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

Number29

Number29

Number29

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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.
 
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?
 
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It might have something to do with the way the UI is drawn... iirc iOS devices have resources focused towards a smooth UI whereas Android's tend to be focused towards a better all-round experience.

EDIT: that sounds flamey, not meant to
 
ng93 said:
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?
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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!
 
Mr Paul said:
It's NOT Android, it's TouchWiz.
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It's not really going to be TW as I don't believe TW has a library to supersede the touch interface between the digitiser and the OS. The devices in question also share the same manufacturer for their touch system (synaptics) and both (since 4.1) use a 60Mhz poll system iirc.

The reality is the Tapped out game is basically poor on Android and being rendered in software IIRC (so many devices can easily run it) vs iOS where it enjoys much better support (and has been on the platform longer thus more mature).

As for saying Android's poor to respond, eh, iOS is just as bad but they do a better job of hiding it to me with their screen scroll system (scrolls without updating etc...). For the majority of it though you're just imagining it worse - likely because you own an iPhone and not an SGS3. I'm not saying I'm completely objective either but I am fortunate to use pretty much all devices sold in Europe and tbh there is no clear winner for it each OS has good and bad points.
 
Myshra said:
The reality is the Tapped out game is basically poor on Android and being rendered in software IIRC (so many devices can easily run it) vs iOS where it enjoys much better support (and has been on the platform longer thus more mature).
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Pretty much this. Probably due to the amount of different Android devices out there, they decided to play it safe with software rendering. Where as with the iPhone there is less different devices meaning easier to make it optimised for each model.

I suppose you can go into settings and then developer options, and see if forcing 2D hardware acceleration can help. In the end though, it still relies on the quality of the app itself.
 
Touchwiz and all of Samsungs bloat is still sitting in the background when apps are running. This is what is causing the lags IMHO.

My N4 with stock 4.2.2 is butter smooth (pun intended)
 
Mr Paul said:
Touchwiz and all of Samsungs bloat is still sitting in the background when apps are running. This is what is causing the lags IMHO.

My N4 with stock 4.2.2 is butter smooth (pun intended)
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This occurs on my Nexus 4 despite it being buttery smooth so it's not a Touchwiz specific problem, although the added bloat probably makes it worse.
 
Not had an issue with my HTC One - everything is instant :)

My old DHD however was sometimes getting to the point where the 3D animation I had running as my homescreen scrolling option would take a second or so to move after I'd swiped left or right!
 
Number29 said:
Does TouchWiz have an effect on an unrelated app?
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No.

Tapped out feels smooth enough on the Galaxy S3 for me but then I don't use an iPhone so I have nothing to compare to.

Mr Paul said:
Touchwiz and all of Samsungs bloat is still sitting in the background when apps are running. This is what is causing the lags IMHO.

My N4 with stock 4.2.2 is butter smooth (pun intended)
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Nope, disabling all the features makes no difference to performance.
 
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ng93 said:
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.
Click to expand...

The joys of running a Dalvik VM rather than native code, unfortunately I think it is always going to be somewhat of a problem. However more powerful hardware should overcome most of the shortfalls.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalvik_(software)
 
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