Does Android Really Slow DOwn?

[dk001]

Over the last couple of years I have spent some solid time with a number of Android devices.
ThinkPhone, OP 9 Pro, OP 10 Pro, OP 12, ASUS Zenphone 10, Galaxy S23 Ultra, Galaxy S234 Ultra, Honor Magic V2, Nothing Phone 2.

That is a decent round of devices. A couple I purchased, a couple were vendor tests, a couple tested for others.

Out of all of these, I only had one, yes one, device slow down forcing me to reinstall the OS as new to get it back to speed; ThinkPhone.

All the rest (well, the Honor V2 is only a couple of months old) have shown no slowdown at all.

Take the poll and kindly comment. Based on the posts from many on here, Android slowdown seems to be a thing. My experience differs.

 

[LeeW]

I never experienced that outside of rogue apps consuming too much resource, which is not the OS at fault.

 

[robvalentine]

no more than iPhones slowing down, or fixed by a restart.

 

[iHorseHead]

Depends on the phone.

 

[Helmsley]

My phone's current uptime is 172d 17h 14m and it's still as slick as ever 😎

 

[Johns12]

No slowdown on my almost 2 year old Fold 4

 

[ProbablyDylan]

I've only had one phone slow down on me - my Nexus 6P, and that was only because of the SD 810 driving that thing. Ran so hot that the CPU never ran at full speed, and apparently cooked the 'Big' cores in some cases. It's a shame too because otherwise I loved that thing.

 

[dk001]

For those who voted “Yes” I would love to know what model phone. 👍

For those who posted and voted, thanks!!

 

[LockOn2B]

If I’m not misremembering, my grandmother’s Notes (4, 8, 10) never slowed down noticeably. Neither did her Z Flip4, but the display died at the hinge after only 18 months. As for me my Note 4 from 2016 honestly felt fine in 2017

 

[Heat_Fan89]

The only time this was an issue was with the Nexus 4 and that's because Google did not enable TRIM on that phone but they eventually rectified the problem with a software update. I have never experienced a slowdown with Android and I predominately own Android devices vs iOS.

 

[TechRunner]

My Z Flip4 showing no noticeable slowdown at almost 22 months.

 

[Smellmet]

The first android phone I owned was a Galaxy S3 Mini followed by an S5 - both of these slowed down to the point of being unusable at times. Every Samsung phone I've had since - S7 Edge, A71 and now A34 has performed the same as when it was new to the day I got rid of them. I think it was android around version 10 or 11 they suddenly got their act together and never looked back for me.

 

[decafjava]

We have a spare Wiko phone at work that's pretty old - 6 years old - and my iPhone 7 Plus was still fast with standard apps and all except heavy games at 5 years old. The Wiko is really slow and the interface is choppy. Granted it's a cheap model but still.

 

[shadowboi]

Android slows down if major system updates are being installed. Comparing to iOS, it slows down fairly significant. But unlike with iOS, one can live on non-updated Android phone for years because browsers are updateable on their own. To update Safari (that becomes obsolete in 2-3 years) you need to update iOS

 

[TLuc]

No, Android itself as an OS doesn't "slow down" but I think it's unfair to talk about Android in general and mention old phones stuck on old software versions. Android has evolved tremendously under the hood in recent years, you can't say Android 14 on the Pixel 8 Pro is the same as Android 6 or 8 on the Nexus 6P, there's no point even making such a comparison.

As a relevant experience I want to talk about the Galaxy A52s which I think is the best A series smartphone Samsung launched, mainly because it used the Snapdragon 778. The phone launched with Android 11 and now it's on Android 14, so the latest version. So did it slow down after 3 Android versions and taking in consideration it has a mid-range SOC with 6GB Ram? NO, it didn't, especially after I installed OneUI 6.1 last week the phone is better optimized than even and still as usable as the day it launched. No scratch that, it's actually better than when it launched because now it has more software features and it's just better optimized . It all has to do not just with how good the software base is but how well the software is optimized, implemented and supported on a particular device. Any software can run really really bad no matter how fast and strong the hardware is, especially when we talk about the OS itself.

 

[danb1979]

My Pixel 4XL still runs faultlessly and like lightning... Battery lasts days too

My N6P still works as it should and has zero issues... Battery isn't great but to be expected the age its at!

So no; not in my experience

However; the Samsung A53 5G was crap out of the box; slow and dithery... But probably because it's chockked full of crap not needed, typical Samsung!

 

[sracer]

In my experiences over the years with Android devices, I voted "yes". Android DOES slow down over time. BUT... that is reversible.

At its core, Android is more like a desktop OS than iPad OS/iOS. As a result, it can suffer a similar fate of desktop OSes.

I have found that whenever an Android tablet or phone starts to feel sluggish, and clearing the cache and stopping apps doesn't help, that resetting the device and re-installing the apps brings the device back to its original snappiness.

 

[Flamingdeathbolts]

My work phone is a Galaxy S20 that I have been using for over two and a half years and the phone still feels smooth with no app delays as day one.

Battery life is still decent too. I last charge my phone to 100% on Friday early morning and after using it all day that day will let it sit over the weekend. When I pick it up on Monday morning its sitting in the 30’s or 40’s battery life.

 

[dumastudetto]

Yes, they really do slow down. My Sony Xperia S is unusable at this point. Everything is slow, including networking and mobile data. Very disappointing, honestly.

 

[HouseLannister]

Lots of different things can cause slowdown.

1. Runaway app process fixed by a simple restart.
2. Corrupt/damaged OS install caused by a buggy or failed update. Uncommon, but a reinstall will fix.
3. Newer operating system using more resources on older hardware than the OS version that shipped on device. Happens on all hardware with all OSes, but is less noticeable nowadays because we have a lot more power than we typically need on devices for basic daily tasks. If you have it, only a downgrade will fix.
4. Aging hardware throttling itself like Apple did with iPhones on old batteries. Unsure if any manufacturer outside of Apple did this intentionally with software, but it can also happen due to thermal throttling from aging components. Everything breaks down with time -- just ask my rotator cuff.

 

[applepotato666]

Not in my experience. I've only used Samsung flagships personally up until S20, and used them for at least 2 years. Most of the complaints about Android's performance is the animations. Exiting a heavy app may have a bit of a low FPS animation for example. iPhones have delays when something's tasking them, it may take a bit for it to react to the initial input, but you'll never see lag in the animation itself. Even if they perform the same, the iPhone has more grace to it.

 

[dk001]

Yes, they really do slow down. My Sony Xperia S is unusable at this point. Everything is slow, including networking and mobile data. Very disappointing, honestly.

My ThinkPhone started slowing down noticeably and after trying a few things (including a reinstall from backup) a factory reset and a manual app install pretty much fixed things.

One part I think played into it was it was linked to my Lenovo Thinkpad and things started going south after it was upgraded to Windows 11. That I suspect is a failure to update the Android OS on the ThinkPhone.

 

[dk001]

Not in my experience. I've only used Samsung flagships personally up until S20, and used them for at least 2 years. I think most of the complaints about Android's performance is really the animations. Apple prioritizes animations running their course. If you're doing something intensive or an app is heavier on Android, exiting it for example may have a bit of a low FPS animation. iOS can have delays when something's really intensive, it may take a bit for the iPhone to react to the initial input, but you'll never see lag in the animation. Even if they perform the same, the iPhone has more grace to it.

Good point.
I tend to use dev ops to cut animations way back on my Android devices. Wish I could do the same in iOS. Personal preference; I prefer “snap“ over “swoosh”.

 

[dumastudetto]

My ThinkPhone started slowing down noticeably and after trying a few things (including a reinstall from backup) a factory reset and a manual app install pretty much fixed things.

One part I think played into it was it was linked to my Lenovo Thinkpad and things started going south after it was upgraded to Windows 11. That I suspect is a failure to update the Android OS on the ThinkPhone.

Didn't work for my Sony. I think my experience is the norm for some people.

 

[applepotato666]

Good point.
I tend to use dev ops to cut animations way back on my Android devices. Wish I could do the same in iOS. Personal preference; I prefer “snap“ over “swoosh”.

Yeah, you can "reduce motion" on iOS but not 1.5x them like in the Android developer menu. It works on Android because the animations are linear. iOS' animations are springs with lower mass and velocity based on your swipe, so everything feels a bit airy and floaty. The gentler your swipe is, the gentler the animation is.
I think Xiaomi's new Android fork is supposed to be great with this and they're boasting great animations and response time. My major gripe with Samsung's feel was that it took time to start the animation when you tap an icon on the home screen for example, which made everything be perceived slower than it really was, even though it launched apps faster than the iPhone in many cases. And it's that aspect seemed to get worse with time on Samsung, not the actual processing speed of the device.