Frustration with S4 (ex-iOS user)

E

Enilder

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 2, 2013
Messages
237
I switched from iOS to Android (S4) and I am disappointed. Theoretically speaking, my new S4 should be faster than iPhone 4 but I feel exactly the opposite.

For example, I try to launch a program such as YouTube. It takes like 5 seconds to launch the program. If I go on a web browser and click a search space to get the keyboard up, it takes 5 seconds, etc. So far, I've tried followings:

-Clear memory
-Minimize programs running in background (I even tried to close all but one)
-Turn off wifi

I am not sure what I am doing wrong. Does anyone feel the same way?
 
Now you know why custom Android ROMS such as CM and vanilla phones such as the N5, Moto X, and Moto G are so popular. :p
 
Iphone 4 isn't any better though. I currently have both phones and while I don't favor either, the S4 is definitely faster.
 
Enilder said:
I switched from iOS to Android (S4) and I am disappointed. Theoretically speaking, my new S4 should be faster than iPhone 4 but I feel exactly the opposite.

For example, I try to launch a program such as YouTube. It takes like 5 seconds to launch the program. If I go on a web browser and click a search space to get the keyboard up, it takes 5 seconds, etc. So far, I've tried followings:

-Clear memory
-Minimize programs running in background (I even tried to close all but one)
-Turn off wifi

I am not sure what I am doing wrong. Does anyone feel the same way?
Click to expand...

Not at all. I have a s4 that even when completely stock was snappy.

Now I'm running a alternate ROM, and its absolutely blazingly fast and responsive. To give you an idea... On Sprint the stock was ROM was 1.3 GB in size. The CM11 ROM I am using came in at 200mb. Talk about bloatware...

And from a hardware perspective the s4 obliterates the iPhone 4s or 4 easily. No comparisons at all.
 
jmilcher said:
Not at all. I have a s4 that even when completely stock was snappy.

Now I'm running a alternate ROM, and its absolutely blazingly fast and responsive. To give you an idea... On Sprint the stock was ROM was 1.3 GB in size. The CM11 ROM I am using came in at 200mb. Talk about bloatware...

And from a hardware perspective the s4 obliterates the iPhone 4s or 4 easily. No comparisons at all.
Click to expand...

I don't think hardware perspective it would obliterate 4S. It's better but not far better.

I agree the stock ROM is absolutely garbage, and I have no clue how Samsung manage to make such hardware runs this snappy. CM ROM is another story though :D
 
Switch to Windows phone like Lumia. It has very fast main menu without any slowdowns.
I just tried Youtube app on my Lumia 1020 and start up time is about 1.5 seconds.
 
i dont have speed problems im just having weird software hardware problems i need to get a new one by the manufacturer
 
Avoid Samsung in the future unless you already plan on voiding warranty. TouchWiz will always be a bloated POS.

Get vanilla android, moto, or HTC.
 
My S3 runs noticeably better under CyanogenMod than the stock TouchWiz ROM. However, it still wasn't nearly as bad as you're describing out of the box, and it's a year older.

Specifically regarding the YouTube app: for whatever reason, it's very slow to start up on Android in general. I just tested it and it was about 5 seconds for me, which far exceeds my experience with any other comparable app. I've even seen video reviews of other Android phones that mention this oddity, so it's not just me (or you).

As for the browser/keyboard issue: using CyanogenMod, it takes a fraction of a second for the keyboard to appear for me after tapping the address bar in Chrome. I don't remember what it was like with TouchWiz, but I don't think it was anything near 5 seconds.

If you're looking for better performance, rooting and flashing a custom (AOSP-based) ROM is probably the best way to make a real difference. However, I think that if you put aside the YouTube issue, you'll find stock performance isn't really too bad to begin with. If it is, it's possible that running TRIM on your internal storage could help -- but, unfortunately, that requires rooting first anyway (or using Android 4.3+, which I assume Samsung still hasn't pushed out).
 
So your saying a smartphone released back 2010 is the same as a smartphone released in 2013....?
Time to head on over to the New nexus or vanilla droids....
 
To iterate on what others have said: Samsung isn't the best introduction to Android, because in many ways it represents what's wrong with the platform. The GS4 is full of bogged-down interfaces and half-broken features that are more for marketing than helping the user.

You can get the GS4 under control, although I wouldn't turn to custom ROMs; if you have to do that, it means the phone you bought is bad. How long have you had the phone? If it's only a few days old, try swapping for something with a nicer experience, like the Moto X, Nexus 5 or HTC One.
 
Aurelius said:
To iterate on what others have said: Samsung isn't the best introduction to Android, because in many ways it represents what's wrong with the platform. The GS4 is full of bogged-down interfaces and half-broken features that are more for marketing than helping the user.

You can get the GS4 under control, although I wouldn't turn to custom ROMs; if you have to do that, it means the phone you bought is bad. How long have you had the phone? If it's only a few days old, try swapping for something with a nicer experience, like the Moto X, Nexus 5 or HTC One.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't say the HTC One offers a "nicer experience." TouchWiz is bad, but Sense is the devil.

The Moto X and Nexus 5 will both offer much better software out of the box. Unfortunately, they're also lower-speced in some ways. The only way you can get the best of both worlds is by installing an AOSP ROM on a flagship like the S4 or One. In my opinion, at least for Samsung, it's easy enough to be well worth the effort in the long run.

EDIT: Since this is an S4, can't you just install the Google Edition ROM? That way, you're still running "official" software without the rough edges of CM (and the like) but are guaranteed a much better experience.
 
To the OP, what version of iOS did you have installed on the IP4. My neighbor was complaining how iOS 7 slowed his phone(IP4) to a crawl.
 
enable developer options and set the 3 animation options to zero. IMO this should be the factory default untill the hardware is fast enough to handle the animations with no lag.
oh and disable the svoice double click thing.
 
If it's taking you give seconds to load anything on the phone then something is wrong. That's not touchwiz, that's something else.

It's a good phone but if it's lagging like that your phone has issues.
 
5 seconds is too long take the phone back to get service / replaced.
 
brettjrob said:
The Moto X and Nexus 5 will both offer much better software out of the box. Unfortunately, they're also lower-speced in some ways. The only way you can get the best of both worlds is by installing an AOSP ROM on a flagship like the S4 or One. In my opinion, at least for Samsung, it's easy enough to be well worth the effort in the long run.
Click to expand...

This point is moot and irrelevant. You buy a phone for the experience it provides...not because one has a Snapdragon 800 SoC over another that has a Snapdragon 600. NOBODY CARES.
 
ComputerBox34 said:
This point is moot and irrelevant. You buy a phone for the experience it provides...not because one has a Snapdragon 800 SoC over another that has a Snapdragon 600. NOBODY CARES.
Click to expand...
Not quite that simple; I wasn't focused on the CPU, actually. The cameras are known to be less than stellar on both those models, the screens come up just a bit short (N5 in quality, M X in resolution), no microSD (compared to the S4), etc.

I don't think any of those things are a huge deal. Personally, if I weren't getting a subsidized phone, I'd easily choose a N5 or Moto X over the other two. I'm just stating the unfortunate reality that right now, there's no way to get a top-end Android phone that runs a near-AOSP version of the OS right out of the box. Except for the Google Play Edition devices, which will set you back a pretty penny.
 
I went from iphone 4 to S4 and my experience is way different than yours. The iPhone 4 was a lagfest even on iOS 6.

The stock S4 is way faster than the iphone 4. I did not see any lag on the s4. Don't run a memory cleaner/task manager or force close your recent apps. Let them be loaded in memory.

I am on a GPe rom now, but the touchwiz s4 was fine too.
 
brettjrob said:
Not quite that simple; I wasn't focused on the CPU, actually. The cameras are known to be less than stellar on both those models, the screens come up just a bit short (N5 in quality, M X in resolution), no microSD (compared to the S4), etc.
Click to expand...

Not according to Anand. It falls short in contrast, but it's still an excellent display. The recent 4.4.2 update also helped the camera a bunch, too. At this point, the worst part about the camera is the app itself, because the interface is a mess.
 
Ozymandias said:
Not according to Anand. It falls short in contrast, but it's still an excellent display. The recent 4.4.2 update also helped the camera a bunch, too. At this point, the worst part about the camera is the app itself, because the interface is a mess.
Click to expand...

The latest only changes the contrast for me on camera and a bit smoother, it does not make the image quality any better.....
Either way it still have better images compare to S4.
 
CHANG3D said:
You have got to be kidding me. Have you used Sense 5?
Click to expand...
Admittedly, I haven't. However, HTC lost me before that with good reason. I had an Aria back in the day, and the "upgrade" to Android 2.2 rendered my phone nearly unusable (i.e., tapping a contact to make a call would actually place a call to another contact -- fun times). It was at that point that I got into custom ROMs and CM -- out of sheer necessity.

Then, my mother got a One X last year. The UI was laggy and ugly out of the box, and yet again, the first major OTA update (Jellybean) turned it into an appalling glitchfest. Eventually, I had to load it with CM as well to get her to stop complaining (which she has since that time). No more chances for HTC's software division, as far as I'm concerned.

TouchWiz on my S3 was fine, from a usability standpoint. I never saw any glitches of note. I just prefer the cleanliness and unlocked features (e.g., hotspot) of CM.
 
Is it really 5 seconds or just saying it takes a long time? because 5 is very long. I also hate people that say " put a rom on it,ect" . He bought a phone he should not have to do extra stuff to make it work the way it was meant to(this is coming from an android fanboy).
 
tvdang7 said:
Is it really 5 seconds or just saying it takes a long time? because 5 is very long. I also hate people that say " put a rom on it,ect" . He bought a phone he should not have to do extra stuff to make it work the way it was meant to(this is coming from an android fanboy).
Click to expand...

You can legally gpe the phone which is kind of romming it.
 
tvdang7 said:
Is it really 5 seconds or just saying it takes a long time? because 5 is very long. I also hate people that say " put a rom on it,ect" . He bought a phone he should not have to do extra stuff to make it work the way it was meant to(this is coming from an android fanboy).
Click to expand...
It's true that no one "should have to," but given that many of us have experienced better performance on custom ROMs, it's worth pointing that out so a new user is aware of his options.
 
brettjrob said:
Admittedly, I haven't. However, HTC lost me before that with good reason. I had an Aria back in the day, and the "upgrade" to Android 2.2 rendered my phone nearly unusable (i.e., tapping a contact to make a call would actually place a call to another contact -- fun times). It was at that point that I got into custom ROMs and CM -- out of sheer necessity.

Then, my mother got a One X last year. The UI was laggy and ugly out of the box, and yet again, the first major OTA update (Jellybean) turned it into an appalling glitchfest. Eventually, I had to load it with CM as well to get her to stop complaining (which she has since that time). No more chances for HTC's software division, as far as I'm concerned.

TouchWiz on my S3 was fine, from a usability standpoint. I never saw any glitches of note. I just prefer the cleanliness and unlocked features (e.g., hotspot) of CM.
Click to expand...

I don't ever remember One X out of box was laggy and ugly. Sense has been probably the best none stock experience I have and the smoothest out of all. S3 stock is absolutely garbage. I have not install much on it or change settings, and to load a contact page it took more than 5 seconds to load. Not to mention the glitch lock when phone calls come in.
 
TouchWiz is nowhere near bad enough to cause a 5s lag. There's something else going on, I'd at least reboot the phone once.

And iOS 7 has a ton of lag as well.
 
jwcalla said:
I doubt touchscreen latency is responsible for a 5 second YouTube load time. I suspect in the YouTube case the culprit is more likely network-related since it seems to download a lot of images for the intro page.
Click to expand...

Well to be honest the youtube app is the only app I notice that does take maybe an extra second to load every since the new facelift update it received . This on my Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 2013. But the delay is no where near 5 seconds more like 2 seconds at most.
 
This is why I and so many others went through so much effort trying to get plain Android on devices like the Galaxy S3 and S4.

Now I stick solely to Nexus or Google Play Edition devices. For a reason. I've got a Moto X, which is basically a Nexus.
 
MrCrispy said:
TouchWiz is nowhere near bad enough to cause a 5s lag. There's something else going on, I'd at least reboot the phone once.

And iOS 7 has a ton of lag as well.
Click to expand...

On the 4S and older - Yes.

On the 5/5S nope.
 
MrCrispy said:
TouchWiz is nowhere near bad enough to cause a 5s lag. There's something else going on, I'd at least reboot the phone once.

And iOS 7 has a ton of lag as well.
Click to expand...

It would be some expert programming if TouchWiz could make an iPhone lag.
 
Mchart said:
On the 4S and older - Yes.

On the 5/5S nope.
Click to expand...

I have an iPad 3, it has terrible lag with iOS 7, and I think its well known. I agree TW is bad, my GS3 is now rooted and runs AOSP, but when I had TW it wasn't unusable or slow, its just.... different.
 
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