Why can't Samsung phones be faster?

[neil74]

Still enjoying the Note 9 but having picked up a OnePlus 6 in the Black Friday sales I find myself wondering why Samsung cannot just focus a little bit more on performance and make their phones just a little bit faster?

In isolation the note 9 is not slow by any means (after you dial down the animations in developer settings) but next to the Oneplus it really does feel a little sluggish. It is across the board but where I really notice it a lot is when using the Blackberry Hub where the difference is quite significant IMO. The note remains the better all-round package (as it should be for the price) but once experienced that performance difference vs the OnePlus is not something that is easy to ‘un-see’

Wondering if the new One UI will maybe bring any performance improvements?

 

[guitar_65riff]

You could try a different launcher?
I use Nova . Choose 'look and feel'/animations and set to lightning speed.
Every thing seems to be very snappy.
Also go to your device settings and choose'optimise'

 

[neil74]

Already on Nova with lightning fast.

As I say in isolation it's not slow just compared to the OP.

 

[danielson2047]

I set everything to fastest setting in nova and turn off animations in dev options, no lag or stutter whatsoever. This thing is a beast.

 

[Carrie Greicar]

Still enjoying the Note 9 but having picked up a OnePlus 6 in the Black Friday sales I find myself wondering why Samsung cannot just focus a little bit more on performance and make their phones just a little bit faster?

In isolation the note 9 is not slow by any means (after you dial down the animations in developer settings) but next to the Oneplus it really does feel a little sluggish. It is across the board but where I really notice it a lot is when using the Blackberry Hub where the difference is quite significant IMO. The note remains the better all-round package (as it should be for the price) but once experienced that performance difference vs the OnePlus is not something that is easy to ‘un-see’

Wondering if the new One UI will maybe bring any performance improvements?

I don't have any issues with performance or speed - I use Nova.

 

[chanchan05]

Honestly, it just seems to me that the animation files that Samsung uses themselves are slower. If you use a 1sec animation file, and the other guy uses a 0.5 sec animation file, if you set both at fastest multiplier available, in the end you're still multiplying by 1, and the other guy is multiplying at 0.5.
What does a longer animation file benefit anyway? For one it hides loading screens a bit more. Second it's prettier. And I'd expect those to be the Samsung's main concern, not show everyone how blazing fast it is.
Plus Samsung is running more stuff under the hood than OnePlus. It's a backfire of having all the features you can have plus the kitchen sink.
Take two of the same cars, same engines, but load up one with all the optional stereos, lights, advanced systems and whatnot. Then the other you strip of everything unnecessary for the race that's going to happen. Even with the same engine, the other fully loaded car will be slower than the stripped down car. And essentially, that's what stock Android is compared to Samsung Experience: stripped down of features. Take for example the new Markup feature for Android Pie. Samsung has had that since built in since like Marshmallow at least. But all that weight will take it's toll on the processing power. More features, means it needs to use more oomph to run them.
In the end, it's your choice to go with the features, or being like maybe half a second faster.

 

[fragologist]

I think you can alert speed in developer options (not sure if that's an option in the Note9).

 

[guitar_65riff]

My note 9 is easily as fast as my son's iPhone X. seems to me, a lot of fuss over nothing. Just how fast does it need to be?
It's a phone/pc in your pocket/camera
No need to leave a trail of smoke everytime it does anything

 

[bassplayrguy]

Still enjoying the Note 9 but having picked up a OnePlus 6 in the Black Friday sales I find myself wondering why Samsung cannot just focus a little bit more on performance and make their phones just a little bit faster?

In isolation the note 9 is not slow by any means (after you dial down the animations in developer settings) but next to the Oneplus it really does feel a little sluggish. It is across the board but where I really notice it a lot is when using the Blackberry Hub where the difference is quite significant IMO. The note remains the better all-round package (as it should be for the price) but once experienced that performance difference vs the OnePlus is not something that is easy to ‘un-see’

Wondering if the new One UI will maybe bring any performance improvements?

Stripped down phones are always going to seem faster. They have alot less going on in the background. They don't manage RAM as well either so they tend to shut things down to conserve resources. You'll save that time by not having apps refresh on higher end devices.

 

[cwbcpa]

Stripped down phones are always going to seem faster. They have alot less going on in the background. They don't manage RAM as well either so they tend to shut things down to conserve resources. You'll save that time by not having apps refresh on higher end devices.

This. You are comparing two very different phones. This is why the Note isn't for everyone. If you don't utilize the additional features, I'd go with a phone like the One Plus. A phone like that will always perform different than a phone like the Note. I'll gladly wait a millisecond longer for something and have all the features of my Note.

 

[Rukbat]

@neil74, are you referring to the speed at which apps are running, or just the speed of the launcher? The launcher (TouchWiz) has always been Samsung's weak point - it's about the worst launcher available for any phone. (I never use it - any Samsung phone gets set up, then I install Nova.)

If you're speaking about the speed of the apps themselves, with a Snapdragon 845, apps should be running fairly quickly - the OnePlus 6 is running he same SoC.

 

[mustang7757]

Still enjoying the Note 9 but having picked up a OnePlus 6 in the Black Friday sales I find myself wondering why Samsung cannot just focus a little bit more on performance and make their phones just a little bit faster?

In isolation the note 9 is not slow by any means (after you dial down the animations in developer settings) but next to the Oneplus it really does feel a little sluggish. It is across the board but where I really notice it a lot is when using the Blackberry Hub where the difference is quite significant IMO. The note remains the better all-round package (as it should be for the price) but once experienced that performance difference vs the OnePlus is not something that is easy to ‘un-see’

Wondering if the new One UI will maybe bring any performance improvements?

It will get better with the new one UI

 

[neil74]

@neil74, are you referring to the speed at which apps are running, or just the speed of the launcher? The launcher (TouchWiz) has always been Samsung's weak point - it's about the worst launcher available for any phone. (I never use it - any Samsung phone gets set up, then I install Nova.)

If you're speaking about the speed of the apps themselves, with a Snapdragon 845, apps should be running fairly quickly - the OnePlus 6 is running he same SoC.

It’s both really and as I say it is only slow comparatively speaking, not really slow. The BB hub is an app where I can really see a difference.

 

[anon(661246)]

As its been mentioned, Samsung has a lot more going on under the hood. Even with that I compared it with the Oneplus 6 and thought the O6 would clearly show the speed benefit but that wasn't really the case. Maybe the O6 is faster but its pretty comparable. Samsung did a really good job this time around with the software.

 

[anon(5719825)]

As its been mentioned, Samsung has a lot more going on under the hood. Even with that I compared it with the Oneplus 6 and thought the O6 would clearly show the speed benefit but that wasn't really the case. Maybe the O6 is faster but its pretty comparable. Samsung did a really good job this time around with the software.

And there's zero lag on my phone and I use it every day. I once got rid of the animations that Samsung use by adjusting the settings in the developer panel but after a few days, I really missed them and set them back as they were from the factory. To me, that is what makes the phone unique and fun to use.

 

[chanchan05]

And there's zero lag on my phone and I use it every day. I once got rid of the animations that Samsung use by adjusting the settings in the developer panel but after a few days, I really missed them and set them back as they were from the factory. To me, that is what makes the phone unique and fun to use.

True. Honestly I'd prefer the features and the animations really. Even on Nova before I used to set animations to relaxed. LOL. Speed isn't always the best thing to have.

 

[Richard Stewart79]

Do you always must have the fastest car. I rather choose a beautiful car with all the bells and whistles which might not be the fastest but sure can get up and go.

And by meaning faster. Those phones are only milliseconds faster. Not like they load webpages or apps 10 seconds faster

 

[Golfdriver97]

All the extra features can take a toll on the resources. When I had Samsungs as daily drivers, I usually added Nova right away, and that helped.

 

[DamianP]

I'm rocking Nova on my Note 9 and tuned animations down to .5 and feel this is by far the most lag free Samsung ever, to the point it's just as slick as my pixel 2 XL

 

[bassplayrguy]

All the extra features can take a toll on the resources. When I had Samsungs as daily drivers, I usually added Nova right away, and that helped.

Nova actually hasn't been any faster at all on this phone. I prefer Samsung experience. I've been a Nova guy for years but it's just ok now.