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I honestly think having an underpowered low-spec SoC is a huge problem. Sure, if you have top programmers who have experience writing low-level code and best in

I honestly think having an underpowered low-spec SoC is a huge problem. Sure, if you have top programmers who have experience writing low-level code and best in practice algorithms and data structures for speed you can get that low-spec SoC to have a good experience. But, I think the odds of you getting/retaining, and finding more of those types of programmers is low. So soon you have some programmers trying to cram python or javascript or lua in the underpowered SoC and using Qt or some other wholly inappropriate high-level API and then you end up with those gas station gas pump computers that take 3-9 seconds to respond to single clicks. Of course having high-powered SoCs won't guarantee you'll get performant displays either but I think have low-powered ones generally guarantees failure except for maybe some initial small team of experts.

cmrdporcupine 4y ago
It's super easy to blow your budget on a higher-spec'd SoC, too. We made responsive applications on 1980s era 16-bit and 8-bit computers. We did it by being conscious of what we were doing in each cycle. There's a huge budget to burn on even an older super cheap SoC. Often what is making the screen lag is accidental stupid pointless idle states (blocking on I/O etc.) inside tight animation loops. Lag and jank aren't usually a throughput problem, but a latency problem. Diagnosing and fixing this requires concern and effort and recognition that it's actually super important to the consumer experience. You get what you pay for.