New Delhi, October 4 – Often maligned and criticised, Samsung’s TouchWiz UI for many is considered to be the epitome of what is wrong with Android. While TouchWiz is not going away anytime soon, a video posted by SamMobile, a website dedicated to covering Samsung’s mobile products, shows an early build of TouchWiz running on a Galaxy S5 adapted for Android L. The video shows some refreshing UI elements, which adhere to Google’s material design guidelines.
In the video, it is easy to see that the lockscreen, the message app, the pulldown notification menu, the music app and the timer app have all received the Android L treatment as they brandish floating UI elements similar to what is available on early builds of Android L. Even the task switcher is modified as it adds tabs from the web browser. The video also shows the settings menu, which has a flatter design to it with bright backgrounds.
While there are overtones of material design, largely, the UI looks like what it is currently. This means the icons remain the same and the major system theme and design remains, which is rather unfortunate.
It is likely, that the Samsung’s Galaxy smartphone will get the update once Google releases the OS to the public. Currently, Google is expected to launch Android L in October alongside a new Nexus smartphone, which many believe to be the rumoured Motorola Shamu.
TouchWiz has always been feature rich at the risk of being bloated, but its design has been rather uninspired and the responsiveness of the UI has always been a major pain point.
-INDIA TODAY
