smartphone feels slower these days

[rh71]

Is it normal for a phone like the Galaxy Nexus (32GB) to seemingly run slower after all this time? Camera doesn't feel as fast, app switching and even Chrome page loading (slow to start loading and displaying a page despite fast wifi) & tab switching are always delaying a second or two. Almost like on a PC when it doesn't have enough RAM to keep up.

I checked Settings --> Apps and it shows 120MB left, 580MB used. The biggest draw is Facebook at only 35MB and a whole bunch of others at less than 20MB. I also run Lookout (find lost phone) but it is only 14MB. I also sometimes kill tasks (even if unnecessary) with Battery Doctor's task killer but it doesn't seem to do much if anything. I'm also down to maybe 2GB of 27GB of storage but even giving a few GB back doesn't change performance.

Which is the main factor, or does the hardware just not keep up after all this time? Does it just get bloated like a Windows PC would and a factory reset could solve it? Maybe more frequent rebooting of the phone is a necessity?

 

[gmaster456]

Are you updated to 4.3? That brings TRIM support which greatly improves performance.

 

[rh71]

No 4.2.2 on VZW. Took forever to get 4.2. Any chance 4.3 is coming to VZW?

Even so, I'd like to know if the hardware would "fail" in this manner over time. Because then tablets like the Nexus 7 or Galaxy Tab androids would do the same.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

No 4.2.2 on VZW. Took forever to get 4.2. Any chance 4.3 is coming to VZW?

Even so, I'd like to know if the hardware would "fail" in this manner over time. Because then tablets like the Nexus 7 or Galaxy Tab androids would do the same.

Nope.

They stopped at 4.2.2

I'm rooted and I tried 4.3 but it was laggy for me. 4.2.2 was smooth for me, still is

(we have the same phone)

Also, if you don't have a lot of space left, your phone will be slow as hell. (do a factory reset/wipe your virtual SD card)

 

[rh71]

^ so it's storage space rather than RAM? I've tried leaving at least 6GB of storage space and it didn't seem to do too much to help.

 

[rh71]

coincidentally published yesterday... Verizon says 4.3 is still coming.

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2013/12/12/verizon-galaxy-nexus-android-4-3-update-release-date/

https://twitter.com/VZWalbert/status/411164497261244417

 

[tsupersonic]

I had this phone, and it never felt fast to begin with. But, if you do get 4.3, you'll at least get TRIM, which should help. My Nexus 7 2012 was super slow prior to 4.3, and it feels more responsive with 4.3.

 

[Viper GTS]

^ so it's storage space rather than RAM? I've tried leaving at least 6GB of storage space and it didn't seem to do too much to help.

It's less about storage space and more about clean pages.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7185/android-43-update-brings-trim-to-all-nexus-devices

Viper GTS

 

[trmiv]

Root it and use this:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.grilledmonkey.lagfix&hl=en

 

[BrightCandle]

You can also just reset the phone and let it reinstall itself and the apps. That will clear the flash ram in the process (effectively trimming it) and returning it to a higher level of performance. I find even with 4.3 that its been beneficial to do this once as I still see performance slowing down over time even with the trim command in 4.3.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

If 4.3 is coming, that'd be good because all the ports are poo.

I recently deleted everything, started from scratch, and man, this phone feels new.

 

[teejee]

Each year apps are getting larger , more complex and more resource hungry. That gives the impression that the phone becomes slower. But trim will probably help a bit.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Each year apps are getting larger , more complex and more resource hungry. That gives the impression that the phone becomes slower. But trim will probably help a bit.

Well this plus the fact that if your storage is getting full its gonna feel slow

 

[Nec_V20]

Clear the RAM and get rid of the crap on your phone that seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

[tvdang7]

Its normal. I had a Gnex for a good 6 months and when i upgraded to a nexus 4 with 2 gb of ram man that was a big difference( i'm sure the upgraded cpu helped too). It is def the ram.

 

[mvbighead]

Factory reset. Often times, if you've been through a few OS upgrades, it's a good idea to wipe the slate clean and start over.