Would Rooting and Removing Touchwiz Increase Performance on S5?

[Chicago64]

Hello,

I haven't purchased the phone yet, but this summer my family and I are switching carriers and getting new phones. I plan on getting the Galaxy S5, and it seems awesome, but it annoys me that Touchwiz bogs the phone down and stops it from performing as well in daily use as other phones can due to their optimization (HTC One M8, iPhone 5S). My question here is, would rooting the phone and removing Touchwiz (if that's possible) stop the lag in daily activities (such as opening and closing apps)? Would there be any downsides?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[funkylogik]

Replacing touchwiz (Samsung's rom) with a custom rom that's close to pure Android probably will improve performance a lot but the s5 is a very powerful phone. I haven't used it but it probably drags touchwiz along quite nicely so play with it first.
Down side is you'll lose all of Samsung's features, a big one is the excellent Samsung camera software :thumbup:

EDIT I forgot, you'll also lose your warranty now on a Samsung

 

[boyo1991]

Anything other than touchwiz lol.

If you get a custom ROM chances are definetly yes.

 

[funkylogik]

Anything other than touchwiz lol.

If you get a custom ROM chances are definetly yes.

Lol I was trying to be neutral because I probably bash touchwiz too much

 

[Chicago64]

Replacing touchwiz (Samsung's rom) with a custom rom that's close to pure Android probably will improve performance a lot but the s5 is a very powerful phone. I haven't used it but it probably drags touchwiz along quite nicely so play with it first.
Down side is you'll lose all of Samsung's features, a big one is the excellent Samsung camera software :thumbup:

EDIT I forgot, you'll also lose your warranty now on a Samsung

When you say features, what all is included?

Also, one other thing: if you were to install a different ROM on your phone, could you reinstall the original firmware if you didn't like the new ROM?

 

[AZgl1500]

I have found that with the phone fine tuned by Disabling all of the crap that comes factory installed, that TouchWiz actually gets along pretty good.

I installed KK Launcher and lost some of the neat features that TouchWiz has. I removed KK Launcher and went back to TouchWiz.

YMMV

.

 

[Mittar]

You'd probably lose fingerprint scanner functionality as well as the camera performance (although I hear great things about the new Google camera app). But you would likely make up for it in performance.

There are only a few places that I notice lag in touchwiz since the update, so I'd play around with it first as is, and decide from there.

 

[mikedt]

Replacing touchwiz (Samsung's rom) with a custom rom that's close to pure Android probably will improve performance a lot but the s5 is a very powerful phone. I haven't used it but it probably drags touchwiz along quite nicely so play with it first.
Down side is you'll lose all of Samsung's features, a big one is the excellent Samsung camera software :thumbup:

EDIT I forgot, you'll also lose your warranty now on a Samsung

Think that's something important to remember with Samsungs now, they have a non-resettable e-fuse which is tripped when the device is rooted. Because once a device is rooted, KNOX is no longer secure. Was one of the things that put me off buying another Samsung. I'm into rooting and customising, but at the same time I still do like to have a full manufacturer's warranty.

One of the things that KNOX does is to ensure that only software authorised by Samsung can run at boot. It's a form of trusted computing. Of course when a device is rooted, you can do anything you like with it.

 

[BzB]

never used touchwiz on my s5. installed nova launcher prime right out of the box and been zipping around ever since.

 

[Mittar]

Doesn't Nova Launcher require root? And if not, isn't that just an overlay on top of touchwhiz?

 

[BzB]

Doesn't Nova Launcher require root? And if not, isn't that just an overlay on top of touchwhiz?

does not require root. it is a launcher that replaces the touchwiz launcher. some features of touchwiz will likely always run in the background, but since nova isn't directly integrated with those background functions that may be the reason it seems to make the phone more responsive.

 

[Shocky]

So you havent tried the phone yet and your complaining about performance already?

Forget what you've heard about bloatware, touchwiz and performance because most of it has probably come from users just like you who have no experience with the latest Samsung devices and touchwiz roms and simply assume what they've read online to be true.

Now enjoy your Galaxy S5.

never used touchwiz on my s5. installed nova launcher prime right out of the box and been zipping around ever since.

Touchwiz is a lot more than just a launcher, even though your using Nova Launcher your still using Touchwiz.

Basically it either it lags or it doesn't, a 3rd party launcher will not change that.

I'm glad your enjoying Touchwiz.

 

[AZgl1500]

So you havent tried the phone yet and your complaining about performance already?

Forget what you've heard about bloatware, touchwiz and performance because most of it has probably come from users just like you who have no experience with the latest Samsung devices and touchwiz roms and simply assume what they've read online to be true.

Now enjoy your Galaxy S5.

I have to agree with this. I am not experiencing any slowness with my S5. I briefly tried KK Launcher but immediately found out that it did not honor my prior screen setup, and it also lost all of the gee whiz TouchWiz features.

I think Samsung did a very good job on the S5, they gave us the ability to Disable anything we don't want running.

I now have my battery life greatly extended. Charged up to 96% at 10 PM last night, hit the sack, up at 0500 AM and used it with Phandroid about 30 minutes today and the current battery state is 86%. That is only 10% loss in 19 hours.

I do it with Battery Doctor's widget turning off DATA, Sync, Wifi, GPS when the phone is asleep in my pocket. At lunch time I hit the DATA button and the Phandroid app and looked around to see what is going on here.... about 30 minutes worth.

Not too shabby at 86% after 19 hours.

 

[BzB]

Basically it either it lags or it doesn't, a 3rd party launcher will not change that.

not exactly. 3rd party applications have shown to provide performance improvement over stock apps. this goes for launchers as well since it's just another app at the end of the day. i don't know the secret sauce for nova but it's faster and smoother than the stock launcher.

 

[Shocky]

not exactly. 3rd party applications have shown to provide performance improvement over stock apps. this goes for launchers as well since it's just another app at the end of the day. i don't know the secret sauce for nova but it's faster and smoother than the stock launcher.

In some cases yes, but not in this case.

I've been using Nova Launcher on Samsung devices for years, Nova Launcher does not fix performance issues or lag with roms. It sounds like you just prefer Nova Launcher and that's great but it has nothing to do with lag or performance.

I even use Nova Launcher on stock devices, now clearly stock Android doesn't lag, I just prefer to use Nova Launcher due to customizations and faster animations.

Also, to be clear the only way to remove Touchwiz is to flash a Google Edition or AOSP based rom, installing a launcher does NOT remove Touchwiz.

 

[BzB]

In some cases yes, but not in this case.

I've been using Nova Launcher on Samsung devices for years, Nova Launcher does not fix performance issues or lag with roms. It sounds like you just prefer Nova Launcher and that's great but it has nothing to do with lag or performance.

I even use Nova Launcher on stock devices, now clearly stock Android doesn't lag, I just prefer to use Nova Launcher due to customizations and faster animations.

Also, to be clear the only way to remove Touchwiz is to flash a Google Edition or AOSP based rom, installing a launcher does NOT remove Touchwiz.

indeed a launcher cannot resolve rom issues. those issues manifest in places a launcher does not impact. as mentioned in my previous post even if the stock launcher is switched to nova, touchwiz will still run in the background since it is part of the rom.

personally i think launchers have less of an impact as these devices get more powerful. if there's lag it is likely app or setting specific. the developer options in system settings can assist in reducing lag in some cases, although developer options are not for the faint of heart.

that said, for users who think they experience lag when navigating between screens, opening/closing apps etc or the overall navigation experience doesn't seem smooth as expected then i'd recommend trying nova. it won't hurt a thing. ymmv

 

[Shocky]

indeed a launcher cannot resolve rom issues. those issues manifest in places a launcher does not impact. as mentioned in my previous post even if the stock launcher is switched to nova, touchwiz will still run in the background since it is part of the rom.

Touchwiz is not just a launcher, it's a framework by Samsung the launcher and other Samsung apps are designed around.

It's true the launcher is still active in the background but again it's only part of Touchwiz.

that said, for users who think they experience lag when navigating between screens, opening/closing apps etc or the overall navigation experience doesn't seem smooth as expected then i'd recommend trying nova. it won't hurt a thing. ymmv

It probably wouldn't help either unless it's the launcher application itself causing the lag which isnt normally the case.

Try Nova Launcher on a Galaxy S4 with one of the 4.2.2 roms, it will lag just the same as the Touchwiz launcher, other than looking difference the performance is the same.

 

[BzB]

Try Nova Launcher on a Galaxy S4 with one of the 4.2.2 roms, it will lag just the same as the Touchwiz launcher, other than looking difference the performance is the same.

i have a galaxy s4 and nova launcher is smoother/faster in the scenarios i mentioned than the stock touchwiz launcher. this is why i suggest people try it for themselves rather than go by what we say on the internet. nova is free to try after all.

 

[Shocky]

i have a galaxy s4 and nova launcher is smoother/faster in the scenarios i mentioned than the stock touchwiz launcher. this is why i suggest people try it for themselves rather than go by what we say on the internet. nova is free to try after all.

I'm using the same device and it's not smoother at all, it's faster but that's because Nova Launchers default animation speed is a little faster, you can adjust that.

Performance is exactly the same, no lag and it's smooth using both launchers.

 

[BzB]

I'm using the same device and it's not smoother at all, it's faster but that's because Nova Launchers default animation speed is a little faster, you can adjust that.

Performance is exactly the same, no lag and it's smooth using both launchers.

hence..."ymmv"...lol. my experience is different than yours and each user/device has it's own nuances.