Android scroll lag - why does it happen and how is it fixed?

[Number29]

I'm sitting here playing on The Simpsons Tapped Out on my partner's SGS3. The most immediate thing I notice in comparison to my iPhone 5 is that the SGS3 doesn't respond immediately to me putting my finger on the screen and moving it to scroll around the game world; there's a perceptible lag before it springs into action. The lack of immediacy to my gestures has always been one of the major things that has bugged me about Android, and I remember it being a problem on my Nexus 4 too before I sold it.

My question is, what is it about the Android system that results in this more delayed response, and how is it rectified? I'm not interested in some sort of flame war, I'm just interested in some sound technical reasoning for the behaviour I witness between the two devices.

Many thanks

#29.

 

[Number29]

It's NOT Android, it's TouchWiz.

Does TouchWiz have an effect on an unrelated app?

 

[Number29]

This issue is present on all Android devices. I'm not sure what exactly causes it, but safe to say it's something deep within Android's core and not something anybody other than Google is going to be able to improve.

Edit: just to clarify, you're talking about the lag between moving your finger and the phone responding, rather than the smoothness of the animations?

Yes, I'm talking about the lag in responsiveness, once the animation gets going its usually fine, it's the getting going part that appears to be problematic!