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Android UI Lag worse than iOS devices, explanation

Having delved into why Google Android’s UI lags compared to other iOS, Microsoft and Research in Motion’s OS, undergraduate software engineering student Andrew Munn explains. Detailed over on Google’s new social networking site Google+, Munn talks about why at times Android devices can appear slow in terms of reaction times and overall experience compared to rival UI’s.

So what were Munn’s findings? According to AppleInsider, it was reported, that the problem lies with Android having a difficult time dealing with the touch interface, where it handles rendering “on the main thread with normal priority,” compared to that of say the iOS which uses UI rendering with “real-time priority.”

Contributory factors to Android’s UI lagging, include the photo gallery app being capped at 30 frames per second helping to prevent a “hiccup” at 60 FPS, this can be seen on Android’s Honeycomb or new Ice Cream Sandwich OS. This therefore, results in Android devices tending to be slow when trying to carry out other tasks being performed at the same time.

Other reasons resonate from “inoptimal hardware,” from Nivdia’s Tegra 2 chip that can be identified from low memory bandwidth and lack of Neon instruction set support. Limitations can also be seen from Android’s Dalvik virtual machine, which is classed as being immature as a desktop class Java VM.

To find out more on what is a fairly technical explanation click here to head on over to AppleInsider.

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