Among the seemingly thousands of Android-powered HTC handsets rumored for the first half of 2010, little is known of the mysterious Espresso -- the codename was
found in a 2.1 ROM and a sketchy report claims that
it'll have a QWERTY keyboard for an MWC announcement, but other than that, we're in the dark. Anyhow, Italian site
hdblog.it now claims to have some shots ripped off the Espresso's display, and at a glance, you can tell this isn't quite the Sense we're used to from the Hero. The bar along the bottom now features direct access to People -- a feature we'd already heard would be revised for HTC's next round of Android phones -- and app icons have apparently been graced with translucent surrounds that are... well, not exactly pretty. We've got to keep our opinions in check until we actually see a shipping ROM, of course, so hopefully those talks of an MWC unveiling in February pan out.
posted December 21st 2009 3:22AM
Incredibly generic, cluttered and the bubbles are tacky. Do not want.
@choffy21 First thing I thought as well.
@choffy21 But this looks like the apps drawer cause it says all programs at the top so that clutter is good clutter. Just have to wait to see what the real home screen and widgets look like.
@choffy21
Same...looks shitty, the old UI is much better. People need to stop trying to copy the iPhone and come up with their own innovations.
@(Unverified) I to like the old design much better, it felt unique and stylish. This new one just looks like a tacky knock off vista theme made by a Chinese mp4 company.
@choffy21
Why would Android have a Java icon ?
This is nonsense, it's either WinMo or KIRF
@fourthletter
The leaked Hero Rom had a Java icon before the final build AFAIK.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/14/htc-hero-firmware-update-peps-up-the-sense-experience-to-somethi/
@cherrybomb88 the icons now look like they belong to an iPhone rather than to an HTC smartphone. Lol anyway, this shows what seems to be a new version of HTC’s Sense UI, which will be used on the Espresso – and probably on all the other new Android phones that HTC will launch next year. Espresso details: http://bit.ly/htc-espresso-details
Like IPhone style
@Redwid
It reminds me more of WinMo... or at least HTC's overlay for it.
True; I find myself torn about Sense because I really have no intention of sacrificing even an iota of hardware performance/battery life for pretty animations...though not to say that the UX of sense isn't a good notch better than stock android at the moment
This is really really tacky, bubble-gummy, childlike and generally awful. HTC: you can do better than this... we don't want an Apple clone! Yuck.
@mez
Whoever designed the widgets must of quit... because I agree these are horrid.
@mez
And yet HTC so desperately wants to make an Apple clone.
A multi multi billion dollar Apple clone.
@mez Stop driving my HTC stock down there is absolutely no way they would release a user interface this ugly. I'm sure nobody at HTC even had anything to do with this.
And to those saying they want to make an iPhone clone, if they wanted to they would have done it -- fantastically -- by now. But HTC is one of the few companies willing to create something original, TouchFLO3D and Sense UI are some of the nicest user interfaces out there, have you seen the HD2?
@Broderbund You gotta admit those buttons are attempting to be like those on the iPhone without being exactly like those on the iPhone.
@vqro
They actually look a lot like my old HTC touch, running HTC's Touch Flow...
I'm not going to jump on this, looks like an iphone crap talk. Drawing a box around an icon wasn't invented (or even popularized by apple). In the end it just looks terrible. Ditch it HTC!
isn't this just too iPhone-esqe??
@Siddharth
Its actually not iPhone esque enough,
If they'd blatantly tried to make an iphone rip-off it might be less excusable than the horribly imbalanced design they've came up with...
@geekthree
Sorry.. that should have been "more excusable"
All I want for christmassss...... is an edit button on engadget.commmmmm *do do do*
@geekthree :
i agree.. i meant the UI is iphone-esqe.. but not in a good way..
@Siddharth
It looks like an alien from the future went back in time to create a UI that looked kind of retro (PalmOS) but he didn't really know what he was doing, so he ended up making that instead...
It looks like one of the springboard styles from Cydia for the iphone..
The second one looks like they were trying to rip off webOS at the same time..
Remove the glossy icon overlays, stretch the bottom bar full width, remove some of the gloss...
Then maybe we'll talk.
ew
Funny how none of the apps are the same on both. :S :P
@TruUnknowN
You see the scroll bar on the right hand side?
Great. It looks even crappier than the current SenseUI.
Can't wait for the Eris root. I'm so not having this garbage on my Eris.
horrible!
I think it's almost as bad as the honeycombs in WinMo 6.5...
The current sense on the Hero looks so much better and more unique.
@pk I agree I like the look and functions in the current sense UI how about stay what that visual theme and make it run smoother. The added utility of the intergration and lots of things google didnt build into the os before 2.0 was awesome but what are you going to do now htc?
Beauty is the absence of form where there is no function.
Lose the bubbles.
Doesn't stuff like the "Java" icon point more towards a WM version?
@NewL
I think you are right, Android doesn't need a java app, this must be either Winmo or KIRF.
the u.i button needs improvement., as far as design goes. The font and associated images are nice though.
@james321 - I think we'd all appreciate if you stopped spamming this site with the same stupid link in EVERY goddarn vaguely Android-related topic. *Nobody* cares about some shady emulator when you can simply download the free API and get the official emulator
I really don't believe that such an amateurish UI would be developed by HTC. Four years ago, maybe. But not now. I'm guessing it's some sort of fake mockup. Possibly a Throttlelauncher setup thrown together or something. The icons like pretty bad (as stated by others), and if you look at the side scrollbar... why would it go so far up and down? Nothing about this looks polished at all. But hey, I'm probably wrong.
I smell bullshit
@xmonkey
I'm with you, this looks way to much like a bad Photoshop attempt then anything that will be real. Notice how some of the text is clear around the bubble edge and some are not, it's like someone got lazzy and didn't think people would notice.
I like my Hero's sense UI.
Do Not Want
http://www.lolcats.com/images/u/08/45/lolcatsdotcomksr87i8le7k6ilaq.jpg
htc knows how to design, i want this on my iphone
@flipflop
Really? I imagine why you'd like a different UI on the iPhone but *this* fugly design? The original Sense is so much better...
@pauleyc did you check the other screenshots from the website this post links to, pretty sweet stuff in my oppinion, the 2 images here on engadget are pretty much what we have atm anyway
Oh no! Someone stole a crappy iPhone theme! Which was also highly regarded by its original creator! Oh no!
sweet, everything bad about the iphone UI without any of the good elements
Low res HVGA display, I can tell. 320x480
Looks like Sense UI but for Nexus one's brother.
@Marcos BC Seems like it's the new Sense UI that is coming with Hero 2.1 ROM :(
Maybe, they have added a "theme" ability to the Sense UI, and these "kiddie" icons are simply what the person who leaked the screen shot had installed at the time. We can only hope!
Also, remember, you *can* (or at least with 1.5, could) turn off Sense.
Those other shots just look like a bad skin-job, the bubbles look like crap and the straight lock-screen bar and straight phone/app bar at the bottom of the screen looks really poor in comparison to the current sense UI.
Do not let this be the Android 2.1. ROM because I for one will not be updating...
Looks abit more "consumer friendly" I guess. By having those bubbly effected icons, it gives it that iPhone esque feeling. You know, easy to use, everythings seperated so you know what's what etc.
Just my 2 pence anyway