In Pictures: Google Android L Feature Tour And Preview

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ohim

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Am i the only one who hates this new simplistic design style ? And why the hell do they keep on using white background on settings / phone dialer etc... when i`m in low light and i use my phone to actually blind me ? ..and they don`t offer the possibility to change it to black.
 

bipbap

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No, you aren't. I loved the dark interfaces. Everything on my Note 3 is that way.

And I despise the card-style interface that is popping up everywhere now, it seems. What is the point of all these beautiful displays if all you are going to us is black text on white squares? Do I even need to mention that for some displays, like the Note 3, bright colors use more battery?

Forcing eye-piercing white down our throats, minor, meaningless graphical changes, a a parameters screen that now shows LESS information, no meaningful performance gain? For what? A couple of nice things (rotating view of running apps) and a tiny gain in storage space? It looks like the took the worst design ideas from Apple and M$ and decided to out-ugly both. Bleh.
 

10hellfire01

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Guess I'll poke my eye out.

Horrible puns aside, it's as if they kept the people who designed Android into a decent thing to look at and brought back some of the original designers who made the original Android look like crap.

A circle for the home button, a back arrow that makes me want to skip to a different scene, and a square that infers nothing...I feel like a 4 year old with that shape toy (triangle/square/circle).

Still don't understand the fascination with flatness and oversimplification either. It's like we're going backwards technologically.
 

allawash

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I'm with other people on the brightness and the white backgrounds, I'd prefer a choice in that matter. I have a Moto X and I think Motorola ( I know, it was Google) added these features to that phone with Active Display and Assist. Plus, I think there's already a batter saver option that did the less than 15% or 10% battery life feature?
 

gadgety

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Going from black to white background will use more battery on AMOLED screens. Screens are responsible for 80-90 of power consumption. So on AMOLED screen devices project will the net effect of white screens and project Volta be positive? It would be better to enable user defined settings for black or white screens backgrounds.
 

PapaCrazy

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The multi tasking screen is a total mess. Can't even tell where one app begins and another ends. Clearly legible titles and the ability to fit more apps on screen at once is far more important than this rehash of MS's Flip 3d eye candy, which doesn't even work well on the desktop let alone a phone. I don't want my apps going past my face like I just yanked on a slot machine handle. Please HTC fix this crap with your Sense version.
 

houldendub

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My only cons is the keyboard. I think it's a kind of hard to press?

It's actually alright! You can currently download an .apk for the new keyboard (you have to uninstall Google's keyboard if you want to use it first), which, surprisingly is pretty decent. Haven't had any more problems with it than with the old style, and I've got quite stocky fingers.

Saying that, I'll probably wait for HTC to update the One before jumping on to a custom ROM, be interesting to see what HTC do with it considering a lot of the design choices are the same (lots of white backgrounds).
 

aberchonbie

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I installed Android L on my Nexus 7 (didn't want to deal with flashing it onto my Nexus 5) and it's actually pretty good. The keyboard takes a little getting used to but works well.

My biggest complaint is figuring out how (if it's even possible) to hide notifications all at once when there are 2+ available.

On the Nexus 7, the settings options are presented in two columns instead of just 1 column requiring you to scroll less. Overall positive.

The design style of Android L is probably the biggest change that's actually noticeable. It's polarizing as you guys have mentioned as some will love it, others will hate it.
 
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