The Samsung Galaxy S3 was unveiled only a couple of days ago and with it we got a preview of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with TouchWiz. While the Galaxy S3 didn’t live up to all the hype behind it thanks to free flying rumors, it is still a solid device. With hardware that is more powerful than any other Samsung device on the market at the moment, it has quickly taken the title of Samsung’s flagship phone. But there is one little difference than may still have Samsung fans opt for the less powerful Samsung Galaxy Nexus – TouchWiz.
Samsung Galaxy S3 vs Galaxy Nexus: TouchWiz a major deciding point
Samsung TouchWiz UI has always received a mix reaction from users. You either hate it or love it. Many folks who dislike TouchWiz usually opt for custom launchers like GoLauncher and Nova. However while that may mask the homescreen, it doesn’t compare to the stock Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich experience like that of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. To get closer to that, you would need to root your device and install one of the many custom ROMs out there.
The good news is that Samsung isn’t known for locking the bootloader and it’s fairly easy to flash out Touchwiz on its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S2. Furthermore, the license of the linux kernel used in Android means a lot of the modifications needed to make custom ROMs are available, the only holdup here is that it takes time.
Given that the Samsung Galaxy S3 will still be one of the most popular Android smartphones of 2012, there is no doubt that there will be developer interest in it. And that’s what it takes to have custom ROMs built.
So if you love the Samsung Galaxy S3 hardware and the only drawback you find is TouchWiz, you may just need to have some patience. The Samsung Galaxy S3 international version will likely launch well ahead of the US variants, meaning that developers around the world will get their hands on the popular device pretty soon.
