11 ms·

From the review at This Is My Next: "The subtle, pervasive lag that has characterized the Android UI since its inception is still there." You have got to be k

From the review at This Is My Next: "The subtle, pervasive lag that has characterized the Android UI since its inception is still there." You have got to be kidding me. How is it that Android still doesn't map a user's finger movements with nearly 1:1 accuracy on the screen? Pinch, zoom and flick response times on the iPhone have been superior to Android for years, even with significantly less powerful hardware (compare a 3GS response speed to a Nexus S and it's painfully different). Imagine if your mouse cursor couldn't keep up with your hand movements, or if letters didn't appear on the screen until a moment after you pressed your keyboard. That's what using Android is like for me, someone who has owned an iPhone since 2007. When I use my friends' Android phones, any of them, especially in the browser, it boggles my mind how laggy everything is. When will this actually be addressed?

Kylekramer 15y ago
Of course, that is one data point. Gizmodo says "certainly responsive" (http://gizmodo.com/5851133/samsung-galaxy-nexus-the-greatest-androids-got-a-720p-super-amoled-display http://gizmodo.com/5851133/samsung-galaxy-nexus-the-greatest...). Engadget says "startlingly fast" and "faster than its ever been" (http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/18/samsung-galaxy-nexus-hands-on/ http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/18/samsung-galaxy-nexus-hand...). Personally I just think it is clear that Android has gone well beyond the limits of caring (not perception) for the vast majority of users. There will always be nits for picking, but acting like this really needs to be addressed (especially considering how subjective this performance perception can be) is silly.
- chugger 15y ago
  Fast and responsive on this hardware, sure. But what about the other less powerful, free, bogo Android phones out there? Will your carrier-crippled Android phone be able to even upgrade to ICS?
- thisstreet 15y ago
  I've the feeling that Android doesn't employ the GPU for the OS, I hoped that this will change with 4.0
  - keeperofdakeys 15y ago
    Android 4.0, Icecream Sandwich, does have a hardware accelerated UI. Honeycomb has been the only other version to have this.
    - muyuu 15y ago
      Bad news then, Honeycomb devices also lag very noticeably. :(
ethank 15y ago
I did a whole post about how Google needs to head over to Pixar and borrow the seminal book "The Illusion of Life" by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. Learn some animation (http://www.blackrimglasses.com/2009/11/29/the-illusion-of-smart/ http://www.blackrimglasses.com/2009/11/29/the-illusion-of-sm...) Two years ago! You'd think they'd get animation, finger mapping, etc down by now, considering the arms race in Android seems to be around screen size and processor power. I appreciate what Google is doing and I did like my Android phones (I don't have any right now however), but the animation thing and finger mapping bugged me.
- Zaim2 15y ago
  Matias Duarte seems pretty passionate about moving Android forward at least: http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/18/exclusive-matias-duarte-ice-cream-sandwich-galaxy-nexus/ http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/18/exclusive-matias-duarte-i...
  - ethank 15y ago
    Agreed, he seems like he is driving for simplification and focus, which is never a bad thing.
Hrothgar15 15y ago
Google doesn't think this is an issue. And that is exactly the problem.
- jarek 15y ago
  Judging by sales, an awful lot of people seem to agree with their assessment.
  - olivercameron 15y ago
    Let's not forget the relatively high return rate[1] on Android devices. 1. http://androidcommunity.com/android-return-rate-30-40-on-some-handsets-according-to-sources-20110726 http://androidcommunity.com/android-return-rate-30-40-on-som...
    - jarek 15y ago
      Does that information come from the same source that informed TechCrunch of the leak of information about U2 listeners? The article in question is http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/26/androids-dirty-secret-shipping-numbers-are-strong-but-returns-are-30-40/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/26/androids-dirty-secret-shipp..., and the claim in question is "many return rates are approaching 40% said a person familiar with handset sales for multiple manufacturers." And that's exactly the amount of detail provided. Forgive me if I'm not bowled over.
  - cpeterso 15y ago
    Many of those Android "sales" are free phones (with contract).
    - jarek 15y ago
      "Free phones (with contract)" is a bit like saying the house you bought was one fifth the list price (with a mortgage). Perhaps we should only count phones that are sold for the full, unsubsidized price, to avoid giving an unreasonable edge to phones that sell for $200 with contract.
JamesPeterson 15y ago
I'm not sure why you're being downvoted; your point is valid. I can not accept owning an Android phone until this is fixed.
- boyter 15y ago
  I agree. I bought a Samsung Omnia 7 with Windows Phone 7 over android (and I am a free software kind of guy) because I found the Android experience lacking. I just found every Android device to miss the nice snappy response iOS and WP7 gives.
  - pilgrim689 15y ago
    WP7 needs more spotlight. It's a really nice OS, both in UI and in UX. I really hope MS keeps focusing on it!
    - bgarbiak 15y ago
      What it needs is the phone. It's own iPhone, Galaxy S or Droid. Here's hoping Nokia will do it right at last.
    - potatolicious 15y ago
      What MS lacks is the complete package. The OS is great, it's incredibly snappy and responsive - much moreso than Android, and the only player that can give iOS a run for its performance money. But so far all the hardware we've seen out of MS's camp has been me-too almost-clones of existing Android devices. None of the hardware have contained any features or industry design that would really make it desireable. MSFT desperately needs a piece of hardware to act as WP7's flagship - something with the build quality and design quality of the iPhone 4. A real piece of art people can hold in their hands - IMO this would be the ticket to MS having a fighting chance in the smartphone wars. They also desperately need to stop marketing in-house. Microsoft blows at marketing, and everything they do in-house falls flat on its face, and so far everyone they hire from the outside seems to suck equally as much (if not worse. Seinfeld?). Microsoft desperately needs to get its marketing act together.
thought_alarm 15y ago
> Imagine if your mouse cursor couldn't keep up with > your hand movements That's why I gave up on using X11 and Linux back in 2001.
- drivebyacct2 15y ago
  .... what?
  - bgarbiak 15y ago
    Linux has (had?) this annoying little "feature" of minimal input lag. Unnoticable at first, becomes a deal breaker after a while (especially if you work on Windows machine in the meantime). Same story: Firefox, or even Chrome - when compared to Opera. Opera has it's weak points, but it's interface interaction is amazingly snappy. Actually, it's quite amazing how big difference these tiny things can make.
- tadfisher 15y ago
  Ah, before accelerated UI. I can pan, move, and resize windows at 60FPS these days (with vsync on, of course).
cmgarcia 15y ago
So much for the flame war you predicted, everyone just agrees.
noilly 15y ago
afaik, it's android's lack of GPU acceleration for the UI
- tullidil 15y ago
  I didn't hear it during the stream, but ICS is purported to have this (just like Honeycomb already does, AFAIK).
  - drivebyacct2 15y ago
    Thank you. All 2D surfaces can/are accelearated I would bet money that the lag is in legacy apps. For some reason, new apps have to opt-in to hardware acceleration. I can't see any lag at all in all of the hands on videos I'm seeing. By opt in, they have to bump their targetSdkVersion, so it's not a big deal. Source: http://developer.android.com http://developer.android.com
    - charlesr 15y ago
      Yes, it seems that although hardware acceleration was possible prior to Android 3, it wasn't as easy as it is now. It also requires a degree of care to be taken by the dev to do well. Given that it hasn't been available in phones until now (that is, in ICS), it’s understandable why we've seen laggy UI. Source: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/03/android-30-hardware-acceleration.html http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/03/android-30-ha...
seunghomattyang 15y ago
I think it comes down to the fact that most of the Android users don't care about the responsiveness. Maybe there exists this mentality at Google that since Android is expanding pretty well, why bother spend extra resources into GUI acceleration or design? And to an extent, that makes perfect sense. Most Android users don't care enough about responsiveness to pay more (sometimes less) for iPhone or don't even know smartphones could be—and should be—"smooth" since all they have used are Android phones. We are simply spoiled by the Apple's way of doing things: fixing things that aren't broken for the betterment of UX. Take the smoother folder opening animations in iOS 5, for example. Apple didn't have to fix it but Apple did it anyways because both Apple and its users care about things like that. Unfortunately, some people just don't.
- jarek 15y ago
  We are simply spoiled by the Apple's way of doing things: fixing things that aren't broken for the betterment of UX. Absolutely. Notifications UI before iOS 5 is only one example that comes to mind.
- kevinchen 15y ago
  The “let’s cut corners because most people won’t notice or care” mentality you mentioned is where sub-par software comes from. Good software shouldn’t be a luxury that one can be “spoiled” by — it should be the standard.
  - jarek 15y ago
    The big problem with this argument is that there isn't a software creator out there that doesn't cut corners, not the least because there isn't one agreed-upon master list of what constitutes a corner.
    - gfodor 15y ago
      Poor responsiveness for a touch screen interface on such a late generation device is an embarassment especially when you look at the features that have garnered focus.
kgen 15y ago
They just added Hardware Acceleration: http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0-highlights.html http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0-highlights.html so I imagine it's going to take a bit of time for apps to catch up.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
joebadmo 15y ago
Apparently this and the Droid RAZR are the first with hardware accelerated GUIs, and the RAZR is silky smooth. The Nexus is almost twice as many pixels with the same processor, so I assume that has something to do with it, but I definitely hope it's just not-yet-worked-out kinks.
CoffeeDregs 15y ago
>Imagine if your mouse cursor couldn't keep up with your hand movements, or if >letters didn't appear on the screen until a moment after you pressed your keyboard. <eyes-closed> <imagining/> </eyes-closed> Even in my imagination, Android installed base is still growing at nearly 2X of that of the iPhone. Apparently, most people don't care for whatever you're saying they should care about. I have experienced the lag you mention, but I have a big, lovely screen on my Galaxy S [which is one of the reasons I upgraded from my iPhone 3GS], so I'm okay with it. My wife (a realtor) has never mentioned lag as an issue. I don't mean to be rude, but we hear so often that Android fanboys use the silliest things as justifications for the shortcomings of Android [and they do!]. At the same time, Apple fanboys trumpet the silliest of things as justifications for the superiority of iOS [witness the many apologies/rationalizations after the 4S announcement]. You're trumpeting a silly thing.
- chugger 15y ago
  Android is growing fast because its on every crappy free/buy one get one smartphones that are basically used as a glorified feature phone, NOT because its good.
  - vetinari 15y ago
    Many iPhones are used as feature phones too. Their owners want to show off, but use it just for calling and maybe texting.
  - vetinari 15y ago
    Many iPhones are used as feature phones too. Their owners want to show off, but use it just for calling and maybe texting.
  - jarek 15y ago
    How can you prove this statement?
- ugh 15y ago
  It’s not a silly thing if I truly care about it. Lag drives me crazy. I hardly ever need more than a few minutes before I want to throw an Android device at the wall. This reason is personal. Others don’t care about it. That’s certainly true. But I do. Why am I not allowed to bring this up? Why is that silly?
nodata 15y ago
> How is it that Android still doesn't map a user's finger movements with nearly 1:1 accuracy on the screen? I don't have this problem at all (Samsung Galaxy S2)
eizooo 15y ago
good point but after a while you get used to it ...
duncanwilcox 15y ago
The "regular people" I know who own an Android phone bought it because it was cheaper, and in fact have a sub $150 thing (unlocked, retail). They also are regularly out of pre-paid credit. As a developer I couldn't care less about that kind of user, and I suspect few developers make a living on a fragmented and inconsistent platform like Android. This in turn means less quality and variety of apps, which detracts even more from the experience. If you have no money and no taste, sure lagginess, a terrible UI and advertising laden apps can be acceptable.
muyuu 15y ago
Single reason I got a Playbook over a Galaxy Tab. Lag disturbs me greatly, I have an Android phone and I can't bring myself to use it because of that. Regularly I check in stores to see if they finally made it acceptable and so far they haven't. It really makes me wonder. This reminds me of Amiga vs Windows. Many years after Amiga's demise, the bloody mouse cursor still lagged in Windows very noticeably. I guess not many people had done much work in Amiga's workbench so it wasn't a big deal for almost nobody. But it wasn't until Pentium III times that it stopped disturbing me on a daily basis.
charlesr 15y ago
I find the lagginess of the stock browser infuriating on my Nexus S. On graphics-heavy pages it can become almost unusable. Pages with mainly text are generally fine. But here's the thing, Opera Mobile on the same phone and on the same laggy pages is smooth as silk. It has remained snappy and responsive no matter how hard I've tried to make it choke. Kudos to Opera. I would like to ask: has anyone else observed this? If not, could you give it a whirl and see how it compares? Only downside is that it takes a while to load and seems to lose its state when switching away. Still, it's a much better experience than the stock WebKit browser. So the question on my mind is, how does Opera do it? Is the WebKit browser simply failing to use GPU acceleration? Why? Clearly Android as a platform can do responsive, non-laggy UX because it's right there in Opera. And yet the WebKit browser lets us, and the many apps that exploit it, down. Is it purely that GPU support hasn't been baked in yet because of lack of handset support? Or is it something more fundamentally problematic in Android? One final tangential observation: OS X suffered from similar poor performance when it was first released. I clearly remember the tech press scoffing and ridiculing it in comparison to Windows XP and OS9. But it matured, helped by ever improving hardware, and grew into a great OS known for its style and snap. Is Google treading a similar path?

Kylekramer 15y ago

Of course, that is one data point. Gizmodo says "certainly responsive" (http://gizmodo.com/5851133/samsung-galaxy-nexus-the-greatest-androids-got-a-720p-super-amoled-display http://gizmodo.com/5851133/samsung-galaxy-nexus-the-greatest...). Engadget says "startlingly fast" and "faster than its ever been" (http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/18/samsung-galaxy-nexus-hands-on/ http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/18/samsung-galaxy-nexus-hand...). Personally I just think it is clear that Android has gone well beyond the limits of caring (not perception) for the vast majority of users. There will always be nits for picking, but acting like this really needs to be addressed (especially considering how subjective this performance perception can be) is silly.

chugger 15y ago
Fast and responsive on this hardware, sure. But what about the other less powerful, free, bogo Android phones out there? Will your carrier-crippled Android phone be able to even upgrade to ICS?
thisstreet 15y ago
I've the feeling that Android doesn't employ the GPU for the OS, I hoped that this will change with 4.0
- keeperofdakeys 15y ago
  Android 4.0, Icecream Sandwich, does have a hardware accelerated UI. Honeycomb has been the only other version to have this.
  - muyuu 15y ago
    Bad news then, Honeycomb devices also lag very noticeably. :(

ethank 15y ago

I did a whole post about how Google needs to head over to Pixar and borrow the seminal book "The Illusion of Life" by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. Learn some animation (http://www.blackrimglasses.com/2009/11/29/the-illusion-of-smart/ http://www.blackrimglasses.com/2009/11/29/the-illusion-of-sm...) Two years ago! You'd think they'd get animation, finger mapping, etc down by now, considering the arms race in Android seems to be around screen size and processor power. I appreciate what Google is doing and I did like my Android phones (I don't have any right now however), but the animation thing and finger mapping bugged me.

Zaim2 15y ago
Matias Duarte seems pretty passionate about moving Android forward at least: http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/18/exclusive-matias-duarte-ice-cream-sandwich-galaxy-nexus/ http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/18/exclusive-matias-duarte-i...
- ethank 15y ago
  Agreed, he seems like he is driving for simplification and focus, which is never a bad thing.

Hrothgar15 15y ago

Google doesn't think this is an issue. And that is exactly the problem.

jarek 15y ago
Judging by sales, an awful lot of people seem to agree with their assessment.
- olivercameron 15y ago
  Let's not forget the relatively high return rate[1] on Android devices. 1. http://androidcommunity.com/android-return-rate-30-40-on-some-handsets-according-to-sources-20110726 http://androidcommunity.com/android-return-rate-30-40-on-som...
  - jarek 15y ago
    Does that information come from the same source that informed TechCrunch of the leak of information about U2 listeners? The article in question is http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/26/androids-dirty-secret-shipping-numbers-are-strong-but-returns-are-30-40/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/26/androids-dirty-secret-shipp..., and the claim in question is "many return rates are approaching 40% said a person familiar with handset sales for multiple manufacturers." And that's exactly the amount of detail provided. Forgive me if I'm not bowled over.
- cpeterso 15y ago
  Many of those Android "sales" are free phones (with contract).
  - jarek 15y ago
    "Free phones (with contract)" is a bit like saying the house you bought was one fifth the list price (with a mortgage). Perhaps we should only count phones that are sold for the full, unsubsidized price, to avoid giving an unreasonable edge to phones that sell for $200 with contract.

JamesPeterson 15y ago

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted; your point is valid. I can not accept owning an Android phone until this is fixed.

boyter 15y ago
I agree. I bought a Samsung Omnia 7 with Windows Phone 7 over android (and I am a free software kind of guy) because I found the Android experience lacking. I just found every Android device to miss the nice snappy response iOS and WP7 gives.
- pilgrim689 15y ago
  WP7 needs more spotlight. It's a really nice OS, both in UI and in UX. I really hope MS keeps focusing on it!
  - bgarbiak 15y ago
    What it needs is the phone. It's own iPhone, Galaxy S or Droid. Here's hoping Nokia will do it right at last.
  - potatolicious 15y ago
    What MS lacks is the complete package. The OS is great, it's incredibly snappy and responsive - much moreso than Android, and the only player that can give iOS a run for its performance money. But so far all the hardware we've seen out of MS's camp has been me-too almost-clones of existing Android devices. None of the hardware have contained any features or industry design that would really make it desireable. MSFT desperately needs a piece of hardware to act as WP7's flagship - something with the build quality and design quality of the iPhone 4. A real piece of art people can hold in their hands - IMO this would be the ticket to MS having a fighting chance in the smartphone wars. They also desperately need to stop marketing in-house. Microsoft blows at marketing, and everything they do in-house falls flat on its face, and so far everyone they hire from the outside seems to suck equally as much (if not worse. Seinfeld?). Microsoft desperately needs to get its marketing act together.

thought_alarm 15y ago

> Imagine if your mouse cursor couldn't keep up with > your hand movements That's why I gave up on using X11 and Linux back in 2001.

drivebyacct2 15y ago
.... what?
- bgarbiak 15y ago
  Linux has (had?) this annoying little "feature" of minimal input lag. Unnoticable at first, becomes a deal breaker after a while (especially if you work on Windows machine in the meantime). Same story: Firefox, or even Chrome - when compared to Opera. Opera has it's weak points, but it's interface interaction is amazingly snappy. Actually, it's quite amazing how big difference these tiny things can make.
tadfisher 15y ago
Ah, before accelerated UI. I can pan, move, and resize windows at 60FPS these days (with vsync on, of course).

cmgarcia 15y ago

So much for the flame war you predicted, everyone just agrees.

noilly 15y ago

afaik, it's android's lack of GPU acceleration for the UI

tullidil 15y ago
I didn't hear it during the stream, but ICS is purported to have this (just like Honeycomb already does, AFAIK).
- drivebyacct2 15y ago
  Thank you. All 2D surfaces can/are accelearated I would bet money that the lag is in legacy apps. For some reason, new apps have to opt-in to hardware acceleration. I can't see any lag at all in all of the hands on videos I'm seeing. By opt in, they have to bump their targetSdkVersion, so it's not a big deal. Source: http://developer.android.com http://developer.android.com
  - charlesr 15y ago
    Yes, it seems that although hardware acceleration was possible prior to Android 3, it wasn't as easy as it is now. It also requires a degree of care to be taken by the dev to do well. Given that it hasn't been available in phones until now (that is, in ICS), it’s understandable why we've seen laggy UI. Source: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/03/android-30-hardware-acceleration.html http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/03/android-30-ha...

seunghomattyang 15y ago

I think it comes down to the fact that most of the Android users don't care about the responsiveness. Maybe there exists this mentality at Google that since Android is expanding pretty well, why bother spend extra resources into GUI acceleration or design? And to an extent, that makes perfect sense. Most Android users don't care enough about responsiveness to pay more (sometimes less) for iPhone or don't even know smartphones could be—and should be—"smooth" since all they have used are Android phones. We are simply spoiled by the Apple's way of doing things: fixing things that aren't broken for the betterment of UX. Take the smoother folder opening animations in iOS 5, for example. Apple didn't have to fix it but Apple did it anyways because both Apple and its users care about things like that. Unfortunately, some people just don't.

jarek 15y ago
We are simply spoiled by the Apple's way of doing things: fixing things that aren't broken for the betterment of UX. Absolutely. Notifications UI before iOS 5 is only one example that comes to mind.
kevinchen 15y ago
The “let’s cut corners because most people won’t notice or care” mentality you mentioned is where sub-par software comes from. Good software shouldn’t be a luxury that one can be “spoiled” by — it should be the standard.
- jarek 15y ago
  The big problem with this argument is that there isn't a software creator out there that doesn't cut corners, not the least because there isn't one agreed-upon master list of what constitutes a corner.
  - gfodor 15y ago
    Poor responsiveness for a touch screen interface on such a late generation device is an embarassment especially when you look at the features that have garnered focus.

kgen 15y ago

They just added Hardware Acceleration: http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0-highlights.html http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0-highlights.html so I imagine it's going to take a bit of time for apps to catch up.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

joebadmo 15y ago

Apparently this and the Droid RAZR are the first with hardware accelerated GUIs, and the RAZR is silky smooth. The Nexus is almost twice as many pixels with the same processor, so I assume that has something to do with it, but I definitely hope it's just not-yet-worked-out kinks.

CoffeeDregs 15y ago

>Imagine if your mouse cursor couldn't keep up with your hand movements, or if >letters didn't appear on the screen until a moment after you pressed your keyboard. <eyes-closed> <imagining/> </eyes-closed> Even in my imagination, Android installed base is still growing at nearly 2X of that of the iPhone. Apparently, most people don't care for whatever you're saying they should care about. I have experienced the lag you mention, but I have a big, lovely screen on my Galaxy S [which is one of the reasons I upgraded from my iPhone 3GS], so I'm okay with it. My wife (a realtor) has never mentioned lag as an issue. I don't mean to be rude, but we hear so often that Android fanboys use the silliest things as justifications for the shortcomings of Android [and they do!]. At the same time, Apple fanboys trumpet the silliest of things as justifications for the superiority of iOS [witness the many apologies/rationalizations after the 4S announcement]. You're trumpeting a silly thing.

chugger 15y ago
Android is growing fast because its on every crappy free/buy one get one smartphones that are basically used as a glorified feature phone, NOT because its good.
- vetinari 15y ago
  Many iPhones are used as feature phones too. Their owners want to show off, but use it just for calling and maybe texting.
- vetinari 15y ago
  Many iPhones are used as feature phones too. Their owners want to show off, but use it just for calling and maybe texting.
- jarek 15y ago
  How can you prove this statement?
ugh 15y ago
It’s not a silly thing if I truly care about it. Lag drives me crazy. I hardly ever need more than a few minutes before I want to throw an Android device at the wall. This reason is personal. Others don’t care about it. That’s certainly true. But I do. Why am I not allowed to bring this up? Why is that silly?

nodata 15y ago

> How is it that Android still doesn't map a user's finger movements with nearly 1:1 accuracy on the screen? I don't have this problem at all (Samsung Galaxy S2)

eizooo 15y ago

good point but after a while you get used to it ...

duncanwilcox 15y ago

The "regular people" I know who own an Android phone bought it because it was cheaper, and in fact have a sub $150 thing (unlocked, retail). They also are regularly out of pre-paid credit. As a developer I couldn't care less about that kind of user, and I suspect few developers make a living on a fragmented and inconsistent platform like Android. This in turn means less quality and variety of apps, which detracts even more from the experience. If you have no money and no taste, sure lagginess, a terrible UI and advertising laden apps can be acceptable.

muyuu 15y ago

Single reason I got a Playbook over a Galaxy Tab. Lag disturbs me greatly, I have an Android phone and I can't bring myself to use it because of that. Regularly I check in stores to see if they finally made it acceptable and so far they haven't. It really makes me wonder. This reminds me of Amiga vs Windows. Many years after Amiga's demise, the bloody mouse cursor still lagged in Windows very noticeably. I guess not many people had done much work in Amiga's workbench so it wasn't a big deal for almost nobody. But it wasn't until Pentium III times that it stopped disturbing me on a daily basis.

charlesr 15y ago

I find the lagginess of the stock browser infuriating on my Nexus S. On graphics-heavy pages it can become almost unusable. Pages with mainly text are generally fine. But here's the thing, Opera Mobile on the same phone and on the same laggy pages is smooth as silk. It has remained snappy and responsive no matter how hard I've tried to make it choke. Kudos to Opera. I would like to ask: has anyone else observed this? If not, could you give it a whirl and see how it compares? Only downside is that it takes a while to load and seems to lose its state when switching away. Still, it's a much better experience than the stock WebKit browser. So the question on my mind is, how does Opera do it? Is the WebKit browser simply failing to use GPU acceleration? Why? Clearly Android as a platform can do responsive, non-laggy UX because it's right there in Opera. And yet the WebKit browser lets us, and the many apps that exploit it, down. Is it purely that GPU support hasn't been baked in yet because of lack of handset support? Or is it something more fundamentally problematic in Android? One final tangential observation: OS X suffered from similar poor performance when it was first released. I clearly remember the tech press scoffing and ridiculing it in comparison to Windows XP and OS9. But it matured, helped by ever improving hardware, and grew into a great OS known for its style and snap. Is Google treading a similar path?