(Well an interesting topic to discuss with all of you this weekend. I was looking forward to writing on this topic for a long time.)
Many of us use smartphones these days. They have become our daily requirements. A survey says that there are about 2-2.5 billion smartphone users in the world. 85 percent of smartphones run on Android, an operating system developed by Google. Smartphone manufacturers usually put their skin on top of Android for a more user-friendly experience. That is termed as Custom UI. There are other manufactures that prefer Google Android OS in its original form, termed as Stock Android.
So the question arises which is better: Stock or Custom UI?
Custom UI offers plenty of customization options to users and developers which can be helpful to the user. Although many features already exist in Android, OEM simply develops and add their flavour on it. Custom UI users can even root their smartphones. Hence they are highly customizable. Stock Android offers the user to experience features that are unmodified and can be found in Google Pixel's and Android One smartphones. Next in terms of security, I feel that Stock Android stands in a better position than any other UI. There are monthly security patches released by Google in order to keep your phone secure. Vendors using custom UI may not prefer to deliver monthly security patches on their devices. Stock Android phones have fewer hardware requirements than Custom UI. So Stock is having better hardware processing, battery life, and memory. Further Stock Android phones usually come with the latest version of Android. So users of Stock Android are usually first in testing new features added by Google. Stock Android contains no bloatware. It means that no additional or unnecessary software is added that makes your phone easier to use.
Popular Custom UI
Samsung One UI: It is Samsung's effort to bring a customized user experience for Android Devices running Pie. Samsung earlier named Samsung Experience as its Custom UI. Major features of One UI are:
- Designed with better reachability for one-hand use.
- Optimized by Augmented Reality
- Enhanced Bixby support for supported Galaxy devices.
- Night Mode
MIUI: Perhaps one of the most popular UI, MIUI is used in MI smartphones. It is a Custom ROM developed by MI. It is full of features that are usually not included by other manufactures. But MIUI contains Ads, so keep that in mind. Major features are:
- Regularly Updated Mi Apps
- Designed for full-screen experience
- Other improvements and bug fixes
Hence both have their merits and demerits. Please tell us what will you prefer. You can ask your query in the comment box given below. Subscribe for more.
Update: Folks were having some alignment problems in the mobile version of this post. I have now fixed it. Thanks, Rajat for your feedback.
I will update this post with more information soon...…………………………….