Samsunng user: GOS/P6 - feedback & ongoing review

b1k3rdude

So I've been using Samsung devices since Android 4, primarily because of the their popularity making finding custom ROMs far more ubiquitous. But since the Galaxy S7 I have been looking to divorce myself from the Samsung ecosystem/environment, and maybe because I have been a pro-android user for a while now. The partial move to GOS/P6 for the 'most part' has been painless, but there are some teething pains to this process.

Issues:

3button navigation buttons -

no option to swap back/recent? Its present in LineageOS 20 via the Setting>System>Buttons setting.
apparently there is a 3rd party app for doing this?, I found Android Navigation bar, but it is a band-aid at best.

Dailer -

no option to open to keypad - I find this especially irksome
In lieu of not opting to keypad, there seems to be no option to move the keypad icon/button to the left (I'm left handed when it comes to using my phone)
prefer separate pages for contacts, recent calls etc.

Calender -

I have never lights the stock AOSP calender, So simple calender is a close aproximation of the Samsung calender.

Recents page -

no option to lock apps from being closed, is this an AOSP thing or a GOS thing?
no option to always display 'clear all' button.
no option to change layout to more compact.

Quick tiles -

not having serpate icons for Wifi/Data is extremely irksome. On my S20fe I can turn this off/on with a swipe and a press (or 2 is going from wifi to data). With GOS is a swipe and 3 presses, or 4 if I have to switch from wifi to data.

Pros:

location lock on GPS only is stupid fast, 2-3x faster than my S20FE. And with GOS assist its even faster again.
Having built in network permission (that dosen't require root) is the holy grail, just wish there was more info about which system apps were safe to block (the consensus is not to block any, but have able to block most systemfiles on my S20fe via the rooted firewall with no ill effects)
Sandboxing, next best thing to Xprivacy, but as I understand it, only applies to google apps & services. Would be nice to have this as a default option for user apps that I could toggle as I saw fit.

Pixel 6:

Sound -

stereo sound inst balanced, more pronounced out of bottom speaker, P6 or GOS issue..?
sound is slightly muffled compared to the S20fe
ring tones only play from bottom speaker, P6 or GOS issue..?

Videos -

are slightly less sharp in Newpipe (for example) on the P6, compared to the S20FE. Is this a DPI thing? in GOS the DPI setting is 411 and on the S20Fe is 407, so the Pixel should be sharper..?

@Admins - if this is the wrong location for this post, please move as you guys see fit.

p338k

b1k3rdude

b1k3rdude Sandboxing, next best thing to Xprivacy, but as I understand it, only applies to google apps & services. Would be nice to have this as a default option for user apps that I could toggle as I saw fit.

It applies to all non systems apps and services. The sandbox for the Google services is the same as for any other app.

[deleted]

b1k3rdude Quick tiles -
not having serpate icons for Wifi/Data is extremely irksome. On my S20fe I can turn this off/on with a swipe and a press (or 2 is going from wifi to data). With GOS is a swipe and 3 presses, or 4 if I have to switch from wifi to data.

I think this is an AOSP thing, not GOS, and it really irks me too. Your S20fe one touch wifi on/off will be a Samsung OneUI extra. I've arrived on GOS from BlackBerry 10, and there too, quick tiles are a one touch toggle (& all messaging/email just a swipe from the left).

My theory is that Google want to make switching wifi/data on & off such a pain that most people will leave it on all the time .. which is great for the Google data hoarding business model ... and rubbish for those of us that value privacy and battery life.

I hope it is fair for me to say that GOS is (rightly) very focussed on their key security priorities and note that they also have very limited resources. The devs therefore need to minimise the changes (and consequential maintenance overhead) that they carry between GOS and AOSP upstream. Fixing shortfalls in AOSP UI can never be at the forefront of their work.

The UI stuff the GOS devs are doing to integrate GOS features with AOSP is fantastic - for example, the UI for Google Playservices sandbox stuff - and all the GOS extras are beautifully discoverable in the UI and well documented. So they are doing lots of really great UI stuff on top of AOSP already.

Worth remembering that much of the observations in your list, and the UI frustrations others in the forum have too, are Google/AOSP UI issues and not GOS. It doesn't make sense for GOS to be the one making these tweaks, they belong upstream with AOSP - and then we are back to the likelihood that Google will make choices in AOSP that are best for their business and not users like us. For example, Google might not want some AOSP apps to be great because they would rather people choose an app in the Google ecosystem.

Hope this helps and reassures a bit. Someone please correct me if i have talked nonsense.

b1k3rdude

[deleted]
You are indeed fair when pointing out the GUi issues are AOSP related. But conversely there are other AOSP based ROMs that have resolved some of these, namely the quick launch issue (which has been addressed in an adjacent ROM in this space). And seeing as AOSP tweaks and mods are freely shared and readily available, its frustrating when fixes for common complaints aren't propagated between the various AOSP distributions.