Remember when Geek.com said Samsung was going to come out with a Google Edition of the Galaxy S4, and I made fun of them by calling the rumor insane? Well, it actually happened, and I publicly apologized. The same site is now saying HTC is in the process of testing a stock version of the One that runs Android 4.2.2. It hasn’t been confirmed whether or not HTC will market the device, but the company is impressed with the amount of positive feedback that Samsung got for the stock GS4.
Should this thing be real and actually hit the market, I hope it outsells the regular HTC One, and that the company realizes they should just dump Sense. Earlier this week I got to play with a One for the first time, and I found the user interface to be dreadful. Yes, Sense 5 is the best version of the Sense to date, but that’s like saying it’s OK you have food poisoning since it’s just a mild case that debilitates you for two days rather than two weeks.
Anyway, I still stick by what I’ve said in previous articles. There’s nothing wrong with UI skins if companies make it super easy to either uninstall them or just turn them off. Why can’t I buy a GS4, download an app from Samsung onto it, hit a button, and then come back to my phone 20 minutes later with stock Android?
