Sunday 8 May 2011

MIUI and Android: Is the perfect ROM?

Good bit ago I updated the ROM of my HTC Desire for a change of scenery: 7.0 CyanogenMod had recently left and took the opportunity to put some up my smartphone . Impressions, as I said in a previous post, was quite bittersweet: although CyanogenMod benefits are really cool, its staging is not.
In that post came to the rescue Frames , which spoke of a ROM that could be the solution in my case. MIUI This is a development of a leading Chinese developer and time available, "he began to speak of it in September last year, and for some time also has a completely adapted to the Spanish, the official website and forum also in language.
So without thinking twice I proceeded to download the ROM and install it on my Desi a couple of days. The result is spectacular. MIUI complies perfectly with many of the expectations that users of Android might expect, especially in my case, in which the visual appearance and usability of the system were crucial.


For starters, MIUI is a ROM which in turn is fully customizable and that attention has support for themes. It's amazing that the operating system itself does not give support for the customization 'global', and give it MIUI yes, but it is. There are already dozens of themes available, with different icons, fonts, backgrounds and other visual elements that we can change "together" and then we can customize one by one, combining icons with each other fonts. Fantastic.

But that is MIUI natively, much more usable (always in my opinion, care) that CyanogenMod. Less clicks for everything, more visual and clear options, and all better organized. A clear example is the management of contacts from the phone function. In this display shows the last contacts with calls made or received, and if you keep your finger a couple of seconds displayed in a clear and elegant options that can be performed on that contact. But if instead you press lightly on the contact, the contact information also appears in fantastic shape, very well organized and very clear.

The address book is also very well resolved, and remember, as elsewhere in the interface-iOS, which was right in many of these sections. To begin, at the top we find the search field to the contacts, which inexplicably there is no way to find native Android agendas. And as was the case when working with your phone contacts are displayed very clearly, with excellent usability.
There are a few utilities MIUI own as the music player-very cool-tool to make backups in the cloud, MIUI Backup, or image viewing tool, MIUI Gallery, faster and efficient Gallery Android's default, which as I said is very cool visually but does not respond as fast as it should.

But there are other sections specific to this ROM also shines. Notifications are fantastic, and combined with the so-called "controls" are not the switches that activate and deactivate hardware features such as WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS or the brightness of the phone. Keeping your finger on any of these icons brings up the menu related to that feature. For example, in WiFi will all WiFi connectivity preferences, as available networks, or the notification that there is an open network available.

The configuration of each and every one of the parameters of the system is also great because the interface which I speak and makes sure everything is accessible quickly and clearly. Since the customization options, as I said, issues management is fantastic, even those that affect the battery-integrated with a monitoring utility that shows how it has been spent. Everything points back to IOS, and that, again, not bad, because the information and its representation in my opinion is perfect.
MIUI certainly not perfect: the camera application is still not too well resolved, and for example can not record at 720p-pity, but it is working - and I miss things from other traditional ROMs, such as complete list of applications, which unfolded after clicking on one of the buttons on the Dock that this ROM does not exist. In fact, everything you install on MIUI shown in any of the desktops available, which is confusing and makes work overload our screens with tools that are used only very occasionally.
The remaining sections of the interface follow these guidelines: light background, dark type, and a look that recalls a lot (a lot) and the traditional IOS iPhone. In my opinion, and I know that this leads to many debates, that's not necessarily bad. If something is well done and it works, why not follow this pattern? Android Native Interface is not hitting, but MIUI offers the best of both worlds: one has the power and freedom of Android, and good interface decisions that once took the guys from Apple. It is, for now, a perfect blend.
I can only give my congratulations to both the original creators of the ROM as all contributing to directly or indirectly improve our language. How wonderful that the freedom offered by Android at last have a clear example of the power that can give us this philosophy. For more information I recommend the official site in Spanish, MIUI.es , which is so good that I think it surpasses the original official sites, because the work they are doing their leaders, with the aforementioned forum included, is fantastic. As a complement I would distinguish the developer forum , which also has interesting discussion thread for all who can install on their handsets MIUI (only a handful of Android-based smartphones can for now.)

No comments:

Post a Comment