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iPhone 5 Touch Screen Twice as Fast as Android Touch Screen

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Apr 12, 2001
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The iPhone's touch screen has a much faster response time than its Android and Windows counterparts, according to a new set of TouchMark benchmarks from cloud streaming company Agawi.

Using a 240fps high frame rate camera along with a custom-built device called a Touchscope, Agawi measured the App Response Time (ART) of several different smartphones. The ART is the latency experienced between the time a user touches the device display to the device's on-screen response.

Apple's iPhone demonstrated a minimum app response time (MART) of 55 milliseconds, a much better performance than the Galaxy S4, which had a MART of 114ms. The Lumia 928 had a similar high MART time of 117ms, and the iPhone 5's closest competitor was the iPhone 4, with a MART of 85. The HTC One and the Moto X had the highest MART times, coming in at 121 and 123ms, respectively.

touchmarks.jpg
Relan, Agawi CEO, spoke to Venturebeat about the company's benchmarks.
"App responsiveness is judged by how quickly the app can respond to your inputs," said Rohan Relan, cofounder and CEO of Agawi. "Smartphones with touchscreens that have lower MART scores feel snappier. This is probably why, to many users, the iPhone keyboard feels more responsive than an Android phone keyboard."
Click to expand...
Microsoft has published a video that demonstrates how the differences between various touch screen response times translate into real world device experiences. As seen in the video, there is a noticeable difference between a 100ms latency time and a 50ms latency time.

Agawi speculates that Apple's touch screen hardware is better calibrated for capturing and processing touch than the Android and Windows devices that it was compared to. The company does note, however, that more comprehensive testing is required, and that coding differences may have slightly altered the results.

In the future, Agawi plans to develop additional TouchMark tests, releasing both the hardware and software behind the benchmarks so that its results can be replicated. The company also plans to test additional Apple devices, including the newly released iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

Article Link: iPhone 5 Touch Screen Twice as Fast as Android Touch Screen
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/09/21/iphone-5-touch-screen-twice-as-fast-as-android-touch-screen/
C

Chuck-Norris

macrumors 6502a
Sep 17, 2012
850
1
wow, thought all capacitive touch screens were essentially the same. i guess apple does have an edge
 
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Col Ronson

macrumors 6502a
Aug 7, 2008
619
2
im not surprised. might be bias, but everytime i use an android phone, it feels clunky and slow.
 
keysofanxiety

keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
Who cares about screen speed? I've got a hex-core 6.5GHz ARM Z4-X345 with 64 petabytes of RAM, AND an SD card and removable battery.

Sure, my phone still lags now and then -- when doing CPU-intensive tasks such as going back to the lock screen -- BUT SPECS MEAN EVERYTHING! (except for if the specs are in Apple's favour, such as here)
 
likemyorbs

likemyorbs

macrumors 68000
Jul 20, 2008
1,956
5
NJ
I have the new Nexus 7 tablet, it definitely does not feel nearly as responsive as my iPhone. I don't care what android apologists say, android is definitely clunkier and not as polished and responsive as iOS.
 
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gaximus

gaximus

macrumors 68020
Oct 11, 2011
2,241
4,375
This is probably why, when I play with android devices at the store the home screen never feels as smooth as my iPhone.
 
baryon

baryon

macrumors 68040
Oct 3, 2009
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I'm glad someone actually did a test on this. I sometimes feel like most people just don't care about or even notice lag. For me, it simply drives me crazy. If a mouse pointer, brush, or UI element lags, it really pisses me off and it makes everything feel annoying and slow. Your brain tries to evaluate your movements in real-time, and adjust your hand accordingly. If there's lag, you cannot adjust your movement as accurately.

Apple does a great job at reducing such lag and it makes their products feel far more responsive, even if the actual processing time for tasks is the same. Take for example scrolling on a Mac trackpad vs. scrolling on a Windows trackpad. The former feels like you're actually moving the content with your fingers, while the latter feels like you're constantly being punched in the face by Mike Tyson.

These things mean nothing to someone who simply isn't sensitive to it, which is why lots of people don't mind having laggy devices, and they will tell you that they don't notice any lag, while you can clearly tell the difference.
 
F

firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,108
1,345
Silicon Valley
The trick is that iOS runs the driver that checks the touch sensor, and the driver for the graphics rendering pipeline that displays the result of the touch, both at a higher priority and/or more often than does the Android OS kernel.

There's not too much the touchscreen vendor and the app developer can do if the OS thinks it should be busy doing other stuff.
 
C

CEmajr

macrumors 601
Dec 18, 2012
4,452
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Charlotte, NC
Makes sense. Every Android I've used the screen doesn't respond quite as fast as the iPhone. Even older models like the 4/4S seemed to always respond faster than the latest flagship Androids (HTC One, S4, etc.)
 
Northgrove

Northgrove

macrumors 65816
Aug 3, 2010
1,149
437
Most I've asked are saying the same. My old iPhone 3GS is more responsive and smoother to scroll with than many much more recent Android phones, no contest. Apple may be able to take shortcuts here though, since they can optimize their software directly for specific hardware down to the displays themselves, unlike Google who can't make assumptions about which display some Android phone will use.
 
ValSalva

ValSalva

macrumors 68040
Jun 26, 2009
3,783
259
Burpelson AFB
This is a pretty significant difference. Android has improved in the last few years though. I wonder what this study would have looked like three years ago :eek:
 
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WilliamG

macrumors G3
Mar 29, 2008
9,926
3,800
Seattle
likemyorbs said:
I have the new Nexus 7 tablet, it definitely does not feel nearly as responsive as my iPhone. I don't care what android apologists says, android is definitely clunkier and not as polished and responsive as iOS.
Click to expand...

100% true. I have the new Nexus 7, and the difference in responsiveness of the screen between it and my iPhone 5 (and now 5s) is not even in the same league.
 
R

RabidMacFan

macrumors 6502
Jun 19, 2012
356
170
California
With that research video from Microsoft, we know that they are very aware of the differences in touch latency. I wonder where the surface would fall on this benchmark and I'm kind of disappointed that it wasn't included.
 
F

Fruit Cake

macrumors 6502a
Mar 31, 2012
597
20
Could be because iOS prioritized touch input over other threads so it responds much faster. These days android hardware is fast enough that unless your really fussy the lag time won't bother you much. It's much better then 2yrs ago.
 
likemyorbs

likemyorbs

macrumors 68000
Jul 20, 2008
1,956
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WilliamG said:
100% true. I have the new Nexus 7, and the difference in responsiveness of the screen between it and my iPhone 5 (and now 5s) is not even in the same league.
Click to expand...

I know, I can't even fully explain the feeling. Android just makes you feel like you're inconveniencing it when you touch the screen lol.
 
kdarling

kdarling

macrumors P6
Jun 9, 2007
17,373
5,924
First university coding class = 47 years ago
This would be more meaningful to me if I used a tablet for drawing or painting all the time.

Although, in that case, I'd pick a tablet with a separate non-capacitive digitizer for its speed, and ability to recognize the fine point of an active pen.

Now, if this affects typing speed, then yes, it would be meaningful to a lot of people.

(The video seems to concentrate on speed of recognizing movement, not of tap recognition speed.)
.
 
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