It’s 2014. The market for smartphones has matured to a point where
specs do not really matter. Instead, it’s the software on devices that
decides what kind of experience users get and just how useful the device
is in complementing their lives. Android has reached a point where even
$100 devices run fast enough and do most of the things that a flagship
device can do, so why is it that the software on Samsung smartphones is
still so slow and laggy?
I’m not one to limit myself to devices from a single company. Ever
since I lost my Galaxy Note 3 earlier this year, I’ve been on a
rollercoaster ride of sorts, going through no less than three flagship
smartphones from other companies. I started with the Sony Xperia Z1,
followed it up with the HTC One M8, and finally settled on the OnePlus
One for a month or so before buying the Galaxy Note 4 as soon as it
launched in my country.
http://goo.gl/v45G0X
Using those devices from Sony, HTC, and OnePlus and then switching to
the Galaxy Note 4 was an eye-opening experience. What I noticed on the
Note 4 from the moment I started using it was the insane amount of lags,
stutters, and waiting times for things to happen. The Galaxy Note 3 was
a fast device, but it had a camera and gallery app that were utterly
slow. Many have pointed out that the gallery and camera apps on their
Samsung devices run absolutely fine, but I’m not sure those who say that
have used smartphones from other manufacturers in the last year or so.
On the Note 4, things are worse. While the camera app is a bit
faster, the gallery app is still painfully slow at loading images. But
that’s not the worst part. The Note 4 even takes a second or two to wake
up when I press the home or power button when the screen is off, often
making me wonder if I pressed said button properly or not (S Voice is
turned off and disabled, so that isn’t the reason for the delay.)
Once past the lockscreen, there are a few stutters and lags in
general usage as well. For example, the recent apps menu takes up to two
seconds to show up, and scrolling through the apps in the recent apps
screen is very jittery. Then there’s the settings menu. Every time you
open the settings menu, you can expect to be met with stutter when
scrolling through it, though it becomes smooth after a few seconds.
Software optimization was never Samsung’s strong suit, and on the
Galaxy Note 4 it’s far worse than what it was on the Galaxy Note 3.
Sure, I understand the higher screen resolution puts more load on the
processor and GPU, but maybe Samsung should have stayed on Full HD and
instead focused on bringing its software up to the mark first? A
flagship device, in 2014, should be extremely fast, fluid and lag-free,
but it seems Samsung just doesn’t seem to care about how fast its
software is, as long as it can cram a lot of features and functionality
and parade them as bullet points for their marketing campaign.
In terms of functionality, the Note 4 is a killer device and the best
phablet in the market today, but using it as my main device hasn’t
given me the flagship feel that I got from even the year-old Xperia Z1,
or the HTC One M8, which remained extremely fast and smooth even after
six months of use. I have written before that Samsung needs to optimize TouchWiz
if it intends to go after the low-end market, but if its flagship
devices can’t match what the competition is now offering, I wonder if
the budget market will see Samsung as a dominant player ever again.
It’s 2014, Samsung, and maybe its time you stopped running after
mind-blowing hardware like a Quad HD display and instead focused on
making your software as fast, smooth and jitter-free as it should be in
this day and age. Apple does it, Google does it, even a small company
like HTC did it (Sense 6 is the fastest manufacturer UI out there), and
with the resources at your disposal, maybe you can too.
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