Galaxy S4 laggy?

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snapple232

Senior Member
Feb 14, 2011
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I was watching some hands on videos of the S4 and was pretty disappointed to see that the interface is laggy in some areas and overall less than perfectly smooth. There's absolutely no excuse for it considering how powerful the hardware is, and shows that Samsung's priorities are all wrong (throwing in a hundred random new features but neglecting the basics of the user experience). But I've seen some comments saying those were just pre-production units. Is that just a fanboy excuse or can we really expect to see a major improvement in smoothness by launch? Is there lag on the Galaxy S3 for anyone who's owned one? UI lag is my biggest pet peeve, and that alone is making me consider the HTC One for the first time despite the S4 beating it in almost everything else.
 

Closed Source Project

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Mar 31, 2012
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The Windy City, Chicago, Illinois
I have noticed in some S3 vs HTC One videos, that the S3 took considerably longer time to show the homescreen when leaving an app by pressing the home button. In some videos I think I might have seen the same thing on the S4. Maybe it's TouchWiz, maybe it's just that the device is not final or so many other apps were open in the background.
 
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SilentEYE

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Mar 23, 2008
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Samsungs Launcher software was always a master on being laggy. Especially at the first releases. But after a few updates this lags flew out.
It will be the same on the S4.
 
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Baldilocks

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May 31, 2010
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Every hands on I've seen so far seems fine to me. If there is any 'lag' going to homescreen, it's because of Touchwiz waiting for that hold or double press for voice control. (Can't remember which it is.)
 
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Livebyte

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Jul 14, 2012
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I was watching some hands on videos of the S4 and was pretty disappointed to see that the interface is laggy in some areas and overall less than perfectly smooth. There's absolutely no excuse for it considering how powerful the hardware is, and shows that Samsung's priorities are all wrong (throwing in a hundred random new features but neglecting the basics of the user experience). But I've seen some comments saying those were just pre-production units. Is that just a fanboy excuse or can we really expect to see a major improvement in smoothness by launch? Is there lag on the Galaxy S3 for anyone who's owned one? UI lag is my biggest pet peeve, and that alone is making me consider the HTC One for the first time despite the S4 beating it in almost everything else.

Bad software to blame.
An octa-core has no excuse.
 
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jameslfc5

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Sep 27, 2009
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Every hands on I've seen so far seems fine to me. If there is any 'lag' going to homescreen, it's because of Touchwiz waiting for that hold or double press for voice control. (Can't remember which it is.)

This is the reason, that's why the S Voice double press option gets disabled straight away

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk 2
 

barondebxl

Senior Member
Jul 8, 2011
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San Diego, CA
Beta software to blame.

Exactly. Thank God there are still smart people around. Its because it is beta and not final software. Samsung phones are the most fluid phones out there besides the nexus line ( jelly bean era). The S3 had many Jelly bean leaks ( 10 or more) just 2 weeks before the final version was released. The first leak was very laggy, by the 3rd it was starting to be ok, by the 7th or 8th you could feel project butter. The S IV is shipping in a month so whatever lag there is, it will probably be gone.
 

Bagbug

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Apr 4, 2012
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Samsung's fanboys wont admit it , but the SGS2/3/Note1/2/10.1 lag out of the box.

Just walk in a Staples or a BB and try a Note 10.1. It is extremely laggy.

You need to disable all the crapwares/bloatwares if you want to feel this tablet runs like an iPad.

I never understood why Samsung let their demos(out of the box devices) be so unpleasant to use.

Some are saying Google cant live without Samsung but I say a Motorola Google X available with all the carriers would remove Samsung from the number one Android phones.

Samsung need to be bumped asap
 

Baldilocks

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May 31, 2010
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Samsung's fanboys wont admit it , but the SGS2/3/Note1/2/10.1 lag out of the box.

Just walk in a Staples or a BB and try a Note 10.1. It is extremely laggy.

You need to disable all the crapwares/bloatwares if you want to feel this tablet runs like an iPad.

I never understood why Samsung let their demos(out of the box devices) be so unpleasant to use.

Some are saying Google cant live without Samsung but I say a Motorola Google X available with all the carriers would remove Samsung from the number one Android phones.

Samsung need to be bumped asap

There hasn't been a good Motorola phone since the original RAZR.
 

dlutz8

Senior Member
Oct 13, 2012
65
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It is very laggy with smart stay and smart scroll turned on. Turn them off and it is much improved.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium
 

SlimJ87D

Senior Member
Jan 16, 2008
2,326
424
I was watching some hands on videos of the S4 and was pretty disappointed to see that the interface is laggy in some areas and overall less than perfectly smooth. There's absolutely no excuse for it considering how powerful the hardware is, and shows that Samsung's priorities are all wrong (throwing in a hundred random new features but neglecting the basics of the user experience). But I've seen some comments saying those were just pre-production units. Is that just a fanboy excuse or can we really expect to see a major improvement in smoothness by launch? Is there lag on the Galaxy S3 for anyone who's owned one? UI lag is my biggest pet peeve, and that alone is making me consider the HTC One for the first time despite the S4 beating it in almost everything else.

I wouldn't judge till we saw a final production model.

I have noticed in some S3 vs HTC One videos, that the S3 took considerably longer time to show the homescreen when leaving an app by pressing the home button. In some videos I think I might have seen the same thing on the S4. Maybe it's TouchWiz, maybe it's just that the device is not final or so many other apps were open in the background.

Of course it's going to lag when you hit home. You have to deactivate S Voice double tap home launch. The SGS4 is going to wait a split second or 2 to see if you hit home again to launch S Voice. Deactivate that and it would have just went home.

I did notice a little bit of lag when the phones were being demoed, but quite honestly these are pre-release models. It could be as simple as the phone not killing its tasks after it opens up 7 or 10 apps. What if the person before opened up a few browsers, the camera, gallery, flipboard, a game, etc?

Again, I'll judge when the thing actually comes out or when GSM Arena gets a hold of a final production model.
 

barondebxl

Senior Member
Jul 8, 2011
7,857
2,028
San Diego, CA
Samsung's fanboys wont admit it , but the SGS2/3/Note1/2/10.1 lag out of the box.

Just walk in a Staples or a BB and try a Note 10.1. It is extremely laggy.

You need to disable all the crapwares/bloatwares if you want to feel this tablet runs like an iPad.

I never understood why Samsung let their demos(out of the box devices) be so unpleasant to use.

Some are saying Google cant live without Samsung but I say a Motorola Google X available with all the carriers would remove Samsung from the number one Android phones.

Samsung need to be bumped asap

Listen to this guy lol. Note 2, s3,s2 do not lag out of the box, note 1 yes when it didnt have jelly bean, dont know now. Dont know aqbout note 10.1 either. You speak like a hater, keep on hating :p
 

XxPixX

Senior Member
Dec 19, 2012
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Warsaw
Listen to this guy lol. Note 2, s3,s2 do not lag out of the box, note 1 yes when it didnt have jelly bean, dont know now. Dont know aqbout note 10.1 either. You speak like a hater, keep on hating :p

The Jelly Bean update that samsung gave to the galaxy note 1 is probably the worst update I have seen. It is buggy, slow and laggy! Even after removing all the bloat taking it down to 236MB it is still laggy and slow. This is one of the reasons why I am not going to go with any sammy device, poor support and bad optimisation hardware-software wise
 
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barondebxl

Senior Member
Jul 8, 2011
7,857
2,028
San Diego, CA
The Jelly Bean update that samsung gave to the galaxy note 1 is probably the worst update I have seen. It is buggy, slow and laggy! Even after removing all the bloat taking it down to 236MB it is still laggy and slow. This is one of the reasons why I am not going to go with any sammy device, poor support and bad optimisation hardware-software wise

Yeah i'm not sure about the note1, i had early 2012 when it had ICS. But i had the S3 and note 2, both were fast and fluid with little to no lag at all, especially the note 2 thanks to the 2 gigs or Ram.
 

Andrewtst

Senior Member
Aug 4, 2009
4,840
1,792
Johor
I play a lot Samsung and own some of it.

Samsung Lagging phone/tablet
- Note
- Tab 10.1 (This one is pure rubbish)

Samsung not so smooth interface
- S II ( franky said that only 4.1.2 france ROM with S III interface run quite well here.. hmm)
- S III International Edition (it actually quite nice now using XperianZe ROM, means latest touchwiz to blame not really capable for 1GB device)
- Note 10.1

Samsung with well acceptable interface smoothness, not smooth interface (some sort like cut frame) was keep to extreme minimal
- S III LTE edition
- Note II
- Nexus 10

Base on above, and current spec, I believe in final, S 4 will running smooth on it interface.
 

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  • 5
    Could a better man than me please please EXPLAIN why there is lag?

    I understand about software optimization and all that.....but we're on the galaxy s FOUR now. I mean, why is there STILL dialer lag? Are the software engineers stumped as to how to fix it? Does apple have some sort of patent on something in iOS that rids it off 99% of any lag?

    I would love for someone to concisely explain this. Project butter obviously helped........but the GS4 is a powerhouse - what sort of processor will be needed for zero lag??? 3ghz? 10? I just don't get it.


    As much as I hate apple, the difference is iOS users get excited about firmware updates because they bring new features, whereas the majority of GS users get excited because the new firmwares are fixing bugs and ui issues. Depressing.
    4
    Either bull****ing or badly configured phone. Mine does not lag at all and all the so called gimmicks work just fine for me. I can scroll with moving my eyes and use hand gestures. Everything is fine except for the smearing but that doesn't bother me.

    Swyped from another galaxy

    POS, friggin thing overheats, freezes, lags. It's a toy, nothing more, nothing less. I took my second one back today as it was just as bad as the first.

    How could you destroy such a great product +Samsung Mobile ? I mean I am returning mine today as the lag just makes it unuseable. The extreme lag. Also just a real pain to do anything like heaven forbid, change an icon on the Homescreen or move a widget. Also none of the new features work. And the camera next to almost doesn't respond. Oh, and you can't email a picture from the Share menu on the picture itself. I also didn't find it very bright at all and overall just horrible. For a new or light user maybe OK. But for a Samsung lover it's just horrible. Touchwiz has just gone horrible.

    And in Gallery, the photos hardly ever load. If they do, they can freeze the whole phone. If you actually get to view a photo, and turn the phone sideways, the photo stays in portait. You have to press a button to rotate the photo! And vice versa.

    You can't even replace the bottom row of icons and you have to go Menu - Edit just to move an icon or resize a widget. It just plain sucks. The lag is inexcuseable.

    And the email program has changed from black screen to white screen, making it really hard to view the emails.

    Overall the colours are really garish and cartoony. You really can't tell it's a 1080P screen. It also doesn't feel like 5".

    When you compare the Galaxy S4 to a HTC One or an LG Optimus G you can tell there's a lot missing in the Samsung.

    I would say the Galaxy S4 is on par with quality and brightness of the Sony Xperia Z.

    And that's saying something.

    I have owned every Galaxy phone since the Galaxy S. I use a Note II daily. I love Samsung

    But they have destroyed the Galaxy name with the S4.
    3
    OK to all those guys who say that the lag is due to the touch wiz interface... Seriously.. It's like saying that iphone4 was small cause of the screen size and not due to Apple's final decision... It's the final product that matter.. If Samsung decides to implement certain features in their phone it should be implemented perfectly.. I don't want to buy a 600 dollar phone only for it to get better with time.. I want the baby to shoot stars from the word go... S3/s2 all for better software's with time isn't an excuse.. It's just poor management and customer support.. Samsung has always been poor at fixing bugs and all...i have never seen a single HTC device after sensation to have any software issues out of the box.. But my s3... Damn the baby lagged like hell in it's settings menu.. transitions were buggy which i accept got better with time but i had to live through hell for 3 months cause where i live it cost me 50000... So yeah "it's just the home button lag" doesn't cut it... Its a freaking quad core phone..i myself was a Samsung fan boy for a while but all this no source code don't care about the developers attitude of Samsung put me off... and what's the point of buying s4 if you eventually gonna Debloat it why not buy a s3 as all new features are practically just bloatware..!
    Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
    3
    One way to reduce the time going back to the home screen when pressing the home button is to go in to s-voice setting and untick 'Open S Vocie by double pressing the home key' This will speed up going back to the home screen

    And you could reduce the animation scale in the developer options to 0.5x, this will speed up things

    but to eliminate actual juddery lag, then there's no hope. touchwiz is slow. it will never be as smooth and slick as an iPhone or Nexus 4 etc..

    I prefer Nova Launcher anyway. Just because it has so many more options.
    3
    Samsung's fanboys wont admit it , but the SGS2/3/Note1/2/10.1 lag out of the box.

    Just walk in a Staples or a BB and try a Note 10.1. It is extremely laggy.

    You need to disable all the crapwares/bloatwares if you want to feel this tablet runs like an iPad.

    I never understood why Samsung let their demos(out of the box devices) be so unpleasant to use.

    Some are saying Google cant live without Samsung but I say a Motorola Google X available with all the carriers would remove Samsung from the number one Android phones.

    Samsung need to be bumped asap