Why does ATK work this way?

[Deleted User]

If I don't use ATK, my phone runs very fast and smooth with a ton of crap listed in the back ground. It even scrolls fine. However, it benchmarks lower than when I use ATK to kill everything. My quadrant scores really get low when ATK shows a ton of programs. Kill them and the phone is slow, but benches higher. I stopped using ATK for the most part, but occassionally do for what ever reasons.
High bench marks makes me feel good, but so does a smooth phone!

 

[cableguynoe]

If I don't use ATK, my phone runs very fast and smooth with a ton of crap listed in the back ground. It even scrolls fine. However, it benchmarks lower than when I use ATK to kill everything. My quadrant scores really get low when ATK shows a ton of programs. Kill them and the phone is slow, but benches higher. I stopped using ATK for the most part, but occassionally do for what ever reasons.
High bench marks makes me feel good, but so does a smooth phone!

Very good observation.
If you do a little research, you will see that the task killer debate is long and complex.
Many feel that, and i tend to agree, task killers are not needed. These phones were designed to multi-task and are able to manage their own memory for best performance. Killing task is not necessary, expecially since in most cases, these apps will start right back up.
Just let your smartphone do it's thing.

Others feels that task killer actually screw up your phone. I probably wouldn't go that far. But i am now on my 3rd android device (3rd one today ), and I'm fine without task killers.

My advice is to go a few days without one and see if you notice the difference.

Verizon employees will tell you different every time you go to the store... i still dont understand why they push them so hard. If they were really necessary, Motorola, HTC and others complanies would be smart enough to include it with the OS.

 

[Mavis Cruet]

I'm afraid That I can't see why devs can't include a stop button in every app, then I can choose wether to let it run in the background.There are many things that I only use occasionally. It really bugs me that they're still there after several hours.

 

[Drhyde]

If I don't use ATK, my phone runs very fast and smooth with a ton of crap listed in the back ground. It even scrolls fine. However, it benchmarks lower than when I use ATK to kill everything. My quadrant scores really get low when ATK shows a ton of programs. Kill them and the phone is slow, but benches higher. I stopped using ATK for the most part, but occassionally do for what ever reasons.
High bench marks makes me feel good, but so does a smooth phone!

Android (and by extension Linux and Windows) are designed to put as many apps into memory as possible in order to increase performance. It's why computer gurus will usually tell you to upgrade your RAM for a performance boost. Many programs are persistent in RAM and the cache (hence why they start themselves up again). Your phone slows after killing everything because...it kills everything. Android has to start up those processes again bogging down performance.

As far as quadrant goes, I hear it relies heavily on I/O scores which could account for a boost after killing everything. If there's nothing in memory, obviously the system can write faster though it doesn't necessarily equate to higher performance.

Most people believe you should use a task killer to save battery, but a better way is to shut down non-essential power draining connections such as WIFI, 3G (dropping into EDGE), data connection, GPS, Auto Sync, and other when you are not using them. If that bothers you, try Juice Defender. It allows you to shut these elements down, only coming on briefly to download your hourly updates. I also found Auto Brightness is more of a battery drain since the CPU has to determine in conjunction with the ambient sensor whether or not to adjust the screen brightness. It's usually better to just leave the brightness low enough to be seen comfortably.

Anything else performance related will come down to processor, Android version, amount of running widgets, and custom UIs that are on the phone. Hopefully this clarifies things a little. I would say that I'm very above average with computers, but not in the expert zone so take what I write with a grain of salt.

 

[cableguynoe]

I also found Auto Brightness is more of a battery drain since the CPU has to determine in conjunction with the ambient sensor whether or not to adjust the screen brightness. It's usually better to just leave the brightness low enough to be seen comfortably.
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First time I hear this. Interesting.

I will give it a try.

 

[takeshi]

I'm afraid That I can't see why devs can't include a stop button in every app, then I can choose wether to let it run in the background.There are many things that I only use occasionally. It really bugs me that they're still there after several hours.

You're assuming that Android works like a desktop OS -- that's why you can't see why. Devs can certainly do this but it shouldn't be necessary if the app works properly.

App/task killers are useful for misbehaving apps but you're addressing the symptom rather than the cause.

Verizon employees will tell you different every time you go to the store... i still dont understand why they push them so hard. If they were really necessary, Motorola, HTC and others complanies would be smart enough to include it with the OS.

This would be why, apparently:
http://androidforums.com/android-lounge/177230-you-have-got-f-king-kidding-me.html#post1590909