What really causes android lag?

[nube_android]

I know several theories have been brought up( Java, ui threading from the google intern, too much different hardware,) but what do you think Really causes android lag? It reminds me of Windows in early days. What do you think causes it? Google made improvements on it in JB, But its not gone.

 

[Greg C]

I know several theories have been brought up( Java, ui threading from the google intern, too much different hardware,) but what do you think Really causes android lag? It reminds me of Windows in early days. What do you think causes it? Google made improvements on it in JB, But its not gone.

I have a Nexus 4 and I don't experience any lag whatsoever.

 

[Dreamliner330]

I have a Nexus 4 and I don't experience any lag whatsoever.

I have a hard time believing that. I've never used a Nexus 4, but my Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus lagged plenty.

Every Android I've ever owned or used has had lag.

I am extremely skeptical of someone who states they don't have lag.

Now, I do believe you may not observe it. I see videos on YouTube all the time with people messing around with a device saying "it's very smooth, no lag" as I see the jittery animation and prevalent lag.

Some people just don't notice.

 

[PhilSterBoy]

I also have a nexus 4. Although this was my first Android, the only time I experience a slight lag is when I'm in the Google Play Store, i also got the last when I was using a galaxy s3

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[ryanr509]

The nexus 4 is about as lag free as it can get. The galaxy nexus is nearly as smooth as the nexus 4

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[nube_android]

I have a hard time believing that. I've never used a Nexus 4, but my Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus lagged plenty.

Every Android I've ever owned or used has had lag.

I am extremely skeptical of someone who states they don't have lag.

Now, I do believe you may not observe it. I see videos on YouTube all the time with people messing around with a device saying "it's very smooth, no lag" as I see the jittery animation and prevalent lag.

Some people just don't notice.

I don't know though, my optimus G on ICS is actually smoother than some Nexus 4's on JB from what I've seen. It's very smooth and lag is minimal, or at least hardly visible. I cannot seem to find if Android's issue is an Architectural design (Of the OS) or Java or hardware differentiation.

 

[xlDeMoNiClx]

I have a hard time believing that. I've never used a Nexus 4, but my Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus lagged plenty.

Every Android I've ever owned or used has had lag.

I am extremely skeptical of someone who states they don't have lag.

Now, I do believe you may not observe it. I see videos on YouTube all the time with people messing around with a device saying "it's very smooth, no lag" as I see the jittery animation and prevalent lag.

Some people just don't notice.

Believe it or not, many people don't experience lag with their devices. I get a little bit from time to time but my phone was released in 2011 and even then it's not much.

This is from me, on my EVO 3D.

 

[Greg C]

I have a hard time believing that. I've never used a Nexus 4, but my Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus lagged plenty.

Every Android I've ever owned or used has had lag.

I am extremely skeptical of someone who states they don't have lag.

Now, I do believe you may not observe it. I see videos on YouTube all the time with people messing around with a device saying "it's very smooth, no lag" as I see the jittery animation and prevalent lag.

Some people just don't notice.

Telling ya..... I'm not seeing it.

 

[srkmagnus]

If you download many apps and have a lot of things running you'll see some hiccups with Android. Yes, JB does a great job with closing out apps and unnecessary memory being consumed by apps, but the lag is there. Someone with straight AOSP, little to no apps running, will not see (or notice) lag versus someone using another device with an OEM skin, e.g. Sense, Touchwiz.

Plus, the definition of "lag" may vary from person-to-person and what I see as a smooth device may be some or slight lag to another.

 

[kyleish]

I've had a Nexus One, Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7 before I got my Nexus 4. All of my devices would lag at some point, and with My GNex and now Nexus 7 after the 4.2 update, lagged to the point of annoyance (hence running across this article looking for a cure for my Nexus 7).

My Nexus 4 it the first device that has NO lag whatsoever. And I'm sensitive to this stuff. On my other devices, I've tried every ROM, every kernel, linaro, V8 speed booster and anything you can think of. I'm not even tempted in the slightest to do anything to my Nexus 4. It's as smooth and consistent as I could ever want.

 

[alan-31]

Here's a thread on a pro-Apple website, great explanation:
Why Android Will Always Be Laggier Than iOS | Cult of Mac

Here?s why Android can?t render its touch UI without lagging, according to Munn. In iOS, UI rendering processes occur with dedicated threads in real-time priority, halting other processes and focusing all attention on rendering the UI. . In other words, every time you touch your finger to your iPhone?s display, the OS literally goes crazy: ?Someone?s touching us! Someone?s touching us! Stop everything else you?re doing, someone?s touching us!?

In Android, though, UI rendering processes occur along with the main thread with normal priority. In other words, it treats rendering the UI the same way as it would, say, downloading a podcast in the background, checking for SMSes, or anything else. Hence, a choppy UI.

First Google needs to recognize this is a problem. Second, it needs to fix the priorities of the UI processes and make them real time (if possible at all). Thats the minimum they need to do. Sadly I dont think they will care about this unless we get lucky.
I have a dual core 1.5Ghz rooted phone with a nice GPU (link) and a clean custom Cyogenmod mod with no junk and I still notice the lag every now and then.
I have an old Kindle Fire with Cygenmod and the lag is crazy there even though its a 1Ghz dual core processor. I'm surprised to see comments from other people saying they see lag in new devices like the Nexus 4/7.
The proof of the lag is in the quote box in my comment. Real time vs. Normal priority.
Internet search for "android lag" brings up lots of links including apps in the Play store that say they can fix it (works only for older Android versions from what I saw)

More links:
Is Android Doomed to Lag More than iOS? (time.com)
Android touch lag (and a possible solution)
Android lag explained

If people say they haven't seen lag on their devices, you're probably missing it or not noticing it even if its there. There's a reason for all the links I posted in my comment so they cant all be wrong.

So yes this is a real problem that people notice.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

First Google needs to recognize this is a problem. Second, it needs to fix the priorities of the UI processes and make them real time (if possible at all). Thats the minimum they need to do. Sadly I dont think they will care about this unless we get lucky.

What problem?
The flip side of this is that iOS has to have loading and splash screens for even small apps because the background processes are reniced and are not yet finished when the UI is waiting for them. For many folks, that is more annoying than a few milliseconds of stutter between visually starting a process and seeing it launch. That spinner on iOS is there for a reason, and developers are required to use it (or another function of their choosing) to show something to the user while waiting for the processes to start in the background while the UI takes all the CPU time.

There is nothing (short of using a co-processor to run the UI at a higher priority while focusing the full SoC on the actual processes being launched) that can fix this. You're going to have to wait for the things you tap to start working one way or the other. Anyone with general knowledge of multi-threaded software development can tell you this.

 

[ilikepear]

Why does Android scrolling/animation stutter? - Quora

Sound more reasonable. And explains why some android apps / launchers works better then others.

Generally its harder for developers to write smooth running apps on android compared to ios.

 

[_X_]

I have a hard time believing that. I've never used a Nexus 4, but my Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus lagged plenty.

The issues really is people have a different interpretation of what lag is. For me it has always been the processor struggling to keep up with the data it needs to process. I'd often hear folks claiming one os is buttery smooth etc... and I'd scoff them off, because in my mind I did not experience a lag.

What I've come to understand is folk who talk about lag are referring to Android input to screen response. Though it's minimal, the lag is there and some folks are more perturbed by it than others.

Unfortunately unless Google drastically changes Android's graphics layer that lag will always be there

 

[nodakgaragedoor]

Hey Jerry,
I noticed on my phone that the more apps I downloaded, installed, and un-installed caused things to slow down. Seems like an obvious fact of the matter. However, I was wondering, with all the apps I've installed and removed, it still seems to lag, lag meaning the swiping between screens or loading of an app I use often. I'm wondering if there are residual files that are causing things to slow down. Even using the factory installed apps are lagging. Also, my phone is restarting itself somewhat randomly. I'll try to load something, and it stalls, and stalls. The screen goes blank, and then it restarts. What app do you use, if any that can clean up old app files and/or monitor to see what is using resources, causing the lagging. I've been using "Clean Master" from the google play site and it works great for what I think it should do but, it still has that lagg and stalling. I run the "tasks" when things seem sluggish. I also put the "1 tap boost" that comes with it on the home screen. When I run that, it helps right away but, SOMETHING builds up something which makes the lag get worse. At times it shows how much memory was released, ranging from 30, 70, or 115mb.

 

[nodakgaragedoor]

Should I list the apps I've installed and what I have installed now? Would that help?

 

[nodakgaragedoor]

Just downloaded "Memory Booster Lite" and it shows I have 13% of memory left (404 total, 356 used, 48 free). Guess I'll try this app.

 

[srkmagnus]

Should I list the apps I've installed and what I have installed now? Would that help?

Have you done a factory reset lately? Whenever I go long periods of time without a factory reset the phone tends to not perform as well. This is especially true if I've installed many apps, widgets, etc. and uninstalled whatever I no longer find necessary to use on the device. Plus, the factory reset will clear out any processes that shouldn't be running or have been left behind by certain apps.

Remember, these are small computers which we use almost as much if not more than a desktop computer on a daily basis. Just like a desktop, phones need to be cleaned out and the best way to do this is a factory reset.

 

[TheAndroidDewd]

Big apps like games from Gameloft and flu use lots of ram and hog you phone

Posted via Android Central App

 

[svampa]

What counts is the user experience. I tried the new Galaxy 4 in a shop some days ago. I was dissapointed due to the lag. Since I am most used to iPhone I thought the screen did not notice my finger. I had time to try 2-3 times. Then when sliding the in/out screen pages everything freezed for a fraction of a second. Not much, but again - bad user experience.
None of this ever happens on iOS, so it should be possible to fix.
BR