[General Topics] robomantic:
In-depth Review of: Borqs 3D Home

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the best virtual environment UI?

presenting the Borqs 3D Home for Android

Download 3D Home free on Google Play [/url]

Google Play Star Ranking: 4.5

Ratings: 1,904

Times downloaded: 100,000 - 500,000 ￼

by robomantic, 12th August 2013

Ever since the arrival of the iPhone in 2007, the world has clung on to flat-design smartphone UIs, struggling to release ourselves from their tight and aged grasp. Sure, we Android users might find solace in alternative UIs, but those which truly break the mould are few and far between. The Borqs 3D Home is our long awaited answer, an extraordinary UI made available exclusively for Android. Unlike others, the 3D Home is a virtual environment UI, combining a next generation app launcher and home-screen, and radically challenges modern day smartphone conventions.

a radical and simple design

When I entered my new 3D Home, I was presented with an image of a virtual room, the walls of which contain “hanging” widgets that can be controlled and interacted with via a simple slide of the finger. On the “floor” of the virtual UI, Borqs have placed a convenient center table which contains a MS Surface tablet and a mobile phone. 3D Home is designed to afford users a high degree of customization. The widgets on both the walls and table can be easily removed, replaced and supplemented as per individual tastes and preferences. I also noted that “sliding up” on the UI screen revealed a breathtakingly beautiful panoramic roof which changes in real-time, to reflect the weather “outside.” Delightful!

powerful, custom-made features

Customizing the 3D Home doesn’t just stop at widgets. Users can even change the wallpapers to suit their style. Despite only having two stock wallpapers at the time of writing, there was nothing stopping me from decorating the walls with my own photographs, creating a rather personal and intimate platform for all my smart phone endeavors.

3D Home provides a welcome respite from old, flat-design UIs and is arousing much interest among the tech community and the general public. Don’t be fooled by its apparent simplicity; 3D Home packs in powerful functionality within a clever and easy to access design. To lend an example, selecting the TV takes you to a video editing app and tapping the speakers takes you to the music player. And the same goes for all the various items on the center table. All this testifies to the impeccable design of 3D Home.

Borqs don’t leave any detail to chance either, no matter how minute. When you select the Surface on the center table, there’s a nifty little animation showing the tablet close, thus demonstrating that it has indeed shut down. This perfect, quasi-physical 3D effect can be extended to all widgets, and is really handy for letting us know whether their apps are open or closed. This immaculate attention to detail is what really separates the Borqs 3D Home from the rest of the crowd.

summary

The Borqs 3D Home represents the very best of virtual environment UIs, combining feature rich widgets and animations to offer users a whole new 3D experience. I really liked the intuitive weather and Dock features. And I welcome the move away from a conventional, 5 icon row home-screen. Overall, I was extremely pleased with the 3D Home and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone looking to spruce up their Android smart phones.