Database Users

Which Android Phone do you suggest?

I'm looking to get a new Android phone. I'm currently using an iPhone 4 which I love but would love to play with Froyo. I've previously had the Sprint Hero, European Hero, Nexus 1, and the Droid Incredible... I'm looking to get an Android phone that I can stick with and won't be dissatisfied with and it looks like Froyo will aide in this significantly. I'm looking for a FAST phone with the highest res screen I can find on an droid phone to use with Froyo... Any suggestions?

to itpromike - which android phone ?
dear itpromike
i dont know about Froyo, but so far the best android phone out so far, and that i know of, is the HTC DESIRE. it has really good resolution also. the camera is very sharp and clear. YouTube runs very nicely; 1Ghz processor is just too cool, the fastest in today's phones.
i have had it for 10 days now, and so far no problems with it at all in any area. i think i have tried all the things worth trying, except for music. yeah, sorry that i have not tried yet.
best regards
o2-lover

Thanks for the reply mate. What network is the desire on?

I've had many android phones and I'm currently using the samsung galaxy s. In my opinion it's easily the best handset on the market the now.screen is amazing with the super amoled, and can play divx hd files! And has tv out. I believe it will also receive the froyo update.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Unfortunately I don't think the Galaxy S is here in the states yet... Also I wish it had an option to turn the Samsung skin off so I could have the stock Android look/feel.

Hey
itpromike said:
Unfortunately I don't think the Galaxy S is here in the states yet... Also I wish it had an option to turn the Samsung skin off so I could have the stock Android look/feel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
x2 on galaxy s...its available for preorders tomorrow 15 jul. and also available on wirefly...this phone has a dedicated gpu..some say 4x better gfx processing than the i phone 4..im preordering 1 tomorrow from tmobile...Cheers!!

Don't get a phone with a Snapdragon processor in it. The graphics sucks and will never compare to even the oldest iPhone. Your best bet it in the Droid X or Droid 2 on Verizon. Or one of the 5 Galaxy S phones coming to each of the major providers in the US.
I personally recommend the Sprint Epic 4G. It's a Galaxy S phone with front facing camera, hardware keyboard, and 4G WiMax network. The data plans on Sprint are extremely cheap and cost less than any other provider, even with the required $10 4G data plan.

I recently moved to an HTC Desire from a 3GS and I'm loving it! Given the choice I would go for a Droid X...

I think you need to get your sources straight. I have used all the iPhones up to the 3GS, and the Nexus One's graphic resolution is so far better than any of them. So when you're saying "The graphics sucks and will never compare to even the oldest iPhone", I don't think you have enough experience using smart phones to make such a statement.
arashed31 said:
Don't get a phone with a Snapdragon processor in it. The graphics sucks and will never compare to even the oldest iPhone. Your best bet it in the Droid X or Droid 2 on Verizon. Or one of the 5 Galaxy S phones coming to each of the major providers in the US.
I personally recommend the Sprint Epic 4G. It's a Galaxy S phone with front facing camera, hardware keyboard, and 4G WiMax network. The data plans on Sprint are extremely cheap and cost less than any other provider, even with the required $10 4G data plan.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I would take Desire, if i didn't take Legend a month ago

conankun said:
I think you need to get your sources straight. I have used all the iPhones up to the 3GS, and the Nexus One's graphic resolution is so far better than any of them. So when you're saying "The graphics sucks and will never compare to even the oldest iPhone", I don't think you have enough experience using smart phones to make such a statement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a difference between resolution on websites, text, and video than there are on games. I had a Nexus one, when I had it there were NO games on the Android Market that matched the visual quality of the iPhone games. Prince of Persia, Assassins Creed, Street Fighter 4, Archetype, hell even Field Runners are all games that I haven't seen matched in the Android Market yet. Keep in mind, I've had Sprint Hero, Euro Hero, Nexus One, and an Incredible... so I know what I'm talking about. By the very technical nature of the hardware, the iPhone having a really good dedicated GPU (by mobile standards) it would impossible for a non dedicated GPU solution to match it.
My concern now is if I get the Droid X, or one of the Galaxy Phones that have a dedicated GPU, will developers make a variety of games to use these dedicated GPU's seeing as the majority of Android phones do not have one... Will developers risk the money spent in time and development for the minority of phones. AND if they do, how do I go about finding these on the Android market?
I wish Google would make a section for specific phones that applications or games might be optimized for or some way to tell what hardware a game was optimized for.
Lastly another consideration for my decision is how long I will have to wait to get 2.2 on my phone. I'd take a slightly less good phone if it means there is 6 months I have less to wait on getting 2.2. The whole reason I'm getting an Android phone again anyway is for 2.2, 2.1 wasn't that great to me.
I really appreciate all the answers guys, it's got me thinking. So far I'm thinking about the Droid X, or Samsung Galaxy (or whatever each carrier calls it)...
I thought about the Desire but does anyone know if it has a dedicated GPU?

Another for the galaxy s,
The display is amazing, doesn't suffer from the subpixel issues of earlier amoled's, very vibrant and a nice size.
Very nice cpu and gpu combo.
And getting froyo in august according to a rep I spoke to when I bought mine.
Though, I don't think you'll be disappointed with any handset you get.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

I agree with o2-lovers, also because i have a Desire
However is a good phone, fabulous screen, good cpu...
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Droid x is digitally signed... so if you like root, good luck... I'm waiting for Verizon's new HTC... lord knows when or what that will be but they have to out do the evo... right? Just my thoughts
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

Desire uses the snapdragon, which includes an adreno gpu as part of the SoC. It is not independantly clockable.
If you really want to "play" with android, you should stick with your n1. Hardware-wise it is still basically tied for first with a bunch of new phones, and you can count on the fact that new android developments (including official Google releases like gingerbread) will happen for the n1 first.
A strong argument can be made for the n1 being the best phone in the world, still.
Don't get a droidx. They aren't as nasty as people think but it will be a while before it is rooted and there's no guarantee that its hardware will be supported by the devs quickly.
Galaxy S phones will be nice, with very good gpus and technically superior screens to the n1. You wont, however, really notice a difference in the screens, and Samsung phones are not likely to be hot modding tickets, at least here on xda. The better performance in numbers wont translate to the performance gains by software modding to the n1 by a long shot, either.
Also don't get a desire. Its the exact same hardware as the n1 (trackball vs. optical sensor, a non-issue really, and the camera res although the nexus's smaller photos have been tested to look much better despite that) except for the desire running sense, which is slow and awful. If you happen to like sense, hell, you can put it on your n1.
Just saying man. Never liked a phone as much as my nexus. Good luck on the hunt.
P.s. because I have my nexus, I have been running 2.2 (stock, then CyanogenMod 6) for a while. Love it. Don't expect to see 2.2 on anything else officially until fall.

I suggest the Galaxy S as well
currently the best screen out on the market in any device, iPhone 4's screen has slightly higher resolution but, colors will will definitely make the galaxy's screen more vibrant and 'alive'
the hummingbird processor in the galaxy is the fastest and most powerful cpu available in any phone right now, the GPU, is built into the cpu, its not separate, therefore games are easily able to run on this phone, you just...need a game that would be able to put it to the test.
currently so far as i know, quake 3 is the most graphics intensive game for android, and that's a cakewalk for the galaxy
as far as the touchwiz skin, i like it lol, keeps me away from a lot of android's flaws
but no froyo on it yet, samsung has confirmed it's release soon though

who has 1GHZ cpu
i think the phone who has 1GHZ cpu
because android 3.0 minimum requirrement
so if u want to use this platform one day i think must have this phone

Get a classic bad boy like the NEXUS ONE!

to itpromike - resolution ; graphics ; android and iphone
itpromike said:
There is a difference between resolution on websites, text, and video than there are on games. I had a Nexus one, when I had it there were NO games on the Android Market that matched the visual quality of the iPhone games. Prince of Persia, Assassins Creed, Street Fighter 4, Archetype, hell even Field Runners are all games that I haven't seen matched in the Android Market yet. Keep in mind, I've had Sprint Hero, Euro Hero, Nexus One, and an Incredible... so I know what I'm talking about. By the very technical nature of the hardware, the iPhone having a really good dedicated GPU (by mobile standards) it would impossible for a non dedicated GPU solution to match it.
My concern now is if I get the Droid X, or one of the Galaxy Phones that have a dedicated GPU, will developers make a variety of games to use these dedicated GPU's seeing as the majority of Android phones do not have one... Will developers risk the money spent in time and development for the minority of phones. AND if they do, how do I go about finding these on the Android market?
I wish Google would make a section for specific phones that applications or games might be optimized for or some way to tell what hardware a game was optimized for.
Lastly another consideration for my decision is how long I will have to wait to get 2.2 on my phone. I'd take a slightly less good phone if it means there is 6 months I have less to wait on getting 2.2. The whole reason I'm getting an Android phone again anyway is for 2.2, 2.1 wasn't that great to me.
I really appreciate all the answers guys, it's got me thinking. So far I'm thinking about the Droid X, or Samsung Galaxy (or whatever each carrier calls it)...
I thought about the Desire but does anyone know if it has a dedicated GPU?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi guys. i dont know how much high graphics quality you need, but Desire works well for me in all areas that i use it for, including sharp quality images of camera.
PLUS IPHONE has compatiblity issues with other brands and a number of limitations which Android and Desire do not have.
SNAPDRAGON processor works beautifully and i just love the speeds.
with all due respect, APPLE has been in the world for a long time, with its ups and downs. Google has recently entered into the operating system sector, maybe 3 or 4 years, if i am not wrong. So, you need to be patient and give them time to come up to your expectations.
if Steve Jobs had not been recalled to Apple, it was gone. it was on the verge of bankruptcy, you know.
as for android and gpu, best is to read different articles and send your suggestions to the android people, rather than criticise them.
best regards
o2-lover

Go for Galasy S, one of the best Android phone i have in my hands

SGSII My thoughts on this Phone and Android

I've had the SGSII for about a week now after moving from a Nexus One running CM7, and wow I am impressed.
I know that in the grand scheme of things it's an incremental upgrade - the main reason I left it a while to move - however the SGII has in my view made a significant leap.
The main thing is that the UI is now as smooth and as refined as the iOS devices. I don't know what Samsung did that nobody else in the Android market has managed, but they've finally managed to make things as smooth as the iPhone.
I finally get that delicious feeling of having the UI elements "stick" to my finger as I move them around, rather than chase behind.
While we all know this is a superficial thing and adds little to the actual functionality, I believe this has finally closed the gap in terms of delight in using the device. I hate to use the sickening Apple term, but surely the average user will find just as much "magic" in using the SGSII as any iOS device.
Web browsing is now super smooth (hardware accelerated?) as are the home screens. Going back to my N1 I really feel the difference.
The SGSII is even more buttery smooth than my Asus Transformer running honeycomb.
Hopefully whatever Samsung have done, whether it be related to the chips in the phone or software tweaks, will be copied by all Android devices, and we can put the nagging sense of UI inferiority behind us (and I know the lack of smoothness bugged you no matter how hard you denied it).
Let's hope Android has put stuttering and lagging behind it forever. Well done Samsung.
P.S.
I haven't used the HTC Sensation so I don't know if they too have achieved this, but this is based on my observations of the hardware at my disposal.

About the same as my view of the phone thats why i find it hard to understand the this is a crap phone posts can i have sense on it is their an IOS4 rom for it etc . A if i thought the phone was crap i would have returned it B if i wanted sense i would have bought sense phone .
But yes with Android customers have choice across a broad range of phones and that is why its winning the sales drive .
Looking forward to more Android improvements as this is only really year two of development .
jje

Dont get your point.
I find the IP4 laggy compared to the SGS2 . The i9100 is by far smoother in my opinion

I haven't used or seen a better smartphone. My sgs2 is borderline biblical!

austinchimp said:
The main thing is that the UI is now as smooth and as refined as the iOS devices. I don't know what Samsung did that nobody else in the Android market has managed, but they've finally managed to make things as smooth as the iPhone.
I finally get that delicious feeling of having the UI elements "stick" to my finger as I move them around, rather than chase behind.
While we all know this is a superficial thing and adds little to the actual functionality, I believe this has finally closed the gap in terms of delight in using the device. I hate to use the sickening Apple term, but surely the average user will find just as much "magic" in using the SGSII as any iOS device.
Web browsing is now super smooth (hardware accelerated?) as are the home screens. Going back to my N1 I really feel the difference.
The SGSII is even more buttery smooth than my Asus Transformer running honeycomb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
u could not have said it any better
what u explained is the MAIN reason i bought this phone
there is no " lag " its just wonderful
what would make this phone perfect is a ROM based of AOSP
which im still waiting for team hacksung to finish its version of CM7

austinchimp said:
The main thing is that the UI is now as smooth and as refined as the iOS devices. I don't know what Samsung did that nobody else in the Android market has managed, but they've finally managed to make things as smooth as the iPhone.
Web browsing is now super smooth (hardware accelerated?) as are the home screens. Going back to my N1 I really feel the difference.
The SGSII is even more buttery smooth than my Asus Transformer running honeycomb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
samsung has hardware accelerated many parts of the UI. the web browser for example is hardware accelerated, as well as a few other places.
this is why i blast google. they should have been using hardware acceleration from day 1 to give the same smooth UI experience as the iphone. the SGS2 is not doing anything special, its not the dual core making it so smooth. its simply because samsung took the time to optimize the SGS2 with graphics chip, rather than putting the burden on the CPU 100% of the time.
the nexus one would be just as smooth. look at WP7 devices. they all use the same hardware as the n1, but use hardware acceleration and proper drivers, and are the smoothest devices in the world right now.

Well that was my point - How come it's taken so long, and a few generations of Android devices for this to be done? I honestly didn't think it was possible for an Android 2.3 device to be so smooth, I thought there was something fundamental in the architecture that was going to always mean a little lag.
I'd given up any of this generation of Android phones achieving true smooth motion, and here Samsung have done it without this development even being publicised that much.
I totally agree Android should have been like this - it just blows my mind that it's taken so long, and I can see no excuse for any top tier device from any other manufacturer not to match what Samsung have done.
Also, if it is just a case of tuning the software, why haven't/didn't Samsung do it with the SGS I ?

The "this is a crap phone" posts probably mostly come from people who don't own this. ...I know that might sound a little odd but trust me, even in Android communities there are fan-boys, and some actually go that far...

yup. time to throw my htc legend. i play the pinball game. the ball look like teleporting...
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App

I went from a Nexus One to an iPhone 4, and then to this amazing device. All I have to say is that its been the best experience yet. I actually had lag on my iPhone 4... And very little to none on the SG2. I agree that most people bashing this phone probably don't even own one. I'll definitely be buying an SGS3. Goodbye HTC and to their ****ty voice/speaker quality and locked bootloaders. And hello Samsung.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

Its hard to understand why people love this device soo much unless you actually ownit. This phone seems to give the feeling that android should have been this fluid from the beginning. There is no device (including the sensation) that operates as smoothly as the sgs2. I love this phone.

gstar_raw said:
I went from a Nexus One to an iPhone 4, and then to this amazing device. All I have to say is that its been the best experience yet. I actually had lag on my iPhone 4... And very little to none on the SG2. I agree that most people bashing this phone probably don't even own one. I'll definitely be buying an SGS3. Goodbye HTC and to their ****ty voice/speaker quality and locked bootloaders. And hello Samsung.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GS3! Wow...the rumours, are TOO GOOD. Anything Apple pull out of the bag, even next year would simple pale in comparison to the GS3.

Posts like these makes me anxious to get mine. Still waiting on UPS!
If Samsung did some hardware/driver acceleration magic, I wonder if CM7 and the other AOSP ROM project will be able to take advantage of this as well. I don't want the stock ROM to be the only super smooth and slick ROM available.

austinchimp said:
Well that was my point - How come it's taken so long, and a few generations of Android devices for this to be done? I honestly didn't think it was possible for an Android 2.3 device to be so smooth, I thought there was something fundamental in the architecture that was going to always mean a little lag.
I'd given up any of this generation of Android phones achieving true smooth motion, and here Samsung have done it without this development even being publicised that much.
I totally agree Android should have been like this - it just blows my mind that it's taken so long, and I can see no excuse for any top tier device from any other manufacturer not to match what Samsung have done.
Also, if it is just a case of tuning the software, why haven't/didn't Samsung do it with the SGS I ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it hasnt taken too long. the original galaxy s also had hardware acceleration in the browser for example. only the international version, but it was lightening fast and smooth as butter. it only is because samsung took the initiative and did a custom job. google certainly hasnt implemented it yet, and in ice cream sandwich they claim it will come.
i'm right there with you, manufacturers should have been pushing for a UI experience that matches apple's.

since the op is sharing thoughts about the device, i'll share mine too. i FINALLY received it in the mail today. opened the box, the device is bigger than it looks in the online review (coming from a nexus s 4g). the thin factor is impressive, but not as impressive as i was expecting. the smoothness is there as expected, but the "S" boot image is freakishly laggy--no big deal.
camera-really good
screen-what can i say? super amoled plus looks great,
hardware finish/quality-pretty good...but i prefer the smooth back over the textured back--no big deal
touchwiz 4.0-hmm, this is tough, i need to play with it some more. samsung obviously put a lot to this UI, but so far it doesnt seem as refined as other skins...for example, the default lock screen is kind of laggy, and is a pain sometimes to fully move the lockscreen so that it unlocks. numerical battery percentage would be nice without having to go into settings...other than these minor gripes, i love the touchwiz widgets.
obviously samsung has really tried to outdo itself and competitors, and the sgs II is perhaps the best android phone out there. but as of right now, it doesn't really give me that "wow" factor despite all its features. but i've only had it for one day and haven't gotten to test out the dual core, dlna, and other features.

For those that used it how laggy is it?

Just bought the Xperia Z and it is VERYYY Laggy. especially the transition animation. So considering that this phone uses the the same GPU i can expect similar performance then?

Trying it out in-store I found it juddered a bit scrolling in Polaris Office. Otherwise it seemed very smooth. But then again I found the XZ smooth too.

Isn't the Z on S4 pro?

itsmemuffins said:
Isn't the Z on S4 pro?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is. Faster CPU but same GPU.
M.

itsmemuffins said:
Isn't the Z on S4 pro?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but they share the same GPU.

any lag will be casued by the sony skin software. the GPU is completely capable.
The nexus 4 using pure android never lags or stutters and is always buttery smooth. even my old galaxy nexus was soother than say a galaxy s3.

I know exactly what you are talking about, had Z for 2 days and was very disappointed. I agree that lags are caused by poor optimization done by sony, expecially sony's own launcher. After I switched to Nova Launcher, things were a lot better.

mark99uk said:
any lag will be casued by the sony skin software. the GPU is completely capable.
The nexus 4 using pure android never lags or stutters and is always buttery smooth. even my old galaxy nexus was soother than say a galaxy s3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know about yours, but I don't think mine is 100% buttery smooth. Minimum apps installed (maybe like 6-7?) and widgets on home screen, but scrolling through apps/widgets drawer still seems a "little" bit from perfect.

do u mean when scrolling in the app draw and noticing a quick jitter as you scroll from the final page of apps to the first widget page?
if so, i get that, that i accostum to being a coding glitch simply because everything else is completely smooth. I had the same on my galaxy nexus too.

mark99uk said:
any lag will be casued by the sony skin software. the GPU is completely capable.
The nexus 4 using pure android never lags or stutters and is always buttery smooth. even my old galaxy nexus was soother than say a galaxy s3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nexus 4 is 720 p whereas these phones are 1080p which has to push more than twice the amount of pixels.

zcui said:
I know exactly what you are talking about, had Z for 2 days and was very disappointed. I agree that lags are caused by poor optimization done by sony, expecially sony's own launcher. After I switched to Nova Launcher, things were a lot better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not for me dude its maybe like 20% better? Still terrible and im hoping this phone would be better.

The stutterings are due to the skin optimization by the OEM eg. Sony here....Dont know about htcone but mostof the video and hands on have shown there is no lag.
Apart from that i would like to state that why is android (or OEM skins) still laggy? I mean we are on quads and octa cores, capable gpu and 2gb of ram...And yet its not as smooth as a windows or ios? And i dont want to hear the usual 'android does more multi tasking and widgets' discussion. Seriously how much more power u want?
I am saying this bcoz its sad to hear a fellow xda saying how dissapointed he was to get a brand new phone (for which he must be so excited) and then the lag puts him off.

Fasty12 said:
Just bought the Xperia Z and it is VERYYY Laggy. especially the transition animation. So considering that this phone uses the the same GPU i can expect similar performance then?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Different CPU do help in different performance even though both same GPU. I was suprise when seen people mention Xperia Z was lagging, I seen everywhere people mention it. I never own any Sony (/SE) android phone as it always never meet my requirement in certain part especially the screen. But I am really surprise Xperia Z could lag! HTC Butterfly was completely same CPU + GPU, I test it before, it run perfectly smooth.
Xperia Z - Snapdragon S4 Pro
One - Snapdragon S600

sigh
ethan3686 said:
The stutterings are due to the skin optimization by the OEM eg. Sony here....Dont know about htcone but mostof the video and hands on have shown there is no lag.
Apart from that i would like to state that why is android (or OEM skins) still laggy? I mean we are on quads and octa cores, capable gpu and 2gb of ram...And yet its not as smooth as a windows or ios? And i dont want to hear the usual 'android does more multi tasking and widgets' discussion. Seriously how much more power u want?
I am saying this bcoz its sad to hear a fellow xda saying how dissapointed he was to get a brand new phone (for which he must be so excited) and then the lag puts him off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea man im gutted welp guess the gs4 with its octa cpu have a chance.

used the htc one in store and it didnt lag a bit, even through blinkfeed which i would imagine is one of the most heavy of applications.
Hopefully the sony is just a bit of poorly written software and either sony or the devs can fix.
Still i think it will make a lot of peoples choice between the sony and htc very easy!

I had a play around with the Z a couple of weeks ago in a 3 store and found the pinch and zoom gestures very how can I say intermittent to say the least, it was fine scrolling left and right but any gestures took at least 2 or 3 attempts and on a flagship phone that is totally crap.
Best bet like another poster said is to put on a 3rd party launcher until sony fix the issue.

ethan3686 said:
The stutterings are due to the skin optimization by the OEM eg. Sony here....Dont know about htcone but mostof the video and hands on have shown there is no lag.
Apart from that i would like to state that why is android (or OEM skins) still laggy? I mean we are on quads and octa cores, capable gpu and 2gb of ram...And yet its not as smooth as a windows or ios? And i dont want to hear the usual 'android does more multi tasking and widgets' discussion. Seriously how much more power u want?
I am saying this bcoz its sad to hear a fellow xda saying how dissapointed he was to get a brand new phone (for which he must be so excited) and then the lag puts him off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 mate, really have no idea what the folks are doing at Google...
Stock android on my s3 lags when I have a few things running...seriously these CPUs are starting to reach speeds of my desktop PC....and I wonder why I can't make a day without recharging lol
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

My gs3 lag with touchwiz i use temask rom now, its very good. Because of this i Dont buy the gs4. I give a chance tô HTC.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

daoutlawz said:
+1 mate, really have no idea what the folks are doing at Google...
Stock android on my s3 lags when I have a few things running...seriously these CPUs are starting to reach speeds of my desktop PC....and I wonder why I can't make a day without recharging lol
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because you have a horrible exynos SoC in your phone, which is all but impossible to dev for. This is the fault of Samsung alone...
M.

Fasty12 said:
Just bought the Xperia Z and it is VERYYY Laggy. especially the transition animation. So considering that this phone uses the the same GPU i can expect similar performance then?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC One X with Tegra 3 and stock JB firmware, UI is locked 60fps
Droid DNA with Snapdragon 4 pro and stock JB firmware, UI is locked 60fps
HTC One is using a faster version of the DNA and Z processors, same but more optimized GPU and much lighter Sense UI, all reviewers noted the UI is liquid smooth and brisk
Since JB HTC's UI has been locked 60fps in 90% of the OS areas, they've implemented google's project butter in full fashion

Galaxy S4 laggy?

I was watching some hands on videos of the S4 and was pretty disappointed to see that the interface is laggy in some areas and overall less than perfectly smooth. There's absolutely no excuse for it considering how powerful the hardware is, and shows that Samsung's priorities are all wrong (throwing in a hundred random new features but neglecting the basics of the user experience). But I've seen some comments saying those were just pre-production units. Is that just a fanboy excuse or can we really expect to see a major improvement in smoothness by launch? Is there lag on the Galaxy S3 for anyone who's owned one? UI lag is my biggest pet peeve, and that alone is making me consider the HTC One for the first time despite the S4 beating it in almost everything else.

I have noticed in some S3 vs HTC One videos, that the S3 took considerably longer time to show the homescreen when leaving an app by pressing the home button. In some videos I think I might have seen the same thing on the S4. Maybe it's TouchWiz, maybe it's just that the device is not final or so many other apps were open in the background.

Wait for reviews of final hardware.
Sent from my ARCHOS 80 COBALT using xda premium

Samsungs Launcher software was always a master on being laggy. Especially at the first releases. But after a few updates this lags flew out.
It will be the same on the S4.

Every hands on I've seen so far seems fine to me. If there is any 'lag' going to homescreen, it's because of Touchwiz waiting for that hold or double press for voice control. (Can't remember which it is.)

snapple232 said:
I was watching some hands on videos of the S4 and was pretty disappointed to see that the interface is laggy in some areas and overall less than perfectly smooth. There's absolutely no excuse for it considering how powerful the hardware is, and shows that Samsung's priorities are all wrong (throwing in a hundred random new features but neglecting the basics of the user experience). But I've seen some comments saying those were just pre-production units. Is that just a fanboy excuse or can we really expect to see a major improvement in smoothness by launch? Is there lag on the Galaxy S3 for anyone who's owned one? UI lag is my biggest pet peeve, and that alone is making me consider the HTC One for the first time despite the S4 beating it in almost everything else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bad software to blame.
An octa-core has no excuse.

Livebyte said:
Bad software to blame.
An octa-core has no excuse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Beta software to blame.

BoneXDA said:
Beta software to blame.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1

my note 2 is lag free so there's absolutely no reason for the gs4 to lag with either cpu

Baldilocks said:
Every hands on I've seen so far seems fine to me. If there is any 'lag' going to homescreen, it's because of Touchwiz waiting for that hold or double press for voice control. (Can't remember which it is.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the reason, that's why the S Voice double press option gets disabled straight away
Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk 2

BoneXDA said:
Beta software to blame.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. Thank God there are still smart people around. Its because it is beta and not final software. Samsung phones are the most fluid phones out there besides the nexus line ( jelly bean era). The S3 had many Jelly bean leaks ( 10 or more) just 2 weeks before the final version was released. The first leak was very laggy, by the 3rd it was starting to be ok, by the 7th or 8th you could feel project butter. The S IV is shipping in a month so whatever lag there is, it will probably be gone.

Samsung's fanboys wont admit it , but the SGS2/3/Note1/2/10.1 lag out of the box.
Just walk in a Staples or a BB and try a Note 10.1. It is extremely laggy.
You need to disable all the crapwares/bloatwares if you want to feel this tablet runs like an iPad.
I never understood why Samsung let their demos(out of the box devices) be so unpleasant to use.
Some are saying Google cant live without Samsung but I say a Motorola Google X available with all the carriers would remove Samsung from the number one Android phones.
Samsung need to be bumped asap

Bagbug said:
Samsung's fanboys wont admit it , but the SGS2/3/Note1/2/10.1 lag out of the box.
Just walk in a Staples or a BB and try a Note 10.1. It is extremely laggy.
You need to disable all the crapwares/bloatwares if you want to feel this tablet runs like an iPad.
I never understood why Samsung let their demos(out of the box devices) be so unpleasant to use.
Some are saying Google cant live without Samsung but I say a Motorola Google X available with all the carriers would remove Samsung from the number one Android phones.
Samsung need to be bumped asap
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There hasn't been a good Motorola phone since the original RAZR.

It is very laggy with smart stay and smart scroll turned on. Turn them off and it is much improved.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium

snapple232 said:
I was watching some hands on videos of the S4 and was pretty disappointed to see that the interface is laggy in some areas and overall less than perfectly smooth. There's absolutely no excuse for it considering how powerful the hardware is, and shows that Samsung's priorities are all wrong (throwing in a hundred random new features but neglecting the basics of the user experience). But I've seen some comments saying those were just pre-production units. Is that just a fanboy excuse or can we really expect to see a major improvement in smoothness by launch? Is there lag on the Galaxy S3 for anyone who's owned one? UI lag is my biggest pet peeve, and that alone is making me consider the HTC One for the first time despite the S4 beating it in almost everything else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't judge till we saw a final production model.
Closed Source Project said:
I have noticed in some S3 vs HTC One videos, that the S3 took considerably longer time to show the homescreen when leaving an app by pressing the home button. In some videos I think I might have seen the same thing on the S4. Maybe it's TouchWiz, maybe it's just that the device is not final or so many other apps were open in the background.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course it's going to lag when you hit home. You have to deactivate S Voice double tap home launch. The SGS4 is going to wait a split second or 2 to see if you hit home again to launch S Voice. Deactivate that and it would have just went home.
I did notice a little bit of lag when the phones were being demoed, but quite honestly these are pre-release models. It could be as simple as the phone not killing its tasks after it opens up 7 or 10 apps. What if the person before opened up a few browsers, the camera, gallery, flipboard, a game, etc?
Again, I'll judge when the thing actually comes out or when GSM Arena gets a hold of a final production model.

Bagbug said:
Samsung's fanboys wont admit it , but the SGS2/3/Note1/2/10.1 lag out of the box.
Just walk in a Staples or a BB and try a Note 10.1. It is extremely laggy.
You need to disable all the crapwares/bloatwares if you want to feel this tablet runs like an iPad.
I never understood why Samsung let their demos(out of the box devices) be so unpleasant to use.
Some are saying Google cant live without Samsung but I say a Motorola Google X available with all the carriers would remove Samsung from the number one Android phones.
Samsung need to be bumped asap
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Listen to this guy lol. Note 2, s3,s2 do not lag out of the box, note 1 yes when it didnt have jelly bean, dont know now. Dont know aqbout note 10.1 either. You speak like a hater, keep on hating

barondebxl said:
Listen to this guy lol. Note 2, s3,s2 do not lag out of the box, note 1 yes when it didnt have jelly bean, dont know now. Dont know aqbout note 10.1 either. You speak like a hater, keep on hating
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Jelly Bean update that samsung gave to the galaxy note 1 is probably the worst update I have seen. It is buggy, slow and laggy! Even after removing all the bloat taking it down to 236MB it is still laggy and slow. This is one of the reasons why I am not going to go with any sammy device, poor support and bad optimisation hardware-software wise

XxPixX said:
The Jelly Bean update that samsung gave to the galaxy note 1 is probably the worst update I have seen. It is buggy, slow and laggy! Even after removing all the bloat taking it down to 236MB it is still laggy and slow. This is one of the reasons why I am not going to go with any sammy device, poor support and bad optimisation hardware-software wise
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah i'm not sure about the note1, i had early 2012 when it had ICS. But i had the S3 and note 2, both were fast and fluid with little to no lag at all, especially the note 2 thanks to the 2 gigs or Ram.

I play a lot Samsung and own some of it.
Samsung Lagging phone/tablet
- Note
- Tab 10.1 (This one is pure rubbish)
Samsung not so smooth interface
- S II ( franky said that only 4.1.2 france ROM with S III interface run quite well here.. hmm)
- S III International Edition (it actually quite nice now using XperianZe ROM, means latest touchwiz to blame not really capable for 1GB device)
- Note 10.1
Samsung with well acceptable interface smoothness, not smooth interface (some sort like cut frame) was keep to extreme minimal
- S III LTE edition
- Note II
- Nexus 10
Base on above, and current spec, I believe in final, S 4 will running smooth on it interface.

dlutz8 said:
It is very laggy with smart stay and smart scroll turned on. Turn them off and it is much improved.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so whats the reason then for them to exist? if they make the phone laggy? asked no-one in samsung apperently...

¿Why ios on (5s) is smoother and faster than android on my s4 wich has better hw?

So if Ios Iphone 5s has a dual core a7 proccesor , and the i9500 has a quad cores proccessors at higger frecuency , also more Ram .
why iphone is still faster and smoother opening apps, movies, and basically lagless on UI experience?
i don't get it . if i have stronger hardware my phone should be faster than a crappy dual core

The thread priority is different on iOS. UI is first priority and therefore if you touch the screen , app download, install or loading of Web pages will temporally freeze until you lift your finger off the screen (Tested on my iPad). and therefore the device's full processing power is targeted towards ui rendering instead unlike android which would let all of those processes run at the same time.
iOS only releases for a couple of devices ONLY running similar hardware. although android is generally optimised for snapdragon based SOCs since 2.2 with the just - in time compiler, Google cannot optimised android just for this particular chip because it will break compatibility with other ARM or x84 based SOCs. With the being said, it runs on rather generic drivers and apps are coded for that so it android has weaker software/hardware integration which leads to inefficiencies such as using more CPU cycles to processing zillion more code to ensure compadibility and therefore also consumes more ram.
finally I think apps running on a java emulator also has a negative affect on stutter, load times and to some extent lag we see on apps containing a lot of information. Hopefully 4.4 kitkat with android ART will resolve this (only works on snapdragon as of now)
Sent from my GT-I9505 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

re: iphone vs android
leboreiro said:
So if Ios Iphone 5s has a dual core a7 proccesor , and the i9500 has a quad cores proccessors at higger frecuency , also more Ram .
why iphone is still faster and smoother opening apps, movies, and basically lagless on UI experience?
i don't get it . if i have stronger hardware my phone should be faster than a crappy dual core
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not technical enough to know a whole lot about iPhone/IOS and so on, but I can give you an
example so you will better understand why iPhone 5 seems to be so much faster and snappier than
any android phones are at the present time.
iPhone 5 does not have hundreds of different theming options or settings to change what the default
screens look like, IOS does not have launchers which also has hundreds of settings for all the themes,
icons, backgrounds, colors and widgets to change and to choose from.
If our SGS4 phones did not have all those features, options and user selectable modifications in it then
our S4 phones would be just as fast and snappy as the IOS iPhone 5.
We have a lot more over-head with all these basically "eye candy" user selectable features and options
in themes, icons, colors and even sizes when we navigate through are phone's screens & opening/closing
apps so naturally it will be noticeably slower and less responsive in almost all aspects.
The differences between iphone 5's and android's processor's speeds are insignificant as far as which phone
is faster and snappier when going thru the screens, opening or closing apps and doing most anything else
while using the two phones because one has a lot of over-head and the other hardly has any at all.
Here is an example, take two healthy men who are both equal in age, weight and height then
strap a 20 pound bag of potatoes on one of the men's backs and see which one can run faster,
run further, jump higher and do more push-ups.. LOL
Wish I could think of a better example but I can't!

MrAndroid12 said:
The thread priority is different on iOS. UI is first priority and therefore if you touch the screen , app download, install or loading of Web pages will temporally freeze until you lift your finger off the screen (Tested on my iPad). and therefore the device's full processing power is targeted towards ui rendering instead unlike android which would let all of those processes run at the same time.
iOS only releases for a couple of devices ONLY running similar hardware. although android is generally optimised for snapdragon based SOCs since 2.2 with the just - in time compiler, Google cannot optimised android just for this particular chip because it will break compatibility with other ARM or x84 based SOCs. With the being said, it runs on rather generic drivers and apps are coded for that so it android has weaker software/hardware integration which leads to inefficiencies such as using more CPU cycles to processing zillion more code to ensure compadibility and therefore also consumes more ram.
finally I think apps running on a java emulator also has a negative affect on stutter, load times and to some extent lag we see on apps containing a lot of information. Hopefully 4.4 kitkat with android ART will resolve this (only works on snapdragon as of now)
Sent from my GT-I9505 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Misterjunky said:
I am not technical enough to know a whole lot about iPhone/IOS and so on, but I can give you an
example so you will better understand why iPhone 5 seems to be so much faster and snappier than
any android phones are at the present time.
iPhone 5 does not have hundreds of different theming options or settings to change what the default
screens look like, IOS does not have launchers which also has hundreds of settings for all the themes,
icons, backgrounds, colors and widgets to change and to choose from.
If our SGS4 phones did not have all those features, options and user selectable modifications in it then
our S4 phones would be just as fast and snappy as the IOS iPhone 5.
We have a lot more over-head with all these basically "eye candy" user selectable features and options
in themes, icons, colors and even sizes when we navigate through are phone's screens & opening/closing
apps so naturally it will be noticeably slower and less responsive in almost all aspects.
The differences between iphone 5's and android's processor's speeds are insignificant as far as which phone
is faster and snappier when going thru the screens, opening or closing apps and doing most anything else
while using the two phones because one has a lot of over-head and the other hardly has any at all.
Here is an example, take two healthy men who are both equal in age, weight and height then
strap a 20 pound bag of potatoes on one of the men's backs and see which one can run faster,
run further, jump higher and do more push-ups.. LOL
Wish I could think of a better example but I can't!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im so Agree with both of you guys. They way you explained it is just perfect. I wasn't seeing the otherside of the quarter.
This means and will lead me to buy a snapdragon phone next time. Seems like snapdragon variants of S4's are basically smoother or will be when 4.4 is finally out. although ive seen on youtube that there is not too much differences (talking about UI experience) beetween 9505 and 9500 .. but prolly will on the next samsung galaxy s5 .. so snapdragon for the next time instead of exynos.
thankyou so much guys , i will share this thread to whoever has the same question.

I never heard of iOS virus !
Must tell iOS really a neat operation system specially a jailbroken one
Sent from dish washer