yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II General] molesarecoming:
its not only the icons, the entire framework is amateurish, the buttons, checkboxes, lists, droplists, labels, textfields and boxes, sliders, etc. if you are a programmer and have ever worked with xaml, qt, gtk, gdi, flex, or whatever, then you know how easy it is to throw something together but how hard it is to make it look good. tw was done by people with zero design skill. it's a pitty because ice cream sandwhich was really thought through to the tiniest element. they even created fonts to fit our amoleds, namely roboto. google wanted to create something that could match or even surpass ios in user experience and looks, something that was made out of one cast. it's kind of a statement from samsung to take such a dump on all this effort, and then shove in into the system-framework by brute force so you cannot get rid of it by replacing a launcher. it's all really whacked. nexus has such a nice os, the sleekest ever, yet they decided to cripple its hardware. s2 has nice specs, yet they decided to cripple its software. why does google put up with companies like samsung?
[Galaxy S II General] jastonas:
well said :)
[Galaxy S II General] lurker316:
I wish there was a stable CM9 Galaxy S2 release... sigh... I've never used ICS, but from what I saw on the Galaxy Nexus, it looks fantastic. Makes TW look like Windows 95.

And yet Samsung has simply pasted the same thing over ICS and released it in all official capacity. Makes sense if they don't want to change the phone interface drastically, but I wish there was some option that we can choose what to use.
[Galaxy S II General] hikarugo:
IMO, samsung devices (except the nexus s & gnexus) only look good with the stock touchwiz look.
[Galaxy S II General] E_Keeper:
I love touchwiz, but my brother don't. Because he has Galaxy S and Samsung said that there is no ICS for Galaxy S because RAM - touchwiz doesn't fit.

Now I'm using ICS (4.0.3) with touchwiz - smooth, fast, but not customisable :( Sometimes install Go launcher Ex, but always rollback to touchwiz
[Galaxy S II General] molesarecoming:
try ice cream sandwich, maybe a customized version like aokp, plus a holo launcher like apex or nova. you can customize much and there are countless of themes out there helping you to dress the framework aswell.
[Galaxy S II General] nat510:
touchwiz is amazing in GB

but in ICS, it is outdated and ugly
[Galaxy S II General] fredphoesh:
Ugly colours

No scrolling widgets

Underpowered dock

AKA CRAP by comparison to pretty much any replacement launcher.
[Galaxy S II General] tylerdurdin:
Still the absolute fastest compared to any other stock launcher....Sense is sheer bloatware and Motoblur is just dreadful in every category....what's left....don't make me pick on Sony's abomination.

Sent from the baddest cellphone ever made.
[Galaxy S II General] molesarecoming:
um, ics stock launcher? apex? nova? trebuchet? they all run like butter. :)
[Galaxy S II General] slugger09:
Yes I'd agree with that, it just doesn't fit in well.
[Galaxy S II General] clarkgable:
I would also agree with that too.

I hear that the S III will have the option of using TW launcher or the stock ICS launcher, so that's a good thing
[Galaxy S II General] dorian95:
I think it's just as rumor, as it was before ICS on SGS2 was out, why they should include pure google alternative expirience, if it's Samsung phone? Just new shiny Touchwiz, which will be better in look compared to GB touchwiz
[Galaxy S II General] viva.fidel:
I like touchwiz, swipe to call/msg, lockscreen music controls, etc.. my only issue with it is the clumsy contact merging, Sense does it so much better
[Galaxy S II General] molesarecoming:
imagine if dell, hp, sony, asus and all the other laptop manufacturers would re-style windows, change all the elements, alter functionality, use lousy fonts, make the OS a patchwork where you go from one section into another and you have an entirely different style, as samsung just did with tw running on android 4.0. it would be unthinkable, it's none of their busines. hardware alone is problematic enough, they should spend money where it counts. what they are doing right now wasted half your devices shelf-life, they needed almost half a year for that hackjob, it must have cost loads and loads of money to re-educate their software engineers, teaching them how to throw together ugly buttons and draw icons in ms-paint, they didn't just craft it into an add-on using documented API's, nope, they re-invented the wheel and hacked it into the framework which must have been a pain in the ass for them, this in turn caused bugs and errors and stole time to get everything else right. they released a buggy hack and people complain all over the net. real ice cream sandwich was made to put an end to all of this, this os would have ruled the marked by now. what a ****up, congrats samsung.
[Galaxy S II General] dadyal:
i like tw :D
[Galaxy S II General] tameracingdriver:
I dont think TouchWiz is that bad any many respects. It has a number of features that have just started to appear in the likes of ICS. The UI is a touch ugly in places, but not bad in others. Its very clear and easy to use. It is buttery smooth and fast. I love the Helvetica font. Stuff like the Stopwatch and Timer are useful functions still missing from ICS. I like stuff like the brightness adjustment from the status bar.

Its not perfect, the launcher lacks configurability, the messaging app is not as smooth as it could be, and the icons are not to everyones tastes, but it can be made to look quite nice IMO. The lock screen is useful but a little shabby in its execution.

Overall though, I don't think its as bad as some make out. I've tried most themes. Most are overly minimal or dull looking. Some are just over the top. Until ICS is stable on the SGS2 I've settled on a stock looking TW and I'm fairly happy with it in all honesty!
[Galaxy S II General] tylerdurdin:
Yeah.... I forgot how terrible AOSP launchers look.....ok ICS launcher takes the cake for ugliest launcher ever....its uglier than an iPhone launcher.

Sent from the baddest cellphone ever made.
[Galaxy S II General] zabihjan:
what is this bull sugar about ice cream sandwich experience? first of all ice cream sandwich made me hate my sgs2 so i decided to go back to gingerbread for smoothness.

ice cream sandwich is not perfect yet for our s2. samsung released it too soon. after doing 100% wipe, formatting all the options that i had on cwm, i installed the latest nordic version, did not restore nothing and the device felt laggy, had alot of freezes specially with nova launcher.

no other launcher can be compared to touchwiz for smoothness and reliability on s2. the ones that come close to touchwiz experience is ss launcher, launcher 7 and arc launcher.

i am sick of hearing ics experience, all ics did was to bring laggyness and misery to s2.
[Galaxy S II General] molesarecoming:
don't know what you did there but the Ports I had running were smooth, butter smooth even, no lag at all. tried cm9 and aokp ports. even the very first leaks that were freed of touch wiz hell were fine. if you just installed Samsung tw4.0, of course it's bull,.there's no ice cream sandwich experience because there's no ice cream sandwich to begin with.
[Galaxy S II General] zabihjan:
I would love to check your phone out. At the moment no Rom can compare to my ki8 Rom gingerbread
[Galaxy S II General] brat81:
I honestly hate all pre installed UI that come from manufacturers.

That being said touchwiz is far better than SE Timescape
[Galaxy S II General] tazer4:
I loveee Touchwiz! Blue ICS is so ugly and ruins our amoled screens!
[Galaxy S II General] E_Keeper:
I've tried Sensation and Lightening - awsome! Now on Sensation 3 (4.0.3)
[Galaxy S II General] XpLoDWilD:
Fixed in ICS

Totally useless, breaks the purpose of Android Intent recyclage (check the post about it done by some Android folks on Google+, can't remember who/which)

On the small amount of people who knows about this feature, who really uses it?

Possible in all AOSP roms

File Manager and Music Player are ugly as hell compared to Google Music and ES File Explorer for instance. Camera can argue.

That's unrelated to touchwiz, that's a hardware feature. And having overbright colors might not be a great "enhancement".

That's just an app. Install it everywhere.

Feature of CM9

Android feature

That may be the only interesting point of TouchWiz, even if a lot of players live MXPlayer or VLC can do it now.

On ICS, TouchWiz hasn't got the right to live anymore. It's ugly, it doesn't even use the ICS UI, they removed ICS animations and almost all (if not all) ICS enhancements on the UI side, ... All the features and good points you said are now part of AOSP or available in AOSP-based custom roms. And from a developer point of view, TouchWiz is a nightmare.
[Galaxy S II General] zabihjan:
Disagree

Which launcher never freezes on you and is more smoother. Obvious answer is touchwiz
[Galaxy S II General] toast7989:
Personally I like TW. I just hate how it takes almost 2 seconds between me pressing the home key and it actually flipping to the home screen. Looking at the Resurrection ROM.
[Galaxy S II General] LauCass:
100% agree and I personally don't like TW that is from my point of view not adapted to ICS, I prefer a AOSP like launcher as Apex or Nova.

But of course it's just my opinion and as Harry Callahan says in The Dead Pool: "Opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one." :p
[Galaxy S II General] GJ123:
You could buy a Nexus?

Ontopic: You really should explain me how you do that, my ICS experience so far:

Annoying animations

Terrible scrolling

Whatsapp is laggy

WOW Gingerbread can do all of that but better ^^

So far I'm not impressed with any ICS

Again: Gingerbread is way faster:)
[Galaxy S II General] newgargamel:
I second that! Maybe ICS looks nice at first but it's not as functional as TW. I hope TW5 will be ported from SGS3 so we'll have the best from 2 worlds.
[Galaxy S II General] Porkchops:
I used to be more than happy with TouchWiz on Gingerbread, but once I went to ICS it really started to annoy me. It was slower than it was on Gingerbread, it looked like regular ugly old gingerbread, and it just became so much more evident that it couldn't cut it anymore. I've played around a little with other launchers before, but it was Nova Launcher that really let me do away with TouchWiz forever. Good riddance. I've found Nova to be soo much more responsive and smooth compared to TouchWiz, and more customizable as well.
[Galaxy S II General] logan_izer10:
I don't like TW because

1. I can't change the bottom icons. I don't want to use garbage stock apps.

2. No themes whatsoever. Boring to look at after a while.

3. I find that swiping left or right on contacts is more of a chore than delight. It has to be the most perfect swipe.

Those are a few reasons
[Galaxy S II General] molesarecoming:
my point was, if samsung would be smart, they'd have not disfigured ics, but made touchwiz an option. i guess i have a hard time to understand how anyone can like that design, but well, taste, what can you say. but how can you like getting caged, being showered with bloat, having to wait half a year for something that would have taken 2 weeks if they had used documented api's. to be honest, that just makes no sense. that tim cook guy must be feeling like its his birthday. his arch enemy just shot his own foot and pretty much crippled all of googles efforts to publish something that surpasses iOs by far and ends fragmentation. even better, the name of todays most sleek and modern os was abused and people will associate "ics" with something amateurish and ****ty-looking, as evident in this thread.

wipe your cache or whatever. the aosp ics ports run as fast and smooth as ever. why would googles new framework make your phone slower man, there's no reason and it's not the case in any way. the error is on your side my friend. :)

---------- Post added at 02:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:08 AM ----------

this is so confusing man. samsung shipped a mangled version of android 4.0 linux/dalvik, arguably called "ice cream sandwich" but that brand probably was meant to mainly encompass the user-interface that google has crafted with the help of hired (real) design-experts and which was supposed to be the end of fragmentation and bad taste. what you have installed is not that, it is a mocking of it at best. so no wonder its slow and ugly.

install ics, which you'll find here and here. it runs fast and god i hate this word, smooth, too. give "apex" a try if you want, you'll like it, it's free and based on the original ics/launcher2 and the original holo theme, just as nova. this one has an enormous amount of options for customization.
[Galaxy S II General] GJ123:
Mate believe me, I know what to do ;)

Have fun with your ICS!
[Galaxy S II General] mello90:
Touchwiz does have some good features, my personal favorite is the swipe left/right to message/call.

The main problem i have with touchwiz is that i feel it isnt pretty to look at or interact with when compared to ICS roms, bear in mind that i havent tried the Samsung ICS rom.
[Galaxy S II General] suicidus:
Same for me. What I like is the message indicator. But most annoying for me at gingerbread touchwiz was the only 4button dock. And the style of the icons looks... unprofessional I think.

... sent by my SGS2 tapatalked ...
[Galaxy S II General] aa76:
just recently bought sgs2. personally i like the touchwiz. it's very simple and nice

what i dun really like is the bloatware like gamehub, social hub etc
[Galaxy S II General] parental92:
i like touchwiz for its practicality like swiping ringht/left for sms/call

but the UI ist uglyy, . . i prever ICS AOSP loos (altroughin AOSP you cant create folder in app drawer wich is sucks -,- )
[Galaxy S II General] patelbhai:
i personally like touchwiz over new ics launcher....

bcoz touchwiz has ease of use...

very fast...;)
[Galaxy S II General] Kaffee4Eck:
I hate it. I like GO Launcher EX :-P =-O :-*
[Galaxy S II General] republicano:
exactly, you need to be able to swap the bottom icons, or at lease add 5, why would they not allow you to change it.touchwiz has less options that most launchers i dont understand how they can compete like that,this is android not ios

otherwise TW has some great widgets but im not using it till they allow 3rd party apps on the bottom since i dont use stock messenger,im not sure if you can rezise widgets
[Galaxy S II General] skyex:
You can put other apps in the dock...

Go into the app drawer, press the menu button and then press edit, and then you can move the apps around in the app drawer as well as to and from the dock.
[Galaxy S II General] republicano:
thanks i managed to add a app to the dock which was great but the limit seems to be 4,i dont suppose you can remove the text and move the app folder more to the middle and increase the size of widget?

thanks
[Galaxy S II General] speedyjay:
I just think touchwiz sucks up a lot of memory and although it has some good features, I think I'll stick with launcherpro plus :-)
[Galaxy S II General] shr33kant:
The new cm9 releases absolutely blow the samsung ics roms out of the water. I'm in love with it. If you can live without fm radio and tv out then I would say give it a go and you'll see why people say touchwiz sucks. Video recording was recently fixed (albeit with a couple of bugs). Its very smooth and touch is really nice too. Just have a nandroid ready in case you want to go back 8-)

Sent from inside a black hole.
[Galaxy S II General] 04muim:
Hi,

I think the functionality of touchwiz is good but it's the way it looks that probably puts me and most people off. I use AOSP apps because I like the new look
[Galaxy S II General] Holyboy27:
Touchwiz functions well and is lightweight IMO. But my problem with it is that it looks horrible. It looks crayon colored and tries very hard to look like iOS.

My favorite launcher has to be HTC Sense.
[Galaxy S II General] norpan111:
Or its retarded little brother
[Galaxy S II General] aromo:
I think the problem it's not Touchwiz but all the bloatware that comes with it.
[Galaxy S II General] gonwan:
i think touchwiz is fairly functional does the job pretty well, but yes a lot of bloatware.

ICS Apex launcher is my favourite now
[Galaxy S II General] Okur90:
Give Cyanogenmod 9 a try. You will never wanna go back.
[Galaxy S II General] norpan111:
Just did, I'm back
[Galaxy S II General] aceofclubs:
Looks like some people still don't get it.

TW goes deeper than TWLauncher.

Just because you start using another launcher doesn't mean you got rid of TW. You just stopped using TWlauncher.

Phone,contacts,sms,calendar,the pulldown panel, etc etc as far as I know are all part of the TW UI.

I hate TWLauncher. Never use it. But I like a lot of the other Stuff over cm and miui asop.

My 5cents+gst

----------------------

GTI9100 XWLP3
[Galaxy S II General] aceofclubs:
+1 but I do think in terms of software upgrade path cm9 will be the future for the SGS2. I might have to eat my words but I'd be very surprised if Samsung go further than ICS for it.

----------------------

GTI9100 XWLP3
[Galaxy S II General] Molitro:
That.

This wasn't really true on GB, and TW did give us some nice (and necesary) features that android itself didn't have. But since ICS, TouchWiz just doesn't cut it compred to the AOSP experience.
[Galaxy S II General] drakester09:
You are free to enjoy whatever user experience you like best. That's what makes app design difficult, you can't please everyone.

I understand some guys actually liking TW, it's not evil or anything but in ICS it strikes me as cheap and uninspired. It's like Samsung said screw it, we're recycling TW4 and that's it.

The end result is a bastardization of a UI. It looks nowhere near ICS was designed to function... as matter of fact it makes it look like a poorly themed GB and it feels like a half assed attempt. It's not inherently bad but it could have been much better given the possibilities. It was Samsung's chance to come up with something really good... that might change with SGS3 but I have zero expectations.

The new Sense UI is a good example of UI evolution, comparing it to the previous iteration. It looks made for ICS rather than tacked on.
[Galaxy S II General] NelinhoMarinus:
Amen!!!!!
[Galaxy S II General] Tombias:
Not only want to live without fm-radio and tv-out but also without a proper working GPS. Even with the fix. And if you don't bother freezing your device a few times a day. THen you can consider cm9.

Apex is a very good alternative if you dont like the tw gui.

Verstuurd van mijn GT-I9100 met Tapatalk
[Galaxy S II General] franki_667:
I think it comes down to personal taste. I feel that touchwiz belongs in the 90s... vanila ics is so sweet ... I get that samsung wants to add ita flava, but seriously it looks like balls....
[Galaxy S II General] Spade616:
i just really find tw boring and i prefer the raw ics feel. also all that customization with aokp roms is awesome
[Galaxy S II General] hikarugo:
I really hate the fact that nowadays most custom roms are based on aokp. ROMs based on AOSP are really battery eating.

Also hate that there are almost NO custom roms having samsung's touchwiz standard looks. Several months ago when ICS hasn't been released, almost all samsung based roms have at least twlauncher. Now, almost all samsung based custom roms got vanilla looks with either nova or apex launcher

For me, samsung based roms especially without cosmetic changes are the best
[Galaxy S II General] darkchazz:
Only thing I like about twlauncher is the smoothness..

It is simply far smoother than any other launcher I have tried yet.

Wish the ICS launchers (apex/nova) could be this smooth
[Galaxy S II General] Kond3P:
Touchwiz is very nice. It has awesome features that you listed, but I think the launcher sucks. It's not to my style at all, almost no customizing. But it's cool using it with good launcher (GO, ADW etc.)

Does anyone agree?
[Galaxy S II General] Leonidas300:
+ 1
[Galaxy S II General] ars_92:
The only reason I don't like touchwiz is because of its very "childish" look. Too colourful and huge fonts. There are some samsung apps which are nice. Which is the reason why I flashed thebyani aftet being on hydrogenICS when that ROM was not so popular yet. :)
[Galaxy S II General] gurnishdhillon:
Yupp...

I agree that TW4 has been the most smoothest launcher that i have used of all that i have ,,,I think the whole agrument of hradware acceleration over software one plays here since as far as i know TW4 is able to actually us the GPU to be this smooth as opposed to other launchers which depend upon the CPU to do the rendering and perhaps are not as smooth due to it.....
[Galaxy S II General] Kumarankav:
You are absolutely correct mate
[Galaxy S II General] vyslkpc:
because its simple
[Galaxy S II General] beni008:
If you are using your phone just as the phone TW is the best. But if you want more you should use apex or any other launcher which is on the on the market.
[Galaxy S II General] irish-sid:
I used to be a fanboy of touchwiz, and I use the term fanboy as I never tried anything else, but lastnight I tried the latest nightly of CyanogenMod9 and I must say I was blown away.

It's fantastic, and OP it has almost all the features you stated in your OP...

For me, AOSP is the way forward, and I never thought I'd say that. Anyone on the edge just give it a go for 24 hours and you'll see you don't lose anything really, but gain a hell of a lot.
[Galaxy S II General] Granitt:
I like TW launcher but i prefer more Apex launcher .
[Galaxy S II General] SGS2_:
For me AOSP or AOKP look & feel feels best.

I like the look that Google gave 4.0 and I'm pretty unhappy when Samsung uses their (i'm sorry) horrible looking TouchWiz. It just looks like 2.3, thats why i didnt stick to the Official ROMs. Also because update speed is very slow...
[Galaxy S II General] josefmawas:
I like touchwiz but but ics launcer is better :D because of nice design
[Galaxy S II General] AndroidUser1192:
I hated TW on my i5500 but I love my S2 the way it is....I won't be modding/flashing it unless something really good comes out or unless I get a new phone....so in a few years.:p
[Galaxy S II General] nexxer:
Having just come to an AOSP ICS rom (SlimICS) from stock ICS, the only thing I'm missing from Touchwiz is the very useful long-press left button opening up Search.

I'm trying to find a way to replicate that with an app or mod but have failed so far. Opened a thread for it too, I'm sure others have the same issue. CM7 used to have an option to do it so it may be possible in an AOSP rom. *fingers crossed*

Back in the summer when I last moved away from Touchwiz, I also found missing the alarm clock, but there's plenty of replacements in the Play Store for that.

The long-press left button search is much more important, critical in usability.
[Galaxy S II General] sujantdn:
two main drawbacks of touchwiz is poor folder management and widget resizing. Other than that i can live with it:D

---------- Post added at 02:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:16 PM ----------

I missed that feature too but use nova launcer new one vr 1.1.1. It fixes that issue. I m using Thebyani rom 4.0 btw
[Galaxy S II General] nexxer:
I tried that with the Navigation Bar mod in the rom I'm using (SlimICS). but all it did was bring the extra row of 3 ICS buttons that are pointless on the S2, which has its own 3 buttons (2 soft + the hardware menu one).

I just managed to install Nova 1.1.1 and indeed long-pressing menu brings up search. I'll look into it a bit more to see if something else is missing from my previous launcher, Go Launcher Ex, but it seems you may have just solved my problem, thanks!
[Galaxy S II General] alc027:
I swore by touchwiz on gingerbread, and wouldn't thing of touching AOSP. ICS is exactly the opposite.