Life long Android users

[anon(9099462)]

Those of you that have always used Android, have you always had to disable apps, disable other extensions and change the way you would like to use your phone because either of battery complaints or RAM consumption or lag?

The way people modify their Android phones this days without rooting it is quite insane to get the phone to work as expected. I've wondered has Android been like this all the time or is this more of a recent problem?

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[B. Diddy]

I don't disable apps because of poor performance. I disable the ones I don't need because I just don't need them, and if they're enabled, there's always a chance that the system might try to open it automatically to occupy RAM. On my last 2 phones (Zenfone 2 and Nexus 5), there has probably been no real need to disable the apps, but since there is a small potential benefit and no real downside (assuming it's not an important app for the system or for some other common activity), I figure why not?

 

[anon(9099462)]

I get the fact that we disable apps that we don't use. But sometimes to have to go as far as disabling other things that a normal average joe wouldn't know is even included in the phone.

I guess a better question would be has it always been a necessity to disable as many things as possible to get the best performance out of Android?

It just seems that the less you have on the phone the better, but what's the point of been able to install whatever you want to have your phone function better for you, if the hardware or software can really handle it properly.

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[B. Diddy]

This issue is more pertinent to devices that have heavy UI skins (ahem, TouchWiz) and lots of preinstalled "features" (ahem, bloatware), because the more stuff the manufacturer or carrier preinstalls, the more chance there is for things to interact badly. The ideal is the Nexus device, because there's minimal bloat.

Installing a ton of apps on any platform can lead to potential performance problems, because of that chance of conflict. It certainly happens on Windows computers. The difference is that if the user is allowed to install and uninstall, then it's much easier to troubleshoot and avoid those conflicts. With the bloat, all you can do is Disable (if possible) and/or wait for the manufacturer to update the bloatware app to address any potential flaw or conflict.

In general, I would say that the kind of thing you're referring to was much more common in the pre-Jellybean days. As phones have gotten more powerful, with more RAM, and with the better optimization of Jellybean and above, I think these issues have improved significantly.

 

[Crashdamage]

I've used Android from the very beginning, since I preordered a HTC G1 running Android v1.0. And in the beginning, I used to root and overckock and tweak the hell out of Android. To get good performance you had to, because Android wasn't nearly as good as it is now and the hardware was weak. And us geeks like to futz around with such stuff.

But that was then. Now Android is a fairly mature, capable OS that needs little or no user help. The hardware is several times more powerful. But us geeks still like to futz around. So we still do.

Personally, I've come full-circle, from starting with a stock, plain vanilla Android device, to heavily modified, rooted and ROMed and now back to stock, plain vanilla Android. I came back to a sorta hands-off approach to using Android. I buy only Nexus devices and except for installing Nova Launcher, I pretty much leave them alone.

I posted this a while back. My simple rules of operation:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?p=4676235

Android since v1.0. Linux since 2001

 

[anon(9099462)]

I get the fact of disabling apps that are not going to be used, and having just apps and things that you use pretty much every day. But as an Android user we like to mention how much we can add to the our phones without the need of having to jailbreak like the iPhone or having to root the device. But sometimes having that advantage or ability doesn't seem to sit well with the hardware of the devices. It almost makes it seem like you can do whatever you want with your phone but risk performance and not always having a smooth experience. I guess all I'm trying to say is that sometimes Android doesn't seem to be optimized enough for all the customize ability it is capable of.

 

[B. Diddy]

I see what you're saying, and agree to a certain extent. This is what happens when you have a platform that is pretty wide open to development, rather than a very strictly regulated one like iOS. It's something I'm willing to deal with in exchange for that broad variety of apps available. And personally, I've rarely ever encountered significant problems with app conflicts.

 

[anon(9099462)]

True. I haven't really had any problems with any of the apps I use. It just seems weird and strange that we are to a point where Android should be able to handle whatever amount of customization any user does to their phone without causing any amount of performance decline. I mean to an extent it's fair to say if you download a whole bunch of apps and feel up your phone to the last MB of space sure. To an extent it seems that what I want is a better background process manager so that apps that should not be running in the background don't run in the background. Android should to an extent blend in any customization you make to your phone work seamlessly as if the phone came out of the box like that, if that makes any sense.

 

[Crashdamage]

And I see what you're saying. But I disagree to an extent.

Android, whether rooted or not, does handle customization well. Where you can run into trouble is installing poorly written software. Can't blame Android for that. Choose software carefully.

That takes us to background processes and again I disagree. I don't pay much attention to them anymore unless I have a problem, which is very rare. I see Android doing a nice job of managing processes. This is an area that can always be tweaked and improved, but it's OK. Again, poorly written software, and in this case often user interference with task killers, RAM optimizers, etc are a problem. Left alone, Android does a good job.

IOW, my unrooted Nexus devices have blended in all the stuff I've loaded just fine. I'm having no problems. They run as well as they did out of the box.

I haven't noticed any performance decline due to installing a lot of apps, as long as they're all good apps. It only takes one bad one to gum up the works.

Android since v1.0. Linux since 2001

 

[anon(9099462)]

True. I'm only on my second Android phone and both of them have been a Samsung. And one if not the main reason is for the camera since most of the stock android or phones that come very close to stock android like the moto x don't have as good a camera. I haven't had the chance to use an stock android phone but perhaps once I do I'll most likely notice the difference. Perhaps the downgrade in performance like B. Diddy mentioned is due to Touchwiz and not Android itself.