S4 TouchWiz VS Google Edition

[avsquare]

Anyone with Samsung's S4 non-Google Edition but flashed in the Google Edition ROM?

I've just did it, and I wondering if there's any guys who also did it and what's your take on it.

Personally, I think the Google Edition ROM looks cool, but it is lacking default music and video player. Also, I miss the contact sync from FB in the stock TouchWiz where the contact pic is synced to your friend's FB profile pic, which is absent in Google Edition.

On a side note, Google Edition's home screen can be replicated with Nova Launcher and made better looking with Key Lime Pie icon pack.


Anyone else wants to share opinion and experience?

 

[Lehnsherr]

I presume you have the local set I9505? Is the LTE working after you flashed?

Video player u can try MX Player, supported alot of format, and u can set video and audio decoding options differently, as well as independent brightness settings.

As for the facebook contact sync, Google has removed this feature since Nexus S and it is absent on all Nexus devices and looks in this case on the Google Edition phones as well.

 

[avsquare]

I presume you have the local set I9505? Is the LTE working after you flashed?

Video player u can try MX Player, supported alot of format, and u can set video and audio decoding options differently, as well as independent brightness settings.

As for the facebook contact sync, Google has removed this feature since Nexus S and it is absent on all Nexus devices and looks in this case on the Google Edition phones as well.

Yup, on LTE set. LTE works perfectly fine for me.

Finding 3rd party player is okay for me, but I'm surprised that Google stock doesn't have any default player other than the lousy and user un-friendly Google Play which is for music only.

The FB contact sync is really cool and useful. It's quite a pity that Google ditched them.

 

[Lehnsherr]

Yup, on LTE set. LTE works perfectly fine for me.

Finding 3rd party player is okay for me, but I'm surprised that Google stock doesn't have any default player other than the lousy and user un-friendly Google Play which is for music only.

The FB contact sync is really cool and useful. It's quite a pity that Google ditched them.

Thanks thats great...can choose it over Nexus 4.

Its the way stock android is, stay lean and fast while you get everything u need from Play store...and Google make more money on that...

 

[avsquare]

Thanks thats great...can choose it over Nexus 4.

Its the way stock android is, stay lean and fast while you get everything u need from Play store...and Google make more money on that...

Yeap, it's pretty clean, freed up about 1GB of apps and what not compared to TW (on TW with bloatware removed, about 7GB of free space, on Google Edition, 8GB).

Interface looks pretty interesting (including the animation during typing etc) but still something lacking. I can't seem to find how to reduce the number of home screen (the usual pinch down gesture for android did not work).

Anyways, I'm still using Nova Launcher and Go Locker to customize home and lock screen and I replaced the icons with Key Lime Pie pack.

 

[Lehnsherr]

Yeap, it's pretty clean, freed up about 1GB of apps and what not compared to TW (on TW with bloatware removed, about 7GB of free space, on Google Edition, 8GB).

Interface looks pretty interesting (including the animation during typing etc) but still something lacking. I can't seem to find how to reduce the number of home screen (the usual pinch down gesture for android did not work).

Anyways, I'm still using Nova Launcher and Go Locker to customize home and lock screen and I replaced the icons with Key Lime Pie pack.

You can't reduce on the stock launcher. But since you use Nova Launcher then I think its not an issue.

The stock keyboard is not bad and it has gesture typing as well. Downside is no chinese input, so u have to download Google Pinyin IME (which can also input in english if u like). BTW if you don't have swiftkey its 50% off now and I pulled the trigger on it a few days back...definitely better than the stock keyboard.

EDIT: suggest u go easy on the customization to maintain the lean and fast experience, cos the S4 is already running 4.2.2 and its not worth it to customize it until its slower than what stock android can offer cos feature set on the bloated touchwiz is definitely better.

 

[avsquare]

You can't reduce on the stock launcher. But since you use Nova Launcher then I think its not an issue.

The stock keyboard is not bad and it has gesture typing as well. Downside is no chinese input, so u have to download Google Pinyin IME (which can also input in english if u like). BTW if you don't have swiftkey its 50% off now and I pulled the trigger on it a few days back...definitely better than the stock keyboard.

EDIT: suggest u go easy on the customization to maintain the lean and fast experience, cos the S4 is already running 4.2.2 and its not worth it to customize it until its slower than what stock android can offer cos feature set on the bloated touchwiz is definitely better.

I have both Swiftkey and Swipe, but in the end I use Smart Keyboard Pro as I have to switch between Eng/Chi/Jap very frequently. Swiftkey and Swipe can't fit into my needs.

No worries, I'm keeping things pretty clean too. Homescreen = 1 page and it's empty cos I put up a cute girl as wallpaper and I don't want anything blocking it. The 8 most frequently used app, I placed them on 2 different docks at the bottom, the rest of the app I separate them into say utilities/entertainment etc on the app drawer. Then lock screen is just one of the theme I DL for Go Locker without any other additions like widgets and just change icon pack to Key Lime Pie.

 

[tohchr]

Anyone with Samsung's S4 non-Google Edition but flashed in the Google Edition ROM?

I've just did it, and I wondering if there's any guys who also did it and what's your take on it.

Personally, I think the Google Edition ROM looks cool, but it is lacking default music and video player. Also, I miss the contact sync from FB in the stock TouchWiz where the contact pic is synced to your friend's FB profile pic, which is absent in Google Edition.

On a side note, Google Edition's home screen can be replicated with Nova Launcher and made better looking with Key Lime Pie icon pack.


Anyone else wants to share opinion and experience?

Ditched those 2 and use MX Player Pro for Video and Poweramp Pro for music.

 

[kEvinErd]

Anyone with Samsung's S4 non-Google Edition but flashed in the Google Edition ROM?

I've just did it, and I wondering if there's any guys who also did it and what's your take on it.

Personally, I think the Google Edition ROM looks cool, but it is lacking default music and video player. Also, I miss the contact sync from FB in the stock TouchWiz where the contact pic is synced to your friend's FB profile pic, which is absent in Google Edition.

On a side note, Google Edition's home screen can be replicated with Nova Launcher and made better looking with Key Lime Pie icon pack.


Anyone else wants to share opinion and experience?

Shows how useful Touchwiz can be at times right..? Haha you won't miss the feature until its no longer there.

 

[avsquare]

Ditched those 2 and use MX Player Pro for Video and Poweramp Pro for music.

Considering these 2 also. What's their biggest selling point to you?

Shows how useful Touchwiz can be at times right..? Haha you won't miss the feature until its no longer there.

Actually, the 2 things I missed was the FB contact sync and the hold-home-button to access the defauly task/RAM manager.

For task killer/RAM manager, there are quite a few good ones out there. I guess what I really missed from TouchWiz is the FB contact sync.

 

[tohchr]

Considering these 2 also. What's their biggest selling point to you?



Actually, the 2 things I missed was the FB contact sync and the hold-home-button to access the defauly task/RAM manager.

For task killer/RAM manager, there are quite a few good ones out there. I guess what I really missed from TouchWiz is the FB contact sync.

MX player support most format. Poweramp is quite powerful compared to stock music player. I had ditched stock video player and music player long ago. Freeze it too using titanium.

 

[kEvinErd]

Considering these 2 also. What's their biggest selling point to you?



Actually, the 2 things I missed was the FB contact sync and the hold-home-button to access the defauly task/RAM manager.

For task killer/RAM manager, there are quite a few good ones out there. I guess what I really missed from TouchWiz is the FB contact sync.

Haxsync from play store works too. How about the camera? You don't miss all those camera features? Multi window?

 

[avsquare]

MX player support most format. Poweramp is quite powerful compared to stock music player. I had ditched stock video player and music player long ago. Freeze it too using titanium.

Haha if you ditched the stock, you could have just uninstalled them haha

Haxsync from play store works too. How about the camera? You don't miss all those camera features? Multi window?

Nope, I never use any of the camera features.

Multi window is cool, but hardly use them also. Find that the screen is still too small for multi window to be truly useful - but I find multi window very good for Note 10.1 LTE though!

 

[walkofwinners]

i am using the google vanilla rom as well. pretty smooth i would say.

►►[ROM]4.2.2 - S4 Google Edition v5 - Feel the Experience of Nexus◄◄ - xda-developers

 

[tohchr]

Haha if you ditched the stock, you could have just uninstalled them haha



Nope, I never use any of the camera features.

Multi window is cool, but hardly use them also. Find that the screen is still too small for multi window to be truly useful - but I find multi window very good for Note 10.1 LTE though!

Ya, but safe practise is to freeze for a few weeks before uninstall it mah. So, i will uninstall it later on.

 

[avsquare]

Ya, but safe practise is to freeze for a few weeks before uninstall it mah. So, i will uninstall it later on.

never heard of this safe practice, what's the rationale?

 

[ruffruff]

poweramp pro for music
diceplayer for video

Google rocks!