Android Lag - Nonsense or Fact?

[Internaut]

With Android, the lag is going to depend on your device. In this respect, I'd recommend staying away from the very cheapest devices. If you have a high end device, it pays to mind your widgets. For example, I've found that various weather widgets I've tried introduce a bit of a judder to an initial left/right swipe on the home screen of my S3. Ummmm..... Apple doesn't have this problem .

 

[ChrisTX]

Like others have said, pre JellyBean devices, and heavily skinned devices that we don't have much say about will exhibit the most lag. Even my Galaxy S4 in its infancy stage did exhibit some lag. I believe a majority of it was due to the insane amounts of bloatware, and skinning Samsung likes to add to Android. Otherwise, no Android device I have used is unusable because of the lag, and is usually a minor issue, or will get fixed with a software update.

 

[MRU]

Fact.... It's there. But with the Flagships - its starting to not be.

For me personally the HTC One is the first Android device I've had where I haven't experienced any laggy behaviour, the entire OS is brisk and smooth and apps load without any delay. The Galaxy S4 had little micro stutters (rather than 'lag' in old sense) but I guess it wasn't deal breaking - though it did make me think I must do more to improve its performance whether that be disable applications or keep track of memory management. Something I just haven't felt any need to do with the HTC One.

I'm sure Nexus devices are smooth and lag free being stock android, though I only owned a Galaxy Nexus for three weeks but had to send it back to Vodafone for a refund due to a software bug that prevented GSM calls on 2G when it was first released. (i just couldn't make a call on it).


The thing with Android is we all assume everyone has got a top of the line flagship device, when we have to remember the flagship handset sales are probably much smaller than the low - mid range handsets. The really cheap handsets that have limited memory, limited ram and limited cpu performance.

If your only experience of Android was on the low-mid range handsets, I could easily see people suffering poor and laggy performance, especially when they start adding live wallpapers and widgets to their homescreens.

 

[Drunken Master]

the performance is just "janky," to steal a word from Chris Pirillo.

Balderdash; I've been saying "janky" since 2005.

 

[mib1800]

Your entire post could've easily been written in 2 paragraphs...

A couple things: the browser scrolling speed is NOT the general UI/list speed, and isn't even fixed. When Facebook opens a link in their Web view, for example, it is the normal, fast scrolling. Some like it slow, some like it fast.

It applies to general UI as well. Compare side-by-side scrolling speed of a list you get the same result like in the video. iOS scrolling speed in list like email/contact still gives the lethargic speed. This lethargic speed occurs everywhere not just a particular app like Facebook. The kinetic scrolling on iOS is designed that way i.e. lags compared to Android UI speed.

Second, from the side-by-side real-world performance tests I've seen, the iPhone is one of the fastest, if not the fastest phones on the market when it comes to actual tasks like opening apps, games, or loading web pages.

The link to web page loading time shows Iphone still behind compared to S3 (with Flash plugin disabled)

When loading app, Android is slower than Iphone only when the app is not already in the cache (i.e. first time opening). Open the same app the second time, it is faster than Iphone.

Third, I agree that Android has become far more FLUID, particularly stock Android. Touch response is still lacking, but even that is coming close. The problem is the inconsistency; it's not fluid and responsive everywhere. Some apps are laughably unresponsive, some apps stutter, the performance is just "janky," to steal a word from Chris Pirillo. In the future, I expect Google to optimize more by continuing work on Project Butter and all these aforementioned issues to be fixed.

I have said Iphone is "smoother" than Android but actual UI speed is still very lacking. You are deceived by smoothness as fast. Android has made strides in becoming smoother without sacrificing speed. Iphone UI moves in slow-motion compared to Android albeit smoother.

So no, it's not nonsense, but it's certainly not much of a problem when you're talking about current Android flagships. On a side note -- do the Android scrolling physics bother anyone? When I flick scroll in an iOS list the motion seems really natural, on Android it doesn't. Just a little gripe I've had for a while.

iOS is natural? On my PC/mac when I hold page down to scroll, the screen scrolls really fast like Android. Compared to Iphone where scrolling is lethargic like driving with the brake pedal depressed.

 

[sentinelsx]

Looks like no one bothered

 

[TommyA6]

It applies to general UI as well. Compare side-by-side scrolling speed of a list you get the same result like in the video. iOS scrolling speed in list like email/contact still gives the lethargic speed. This lethargic speed occurs everywhere not just a particular app like Facebook. The kinetic scrolling on iOS is designed that way i.e. lags compared to Android UI speed.



The link to web page loading time shows Iphone still behind compared to S3 (with Flash plugin disabled)

When loading app, Android is slower than Iphone only when the app is not already in the cache (i.e. first time opening). Open the same app the second time, it is faster than Iphone.



I have said Iphone is "smoother" than Android but actual UI speed is still very lacking. You are deceived by smoothness as fast. Android has made strides in becoming smoother without sacrificing speed. Iphone UI moves in slow-motion compared to Android albeit smoother.



iOS is natural? On my PC/mac when I hold page down to scroll, the screen scrolls really fast like Android. Compared to Iphone where scrolling is lethargic like driving with the brake pedal depressed.

Did you even bother to watch YouTube videos I posted. They all clearly show iPhone 5 being faster than galaxy s4, HTC one and experia z. Also, you found ONE video showing galaxy s3 being faster. I found at least ten videos of iPhone 5 easily outperforming galaxy s3.
And once again, iPhone's scrolling is much better (to me at least and many other)as it follows your finger movement perfectly, unlike androids which scrolls like crazy if you are not careful.
Apple is not sacrificing performance for smoothness!

 

[VulchR]

Thank you to those who actually supplied some explanation about how Android draws its screen compared to iOS. All I can say is that when I have tried Android devices so far, I have always noticed a slight, but detectable, delay in elements being drawn on the screen compared to what I am used to on the 4S. Perhaps the same is true for Android users looking at iOS, because no doubt we really only notice UI speed when it is slower than we usually experience on our current phone, and no doubt iOS is faster in some aspects and Android in others.

It sounds like relative 'lags' in Android should decrease with each iteration of Android hardware, and the same for iOS, so no doubt both iOS and Android are converging to the point that soon any differences in screen updating speed will be perceptually meaningless. A difference of a few milliseconds just does not matter.

 

[zbarvian]

It applies to general UI as well. Compare side-by-side scrolling speed of a list you get the same result like in the video. iOS scrolling speed in list like email/contact still gives the lethargic speed. This lethargic speed occurs everywhere not just a particular app like Facebook. The kinetic scrolling on iOS is designed that way i.e. lags compared to Android UI speed.



The link to web page loading time shows Iphone still behind compared to S3 (with Flash plugin disabled)

When loading app, Android is slower than Iphone only when the app is not already in the cache (i.e. first time opening). Open the same app the second time, it is faster than Iphone.



I have said Iphone is "smoother" than Android but actual UI speed is still very lacking. You are deceived by smoothness as fast. Android has made strides in becoming smoother without sacrificing speed. Iphone UI moves in slow-motion compared to Android albeit smoother.



iOS is natural? On my PC/mac when I hold page down to scroll, the screen scrolls really fast like Android. Compared to Iphone where scrolling is lethargic like driving with the brake pedal depressed.

I'm not even sure what you're saying anymore. Are you saying the scrolling speed of iOS is always slow and lethargic? There are two speeds, fast and slow. When I scroll through my music, contacts, facebook, etc, it uses fast scrolling. When I'm in a web view, it uses the slow scrolling but not to maintain smoothness. In Facebook's web view, it uses fast scrolling and it's perfectly smooth. They use slow scrolling in Safari and Chrome because it's far suitable for reading (which is typically what people do in browsers). As far as app loading, web page loading, general responsiveness, and fluidity, the iPhone is still probably the best overall.

 

[rillrill]

my nexus 4 lags every once in a while. nothing like my old iphone 4 on ios6; i would groan every time i had to unlock it...

 

[TommyA6]

my nexus 4 lags every once in a while. nothing like my old iphone 4 on ios6; i would groan every time i had to unlock it...

Comparing a nexus 4 (2012) with an iPhone 4 (2010) is not fair. Let me compare an iPhone 5 with Samsung galaxy s...

 

[Assault]

Newsflash: this happens on iOS, too.

No it doesn't! Apple is perfect. Everything they make is perfect. The screen size was perfect, but now it's even more perfect. The OS is perfect now, but iOS7 will make it the bestest perfect. Rah rah, Apple is the best and Android sucks (well, except in the CPU, GPU, screen size, resolution, ease of use, customization, USB hosting/transfers, file system access, camera quality, and QA from the factory. Other than that though!)

 

[TommyA6]

No it doesn't! Apple is perfect. Everything they make is perfect. The screen size was perfect, but now it's even more perfect. The OS is perfect now, but iOS7 will make it the bestest perfect. Rah rah, Apple is the best and Android sucks (well, except in the CPU, GPU, screen size, resolution, ease of use, customization, USB hosting/transfers, file system access, camera quality, and QA from the factory. Other than that though!)

Wow, just WOW

 

[vikingjunior]

With Android, the lag is going to depend on your device. In this respect, I'd recommend staying away from the very cheapest devices. If you have a high end device, it pays to mind your widgets. For example, I've found that various weather widgets I've tried introduce a bit of a judder to an initial left/right swipe on the home screen of my S3. Ummmm..... Apple doesn't have this problem .

I have a $200 LG L9 that is less laggy then the S4. Take a look at the LG Optimus G pro that is as smooth as it comes. So yes it's device specific.

 

[boost-tt]

My Note 2 lagged pretty bad and is one of the reasons I got rid of it and came back to my old iphone 5 for now.

 

[Oohara]

My Note 2 lagged pretty bad and is one of the reasons I got rid of it and came back to my old iphone 5 for now.

My Note 2 has it's hiccups now and then. Noticeably more than my 4S did. It's not enough to bother me personally given how many advantages I get instead, but I can see how someone would prefer the 5 because it's simply more smooth as far as UI lag goes.

Come to think of it though, apps crashed a lot more on my 4S than they do on the Note 2. I've had about 2-3 crashes in two months whereas on the 4S it would happen on a daily basis.

 

[tech4all]

No it doesn't! Apple is perfect. Everything they make is perfect. The screen size was perfect, but now it's even more perfect. The OS is perfect now, but iOS7 will make it the bestest perfect. Rah rah, Apple is the best and Android sucks (well, except in the CPU, GPU, screen size, resolution, ease of use, customization, USB hosting/transfers, file system access, camera quality, and QA from the factory. Other than that though!)

This is either epic fanboyism or epic sarcasm. Either way it's funny!

 

[MRU]

Wow, just WOW

So they don't have sarcasm where you are from ? Seeing as it has gone right over your head....

 

[Assault]

This is either epic fanboyism or epic sarcasm. Either way it's funny!

Either way, I get to be epic.

For the record, I do not love ios or the devices it is on.

 

[spinedoc77]

My Note 2 has it's hiccups now and then. Noticeably more than my 4S did. It's not enough to bother me personally given how many advantages I get instead, but I can see how someone would prefer the 5 because it's simply more smooth as far as UI lag goes.

Come to think of it though, apps crashed a lot more on my 4S than they do on the Note 2. I've had about 2-3 crashes in two months whereas on the 4S it would happen on a daily basis.

That's my experience with my Note 2, occasional hiccups, just little micro freezes when switching screens or changing UI elements. There was also some animation issues which seem purposeful, for example in the phone app changing to contacts takes a half a second to load which was extremely annoying, but I'm pretty sure it's not "lag", but either the animation, or maybe the phone takes half a second to populate the contact information. On my iphone, for comparison, this has always been instant.

I'd say I had about the same amount of lag on my Nexus 7, although I only had that for a couple of weeks before I returned it so never really got to experiment with it.

Honestly the "lag" that I have seen on Android is not a big deal at all, but it is there.

 

[cynics]

iOS lags just as bad as Android. I restore my iPhone as new so I get a fresh copy of iOS then restore from iCloud about every 5-6 months. It's makes a HUGE difference. I highly recommend everyone do that regardless of which idevices they have!

The lag I experience in Android typically isn't solved by restoring it or resetting it for me. It's usually app related. But you can find the same thing in iOS. They just fixed Facebook again.

 

[Hellhammer]

Nexus 4: Everything is as smooth as butter
Nexus 7: A little laggy, but certainly usable

That's my experience. The Nexus 4 is more powerful so that explains a lot - it's usually the low-end hardware that has problems with Android nowadays. Then again, iPhone 4 and earlier are not exactly smooth anymore either.

 

[Diseal3]

I think samsung was pushing updates for the S4 for some lag issues. I think the "lag" is more with touchwiz than it is with android. At least they are addressing it however.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I think samsung was pushing updates for the S4 for some lag issues. I think the "lag" is more with touchwiz than it is with android. At least they are addressing it however.

I had no lag before and after the update, but I did notice a decent drop in ram usage.

I've also seen multiple threads and posts in Android forums about some lag with 4.2.2 on differ devices.

 

[b166er]

Fact. Even iOS lags some times. Lag is a very flexible perception, and whether or not it is really there depends a lot on what the device is doing more so than the device itself.

I have a GS4 and there is absolutely lag here and there. It's not enough to bother me though, and I find it lags much less with Nova installed. That makes little sense to me, but it seems to be the case.

Every single OS I've ever used, mobile or desktop, has lagged at some point.