Database Users

Samsung Galaxy Note - Performance Not Up to Scratch

I've had my Samsung Note for the last month and whilst I'm happy with it I cannot help but grumble about it's speed/response even when used on different launchers...
Though it runs ok it can be slow from time to time especially when suddenly unlocking it and opening your contacts or messages. This results in a few second delay.
Also when scrolling up/down through contacts/settings menu it's jerky, not smooth.
When comparing it to my Sony Ericsson Xperia Play which has a single core 1GHz cpu & 512Mb of ram it is miles faster and 100% smooth in every possible way compared to my Note. You'd expect the Note to be faster than The Sony Ericsson Xperia.
Why is a much lower spec phone much faster & smoother than my Note?

kanej2006 said:
I've had my Samsung Note for the last month and whilst I'm happy with it I cannot help but grumble about it's speed/response even when used on different launchers...
Though it runs ok it can be slow from time to time especially when suddenly unlocking it and opening your contacts or messages. This results in a few second delay.
Also when scrolling up/down through contacts/settings menu it's jerky, not smooth.
When comparing it to my Sony Ericsson Xperia Play which has a single core 1GHz cpu & 512Mb of ram it is miles faster and 100% smooth in every possible way compared to my Note. You'd expect the Note to be faster than The Sony Ericsson Xperia.
Why is a much lower spec phone much faster & smoother than my Note?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might think on that the Note has almost three times the pixelamount to shuffle around compared to a SE Play

easycure1974 said:
You might think on that the Note has almost three times the pixelamount to shuffle around compared to a SE Play
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true but then why make an underpowered phone which then results in lag & sluggishness?
Samsung should of increased the ram & cpu to solve this issue...
I know the SE has far less pixelmounts to shuffle but it's still bad considering a phone having just 512mb ram and a single core 1GHz processor destroy a phone having almost double the ram & a dual core processor.
I would of least expected it to be of a similar speed but it's lagging far behind.
The ONLY areas in which My Samsung Note beats my SE in tems of speed are:
Internet/browsing
Going through photos/zooming in/out
Aside from these 2 points the Note is far slower in every possible way. I hope the upcoming icecream sandwich can solve these issues...
I've seen several people running the proper official version of ice cream sandwich as standard on their Samsung Galaxy Nexus and their saying it's a HUGE & NOTICABLE difference compared to the previous version of Android.
I hope the same can be said when the Note gets it's upgrade!

kanej2006 said:
I've had my Samsung Note for the last month and whilst I'm happy with it I cannot help but grumble about it's speed/response even when used on different launchers...
Though it runs ok it can be slow from time to time especially when suddenly unlocking it and opening your contacts or messages. This results in a few second delay.
Also when scrolling up/down through contacts/settings menu it's jerky, not smooth.
When comparing it to my Sony Ericsson Xperia Play which has a single core 1GHz cpu & 512Mb of ram it is miles faster and 100% smooth in every possible way compared to my Note. You'd expect the Note to be faster than The Sony Ericsson Xperia.
Why is a much lower spec phone much faster & smoother than my Note?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This sounds like an individual problem. For if the Note was faulty as described then it would have been noticed by the 80% in the poll here who like me think the note is pretty perfect.

easycure1974 said:
You might think on that the Note has almost three times the pixelamount to shuffle around compared to a SE Play
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that is not an answer........note also has dual core prossesor wid more speed and double ram.....so whatever may b d reason, it should not b slow or laggy.....
Reason is not pixel or hardware, its software......
Gingerbread is not optimised for this, it is not utilising the power of note fully. just wait for ICS to come

katyarevishal said:
that is not an answer........note also has dual core prossesor wid more speed and double ram.....so whatever may b d reason, it should not b slow or laggy.....
Reason is not pixel or hardware, its software......
Gingerbread is not optimised for this, it is not utilising the power of note fully. just wait for ICS to come
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course it has do with the pixels also. My SGS II was way smoother than the Note even though it has been better with KL7 rom. And the difference between them is that the Note has three times more pixels wich the higher clocked CPU cant make up to. And SE are known to have on of the fastest launchers of all the Android makers. Much quicker than Touchwiz

Gaugerer said:
This sounds like an individual problem. For if the Note was faulty as described then it would have been noticed by the 80% in the poll here who like me think the note is pretty perfect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could be. The strangest thing is that MOST other launchers I've tried are worse and lag. Examples are ADW Launcher, Go Launcher and even the Ice Cream Sandwich Launcher...
The ONLY launcher that runs quite well is Launcher Pro Plus which runs slightly quicker than the stock touchwiz.
When trying Windows 7 Launcher it didn't work period, the home screen shakes up/down when trying to scroll...
Hopefully the next update should fix my problems. I am hoping Ice Cream Sandwich will resolve ALL my issues!
katyarevishal said:
that is not an answer........note also has dual core prossesor wid more speed and double ram.....so whatever may b d reason, it should not b slow or laggy.....
Reason is not pixel or hardware, its software......
Gingerbread is not optimised for this, it is not utilising the power of note fully. just wait for ICS to come
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for backing me up. I fully agree 100% that Gingerbread has NOT been properly optimized to make full use of the Note, unfortunately...
The Note was made for ICS and as you also mentioned I hope ICS gives us an even better and faster Note.

This must bean individual problem. For if the Note was faulty as described then why isn't it a problem for every Note user?

Gaugerer said:
This must bean individual problem. For if the Note was faulty as described then why isn't it a problem for every Note user?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've read many posts on this very forum with people grumbling about lag and smoothness...

kanej2006 said:
I've read many posts on this very forum with people grumbling about lag and smoothness...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That doesn't answer my question. If the Note is faulty then why doesn't everyone have the problem?

Try rocet rom defosnappy like sg2 freeze apps u dont need wifi sharing etc
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA Premium App

Why don't you flash a custom ROM
Sent from my GT-S5830 using xda premium

Gaugerer said:
That doesn't answer my question. If the Note is faulty then why doesn't everyone have the problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because people doesn't see a problem on the same issues or doesn't have noticed at all custom brightness on high never used the phone on low light places. Never played a dark video, using Samsung wallpaper. Never where on forums to read about the problems. My phone didn't have a pink spot on camera till I headed about it and reproduced low light with white paper on macro shot, and there was a pink spot, used flash on same pic no pink spot same conditions. Simple if you don't know it isn't there
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA App

kanej2006 said:
I've had my Samsung Note for the last month and whilst I'm happy with it I cannot help but grumble about it's speed/response even when used on different launchers...
Though it runs ok it can be slow from time to time especially when suddenly unlocking it and opening your contacts or messages. This results in a few second delay.
Also when scrolling up/down through contacts/settings menu it's jerky, not smooth.
When comparing it to my Sony Ericsson Xperia Play which has a single core 1GHz cpu & 512Mb of ram it is miles faster and 100% smooth in every possible way compared to my Note. You'd expect the Note to be faster than The Sony Ericsson Xperia.
Why is a much lower spec phone much faster & smoother than my Note?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coming from the gtab 10.1, adw launcher was recommended to get rid of slight home screen lag, which it did.
So I threw up adw launcher on my note, and it is definitely slower than stock twlauncher.
Kinda strange.

Well, adding more RAM won't make it more responsive, and it is already running the fastest dual core SoC on the market. So spec wise there is not much Samsung can do. Maybe in a few months when quad core SoC becomes mainstream it will release a Note 2 with quad core SoC.
My dad has a Note and I do feel that my Galaxy Nexus is more responsive. Given that the resolutions on the two are similar, I think after the ICS update the Note will run smoother overall. That is of course assuming that the new version of TouchWiz won't screw the phone up.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

Gaugerer said:
That doesn't answer my question. If the Note is faulty then why doesn't everyone have the problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since when did I mention anything about the Note being faulty?
I simply said it is not performing as well as it should and most people will agree with me.
You are the one who implied that my Note is faulty, not me.
There is nothing wrong with my Note apart from it's sluggish performance.
Many other users on this forum have opened up threads with regards to performance issues as well as methods of trying to speed the Note up.
If you go through the first few pages of the Galaxy Note General section you will see several threads with forums regarding input lag, slowness & other response issues...
As katyarevishal kindly explained ONE big reason for the lag/slow downs of the Note is due to the high pixel density of the screen.
Aside from the pixel density the Note's performance is let down because of Gingerbread and it's poor optimization.
Last but not least, WHY do you think so many people are counting down the days and looking forward to the release of Ice Cream Sandwich?
Simple, because they are hoping it will solve issues many of which I've already mentioned, mainly the lag and the fact it's not running as smoothly as it should.

kanej2006 said:
Since when did I mention anything about the Note being faulty?
I simply said it is not performing as well as it should and most people will agree with me.
You are the one who implied that my Note is faulty, not me.
There is nothing wrong with my Note apart from it's sluggish performance.
Many other users on this forum have opened up threads with regards to performance issues as well as methods of trying to speed the Note up.
If you go through the first few pages of the Galaxy Note General section you will see several threads with forums regarding input lag, slowness & other response issues...
As katyarevishal kindly explained ONE big reason for the lag/slow downs of the Note is due to the high pixel density of the screen.
Aside from the pixel density the Note's performance is let down because of Gingerbread and it's poor optimization.
Last but not least, WHY do you think so many people are counting down the days and looking forward to the release of Ice Cream Sandwich?
Simple, because they are hoping it will solve issues many of which I've already mentioned, mainly the lag and the fact it's not running as smoothly as it should.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Polls here show 80% of owners have no issues with the Note, get real.

Gaugerer said:
Polls here show 80% of owners have no issues with the Note, get real.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it is the same if you say having issues and the phone has some issues. As I said before my phone has issues I don't have with the phone. They will get fixed some day
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA App

Gaugerer said:
Polls here show 80% of owners have no issues with the Note, get real.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Polls here show: Out of the people who TOOK THE POLL, 80% of them have no issues.
Here is the poll you mentioned:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=7143
Sample size of 139 people.
80% which you have claimed have no issues = 111 individuals without problems.
This is not considering poll bias, skewed data, and other extra factors.
80% of Note users here on xda and 111 individuals who own a note here on xda are TWO different things.
So stop going around posting your canned 'it must be an individual problem, 80% of users love it, galaxy note is not faulty' responses and try to say something useful.
I can't tell if you're a troll, a horribly misguided fellow who doesn't understand how internet polls works, or just a terrible marketing intern

Well said aigoya, never did I say the Note was a bad device, only that it's performance was slightly sluggish and it's not performing as it should.
It's performance is being held back due to Gingerbread & will hopefully perform better in everyway when Ice Cream Sandwich is released, that's what many of us are hoping for.
I'm very happy with my Note in every other aspect.
As for Gaugerer I have no idea why he is having a go at me. We are here to discuss, help & trouble shoot, not troll and misguide others...

I played around with the S3 at a Bell store today...

... and noticed that all 3 demo'd devices were a bit... laggish. I mean, I tried running a game (blood and glory) and I noticed some frame skipping while no other apps running. I tried scrolling through lists in Google Play or Settings and noticed some sluggish preformance, kindly like using an HTC device.
Then I noticed while downloading an app, it started locking up the phone and became unresponsive at times until the download was complete, twice as slow as my GS2. This seemed a bit confusing.
I'm just having a bit of a dilemma as to whether it makes sense to upgrade to the North American version or buy the international version since it's better spec'd for performance.
What say you?

Probably had numerous processes running. You can close out of an app, but it can still run in he background.

That's the thing, I did by closing all apps and via task manager as well as clearing memory option. It was very odd.

ive been rethinking my purchase since jellybean.
i doubt ill switch to the nexus though.

I don't know about Bell but a lot of times AT&T demo's have special programs on them that run like a video brochure for customers to see many of the phones features and this program can't be unactivated.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

I have a White SGS3 for AT&T and I will tell you it runs lag free!!!

I don't have lag neither it might have been their units maybe someone install something that weren't supposed to, I do not have any lag
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

Not lagging here at all... So not sure what was going on
Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2

did you try rebooting the phone?

I have the Telus Galaxy s 3, there is no lag and it is smooth and super fast compared to my galaxy note.

Zero lag.

This thing runs circles around my razr maxx running aokp. It is decently quicker than my transformer prime too.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

I've actually noticed a similar thing with my SGS3. I'm coming from the original Atrix 4G with Gingerbread. That thing was so impressively fast that it would keep up with my absolute fastest taps (I just know where buttons are and I wouldn't even wait for the next menu to draw on screen before tapping).
I expected the S3 to be at least as fast but then I noticed something; ICS is a BEAST! ICS seems to be very labor intensive to run and this translates to the SGS3 being maybe 15% slower with general navigation. Not such an enormous issue (and Jelly Bean will likely fix that), but it gets worse with games.
Games never had an issue on my Atrix, then again I was never running NOVA 3 with a PS3 controller. The Snapdragon S4's video core just doesn't seem to be that powerful. Many games, even ones that are months old drop (many) frames when settings are turned up. The worst culprit however is NOVA 3 (probably the most advanced game). Maybe the version I'm running just isn't optimized for the Snapdragon, but that **** lags like a little *****! Barely pushing 5-10fps during on screen action. The international SGS3 with the Mali400 video core seems to be so far advanced that even the most labor intensive game can't begin to tax it...
Sad, just our plight. But it gets even worse. The Snapdragon is supposed to be super duper advanced and truly future tech, but NOW. It is amazing that it can even keep up with the most advanced quad-core of today, but it's biggest benefit is supposed to be battery life. Smaller manufacturing process, half the cores, advanced architecture, but only maybe a 10% improvement in battery life. Would you pass up LTE for better local performance? Maybe not. (They used the Snapdragon S4 because it has LTE built in and using the Exynos would mean needing a second LTE chip and SUPER ****TY battery life)
I don't really know much, but I feel like manufacturers should focus more on how to reduce the power consumption of the screen because I'm not sure how power hungry the processor is while I'm just reading an article in my browser (or playing a simple game for that matter). While AMOLED's are beautiful, I would prefer to have just a nice screen that frikin lasts a complete goddamn day at sufficient brightness for me to SEE ****!!(especially in the blasted sun!).
Samsungs quad-core is the processor of TODAY that all high end phones should match (not the case at all though). Dunno how they got the power consumption under control, but they did an excellent job. The rest of the world is very fortunate since their phones probably will not 'feel' slow in a year or two. As for the US? Well if it weren't for the rest of the package being so complete, the phone already feels dated to me. This phone, no, this generation of phones, seems to be more of a sidestep. Just like the SGS2 vs SGS3, there's a lot of the same stuff there, but it's all been a little more refined.
Ultimately, it was time for a new phone. This one should hold out for the next 18 months. After all, it is the undisputed best Android (the OneX is DOA due to it's lack of an SD slot; HTC is just plain stupid). In the next generation, I would really really really like to see some Pixel Q screen equivalent development, increased battery life, performance is a given, and some really clean designs with not so many lines and crap all over the place.
All that being said, the SGS3 is truly a beautiful phone in every respect. The enormous screen is packaged such that it feels so sleek and small and NOT cumbersome, that I actually want a larger screen because the whole phone feels smaller than it looks. I have an extremely high standard and this phone has yet to really annoy me with anything. It's an all around good phone.
Sorry for the long reply, I got a little carried away.

Its hard to judge a phones performance based on demo units. Think about how many people come into the store and mess around with the phone doing god knows what, installing who knows what, etc. Only way to really judge the performance is to play with a brand new one.

When people say zero lag, most of the time it is because their standards ridiculously low. They might be coming from a much slower device, or they really treasure their phone and subconsciously ignore lag. Whatever the case, there's definitely lag with the TW launcher. I use Apex, and there is much less lag with that launcher.

nabbed said:
When people say zero lag, most of the time it is because their standards ridiculously low. They might be coming from a much slower device, or they really treasure their phone and subconsciously ignore lag. Whatever the case, there's definitely lag with the TW launcher. I use Apex, and there is much less lag with that launcher.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha I had some lag from time to time but then I flashed a debloated rom and this phone flies. Too much crap on the US phones - like always. This Snapdragon cpu is pretty sick! I get great battery life and thats comming from a razr maxx, but then again I am no longer using the power sucking verizon lte network.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

I appreciate all the replies. It definitely helps to provide some perspective. I will definitely try the phone with the 15 day return option JUST in case and see how this baby runs with de-bloated roms.
Thanks!

xoltrix2000 said:
I appreciate all the replies. It definitely helps to provide some perspective. I will definitely try the phone with the 15 day return option JUST in case and see how this baby runs with de-bloated roms.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't root if you plan on returning. Just an FYI Samsung seems to have done a fast job porting ics onto the gs3. A lot of the apps are actually compiled in gingerbread which lack GPU and other performance enhancements
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

You can root just make sure you use the root method that does not activate the counter. It's a sticky in the development section.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium

Pick it up finally from Bell yesterday... HORRY SHEET! As expected, this thing is mind blasting! I did not think Google Maps could lock and navigate any faster, seriously.
Only thing that is sad is a lot of the games do not work for it yet. Can't wait till that happens.

Choppy browser + warm backplate

I have a poor upgrade experience from S3->S4 T-Mobile 16GB version. I'm actually considering selling the S4 after only 10 days to be honest.
It's laggy, especially in the browser. When scrolling it's like it's with 25FPS. Very far from the smooth S3 experience. And when I try to scroll, it's if the phone takes 0.5 second to power up. So the first cm I move my finger, the screen doesn't respond to. It's not everytime it happens though. I'm thinking it could be the CPU governor, but then it should only happen once, and I can replicate it over and over within few seconds.
Second problem - it's hot as hell. The backside is heating up just browsing. I haven't even used the phone for Youtube or gaming yet.
I've tried installing a Google Edition image 4.3 from here, the Android system runs fine, but the browser experience plus the heat is exactly the same problem as with the Samsung TW 4.2 firmware.
*EDIT* Removing the animations in the developer menu doesn't do any good... Just removes the animations. The device LAGS.
I'd really like some input on this - I can't be the only dissapointed user with this

I've upgraded from the HTC One S, and I've been quite underwhelmed with this phone. Battery life and screen is an improvement, but I've been getting those same bugs that you've reported. The gaming performance on this phone isn't even that good on simple games like flow, even with a processor with double the cores, clocked higher and the new spec GPU. Starting to think that maybe the HTC One would have been a better choice.
Meh, sorry for rambling and tl;dr-ing, but yeah, I have the same issues.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda premium

kylepont said:
I've upgraded from the HTC One S, and I've been quite underwhelmed with this phone. Battery life and screen is an improvement, but I've been getting those same bugs that you've reported. The gaming performance on this phone isn't even that good on simple games like flow, even with a processor with double the cores, clocked higher and the new spec GPU. Starting to think that maybe the HTC One would have been a better choice.
Meh, sorry for rambling and tl;dr-ing, but yeah, I have the same issues.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's nice knowing I'm not alone. I've never before gone back before, but I'm really seriously considering it. The phone is not totally new anymore and the Google "vanilla" edition hasn't cured anything. I'm seriously thinking it's bad hardware.

The build quality is absolutely awful on this phone, I'm petrified to put it in my pocket as so many people have had their phone bend and break just from putting it in the front pocket. Sadly, my network won't let me go back, but if I had the chance, this phone would be gone. The amount of pointless bloatware on this is beyond insane, I haven't gone onto the Google edition yet but I bet the performance would improve. Annoying that I won't be able to uninstall applications.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda premium

Maybe u should upgrade the firmware to get rid of the lags ... on my phone i have almost no lag at all but i have the exynos version
Heating is a problem that u cant do much about ... i don t know if a custom kernel may help to deal with it
And the phone is a big plastic device but the story behind the broken screens in pockets doesn t sit well with me ... its perfectly possible to happen but people tend to exaggerate a lot ... especially on internet or blame their fault on other things so despite i m being worried too about the fact it cant be so easy to brake the screen

1 week in... And I'm losing faith. Fast. - Updated.

9 Days ago, I made the decision to switch networks due to Sprint's inability to handle MMS, data, signal, calls, or anything else. I walked into a T-Mobile store, and after a brief credit check, I was told I can choose any phone I'd like. My original intent was to hang onto my Nexus 5, which I absolutely loved, but I was told I was required to get a new phone. I wasn't exactly upset knowing I'd be getting a new phone, so I walked over to the displays and struggled for over 20 minutes trying to decide which phone to get. I eventually whittled my choices down to two phones. The LG G3 and the HTC One M9. After a bit of research and test driving, I chose the HTC One M9.
It is a seriously nice phone. The materials used to craft this baby are top notch, and definitely give the impression of quality. I very much like the way it looks and sounds, and even though it could be unwieldy to hold (slippery), I got around that issue by slapping a nice Spigen case on it. HTC's Uh Oh protection is a nice touch and the specifications are equally as impressive, which helped sell this phone to me. The thought of a 64-bit 8-core CPU was exciting.
It's my first flagship phone; everything should be impressive. And yet, I'm kind of not impressed. My two main complaints about this phone are the button placement (I think having the power button and volume buttons on the same side of the phone and right next to each other is kind of silly, then again, my N5 wasn't like that, so I could just be used to that layout. ) and the performance. Yes, you heard me, the performance. I don't even care about the joke of a camera this thing has, it's really the performance of the cutting-edge octacore CPU that they slapped in this thing that really frustrates me. Out of the box, this phone comes underclocked due to overheating issues. That, to me, is downright laughable. Did anyone at HTC test this phone? A flagship device whose performance is throttled from the moment you turn it on. That's like buying a Corvette straight from the dealer, starting up the car and finding out that Chevy disabled two of the cylinders in the engine to ensure it didn't overheat. It's not just the thought of this that bugs me, the performance of the phone is actually terrible at times. My Nexus 5, given it was running a 5.1.1 ROM, was butter smooth in all but the most complicated of situations. This phone, however, limited to a paltry 1.5GHz and another cluster that is slow to wake up and help out, struggles with some truly mundane tasks. For example, swiping to my Google Now Cards is laggy, loading Google Messenger is choppy and slow. Scrolling, in general, is almost never smooth. I've tried different ROMs, Kernels, and governors but can never really find a nice balance between performance and battery life. The CPU is ALWAYS up to something too. Even when the screen is off. My Nexus 5 would achieve, regularly, about 70-75% Deep Sleep throughout the course of a day. It sipped battery. This phone achieves, on a normal day, about 60-65%. Thankfully it has a larger battery than the N5, otherwise I seriously doubt it'd last as long.
Overall it's been bittersweet experience. I really like this phone, I want to love it, but I can't. I realize that this device is still in its infancy and HTC can roll out updates to hopefully iron out some of these problems. I also realize that the community for this phone is also in its infancy, and that down the road, there may be terrific alternatives to Sense 7 and the Stock Kernel. But I have 5 days left, and the idea of swapping this phone out for something better is slowly starting to grow on me. I've been toying with the idea of getting an Xperia Z3 or LG G3 instead. It'll cost me $50 to swap the M9 out for a different phone. On the other hand, my mind is telling me to be patient and that it'll work out in time with this phone. So I turn to you. Anyone else share the same frustrations with me? What do you think I should do? Should I wait or should I swap this baby out for something else?
UPDATE June 8th 2015:
I went to the T-Mobile store the day after posting this. I researched and thought long and hard about the decision I had to make. After a while I came to the conclusion that I would be paying $50 (Restocking fee) to essentially downgrade to another device. In fact, the only other flagship device that even appeals to me at this point is the LG G4, which seems to be getting along as well as the S6 and One M9 have been (from what I've read). Thanks to recommendations from others in the community, I made some changes that have greatly improved my experience with this device. I'm still not a huge fan of Sense 7 nor am I astonished by the Camera's performance, but a new launcher restored much of the stock Android feel and an upcoming firmware update promises to improve the camera. Performance while multitasking is fantastic and while there are a few hiccups here and there, I can't say my experience is any worse than what it was with my Nexus 5. The Battery life, a common complaint from others about this phone, is fantastic in my eyes. It's nice to sometimes forget about charging my phone at night, waking up the next morning and still having enough juice to get me into the afternoon.
Overall, I've only recently concluded that I did not give this device a fair chance for as long as I should've. Coming from my Nexus 5, the change was a bit of a shock. I suppose that played into my initial disappointment. I'm actually starting to fall in love with this phone. Compliments and exclamations of wonder and impact are common from others that I let check out my phone, even from die-hard iPhone fans, which is always nice. I figured that I should update this thread because I see the conversation still continues. No phone is without its flaws, my beloved N5 was hardly without its own. Many "flaws" are a matter of perspective. I'm confident I've made the right choice with this device, and I look forward to the bright future that lies in store for it (please God, give me an AOSP ROM).

ps. The 1.5 clock only applies to the A53 cores. I'm sure people more technically inclined and chime in and confirm this.
I've had nothing but smooth operation on this phone. I am on Leedroid at the moment, but was on international stock rom before and was just as smooth.
I'd be looking as to why you are experiencing the performance issues, and if you're not happy, I'm sure the consumer protection laws in the US allow you to return it for something else?
Best of luck

You are in the 14 day window go an return it

Go get your nexus 5 back or talk to someone who isn't trying to hose you into buying a new phone.
https://support.t-mobile.com/message/389200
Granted I don't know if the specs on your phone didn't match up to what was described in this link, Or if you had it leased.

Alcolawl said:
My Nexus 5, given it was running a 5.1.1 ROM, was butter smooth in all but the most complicated of situations. This phone, however, limited to a paltry 1.5GHz and another cluster that is slow to wake up and help out, struggles with some truly mundane tasks. For example, swiping to my Google Now Cards is laggy, loading Google Messenger is choppy and slow. Scrolling, in general, is almost never smooth. I've tried different ROMs, Kernels, and governors but can never really find a nice balance between performance and battery life. The CPU is ALWAYS up to something too. Even when the screen is off. My Nexus 5 would achieve, regularly, about 70-75% Deep Sleep throughout the course of a day. It sipped battery. This phone achieves, on a normal day, about 60-65%. Thankfully it has a larger battery than the N5, otherwise I seriously doubt it'd last as long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I've noticed the lag when swiping to the goole now screen. I'm confident that performance will be better when they give us 5.1, which by then they'll have figured out how to best optimize S810. Best to test out your options, you might even want to consider the M8 which has GPE 5.1 ROMS ready for it. That phone performs and has excellent battery life.

Cryosx said:
Yeah, I've noticed the lag when swiping to the goole now screen. I'm confident that performance will be better when they give us 5.1, which by then they'll have figured out how to best optimize S810. Best to test out your options, you might even want to consider the M8 which has GPE 5.1 ROMS ready for it. That phone performs and has excellent battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you installed the xposed fix memory leak apk? That may help with lag on 5.0.x

BUBBA DUB'S said:
Have you installed the xposed fix memory leak apk? That may help with lag on 5.0.x
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I have (doesn't it only fix that off screen animation bug?). The lag when scrolling to the google now screen affects my M8 as well if I recall correctly.

Cryosx said:
Yeah I have (doesn't it only fix that off screen animation bug?). The lag when scrolling to the google now screen affects my M8 as well if I recall correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought it reduced the over all RAM usage from the system over a prolonged period of time. I thought that might affect lag overall on the phone, but I could be mistaken. I haven't experienced any lag on my device yet so I was just throwing out ideas.

Have you tried rooting and putting leedroid on it. It's a beast. No lag. No stutter. Smooth

I never experienced any lags except when gaming during charging the battery with a speed charger.
Sent from a mobile gadget...

BUBBA DUB'S said:
I thought it reduced the over all RAM usage from the system over a prolonged period of time. I thought that might affect lag overall on the phone, but I could be mistaken. I haven't experienced any lag on my device yet so I was just throwing out ideas.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same, lag isn't a problem except for when using google now launcher and swiping to the left for the google now screen. It's minor, but annoying nonetheless. For the OP who was used to the Nexus 5's smoothness it's probably extremely noticeable.

Cryosx said:
Same, lag isn't a problem except for when using google now launcher and swiping to the left for the google now screen. It's minor, but annoying nonetheless. For the OP who was used to the Nexus 5's smoothness it's probably extremely noticeable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, I actually got rid of google now because it was annoying me every time my phone slipped out of my hand and started it. I still am hopeful knowing the m9 should get multiple updates in the future and run 5.1.

dondavis007 said:
I never experienced any lags except when gaming during charging the battery with a speed charger.
Sent from a mobile gadget...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why would you game while charging the s810 is power hungry i would be careful not killing my battery this way

reubenskelly1992 said:
Have you tried rooting and putting leedroid on it. It's a beast. No lag. No stutter. Smooth
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wont make a difference, its the phone to blame to for now. I got 2 devices both same problems at times and tried everything for it, the roms run fine but battery life still bad and weird charging problems for me

v1rk said:
Wont make a difference, its the phone to blame to for now. I got 2 devices both same problems at times and tried everything for it, the roms run fine but battery life still bad and weird charging problems for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Weird

hamdir said:
why would you game while charging the s810 is power hungry i would be careful not killing my battery this way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because I only gaming before going to bed. Look at my sig and guess if I keep it long enough to notice
Sent from a mobile gadget.

dondavis007 said:
Because I only gaming before going to bed. Look at my sig and guess if I keep it long enough to notice
Sent from a mobile gadget.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
still you are brute forcing the M9 into throttling its GPU this way and about the best thing on the M9 is actually gaming speed thanks to it's very powerful GPU

Coming from a M8, at first i was a little frustrated for the overheating and the camera of the M9. But then, neither the m7 or m8 were great cameras.
I read a lot of reviews and even started thinking of selling the M9 but swap for what? S6 ? God no, please, no more touchwiz. Lg,i had the lg3 and it was L(a)G and slow, much slower than the M8 (i know, different screen's resolution). So, in the end, i prefer keep the M9, the camera improve a lot with the update, and many more updates will come.
Then, there is sense 7, sense is one of my favourites android skins. Light, smart and very, very fast. I absolutely have no lag in M9 (all stock). And i use a lot blinkfeed, i missed it in any non Htc phone. And there is the boomsound, the touch to awake screen...

When you say you have lag with Google Now cards, I'm assuming you are using the Google Launcher. I have noticed some lag here and there with the Google launcher, but the stock Sense launcher performs admirably. It's quick and never seems to drop frames when gaming either. How did you leave the phone stock before you started flashing different ROMs to it? I think that may actually be the issue. Every review of the M9 has stated that the phone is smooth and HTC's software is better than ever. Messing with the software may be what's causing the poor experience.

hamdir said:
why would you game while charging the s810 is power hungry i would be careful not killing my battery this way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I occassionally play a round of Boom Beach, Clash of Clans or Limbo while the phone is on the charger. Can you elaborate a bit on how this could "kill the battery"? Is it related to charging while the GPU is cranking up the thermals?
---------- Post added at 04:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:43 PM ----------
nickmgray said:
When you say you have lag with Google Now cards, I'm assuming you are using the Google Launcher. I have noticed some lag here and there with the Google launcher, but the stock Sense launcher performs admirably. It's quick and never seems to drop frames when gaming either. How did you leave the phone stock before you started flashing different ROMs to it? I think that may actually be the issue. Every review of the M9 has stated that the phone is smooth and HTC's software is better than ever. Messing with the software may be what's causing the poor experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using the stock Sense launcher and my phone is buttery smooth. While I don't use the Google Now Launcher, Google Now performs great on this phone.
All of the games that I play are also super smooth. Granted, I don't play games that demand a high frame rate, but those games that I do play are far smoother on this phone than my old M7.
The one issue I had with the phone was what seemed like spotty issues with wifi. I did a cache partition wipe yesterday and it seems to have helped the issue.

[Readme]For those who face stutters, lags, etc...

- deleted

Thanks for the explanation, it makes sense. But The simple consumer question is: should I pay quite a significant amount of money for a top of the line phone that lags and stutters, despite my love for Xperia, and risking contempt from other phone users who have older but smoother models, with just some hope that some tuning might come in the future?
Sent from my D5803 using XDA Free mobile app

tudork said:
Thanks for the explanation, it makes sense. But The simple consumer question is: should I pay quite a significant amount of money for a top of the line phone that lags and stutters, despite my love for Xperia, and risking contempt from other phone users who have older but smoother models, with just some hope that some tuning might come in the future?
Sent from my D5803 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is an important question.
First of all its not that there are stutters everywhere, the overall performance is still good.
As the phone just got released, and every freshly released phone has some kind of software issues, i'd suggest to wait for some firmware updates.
I have already seen there is an update scheduled for the Z5 series, which may be coming soon.
Approx. when marshmallow comes to the Z5 series, things are going to get better.
Overall the Z5C is an excellent phone otherwise.

I saw a video of the Z5 compact which showed that it's performance was much worse than the z3 compact. I'm looking to get the Z5 myself but if that also performance issues then I doubt I'll buy it.
One thing I learnt from having the LG G3 is that it's not wise to buy a product with issues hoping that they MAY be fixed with software updates.
If Sony cared so much then it wouldn't have been released with sluggish performance. Hopefully your right and this can be fixed, as the Z5 was seeming perfect to me but I'm not too confident.

jamespat93 said:
I saw a video of the Z5 compact which showed that it's performance was much worse than the z3 compact. I'm looking to get the Z5 myself but if that also performance issues then I doubt I'll buy it.
One thing I learnt from having the LG G3 is that it's not wise to buy a product with issues hoping that they MAY be fixed with software updates.
If Sony cared so much then it wouldn't have been released with sluggish performance. Hopefully your right and this can be fixed, as the Z5 was seeming perfect to me but I'm not too confident.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seem the vid too, its nowhere near as bad as it seems there.
In some parts its faster, but sometimes (very rare) there are some small lag spikes.

Mine's been like butter (so far).
Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

No problems here either - at least as fast/smooth as my Z3c (which would also have the odd stutter).
If I can get two average days battery life, I can accept 99% smoothness.

milesg said:
No problems here either - at least as fast/smooth as my Z3c (which would also have the odd stutter).
If I can get two average days battery life, I can accept 99% smoothness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing is, you don't have to make sacrafices.
100% smoothness and the same battery-life is possible with ease.
It is the same with my Z Ultra, i modified Sony's system-scripts and now my Ultra is smoother with unaffected battery-life.
This phone is awesome so it deserves some more fine-tuning.

Surely the experience depends what people are running on their phones?
For example, my Z3 compact never had an stuttering or lag with the stock Xperia launcher, but using the Google Now launcher I would get the odd stutter maybe once a day. People not running the Google Now launcher would never experience any issue.
I can only say that in my case, the Z5 compact is as smooth and fluid as the Z3 using the same apps on a daily basis.

milesg said:
Surely the experience depends what people are running on their phones?
For example, my Z3 compact never had an stuttering or lag with the stock Xperia launcher, but using the Google Now launcher I would get the odd stutter maybe once a day. People not running the Google Now launcher would never experience any issue.
I can only say that in my case, the Z5 compact is as smooth and fluid as the Z3 using the same apps on a daily basis.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Deleted.

Hey guys, received my Z5 compact last week, as an upgrade from my Z1 compact.
For the moment I'm finding the phone very slow and often downright unresponsive.
I'm sure it can be solved with z firmware update, but it is really disappointing after the great experience I had with the Z1c.
Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

You that got problems, are your units white? They seem to have a lot more problems.

Nope, black here.
Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

I think white batch has a problem with unresponsive screen but we all suffer from stuttering and slowdowns. I had a white brick and swapped it for a black without the problem.
Skickat från min E5823 via Tapatalk

For the first few days it seemed slow and laggy - received an OTA update today and it's improved a lot. Was worried at first now can't fault it. On EE in the UK. Build number 32.0.A.5.29.

ewans said:
For the first few days it seemed slow and laggy - received an OTA update today and it's improved a lot. Was worried at first now can't fault it. On EE in the UK. Build number 32.0.A.5.29.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For now this is a carrier only update. Let's see if they bring it to non-carrier versions as well.

I've got big problems with my Z5C, it's really unresponsive and slow like 90% of the time I use it. I also had Z1C before and I didn't experience that.
Hopefully some update will come soon cause it's driving me crazy!

e2zippo said:
I've got big problems with my Z5C, it's really unresponsive and slow like 90% of the time I use it. I also had Z1C before and I didn't experience that.
Hopefully some update will come soon cause it's driving me crazy!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose you have one of those white z5c that have such an issue, a software update should resolve it on the months coming. On my black z5c, there aren't any problems like that.

I have absolutely no problems either... I've got the black one too.

My Z5 was also slow and stuttering(e.g when playing Spotify music from cache and during camera app). what i did was replace my SD card for a faster one
Sandisk Ultra 64GB (class 10) => Samsung Evo 64GB (UHS 1)
benchmarks show roughly twice the speed. it makes me curious what an UHS3 card will do