Which is better, 4.4.4 KitKat or Lollipop 5.1.1?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I've upgraded to 5.1.1 on my S5 and unfortunately I still experience a lot of the crap that was on 5.0.

I get considerable lag when trying to scroll webpages in Chrome. I drag my fingers, wait 5 seconds or more, and then the screen scrolls.

Sometimes there is considerable lag everywhere when I've been using different programs. It almost feels like a memory leak or a background process not shutting the hell up and hogging up all the CPU.

I don't remember there being this much lag in 4.4.4. Lollipop is more flashy and visually cool but KitKat seemed more performant? Anyone agree or can tell me how to fix this lag on Lollipop that doesn't involve a reboot?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Lollipop is Android's Vista. If you want the performance back you gotta downgrade or wait for Android M. 5.0 and 5.1 have bugs that are unfixed. Personally I can't do without the Lollipop improvements.

 

[JeffMD]

lol really poof? that's kinda disappointing.

IMO, it isn't about what OS you get stuck with, it's if you want a phone that actually updates. If you get a phone that does not get regular updates, it is probably already outdated when you buy it. It won't hold you back on what software you can run so it isn't a big deal, but it is if you consider security a big deal.

 

[poofyhairguy]

lol really poof?

Yup. 5.1 is still broken:

http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/0...amous-mobile-radio-active-bug-in-android-6-0/

IMO, it isn't about what OS you get stuck with, it's if you want a phone that actually updates. If you get a phone that does not get regular updates, it is probably already outdated when you buy it. It won't hold you back on what software you can run so it isn't a big deal, but it is if you consider security a big deal.

To me that isn't a big deal. Android has a lot in place to defend itself, every version since Jellybean is pretty safe. Google knows Android updates are broken so it uses them as the absolute last line of defense.

What this does show me is the value of an unlockable bootloader so you CAN downgrade if you want to. I would love to downgrade the wife's Note 4 but I can't.

 

[JimmiG]

Lollipop also has worse battery life and the mobile radio always-on bug. Personally I downgraded to 4.4.4. Since my OnePlus One will probably never receive Android 6.x I'll just stick with KitKat until I buy my next phone.

 

[dawheat]

5.1.1 on the Note 5 seems fine. No lag, decent battery life, though it could be raw hp.

If you've already done a factory reset and the problem persists, then you might as well downgrade.

Odd since I've heard mostly positive stuff about 5.1.1.

 

[NutBucket]

IMHO lollipop is an improvement over kitkat on the Note4. Seems fine on the wife's S6 too.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

What exactly are the improvements on lollipop compared to kitkat?

 

[postmortemIA]

Lollipop is Android's Vista. If you want the performance back you gotta downgrade or wait for Android M. 5.0 and 5.1 have bugs that are unfixed. Personally I can't do without the Lollipop improvements.

more like Windows 98. Vista was at least fixed by updates to some degree. Lollipop will be simply abandoned in a year.

 

[WelshBloke]

I get considerable lag when trying to scroll webpages in Chrome. I drag my fingers, wait 5 seconds or more, and then the screen scrolls.

That's not lollipop, something else is broken there.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

That's not lollipop, something else is broken there.

It seems that it's just general lag. Scrolling in other apps is really slow as well. Things like switching apps and starting new ones gets really really slow. Typing gets a lot of lag at that point as well.

I cleared my cache in recovery and will see how that works.

 

[iahk]

If not, you might have to do a factory reset. Sometimes, when you do an update, it goes bonkers.

 

[WelshBloke]

If not, you might have to do a factory reset. Sometimes, when you do an update, it goes bonkers.

Yeah, the 4 to 5 update was very touchy.

Personally if it's feasible I'd advise resetting the device then upgrading.

 

[pauldun170]

I've upgraded to 5.1.1 on my S5 and unfortunately I still experience a lot of the crap that was on 5.0.

I get considerable lag when trying to scroll webpages in Chrome. I drag my fingers, wait 5 seconds or more, and then the screen scrolls.

Sometimes there is considerable lag everywhere when I've been using different programs. It almost feels like a memory leak or a background process not shutting the hell up and hogging up all the CPU.

I don't remember there being this much lag in 4.4.4. Lollipop is more flashy and visually cool but KitKat seemed more performant? Anyone agree or can tell me how to fix this lag on Lollipop that doesn't involve a reboot?

Wipe cache partition
What does clearing the cache do?

Not much. Clearing the system cache (or app caches) simply wipes the cached data that an Android device stores to make app launches etc a little bit faster. So while clearing the cache technically means the next time you run a process or an app it will have to reload that data rather than access it from the cache, regularly clearing your cache can help the general performance of your device by clearing out unwanted data or stuff from older versions that cause problems after you've upgraded to a newer version.

1. Turn off your phone.
2. After your phone is off, simultaneously press and hold the Volume Up, Home and Power buttons.
3. Hold the buttons until the screen turns on and there is blue writing in the upper left hand corner that says, “Recovery booting. . . . .”
4. At this point, recovery should load and you can use the volume rocker to navigate.
5. Move the selector to “wipe cache partition” and press the power button to select it.
6. At the next screen select yes and after a few seconds your cache should be wiped.

http://www.talkandroid.com/guides/a...sung-galaxy-device-after-the-lollipop-update/
https://www.androidpit.com/how-to-clear-galaxy-s5-cache


I'm on a Galaxy S4 and it it performs great on lillipop. Much better than when I was on Kitkat

 

[ThisIsChrisKim]

If not, you might have to do a factory reset. Sometimes, when you do an update, it goes bonkers.

Yeah, the 4 to 5 update was very touchy.

Personally if it's feasible I'd advise resetting the device then upgrading.

My advice too.

Between updates to Android, factory reset (aka clearing data partition) is always a good course of action. For whatever reason, it simply makes the performance where it should be without all that clutter.

 

[poofyhairguy]

What exactly are the improvements on lollipop compared to kitkat?

Material design, 64-bit system architecture, smartlock, official ART runtime, OpenGL ES3.1, much better camera APIs (aka allows for apps like Manual Camera), pinning apps, the fact that a good chunk of the OS moved to Google Play so things can be updated via the Play Store for devices that don't get OS updates, SELinux integration, and the way they broke external storage usage in Kitkat was unbroken.

Lollipop was a HUGE HUGE upgrade. Maybe the biggest upgrade in Android's history- I think it is bigger than ICS.

That is also why it is crazy buggy- it is VERY hard to push out major updates to the OS on a yearly release schedule. I have seen the same thing happen with Ubuntu, huge bugs get shipped out as a finished product because that is the only way to have it be "finished" anywhere near the deadline. So you get bugs like this even in 5.1.1:

https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=159738

What is awesome about Lollipop is that Android M will be Android's Windows 7. All the improvements of Vista/Lollipop, but with that extra polish that Vistapop didn't get.

 

[poofyhairguy]

It seems that it's just general lag. Scrolling in other apps is really slow as well. Things like switching apps and starting new ones gets really really slow. Typing gets a lot of lag at that point as well.

I cleared my cache in recovery and will see how that works.

That is the memory leak problem. The solution is to reboot the phone every couple of days.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

That is the memory leak problem. The solution is to reboot the phone every couple of days.

I cleared the cache and after half a day the phone started lagging. I rebooted the phone at around 8PM. I went to bed at midnight and the phone was still ok at this point. Woke up at 9AM and it was lag city. So even without user intervention it seems that automatic background processes are capable of lagging up the phone all on their own.

I'm really, *really* crossing my fingers that T-Mobile will provide an update for the S5 that includes Android M. The Samsung Camera app for my purposes is crucial, so I can't just upgrade to a stock Cyanogen Android M when it comes out.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Would a memory cleaning app actually be useful in this case?

 

[shabby]

That is the memory leak problem. The solution is to reboot the phone every couple of days.

You can reboot a few times a day and it still won't fix anything.

Would a memory cleaning app actually be useful in this case?

No.

 

[soccerballtux]

KK

 

[xhtmljunkies123]

As per me, kitkat version is better than lollipop because it needs low RAM.

 

[shimpster]

My thoughts, kk 4.44 for a 2013 moto x, 1053.
In fact, followed this guide and reverted to 4.44

http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-x/moto-x-qa/guide-faq-how-to-downgrade-5-1-to-4-4-4-t3182118

 

[ChronoReverse]

Overall I like LP better but there's just so many bugs. I've been fortunate that I don't run into most of them (particularly the nasty mobile radio one) but it's pretty bad.

 

[lyka]

Just upgraded recently to Lollipop and while it was kind of cool, i still experience lags and all that bugs.. which annoys the hell of me.. keep me wishing back to go with kitkat..