iOS to Android/S4 - Am I right to be disappointed?

Kenai · 1 May 2013 at 23:40

Well that's the thing, i'm either completely misunderstanding what people mean or i've got lucky with my handset because i've not noticed any kind of stuttering, microstuttering or whatever else like that at all.

It's the sort of thing that would bug the hell out of me if it did.

Robbo · 1 May 2013 at 23:50

Jono8 said:
The amount of GS4 hate is surprising...seems like a lot of people on here went for the HTC ONE because it looked nice (fair enough) and are now of course justifying their purchase, which is understandable, but wearing a bit thin.

I'm currently deciding between the One and S4, I like them both for different reasons but the One seems to have the edge... the 3 dot menu button on it is just terrible though and I'm not even going to consider it unless they fix it. Usually I'd just get them both but I've decided not to do that this year.

I don't think there has been any hate towards the S4, I think as a collective people just feel HTC have done a better job this year.

Nexus18 · 1 May 2013 at 23:58

Yeah, I don't see any "hate" for the GS 4 as a device "overall", just simply about the performance/touchwiz which is understandable given the competition and last year phones have done a much better job in this area, just like the way some people were disappointed with the htc one camera and you could say "hating" on it at the start and the same for the one X at the beginning, performance improved massively with jb.

Of course it should/could improve with a software update especially since the main cause seems to be related to the smart stuff running in the background.

Also, I don't see anyone "justifying" their one purchase and for the record, they went for the one over the GS 4 for other reasons rather than just because it looked nice i.e. speakers and software (in terms of being more polished) being two of a few areas.

It simply comes down to preference.

Hunders · 2 May 2013 at 00:18

I have always had Android phones and I must admit that I was always a little envious of the iPhone's 'smoothness'. The Android phones that I have had felt rough in terms of animations and interactions but the HTC one is simply brilliant and so smooth. It's the Android phone with iPhone smoothness that I always wanted!

Sure, I've had to customise it to my liking somewhat but that is what Android had always been about. If you want to tinker to get a phone that's tailored to you, get an Android. If you want a phone that works out of the box, get an Apple.

I was agonising over whether to get the S4 or One and definitely think I've made the right choice. The only problem now is sometimes I think perhaps I should have went with silver over the black haha.

Cheers.

Murf · 2 May 2013 at 09:01

My S4 seems lightning fast. But I've just upgraded from an S2 so maybe that's why. I wouldn't consider for a second an iPhone till they offered a bigger screen. My phone is for media consumption and web surfing. The tiny screen on the iPhone is just daft.

Oh - Not being able to get the tablet modes of apps like Flipboard\BBC News despite having a 1080p screen is REALLY annoying though.

Bloomfield · 2 May 2013 at 13:46

If you're rooted Xposed + DPI mod might work, custom DPI/Tablet mode was the only thing I missed from ParanoidAndroid, but Xposed sorted it

.

Nexus18 · 2 May 2013 at 14:33

BTW, have the ones who mentioned lag with android devices tried forcing GPU rendering via the developer options?

Instead of the CPU handling most of the stuff i.e. animations with the above option enabled, it is done by GPU and frees up the CPU, in return it allows the CPU to carry out the more important things so in general the UI is snappier and smoother throughout.

Should help the tegra 3 devices.......

Downsides, might consume more battery life and some apps might not work well, can't say I have had a problem with apps and battery life doesn't seem much different on my s.....

Skidder · 2 May 2013 at 14:51

Having had 4 or 5 android handsets I've just moved to windows for a change (Lumia 920). Feels very smooth and slick and so far I like it a lot. Android is hugely customisable but I'm not sure that adds a great deal to the experience after the initial fiddling. That said, I would rather put my sack in a polar bears mouth than buy something from Apple.

I like Android but for the moment Windows feels fresh and very usable. Time will tell whether I get bored of it I guess.

Em3bbs · 2 May 2013 at 17:03

Jono8 said:
The amount of GS4 hate is surprising...seems like a lot of people on here went for the HTC ONE because it looked nice (fair enough) and are now of course justifying their purchase, which is understandable, but wearing a bit thin.

It's not just people that purchased the One that are saying it though. Constructive criticism shouldn't be confused with 'hate' either.

dasyad · 2 May 2013 at 18:40

Nexus18 said:
BTW, have the ones who mentioned lag with android devices tried forcing GPU rendering via the developer options?

Instead of the CPU handling most of the stuff i.e. animations with the above option enabled, it is done by GPU and frees up the CPU, in return it allows the CPU to carry out the more important things so in general the UI is snappier and smoother throughout.

Should help the tegra 3 devices.......

Downsides, might consume more battery life and some apps might not work well, can't say I have had a problem with apps and battery life doesn't seem much different on my s.....

I though project butter in jelly bean was all about GPU acceleration or is it something else?

Snax · 2 May 2013 at 18:58

Robbo said:
Where does your iPhone 5 stutter? Mine is literally stutter free.

it varies and is not generally repeatable. I suppose when it is under load things get less responsive. Also the screen is poor at picking up my touch (no screen protector is on it); it is not broken just a little unresponsive sometimes.

I suppose I am disappointed that there is nothing that I really adore about the iphone- it seems a bit stagnant (old software with the same old problems), with the camera being the one truly outstanding feature. It is by no menas a terrible phone I just cant find anything that stomps on android (and vica versa; android just suits me better).

Nymins · 2 May 2013 at 19:17

Snax said:
it varies and is not generally repeatable. I suppose when it is under load things get less responsive. Also the screen is poor at picking up my touch (no screen protector is on it); it is not broken just a little unresponsive sometimes.

I'd have taken it to the Apple Store to get it checked out. Never ever heard anything bad about the iPhones screen in regards to responsiveness.

Nexus18 · 2 May 2013 at 19:18

dasyad said:
I though project butter in jelly bean was all about GPU acceleration or is it something else?

I think they just said "hardware" acceleration regarding PJ, not 100% sure.....

This is what the "force GPU rendering" option does:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=36745604

Enabling this preference in developer options offloads task of rendering window components like buttons, text and complex 2d graphics calculations to GPU. This often results in much faster UI rendering including animations.
On one side you will definitely achieve better frame rate (and hence smooth experience) throughout system, but you may end up using more battery. On certain devices, GPU consumes more power the CPU, hence you may observe 5-15% lower battery life with option enabled.

I would recommend having this option enabled on devices with weaker CPUs e.g. You should seldom need to enable this on dual-core 1.4ghz ARM CPU.

offloading UI rendering to GPU has obvious benefits so that CPU can work on other important tasks like database IO, data manipulation, layout calculations and responding to other user inputs.

Apparently Samsung haven't implemented project butter, at least not the proper way anyway. Ignore the fanboy crap:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=39896471

S3 doesn't even have jelly bean triple buffering on JB nor system locked onto 60 FPS

Seen that mentioned by other users throughout XDA and there is a thread on it too, can't find it now though, will look for it and post link when/if I find it.

EDIT:

Can't find the thread that I am talking about, but came across this recent one where other people mention it:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2202562

From what I can gather, project butter is there, however, Samsung messed up the implementation.

EDIT:

Decent article explaining the whole butter thing:

http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/0...roject-butter-how-it-works-and-what-it-added/

Robbo · 2 May 2013 at 19:37

Snax said:
it varies and is not generally repeatable. I suppose when it is under load things get less responsive. Also the screen is poor at picking up my touch (no screen protector is on it); it is not broken just a little unresponsive sometimes.

I suppose I am disappointed that there is nothing that I really adore about the iphone- it seems a bit stagnant (old software with the same old problems), with the camera being the one truly outstanding feature. It is by no menas a terrible phone I just cant find anything that stomps on android (and vica versa; android just suits me better).

Nymins said:
I'd have taken it to the Apple Store to get it checked out. Never ever heard anything bad about the iPhones screen in regards to responsiveness.

I have to agree, it sounds faulty or something isn't right with it.

Snax · 2 May 2013 at 20:04

I am pretty sure it is not the screen and is more to do with the software.

It sort of registers the touch but doesn't do anything with it until I spam it a few times and it becomes apparent that the phone is thinking or something or I home button out and back on.

I also think part of this is that I can't tell what the phone is doing because the feedback as to its processes are somewhat concealed. On android I can tell what is happening and adjust accordingly.

I don't mean to say the iPhone is a bad phone. It just doesn't impress me; nothing has made me think that it has something incredible. It works, it has the best camera and it irritates me occasionally with random things (multi tasking, no menu button, having to organise my apps rather than just pull what I want to the front pages etc).

I suppose I expected no bugs and a completely intuitive interface. It is bugged (not hugely but they are still there) it is less intuitive than when I had an iPhone 4 and the smoothness is no more than the nexus devices my other half has. It is fast but 0.25 secs doesn't worry me.

It just hasn't lived up to the hype. Nothing FOR ME is substantially better than android; it feels rather limited as well on the way I can introduce media to it.

edit- just after writing this I had a classic case; i was clicking a link to a different forum with 4 bars of reception. nothing was happening- no loading icon, no blue bar, no webpage saying no reception. It was only because i knew I was in a poor area of reception on my train home that i knew it was a signal problem (despite 4 bars showing). I kept pressing the link...nothing. eventually 2 minutes later the page loaded instantly (with no prior indication). I would have expected a "no signal webpage" to appear with a refresh option.

Nymins · 2 May 2013 at 22:08

Sounds like a faulty device. I'd get it replaced, haven't heard of those type of issues before, especially on an iPhone 5

[TW]Fox · 2 May 2013 at 22:44

Robbo said:
Does the S4 actually stutter though, I'd find that to be incredibly annoying and inexcusable!

The one I played with in CPW over the weekend seemed to, yes. I am really struggling to understand the love for what seems like, tech spec a side, a sub-par device.

Ryan-3 · 3 May 2013 at 16:36

For me, it was the pick between something that was either:

Larger screened plastic phone, a bit ugly and filled with bloatware to get rid of in some way.
OR
Smaller screened Metal phone, looks very good, has rather useful features and 'lesser specs'.

One thing I have done is turn off animations, and my god does it fly!

dasyad · 3 May 2013 at 16:49

Nexus18 said:
Apparently Samsung haven't implemented project butter, at least not the proper way anyway. Ignore the fanboy crap:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=39896471

Seen that mentioned by other users throughout XDA and there is a thread on it too, can't find it now though, will look for it and post link when/if I find it.

EDIT:

Can't find the thread that I am talking about, but came across this recent one where other people mention it:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2202562

From what I can gather, project butter is there, however, Samsung messed up the implementation.

EDIT:

Decent article explaining the whole butter thing:

http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/0...roject-butter-how-it-works-and-what-it-added/

Cheers, seems really naff. Bloody Samsung

ShortWarning · 3 May 2013 at 16:53

I've had Android (coming from iOS) for 4 days now.

For the first day I despised it, I was ready to send the phone back but I now I really really like it. I won't say it's better than iOS (or worse) but it's different and I needed a change.

I have an HTC One btw.