For the long explanation: read yesterday’s post.

(And if you think that this matter is no big deal then have a look at this video and judge for yourself if you would be willing/wanting to put up with HTC’s implementation: note that the One X is compared to Windows Phone 7 device, which is notorious for its atrocious multitasking, yet it performs better than the One X!)

1) Back when I compared the Galaxy S2 with the HTC Sensation I argued that the Sensation’s less RAM, coupled with the Sense bloat, was a reason enough to not buy the Sensation due to the impact that would have on the user experience. 2) And after I played with the HTC One X I posted that I really don’t like the multitasking-UI in Sense (nor Sense for that matter). 3) In my very last post I suggested that HTC should make a phone with stock Android.

These three separate observations all converge on one single point: the importance of having enough RAM on your device, and HTC’s inability to provide that in order guarantee a good user experience on their last two flagship smartphones. It’s obvious that some people/companies don’t learn from their mistakes. There is simply no reason for users to put up with that as there are other alternatives out there, fortunately.

Android Central tries to be apologetic about the matter and claims that only tech-nerds will be unhappy with HTC’s implementation, but that is really unfair to all non-techie buyers who expect an excellent user a experience on their new and expensive high-end device. But even if you are a techie and know about Sense you still would not expect the One X to behave that way a priori, and one of AC’s readers makes a relevant observation in relation to that.

In all, a very disappointing release from HTC.

But given the obvious interest in having a stock Android ROM, why doesn’t HTC (or any other OEM) sell such a device with, but with solid hardware-specs instead? It seems like an easy task to create a phone with better HW which would attract all those buyers that rejected the G.Nexus. The only advantage the G.Nexus would have then is that it would still be the device that first receives Android updates, but given that HTC would not need to spend any time on skinning the OS with Sense they could themselves provide an update to their phone almost as soon it becomes available to HTC. I am sure many people would be willing to trade a few weeks of waiting for an update, in exchange for having solid HW. I certainly would.

UPDATE:
Seems like it might happen sooner rather than later…

1) It improves the usability by simple touching the control instead of doing a long-press of the home button. I feel that when you switch a lot back and forth between open apps those long-presses add up and slow you down, interrupting your flow.

2) By having a dedicated on-screen for multitasking you make it clear that you can multitask on the S3; it may sound like a ridiculous reason but I am amazed how often I have met people that don’t know that their phones multitask, regardless of platform. E.g. just a short while ago I talked with a friend about her iPhone and when she saw me task-switch on her phone she was completely surprised that you could actually switch between apps by double-clicking the home button and immediately replied that it would save her a lot of time. Also, I remember that back in 2006(-ish) Nokia made a deliberate push to make users aware of the fact that Symbian S60 was a multitasking OS in order to try to make them use it as such (and a few months ago I had the exact same situation with a friend who was using an S60 phone: I was even so certain she wouldn’t know about the multitasking that I said upfront “Let me show you something cool you can do with your phone”, and sure enough she had no idea you could do that, and also said that it would make it easier to use the phone).

3) Supposedly the Galaxy Nexus is a reference design/platform for coming Android phones, and the fact that it has on-screen controls presumably means that that is how Android will evolve in the future (just look at Android tablets: they don’t have any buttons on the front); if that’s the case then the S3 isn’t as future proof as it could/should have been.

I was certain that upgrading to the Galaxy S3 would be a no-brainer, but now I’m not sure. Instead, the Galaxy Nexus is calling me more than ever (too bad they never released that 32 GB version). But what’s worse, there probably won’t be any significant new phone releases until fall/September, so this is as good as it gets right now; problem is it doesn’t seem good enough…

I wrote about Window Phone 7′s utterly useless implementation of “multitasking”, the reason being, among other things, the arbitrary number of five apps that you can have “running” at the same time instead of the number depending on the available RAM available; running a game such as “Infinity Blade” will inherently use considerably more RAM than a shopping list app, so it simply makes no sense to have that artificial limit of five apps. I thus predicted that the five-app limit would be way too restrictive (and making matters worse is the fact that you have a 3 min timeout before a background app closes on you).

Well, it turns out that prediction was quite correct, as even WP fans are now complaining about the five-apps limit. Problem is though most of them WP users STILL don’t get it, as they are still arguing about what fixed number of apps/cards should be able to run in the background.

But then again, if they really did get it they wouldn’t be using WP7 in the first place…

And when The Verge reviewed the Lumia 900 they wrote:

“…Though Microsoft has added some form of multitasking to the OS, there is nearly never a feeling that apps in the “background” are actually still waiting for you. In fact, many apps still deliver a splash screen to you when you reenter them — if this is a developer issue, then I guess most of the hardworking coders on this platform never got the memo. In short, it kind of sucks to use. Where iOS and Android at least feel responsive in packing and unpacking background apps, Windows Phone often comes across as broken and limp.”

I rest my case.

On the plus side: it’s very light and thin, with a [seemingly] thinner bezel than the Galaxy SII has, and the display was drop dead gorgeous, this is definitely the display to beat right now, regardless of platform.

The minuses: I think Sense UI was a very good thing (read: “a necessity”) on Windows Mobile, but on Android it just feels like reinventing the wheel, but not for the better. E.g. I really didn’t care for how the multitasking screen is represented, with the “half-profile” screen shots. But I am very much aware of that this is a very personal thing. What’s worse though was that every time I returned to the home screen I got a “Loading…” animation for about 5 sec. before all the widgets were loaded. Every. Single. Time. Something was obviously amiss, but that only confirms my opinion of Sense UI…

But again, the hardware is excellent, with a real good feel; let’s see Samsung’s response with the Galaxy SIII…

However, I was also expecting that the display would be surrounded by a thinner border than the Galaxy S2, thus creating a device that was basically of equal size as the S2. Instead, they kept that border width and we now have a phone that is 10mm taller than the already-not-small S2. And that is the main reason for me not buying one: it is simply too large.

The other reason is the lack of a microSD slot though I could live with that in the shape of the 32GB version, but it’s certainly a disappointment.

I do expect though that we, by Christmas, will see other Ice Cream Sandwich phones, among which I’d like to see a new top-of-the-line device from HTC, which I expect will have learned from their mistake with the Sensation compared to the Galaxy S2 (only 768MB RAM vs 1GB) and pack everything they can into a device with a slimmer form factor.

But if we don’t get anything for the holidays there is always the rumored Galaxy S3 of course, which will surely be worth waiting for; in the meantime, ICS running on the S2 hardware is certainly nothing to sneeze at….

But for the last couple of days the blog has been flooded by a spam bot, so at the moment I’ve set that all comments needs to be approved by me: I really don’t like that process I prefer to see the comments being published immediately, but it will have to be that way until the spamming stops.
Sorry for the inconvenience.

Given how they are voluntarily choking the availability in various countries of the Nokia N9, which could provide them with much needed revenue, it is sad to see how Nokia are desperately recurring to the same tactics that Microsoft is known for; whether it is just a coincidence that all of this is happening, including Nokia’s economical calamities, at the same time that Stephen Elop – a former Microsoft employee – is Nokia’s CEO, is anyone’s guess….