Meizu M8 interface getting completely redone

nice2know_u

Demo pictures were leaked today on Meizu's Chinese BBS and showing the reworked UE (User Experience) without graphical elements. It's supposed to come with the official 1.0 firmware release in August 2009 and will once again be designed by eico. This new interface is said to feature more transitions and animations.

Source

nice2know_u

A

• Taskbar shows the text „meizu” by default on the locked screen but you can customize it in the settings.
• Dragging one of the 3 icons (phone, unlock,sms) towards the taskbar will open those functions but only if you drag it above the center of the screen (otherwise it’s going close and the phone will stay in locked mode).
• Pressing the M button twice will launch the Music Player.

B

• Showing the same unlocking method.
• If you press the middle button on the screen it will change to the old Desktop Mode (except you will be able to scroll the icons up and down if there are too many).

C

• Showing the Music Player while the screen is locked
• Arrow from row B showing you can drag the taskbar down and the Task Manager will open.

Err0r

Yay, Omnia + Android style. I don't know if I like this better. What do you guys think?

Auttapong

would say this better in term of more easy to use

adamL

it's exactly what i was looking for hope they will not touch to the graphical aspect(i like the actual color and design of the UI)

nice2know_u

According to one of JW's comment today the colors and graphics will probably change.

Kirash

I like the new unlock animations, but about the colors, it would be nice to make possibile to choose the color of the UI. At least, blue green or red

nice2know_u

Added english descriptions to second post!

jorge_regula

It looks ... okay, I guess. They should be focussing on fixing the bugs, rather than updating the graphics, however !

And wow, the meizu bbs is just blazing! The amount of posts in just a few hours... Too bad all those chinese people aren't willing to help us

lilM8

i imagine that the pictures shows how this can be...not that the ui will look like that...with colors and so
the actual ui is very good looking...im sure meizu keep it that way...

JkPwNsTeR

I definitely hope that this will steer Meizu away from the iPhone style interface... It'll be much more original, and who knows, maybe even more usable.

Gh-x

Somehow i dont really like the new design of UI it seem a bit pale prefer the current UI.

JaffZe

I liked the new UE and I hope it's at least as usable as this one! I like the current UE, but it probably wont take long to get used to the new one anyways.
The idea of them making something more original is very nice!

Good job Meizu! Looking forward to try this one out.

Gh-x: These images are just plain demo's, they are without graphical elements! I also thought they looked pretty boring.
(I'm not sure if I understood the word "pale")

nice2know_u

Yes these images only show the "skeleton" of the UI so eico can build the new design over it.

Rabsi1

well, its very... gray. i'm not sure i like it. it would be great if we had the choice in settings or something, because im sure opinion will be divided in this change.

sere83

hmmm, interesting development. It's actually really starting to P*ss me off how the M8 is not being marketed internationally.

Although I like the M8 UI atm it does seem Meizu are really trying hard to destinguish themselves and I like what Eico have done before so could see great potential in a revamp and as people have mentioned again may help meizu distance themselves from the shouts of 'iphone clone'.

Lets also not forget that Nvidia have recently announced they prefer to work with Windows CE 6.0 and there are rumours that the new Zune HD is built on a tegra/CE 6.0 base which means meizu could maybe use tegra hardware in the future.

What gets me though is the fact that at the moment essentially Apple and palm are the only companies making forward thinking good looking/rich functionality UI's for smart/media phones. People harp on about android but personally I think it's ugly, has poor functionality and does not compare to what I have seen of the iphone OS and Palms Web OS despite the fact it is open source.

In my mind Meizu has great possibilities/potential both in terms of aesthetics/ functionality and most importantly custoimisability when building an OS using such a platform as Win CE. Which I don't think android/s60 or any of the others possibe platforms are offering at the moment. However....

Because they choose to only focus on the domestic market it means that anyone using the M8 outside of China ends up with a load of bugs because there is no one testing it outside of China.

Very frustrating really when refurbished units are now going cheap. They really need to fix up their software game and start thinking more globally. Companies like apple and palm are simply implementing a whole next level of functionality into their devices while Meizu are still rejigging graphical elements and not adressing obvious bugs.

While I support this revamp I have to say that Meizu really need to start thinking about the software and functionality of this phone a lot more rather than just the aesthetics. Aesthetics play a big role but when there are other companies implementing all sorts of useful new functionality and chipsets into these types of devices I am starting to find it hard to stay interested in what Meizu is doing.

Michiel

Ah I don't like it at all. I hope we can choose between the current style and the new style in FW 1.0... :O

crimson05

it's only a flowchart not the design...

nice2know_u

I would have been surprised if you don't say that...

Traps

Hello everyone! Long time since I last posted!
Nice to see that Meizu is finally trying to make the M8 a bit more of a distinct product! There are a few things which I don't like too much about this UI however:

• The tabs look too much like Android, which is a bit ugly IMO,
• The widget screen is something that has been done on other devices (e.g. Samsung Omnia, some of the last Cowon PMPs, and even on custom Android builds), but it still doesn't convince me in therms of usefulness. IMO it's more of a "me too" gimmick feature, which I would rather not have,
• The task manager is still not designed towards making multitasking easier. For example, if you want to toggle between 2 applications (like looking at the browser while talking to a friend on messenger) doesn't seem too intuitive yet.. maybe Meizu should take a look at how Palm nailed that in WebOS.. what about replacing that widget screen with live previews of running apps, and maiking that screen allways accessible by the M button?

Anyway, I'm very happy to see Meizu moving in this direction. Maybe this way the M8 will finally become an international product!