Touchwiz Discussion. (Software design basis)

[Audacious7]

Hello all,
I've been looking into getting the galaxy s4, however I have a friend who says touchwiz is very bloaty compared to what we own now (Droid Razr Maxx HD). He said stock Android is better and being a programmer I can see that. However I can't see touchwiz being too much slower considering it is essentially just a skin over stock android with a few more features added. I've read article after article about how touchwiz is slow or gets slower over time. However from a programming standpoint they never discussed reasons why this was happening. Forget about whether you think touchwiz looks pretty or not I wanted to have a software discussion about why it is better/worse or no different from stock android.

Most bloatware apps can be disabled and Android manages memory pretty well by killing old processes when needed, so I can't see how touchwiz is slower... if anyone could enlighten me that would be great.

 

[Paul627g]

Having done some theme work in the past on TW based custom ROMs in the past my experience is TW uses more images rather than vanilla Android's use of code to create colors and backgrounds. That alone creates more load time and resource usage to load up images to create the end product.

 

[Golfdriver97]

The fact that the extra features like Smart stay etc, are all taxing the system. RAM suffers, and creates a cascading effect. I agree with the assessment that TW is overloaded, and slows the system down.

 

[Audacious7]

But you can turn down a lot of the graphics rendering to help with that. Also the s4 has damn good specs that I feel can handle a lot.

Also there is no way to turn off some of the smart features at all? Without rooting of course.

 

[Golfdriver97]

But you can turn down a lot of the graphics rendering to help with that. Also the s4 has damn good specs that I feel can handle a lot.

Also there is no way to turn off some of the smart features at all? Without rooting of course.

- - - Updated - - -

But you can turn down a lot of the graphics rendering to help with that. Also the s4 has damn good specs that I feel can handle a lot.

Also there is no way to turn off some of the smart features at all? Without rooting of course.

True, you can turn down the animations. But believe me, there is a world of difference between TW and AOSP.
And you can turn off the smart features. But, they still take up space on the ROM. The S4 16GB has about half the space taken up by TW.

Sent from a 4.3 Slim S3 using the AC forums app

 

[Audacious7]

Not worried about space on the ROM. I use micro SD cards for everything pretty much and even 8 gigs is more than enough to download and install apps.


Also even as a programmer I hate rooting and installing custom ROMs. I don't know why but I feel every time I do it I find more problems then solutions to the ones I had. If it ain't broke don't try to fix it.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Not worried about space on the ROM. I use micro SD cards for everything pretty much and even 8 gigs is more than enough to download and install apps.


Also even as a programmer I hate rooting and installing custom ROMs. I don't know why but I feel every time I do it I find more problems then solutions to the ones I had. If it ain't broke don't try to fix it.

Exact opposite for me. More customizing.

Sent from a 4.3 Slim S3 using the AC forums app

 

[Audacious7]

Also. I'm not a pro on android by any means. I can build simple apps since I know java very well but other then that I'm lost.

If the touchwiz ui is a memory hog because of the graphics would installing and using a different launcher apex for instance help reduce that or do these just overlay the overlay and compound the problem?

 

[Golfdriver97]

Also. I'm not a pro on android by any means. I can build simple apps since I know java very well but other then that I'm lost.

If the touchwiz ui is a memory hog because of the graphics would installing and using a different launcher apex for instance help reduce that or do these just overlay the overlay and compound the problem?

Nova does a good job as a launcher, but probably better if one is rooted so they can disable the stock launcher.

Sent from a 4.3 Slim S3 using the AC forums app

 

[Paul627g]

Not to mention even using a 3rd party launcher you still have TW running in the background because it's built into Android and not just a stand alone application or add on.



Sent from my Nexus 7 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[garublador]

Not to mention even using a 3rd party launcher you still have TW running in the background because it's built into Android and not just a stand alone application or add on.

Does the launcher part still run if you use a 3rd party launcher? My understanding is that the launcher is basically an app so only one will run at a time.

 

[Paul627g]

No the launcher shouldn't be running anymore once you default another launcher in its place. But keep in mind there is still plenty of " TW " running elsewhere on the device.

AOSP/vanilla Android has the following main file structure.

framework-res.apk (1/2 of the main portion of Android)
SystemUI.apk (1/2 of the main portion of Android)

Touchwiz based device has the mentioned ABOVE plus

twframework-res.apk (which is the over lay/customized skin by Samsung running on top of vanilla Android). It is not something that is just easily deleted, removed or disabled.

 

[garublador]

Touchwiz based device has the mentioned ABOVE plus

twframework-res.apk (which is the over lay/customized skin by Samsung running on top of vanilla Android). It is not something that is just easily deleted, removed or disabled.

That's interesting. I had assumed that Samsung just altered parts of Android rather than adding an additional layer. Do all OEM's do this or is it unique to TouchWiz?

Is it that .apk that's "slow" or is it the launcher or is it both? It's very rare that anyone differentiates between those two when talking about TouchWiz. It's my experience that changing launchers noticeably speeds up TouchWiz devices (Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Tab 2). I'm not trying to argue or say anyone is wrong, I'm honestly asking to help gain knowledge.

 

[Paul627g]

That's interesting. I had assumed that Samsung just altered parts of Android rather than adding an additional layer. Do all OEM's do this or is it unique to TouchWiz?

Is it that .apk that's "slow" or is it the launcher or is it both? It's very rare that anyone differentiates between those two when talking about TouchWiz. It's my experience that changing launchers noticeably speeds up TouchWiz devices (Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Tab 2). I'm not trying to argue or say anyone is wrong, I'm honestly asking to help gain knowledge.

Any OEM that has their own custom UI overlay does this practice. One HTC they have Sense and have their own modified/added piece of framework-res.apk. I think the same holds true for Motorola, etc. although I haven't torn into those to confirm outside of HTC/Samsung.

Your correct adding a 3rd party launcher does help matters out a bit. Its not a cure all but it does help and gives you much more freedom to customize your homescreen/dock/app drawer far beyond what stock launchers offer.

 

[garublador]

Any OEM that has their own custom UI overlay does this practice. One HTC they have Sense and have their own modified/added piece of framework-res.apk. I think the same holds true for Motorola, etc. although I haven't torn into those to confirm outside of HTC/Samsung.

I suppose that makes sense. It's probably quite a bit faster to apply that overly than it is to go modify the code each time Android changes anything.

Your correct adding a 3rd party launcher does help matters out a bit. Its not a cure all but it does help and gives you much more freedom to customize your homescreen/dock/app drawer far beyond what stock launchers offer.

Yeah, I found that the ability to change grid size alone was enough to make me use a 3rd party launcher. Everything else, including any performance enhancements, are just icing on the cake.