I haven’t used an Android device since my last one, the Galaxy S8. Beautiful hardware, beautiful design, but it was plagued with animation stutters and dropped frames. I switched to an iPhone and an iPad around 6 years ago. And the animations were buttersmooth. It was almost unthinkable to achieve such a fluid interface on any Android phone I had ever used, flagship or otherwise.

Now I am curious about how it is now. Especially after a 2-3 years of use. Does your phone or tablet stutter when you scroll, open an app, switch to another app, start multitasking etc etc? One thing I especially remember was opening certain apps like big games or Office apps. When I’d tap on the app’s icon, there would be a half a second delay. But in that infinitesimally short period of time I would question whether the phone registered the touch or not. I would then reach with my finger again but the app would launch right before my second tap. That was constant and infuriating. Does that sort of stuff still happen on Android?

Thanks (:

  • albsen@beehaw.org
    6·
    9 months ago

    in iOS the UI thread is split from the rest of the compute, and runs at elevated priority if i recall correctly. this used to not be the same case for android. having said that, my android devices run just fine as long as they have plenty of ram. so, if you buy a flagship samsung it usually comes with 12gb ram. the current minimum I’d say is 8gb. used to have the pixel 4xl with 6gb which kept lagging… how the situation develops in 2 to 3 years and if 12gb is still enough remains to be seen. in general apple is better with long-term device support (up to 5 years). all this is of course very subjective and depends on ur usage and if u game a lot on ur device.

    • IronTwo@beehaw.orgOP
      3·
      9 months ago

      Forgive me for asking if it was obvious in your comment but, when you said

      in iOS the UI thread is split from the rest of the compute, and runs at elevated priority if i recall correctly. this used to not be the same case for android

      did you mean that now Android does the same?

    • i_am_not_a_robot@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      4·
      9 months ago

      I’m pretty sure this difference isn’t real. On both, the UI is supposed to be for the UI and anything that takes longer is supposed to happen on a different thread. Even Windows Phone had that. However, in practice developers don’t always do it and this isn’t as great as it sounds. If you’re scrolling or something and scroll faster than the background threads, it will stutter. If the app has a resource leak, it will stutter. If the graphics are too complicated, it will stutter.

      RAM requirements depend on what you’re doing. I had a Pixel 4 and it always ran great. I had to get rid of it because it was physically falling apart and Google stopped releasing security updates for it.