[Android] Phones get slower over time and bog down... what do you do?

[radtechtips]

I bought a Windows Phone nearly 2 years ago. Still fast (on Nexus One/Droid Incredible era hardware). Had been trying to keep my OG Droid running decent but just threw in the towel after awhile.

*wild speculation* perhaps it is the approach -- Android seems to be jamming a desktop OS into a phone. iOS and WP seem far more tailored for mobile, and are more limited because of that. But performance over time is more stable.

Haha that's what I'm using right now with CM7.2 and its better than a D2G.

I have my upgrade but don't want to take a new phone to new york, and dc for 3 weeks. Thinking about nex, s4 or one

 

[Oyeve]

The only Android phone that slowed down for me was the Samsung Vibrant. But I think that was due to the crappy files system Samsung used.

No slow down with stock Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7. Then again I don't mess with custom roms so there's nothing to mess up.

My GOD, you brought back some painful memories. My Vibrant pissed me the F off. With the non-working GPS to the stupid file system. Ugh, loved giving that phone away.

Anyway, OP, i usually never see slowdown as I am always mucking around with my phones and resets are very common with me. I usually do a full backup, wipe and restore.

 

[alangrift]

Android allows more customisability, which probably allows more bugs to occur. I found my S3's battery life and speed bad at times. I generally just close all open applications. There is an option in the Advanced Settings to automatically do that too.

 

[AstroManLuca]

My Galaxy Nexus has been slowing down since I got it. I've done factory resets before, and at one point I even tried downgrading from Android 4.2 (CM10.1) to Android 4.1 (CM10.0), which seemed to work temporarily but it wore off almost as fast as a standard factory reset and caused other problems (mainly with how files were organized).

At this point I'm thinking that when my contract is up, I will strongly consider an iOS or WP device. The iPhone 5 is finally where the iPhone should have been a couple years ago - with a decent sized screen and not super fragile. There are things I don't like about iOS, like the way many apps' settings are hidden in a separate "Settings" app, and in general I feel like most apps are more feature-limited than Android apps, but you can't argue with the smoothness.

iPhones also have a battery life advantage. As far as I know, WP8 devices still have poor battery life, maybe worse than Android.

 

[sm625]

It's not jsut android. omg my ipoop is frickin unusable as hell. I wanted to update an app but I had to click the update button no less than 15 times for it to finally register. There is a 5 second lag in everything. It is completely useless and I hate it even more than I did when I first got it. People are so stupid for buying into this trash.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

No it doesn't. iOS has the same issues as Android when it comes to weird random lag.

My friends ip4s was almost unusable because it lagged every single page turn and its battery drained in 2 hours flat. Phone is only 1.5 years old.

He needed to factory reset it to get it back up to speed. And even now, even Ip5 lags when you scroll over to the search screen on the home page.

Okay, I'm certain you can find a laggy iPhone just like I can find a laggy Android, but in my experience, I find Android phones tend to slow down more over time. It just has to do with the # of apps that stay awake or get woken up in the background. While it's possible to control, it requires more advanced users to figure these things out whereas typical users expect a set it and forget it solution.

The iPhone going to Spotlight has always been an issue and I certainly would like to see them fix that.

 

[It's Not Lupus]

so is the problem the storage been full or the nand being used-up?

 

[radtechtips]

It's not jsut android. omg my ipoop is frickin unusable as hell. I wanted to update an app but I had to click the update button no less than 15 times for it to finally register. There is a 5 second lag in everything. It is completely useless and I hate it even more than I did when I first got it. People are so stupid for buying into this trash.

You do realize that you bought into it...

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

so is the problem the storage been full or the nand being used-up?

I guess there's 2 issues:

1) Installing apps bogs down any phone, computer, device. More startup apps = slower phone.

2) NAND degrades over time.

I saw the Reddit thread where everyone jumped on the NAND degradation and said "me too!" "That's why my phone is slow!" But I'm not sure if they can pinpoint its NAND degradation or simply their phone is overloaded/filled with crap.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I've had my thunderbolt for over two years and it hasn't noticably slowed down... Maybe, it's just because I'm a little picky about what I install on it.

 

[alangrift]

Okay, I'm certain you can find a laggy iPhone just like I can find a laggy Android, but in my experience, I find Android phones tend to slow down more over time. It just has to do with the # of apps that stay awake or get woken up in the background. While it's possible to control, it requires more advanced users to figure these things out whereas typical users expect a set it and forget it solution.

The iPhone going to Spotlight has always been an issue and I certainly would like to see them fix that.

You can make your phone auto-close apps when you exit them if you want.

 

[zerogear]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify