People are obsessed with smoothness

[thecapsaicinkid]

This thread is far too civilised so...

The Nexus 4 is the smoothest Android phone in existence. Go.

 

[pakotlar]

Regardless of smoothness the touch experience on Note II / 4.1.2 is far below the iPhone 5. Much greater input latency, despite a smoothness that easily rivals the iPhone. Google/Samsung need to fix this, it's nonsense on such a high end device.

Running 1800mhz CPU/800mhz GPU, Ace 4.5 (4.1.2 TW). In my opinion, for those who notice this, it's nearly a deal breaker (however the huge, beautiful AMOLED on Movie setting makes for a killer media consumption experience).

Still usable, just not ideal.

 

[escobarcaruso]

I use a Samsung Galaxy S+, which is behind in technology by leaps and bounds.

More "smoothness" is so far down the list of things I'd wish for...

Maybe my brain isn't quick enough to keep up, but I actually don't notice any lags, unless the RAM is capped out and I have 5+ second delays.

 

[Zaap]

Regardless of smoothness the touch experience on Note II / 4.1.2 is far below the iPhone 5. Much greater input latency, despite a smoothness that easily rivals the iPhone. Google/Samsung need to fix this, it's nonsense on such a high end device.

I feel the same way about the iPhone's Wacom digitizer and pen, and 5.5" screen. Or should I say lack thereof. And its a safe bet the Note 3 will be here long before the iPhone 6.

 

[Barpanda]

Retina display to take the obsession to another level altogether.

 

[Oyeve]

Retina display to take the obsession to another level altogether.

wHAT?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Source? I have yet to see any phone that did not eventually require optimization to keep things flowing. My wife had a 4S with pages and pages of apps, things eventually slowed down noticeably and we had to factory reset to get things running smooth again. I know the same thing would probably happen to my Android phones if I ever kept them long enough and installed enough apps and such.

Well I don't doubt that any device will get slowed down over time with apps and data. But Android phones seem to slow down more. There's more than a handful of apps that you can install that will require running at startup and in the background. Going off XDA, you can look at the battery life threads and half the screenshots have like 5 icons across the notification bar. To me that's just junk apps running in the background.

Just a boot of my iPhone versus my Nexus shows the difference. The Nexus not only takes time to load widgets, its gotta load Greenify, BetterBatteryStats, Touch Control, etc. And these are just tweak apps. If I had not used init.d scripts, I'd need a kernel app too. Then there's apps like Facebook, Slacker Radio, etc. that run in the background constantly.

Another example is go look at the Android phones on display at the AT&T store. Or tablets. The Galaxy Tab runs like a slideshow, and the GS3 runs choppy too. Why? Because people installed apps on them. They're not apps designed to slow the phone down, but apps in general can easily affect how an Android phone performs. I know you can easily say "well my GS3 or Note 2 doesn't run like that." But the point remains, it's easy to bring an android device to its knees. Meanwhile the iPhone looks pretty smooth sailing still.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

An addendum to my post is that when someone first gets a smartphone, they're always excited by apps. Download this, that, etc. Load phones up with junk. Then you realize how there's a bunch of crap out there and you have to filter. Because if you don't your phone slows down like crap.

Even now, I use quite a bit of restraint before installing an app. There's new apps left and right, but if you're not careful, there's another memory hog, or another startup app to make boot another 15 seconds slower.

My point is that you can easily call the average Joe an idiot for not making sure to disable Pulse notifications so that it doesn't pull every 6 hours. That not only drains your battery, but wastes memory/resources. The fact that you have to learn to comb every app's settings to disable syncing or disable startup or disable notifications on Android is to me a weakness. Sure after tweaking my phone I'm proud to say my Nexus 4 is a powerhouse, but that's not the case for every user out there. And if it takes me so much work just to come close to an iPhone 5 yet not beat it in terms of smoothness or battery life, then yes that's a deficiency.

 

[Red Storm]

An addendum to my post is that when someone first gets a smartphone, they're always excited by apps. Download this, that, etc. Load phones up with junk. Then you realize how there's a bunch of crap out there and you have to filter. Because if you don't your phone slows down like crap.

Even now, I use quite a bit of restraint before installing an app. There's new apps left and right, but if you're not careful, there's another memory hog, or another startup app to make boot another 15 seconds slower.

My point is that you can easily call the average Joe an idiot for not making sure to disable Pulse notifications so that it doesn't pull every 6 hours. That not only drains your battery, but wastes memory/resources. The fact that you have to learn to comb every app's settings to disable syncing or disable startup or disable notifications on Android is to me a weakness. Sure after tweaking my phone I'm proud to say my Nexus 4 is a powerhouse, but that's not the case for every user out there. And if it takes me so much work just to come close to an iPhone 5 yet not beat it in terms of smoothness or battery life, then yes that's a deficiency.

So what you're saying is that we here at Anandtech should "score" Android lower not because of our own proficiency, but because of what the Average Joe does and does not know to do?

That doesn't make any sense. It's like going into a Linux forum and saying Windows is better because it's more simple for grandma to use.

I'm pretty sure I can bring my Note 2 to slow down if I setup enough pages and filled them with widgets and ran enough simultaneous background apps... Or I could set it up like an iPhone, with no such things and it would perform just fine. See the difference? One OS let's me choose what to do, the other does not.

 

[Zaap]

^ That's also along the same lines as the notion that Android users are supposed to score down their flagship devices, because hundreds of lower-end devices can't run the latest OS/are pieces of crap/have owners that don't know any better or care.

But it makes no sense. My flagship Android phone isn't affected in the least by what other people have or do with their phones, how much bloatware they run in the background, or that Samsung and others also make lower-end devices, any more than an iPhone owner should score down their device because Apple also makes lower-stat iPods that also run iOS.

It seems that Android is supposed to be judged on the totality of experience using it- as if the flaws of the lower-end devices were shared by the high-end devices, yet iOS is supposed to be judged only by the latest iPhone and top-end iPad.

And again, exaggerations. You don't have to spend *hours* to make any Android phone not have 10,000 things running in the background slowing it down. I haven't spend a conscious minute tweaking any settings on my SGS3 to keep it from running slow.

Meanwhile it's floated that in order to give an iPhone even basic features Android has right out of the box, I have to jailbreak it. How much time is wasted with all that, and waiting around for stable/untethered jailbreaks? I think jailbreaking is fine and all, but it's a strength of Android that one doesn't have to even resort to that for the majority of customization options and advanced features. It's mainly beyond that to a greater OS-level control. Also, I've seen iPhones that were jailbroken that ran like total crap- and ONLY to get to a state that for Android is just the basics.

 

[poofyhairguy]

An addendum to my post is that when someone first gets a smartphone, they're always excited by apps. Download this, that, etc. Load phones up with junk. Then you realize how there's a bunch of crap out there and you have to filter. Because if you don't your phone slows down like crap.

Replace phone with computer and it's the PC buying cycle of over a decade.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

So what you're saying is that we here at Anandtech should "score" Android lower not because of our own proficiency, but because of what the Average Joe does and does not know to do?

That doesn't make any sense. It's like going into a Linux forum and saying Windows is better because it's more simple for grandma to use.

I'm pretty sure I can bring my Note 2 to slow down if I setup enough pages and filled them with widgets and ran enough simultaneous background apps... Or I could set it up like an iPhone, with no such things and it would perform just fine. See the difference? One OS let's me choose what to do, the other does not.

No I'm not saying Anandtech should score Android lower. What I'm saying is in regards to smoothness, it's easy for the average Joe to see Android not running smoothly, and there's plenty of reasons behind that.

Look, I know you want to talk about capabilities and yes I'll admit the iPhone can't do plenty of things. But at the end of the day, regarding smoothness, Android just isn't there. I don't care that it's because you can run background apps and 500 widgets, or whatever it is. The fact is smoothness isn't there.

In terms of apps and notifications, my iPhone notifies me of the same things my Android phone does. I don't feel like I'm missing out by using either phone. However, one thing I've been relentlessly pursuing is battery life on my Nexus. I know you guys like to tell me I'm using my phone wrong or whatever, but the fact is I'm syncing the same things on my iPhone and it runs damn fine on battery.

But in drilling down on why my Nexus does't run smoothly I had to comb through my wakelocks.

- Disable backup because that seems to be a wakelock. It's a small wakelock, but it can kill my battery with bad reception. Google Backup doesn't back crap up. It doesn't backup app data. Maybe a few system settings, wallpapers, and wifi passwords. Meanwhile my iPhone is doing cloud backup and it seems I'm at 4.8gb/5GB filled already. I didn't know it backups my photos too.

- Disable the standard News & Weather refresh. The iPhone has a weather widget that runs all day long.

- Give up on Exchange mail syncing. Meanwhile my iPhone syncs 24/7 Exchange.

- Disable Google Latitude. The iPhone has Find my Friends syncing.

Ok anyway, with this I got my battery down to ~2%/hour. I had to sacrifice features of my Android phone because battery sucks? Because it can't run the same services of my iPhone without dying at night?

The same applies for smoothness. You have to make sure apps aren't running. Pulse doesn't get to sync in the background. Same with Google Currents. Disable Facebook service using Greenify, etc. etc. My point is you can achieve smoothness, and you can achieve good battery life, but you need to make a substantial effort to make it happen on your phone.

You can be a far more careless on an iPhone and it will run just FINE.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

^ That's also along the same lines as the notion that Android users are supposed to score down their flagship devices, because hundreds of lower-end devices can't run the latest OS/are pieces of crap/have owners that don't know any better or care.

But it makes no sense. My flagship Android phone isn't affected in the least by what other people have or do with their phones, how much bloatware they run in the background, or that Samsung and others also make lower-end devices, any more than an iPhone owner should score down their device because Apple also makes lower-stat iPods that also run iOS.

It seems that Android is supposed to be judged on the totality of experience using it- as if the flaws of the lower-end devices were shared by the high-end devices, yet iOS is supposed to be judged only by the latest iPhone and top-end iPad.

And again, exaggerations. You don't have to spend *hours* to make any Android phone not have 10,000 things running in the background slowing it down. I haven't spend a conscious minute tweaking any settings on my SGS3 to keep it from running slow.

Meanwhile it's floated that in order to give an iPhone even basic features Android has right out of the box, I have to jailbreak it. How much time is wasted with all that, and waiting around for stable/untethered jailbreaks? I think jailbreaking is fine and all, but it's a strength of Android that one doesn't have to even resort to that for the majority of customization options and advanced features. It's mainly beyond that to a greater OS-level control. Also, I've seen iPhones that were jailbroken that ran like total crap- and ONLY to get to a state that for Android is just the basics.

Pulse News: By default 6 hour sync on Android. I see this icon on my gf's phone all the time. Sure she knows how to turn that off, but it's probably not annoying her, so she leaves it on. But in reality, that's probably part of why her phone needed charge every night and why it lagged. Not an issue on my iPhone 5.

Google Currents: Same stuff.

You expect users to go through and set these things up? Yes as a power user, I go through and spend time to set up every app. The settings menu is the first thing I'll comb through. However that's not what every other user does. I used to play PC games, and I remember friends who claimed they were gamers would install and start playing. then I'd ask "Why the hell are you running at 640x480... did you even go through and setup the game?" "No."

This isn't even about low end or high end phones. Low end OR high end your phone can run slow with just a few apps. Your high end phone is in your hands and goes through your setup. I don't know what custom stuff you run, but in the right hands you can make the phone run well. But my point remains. Go look at a GS3 at the store. They run like crap. So do those Samsung Tablets on display. The iPhone 4S? Oh it flies. Even the one I played with at the Taiwan Mobile store where they let you install anything you want.

 

[Zaap]

Pulse News: By default 6 hour sync on Android. I see this icon on my gf's phone all the time.

This statement makes little sense, and it's amazing how you demonstrate my point about exaggeration without even realizing it. So every six hours becomes "All the time?" Which is it?

You expect users to go through and set these things up? Yes as a power user, I go through and spend time to set up every app. The settings menu is the first thing I'll comb through. However that's not what every other user does. I used to play PC games, and I remember friends who claimed they were gamers would install and start playing. then I'd ask "Why the hell are you running at 640x480... did you even go through and setup the game?" "No."

I'm not quite sure what your point is here. So it's a terrible thing to have to check some settings on apps people run (OMG! Hours of time!) yet for PC games if one wants decent performance... they have to check the settings.

Go look at a GS3 at the store. They run like crap. So do those Samsung Tablets on display. The iPhone 4S? Oh it flies. Even the one I played with at the Taiwan Mobile store where they let you install anything you want.

Again, your point always seems to be to judge things based on some extremely anecdotal, lowest common denominator situation, rather than people judge by their own device and the way they use things.

There's no reason for me to go look at a phone that I own in a store. And anyway, I've seen plenty of SGG3's in stores and owned by other people that run just fine. Why would being located in a store make any difference unless sales people have done something to affect the phone, or you're talking about the kind of place that allows the general public to screw up running merchandise that's left sitting out.

For pete's sake, no one judges virtually anything seriously by that 'standard'. One of the big things I see is that Apple/Mac haters will sabotage the Mac sections of the big-box electronic stores if allowed and make everything run like complete crap. (Example: run the /dev/null command multiple times and leave all the CPU cores at 100%, or other such pranks) Does that mean Macs suck? People will sabotage Windows laptops as well, bring in flash drives full of all sorts of nasty viruses or what-have you. So generally I see the machines are locked down.

I don't see many stores where the display model cellphones are just left alone for anyone to install any random crap on over a live internet connection, toggle all the settings improperly, allowed to do whatever they want. In such case, why would that be a measure of how good a device is? I can just as easily install too much crap and slow down an iPhone as well. (Just ask my wife, she managed to make her iPhone 4 into one of the slowest devices I've ever picked up, and I wouldn't put it past her to get the iPhone 5 in the same state.) In fact, before I note a pattern here with wives and girlfriends regardless of platform, I'll just end this post.

 

[Munky]

When your favorite company is putting out subpar products in terms of features and capabilities since 2007, what else are you gonna brag about besides smoothness, especially when pointlessly zooming in and out of a web page like an idiot, all the while not doing any text wrapping? And just in case anyone points out how it was not really that smooth 3 years ago when everyone was raving about smoothness, be sure to point out that now it's really really smooth, and get back to spreading FUD how not smooth the competitor's products are.

 

[Anubis]

pulse has a 6 hour refresh? i had no idea

 

[NikolaeVarius]

No I'm not saying Anandtech should score Android lower. What I'm saying is in regards to smoothness, it's easy for the average Joe to see Android not running smoothly, and there's plenty of reasons behind that.

Look, I know you want to talk about capabilities and yes I'll admit the iPhone can't do plenty of things. But at the end of the day, regarding smoothness, Android just isn't there. I don't care that it's because you can run background apps and 500 widgets, or whatever it is. The fact is smoothness isn't there.

In terms of apps and notifications, my iPhone notifies me of the same things my Android phone does. I don't feel like I'm missing out by using either phone. However, one thing I've been relentlessly pursuing is battery life on my Nexus. I know you guys like to tell me I'm using my phone wrong or whatever, but the fact is I'm syncing the same things on my iPhone and it runs damn fine on battery.

But in drilling down on why my Nexus does't run smoothly I had to comb through my wakelocks.

- Disable backup because that seems to be a wakelock. It's a small wakelock, but it can kill my battery with bad reception. Google Backup doesn't back crap up. It doesn't backup app data. Maybe a few system settings, wallpapers, and wifi passwords. Meanwhile my iPhone is doing cloud backup and it seems I'm at 4.8gb/5GB filled already. I didn't know it backups my photos too.

- Disable the standard News & Weather refresh. The iPhone has a weather widget that runs all day long.

- Give up on Exchange mail syncing. Meanwhile my iPhone syncs 24/7 Exchange.

- Disable Google Latitude. The iPhone has Find my Friends syncing.

Ok anyway, with this I got my battery down to ~2%/hour. I had to sacrifice features of my Android phone because battery sucks? Because it can't run the same services of my iPhone without dying at night?

The same applies for smoothness. You have to make sure apps aren't running. Pulse doesn't get to sync in the background. Same with Google Currents. Disable Facebook service using Greenify, etc. etc. My point is you can achieve smoothness, and you can achieve good battery life, but you need to make a substantial effort to make it happen on your phone.

You can be a far more careless on an iPhone and it will run just FINE.

You're doing something wrong. My GS3 gets a hair less than 2% drain an hour and I haven't touched anything. I got a nice impressive live wallpaper going, I have full sync on everything because I have unlimited data, so I just let everything sync when ever it wants.

You're just looking for things to complain about or you're doing something terribly wrong.

It's also perfectly smooth. Actually, it might seem a tad less smooth than the iPhone 5, but thats only because its scrolling MUCH faster on a MUCH larger screen. It becomes alot easier to see the intermittent frames.

But yeah, you're doing something wrong. Also, your argument is flawed in that the iPhone 5 is FAR from perfectly smooth. It still has issues going to the search page without lagging like a mofo sometimes, and it still has trouble scrolling down large lists.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

This statement makes little sense, and it's amazing how you demonstrate my point about exaggeration without even realizing it. So every six hours becomes "All the time?" Which is it?

The point is it syncs in the background. Not everyone is accustomed to having to disable the features of an app the minute they install it.

I'm not quite sure what your point is here. So it's a terrible thing to have to check some settings on apps people run (OMG! Hours of time!) yet for PC games if one wants decent performance... they have to check the settings.

No, the point is it's nice to have the app setup so it doesn't drain the crap out of your battery.

Again, your point always seems to be to judge things based on some extremely anecdotal, lowest common denominator situation, rather than people judge by their own device and the way they use things.

No. My point of comparison is also my gf's GS3, and a good friend's Galaxy Nexus. Both run like crap. They're both engineers and not technically stupid. They're just not phone geeks like you and I and will not spend time combing through apps to figure out how to optimize their phones.

There's no reason for me to go look at a phone that I own in a store. And anyway, I've seen plenty of SGG3's in stores and owned by other people that run just fine. Why would being located in a store make any difference unless sales people have done something to affect the phone, or you're talking about the kind of place that allows the general public to screw up running merchandise that's left sitting out.

Because you keep bringing up YOUR SGS3. But that's not the average SGS3 is it? An average one is one sitting out in the store, just like an iPhone sitting out there with junk being installed on it.

For pete's sake, no one judges virtually anything seriously by that 'standard'. One of the big things I see is that Apple/Mac haters will sabotage the Mac sections of the big-box electronic stores if allowed and make everything run like complete crap. (Example: run the /dev/null command multiple times and leave all the CPU cores at 100%, or other such pranks) Does that mean Macs suck? People will sabotage Windows laptops as well, bring in flash drives full of all sorts of nasty viruses or what-have you. So generally I see the machines are locked down.

Are SGS3's being sabatoged at the AT&T store? Are iPhones? It's not the only way how someone should judge the two phones, but it's one of the ways people judge phones. People go to the phone store and use the phones before deciding.

Either Android phones consistently are being sabatoged, or they easily run like crap because of the apps that get installed on them

I don't see many stores where the display model cellphones are just left alone for anyone to install any random crap on over a live internet connection, toggle all the settings improperly, allowed to do whatever they want. In such case, why would that be a measure of how good a device is? I can just as easily install too much crap and slow down an iPhone as well. (Just ask my wife, she managed to make her iPhone 4 into one of the slowest devices I've ever picked up, and I wouldn't put it past her to get the iPhone 5 in the same state.) In fact, before I note a pattern here with wives and girlfriends regardless of platform, I'll just end this post.

Like I said, it's far easier on an Android phone. By that I don't mean you can't find that app of your choice on an iPhone that will bog it down. Just go install a few apps like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pulse, etc. across BOTH phones. One will clearly drain more battery syncing as it pulls data and probably use more memory also. That's the Android phone.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

You're doing something wrong. My GS3 gets a hair less than 2% drain an hour and I haven't touched anything. I got a nice impressive live wallpaper going, I have full sync on everything because I have unlimited data, so I just let everything sync when ever it wants.

Do you run on Wifi? Do you use Google Latitude? Battery use is also highly reception dependent. Battery use shoots up exponentially with bad battery. It's more noticeable on Android than iPhone due to the push vs pull nature of the two phones.

You're just looking for things to complain about or you're doing something terribly wrong.

I work on XDA with another fellow ATOTer who probably hates Apple as much as you do, and he will attest to 5% battery drain too. He says he can't even get 2 hours of screen on time if on 3G. That's how bad the Nexus 4 is. Fine. Blame me, or maybe the Nexus 4 is just THAT bad.

It's also perfectly smooth. Actually, it might seem a tad less smooth than the iPhone 5, but thats only because its scrolling MUCH faster on a MUCH larger screen. It becomes alot easier to see the intermittent frames.

But yeah, you're doing something wrong. Also, your argument is flawed in that the iPhone 5 is FAR from perfectly smooth. It still has issues going to the search page without lagging like a mofo sometimes, and it still has trouble scrolling down large lists.

Any phone can have trouble with large lists. But I just used Facebook, Twitter, Safari vs. Chrome on TheVerge Desktop, Gmail, Gmail vs Native iOS Mail, and the iPhone scrolled faster in EACH of those apps. So maybe you have some app where iOS sucks at, but I've seen the iPhone lag less in each of these cases than the Nexus. And of course you want to make excuses:

- Resolution difference
- Screen size difference.

Blah blah blah. It's not like Android lag and smoothness issues have only been around recently. They were around in the 800x480 phone days. They were around since 2009 with the first Android phones. Then of course someone will bring up crap like the iPhone has the most powerful GPU. Yet those 4.7" Windows Phones with Adreno 205 GPUs run just fine right?

There's nothing wrong with just accepting Android is not as smooth. I think it's something Google could improve. Is it that big of a deal? No, but I think it gets to be a bigger deal when 3 years later you still have an OS that's choppy despite MASSIVE hardware improvements.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

The point is it syncs in the background. Not everyone is accustomed to having to disable the features of an app the minute they install it.

You don't fucking have to.

No, the point is it's nice to have the app setup so it doesn't drain the crap out of your battery.

It shouldn't. If it does, its the fault of the developer, not Android.

No. My point of comparison is also my gf's GS3, and a good friend's Galaxy Nexus. Both run like crap. They're both engineers and not technically stupid. They're just not phone geeks like you and I and will not spend time combing through apps to figure out how to optimize their phones.

It's funny because you don't know what the word anecdotal means.

Because you keep bringing up YOUR SGS3. But that's not the average SGS3 is it? An average one is one sitting out in the store, just like an iPhone sitting out there with junk being installed on it.

I have a friend at work, who literally threw his Ip5 into the trash because while he was making an important call, it froze up and he couldn't get it to work. Didn't actually know how to do a hard reset, so needed to call me. There you go. Apparently, an in your world, non anectodal evidence of an average Ip5.

Like I said, it's far easier on an Android phone. By that I don't mean you can't find that app of your choice on an iPhone that will bog it down. Just go install a few apps like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pulse, etc. across BOTH phones. One will clearly drain more battery syncing as it pulls data and probably use more memory also. That's the Android phone.

Again, more shit pulled right out of your ass.

Everyone else manages to post in here without the profanity. I'm SURE that you can as well.
Administrator allisolm

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

pulse has a 6 hour refresh? i had no idea

The default is for background updates to be on and to refresh every 6 hours. There's plenty of other apps out there that also refresh ever x hours. For example my APW Timeline widget which refreshes every 2 hours (Default is 1 hour), and calendar widget refreshes every 1 hour.

There's many other "awesome" features like the CM clock which refreshes weather every hour and your calendar entries too.

There's many "cool" apps and widgets out there that just use up refresh cycles.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

You don't fucking have to.

If you don't setup apps then your battery goes down the drain.

It shouldn't. If it does, its the fault of the developer, not Android.

Okay, except when you install those same apps on iOS, you don't have to worry about your battery life or bloat.

It's funny because you don't know what the word anecdotal means.

Okay, so I used anecdotal evidence. That's not my only source for drawing a conclusion. My source also comes from factual data from the app itself, by pointing out examples of apps that will run background processes. I also welcome you to go to your phone store and play with an Android phone that's got plenty of user installed stuff.

I have a friend at work, who literally threw his Ip5 into the trash because while he was making an important call, it froze up and he couldn't get it to work. Didn't actually know how to do a hard reset, so needed to call me. There you go. Apparently, an in your world, non anectodal evidence of an average Ip5.

So since my anecdotal evidence is worthless, so is yours. Most people would think your friend's more retarded than the phone there.

Again, more shit pulled right out of your ass.

Your posts are just pure offensive language with ZERO contribution to the discussion. Have you offered any information or insight at all? I notice you just dogpile in these discussions with a bunch of insults and sly comments. Why don't you go back to doing something useful.

 

[ControlD]

Meanwhile it's floated that in order to give an iPhone even basic features Android has right out of the box, I have to jailbreak it. How much time is wasted with all that, and waiting around for stable/untethered jailbreaks? I think jailbreaking is fine and all, but it's a strength of Android that one doesn't have to even resort to that for the majority of customization options and advanced features. It's mainly beyond that to a greater OS-level control. Also, I've seen iPhones that were jailbroken that ran like total crap- and ONLY to get to a state that for Android is just the basics.

That is a fair point and the main reason why I will probably be moving to Android once my 4S contract is up. I am tired of having to jailbreak my phone just to get some of the basic features Android has. Unless Apple really knocks it out of the park and suddenly opens the platform up (fat chance) I just can't see a compelling reason to keep waiting for a jailbreak, wiping my phone, and starting from scratch every time. I would gladly give up a little smoothness in exchange for features.

 

[Zaap]

The point is it syncs in the background. Not everyone is accustomed to having to disable the features of an app the minute they install it.

No, the point is it's nice to have the app setup so it doesn't drain the crap out of your battery.

You need to produce a screenshot showing Pulse as the culprit for draining the battery. Burden of proof is on you.

Otherwise, I must be missing something- how is an app updating every six hours that big a strain on the battery? For most people, that's effectively twice during waking hours of an average day.

And even if Pulse or some other app is some sort of major battery drain by updating itself twice a day, what exactly is the big hardship of two clicks and either turn off background updates or set the frequency to once a day rather than twice?

Out of curiosity, I just installed Pulse on iOS. At start, it asks for permission to send updates to the notification center. But then that's it. There's no settings for the frequency of updates anywhere. In fact, there's no settings for it PERIOD, other than account settings, not in the app itself, or in system settings.

So basically, you seem to be griping that Android actually gives you a choice in the matter, (which you then proceed to exaggerate into something that takes HOURS of time) whereas who knows what the app does on iOS? So if I don't elect to have it send updates to the notification center, does that mean it doesn't run updates at all, or just not notify me when is does? And what's the frequency of updates? Who knows, and there's no way for me to change it, or even know what it is.

So I guess iOS users don't spend "hours and hours" of time with app settings- because many of them simply cut the user out of ALL say over the app completely. Yeah, that's really more advanced.

No. My point of comparison is also my gf's GS3, and a good friend's Galaxy Nexus. Both run like crap. They're both engineers and not technically stupid. They're just not phone geeks like you and I and will not spend time combing through apps to figure out how to optimize their phones.

Given your usual pattern, you're probably exaggerating when you claim "they run like crap".

I actually don't spend that much time combing through my apps to figure out how to optimize anything, and my phone runs just fine and gets perfectly good battery life.

Because you keep bringing up YOUR SGS3. But that's not the average SGS3 is it? An average one is one sitting out in the store, just like an iPhone sitting out there with junk being installed on it.

I don't even know what to make of this. So my SGS3 is some magic version, and one sitting in the store is the 'average' version. So my own experience with what I own I should discard, and go by your iron clad anecdotal 'evidence' of "average phones" sitting out in stores.

Whatever.

There's nothing special about my SGS3. It's not even rooted- I've still seen absolutely no need to. If it didn't perform well for me, why would I just leave it stock, or 'average' as you say?

Are SGS3's being sabatoged at the AT&T store? Are iPhones? It's not the only way how someone should judge the two phones, but it's one of the ways people judge phones. People go to the phone store and use the phones before deciding.

So who's Play Store or App store account is anyone setting up on a phone in a store to be randomly loading any of them up with apps? Why would the phone be set up so just anyone could walk in and start installing apps on it, with no account and no password, and of course a live internet connection? I'm sure it may happen somehow now and then, but I don't think that's typical.

You're just grasping at setting up another exaggerated scenario without actually thinking it through.

Phone stores often just have dummy phones anyway. Maybe you didn't realize that. Geesh, no wonder you though they were so slow! "The screen on this thing never changes! Now this is lag! Android REALLY sucks!"

 

[QueBert]

this thread is far too civilised so...

The nexus 4 is the smoothest android phone in existence. but it's still isn't anywhere near as smooth as the iphone 5 go.

ftfy