Considering the Nexus 5...

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

I bought the Nexus specifically because I wanted stock Android and updates that weren't being held ransom by the carrier. I'm a bit of a purist, I don't really like my OS being bogged down by tons of third-party modifications. It's why whenever I get a Windows PC, the first thing I always do is a clean install to get rid of all the bloatware.

 

Note that you can buy almost all major headphones in a generic/Android version. Amazon specifically is good about this, most headphones will have a so-called "i" version that is optimized for iOS.

That's the main reason I wanted the Nexus 5 too. Although I'm a patient person, I find it odd that carriers need so much time to 'test' an update. And I don't have the patience for companies like HTC and Samsung to bloatify Android. I know some people that own Galaxy devices and most of them have complained to me about their phones slowing down over time. You should see the look on their faces when they see how snappy my Nexus 5 is.

 

That's good to know. I'll keep that in mind when I shop for new headphones.

[Quillz]

My dad has a Galaxy S4 and it's insane. Out of the box, it has something like three different music players, tons of "S" apps that do the same thing as the stock Android apps, TouchWiz clashes with the look and feel of Holo, and the capacitive buttons are backwards from a standard Android setup. It has great internals, but Samsung should have just left well enough alone and shipped stock Android. Which I guess they are doing with the Google Play Edition, but it still has those backward buttons.

[technord]

 

 

 

Should give swiftkey a try, very good keyboard, personally I prefer the stock android apps/keyboard though.

 

 

swiftkey used to be good, and as a keyboard its great.  Unfortunately the latest version on kitkat is extremely buggy, and lags like hell on emoticons (esp hangouts).

They are aware of the problem, but refuse to fix it?

My dad has a Galaxy S4 and it's insane. Out of the box, it has something like three different music players, tons of "S" apps that do the same thing as the stock Android apps, TouchWiz clashes with the look and feel of Holo, and the capacitive buttons are backwards from a standard Android setup. It has great internals, but Samsung should have just left well enough alone and shipped stock Android. Which I guess they are doing with the Google Play Edition, but it still has those backward buttons.

 

Yep, the main problem with android phones in general.  Why these companies think their programmers are better than google is beyond me.

[technord]

Google are not blameless though

 

Why have messaging and hangouts together?  ditch one please

 

Why offer google currents in the play store when it's been replaced with play news?  I mean why even offer it as a download when you can't use it

 

fix hangouts!!!!!!

 

I get that android is open source which is why it ships with the android browser.  However everyone downloads chrome.....so why not just replace android browser with chrome.....in fact, just stick all the google apps on and have done with it.

[+Nexus18 MVC]

Exactly the reasons I won't buy anything other than nexus devices from now on :)

 

Get updates straight away and "know" that you will, no waiting around for 4+ months just to hear "we are testing the update on a number of handsets to ensure that they run smoothly and are stable", in other words... "we are adding more bloat to our devices and deciding which devices to leave behind on an old version in order to sell our newer more expensive phones"

 

And no bloat from networks etc.

 

Despise touchwiz (disorganised, ugly, no unified feel at all, bloated big time, slow and laggy). The HTC sense skin is very nice though!

 

swiftkey used to be good, and as a keyboard its great.  Unfortunately the latest version on kitkat is extremely buggy, and lags like hell on emoticons (esp hangouts).

They are aware of the problem, but refuse to fix it?

Ah didn't know that! :(

 

I'm sure they will eventually fix/improve it.....

 

Swype is pretty good too, although last time I used it (about 4+ months ago), I found it to be slow and laggy as well.

[Quillz]

Google are not blameless though

 

Why have messaging and hangouts together?  ditch one please

 

Why offer google currents in the play store when it's been replaced with play news?  I mean why even offer it as a download when you can't use it

 

fix hangouts!!!!!!

 

I get that android is open source which is why it ships with the android browser.  However everyone downloads chrome.....so why not just replace android browser with chrome.....in fact, just stick all the google apps on and have done with it.

I thought they did that quite some time ago. My Nexus only has Chrome on it, I didn't download any other browser. It had Chrome out of the box.

[technord]

I thought they did that quite some time ago. My Nexus only has Chrome on it, I didn't download any other browser. It had Chrome out of the box.

 

Nexus roms are stock android with google apps installed afterwards (as part of the nexus rom)

[tsupersonic]

Google are not blameless though

 

Why have messaging and hangouts together?  ditch one please

 

Why offer google currents in the play store when it's been replaced with play news?  I mean why even offer it as a download when you can't use it

 

fix hangouts!!!!!!

 

I get that android is open source which is why it ships with the android browser.  However everyone downloads chrome.....so why not just replace android browser with chrome.....in fact, just stick all the google apps on and have done with it.

The Nexus 5 does ship with just Hangouts, no messaging app. The integration of Hangouts and SMS/MMS messages is not complete. It leaves something to be desired. I used GoSMSPro since I needed the ability to have repeating notifications (nice when I'm on call).

 

Chrome is also the only browser included with the Nexus 5. You can download other browsers like Firefox after the fact, but there is no more AOSP browser. I actually prefered the AOSP browser, because it was very snappy. There are other good browsers on the Play Store, so plenty of good options which other mobile OS's don't really offer. 

 

Re: Swiftkey. I used to love Swiftkey prior to Android keyboard including swype like feature. Swiftkey was always slow on every device I have used. If you tap on a text field, there is some delay between the tap and the keyboard appearing. The stock Android keyboard is excellent - the swiping works really well, the predictions are great (close to Swiftkey), and it's fast!

[+Fahim S. MVC]

Tap to go to the top of the window is the biggest feature I miss from iOS, it wouldn't be so bad if more apps had better scroll implementations though (Scroll bars aren't just for desktops!)

^^ this. It's amazing that Google haven't implemented such a vital feature.

[technord]

I've been using the Android L keyboard for the past two days.  Really like it