Captivate = lag free?

**zipro** · 07-18-2010, 03:30 PM

Hi,

I bought a Galaxy S a couple of weeks ago. My phone's the European version. Sadly, it lags like crazy. Once I've opened a couple of apps, the phone starts slowing down: apps take forever to open, the home button doesn't react anymore, the phone freezes completely for several seconds (black or white screen issue) etc. As Samsung hasn't released a new firmware that would fix the issue, I'd like to ask the Captivate owners: are your phones lag-free? If that's the case, I'll hang on to it - as this probably means the issues are firmware-related and will be fixed by Samsung. If you also have the lag, it's byebye Galaxy S for me :-/

qItor

**thenameisgabe** · 07-18-2010, 03:35 PM

I just got it today and its the fastest phone I've ever owned. But coming from an iPhone 3G that is not saying much

**spary** · 07-18-2010, 03:50 PM

My phone is lagging moderately. Not enough to bug me. Very fast at some things, slow at others. I'm gonna root and fix it with the ext3/ext4 fix though.

**bct** · 07-18-2010, 04:30 PM

just got mine today and so far no issues.

**ecf8** · 07-18-2010, 05:46 PM

At this point, I'm starting to get disappointed with my Captivate. I scored mine on Friday afternoon and have been putting it through it's paces since then. There are a lot of things I like about this device, media playback is not one of them. Last night I tried listen to music while browsing/scanning twitter and it was pretty abysmal. Anytime twitter would try to refresh, the phone would lag pretty bad, causing the music to skip as well. As I type, I've had to force quit Seesmic since it locked up while trying to load new tweets. Lag has been a huge problem with every twitter client I've tried (Twitter for Android, TwiDroid, and Seesmic).

There is also a very noticeable pause when trying to use the search function. It works ok when I search for contacts, but it takes it some time to get from the search client to the browser. I may put a post in the main Captivate forum shortly, but the negatives are starting to pile up for me.

**sherifone** · 07-18-2010, 10:29 PM

I think its related to how the phone is using internal memory as an SD card... there must be some kind of emulation going on and when an app hits the cache it lags badly.

I notice an incredible amount of lag when updating podcasts in listen, or going to seesmic (which uses the sd card for caching). When its not touching the flash, everything is fine.

**zipro** · 07-18-2010, 11:56 PM

Originally Posted by sherifone

I think its related to how the phone is using internal memory as an SD card... there must be some kind of emulation going on and when an app hits the cache it lags badly.

that's more or less the consensus on the European version's lag issues - I was really hoping Samsung fixed the issue in time for the US launch :-/

Apparently, after the following youtube video (which, btw. shows exactly how my Galaxy S looks after a couple of hours of usage) was published, Samsung told the person who was presenting the problem that an upcoming firmware would fix that. However, that was almost a month ago and apparently, Samsung still hasn't released anything new. Furthermore, if you look at the current beta firmware versions for the Galaxy S, it doesn't seem likely anything they have now really takes care of the problem. Some of it slows the onset of the issues, though. I guess Froyo wild take care of it as 2.2 is designed to store apps on the SD card - Samsung has announced an August update to Froyo for Europe and Korea

**sherifone** · 07-19-2010, 09:05 AM

That was just me just spitballing what I thought the problem was... I hate being a techy sometimes. Makes me notice problems too quickly and I get frustrated with the device.

I'll keep playing with it for another day or two and decide if I'm sticking with it, or the Droid X.

**millhouse513** · 07-19-2010, 09:35 AM

I got my captivate on Friday and have it setup to sync with gmail and my company (exchange) account. It's fast and overall I really like the device, but I hope Froyo and/or Samsung firmware update fixes a lot of issues.

The phone does get fairly laggy when I've opened a bunch of apps. I have an app killer on there now, so hopefully that helps.

Also, the launcher itself seems laggy.. Sometimes it can take seconds to go from unlocking my screen to getting full control over the home screens (i.e. the icons and content are refreshed). I have a fair amount of content on the screens though--each one has something on it. I'm not sure how SenseUI would handle that?

GPS apparently is quite laggy as well. It can take seconds to minutes to refresh. Sometimes I've gotten impatient enough to try and force power off/power on my phone. It seems to fix it somewhat. I've also had to pull the battery on one occasion so far because it was just not responding. That seemed to help a bit.

Email is kind of "interesting"... i tried sending myself a picture through email to use for someone's contact image and it took probably 5 minutes for the phone to download the message (it was less than 30k)..but then other times it loads email without any problems.

I think the problems are definitely fixable and are hopefully just related to firmware issues and the need for Froyo :-)

Having said that, the phone is awesome!!! And it gives me a solid phone to do development work on so I'm definitely happy about that! I'm not going to return my phone by any means, I just hope these issues get resolved.

**ptb127** · 07-19-2010, 09:53 AM

How did you get the phones on Friday? Or are all of you using the euro one?

**millhouse513** · 07-19-2010, 10:19 AM

I called around and found one store that was getting their shipment in that day and was going to go ahead and start selling. Some stores did this and others did not. Apparently (according to another thread I saw somewhere) the unofficial sale of the Captivate was due to T-Mobile releasing their Galaxy S phone on the 15th.

Even so, it sounds like most people didn't get the email/memo as some people at the store I went to, didn't know they were allowed to start selling them. Thankfully a manager/person was around that was able to say "actually we got the OK to start selling them.."

**tsquare2112** · 07-19-2010, 12:41 PM

Picked up two captivates Saturday night at the AT&T store. L A G ! ! ! I plan on rooting them soon to fix that though, I hope. We sold our iPhone 4's and bought these. I just love the open platform of Android over iPhone anyday!

**sharonpta** · 07-21-2010, 09:58 AM

Originally Posted by qItor

Hi,

I bought a Galaxy S a couple of weeks ago. My phone's the European version. Sadly, it lags like crazy. Once I've opened a couple of apps, the phone starts slowing down: apps take forever to open, the home button doesn't react anymore, the phone freezes completely for several seconds (black or white screen issue) etc. As Samsung hasn't released a new firmware that would fix the issue, I'd like to ask the Captivate owners: are your phones lag-free? If that's the case, I'll hang on to it - as this probably means the issues are firmware-related and will be fixed by Samsung. If you also have the lag, it's byebye Galaxy S for me :-/

qItor

My Samsung Captivate is very laggy as well. Especially working with my Exchange server, downloading attachments, using the "app launcher" by holding down the search soft key. Very disappointed with the phone. I had an HTC Incredible which was much snappier than this phone.

**sharonpta** · 07-21-2010, 09:59 AM

Originally Posted by tsquare

Picked up two captivates Saturday night at the AT&T store. L A G ! ! ! I plan on rooting them soon to fix that though, I hope. We sold our iPhone 4's and bought these. I just love the open platform of Android over iPhone anyday!

I've rooted my Captivate, do you know how to fix the lag issue?

**Lyanheart** · 07-21-2010, 10:38 AM

I've experienced none of the lag some of you are talking about. Everything is very smooth and instant for me. Have you tried a task killer to make sure your memory isn't getting loaded up with pointless background tasks?

**Jeremy** · 07-21-2010, 10:41 AM

Lag is very minimal for me as well. No more or no less than any other Android device I have used recently. (Droid X and EVO)

**Wood_doowk** · 07-21-2010, 02:31 PM

Originally Posted by ecf8

At this point, I'm starting to get disappointed with my Captivate. I scored mine on Friday afternoon and have been putting it through it's paces since then. There are a lot of things I like about this device, media playback is not one of them. Last night I tried listen to music while browsing/scanning twitter and it was pretty abysmal. Anytime twitter would try to refresh, the phone would lag pretty bad, causing the music to skip as well. As I type, I've had to force quit Seesmic since it locked up while trying to load new tweets. Lag has been a huge problem with every twitter client I've tried (Twitter for Android, TwiDroid, and Seesmic).

There is also a very noticeable pause when trying to use the search function. It works ok when I search for contacts, but it takes it some time to get from the search client to the browser. I may put a post in the main Captivate forum shortly, but the negatives are starting to pile up for me.

Seeing same thing on my Captivate with lag, and am definitely seeing it related to Twitter...I've also tried Twitter for Android, Touiteur, TwiDroid, and am currently using Seesmic and seeing LOOOONG lags opening the app, updating timeline, replies, etc. The screen goes black except for the notification bar for extended periods during these times.

**Jeremy** · 07-21-2010, 03:40 PM

Originally Posted by kiliffe

Seeing same thing on my Captivate with lag, and am definitely seeing it related to Twitter...I've also tried Twitter for Android, Touiteur, TwiDroid, and am currently using Seesmic and seeing LOOOONG lags opening the app, updating timeline, replies, etc. The screen goes black except for the notification bar for extended periods during these times.

I have noticed longer than usual reply times in twitter. Just thought it had something to do with that specifically though.

**Darth Pooh#CB** · 07-21-2010, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by Jeremy Sikora

I have noticed longer than usual reply times in twitter. Just thought it had something to do with that specifically though.

I think Twitter itself has been *** and feet lately.

Went out on my Hero and BB a few times this week.

**rob989_69** · 07-21-2010, 08:43 PM

I was in the same boat but I've been playing with it the past few days and the phone is much better. I'll run down what I did for those interested.

It's rooted.
I turned OFF power save mode
I downloaded SetCPU and set it to make the processor run 100% all the time.
I installed LauncherProBeta to replace touchwiz (this made an immediate improvement for me.)
I setup Adv Task Killer to auto kill every 4 hours, it runs in the background, I use it to conveniantly check memory available but DO NOT kill tasks unless necessary.
And lastly, per a suggestion from a friend on these forums with an EVO, downloaded, and installed MinFreeManager. It's a memory management program that basically allows you to set the minimum memory you want to keep available it then manages running programs so that that amount of ram is always on hand.

Before using this I would average around 100MB free and would drop as low as 72MB. Since installing I'm averaging about 130MB free ALL THE TIME. Again, it's made a huge difference.

I'll list the settings here as I have them. I apologize, they were given to me and honestly I have no idea what the individual settings pertain to. Only that they work for me.

14
16
24
150
152
190

Hope that helps some of you.

**qdvictoria** · 07-24-2010, 10:43 AM

Originally Posted by rob989_69

I was in the same boat but I've been playing with it the past few days and the phone is much better. I'll run down what I did for those interested.

It's rooted.
I turned OFF power save mode
I downloaded SetCPU and set it to make the processor run 100% all the time.
I installed LauncherProBeta to replace touchwiz (this made an immediate improvement for me.)
I setup Adv Task Killer to auto kill every 4 hours, it runs in the background, I use it to conveniantly check memory available but DO NOT kill tasks unless necessary.
And lastly, per a suggestion from a friend on these forums with an EVO, downloaded, and installed MinFreeManager. It's a memory management program that basically allows you to set the minimum memory you want to keep available it then manages running programs so that that amount of ram is always on hand.

Before using this I would average around 100MB free and would drop as low as 72MB. Since installing I'm averaging about 130MB free ALL THE TIME. Again, it's made a huge difference.

I'll list the settings here as I have them. I apologize, they were given to me and honestly I have no idea what the individual settings pertain to. Only that they work for me.

14
16
24
150
152
190

Hope that helps some of you.

How exactly did you root it? I had an iphone and jailbroke it but I can't find a simple way to root my Captivate. I am completely new with Android.

**Simba501** · 07-24-2010, 10:57 AM

Mine is definitely the snappiest smartphone I've ever used. Very fluid, though it has frozen up once, which is bound to happen with any smartphone at least a few times.

Granted, I use advanced task killer and kill everything (with a homescreen icon) whenever I put my phone down (except email and market, which I keep running to update in the background).

**gspeed** · 07-24-2010, 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by qdvictoria

How exactly did you root it?

http://forum.androidcentral.com/t-ca...captivate.html

**gspeed** · 07-24-2010, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by Simba501

Mine is definitely the snappiest smartphone I've ever used. Very fluid, though it has frozen up once, which is bound to happen with any smartphone at least a few times.

Granted, I use advanced task killer and kill everything (with a homescreen icon) whenever I put my phone down (except email and market, which I keep running to update in the background).

you can kill the market too. From a technical standpoint I believe Android is setup so the market is actually set to have a background service running to check things like mail and market. Even if you close them, you will see them reappear.
You will still get notifications for market updates as I believe it will still be running a background process. No need to worry about killing it. It will fire up on its own anyways.