How did the critics not mention lag/stuttering issues in S4 reviews?

[BOSSY TEXAS CHICK]

They really did mention the lag, but let everyone know they were using pre-release software and not to use that as the standard to evaluate how it would be when released to the public.

Yeah, i think i was hoping it'd all be worked out before release, but within minutes of using it, i was like, :huh"? The S3 wasn't like this, i thought this would be sooooo much better becuse of the updated specs, resolution jump, updated features, etc. The truth is, (to me) it was such a letdown. It wasn't JUST the lag, it was the entire experience, i couldn't put my finger on it, MONTHS of waiting, reading & re-reading everything that even mentioned the S4, this wasn't the experience i was hoping to have. I was expecting the S3 but on steroids, but instead it almost felt like i got the S3's grandpa....lol

Becuz i was sure it would be better once i put ADW Ex on it and disabled some settings it would be MUCH better, i bought it anyway, but the experience did NOT improve, it actually worsened....

I was at AT&T store looking at flip covers and saw the LG O Pro, i instantly knew i was on the wrong phone....the speed, the buttery smoothness, the feel of the glass, the big beautiful screen wthout looking/feeling phablet like, it ticks every single box and MOST especially, not just in benchmarks but in REAL WORLD USE...Every application flies open, executes like lightening and never ever lags... Same processor, S4 clocked higher, so what gives?

I have used or owned every single Samsung flagship device, and trust me when i tell you, the average person wouldn't notice it, but to a "trained eye", someone over at Samsung was asleep at the wheel in the software design. i do think in looks, styling and specs the S4 is the best phone from Samsng YET, however the "experience" is not. Something is screwed up in how it all comes together, and i stand by that.

BTC

 

[ternell99]

I just have to say that the S4 does indeed lag...it has the same snapdragon 600 quad core as the Optimus G Pro. The S4 is over clocked to 1.9GHz and the OG Pro is at 1.7GHz and does not lag. I played with the Note 2, GS4 & OG Pro and the lag of the Samsung devices was the first thing I noticed. I was a Samsung fan (Ive had all the samsung flagships since the original Galaxy S). Dont get me wrong, Samsung makes awesome phones, they just seem to have been one up'd this round. The Note 3 will probably be top notch and do away with the complaints of the S4.

 

[universeand]

I have had the S4 for 4 daysandIdo see lag when scrolling in apps and on webpages. I am coming from iPhone so it is noticeable to me, as my 4s didn't experience this. However I do not see a home screen lag or animation lag. Just stutters scrolling. Not sure if that is because of touch wiz or not? I am new to Android so I am looking for a solution.

Talking about phones generally some apps and web pages stutter no matter how capable the phone. On my Note 2 some apps and web pages stutter but most others are buttery smooth.

 

[gollum18]

Unless you are specifically trying to make the phone lag, it won't for the first few weeks.

I hadn't noticed lag on my s3 for 3 weeks until after I bought the phone and that is an s3.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[andresgalvan98]

I took some time to play with my friend's S4, and I noticed this, too. I thought it was just his, because what could possibly make a Snapdragon 600 and 2GB of RAM lag so often?? I went down to an AT&T store a few days later and the same thing happened there. In my experience, it happens mostly when opening/closing apps and typing too fast on the keyboard. It also happens on tons of S3's. My One has lagged maybe two or three times since I got it on launch day.
It's clearly a battle of Touchwiz vs Sense, and as of now, I think Sense is winning. Not to be a fanboy, but if you're told to disable all those features (gimmicks) to increase performance, then what's the point of having a new, flagship device?? Blinkfeed has never lagged for me, not once. I think it's time Sammy gives Touchwiz a revamp like HTC did with Sense. It's old and looks like a toddler's toy.

 

[rakesh1995]

i did along research and found the lag is with OCTA CORE VARIANT ONLY . it seams the phone cant decide which set of core to use and itself get confuse doing so and lags alot. I think Samsung just hurried up to the name of getting octacore.

regarding tec site. most of them just write reviews to satisfied the masses people think s4 is good( even they didnt ever seen it) so they cant mention bad about it. it might make them look idiotic and all Samsung fan boys would jump to critise the site.

 

[mgfjd12]

The American version works great. Bluetooth playing and searching the internet or facebooking no problem at all. Do a factory reset with the new update just in case.

 

[rfortson]

I'm not seeing it. Granted, I've only had the phone a few weeks, but I've loaded it up with a good bit of crap, and have several of the Samsung bells/whistles turned on and I just don't see any lagging.

 

[ScottsoNJ]

Using Nova Launcher Prime and Swiftkey solves a lot of the problems. I hate Touchwiz so that's why I love android. I can customize to my hearts content

 

[Shanicenicolle]

I've had my S4 since this past Saturday and haven't had any issues thus far. I was a long time apple user with a DROID milestone and s3 in between. All of the issues I had with the s3 seemed to be solved in this iteration. For the keyboard issues try swiftkey. Much snappier and much better autocorrect than any phone or keyboard I've ever used.

Sent from my *PURPLE* Galaxy S4

 

[asanatheist]

Wow. Sorry Necroposting.

 

[ajarnfalang]

I recently traded my HTC One for a Galaxy S4 , I used the HTC One for 3 weeks and I was satisfied with it but I had 2 major issues with it the phone got too hot and the battery life ( was decent and took forever to charge) . After reading tons of reviews I decided to find someone to swap the S4 for my ONE. why? simply cause it has a larger battery, will probably have better rom support and updates I thought. Besides I'm used to Touchwiz as I have owned all the galaxy phones .

So I found someone to trade the phone and started setting it my S4 when i started noticing stutter and lag... I used android before so I immediately turned off animations , S voice off the Home button, gestures (odd that i have to turn off the gimmicks that this phone is sold for) and I still experience lag , slow downs and stuttering , also when browsing the internet that's when it gets worse, even on LTE 30 mbps + speeds the browsing experience is just bad, zooming in and out is jerky and even crashes , I also tried different browsers. What I'm upset is that all these so called credible reviewers don't mention this. The HTC ONE did not lagged once I think (least that i noticed) everything ran smooth ( with the same processor and lower speeds, so obviously software optimization is an issue here for the S4) . Several threads on XDA some fanboys claim that their S4s are not lagging (highly doubt it) , this phone is lagging hard and thus why many people are posting about it , I'm not a Samsung or HTC fanboy , I'm a fan of good phones and i usually try to get the best one out there.

At this point I'm wresting with myself at what to do . Keep the S4 and wait for Samsung to release software updates (smh at Samsung), devs to release better roms , wait for the Nexus S4 Rom to come out and see if it can be ported to the ATT version and hope it runs smooth or get the HTC One again and deal with it's limitations. I think performance > gimmicks.

Same reason they lie on their benchmarks

They are on a furious dirty campaign to kill Apple, and all these tech review websites are all in on it. They'll give great reviews to the platform they want you to buy.

Fact is, iOS can be frustrating and hasn't changed much since 2007, but overall it is still the best user experience.

 

[ajarnfalang]

I stand corrected. I did not know iphone could run live wallpapers...

An iPhone can do anything if you jailbreak it.

 

[ajarnfalang]

Same reason they lie on their benchmarks

They are on a furious dirty campaign to kill Apple, and all these tech review websites are all in on it. They'll give great reviews to the platform they want you to buy.

Fact is, iOS can be frustrating and hasn't changed much since 2007, but overall it is still the best user experience.

Actually iOS has changed a lot since iOS4 when I started using it. It's now ios 6.1.3 and I can do many more things I wasn't able to back in ios 4. Has changed even more since 2007. I couldn't imagine using an iPhone 2G with the first iOS.

I think mobile OSes haven't changed in terms of looks too much. Android has the benefit of manufacturers putting all kinds of UI on top of Android. BUT, all that does is make it lag.

And really, Android and iOS are practically the same, sans the widgets. You have icons. You open the apps. You use the app. You close the app, you deal with another app.

Android added widgets, it isn't tied to software to access the file system. But really, we all do the same boloney.

Look at us. Here I am on an iPhone 4S, on Tapatalk posting in the same forum as you guys with Androids. We can all do the same crap.

What I want is a big screen. But really, if I get an android, eventually ill just end up doing the same crap I'm doing now.

Obviously, Android will have extra functionalities iOS is missing. But ah well. I can get anything I need done on iOS.

 

[STARGATE]

I got my Galaxy S4 on July 1, I have never seen any lag or stutter. Maybe I'm lucky, maybe the majority of GS4s don't have it?

Oh and this is my first Samsung phone ever, I always liked Motorola, Palm, HTC and Nokia. So please, don't call me a fanboy, cause I'm not!

Sent From a Galaxy S4 Away!

 

[OceanView]

No lag on my S4.
It's a great phone and oh the screen is gorgeous!

 

[ajarnfalang]

I got my Galaxy S4 on July 1, I have never seen any lag or stutter. Maybe I'm lucky, maybe the majority of GS4s don't have it?

Oh and this is my first Samsung phone ever, I always liked Motorola, Palm, HTC and Nokia. So please, don't call me a fanboy, cause I'm not!

Sent From a Galaxy S4 Away!

They all have the stutter. It's not the phone, it's the Touchwiz UI that has always been plagued with stutter and lag.

Galaxy S has had stutter/lag since the very first Galaxy S. it was much worse on that one.

A friend of mine bought an HTC Desire. And he unlocked it once to show me something. And I said "wow. That lags a lot". He said "no it doesn't". I said "lock it again. Now unlock it" and the animation was like "stut-stut-stut-stutter" then you see the icons. I said "did you see?" He said "no. It's fine".

Some people it sticks out and it really bothers them, other people just don't see it.

I was comparing the GS4 with a G Pro a few hours ago. I noticed when opening, for example; the music app. "Op-op-open" stutter, TouchWiz thing. G Pro is smooth.

 

[STARGATE]

They all have the stutter. It's not the phone, it's the Touchwiz UI that has always been plagued with stutter and lag.

Galaxy S has had stutter/lag since the very first Galaxy S. it was much worse on that one.

A friend of mine bought an HTC Desire. And he unlocked it once to show me something. And I said "wow. That lags a lot". He said "no it doesn't". I said "lock it again. Now unlock it" and the animation was like "stut-stut-stut-stutter" then you see the icons. I said "did you see?" He said "no. It's fine".

Some people it sticks out and it really bothers them, other people just don't see it.

I was comparing the GS4 with a G Pro a few hours ago. I noticed when opening, for example; the music app. "Op-op-open" stutter, TouchWiz thing. G Pro is smooth.

I understand what you're saying, but I have tried that unlocking or using the same app with my phone pitted against my friend's phone, my Motorola Photon and my nephew's HTC One; and no, no lag or stutter on my Galaxy S4!

Sent From a Galaxy S4 Away!

 

[Aquila]

Yeah 'cause Imma go down on a railroad track and I ain't going back and no I ain't coming back[FONT=Verdana, Arial]. [/FONT]'Cause Imma leaving town and I ain't coming back no more..

Right?

 

[ajarnfalang]

I understand what you're saying, but I have tried that unlocking or using the same app with my phone pitted against my friend's phone, my Motorola Photon and my nephew's HTC One; and no, no lag or stutter on my Galaxy S4!

Sent From a Galaxy S4 Away!

I just saw the stutter on the one I was using. Opening some apps.

But, it's a fast phone. Doesn't matter. If you don't see it; then it doesn't lag.