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Why can no android phones scroll through webpages without lag?

H

hardee17

Lurker
I really like android, I really do. I love the customization and everything but I still haven't been able to make the switch from apple because of lag. Why can't an android phone be as buttery smooth as an iphone? I've played with pretty much all the new phones out at the verizon store and they all have the same problem with lag.

My girlfriend has a droid and she complains about it also. How fast do the processors have to be to get rid of the lag?
 
At the moment, you can't have best of both worlds IMO.

However, the amount of lag I experience really is negligible. I have an HTC Desire, rooted and overclocked.

I've owned an iphone4 and several android phones, and the lag would have to be REALLY terrible for me to want to move back to iphone.

At the end of the day, if you prefer 'smooth' over open and customizable then stick to iphone, at least for now. (IMO :))

/2 cents
 
From what I read, Apple does much better at hardware acceleration than Google/android does. So even though Apples processors are slower the transitions are much smoother.
 
The browser on my Desire Z looks pretty smooth to me. Also in my Droid Incredible and Galaxy S. The browser on the Nexus One with Froyo wasn't that smooth, but it was smoother on Gingerbread.

If you really like better than iPhone browser smooth, download Opera Mobile 11 for free on the Android Market.

Frankly the reason why Android browsers chop a little is because they got aggressive text reflow and realignment. Which for me is a lot more important in making text columns readable. I can't use the iPhone browser because you continually need to zoom and resize the text. The Android browser does it automatically with a single click.
 
Not really. Its actually the Android browser's killer feature. Text reflow and the lack of it is why I don't use the iOS browser.

If you want something on Android that totally behaves like the iOS browser, similar in smoothness, has the same faults like lack of text reflows, no Flash, and the checkerboarding on blank spaces, try Firefox 4 Mobile. I do have to say Firefox 4 is faster on Javascript and scores higher on HTML5 compatibility so its not completely the same.

In any case, I recommend Opera Mobile 11 because of its Turbo mode---it compresses data to complete a webpage faster on limited bandwidth---and it has the things you ask for an Android browser, such as Flash, link sharing, and it can be easily set as default (and undefaulted if you wish). It has aggressive text reflows and yet it is very smooth on scrolls, zooms and rezooms. It also has a very high HTML5 compatibility. The browser is SD compatible which means you can move it to the SD card to save phone memory space.

Please note there is an Opera Mini and an Opera Mobile in the Android Market, you need to get the Mobile one.
 
Try setting the browser to use flash on-demand.

I have flash on and I don't have any lag when scrolling the browser.
 
I would also recommend Opera Mini (not Opera Mobile). I like Opera Mini because it is faster than Opera Mobile or the stock browser. Mini does not support Flash and I find I am not really missing it. Many videos on web sites will end up playing on YouTube. Give it a try and see if you like it.

Just FYI, Opera Mini was able to make the Nokia N97 (worse smartphone ever) actually usable for a while. The latest version for Android is simply awesome and I prefer it over the stock browser and Opera Mobile.
 
hardee17 said:
I've played with pretty much all the new phones out at the verizon store and they all have the same problem with lag.

My girlfriend has a droid and she complains about it also. How fast do the processors have to be to get rid of the lag?
Click to expand...


phones in shops arent rooted, and arent running with custom roms or lagfixes. My phone runs like butter.

what phone does your girlfriend have? she could root it, install a custom rom, a good compatible kernel, and some tweaks. yes, it can be a mission, but its the flip side of the high-customization coin...

...and gives you a feeling that can only be described as the feeling god would have if he customized his phone.

PS. God wants the SGS2.
 
Additionally, Apple builds the hardware and the software, so if it wasn't smoother than a stock Android based phone, I'd be surprised.

Of course, if you want customization with an iPhone, just jailbreak it, load cydia and go to town customizing.
 
When I open complex webpages, only Opera Mobile is smooth as it should be. All the others I've tried are lagging (incl the stock browser, Miren, Dolphine HD/mini).
 
Stuntman said:
I would also recommend Opera Mini (not Opera Mobile). I like Opera Mini because it is faster than Opera Mobile or the stock browser. Mini does not support Flash and I find I am not really missing it. Many videos on web sites will end up playing on YouTube. Give it a try and see if you like it.

Just FYI, Opera Mini was able to make the Nokia N97 (worse smartphone ever) actually usable for a while. The latest version for Android is simply awesome and I prefer it over the stock browser and Opera Mobile.
Click to expand...


Opera Mini is also a good suggestion. But the primary reason I didn't suggest it is because HTML5 compatibility is low. Just because Opera Mini and Opera Mobile looks so similar to each other does not mean their HTML5 compatibility isn't as different as night and day. Mini only scores a minuscule 17 on the HTML5 test while Mobile scores a humongous 234. Mobile is even more HTML5 compatible than the native iPhone and Android browsers by a big shot.

But if you don't need HTML5, found as in many complex webpages or Google sites, Opera Mini is more than good enough.
 
My Lg optimus with no flash doesn't lag at all when scrolling through the web, but has some lag multi-touch which is normal.
 
My wife has had the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 4. I've had the MyTouch 3G and the MyTouch 4G--both I've had rooted and unrooted.

The iPhone definitely offers a smoother experience in terms of touch-responsiveness. And when you pinch-to-zoom, it does so immediately upon touch, while with Android there is a slight lag that's noticeable only when you compare it directly with the iPhone.

I do not, however, get any lag in terms of scrolling webpages. Unfortunately, quite the opposite. Usually it's a smooth experience, but sometimes if I just want to scroll a little bit, Android (in whatever browser I'm using that's not Opera) will suddenly decide I wanted to rapidly scroll to the bottom of the page instead.
 
I'm on the gingerbreak leak for Droid X.. very smoooooooth. Baby's butt type smooth. :)
 
Guamguy said:
Opera Mini is also a good suggestion. But the primary reason I didn't suggest it is because HTML5 compatibility is low. Just because Opera Mini and Opera Mobile looks so similar to each other does not mean their HTML5 compatibility isn't as different as night and day. Mini only scores a minuscule 17 on the HTML5 test while Mobile scores a humongous 234. Mobile is even more HTML5 compatible than the native iPhone and Android browsers by a big shot.

But if you don't need HTML5, found as in many complex webpages or Google sites, Opera Mini is more than good enough.
Click to expand...

When the latest Opera Mobile and Mini was released last month, I tried out both for a few days. I found that for the sites that I visit, Opera Mini worked pretty well. Opera Mobile seemed a little slow and didn't seem to be quite as good as the stock browser. Depending on which sites you frequent, Mini may or may not work for you. I would recommend trying it out to see if it can handle the sites you visit often.

I was actually rather surprised how well Opera Mini worked for me. I used to use it on my Nokia N97. It was barely adequate, but was an older version and didn't have as many features as Mini 6. Still Opera Mini was way better than the stock Symbian browser, but that's not really saying much.
 
One thing about Opera Mobile is that don't forget to turn on the Turbo settings, since the default isn't. Opera Mini uses server compression and push, Opera Mobile needs Turbo to turn on to get that.

To the OP, browsers like Dolphin Browser, Dolphin Browser HD and Dolphin Browser HD Mini don't lag. Neither does Skyfire and Miren. The fastest renderers IMO after Opera Mini, are Dolphin Browser HD, Skyfire and Miren. The plain Dolphin Browser 3.0 is best for sharing.

Now that I got all your attention there are two other browsers that are kind of cool. One is Maxthon, which has a great interface and is trying to be a "social browser". The other is Netfront, but its quite stupid it uses Bing as a search engine. Netfront gets a mark for the dubious ability of displaying a web page in a diagonal format if you hold your phone diagonally.
 
Guamguy said:
Netfront gets a mark for the dubious ability of displaying a web page in a diagonal format if you hold your phone diagonally.
Click to expand...

I remember seeing a demo of a browser with a diagonal format. I thought it was one of the most stupid features ever put in a software app. They should have just spend the time and effort on text re-flow. Like I want one text line to be long so the text on the other lines extend beyond the frame of the screen. :confused:
 
Stuntman said:
I remember seeing a demo of a browser with a diagonal format. I thought it was one of the most stupid features ever put in a software app. They should have just spend the time and effort on text re-flow. Like I want one text line to be long so the text on the other lines extend beyond the frame of the screen. :confused:
Click to expand...

I thought the diagonal web browser display was a great way to shock your friends. "Hey, can your phone do this?"
 
My Ally lags on everything if I have too many apps loaded at once (The drawback of using RAM for storage).

My Fascinate doesn't lag. Especially not on web pages. If I have a live wall paper, and tons of widgets on the home screens, they lag a smidgeon (Fixed by using Voodoo).
 
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