Is the lack of speed and lag really that bad?

**HoldFastHope** · 06-16-2010, 09:03 PM

I'm a prospective buyer and have been following the Supersonic/Evo since rumors came out for it. I'll be coming from T-Mobile and the starter of them all, a G1.

Now, i've heard a lot of people on the forums saying that the Evo is slow and sluggish. This kinda worries me because one of the main intrigues of this phone for me is the speed. Coming from a G1, I am annoyed daily of the speed and huge lag that my G1 gives. I've read many people say it but I havent read a legit reviewer or media outlet saying much about any type of lag or sluggishness but instead saying that the Evo is speedy.

I've tried an Incredible and an Evo and yes, the Incredible is indeed "faster" scrolling and navigating the UI. But to me, fast is fast. Coming from a G1, mostly anything else Android will be an improvement. I've also read that the Evo is capped at 30fps, so perhaps that can be tweaked out by devs or future improvements by Sprint/HTC.

So my question to the every day user of the Evo, is the "sluggishness" overblown or is this a legitimate problem?

**jedisrus** · 06-16-2010, 09:05 PM

Matter of perspective. I can tell you that in my opinion it is not sluggish in the least. If you want to see sluggish try out the Hero.

**Gekko** · 06-16-2010, 09:06 PM

not sure where you heard this nonsense but the EVO is lightning fast and can handle anything that i throw at it. smooth as butter too. and trust me i'd be the first one to biitch if this was not the case.

go play with one to see for yourself.

**dtblair24** · 06-16-2010, 09:10 PM

Yeah the EVO is very fast. The fact that it is an open system with multitasking can make is susceptible to a little lag. When I try to do too much at once it can slow down a bit, but for the most part it is FAST. I came from a G1 as well, and to be honest..it will be like night and day.

**Kedar** · 06-16-2010, 09:14 PM

The UI on the Incredible is faster. I don't know why...

However, it is fast nonetheless.
I can't look back on my Palm Pre. Even at 800mhz, my Pre got kinda' slow quickly.

I hope they change the cap. I thought it was weird my Evo lags a little in comparison to other 1ghz Android phones.
Just hoping to get FroYo soon.

**neilept** · 06-16-2010, 09:21 PM

Mine has not been slow at all, much faster than my Pre, Instinct, and Curve

**auburnmk** · 06-16-2010, 09:21 PM

+1 NO!

**TWC_SouthPhilly** · 06-16-2010, 10:10 PM

The EVO is fast and solid m8, don't believe everything you read ok the forums..... that being said...... LoL

My last device was the Pre and the EVO smokes it. Even at 800mhz ( like someone posted above ) the Pre is just left in the dust.

I haven't had a single problem with my EVO slowing down or hang. Even doing a bunch of tasks and all.

**Jesse** · 06-16-2010, 10:11 PM

Who the hell told you the Evo is laggy and slow?

Never take their advice again.

**twan2001** · 06-16-2010, 10:12 PM

nope

**htwnrver** · 06-16-2010, 10:18 PM

The Evo does lag and become slow sometimes especially with 4G enabled on a weak signal. It also makes the battery very warm.

**Cory Streater** · 06-16-2010, 10:24 PM

I would say the Incredible is about 20% faster than the EVO, but if you didn't have the 2 side by side, you would never know any better.

**Frankenstein** · 06-16-2010, 10:41 PM

The only place I ever see any lag is with the contacts app (only when launching - once open is very smooth) and maybe in the general UI if I haven't restarted in a few days. I think the lag in the contacts app is probably caused by Facebook integration which might be able to be tweaked in the settings. Basically, I think it is all sense related, but IMO it is overcome by the usefulness of sense.

**effluent** · 06-16-2010, 10:42 PM

Mine isn't too laggy if I just run Sense. Still laggy with scrolling etc. and occasional bugs. Totally wasn't expecting this, my Palm Centro was quicker with opening programs etc. But if I try to use Launcher Pro or adw it constantly force closes and everything is slow. Which is too bad because I'd prefer to use another launcher. Apparently this is the opposite with most who say those run better. Otherwise I absolutely love the phone. I did flash the Fresh rom and see no difference at all other than I can't use the camera. Hopefully future roms and Froyo will help.

**YBCold** · 06-16-2010, 11:14 PM

No lag here, I do make sure I do a restart every morning to ensure all the memory possible is freed up.

**HoldFastHope** · 06-17-2010, 01:37 AM

Originally Posted by Gekko

not sure where you heard this nonsense but the EVO is lightning fast and can handle anything that i throw at it. smooth as butter too. and trust me i'd be the first one to biitch if this was not the case.

go play with one to see for yourself.

This "nonsense" came from these very forums.

Originally Posted by dtblair24

Yeah the EVO is very fast. The fact that it is an open system with multitasking can make is susceptible to a little lag. When I try to do too much at once it can slow down a bit, but for the most part it is FAST. I came from a G1 as well, and to be honest..it will be like night and day.

That's great to hear that coming from a G1 it'll be night and day. I just don't want the same hiccups and frustrations as the G1 has given.

Originally Posted by Jesse

Who the hell told you the Evo is laggy and slow?

Never take their advice again.

I don't believe I ever said anyone told me anything...

**KoukiFC3S** · 06-17-2010, 01:41 AM

Main reason I got rid of my Hero and Moment was because of their lack of speed. My EVO is plenty fast, and yes I've had an Incredible.

**pwnst_r** · 06-17-2010, 01:44 AM

Mine's been fast, but not OMG it's fast - if you catch my drift.

**soldierblue** · 06-17-2010, 03:40 AM

I think so. The phone is stupid fast, but with the artificial FPS cap, you wouldn't even think it.

It's like the Blu-Ray for 28 Days Later. Yeah, Blu-Rays are always in 1080p, 28 Days renders in 1080p, but the film source is in 480p so it doesn't matter. Are you watching the Blu-Ray? You can't even tell.

It's the same sort of thing, the phone is fast, I know that and you know that because of the specs, however, it doesn't seem fast. It seems like its chugging along struggling to render what's going on. It gives this feel of lag, lag which may not actually exist, but the phone gives the impression that actually it does.

I think, if nothing else, it ruins the whatever experience HTC is trying to create with Sense and the experience the Android can provide. You're going to see your friends running Incredibles or Nexus Ones, and you'll see them looking like they're running much better, completely regardless of what you do to the Evo.

**fastlife2010** · 06-17-2010, 05:06 AM

1 word. Lightning!

**Qubix** · 06-17-2010, 06:01 AM

Having used a Motorola Droid and Nexus One and watching the video that was just posted about the Aria and benchmarking between the EVO, Moto Droid, N1 and Aria I can see where people think its sluggish.

http://www.androidcentral.com/htc-aria-benchmark-tests

In normal computing its fine. It was the fastest of the 3 phones (N1 has Froyo so doesn't count due to JIT) and in 3D they all spit out similar benchmark values. However the 30 FPS cap seems to affect its 2D rendering (most notable in the last benchmark of the video and in the screenshot of the 4 devices). 2D is what you use when interfacing with the phone aside from 3D games so this affects its performance the most.

In use, the Moto Droid and EVO seem to "hickup" while scrolling through applications and some games that are 2D while the N1 is smooth as butter. The new Droid X seems to be very smooth and I would love to see a similar 2D benchmark ran on it as well.

**drnez** · 06-17-2010, 06:34 AM

As others have said, the FPS cap is what causes the "lag". The droid doesnt suffer from this issue, so it would only seem faster from a visual standpoint.

Once someone figures out how to remove the cap, it should get a lot better. perhaps this is one of those things that will be fixed in 2.2?

**SeanNYC76** · 06-17-2010, 07:22 AM

The truth of it all is, YES, the incredible is Faster then the EVO. I own both, and I will tell you that the UI, navigating through the entire OS, Web sites, just about everything, is faster on the incredible. Now if you have never seen or used an incredible, you would not notice any speed dismay from the EVO, because its still a very fast device. However the incredible just has no lag, and really shines in that whole area.

Overall, the EVO is still an awesome phone. And it can become a Sprint/VZW debate real fast, which can most likely explain the faster web speed of the incredible. But moving away from data speed, and looking at the EVO from a whole, I would think Froyo fixes all this when it gets pushed out and hopefully ereases any slowdown or lag that is present.

**HoldFastHope** · 06-17-2010, 08:41 AM

Originally Posted by drnez

As others have said, the FPS cap is what causes the "lag". The droid doesnt suffer from this issue, so it would only seem faster from a visual standpoint.

Once someone figures out how to remove the cap, it should get a lot better. perhaps this is one of those things that will be fixed in 2.2?

At first, I was really thinking that the 30 fps cap may be the culprit to these lag issues on the Evo. But now, i'm thinking it is the touch input lag or it's a mix of the fps cap AND touch input lag.

A member at xda actually showed a similar multi-touch test that android central did comparing the Evo and Nexus One. On both videos the multi-touch tool showed significant touch input lag.

Android Central's video:

User Mecha2142 on xda's video:

XDA's thread:

**Mr. Berry** · 06-17-2010, 11:15 AM

I think those reporting EVO lag are either all out GEEKS, haven't got the EVO yet or expecting waaaaay too much.

You will be hard pressed to find a perfect phone.....and you won't find a better gadget today, than this beast. Tomorrow? There will be better gadget yes, but today? It's the EVO. (read this again tomorrow)