Android Lag - Nonsense or Fact?

[lsutigerfan1976]

I find lag in even the newest android phones. It's the fragmentation thing. Hard for google to make all android phones perfect os wise when there are so many diff models with so many diff set of specs. Also, the apps are optimized to work better on certain phones. So you almost have to play around with several phones till your find the one with the least lag and issues.

 

[Explicitic]

I find lag in even the newest android phones. It's the fragmentation thing. Hard for google to make all android phones perfect os wise when there are so many diff models with so many diff set of specs. Also, the apps are optimized to work better on certain phones. So you almost have to play around with several phones till your find the one with the least lag and issues.

Fragmentation has little, to none, to do with lag experienced on the Android operating system. The problem that is Android fragmentation is the sheer number of devices and screen sizes out there and all the Android manufacturers that can't update their phones. This causes problems with the Android SDK which in turn, causes problems with apps. Fragmentation, again, has little to do with any lag you may experience using Android.

 

[sarcosis]

Fragmentation has little, to none, to do with lag experienced on the Android operating system. The problem that is Android fragmentation is the sheer number of devices and screen sizes out there and all the Android manufacturers that can't update their phones. This causes problems with the Android SDK which in turn, causes problems with apps. Fragmentation, again, has little to do with any lag you may experience using Android.

I would agree that it's not a fragmentation thing. They way you code Android, you take into account for that kind of thing as you are building the app. I wouldn't even say its a hardware thing. Most high end Android phones run on the same chipsets (Snapdragon 600 or Exynos). You get the wired variation here and there, but if you look at the big players, that's where it was at.

It's all about optimization. I don't know why, but from what I've found, if you get a Samsung phone that isn't Exynos, it's not as we'll optimized. The note 2 I find smoother than the S4. I couldn't get the note 2 to stutter but I could get the s4 to stutter. My s3 stuttered all over the place and it drove me nuts.

 

[mib1800]

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),

That's the thing. Almost all pro-iphone posts make a big deal out of this frame drop which doesnt really affect response time/performance unlike the lack of scrolling speed of iphone. I think the more appropriate wording is:-
- Android UI is less fluid/smooth compared to Iphone
- Iphone UI lags compared to Android.

I dont get you when you say Iphone scrolling mechanism is more precise. I thought it is the other way round. On Android, the speed of the scrolling corresponds to how fast/long flip your finger make. On Iphone, the speed is always constant no matter how fast/slow/long you flip.

 

[YourAvgUser]

That's the thing. Almost all pro-iphone posts make a big deal out of this frame drop which doesnt really affect response time/performance unlike the lack of scrolling speed of iphone. I think the more appropriate wording is:-
- Android UI is less fluid/smooth compared to Iphone
- Iphone UI lags compared to Android.

I dont get you when you say Iphone scrolling mechanism is more precise. I thought it is the other way round. On Android, the speed of the scrolling corresponds to how fast/long flip your finger make. On Iphone, the speed is always constant no matter how fast/slow/long you flip.

iPhone scrolling has a more pleasing effect. Ask any Android user and they don't care though, as long as Android does the job, lag and user experience doesn't matter

 

[adder7712]

iPhone scrolling has a more pleasing effect. Ask any Android user and they don't care though, as long as Android does the job, lag and user experience doesn't matter

God I hate the emoticon.

Also, the user experience is fine on the newer Android devices with the Nexus phones being the best.

 

[SprSynJn]

My Note 2 had jellybean and it lagged.

If you close all other apps in the background, does it still lag?

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

If you close all other apps in the background, does it still lag?

Should you have to do that though? I remember my HTC Incredible S used to lag up terrible on later editions of Android but would run smoother once I went into task manager and closed apps running in the background. I didn't feel that was very user friendly though. My Android phones always ran smoothly when swiping between screens but often lagged once newer OS updates came out. It was like the hardware was suddenly lacking to run the OS which is stupid IMO.

 

[paulsalter]

My Android phones always ran smoothly when swiping between screens but often lagged once newer OS updates came out. It was like the hardware was suddenly lacking to run the OS which is stupid IMO.

Isn't that always the case, newer OS requires more resources so older hardware suffers

My MacBook is a POS running Lion where on Snow Leopard it was perfect
My Ipod Touch was great on iOS4, but is now a pain on iOS6
etc

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Isn't that always the case, newer OS requires more resources so older hardware suffers

My MacBook is a POS running Lion where on Snow Leopard it was perfect
My Ipod Touch was great on iOS4, but is now a pain on iOS6
etc

It is, but some software demands more than others. In my experience with Android, my HTC was less than 8 months old when I started to suffer from lag due to new updates. I thought that was unacceptable, but with so many new phones being released you get the impression they only cater for the present flagship devices. I don't put the lag on my S3 down to this though. My S3 lagged intermittently and usually just when navigating around the device rather than loading apps etc. I wouldn't expect iOS 6 to run on my 2007 iPod Touch or any device older than say 3 years. I understand there is no obligation but I expected my HTC phone to handle updates for the duration of my contract. It was terrible by the end.

 

[mib1800]

iPhone scrolling has a more pleasing effect. Ask any Android user and they don't care though, as long as Android does the job, lag and user experience doesn't matter

To me, the retarded Iphone scrolling speed is a bigger negative user experience compared to occasional stutters (or frame drop) in Android.

Ifans keep saying Iphone has better user experience. Does Iphone really have a better user experience when a lot of the UI design is flawed? E.g.

- Placement of nav/back/command buttons at the top left making reach difficult when using one-handed. Also waste of screen area to cater to these buttons leaving little viewing area.
- Beat-around-bush steps to access and change Settings.
- Difficult to navigate to previous apps in the stack. Need to callout the multi-task menu instead of just pressing "back" button on Android.
- idiosyncracies of the UI. click small arrow on the item for edit command or swipe on item for delete command or use command buttons/slide-up menu for other commands. Compare this to Android's simple and logical by just long press on item to popup command menu.
- No support for shortcuts or easy toggles.
- Notification panel that blocks the screen.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

To me, the retarded Iphone........

That is a far as I was prepared to read once I saw that word. It was an admission the rest of the post was going to be biased to the point of derogatory put downs. It adds not weight to the debate whatsoever.

 

[mib1800]

That is a far as I was prepared to read once I saw that word. It was an admission the rest of the post was going to be biased to the point of derogatory put downs. It adds not weight to the debate whatsoever.

It is "retarded Iphone scrolling speed" not "retarded iphone"
Maybe a harsh word but nonetheless accurate desciption of the somehow "slow and unnatural" scrolling speed.

btw: are expecting every description about iphone has to be sugar-coated with pretty words otherwise it will be biased.

 

[paulsalter]

It is, but some software demands more than others. In my experience with Android, my HTC was less than 8 months old when I started to suffer from lag due to new updates. I thought that was unacceptable, but with so many new phones being released you get the impression they only cater for the present flagship devices. I don't put the lag on my S3 down to this though. My S3 lagged intermittently and usually just when navigating around the device rather than loading apps etc. I wouldn't expect iOS 6 to run on my 2007 iPod Touch or any device older than say 3 years. I understand there is no obligation but I expected my HTC phone to handle updates for the duration of my contract. It was terrible by the end.

Agree that the updates shouldn't affect performance while in contract (as long as it's a recent ish phone when you started the contract)

my S2 (still in contract and on ICS) is working fine now, when it does get JB I will be disappointed if it slows it down, but I do expect it to as the phone is getting on now

My Ipod I bought in Jan 2011, worked well until iOS6 in 2012, is this an acceptable time for a new device (not unusable, but performance is a lot worse than when I got it)

 

[sentinelsx]

Ok, I guess a serious response is in order.

I posted the explanation from a google employee who worked on android (it is still there on her g+ account) a while back and NO ONE read it. Reading is hard, I get it.

In layman terms, everything in android is an activity. That activity, if it involves an interface, has a separate window (all activities and windows are sandboxed btw). Tap on an address bar? The keyboard showing up is a separate activity opened by your OS, in a separate window. When it comes on, you see the animation of the "keyboard window", but its hardly noticeable.

And this is where it gets interesting. Any app that involves UI elements which need constant redrawing (and hence constant window animations) WILL create a burden on the hardware unless it is powerful enough. THIS is why powerful hardware is so much more important, to run those windows and their openGL and webGL contexts. Current hardware is powerful, but a lot of stuff going on can still overpower it.

The way google tackles it is they build a cache. Say you are scrolling a list, all items are then pre-cached upon launching the list. So they only draw one "window", the list UI, say a contact list UI if you are in a contacts app. Scrolling simply fills the pre-cached items in the window instead of redrawing it with new data again. However, if you tap on "contact details" the contact details window (and a separate activity) will open. Good hardware PLUS good coding will make this process seamless.

Now here's the thing, the above seems to explain why skins lag when scrolling with lists and other UI because OEMs are probably not getting the hang of it.

And this is because google gives tremendous freedom to a dev. You can make your app flawlessly smooth, or a disaster. This is a double edged sword. Same like in iOS. Xcode already provides easy layout and coding tools, at the expense of flexibility.

And by the whole nature of separate sandboxed activities, android is in theory very secure, except the fact google allows apps to interact if given permissions during install. THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T GET A VIRUS WHEN VISITING A SITE ONLY ON YOUR ANDROID DEVICE.

I think an easy to understand example is contact list in TW. When I was scrolling it on a gs4 with 50+ items, it was grinding along. What I noticed was that after I turned off that air hover think that tries to follow my finger, it was smoother.

The gs4 all of a sudden was freed from that extra task, that extra activity, and having to render another window showing me the preview. Hence less work and smoother scrolling.

I hope this was helpful, as much as my lame attempt of making things easy to understand goes lol.

I guess a quote is in order.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

My Ipod I bought in Jan 2011, worked well until iOS6 in 2012, is this an acceptable time for a new device (not unusable, but performance is a lot worse than when I got it)

I know of two people in my family using iPhone 4's who are up to date with no issues and those are 2010 devices. A 2011 iPod touch shouldn't encounter problems so soon IMO. I think I would have gone to the Apple store and sort advice on that one.

----------

It is "retarded Iphone scrolling speed" not "retarded iphone"
Maybe a harsh word but nonetheless accurate desciption of the somehow "slow and unnatural" scrolling speed.

btw: are expecting every description about iphone has to be sugar-coated with pretty words otherwise it will be biased.

It was just a complete turn off for me and I still haven't gone back and read it. I don't expect every post to praise anything. I do expect to read well thought out reasoning though and choice words can make the difference.

 

[daveathall]

I guess a quote is in order.

I never saw that before, a thanks is in order. Thank you.

 

[paulsalter]

I know of two people in my family using iPhone 4's who are up to date with no issues and those are 2010 devices. A 2011 iPod touch shouldn't encounter problems so soon IMO. I think I would have gone to the Apple store and sort advice on that one.

It's the 2010 model, I bought it beginning of 2011 (4th gen model)

Iphone 4 and iPod Touch 4 are not the same, iPhone has double the RAM and I believe a faster processor

Check the iPod forum here, lots of threads on how the RAM available is very low now with iOS6

 

[cynics]

Should you have to do that though? I remember my HTC Incredible S used to lag up terrible on later editions of Android but would run smoother once I went into task manager and closed apps running in the background. I didn't feel that was very user friendly though. My Android phones always ran smoothly when swiping between screens but often lagged once newer OS updates came out. It was like the hardware was suddenly lacking to run the OS which is stupid IMO.

iOS is the same way though. The process of removing an app from a suspended state and out of ram can induce lag. Best way to avoid it is to close out all the apps in the multitasking tray.

I recently tried not closing out any apps on my 4S. It got noticeably more laggy. The reason I was doing this was to see what apps I actually use on my phone. Not to test for lag. Now granted I don't have a 5 which has 2x the ram and just faster overall but if it doesn't do it (which it very well may) it will eventually as it gets older and apps become more powerful.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

It's the 2010 model, I bought it beginning of 2011 (4th gen model)

Iphone 4 and iPod Touch 4 are not the same, iPhone has double the RAM and I believe a faster processor

Check the iPod forum here, lots of threads on how the RAM available is very low now with iOS6

Right ok fair enough. My iPod hasn't been updated since 2009 and I only use it in the car so haven't experienced this myself in the past. They shouldn't really release updates to devices they know can't handle it IMO.

iOS is the same way though. The process of removing an app from a suspended state and out of ram can induce lag. Best way to avoid it is to close out all the apps in the multitasking tray.

I recently tried not closing out any apps on my 4S. It got noticeably more laggy. The reason I was doing this was to see what apps I actually use on my phone. Not to test for lag. Now granted I don't have a 5 which has 2x the ram and just faster overall but if it doesn't do it (which it very well may) it will eventually as it gets older and apps become more powerful.

I don't think this is an issue on the 5 and I never keep a phone longer than 2 years so hopefully won't encounter this problem. Just looking at my 'multitasking tray' and I have 21 apps in this suspended state. I have no lag whatsoever but then again I saw somebody here try and demonstrate lag on an iP5 and it wasn't what I would call lag. Lag to me is when the device slows down visibly what scrolling, not when clicking on a new app and expecting it to load instantaneously. On my S3 when I swiped my finger across the homescreen to view another screen it used to pause half way before it showed it fully. I would call that lagging and the same thing used to happen on my old HTC. I haven't experienced that on my iP5 as yet.

 

[paulsalter]

iOS is the same way though. The process of removing an app from a suspended state and out of ram can induce lag. Best way to avoid it is to close out all the apps in the multitasking tray.

I recently tried not closing out any apps on my 4S. It got noticeably more laggy. The reason I was doing this was to see what apps I actually use on my phone. Not to test for lag. Now granted I don't have a 5 which has 2x the ram and just faster overall but if it doesn't do it (which it very well may) it will eventually as it gets older and apps become more powerful.

Yup, I have to do the same, if I just leave things in the multi tasking tray apps stop launching, they try and then just return me to the main screen

clearing them out and things work fine

Lag happens, imo, all os's will suffer as they get older, I even have to force kill on my MacBook occasionally when an app hogs the RAM

 

[Greg.]

Same here, never seen lag on my N4 but I do get some on my N7. The N4 feels like a much better quality device to me over the N7.

I feel if the Nexus 7 had the same 2GB of RAM as the N4 it would be much better.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Use "Backgrounder" on a jailbroken iPhone and you'll see it's true colors. Try using live wallpaper and you'll see it's true colors. Set other apps as defaults and see if you never get any hiccups on the iPhone. I can go on & on. The iPhone is so locked down, it's really not an equal match up between iOS and Android.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Use "Backgrounder" on a jailbroken iPhone and you'll see it's true colors. Try using live wallpaper and you'll see it's true colors. Set other apps as defaults and see if you never get any hiccups on the iPhone. I can go on & on. The iPhone is so locked down, it's really not an equal match up between iOS and Android.

Yeah locked down for a reason and possibly the reason it is so stable.

 

[spinedoc77]

The Android lag issue is so overblown. My S4 is lag-free. Most of my Androids have been. The last time I had a lagging Android was back in 2011 when I had a Atrix 4G, HTC Inspire, etc. All crappy devices.

And for those who say that iOS doesn't lag are delusional. My iPad3 on iOS6 is a lagging mess. It's sluggish and crashes all the time. I can't wait to dump it for the next-gen iPad, whenever it comes around. Even an iPhone4 on iOS6 lags like no other.

I think you have to compare similar hardware. iOS 6 on both of my ip5's has NEVER lagged, not even a little bit. But, comparatively the iphone 4 I have sitting in a drawer as a backup phone with iOS6 on it lags horribly, the hardware is just not made to run iOS6 efficiently.

My Note 2 lags a bit here and there, and I agree the hype over the lag is quite overblown, but it's still there and it's noticeable. But I could use a bad example my Samsung Captivate which runs JB 4.2, it stutters and lags pretty badly but again this is due to the hardware being unable to run the software. I think part of what people are curious about is why it stutters on such powerful hardware like the Note 2 for example, and of course one of the possibilities is TouchWiz.

What I do see as the negative point for iOS is while I have never seen lag in iphones which were matched properly with their OS, I often do see programs just completely quit for no discernible reason, they just poof out. Android rarely does this from my experience, so it's a trade off.

----------

To me, the retarded Iphone scrolling speed is a bigger negative user experience compared to occasional stutters (or frame drop) in Android.

Ifans keep saying Iphone has better user experience. Does Iphone really have a better user experience when a lot of the UI design is flawed? E.g.

- Placement of nav/back/command buttons at the top left making reach difficult when using one-handed. Also waste of screen area to cater to these buttons leaving little viewing area.
- Beat-around-bush steps to access and change Settings.
- Difficult to navigate to previous apps in the stack. Need to callout the multi-task menu instead of just pressing "back" button on Android.
- idiosyncracies of the UI. click small arrow on the item for edit command or swipe on item for delete command or use command buttons/slide-up menu for other commands. Compare this to Android's simple and logical by just long press on item to popup command menu.
- No support for shortcuts or easy toggles.
- Notification panel that blocks the screen.

The nav/back command is a little weird. I never had an issue with it until I spent 4 months with my Note 2, then going back to an iphone I do find it a pain to hit back. The settings in Android are also far superior and much more accessible.