The folks over at AndroidandMe attended the gdgt live in Austin event, where they were able to spend some quality hands on time with the HTC Desire. We have covered the HTC Desire up and down, leaking specs, hands on videos, showcasing the ROM ported to the Nexus One, speculating pricing and release dates, and more, and now we bring to you some more information. While we have seen that the Desire will launch with the Sense UI, many will be pleased to know that they will actually have the option to turn this off. Sense appeals to some users, and others chose to use the more stock Android look, and luckily HTC has made it rather simple to decide for yourself which you will utilize. Check out a video walk through of this simple procedure after the jump. WARNING: Turn down your speakers first. It's a bit loud. [via AndroidandMe]
22 Comments
Wow did anyone else just see that. Oh and first!
It's important to note that just disabling the Sense home does not increase performance like running an AOSP or "stock" experience will.
There are still plenty of Sense framework processes running to kill your performance.
Saw the video a couple of days ago. This definitely boosts Desire's value, because now you can have it both ways!
I wonder if this means Sense 2.1 is merely a skin or an app, similar to how it is on the Windows Mobile side. This probably means that it will be easier to port/install on other phones.
I want Sense on my Milestone!!
Damn why can't AT&T get an Android phone like this?? I have been waiting to jump ship from Blackberry to Android, but AT&T and their Backflip are not going to convince me to give up my BB 9700. I can only keep wishing for something like this. :(
They do, and you can! Just get the nexus one!! Unreal phone and blows the 9700 out of the water. I just sold my 9700 a couple of days ago and got the n1. Unreal is all i can say.
This not only works on Desire, but also on current Hero / Tattoo. HTC did not remove the stock Home screen but create an new one. It's part of the reason why Sense keep large space in ROM.
It's not specific to the Desire - any old Sense-enabled phone has the option, I suspect. The Hero certainly does.
It gives a slight performance boost, but nothing wonderful - I suspect Ian is right about a stock Android install being quicker, but if you want to try out stock Android for some reason, it's an easy switch.
@Ian Wheat
HTC Sense is not just a skin or app, it includes many HTC apps and widgets. HTC also adds many things to the Android OS on HTC phones. So yes you can port some HTC apps to others phones, but they might not work properly unless you know how to port HTC framework changes to the phone.
I think that is brilliant on the part of HTC. I had a G1 for a while and went to a Droid a few months ago. As much as I loved the Sense UI, I thought it would take forever for HTC to release updates because they had to make sure the Sense UI was compatible with what ever the new Android update was. Well, come to find out that Motorola has dropped the ball big time and Sense UI 2.1 is coming out before the Droid gets updated. (or so it seems)
What is the impact on performance when running Sense on a device? If it is added through a ROM to the Nexus One, for example, does it slow the device significantly? Aside from different home screen Widgets what is the benefit?
I have the Sprint HTC Hero and have used 1.5 ROMS with and without Sense, 1.6 AOSP, 2.0 and 2.1 AOSP and Sense-infected...
I can honestly say you will FEEL the difference between Sense and AOSP just switching home screens.
I was able to run Linpack at 2.8 MFLOPs on 2.1 AOSP. On a 2.1 with Sense it's just 2.3 MFLOPs.
(Add JIT to the AOSP ROM and I can get 3.8MFLOPs ;) )
I want one. Only 12 days and 6 hours according to HTC.
Does anyone know if you will have the notification pane like N! has when you turn sense of? Or is the notification pane specifically for N1 only?
The notification bar stays Sense-style... all dark grey and everything.
I'm sure someone will release a notification bar mod for the Desire soon. We have htem for the Hero.
This is awesome!!!! All I'm waiting for is AT&T to
release the Desire ( if not I'll settle for a N1)..I'm
getting bored of my Jailbroken 3GS
This is exactly how i feel. except i did just buy the N1 for att 3g, it just showed up at my house 3 hours ago! sweetttttttt!
UGH I love it now :/
I wonder if the Supersonic would be able to do this
Such a cool feature !
Thanks to HTC to be open-minded :-) !!
I've heard the Desire doesn't have the 'voice to text' feature that the Nexus One does. On this site though - http://www.desirehtc.com/ - under the Android 2.1 description they say...
"Rather excitingly, it brings us into a realm where voice-to-text is a reality in all text fields. Imagine sending texts or emails simply by talking to your phone. Now do it, we're there."
So does it have it or not?!
it's been like this for a while now, hate sense absolutly hate it with a passion, went to the verizon store and tried it on the eris, it worked but the stupid things of sense like the keyboard were the same, also i couldn't get sense back on, left the store emberassed...
Can someone else confirm that sense *Cannot* be disabled in the desire. I believe the device in the video is only a prototype. I cannot disable sense on my Desire.
Yeah, ive just tried and it cant be done.
After I stop HTC Sence it seems to just automatically start again - even after clearing defaults.
Anyone know of another way without rooting the phone?