Android Lag - Nonsense or Fact?

[Dontazemebro]

I'm not sure about the HTC One... but nearly a month ago my younger brother bought the GS4 when it was time for an upgrade, and he returned it 6 days later because he was sick of the lag. He liked almost everything about it, but the morning of his graduation he drove to the at&t store to exchange. So the GS4 does have some lag. It definitely wasn't as bad as my Nexus 7, though.

I have a GS4 as well and they have thus sent out a patch to fix whatever lag there was. I was fortunate enough to buy mine with the patch already installed and never experienced any lag. Trust me, it's a non issue with the S4 and I'm running mines stock with just a few cosmetic mods but nothing on the performance side.

 

[Elit3]

When people say Android lags they mean it has more frame drops when scrolling, pinching to zoom etc. What you show in those videos is not lag it is the way scrolling is programmed in iOS (to me it is much better and more precise. + it is more responsive there's no denying that. At least in the latest models. Iphone 4 on iOS 6 is pretty bad in terms of smoothness),

Completely untrue, this was fixed in 4.1 Jellybean, any lower and yeah, you will get it. BUT TouchWiz and Sense are very heavy, so they may cause some. But iPhone 5's lag is disgraceful (father took 1 iPhone 5 back, and is selling his second one, he loved iPhones, mocked me for android, and now has HTC ONE). Actually now to think of it, HTC ONE HAS NOT LAGGED AT ALL! He reported to me that when he clicked the screen-on button for iPhone 5 is would sit there for 2 minutes, off and then turn on, disgraceful!

 

[Brittany246]

Completely untrue, this was fixed in 4.1 Jellybean, any lower and yeah, you will get it. BUT TouchWiz and Sense are very heavy, so they may cause some. But iPhone 5's lag is disgraceful (father took 1 iPhone 5 back, and is selling his second one, he loved iPhones, mocked me for android, and now has HTC ONE). Actually now to think of it, HTC ONE HAS NOT LAGGED AT ALL! He reported to me that when he clicked the screen-on button for iPhone 5 is would sit there for 2 minutes, off and then turn on, disgraceful!

Yeah, the iPhone 5 is soooooo laggy. His battery was probably dead.

 

[onthecouchagain]

I have three coworkers who's iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S' lag, have horrendous battery life (I'm talking about down to single digits by mid-afternoon) and complain about it every single day.

They also complain about the difficulties of transferring certain songs instead of their whole iTunes library because iTunes makes syncing difficult and confusing. The only thing easy to sync with iTunes is either you sync all your songs, or none. If you want to be selective, they get confused.

So... Apple catering to the simple? Not always a success. Apple's hardware doesn't need to be higher end? Tell that to people with old iPhones that upgrade to latest OSes.

I tell them to try an Android. It's a different day and age. I mentioned to them about drag and drop; they instantly understood that (you know, years of using computers and doing drag and drops on USB drives, moving things from folder to folder, etc.). It's really not rocket science.

 

[Elit3]

Yeah, the iPhone 5 is soooooo laggy. His battery was probably dead.

It was like 8 in the morning, at around 80% He said that it also happens through-out the day. Funny, he has not complained since he got a HTC ONE. Even on 4% other phones don't lag, his HTC ONE doesn't, my N4 doesn't.

 

[Brittany246]

It was like 8 in the morning, at around 80% He said that it also happens through-out the day. Funny, he has not complained since he got a HTC ONE. Even on 4% other phones don't lag, his HTC ONE doesn't, my N4 doesn't.

Both of his iPhone 5s did that or just one?

 

[Bill Av]

Google Maps is laggy on every android device

I'm a big fan of Google Maps on Android, except that it lags on every single Android device. Maybe I'm using "Lag" wrong, but whenever you scroll through a map, it takes several seconds for the map to "pop" in. I bought the Droid Charge and was blown away by Maps, until it noticed that quirk. Whenever a co-worker gets a new Android, I check out Maps, and it's the same on every device; Motorola Xyboard, Razr HD MAXX,GS3,GS4, Galaxy Note 1, Note 2. Even if you have the map area downloaded to the device, it takes a few beats before the textures pop into place. Meanwhile, Apple Maps on my 4S, on a 3G connection whips any Android device. The same goes for Google Maps 2.0 on iOS - it's snappier than any Android.

 

[cuzo]

I have three coworkers who's iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S' lag, have horrendous battery life (I'm talking about down to single digits by mid-afternoon) and complain about it every single day.

They also complain about the difficulties of transferring certain songs instead of their whole iTunes library because iTunes makes syncing difficult and confusing. The only thing easy to sync with iTunes is either you sync all your songs, or none. If you want to be selective, they get confused.

So... Apple catering to the simple? Not always a success. Apple's hardware doesn't need to be higher end? Tell that to people with old iPhones that upgrade to latest OSes.

I tell them to try an Android. It's a different day and age. I mentioned to them about drag and drop; they instantly understood that (you know, years of using computers and doing drag and drops on USB drives, moving things from folder to folder, etc.). It's really not rocket science.

The 4s won't lag, the 4 probably will due to specs.

Proof that syncs in itunes is a hassle and please show me a better android alternative? Don't say drag and drop since alot of non techies don't even know where the music folder is located.

 

[onthecouchagain]

The 4s won't lag, the 4 probably will due to specs.

Proof that syncs in itunes is a hassle and please show me a better android alternative? Don't say drag and drop since alot of non techies don't even know where the music folder is located.

I'm not claiming everyone will understand drag and drop, but anyone who has used a computer to some degree should be able to find a folder called "Music" once their device is plugged in.

And if not, it wouldn't be hard to learn or have someone show them. Again, same as locating a folder on any computer.

If someone is completely tech-illiterate, there are things about iOS that could be difficult or confusing too. Like I said, I've had plenty of people asking me to help them with their iPhones, iPads for the simplest of tasks. Some relating to syncing (ie. "why does it say I'll lose all my stuff if I sync now?" etc.)

 

[0dev]

The 4s won't lag, the 4 probably will due to specs.

Proof that syncs in itunes is a hassle and please show me a better android alternative? Don't say drag and drop since alot of non techies don't even know where the music folder is located.

What kind of idiot can't understand how to drag stuff into a folder?

Personally I think iOS is good for the elderly. I have advised my old neighbours to buy iPads instead of laptops because all they do is browse the internet and check emails anyway and they can't use a laptop properly but find the iPad far easier.

But for anyone from a recent generation who can actually use computers, I recommend Android all the way. It's the superior OS and it runs on superior hardware.

And seriously, if you can't understand how to find a folder a put files in it, you shouldn't even be using a computer.

 

[THE JUICEMAN]

So here is the thing. Everyone's definition of lag is different. Every phone I've purchased has had some degree of lag. This includes many iPhones and many android phones. It has always been more common on android. I think we can all agree on that. It's just a fact. At this point if you get a high android phone or tablet the lag is still going to be there but it will be a lot less prevalent.

Case on point. My brand spanking new Nexus 7 does lag sometimes. But its very very minimal. I mostly see it in certain apps, not within any of the Google apps or navigating around the OS.

The decision comes down to this. Are you willing to live by Apple's rules to enjoy a more fluid experience? Which I would say the smoothness is still better but not by a whole lot. My iPhone 5 lags from time to time. Or do you want the freedom
That Google gives you and take a slight hit on fluidity in certain places? It all depends on where your priorities are.

I'm still deciding. But I really think the nexus 7 is winning me over.

 

[Anonemous]

The Android lag (where you can see it was stuttering) issue was apparent with certain devices back in 2010, 2011 and some of 2012.

One of them was the earlier variations of the Exynos (4) chipset line present in many Galaxy devices. While it worked fine with 2.3.x, when attempting to update to 4.x+ it was confronted with HAL/hwc issues, and memory leaks. Samsung refused to release code to the development community so everyone had to rely on them to fix any of the issues they had.

With Qualcomm / Snapdragon chipset devices, they are open source minded and hence have people able to help fix issues and give patches and fixes quickly. That is why you rarely see a device with a Snapdragon have a memleak, but limitations by the processor - yes.

Now in 2013, we don't see these kind of android lag problems. Limitations by a phone's SoC/processor speed and memory architecture, yes - these are limited to low end devices.

But the days of random stuttering lag that is a problem of the integration between hardware and software (HAL) are over. Especially with the higher end devices like the S4 and Galaxy tab 3's. Samsung will be determined to keep up support for them to squash any problems. However once Android 5.0 comes out? Who knows, they might ditch it for newer devices, just like they did with earlier phones.

 

[KurianOfBorg]

Android has by far the worst GPU drivers ever made in history. Every app has to use dirty hacks and workarounds so they don't crash on the substandard platform that Android is.

http://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2013/09/26/dolphin-emulator-and-opengl-drivers-hall-fameshame/

 

[Mr D]

Android is less snappier than the iPhones by default due to the fact that they're touch screens are significantly less responsive than iPhones.

 

[Technarchy]

Android has by far the worst GPU drivers ever made in history. Every app has to use dirty hacks and workarounds so they don't crash on the substandard platform that Android is.

http://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2013/09/26/dolphin-emulator-and-opengl-drivers-hall-fameshame/

Interesting read. Thanks for sharing

 

[identity]

Android has by far the worst GPU drivers ever made in history. Every app has to use dirty hacks and workarounds so they don't crash on the substandard platform that Android is.

http://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2013/09/26/dolphin-emulator-and-opengl-drivers-hall-fameshame/

Your link is to the Dolphin emulator, something an Android powered device is not really capable of running. The Dolphin Emulator needs horsepower, ram, and gpu. There's no reason to compare Android gpu's to a Nvidia's or Windows graphics as mobile graphics are not even in the same ballpark.

Nice try though.

 

[matttye]

I like to think of it like acceleration.

iPhone only lets you travel at one particular speed, but it's a smooth ride.

Android lets you go as fast or slow as you like, but if you go fast it can be quite bumpy.

At least that's my experience of it. The last Android phone I used was a Galaxy S3. It was very smooth for the most part but did stutter occasionally. The 'issue' is not what it once was.

 

[APhillyApple]

Fact, whether it be minimal or massive. It exists, yall need to get over it already.

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I have three coworkers who's iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S' lag, have horrendous battery life (I'm talking about down to single digits by mid-afternoon) and complain about it every single day.

They also complain about the difficulties of transferring certain songs instead of their whole iTunes library because iTunes makes syncing difficult and confusing. The only thing easy to sync with iTunes is either you sync all your songs, or none. If you want to be selective, they get confused.

So... Apple catering to the simple? Not always a success. Apple's hardware doesn't need to be higher end? Tell that to people with old iPhones that upgrade to latest OSes.

I tell them to try an Android. It's a different day and age. I mentioned to them about drag and drop; they instantly understood that (you know, years of using computers and doing drag and drops on USB drives, moving things from folder to folder, etc.). It's really not rocket science.

You always have co-workers, friends, and family when it comes to corroborating your story. lol.

 

[T5BRICK]

Fact, whether it be minimal or massive. It exists, yall need to get over it already.

Lag does exist. You're right. I experience it on every device I've ever used, Including my HTC One, my wife's old Droid Eris, my 6 core gaming PC with a SSD, my MBP with a SSD, my iPhone 3Gs, 4s, my wifes new 5s, and my iPad 1, 2, 3 and Mini as well. Its also a perception thing that us very subjective and hard to measure.

I'm not sure why there is even a point of contention here. Android used to have a lot of lag. It doesn't, for the most part, have this issue anymore. iOS used to be missing a lot of functionality. This isn't as much of an issue anymore either. At this point things have evened out pretty nicely and they're both good operating systems with their own strengths and weaknesses. Currently I prefer Android on my phone and iOS on my tablet. OSX is better on my laptops and Windows 7 works better for me on my desktops.

 

[gotluck]

Both have lag which must be defined. We are talking about 100 ms or less here for touchscreen response rates. FPS games are playable with 100ms ping (50 is great). Good enough for me. Do I want lower ms touchscreen response, sure. Is the additional latency worth it to gain all of the extra features of android for me? Yes.
Do I think this advantage for iOS is overblown ? Yes, but it remains an advantage.

Of course this is all assuming that the lag you are referring to is touchscreen response rates.

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Android has by far the worst GPU drivers ever made in history. Every app has to use dirty hacks and workarounds so they don't crash on the substandard platform that Android is.

http://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2013/09/26/dolphin-emulator-and-opengl-drivers-hall-fameshame/

Lol complaining about compatibility with an emulator that you are locked out of even running on iOS.

 

[Dontazemebro]

Android has by far the worst GPU drivers ever made in history. Every app has to use dirty hacks and workarounds so they don't crash on the substandard platform that Android is.

http://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2013/09/26/dolphin-emulator-and-opengl-drivers-hall-fameshame/

Cmon man don't look stupid. When did ARM/Mali become Android

 

[KurianOfBorg]

Cmon man don't look stupid. When did ARM/Mali become Android

Because those drivers are only available for Android/Linux and the developer is talking about an Android app.

The driver problems universally affect all OpenGL apps and the UI framework of the OSes on those devices.

 

[kenknotts]

Funny thing is, I never noticed any "lag" on my Android devices until today actually. I had the Note 2 and then the S4 which I sold for the 5s last week. After a week of using the iPhone, I got to use a friend's S4 today and wow. I did notice a difference for sure. Even the second it took to rotate the screen made me think "lag", its instant on the iPhone. I guess it just depends on what you are used to.

 

[Shanghaichica]

My S4 doesn't lag but my original note lagged horribly. I've had 2 galaxy tab 2 10.1 's. The first had very bad lag, the second has only slight lag. I think the newer android devices don't lag, but they are not quite as smooth as Apple devices and that can be mistaken for/classed as lag.

 

[Savor]

Some of the overblown nonsense went away after 4.1.

Android can be faster but not smoother.

It can lag but not from Android itself, but the skins OEM's put on it. But iPhones generally have better GPU and better optimization. Also iOS does LESS in the background.