BGR just leaked info about the HTC Ville, an Android phone that’ll supposedly be announced by HTC at next year’s Mobile World Congress, and it looks really great… except for one thing. It plasters the needless HTC Sense all over Ice Cream Sandwich. WHYYY.
Aside from that, the HTC Ville is a 4.3-inch, 1.5GHz dual-core phone with a qHD Super AMOLED display and an 8MP camera with 1080p video. The body of the Ville is supposed to be some sort of metal and it’ll be less than 8mm thick. According to BGR’s sources, the Ville won’t have NFC.
That sounds like a super solid phone made better by the fact that it’s running Ice Cream Sandwich. But like most Android phone makers, HTC feels the need to ruin a perfectly fine operating system in Android 4.0 with a silly third-party skin — HTC Sense 4.0 is expected to launch with the Ville. I was hoping that Ice Cream Sandwich would kill all these dummy skins but I guess they’ll never die, they’ll just live in a zombie existence on some poor sap’s phone. [BGR]
Johnny P
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 9:01 AMId hate to be a HTC owner. After 1 month your $1000 phone has been replaced by a newer model. At least with Apple if you get the 64gb iPhone 4S you have the top of the range phone for 12 months
gerard
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 9:34 AMyes you get the phone for a full 12 months, with technology that’s a full 12 months old when it’s first released..
Stephen
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 12:05 PMThis is true. Androide needs a “Signature” line of android phones which only gets released once a year. I was thinking the Galaxy S series. They need to build hype around these handsets with rumors and a conference (Yes, very Apple). But it seems there are soo many android releases this wont happen.
Box Guru
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 2:38 PMYeh I don’t think it would work. I question the need to copy Apple’s model.
A good phone is a good phone. Even if a better one comes out a few months later the phone in your hand is still just as good as it was before.
Unless, you’re a really shallow person that buys a phone to have the shiniest toy on your street.
Steve
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 8:08 PM“Androide needs a “Signature” line of android phones which only gets released once a year”
It’s called the Nexus line. Nexus One > Nexus S > Galaxy Nexus. Over 3 years. Duh.
Sam
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 7:54 AM+1
Nuff said.
Steve
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 8:14 PMThere’s no 1:1 HTC upgrade model. Unlike Apple, which has a very clear line of phones whereby 3GS > 4 > 4S, HTC has a range of models for different users and price points. Hence why a Sensation isn’t comparable to a Desire Z upgrade despite being newer, and why the Sensation XL isn’t an upgrade to that.
Rest easy, your HTC phone will still run fine a year from when you bought it. So why do you care if some other guy gets a slightly newer model after you’ve bought yours? Why does his enjoyment have to impinge on yours? It’s childish. You don’t need to conspicuously own the best and newest phone. And if you need to satisfy that consumerist insecurity, the iPhone is always available.
Sam
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 7:56 AM“…3GS > 4 > 4S…”
You got your formula round the wrong way…
Jackson Bison
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 8:11 AM+1 ;)
Ruvi
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 9:10 AMHave you used HTC sense recently? The later versions are actually really nice, especially the lockscreen. This is coming from someone who has used MIUI, Cyanogen and Sense, and the latter is actually my favourite.
moloko
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 10:56 AMYou can turn it off you know.
Dave Lord
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 5:41 PMI recently upgraded from HTC Desire HD to Samsung Galaxy S2. I have to admit, I really miss Sense UI. It is far more usable than Samsung’s UI.
The two things I miss most are probably the most fundamental features I would expect on a smartphone…
1. A calendar widget that scrolls.
2. A dual timezone clock that displays the time at my current location, and the time at home.
Sense UI offers both of these out of the box. I have yet to find a substitute that works on the Samsung.
Greg
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 10:14 PMDon’t like it, don’t use it. I think you’ll find that the majority of sense users really appreciate what it adds.
Moosa
Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 11:19 PMprobably the HTC Sense may further improve the ICS user experience. ICS has also borrowed a lot of features from Sense and even Windows Phone! i am HTC owner and i’m not trying to belittle ICS. I am saying that HTC Sense improves the user friendliness of android. I remember using my friends android 2.3 without htc sense. I found it to be missing many features. i was also planning to buying his same device. i researched and found out many features which are not there in the unmodified Android 2.3 is present in HTC Sense.
Sam
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 8:05 AMI know I’m late to the party, but I’ll add my own experience with Sense.
I used Sense over Android 2.1 when I got my first Android phone (don’t ask me which version of Sense it was; but it was on a HTC Legend). I did actually find the UI generally quite pleasing to use (especially the widgets), but the dock drove me insane. Only 3 buttons; one for the app drawer, a short cut to dialer, and a shortcut to the home-screen menu – which could be accessed by long pressing on the wallpaper anyway!
I ended up ditching Sense because of the lack of customisability of the dock, and switched over the LauncherPro. Dropping sense made a huge difference to how responsive the phone was, especially when returning back to the launcher from apps; Sense is just so memory hungry.
I agree that Sense is arguably a worthwhile addition to Android for versions up to 2.2, and possibly 2.3 too. Android’s default UI and launcher just never seemed “finished”. It lacked visual appeal, and didn’t always use its available space wisely. Gingerbread did a lot to improve on it, and Ice Cream Sandwich looks like it’s very likely to overcome that hurdle. Sense really does seem like it’s losing its relevance; unless that is, you’re buying a HTC phone because you actually want Sense.
Ammusionist
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 9:26 PMHey does anyone else want to sing that song from 101 Dalmatians to the name of this phone?
The HTC Ville, the HTC Ville,
If Sense doesn’t hang it no other app will
:-)