Its been months, Chrome is still laggy. What gives?

[Daniel0418]

I posted here in the forums shortly after the nexus 7 launch asking what browser everyone was using because chrome suffers really annoying lag when scrolling and pinching to zoom. Some of you said you don't have the issue. Which is simply not true. Some of you don't notice, but its there for everyone. In fact, the culprit had been found by a poster in XDA and Google themselves have acknowledged the issue. In build 23 they say the issue has been resolved, however it still had not been released to the public. This was now about a month ago. This issue needs to be fixed now. The browser performance can be so bad that its hurting reviews and review scores on devices like the Nexus 7, Nexus 4, and Nexus 10. Three devices with extremely powerful hardware that are all having the same issue. Choppyness and dropped frames when scrolling and pinch to zoom in Chrome. The browser is a core part of any mobile OS. Its arguably the most used app on every device. Google is shooting themselves in the foot by not fixing this especially when their old stock android browser on ICS, JB worked just fine. If you don't notice the issue. Go play with an iPad using safari. Go play with a microsoft surface using IE 10. They simply don't have these issues. The surface in particular has flash built in on some sites and even with video playing scrolling and pinch to zoom is faster than chrome.

Here is the XDA article where the guy has done extensive research on the issue. I recommend reading through the whole thread.
Reason Chrome for Android lags on certain sites. - xda-developers

Here is an example comparison video between the surface RT and a Nexus 10 using chrome.
Microsoft News | Microsoft Surface vs Google Nexus 10 shows the advantage of desktop-class browsing


Would love a discussion on this topic and to read everyone else's experiences so far. Maybe even an updated list of 3rd party browsers you are using until Google can fix the issues.

 

[Life-Is-Good]

If you look at these interactive lists of Google's thousands of open issues on Chrome, the number of "Stars" show how many times developers and users have indicated their concern over each issue. Issues with the Status "Assigned", "Started", etc. are the issues that Google has decided to work on.

Issues - chromium - An open-source browser project to help move the web forward. - Google Project Hosting

Issues - chromium - An open-source browser project to help move the web forward. - Google Project Hosting

 

[Daniel0418]

Nice! Thanks for the links.

 

[NickFromHouston]

Yeah I've seen a few reviews where the various people are comparing an Apple iPhone, iPad Mini and iPad 4 to the Nexus 4, 7 and 10 and demonstrating the frame drops and other graphical issues for the Nexus models. Whereas the Nexus models appear to have better CPU scores on benchmarks, the iPhone and iPad models have better GPU scores on benchmarks, and coupled with pushing less pixels, and using a more optimized browser (Safari over Chrome) it basically makes the Nexus 4/7/10 look slower graphically, with lower framerates and more dropped frames. Some people have demonstrated much better performance using other browsers like Boat or Dolphin, for example, over Chrome.

iPhone 5 vs Nexus 4
iPhone 5: 1136x640=727K
Nexus 4: 1280x768=983K

iPad Mini vs Nexus 7
iPad Mini: 1024x768=786K
Nexus 7: 1280x800=1M

iPad4 vs Nexus 10
iPad 4: 2048x1536=3.1M
Nexus 10: 2560x1600=4M

 

[anon(847090)]

I kown chrome is laggy. FF/dolphin is way better but i thing chrome will get better very soon.
will wait to see the next update.

 

[kC_]

There is nothing wrong with chrome so no "next version" is going to make anything better!!

I had the issue with laggy nexus 7 (in particularly chrome) but fixed it easily by following this advice
http://forums.androidcentral.com/go...ll-delete-empty-space-nexus-7-remove-lag.html

 

[trayes77]

There is nothing wrong with chrome so no "next version" is going to make anything better!!

I had the issue with laggy nexus 7 (in particularly chrome) but fixed it easily by following this advice
http://forums.androidcentral.com/go...ll-delete-empty-space-nexus-7-remove-lag.html

This is a system wide solution for fixing lag. Simple tasks such as unlocking your device. This does not help chromes performance at all. Chrome will continue to get better with updates.

Chrome does feel more responsive though in the latest 4.2 update.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus