What's so great about stock Android?

Our forum users talk about whether or not stock Android is truly better than custom OEM skins.

If you've been in the Android space for any amount of time, you've likely heard people talk about how much better stock Android is when compared to custom skins created by OEMs. This is a debate that's been going on for years now, and while the general consensus among a lot of folks has been that stock is king, some of our forum users recently got to talking about why exactly this is.

While Android skins have gotten a lot lighter and less cluttered recently, there's still no denying that there are certain software advantages you get with a phone like Google Pixel 2 over the Galaxy S8. Stock Android really shines when it comes to things like smooth performance and reliability, but I'll let our forum users do the talking now.

MooMooPrincess

12-24-2017 10:08 PM

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There's really no stock Android anymore. Even the pixel comes with Google's own launcher now. But I get what you mean and for me it's just way smoother and everything to me is just clean and minimalist like I try to live my life.

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digitalbreak

12-24-2017 10:17 PM

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It's the duplicate apps. If only all these OEMs stop investing in building their own dialers, messages and many more and just use Google apps. They could have those in the Play Store as an optional download but baking it into the firmware is where it gets problematic. This is the biggest reason folks choose Pixel over other Android phones. However you can now see many companies actually use...

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AustinTech

12-25-2017 09:05 AM

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I fell in love with stock Android with the Nexus 6P. Such a smooth and liberating experience! Other phones at the time had janky software and some pretty bad color accents plus updates (particularly security) were very slow. The 6P has a great camera, the first for a Nexus device. Well, things have changed now. A lot of the jank has disappeared and at least with Samsung, security updates are...

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donm527

12-25-2017 06:16 PM

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In the past the difference between Stock Android and the rest was much clearer to see... Companies like Samsung and HTC and LG created crap like TouchWiz and WebSense that were just terrible and with TouchWiz for example you have the infamous lag in their OS after owning it for a short time. I personally never cared for TouchWiz and wouldnt never buy a Samsung because of it. The Note 7 was the...

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Aquila

12-26-2017 10:14 AM

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Less bloat, faster, smoother, visually better (IMO), apparently easier to update in a timely manner + this is Android, not iOS. The vast majority of a normal user experience comes from the Play Store, not from the OEM. Also, giving Samsung (or LG, etc) access to user data means being subjected to their privacy policies, etc. - which, if data privacy and security are important to that user,...

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What about you – Do you prefer stock Android over manufacturer skins?

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