I have been using Android smartphones and tablets for over couple of years. However it seems like my love affair with Android is coming to an end.
I guess most of the blame for this feeling goes to Samsung, who has managed to screw up Galaxy Grand Duos firmware so much that I was forced to downgrade to 4.1.2 (I was earlier using 4.2.2). I even went to the extent of rooting the phone, in order to remove some of the bloatware and control the CPU speed. While these have helped somewhat, I still experience unexpected lag from time to time.
I guess one way to remedy this is to install a custom ROM (there is finally dual SIM support in custom ROMs) or stopping short of it, and installing custom kernel instead.
However the real question is, do I need to be a tech geek in order to run an Android phone without lag?
And do I really need to waste so much of my time, effort and bandwidth into something, which ought to work, straight out of the box?
After all it isn’t like Rs. 20,000 (US$ 335) for a phone is a small amount, especially considering that it is an extremely depreciating asset. And if Samsung and Google still can’t manage to provide a stutter free experience at that price point, then they really shouldn’t be selling these phones to people like me, who expect a phone to work, without need of constant tinkering and tweaking!
Now some might say that this is just a problem with Samsung, and stock Android is fantastic. Well I own a Google Nexus 7 and it too experiences app crashes and funnily enough, it is Google’s YouTube App, which crashes the most!
Then there are the constant App updates I wrote about recently (click here to read). Once again these are an annoyance, especially since it is Google, Facebook and Twitter who update their Apps the most. Even though one would expect their apps to be mature and stable enough to not warrant constant updates!
I guess the time is getting nearer, and one day I am just going to raise my hand and say, I give up and end up ordering couple of non-Android phone and get rid of the travesty that is Android! Till then, I must endure…
6 Comments
its not just the android…its the current generation of programmers. the beliefs and best practices have changed over time.
– microsoft lost business for monopolizing by bundling browser and useless software (try to get rid of stock bloatware on android without rooting)
– microsoft was cursed for its automatic updates (which were not as frequent as androids)
– microsoft was hated for not being compatible with anything except FAT/NTFS (try creating any other filesystem than FAT on stock android)
– people hated adware, begware (there is possibly nothing like freeware (as in freeware+addfreeware on android)
– copy paste was universal (now try to copy paste any text from facebook app)
now even if you change OS, these annoyances will remain
Quite true, which is why I use only essential apps and nothing else. I have just one game installed in my tablet and none in my phone.
I guess sooner or later people will realize the folly of letting Apps have so much control and move back to the ubiquitous browser for most things.
Apart from the fact that every operating system in this world will remained flawed unless if the user customizing the same according to the needs.
For the lag – it depends majorly on the hardware. I have been a Galaxy S user since the launch of S2 in the market. As the technology is advancing, so are the different applications and the complexity of the programs. Even though developers can also control the use of memory by an application, it is majorly hardware’s role to do the algorithms as quickly and start with a new one. Android is hugely blamed for lack of speed, lag et cetera but then, the products (which do lag, but reportedly much less) cost a bomb (read Apple) and are then compared to mediocre smart phone which companies sell with a strategy of capturing the market.
As you move up in Android phone range, these problems come down by a multiplied rate!
Shantonil, it isn’t third party application lag that bothers me, but rather the lag at times I encounter while opening dialer or far more frequently, Gmail. Even lock screen freezes at times and this is when I am using older firmware.
I think the excessive information these smartphones give you is the issue, earlier phones were fast because they can’t fetch facebook, google account and profile info in you dialer, now a days if one changes his profile picture it gets automatically updated in your contact list the very next second. These phones have no memory storage issue so if you don’t cleanup your phone you might be able to tell you who called you 3 years ago, so here lags come. I normally disable auto syncing apps which works for me.
But still the power these phones gives are too good ..
I don’t run often for my laptop.
I am network engineer and sometimes run commands on switches and routers from this phone.
And i typed this whole comment using the same phone 😉 … I can’t even think typing or opening your blog on my previous nokia e 63, but still i use it when this smartphones dies in middle of nowhere …
Abhinav
I am extremely happy with my blackberry z10. Stable and has all that you need. Plus the free mapmyindia is awesome. Costs 17k.