We have a love/hate relationship with HTC’s custom user interface, Sense. It’s both very beautiful and terribly bloated at the same time, and virtually every handset running Sense is adorned by the nice, yet aging, retro clock on its main homescreen. Well, we were hoping to see some sort of design shift for Sense when it came to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and with the handful of new screenshots found from the upcoming Endeavor RUU, the answer becomes apparent. Same Sense, more heavy customization. Go figure. Still, that still doesn’t make Sense any less sexy.
The screenshots shown below give you an idea what to expect with the next version of Sense. Not much. Some of the screenshots show some nice and interesting little tweaks but nothing really stands out and a lot of what we do see that is new is almost exactly what you’d expect to be added in. There are many new themes you’ll be able to choose from, which will alter the lockscreen and homescreen backgrounds but like we said, don’t expect anything very exciting. While we wouldn’t say it’s fair to not get excited for HTC’s upcoming Sense UI, but we’d advise against getting over-excited.
Custom user interfaces are helpful to the handset manufacturer so it can differentiate itself from the competition but HTC has gone to such an extreme, it’s hard to call Sense a custom UI. It almost seems as if Sense is its own operating system, which may be just fine for many people but don’t expect to get updated to the next version of Android anytime soon. Custom user interfaces likely won’t ever become useless, but the introduction of Ice Cream Sandwich makes such heavy customizations look overdone. Then again, you’d never know since it’s all covered up.
Last we heard, HTC was going back to the drawing board with tablets and will be launching handsets more conservatively this year. HTC used to rule the world of Android but has since lost its crown to Samsung and chances are it won’t be getting it back any time soon. Nonetheless, if you’re a fan of HTC Sense, you’ll likely be happy with what you see below. If you were hoping to be able to notice that you’ll actually be on the latest version of Android with this version of Sense, you’ll likely be disappointed.
Based on the few screenshots you see below, what do you think of the next version of Sense? Check out some more screenshots in the link below!
[Via: AndroidCentral]