Why is my S5 so laggy/sluggish when compared to my friend's new iPhone 6 Plus and old iPad 2?

[Owen Kim]

I don't believe what you say. Yes the iPhone 6 cud be a bit smoother than your gs5. But IPad 2? Lololol

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Touchpaddle]

I don't believe what you say. Yes the iPhone 6 cud be a bit smoother than your gs5. But IPad 2? Lololol

Posted via the Android Central App

I said the iPad 2 is smoother than my Samsung tablets(Note 10.1 and the current Tab S 10.5)

Obviously there's no way that the iPad 2 is faster than my S5. That's like comparing my wife to Heidi Klum and saying Heidi Klum is hotter.

 

[Owen Kim]

I said the iPad 2 is smoother than my Samsung tablets(Note 10.1 and the current Tab S 10.5)

Obviously there's no way that the iPad 2 is faster than my S5. That's like comparing my wife to Heidi Klum and saying Heidi Klum is hotter.

Oh yeah I misread that part my bad still, I own the galaxy tab 8 and compared to my friend's ipad2 mine actually performs better, just saying.

 

[jdhooghe]

I have been using Samsung phones for the last 3 or 4 years. I've had several of them, including S2, S3, Note II, and Note 3. They were all excellent phones.

I have zero experience with the iPhones, until today. My friend managed to get his paws on a spanking new iPhone 6 Plus. The first thing that I noticed was how smooth and fast everything was running. It's almost like day and night. I thought maybe it was just a new phone having very few apps installed. However, my friend has already had all of his previously-purchased apps installed... all 127 of them. In fact, his 64GB iPhone 6 Plus only had 590mb of storage space remaining. I kept comparing the same apps running on my S5 and the iPhone 6 Plus. Even Google apps seem to run much smoother on t
he iPhone.

I decided to restore my 3-month-old S5 just in case there's something wrong with it. While it was restoring, I tried my friend's 2-year-old iPad 2. Oh wow.... I was again surprised by how fast and smooth it ran, compared to my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1(2014).

After my S5 finished restoring, I compared it to the iPhone 6 Plus again... no.. the iPhone 6 was still faster and smoother. Come to think of it, I don't think it was necessarily "faster" but the experience made everything seem to flow faster and in a velvety way.

I didn't think I would admit this, but I was genuinely jealous of my friend's iPhone 6 Plus. Well... almost... I absolutely cannot stand the fact that it doesn't have SD card slot and user-replaceable battery(both features are why I've stuck with Samsung phones for so long) It was also not nice when I couldn't install launchers to customize the homescreen to just how I like it.

Oh well......

Partly why people love iPhones so much but it doesn't seem to matter to most Android users. The most important thing is that you use what YOU enjoy using. Android is laggy a lot of the time but there are a lot of cool things about it too. It's just from personal experience that you need to decide if those pros outweigh the cons. On both sides(Apple and Android). I hope you have better luck in getting the lag under control

 

[jdhooghe]

Android users make the mistake of thinking that only people who are ill-informed about technology, or who simply don't care about all of a phone's abilities, would be "foolish" enough to buy an iPhone. A lot of them look at a spec sheet, assume that the iPhone is inferior, and that the people who buy it must not realize it. What many of them fail to understand is that it's not about the spec list; it's about the experience. (Why do you need 3GB of RAM if 1GB can do the same job? Does that make a phone "inferior"?)

It stems from a lack of security in their own purchasing decision. They see that the iPhone is the biggest selling brand in the U.S, but they want to justify going "against the tide".

Just for the record, I'm an Android user. I have a Moto X. But I didn't pass over the iPhone because it "sucks"; it just didn't have the feature set I wanted. If it ever did get the things I wanted, I would give it consideration, because there are many things that iPhones simply do better than Android devices.

If only most of the Android Central users were as level headed as you.

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

Android users make the mistake of thinking that only people who are ill-informed about technology, or who simply don't care about all of a phone's abilities, would be "foolish" enough to buy an iPhone. A lot of them look at a spec sheet, assume that the iPhone is inferior, and that the people who buy it must not realize it. What many of them fail to understand is that it's not about the spec list; it's about the experience. (Why do you need 3GB of RAM if 1GB can do the same job? Does that make a phone "inferior"?)

It stems from a lack of security in their own purchasing decision. They see that the iPhone is the biggest selling brand in the U.S, but they want to justify going "against the tide".

Just for the record, I'm an Android user. I have a Moto X. But I didn't pass over the iPhone because it "sucks"; it just didn't have the feature set I wanted. If it ever did get the things I wanted, I would give it consideration, because there are many things that iPhones simply do better than Android devices.

That's one of the biggest issues with Android users. You get them comparing android phones spec-for-spec with iPhones and deem their devices superior, but you can't compare the two fairly, and if the phone experience were based just on their specs, then why then does the iPhone perform faster than Android phones, ie; Galaxy S5?

It's no secret that Touchwiz stutters throughout the UI and hangs when opening particular things like the multi-tasking menu, app drawer, contacts app, camera etc. No, we're not talking 10+ seconds, but little hangs here and there are noticeable. The 2GB ram Snapdragon 801 can't solve that, it's got to come from software optimisation. Something Apple are very good at, which is why their phones on 1gb ram perform faster than phones on 3gb ram.

I get that a lot of Samsung owners will never claim their phones have lag (and why would they? No one wants to say the phone they've spent hundreds of dollars on has lag), yet there are clear differences between the current fastest (?) Android phone and a Galaxy phone: Nexus 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S5 - UI Performance - YouTube

I think the iPhone 6 would probably perform even better than the Nexus 5, so yeah, to compare the iPhone 6 to a Galaxy S5 would be a noticeable difference in speed.

So OP, you got to weigh up what's more important to you. The speed/snappiness of the phone, or all the extra features the phone offers you. If you value the former, then there are various ways to improve the speed of the phone from reducing animations all the way to flashing a stock rom, which should improve the overall performance.

Otherwise if you do like the features Samsung has on their UI, then you're probably just going to have to put up with the speed of the phone. Just don't expect it to be as fast as the iPhone 6, because it won't be. Ever.

 

[bIOforger]

S5 lag? what lag? ok yep Touchwiz can be a bit laggy, fact, that's why i never use it and always use a launcher. The only other time my S5 lags is when its installing a load of apps after updates in the background and i try to do something else at the sametime. Otherwise its lightning fast. And i'm not biased as i have an iphone 5s as well, its simply not as good imo.

 

[codyoehl]

Man, what you describes is not normal, you should verify what's going on with your phone. My S5 is just as lag free as the day I bought it, April 9th. Best phone I've owned.

Like I said, it might be aviate
But it does seem like a lot of lag

Posted via Android Central App with my Samsung Galaxy S5

 

[PiraTeam]

How old is your Galaxy's battery? I've had terrible lags on my Galaxy S phone until I replaced a battery for a new one (manufactured in 2014).

 

[codyoehl]

I got my S5 the day it came out, so it's only like 5 months old

Posted via Android Central App with my Samsung Galaxy S5

 

[Closingracer]

Samsung's Galaxy S phones have always been laggy garbage. The Note fares much better because of the increased RAM. Sad thing is: it takes 3GB of RAM just to get the UI to run somewhat smoothly, and it still falls short of the iOS experience. Samsung's heavy skins and useless features bog down their phones. iPhones "just work", as they say.

If you want an Android phone that won't lag, you'll have to get a Nexus.

My Note 3 doesn't Lag and is just as smooth as when I had a Nexus 5 .....

 

[P_Devil]

My S5 lagged a little when I first got it, about on par with my iPhone 5 running the latest version of iOS 7 while still being slightly faster than my iPad mini (1st generation) was running iOS 7 as well. It wasn't bad or anything, just a little annoying. It would get faster if I cleared up the cache, stopped processes from running in the background, etc. Then it would get bogged down and back to iPhone 5 levels.

The update to 4.4.4 seemed to fix that though. My S5 has been buttery smooth with no lag when switching between home screens, scrolling in apps, etc. It's a lot faster than my iPad mini (which has the same specs as the iPad 2) and I haven't had to clear the cache in two weeks or monitor background apps. In fact, I haven't had to reboot my S5 since then other than when I installed the Verizon update the following week.

My S5 is performing like a "next generation" handset now with the 4.4.4 update. I compared the general operation to my friend's iPhone 6 and they are about the same. Some apps do open faster on the iPhone 6 but I dug into it and they were released first for the iPhone then later for Android so they are probably ports of some sort. Gmail opened at the same speed on both phones (and my inbox was much bigger, like 20,000 more e-mails bigger), unlocking to the camera took the same amount of time, receiving a text, unlocking to Google Hangouts (which I use for texting) took the same, etc. There were only differences when it came to opening some apps.

Oddly enough, some apps opened faster on my S5. That may have been due to my phone being on Verizon LTE and theirs being on at&t "LTE" (which is anything but where I live) so I'm not sure. Either way, the S5 can certainly holds its own against a phone that is almost half a year newer. The benchmarks even put the two at about the same which is really strange given Apple's past.

 

[prlundberg]

My Verizon S5 has been laggy from day one. The camera is the worst, it usually takes 6 seconds to take a picture if not already running. I'm frequently double-pressing things because it is so slow to respond I'm not sure if my touch registered.

Every other flagship phone is smoother and more responsive. Every single one. I really wish people would stop making excuses and put some pressure on Samsung to improve their awful software. People talk up the customization Touchwiz gives you...yet I can't even change the color scheme? Or turn off the damn "bee-boop" when plugging it in? The S5 has great hardware, still considerably better than the iPhone 6 IMO but Touchwiz combined with Verizon bloatware is terrible, terrible, terrible. Did I mention it is terrible?

 

[steve Sharra]

So far looks like verizon s5 are having problems with the lag??

SAMSUNG GALAXY S5

 

[prlundberg]

The update to 4.4.4 seemed to fix that though. My S5 has been buttery smooth with no lag when switching between home screens, scrolling in apps, etc. It's a lot faster than my iPad mini (which has the same specs as the iPad 2) and I haven't had to clear the cache in two weeks or monitor background apps. In fact, I haven't had to reboot my S5 since then other than when I installed the Verizon update the following week.

My S5 is performing like a "next generation" handset now with the 4.4.4 update.

Well, that is good to hear, I didn't realize 4.4.4 was out, it hadn't been pushed to me yet but looks like it is available. I guess I'll refrain from further comments until I try it.

 

[Gray Area]

Certainly a lot of biased comments here. Lol. Iphone is garbage? I guess this is android central.

Guess you didn't notice the 1st fanboy who stated that the s5 was garbage huh?

Posted with my Galaxy S5, via the Android Central App

 

[Touchpaddle]

Guess you didn't notice the 1st fanboy who stated that the s5 was garbage huh?

Posted with my Galaxy S5, via the Android Central App

just to be fair, *any* smartphone that does not have both
SD card slot AND removable battery is pure garbage.
(all iPhones and many Android phones)

if the iPhones has SD card slot and removable battery,
I will switch immediately. If I told you a year ago that Apple
would cave and follow Samsung by making a 5.5-inch
screen, you would have laughed. The "new" post-Steve
Apple is willing to do anything, so SD card slot and/or
removable battery is not "impossible" yet.

 

[Gray Area]

just to be fair, *any* smartphone that does not have both
SD card slot AND removable battery is pure garbage.
(all iPhones and many Android phones)

if the iPhones has SD card slot and removable battery,
I will switch immediately. If I told you a year ago that Apple
would cave and follow Samsung by making a 5.5-inch
screen, you would have laughed. The "new" post-Steve
Apple is willing to do anything, so SD card slot and/or
removable battery is not "impossible" yet.

I feel like this, anyone who says a phone is garbage at this point in mobile technology isn't being honest unless they have a broken model. I love Samsung products, I love Android products. I am not to keen on Apple however I do acknowledge that they make a good product for what it is.

They make a premium device and they optimise it to the max to make it work seamlessly because only their company can make the devices. Android on the other hand is open to put on any device and though that causes optimization to be a little less efficient it's highly customizable and open to so much more options then ios.

That being said I love my Galaxy S5, it has its quirks with the rare lag or freeze but I love battery life, battery swap option, SD card, amoled screen, heart rate monitor, galaxy gear integration with s-health, great camera and my custom launchers I run on it simultaneously. The hardware is still top notch and at its heart runs head to head with iPhone's 64 bit processor.

All phones have their quirks and goods. IPhone's do have their freezes and system restarts, and getting hot etc.. so don't pretend they don't. I've seen it many times. Bottom line is, for each individual to find which phone you like the most and enjoy it for what it is, be it Android powered, Apple or even Windows or BlackBerry.

Posted with my Galaxy S5, via the Android Central App

 

[prlundberg]

Well, that is good to hear, I didn't realize 4.4.4 was out, it hadn't been pushed to me yet but looks like it is available. I guess I'll refrain from further comments until I try it.

It's only been an hour, but 4.4.4 is looking good so far. Camera is much faster from a cold start. Gallery and Messages are better. The lock screen is more responsive and fingerprint unlock works better. Home button responds faster. Still slow to react to pressing the multi-task button. Will have to wait and see if the frequent random stutters and slowdowns that have been so aggravating are resolved, but so far it feels a lot snappier.

 

[Gray Area]

It's only been an hour, but 4.4.4 is looking good so far. Camera is much faster from a cold start. Gallery and Messages are better. The lock screen is more responsive and fingerprint unlock works better. Home button responds faster. Still slow to react to pressing the multi-task button. Will have to wait and see if the frequent random stutters and slowdowns that have been so aggravating are resolved, but so far it feels a lot snappier.

I'm jealous idk if Sprint s5 is getting the update! They havn't mentioned it.

Posted with my Galaxy S5, via the Android Central App