For those of you not familiar with HTC’s, Motorola’s, and other manufacturer’s phones running what is called the “Android OS”, here’s a quick rundown of what it is and why the two versions of it are so great.
But first, vocabulary you’re going to want to familiarize yourself with:
Important Terms
- Android OS: Google’s open-source operating system based on Linux and used by cell phone users all over the world
- Sense UI: a user interface designed and implemented by HTC that runs on all HTC-branded phones and the Google Nexus One, laid over the default Android interface
- Android UI: the user interface designed and implemented into the core Android OS by Google, used on all other Android phoness
- MotoBlur UI: a third, less common UI, very social networking-based, for phones like the Cliq, Devour, and Backflip
Phones
- Droid: a Motorola phone for the Verizon Wireless network, one of the most powerful Android-branded consumer phones, with slide-out keyboard
- Nexus One: Google’s first cell phone, running on T-Mobile, one of the most powerful Android phones currently available
- Hero: a popular HTC phone for the Sprint and GSM networks, with the bottom “lip”
- Eris: another Verizon Wireless Android device, running Android v1.6, has a Nexus One-like form factor
- Desire/Legend: two similar HTC phones that have yet to be released; promise to be the best Android phones yet
- Cliq: a Motorola slider phone running on T-Mobile, includes the MotoBlur UI
- Devour: a Motorola slider phone with MotoBlur, coined “the Droid’s little brother”, running on Verizon Wireless
- Backflip: AT&T’s first Android phone, includes the MotoBlur UI and a very unique design
So, what is the Android UI? Basically, it’s what most Android users are seeing on their phones if they have any phone such as the Motorola Droid and Google G1. The real distinguishing feature about the Android UI is how industrial it looks. It’s very clean-cut, uses matte colors, orange highlights, green checkmark and radio buttons, and a lot of silver and dark grey interface elements. Here’s an example:
This is an example of the 2.0 firmware Android lockscreen, found on the Motorola Droid. This is one of the better examples of the Android v2.0 UI’s flashy interface elements.
This shows what the screen on a Droid might look like while docked in a desktop dock. Android v2.0+ has a unique interface when docked that allows users to access, music, photo slideshows, and alarm clock settings, as well as weather, straight from the dock interface.
This is what a typical Android v2.0+ settings menu looks like. As all Android-based interfaces, it is very simple, easy to navigate, and the icon metaphors are east to decipher.
This is an example of the older v1.5 – v1.6 Android interface. Very plain, and sort of feels like an old Linux distribution. Good thing, too, because the Android OS is actually based on Linux.
So all in all, the default Android interface has come a long way from 1.5 to 2.0, and we have yet to see a good many changes come with 2.1 (whenever that is). Maybe not interface-related changes, per say, but it’s very possible that the Droid, which runs Android v2.0.1 and the default Android UI, might get some sort of Sense UI upgrade in the near future.
And now, Sense UI… My favorite. The Sense UI is an HTC-created interface that is laid over the Android system to make it look beautiful. Some people may disagree, but this being my personal blog, if you don’t like the Sense UI, you have no soul, and no sense of great design. Sense is gorgeous. Let me explain.
Let’s start with the lock screen.
It’s simple, it’s elegant, and it’s not obtrusive if you’ve got a background image you want to see when you turn your phone on.
Press the bar and drag down to unlock the phone. This version is the HTC Hero version of the lockscreen. The Droid Eris has more of a curved version of the clock/unlock bar that’s shown above.
This is what a Sense UI phone’s home screen looks like. The icons are a style fitting of the phone, and the bottom bar allows for quick access to applications, phone functions, and settings. The flip clock/weather widget on the top animates when the time or weather changes. Pretty cool. When I had my Eris (before I switched to the Droid), that was my favorite feature.
This is the “new” Sense UI, which people are guessing will be updated later this year. It’s codenamed “Espresso”, and is generally a nicer-looking update to the current Sense UI. As long as it has that widget… :p
So, to close, I hope you learned a bit about the two Android interfaces available to consumers on current Android-based phones. I know I didn’t cover everything there is to know about the UI’s, nor did I explain the (form) features of the phones that factor into the decision to run Sense or not, but that may be for another time. Until my next post.
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