Rolling back to 4.2? Question about apps working

[ChrisD43]

Despite factory reset, recovery cache clearing, my Nexus still runs like a pig on Android 5.1, not all the time. It can take up to 5 minutes to wake up in the morning, with network at decent strength. Browsing is a variable feast, with Chrome very slow, and Dolphin only marginally better. GMail can be good, but often just sits there. When I visit my daughters place, and it finds her network, everything seizes for 5 minutes or so, often a reboot is the only answer. When I come home, the same issue. I suspect that there is some bug in network access which sucks cycles from the processor and just jams everything up. If I use a non-network app like Kindle, its works like a dream. My wifi network is decently fast, so these are not network performance related issues.

None of this happened when I got the Nexus first, on 4.1 release, so I am seriously thinking about going back to those halcyon days (4.1 or 4.2). I can get the software, and obviously everything would be reset to factory state, so I'd reload my data and apps.

The question that I am hoping to get some help on is whether the apps I use - nothing that extreme, no games or network heavy stuff, just a fast mail client and browser - would work on an old release.

 

[B. Diddy]

Apps should still work well on 4.2, unless otherwise specified in the app description on their Google Play Store page.

 

[mkhilario]

Why not 4.3? I am also considering doing same then running Lollipop Launcher to get the updated look for icons and homescreens.

 

[ChrisD43]

I can confirm that all is well on 4.2.2 and the apps all run fast, just like they used to before Google screwed up by releasing Android 5 on to Nexus 2012 tablets.
And why 4.2? only because I remember that when I got the Nexus that was what it was running, and ever after that performance tailed off release by release, until the debacle that was Android 5.
So I'm very happy, and totally recommend anyone who has 5.0 or 5.1 performance problems to down level their software. I managed to brick my tablet using NRT, so reverted to using Android SDK do it. It worked on 2nd attempt, so not entirely a worry free process, but it worked.