Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I picked up one of these today. I like it but it's more Android I'm impressed with rather than the actual phone itself. I'm also not convinced that a 5 inch screen is a good size. It's just a tad too big for one-handed operation.
I can use such screens with one hand. I think both Apple and Android manafacturers should do various screen sizes.

And above all else, this thing just doesn't have the polish of ios. Just little things from the system font to the way the screen dims when inactive.
I think stock Android 4.* has far more polish than iOS 7, both UI-wise and performance-wise.

Android's font is similar (as already stated), animations are better IMO, visuals are much classier and more refined, there are almost no spontaneous lags, no need for workarounds such as "Reduce White Point", but also no yummy yellow on white.

Sense is like stock Android with some added flair, while TouchWiz is more inconsistent and rough.

As great as Android is, I don't think I could give up my iPhone. I'm definitely looking forward to the iPhone 6 later this year.I think the bigger screen will keep a lot of people who were otherwise interested in Android devices and will bring back a lot of former Android users.
There is way more to Android vs. iOS than just screen size. A phabet "innovative" "magical" "the new iPhone" is very likely to be a healthy seller, but I don't think it will knock down Android.
 
Last edited:
Wow have they really changed touch wiz that much?

I can do all of that on my note 3. I'm not sold on the my magazine feature but I don't use it on my note 3 so it doesn't bother me.

You can change them, but you are limited in what you can do. For example, you are required to have a certain number of quick toggles in the notification panel. This means I can't remove all the ones I don't want, which leaves me with several quick toggles that I don't want in my notification panel.

----------

It's hilarious how a phone with that kind of power (more power than 2008 laptop) still lags and stutters.

Android will lag no matter how much power you throw at it.

And now they want to add 2K screens to Android phones.

It's not Android that's lagging, this is something specific to Samsung and their overlay. I had a Flex before the GS5, a Nexus 5 before that, a Moto X before that, and a HTC One before that, and none of them lagged at all. Samsung simple needs to spend more time fine tuning and paying more attention to detail.
 
Going to need Alot more than just screen size to bring users back

Will still have no

Sd card
Removable battery
No back button
No customisation
No range of widgets

So for me I doubt I will be lured back..

It's why i havent gone back in 3 plus years. I went from iPhone to Galaxy S1(Vibrant) to GS3 to Nexus 5.

No, im not a phone whore and get the latest every time they come out, lol.

----------

You can change them, but you are limited in what you can do. For example, you are required to have a certain number of quick toggles in the notification panel. This means I can't remove all the ones I don't want, which leaves me with several quick toggles that I don't want in my notification panel.

----------



It's not Android that's lagging, this is something specific to Samsung and their overlay. I had a Flex before the GS5, a Nexus 5 before that, a Moto X before that, and a HTC One before that, and none of them lagged at all. Samsung simple needs to spend more time fine tuning and paying more attention to detail.

This....my Nexus 5 doesnt lag at all.
 
There is zero lag on the note 3, people need to stop thinking all Android devices lag. There certainly don't. It's a far smoother experience for me than my iPhone 5 ever was

Well I could link you several reviews where note 3 is reported as lagging, but I'm sure you can check it by yourself with Google.
TouchWiz is the worst piece of software ever programmed ....
 
Well I could link you several reviews where note 3 is reported as lagging, but I'm sure you can check it by yourself with Google.
TouchWiz is the worst piece of software ever programmed ....

Yeah just like I could search reviews of any device showing some lag. Fact is its not the norm on The note to lag. S4? sure as it did for me but note 3 is flawless in pretty much a every area.

I'm not a huge fan of touchwiz which is mainly why I use nova launcher. Which is perfect for my day to day needs.
 
All touchwhiz devices lag by default, it's the animation scale setting in the developer options that need to be set to 0. Turn animations off and the phone flies. I have a note 3, works for me.
 
All touchwhiz devices lag by default, it's the animation scale setting in the developer options that need to be set to 0. Turn animations off and the phone flies. I have a note 3, works for me.

I found the Note 3 didn't stutter etc even on normal animations. The S4 was guilty of it until the update.
 
Yeah just like I could search reviews of any device showing some lag. Fact is its not the norm on The note to lag. S4? sure as it did for me but note 3 is flawless in pretty much a every area.

I'm not a huge fan of touchwiz which is mainly why I use nova launcher. Which is perfect for my day to day needs.

Same here. I didnt like the TW launcher but everything else about TW i liked. Havent seen yet how it is totally redone on the GS5.
 
It's hilarious how a phone with that kind of power (more power than 2008 laptop) still lags and stutters.

Android will lag no matter how much power you throw at it.

And now they want to add 2K screens to Android phones.

Come on man I thought you have actually used android phones and know that is always due to touchwiz
 
All touchwhiz devices lag by default, it's the animation scale setting in the developer options that need to be set to 0. Turn animations off and the phone flies. I have a note 3, works for me.

The lag I'm talking about isn't anything to do with animations. The lag I'm speaking of is actual lag. A great example on the GS5 is, swiping left to the Magazine screen, or swiping right from the Magazine screen. It's not an animation-induced lag, it's just pure lag.
 
The lag I'm talking about isn't anything to do with animations. The lag I'm speaking of is actual lag. A great example on the GS5 is, swiping left to the Magazine screen, or swiping right from the Magazine screen. It's not an animation-induced lag, it's just pure lag.

On my note when I try the magazine app I notice the same effect, I mean with the transitions with the pages but I figure that was more to do with app itself than something wrong with the device, imo they either focus on making it better or just drop it either way I'm not a fan of apps like flipboard.
 
I ended up returning my S5 after about a week and going back to my 5c.

After installing all my apps and really starting to use the phone it lagged quite a bit. I like to use Chrome on both android and iOS as my browser and most of the time on the S5 scrolling on a web page was horribly stuttery. I had the same issue with the Facebook application as well.

I clear my apps frequently so I don't think it was an issue of too many apps being open.

I had used a Note 3 prior and didn't have any lag issues.

I'll be holding out and seeing what Apple brings with the iPhone 6 this fall. Until then it's me and the pink 5c.
 
I ended up returning my S5 after about a week and going back to my 5c.

After installing all my apps and really starting to use the phone it lagged quite a bit. I like to use Chrome on both android and iOS as my browser and most of the time on the S5 scrolling on a web page was horribly stuttery. I had the same issue with the Facebook application as well.

I clear my apps frequently so I don't think it was an issue of too many apps being open.

I had used a Note 3 prior and didn't have any lag issues.

I'll be holding out and seeing what Apple brings with the iPhone 6 this fall. Until then it's me and the pink 5c.

The jerky scrolling in several apps, notably browsers, is a very real thing that it's present in all android devices, including the Nexus line.

Thus far I'm enjoying my S5 though. The screen is just amazing, and the overall experience is very good with only the occasional hiccup. And the camera is the best of any android phone I've ever used.
 
Op.. Are you sure you gave it enough time? I went from owning every iPhone except the 5s to the S5 and cannot be more impressed. I have zero intentions on going back to the iPhone. IPhone 6 would have to totally blow me away to consider it. (Doubt that will happen). Google keyboard with the swipe feature is amazing. It has spoiled me and can't imagine going back to "pecking" the keyboard on the iPhone. Not to mention the GS5 screen destroys the iPhone.
 
The jerky scrolling in several apps, notably browsers, is a very real thing that it's present in all android devices, including the Nexus line.



Thus far I'm enjoying my S5 though. The screen is just amazing, and the overall experience is very good with only the occasional hiccup. And the camera is the best of any android phone I've ever used.


I don't enjoy the jerky-ness I wish there was a way that could be resolved as it makes for a bad experience.

I agree with your points about the screen and the camera. The screen is gorgeous, don't think I've seen a better screen on a phone to date.
 
I don't enjoy the jerky-ness I wish there was a way that could be resolved as it makes for a bad experience.

I agree with your points about the screen and the camera. The screen is gorgeous, don't think I've seen a better screen on a phone to date.

That AMOLED contrast, colors and separation just blows everything else away. A close runner up is the LG G2, but the S5 still wins.
 
Engadget mentioned lag as well. I don't think they are Apple fan boys.

Galaxy S5 Review

Now that I've had the S5 a week and had a chance to tweak and make it my own, lag isn't an issue. I'm talking about touch input, responsiveness, and frame rate. It's all solid.

I'm no android fanboy and have no reason to lie. Out the box there were some laggy bits, but only occasionally and in specific places. This is a big improvement over the S4 which lagged everywhere and was just awful.
 
There is zero lag on the note 3, people need to stop thinking all Android devices lag. There certainly don't. It's a far smoother experience for me than my iPhone 5 ever was

Yep I never had any lag on the Note 3....

^^ these

I think stock Android 4.* has far more polish than iOS 7, both UI-wise and performance-wise.

Agree. JB and KK have been flawless on my Note 3 and way way better than iOS both in terms of polish and performance.


I'm not a huge fan of touchwiz which is mainly why I use nova launcher. Which is perfect for my day to day needs.

I've used Nova since day 2 of having my Note 3 and will never look back to Touch Wiz. I can't even recall what it's like. Nova is that good. Smoooooth.
 
^^ these



Agree. JB and KK have been flawless on my Note 3 and way way better than iOS both in terms of polish and performance.




I've used Nova since day 2 of having my Note 3 and will never look back to Touch Wiz. I can't even recall what it's like. Nova is that good. Smoooooth.

Yeah love it

I can now have as many rows on each page as I want too. Just overall a great experience I have it on all my note devices.
 
I don't enjoy the jerky-ness I wish there was a way that could be resolved as it makes for a bad experience.

I agree with your points about the screen and the camera. The screen is gorgeous, don't think I've seen a better screen on a phone to date.

For the sake of experimentation I enabled Art over Dalvik and out does smooth out scrolling to a noticeable extent in chrome and Facebook.
 
I clear my apps frequently so I don't think it was an issue of too many apps being open

Could this be where you're going wrong? Android doesn't seem to like it when you manually clear all the apps. It's set up to manage this automatically so that apps launch quickly.
 
I also noticed lag when playing around with the GS5. its a samsung thing. The LG G2 never lags.

More like a Galaxy Series thing. The Note 3 doesn't naturally share this same problem. I don't know know why Samsung put only 2 gigs of RAM in the S5 if they knew it wasn't optimized to performance. Anyone who has a used an S series device in the past knew it was going to stutter like crazy.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.