Samsung Galaxy S 4, Anyone else see lag?

[Eric Kane]

My guess is that the lag should be the result of too much heat being generated and causing a downgrading to the working squence of CPU. checking out from the ifixit, the tear down of S4 showed that the most of space of S4 has been occupied by battery and so the layout of components has to be squeezed into a very limit area on mainboard, in doing so, the only choice for this design is to use the panel as the sole thermal solution which is believed very unefffective and definitively will greatly harm the panel in a long rum. The HTC One, on the other hand, employs much smarter way to deal with the thermal issue, in which they used a copper foil to cover the heating components and thanks to the metal chassis, the heat can be evenly, and effectively transferred and evaporated. I hope my analysis is not true, or otherwise it will be a catastrophe for GS4, as I don't really think any firmware can resolve it unless the users agree to suffer a permanent downgrade for a much lower working power of CPU.

You'd notice it in the benchmarks, though, or during CPU-intensive tasks. This is a software issue, really, and a small one. The only thing that concerns me is that the sensors for the air gestures and eye tracking could be CPU hogs. Too early to definitively tell.



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4

 

[madlaw1071]

I had the One since the 18th, liked most everything about it. It was smooth, no stutter or lag, gorgeous phone and awesome screen. I've always been a fan of Samsung (S2, Skyrocket, S3, Note 2). So I've been fighting a little devil in my head to try the S4, devil won and I exchanged the One for the S4 on Saturday. BIG MISTAKE! The S4 is laggy, Wifi signal repeatedly drops, TouchWiz use to be tolerable but now it's just a bloated septic tank of a OS. You could strip the 5% of whats left of Android out of the phone and it would stand on it's own. You expect to see android somewhere and but it's buried. I read another describe it as a 2003 HP computer with all the crap on here, that's pretty accurate. The S4 screen is gorgeous and the camera software is awesome, but the rest of the OS just wreaks. On paper it looks like a phenomenal device, in practice it's anything but. No premium device should lag this bad. I would equate the S4 to having a really hot chick sitting on your face and then ripping ***, totally kills the experience. I've loved their devices in the past and I thought I owed it to myself to try it, but now I'm stuck graveling back to the ATT store manager hoping he lets me do another exchange.

Sent from my SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 using Tapatalk 2

Seriously dude? You posted the same exact thing on XDA. Get some new material. :-\

 

[TeritorialDemon]

WOW! A highly touted Smartphone from Samsung that hag faults? Not Samsung! LMAO!!!!!!! See, Y'all went and got what y'all thought was the best phone out and it can't even be lagless. Sad but true that my Lucid beats 3 S4s. My friends have the S4 and my Lucid is smoother.

 

[Eric Kane]

Tracked down the convo. Brian believes it may be janky animations, but he doesn't address at all the lag within the actual apps. Whatever the reason, somethings not right that Samsung will have to address. The poster in question also manages to insult everyone that dares bring up the issue, and strongly implies the lag is imagined.

I'm not insulting anyone. I'll point out someone commenting on this without having the phone, but that's about it. There's obviously some issues Samsung needs to address, but saying this phone is slow or laggy is ridiculous.

Anyone else find it amusing that the people who are getting upset over this/questioning me own the One? Or that someone went through Brian's Twitter feed to actually see where I talked to him? Since you decided to do that digging, why don't you quote his response to the lag on the S4? You'll find it quite similar to my own. Odd that 2 people who've tested the phone (him being infinitely more knowledgeable about the software/hardware) have the same opinion.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4

 

[Stuart Campbell]

I also had lag with my s4. I opened s voice went to settings and turned the open with home button selection off and I have zero pag now

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Android Central Forums

 

[SteveISU]

Seriously dude? You posted the same exact thing on XDA. Get some new material. :-\

It's my take, not gonna alter my opinion just for you folks here on AC.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[XChrisX]

I don't have time to play with the displays at the stores since the stores are always busy when I visit them. I also like to get in and out as soon as possible. That's why I always wait for forum posters to post their experiences since I really don't trust tech sites when it comes to reviews.

Honestly it would be in your best interest to at least try either of these devices out in store for yourself. I will more than likely be returning my S4, and waiting for a 32GB model. Nothing worse than being stuck with a $200(even worse off contract) device that you're not completely satisfied with.

 

[khoop]

I too have lag. Just when browsing the internet only.
opening apps I'm fine, I just notice it when scrolling up and down on Web pages.
It's like the screen has a 1 sec delay before scrolling.
but nevertheless, I still love this phone.

 

[Eric Kane]

I too have lag. Just when browsing the internet only.
opening apps I'm fine, I just notice it when scrolling up and down on Web pages.
It's like the screen has a 1 sec delay before scrolling.
but nevertheless, I still love this phone.

So outside of screen transitions in the (stock?) browser, you're not experiencing any other lag? Also, have you changed the developer options for animator/window/transition scale?

 

[khoop]

So outside of screen transitions in the (stock?) browser, you're not experiencing any other lag? Also, have you changed the developer options for animator/window/transition scale?

Yes sir, on stock browser. Haven't messed with the developers option yet.
Doing that now.

 

[Eric Kane]

Yes sir, on stock browser. Haven't messed with the developers option yet.
Doing that now.

Doing that should help with the screen transitions, particularly going from the home screen to the app drawer. I think that, coupled with removing the double tap option on the physical home button for S Voice, fixes the majority of the stuttering in the UI. There's still some things they need to tighten up, but nothing that isn't par for the course on a phone that's been out a week or two. If the stock browser still seems to stutter, Chrome is always an option.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

I've acknowledged that the UI isn't as fast as it should be. I've said its something they need to address. What's going on here, and people like you are exacerbating it, is people are blowing this out of proportion when most of the problem is the animations. So I mentioned the developer options fix because some still aren't aware of it.

So now a small issue that's not a big deal has turned into the S4 supposedly being laggy. If you owned the phone you're arguing about, you'd know that its not the case and most people complaining about lag still haven't turned off those scales.

I talk to Klug on Twitter. We're not friends, but easily is my first choice to ask about situations like this. Ask him yourself. Love your "pics or it didn't happen" attitude, though. Inconceivable that I would be able to talk to someone who loves mobile about mobile.

I'll admit when there's an issue, but I actually own the phone so I'm going to trust in what I know about the device. You don't own it. Maybe that's a good reason to stay out of these conversations.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4

Here's the problem. People that aren't taking this problem seriously, or think it's no big deal (like yourself), are missing the bigger issue. They've had these same exact issues with the S3 and Note 2. Didn't you say that yourself in one of these threads that you keep evangelizing your fix in? Again, I didn't take anything away from your fix. It's helped a lot of people. But not all of them. Some are experiencing lag in stock apps that you yourself have said you don't experience. So since you don't experience them, maybe you shouldn't comment on them. Going around and saying "well, mine doesn't do that, change this dev option and it should be fine" is the same thing as me coming in here and (basically) defending the fact that people are experiencing issues that you're definitely trying to underplay.

Why does Samsung continue to release phones that ship with issues that they've already fixed? They have the engineering resources, money, and talent to not allow that to happen. I really do hope that Samsung releases an update to solve the problems.

And again, most people will never visit forums to figure out why they have performance issues. They'll just go back to the store and complain.

One last thing. I'm not "exacerbating" anything. People are reporting the issue. People that own the device. So when people ask about performance it's fair to point them to threads where people are reporting the issues. No matter how much you go around and say it's not that bad, for the people experiencing it, it's bad enough to report here.

 

[madlaw1071]

Here's the problem. People that aren't taking this problem seriously, or think it's no big deal (like yourself), are missing the bigger issue. They've had these same exact issues with the S3 and Note 2. Didn't you say that yourself in one of these threads that you keep evangelizing your fix in? Again, I didn't take anything away from your fix. It's helped a lot of people. But not all of them. Some are experiencing lag in stock apps that you yourself have said you don't experience. So since you don't experience them, maybe you shouldn't comment on them. Going around and saying "well, mine doesn't do that, change this dev option and it should be fine" is the same thing as me coming in here and (basically) defending the fact that people are experiencing issues that you're definitely trying to underplay.

Why does Samsung continue to release phones that ship with issues that they've already fixed? They have the engineering resources, money, and talent to not allow that to happen. I really do hope that Samsung releases an update to solve the problems.

And again, most people will never visit forums to figure out why they have performance issues. They'll just go back to the store and complain.

One last thing. I'm not "exacerbating" anything. People are reporting the issue. People that own the device. So when people ask about performance it's fair to point them to threads where people are reporting the issues. No matter how much you go around and say it's not that bad, for the people experiencing it, it's bad enough to report here.

Kevin, I tried in vain to find your concern posts over on the One forums and couldnt find them. To many over here, it seems you are fanning the flames against the S4 so you have to expect backlash.

It is beyond dispute that the One is have FAR more problems than the S4 and HTC is in a much weaker position to whether any kind of media storm.

It seems to many impartial observers, that many outlets, AC included are openly cheerleading for HTC and like to take shots at the top dog.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Tracked down the convo. Brian believes it may be janky animations, but he doesn't address at all the lag within the actual apps. Whatever the reason, somethings not right that Samsung will have to address. The poster in question also manages to insult everyone that dares bring up the issue, and strongly implies the lag is imagined.

Alex has told me that he's seen the lag in stock TouchWiz apps. Phil has also reported lag that's not related to animations on G+. It's real, no matter what others may say.

 

[madlaw1071]

Alex has told me that he's seen the lag in stock TouchWiz apps. Phil has also reported lag that's not related to animations on G+. It's real, no matter what others may say.

And Aaron over at PhoneDog found no lag in the US version and in fact found it better than the international version.

Samsung Galaxy S 4 Challenge, Day 4: International vs. US models | PhoneDog

 

[khoop]

I turned off all animations, I still have a little lag when scrolling.
Also forgot to mention, when I open my photo gallery, it crashes like 15b seconds after opening, werid.
I still love this freaking phone tho.

 

[Eric Kane]

Here's the problem. People that aren't taking this problem seriously, or think it's no big deal (like yourself), are missing the bigger issue. They've had these same exact issues with the S3 and Note 2. Didn't you say that yourself in one of these threads that you keep evangelizing your fix in? Again, I didn't take anything away from your fix. It's helped a lot of people. But not all of them. Some are experiencing lag in stock apps that you yourself have said you don't experience. So since you don't experience them, maybe you shouldn't comment on them. Going around and saying "well, mine doesn't do that, change this dev option and it should be fine" is the same thing as me coming in here and (basically) defending the fact that people are experiencing issues that you're definitely trying to underplay.

Why does Samsung continue to release phones that ship with issues that they've already fixed? They have the engineering resources, money, and talent to not allow that to happen. I really do hope that Samsung releases an update to solve the problems.

And again, most people will never visit forums to figure out why they have performance issues. They'll just go back to the store and complain.

One last thing. I'm not "exacerbating" anything. People are reporting the issue. People that own the device. So when people ask about performance it's fair to point them to threads where people are reporting the issues. No matter how much you go around and say it's not that bad, for the people experiencing it, it's bad enough to report here.

I don't know how many times I need to state this: there's definitely some issues in the software that need to be addressed as it relates to the stuttering in the UI. However, there's a big difference between lag and perceived lag, between stuttering on a transition or animation and things moving at a snails pace due to lack of resources/CPU issues. I'm not arguing that there isn't issues here that need to be addressed, but I'm also not going to let there be this stigma about the S4 that it's slow and lags. It doesn't. It isn't. It has some issues with animations that can simulate lag, but there's a big difference there. To someone not exactly familiar with skins like Android, I'm sure it does seem like lag to them. So if I didn't say anything, you'd have all these people claiming the S4 is laggy when in reality, it really isn't.

Software that's released during launch is never perfect. They track user experience, get some real world usage on the phones and make adjustments accordingly. I'm not making a big deal about this because it's not a big deal, no matter how badly you would like it to be. Whether it be the dig at them with the Snapdragon 600, the build quality, and now the "lag", you've been Verge-esque about the S4 and you don't even own one. All I'm doing here is trying to educate those that may not know themselves that there isn't a performance issue with the Samsung Galaxy S4. It can seem that way given the animation stutters and I understand that. Regardless, it needs to be addressed and fixed. I'm sure everyone here, myself included, would love there to be a performance enhancement/bug fix update in the very near future.

I feel bad for the people who are already writing off the S4 after reading these posts. Not purchasing a phone that's otherwise perfect for you over a misconception you read on the forums would suck. I'm here to clear those misconceptions up. That's it. The Developer Options/S Voice-Home Button fixes are temporary fixes to placate people in the interim; I'm not touting it as a cure-all. For an issue that isn't very prominent to begin with, it lessens it greatly.

As for you, Kevin...I'm done arguing with you about this. If you want to have a real conversation with me about the S4, go buy one. Otherwise we can discuss the HTC One, a phone you own and I have owned.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Kevin, I tried in vain to find your concern posts over on the One forums and couldnt find them. To many over here, it seems you are fanning the flames against the S4 so you have to expect backlash.

It is beyond dispute that the One is have FAR more problems than the S4 and HTC is in a much weaker position to whether any kind of media storm.

It seems to many impartial observers, that many outlets, AC included are openly cheerleading for HTC and like to take shots at the top dog.

The One forums seem a little bit more friendlier right now. One thread that I thought for sure would be derailed and flamed has turned out not to be.

I'm not fanning any flames. Not at all. But people are reporting issues. So, there are people that are pushing that the One has issues (it does, and I have none, therefor, I have no solutions for most of those issues), while trying to downplay the issues the S4 is having.

Also, the One has been out longer, so for the time being it might be safe to assume more people have them, so more people are reporting issues. I'll be curious what the bugs thread in the S4 section looks like in a week or two when more people have them in their hands.

Why is it when people come to this section and say the phone has issues, or say "people are reporting these issues" that they get jumped on? So what if I don't own the phone. People ARE STILL REPORTING THE ISSUES. Me not owning the phone doesn't change the fact that the issues are occurring.

Every phone has issues when it launches. Don't downplay the issues YOUR device is having. If I had issues with my One I'd be over in the Bug thread that I created reporting them. Just like others are doing.

 

[DroidXcon]

I think S4 guys are on the defensive since the device had been called cheap and not much of an upgrade by reviewers and therefore a bit more aggressive. So while both sides troll the psychology behind each is different.

From my Galaxy Note 2 via Tapatalk

 

[madlaw1071]

The One forums seem a little bit more friendlier right now. One thread that I thought for sure would be derailed and flamed has turned out not to be.

I'm not fanning any flames. Not at all. But people are reporting issues. So, there are people that are pushing that the One has issues (it does, and I have none, therefor, I have no solutions for most of those issues), while trying to downplay the issues the S4 is having.

Also, the One has been out longer, so for the time being it might be safe to assume more people have them, so more people are reporting issues. I'll be curious what the bugs thread in the S4 section looks like in a week or two when more people have them in their hands.

Why is it when people come to this section and say the phone has issues, or say "people are reporting these issues" that they get jumped on? So what if I don't own the phone. People ARE STILL REPORTING THE ISSUES. Me not owning the phone doesn't change the fact that the issues are occurring.

Every phone has issues when it launches. Don't downplay the issues YOUR device is having. If I had issues with my One I'd be over in the Bug thread that I created reporting them. Just like others are doing.

The point is you seem to be far more concerned over the lag issue, created by the AC review and not really noted anywhere else, than with the far more serious issues concerning the One, such as the capacative buttons, camera quality etc. By your "logic", since you have no issues on the One you aren't posting over one the One threads. Therefore, since you DONT OWN AN S4 you should be moderating here, rather than actively generating debate.