device to see if an update would fix all its woes. Hasn't yet so I think the thrill is gone.

The price drop on the Rezound and all the opinions that its radio/reception and volume is better than my current rooted TB had me about to pull the trigger for a shiny new Rezound until I saw this ROM posted today.

Has nothing to do with scrosler's work by the way, but for some reason seeing what appears to be the Sense 3.5 with slightly modded Rosie killed it for me for some reason. My TB works well right now with no complaints. Sure better reception, sound, and screen would be nicei but after seeing Sensed ICS on it it just doesn't seem to be a big enough jump to fork out even the reduced $200.00 bucks. I don't see facelock, drag apps to folders, recent/running apps, enhanced notifications, etc. Granted it maybe all under the hood. Don't get me wrong, I personally like Sense and some of its features. I guess I was looking for a new enhanced Sense like ICS is to Gingerbread.

For you who have the Rezound I am slightly jealous now. If any of you were in the same boat as me recently feel free to chime in.

Considering how long devs have had to work w/ since the unlock, give em a break. Do you really expect to see a polished ICS rom, ready for primetime. ROM wasn't built in a day, my friend. This looks a rehashed clone of the Sensation rom. It's not like this will be the only interpretation of Sensed ICS that we'll see and have to choose from in the coming months

 

[jdg1]

Considering how long devs have had to work w/ since the unlock, give em a break. Do you really expect to see a polished ICS rom, ready for primetime. ROM wasn't built in a day, my friend. This looks a rehashed clone of the Sensation rom. It's not like this will be the only interpretation of Sensed ICS that we'll see and have to choose from in the coming months

Not looking for polish yet, but definitely paying attention to the direction it takes.
Thanks for your comments

 

[scrosler]

Considering how long devs have had to work w/ since the unlock, give em a break. Do you really expect to see a polished ICS rom, ready for primetime. ROM wasn't built in a day, my friend. This looks a rehashed clone of the Sensation rom. It's not like this will be the only interpretation of Sensed ICS that we'll see and have to choose from in the coming months

I dont think he is bashing the work that was put into the ROM but more so dissapopinted at what the ROM actually is.

And I can understand that... I was hoping for Sense 4.0 too! I would love it if it exists.

But right now I would not make a buying desion based on a leaked ROM. Take it for what it is... ITs an early concept from HTC that I made usable. The same thing on the sensation, its identical. I think this is going to be close to what we see. But I cannot tell you that for fact until we have the final product. Whe the final product is out then we will know what it is :-\

But for now... Rezound owners... ENJOY! You can have your Ice Cream Sandwich and eat it too!

 

[aergern]

I have been waiting for a while to make a decision on which phone to upgrade to recently. The radio/reception and volume issues with the Galaxy Nexus had me holding off on that device to see if an update would fix all its woes. Hasn't yet so I think the thrill is gone.

Frankly the 4.0.3 radios have fixed what little issue there was with the Gnex radios. My Thunderbolt had 9+ radio leaks which I think equated to 5 released radio updates for 3G/4G issues so this is just a case of it being a new handset.

Volume .. haven't had issue with this what so ever .. in fact the wife complains to me that it's really loud. But then again she keeps her phone (my old TB) at what I consider to be levels only a dog could hear.

I think these two issue are not as much of an issue as the loud crowd doing the complaining would have you believe.

As to the Sense update ruining the ICS experience .. I think that depends on what you want. I like Sense well enough .. had it on 2 phones prior to jumping to the Gnex ... if only HTC wouldn't take forever to bolt it on to dot releases of Android .. I may not have switched. A month into owning/using the Gnex .. I think either would work but I lean toward stock as a rock for myself from now on. Just my opinion .. ICS has made 99% of the complains about Android's UI .. moot.

 

[anon(21022)]

IMO, if the ROMS are from HTC and not Sense 3.5 hacked onto an ICS ROM... Take this with a grain of salt:

maybe HTC is getting ICS (the base - drivers, OS, frameworks, etc) working on the Rezound before getting any of the fancy UI stuff working? Maybe they haven't gotten around yet to implementing the new notifications, task manager previews, and such, as well as new stock android features like the folder management added to Rosie, etc? It's like early OS X builds that had all the under-the-hood OS X goodness yet still looked an awful lot like OS 9 with some NeXTSTEP added on, cuz they hadn't worked on "Aqua" yet (if you followed at all the history of Mac OS X...)

Just a thought...

 

[xs228]

I'm in the wait and see camp when it comes to Sense. I like what HTC did with sense 3.5 on the Rhyme. Given that the Rezound can be used as a GSM phone as well...if HTC comes out with a good Sense 4.0 along with ICS that might be enough to move me into that camp.

 

[humpagardengnome]

I dont think he is bashing the work that was put into the ROM but more so dissapopinted at what the ROM actually is. And I can understand that... I was hoping for Sense 4.0 too! I would love it if it exists.
But right now I would not make a buying desion based on a leaked ROM. Take it for what it is... ITs an early concept from HTC that I made usable. The same thing on the sensation, its identical. I think this is going to be close to what we see. But I cannot tell you that for fact until we have the final product. Whe the final product is out then we will know what it is :-\

But for now... Rezound owners... ENJOY! You can have your Ice Cream Sandwich and eat it too!

I get what he was saying in the OP. I hope that post didn't come across like I was bashing either of you. I roll w/ the get along gang, so that certainly wasn't my intention. Like him, I'm just not impressed by what I see w/ that ICS rom. Probably because I wanted to see something fresh w/ OS 4.0. Hoped to see ICS paired up w/ a hybrid closer to stock vanilla than the Sense skin. Which is what HTC alluded to after the Hong Kong unpacking and gave me a glint of hope for Sense, again

 

[scrosler]

I get what he was saying in the OP. I hope that post didn't come across like I was bashing either of you. I roll w/ the get along gang, so that certainly wasn't my intention. Like him, I'm just not impressed by what I see w/ that ICS rom. Probably because I wanted to see something fresh w/ OS 4.0. Hoped to see ICS paired up w/ a hybrid closer to stock vanilla than the Sense skin. Which is what HTC alluded to after the Hong Kong unpacking and gave me a glint of hope for Sense, again

I see I see....

Well, to behinest with all of you this says Sense 3.5 but its not Sense 3.5 Its more to it than just a launcher change. There are a LOT of significant differnece (and similiarites).

I think until you really play with it you wont know. Dont let the looks fool you. I am sure this is more like sens 3.9 or something. Its way diff then all the other Sens 3.5 / 3.5's Ive handled.


But after playing with it I really do ikeit. I hate the damn HTC Green everyw here... But the ICS color scheme is tight.

I will be working on an AOSP clone like I do with Evo 3D and currently do with the Rezound GB. Trust me... I can make this look like stock AOSP with full Sense functionality. Just look at my Senseless Series

 

[Wanda]

Trust me... I can make this look like stock AOSP with full Sense functionality. Just look at my Senseless Series

Thats something I don't understand about this whole debate. Root your phone, flash which ever flavor you want (AOSP or Sense-based) and get your Android on! Couldn't be any easier...its about choice people and thats what the many Rezound dev's+OEM give us...choice.

 

[Dovahkiin]

Trust me... I can make this look like stock AOSP with full Sense functionality. Just look at my Senseless Series

This. I'm waiting for this. Where is this!? I need this!

 

[superlawyer15]

I used to own a thunderbolt, which of course had sense

then I bought myself a gnexus, which is running vanilla ICS


the screenshots posted in this forum of sense running on top of ICS lead me to feel that skinning ICS makes the OS worse and that users deserve to use ICS the way google envisioned it

It was such a welcomed difference to go to ICS from the tbolt, everything felt new and worked much better

this is just more of the same old same old, I got sick of sense a few months into owning my tbolt and flashed CM7 to get a more vanilla gingerbread experience

I really hope someone puts together an AOSP rom for those who decided to buy the rezound

i personally never benefitted from OEM skins whether it be blur, sense, or w/e. They are not as lean as vanilla android and I think that the impact they have on performance outweighs any benefit they might add

 

[Wanda]

I used to own a thunderbolt, which of course had sense

then I bought myself a gnexus, which is running vanilla ICS


the screenshots posted in this forum of sense running on top of ICS lead me to feel that skinning ICS makes the OS worse and that users deserve to use ICS the way google envisioned it

It was such a welcomed difference to go to ICS from the tbolt, everything felt new and worked much better

this is just more of the same old same old, I got sick of sense a few months into owning my tbolt and flashed CM7 to get a more vanilla gingerbread experience

I really hope someone puts together an AOSP rom for those who decided to buy the rezound

i personally never benefitted from OEM skins whether it be blur, sense, or w/e. They are not as lean as vanilla android and I think that the impact they have on performance outweighs any benefit they might add

Nothing is as "lean" as vanilla ...that's why they call it vanilla.

I loved CM7 on the Inc but I think even vanilla fans would agree that Sense does bring something to the table in the area of fit and polish. The vanilla widgets can be sorely lacking at times (I'm looking at you AOSP music widget/player). Also while Sense 3.5 may have been sluggish on some other platforms it is slicker than snot on the rezound and I would have no reason to believe it will still fly with 4.0 and ICS.

In my opinion the great thing about the rezound is that you can have both Sense and AOSP ROMS. I can't imagine Cyanogen not putting out a CM9 for the rezound but if you like Sense well we've got that too.

 

[mjforte]

IMO, I think ICS on the Rezound is going to end up looking very similar to the current Sense 3.5. HTC has been known not to upgrade Sense to newer versions than the phone launched with unless it's like a .1 upgrade. Expect to see a new HTC phone that releases with ICS in a few months with the real Sense 4.0. The reason I think HTC doesn't want to change Sense too much is due to not wanting to confuse consumers that are familiar with Sense as it is already. Imagine if they put stock ICS on the Rezound, I'm sure many people would be very lost (except for us that read blogs and forums). You have to think of things for the general consumer, not us phone geeks.

 

[jroc]

Nothing is as "lean" as vanilla ...that's why they call it vanilla.

I loved CM7 on the Inc but I think even vanilla fans would agree that Sense does bring something to the table in the area of fit and polish.

Agree 100%. Not just Sense UI but other custom UI's too. They REALLY dont get enough credit for the enhancements they bring to vanilla Android. Ad as the devices/hardware got better, so did the custom UI's.

I had a G Nex for 2 weeks. And while it is better than stock Gingerbread...the Rezound and RAZR add a lil something extra to GB that was missing from stock GB. I'm willing to bet they will also add a lil extra thats missing from stock ICS....hopefully it will be a good job of mixing ICS and their UI's.

 

[humpagardengnome]

I see I see....

Well, to behinest with all of you this says Sense 3.5 but its not Sense 3.5 Its more to it than just a launcher change. There are a LOT of significant differnece (and similiarites).

I think until you really play with it you wont know. Dont let the looks fool you. I am sure this is more like sens 3.9 or something. Its way diff then all the other Sens 3.5 / 3.5's Ive handled.

3.9 you say, hmmn, to play or not to play? Just might have to do that before writing it off. This kinda perked the ears up. I've kinda been goin' with the assumption it was straight 3.5 w/ a splash of ICS thrown together just to be first coolest rom on the block. You're right though, screenshots don't always paint the right picture.

I will be working on an AOSP clone like I do with Evo 3D and currently do with the Rezound GB. Trust me. I can make this look like stock AOSP with full Sense functionality Just look at my Senseless series

You tease....I would never doubt your capabilities, you've done some impressive stuff, outside of the walls of the xda-devs forum.