A look back on 2015, the year Samsung fixed lag and stutter on Galaxy phones – do phone

Samsung has dominated the Android smartphone market for a very long time. The corporate first began making Android phones in the late 2000s, and its first correct flagship, the authentic Galaxy S, got here out in June, 2010. The Galaxy S was a giant hit, due to its mixture of excessive-finish specs, the uncommon-at-the-time AMOLED show, and a heavy advertising and marketing push that Samsung has utilized to just about each smartphone launch since then.

You would even argue that the massive budgets Samsung allotted to its advertising and marketing efforts might be thought of the largest motive for why Galaxy phones grew to become so fashionable so rapidly and managed to overshadow a lot of the competitors, resembling HTC and Sony, who had been making a few of the greatest Android smartphones back then however by no means felt the have to promote their choices sufficient by way of conventional means.

In reality, such was Samsung’s domination of the smartphone market simply 2-3 years after its first Android phone hit retail cabinets that for a lot of prospects, Galaxy smartphones grew to become synonymous with Android. And for a lot of prospects, Samsung’s Android smartphones had been all that they had used, and that meant that too many followers had been unwilling to concede — or possibly simply failed to appreciate — how Galaxy phones had an insane quantity of lag and stutter in day-to-day use, particularly on flagship units with excessive-finish processors powering them.

Samsung’s Galaxy phones had been frustratingly gradual in the early years

I used to be such a fan myself. I began my Android journey with the Galaxy Apollo in 2010, moved on to the Galaxy S a year later, then upgraded to a Galaxy Observe 3 after I joined SamMobile in 2013. I cherished how Samsung gave you all types of software program options (the kitchen sink strategy, as they name it) like many different Samsung followers, and I used to be fairly pleased with the Galaxy Observe 3.

Sadly, only a few months later, I misplaced the Galaxy Observe 3. Devastated, I wished to get a brand new phone as quickly as potential, and I picked up a Sony Xperia Z1 that was obtainable for a reduction. And I’m not overstating it after I say I used to be shocked by the clean and fast efficiency of the Xperia.

All of a sudden excited to find what different manufacturers needed to provide, I rapidly switched from the Xperia Z1 to an HTC One M8 and then changed the HTC phone with the OnePlus One, with every gadget having sooner and extra fluid efficiency than the final. However I ultimately returned to residence base and acquired myself a Galaxy Observe 4, solely to find it had extra, not fewer, efficiency points than the Observe 3.

That’s after I wrote an opinion, titled ‘It’s 2014, Samsung. Why does your software still lag, even on a flagship device?‘. And a few of our readers weren’t impressed. Fairly just a few commenters mentioned how I used to be flawed and that their Galaxy phone doesn’t lag or stutter, whereas just a few mentioned they had been fantastic with the lag and stutter as a compromise for getting so many software program options that different manufacturers didn’t provide.

Whereas I understood the latter argument, I attributed the former to the commenters by no means having stepped out of their bubble and by no means having seen latest phones from competing manufacturers in motion. I mentioned as a lot when replying to these feedback, however I ended up trying like the villain as a result of virtually nobody was able to acknowledge that Samsung phones had a lag drawback.

Properly, fortunately I used to be confirmed proper the subsequent year by Samsung itself when it launched the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge. The S6 and S6 edge had been a serious design overhaul after the backlash Samsung acquired over not making its flagships really feel extra premium. However Samsung didn’t simply focus on the design. It overhauled the software program as effectively – along with making the consumer interface less complicated and much less complicated to make use of, the firm additionally fixed lag and stutter.

And the better part? Samsung didn’t shrink back from acknolwedging that its phones had lag and stutter. At the Unpacked occasion the place the Galaxy S6 duo was launched, the Vice President of Samsung’s UX Innovation Group took the stage to disclose that “lag or stuttering is gone!” and that the firm took ideas from its prospects and on-line buddies. We’d have had one thing to do with it as effectively, not less than if Samsung Korea wasn’t kidding when it informed us that our/my suggestions (each destructive and optimistic) was one thing they cherished.

Right here’s the video the place Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S6 and talked about the improved efficiency (skip to the 18 minutes 17 seconds mark):

Has Samsung really fixed lag and stutter on Galaxy units?

It’s been eight years since the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge had been introduced, and for me their unveiling was the most enjoyable of any Galaxy phone that got here earlier than. The concept of lastly getting to make use of a flagship Galaxy smartphone that didn’t lag like phones you might get for half the value made the await the S6 and S6 edge’s launch date loopy onerous – naturally, the extra premium {hardware} design and the twin-curved Galaxy S6 edge show additionally factored in to the anticipation.

However, so a few years later, has Samsung really fixed the lag and stutter on Galaxy units? Properly, it relies upon on the way you look at it. Samsung’s flagships run nice lately – the Galaxy S23 sequence particularly is unbelievably fliud and quick, and whereas not at the identical degree, so are final year’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4. However what about Samsung’s mid-vary and finances phones?

Sadly these proceed to fall behind the competitors, with Samsung failing to optimize handsets based on its in-house chips. And Samsung nonetheless hasn’t perfected the artwork of creating certain that its phones proceed to run effectively just a few months or a year or extra down the line. That’s true even for some flagships. My Dad and my spouse have each complained that their Observe 10 and Observe 10+ (respectively) are likely to decelerate each now and then; my Mother has related complaints about her Galaxy S10 Lite, and it’s all regardless of the proven fact that my mother and father and my spouse by no means do something that’s useful resource-intensive.

Nonetheless, the Galaxy S23 has given us hope that not less than the prime-of-the-line Samsung phones have lastly achieved the type of efficiency that could be impossible to improve further. The mid-vary and finances ones will most likely proceed to supply a lower than splendid expertise, although Samsung is greater than welcome to show me and different critics flawed.