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Why is the iPhone touch screen so responsive?

G

gadget123

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 17, 2011
2,387
340
United Kingdom
To this day I've yet to find a mobile which is as responsive.

Many Android phones just don't respond to a first click on the internet browser or it takes a few pushes for texts.

Why is there not a half decent touch phone? Yes they have improved but I have to admit the Iphone 3GS still beats these Android phones.
 
I don't get what you're trying to say.. The iPhone is fast in a lot of things, but the touch screen being faster? LOL!

Most capacitive touch screens are the same speed in reaction, even my low-end Sony Live has a quick touch screen.

Maybe you're comparing to the real-low end android phones, the ones with resistive touch screens.
 
Some might say its the great optimization of hardware and software designed to work together but I think you just haven't experienced a top end android or windows phone. They are smooth and responsive too.
 
Are you referring to the responsiveness while the page has not completely loaded yet? I know on my Android phone, if the page is still loading, it may not be very responsive when you tap the screen. The same thing happens on my PC browser. Some pages take some time to load and while loading, it isn't responsive to mouse clicks.

I think Safari on iOS may suspend the rendering of the page if you use the touch screen to zoom or scroll. Once you stop touching the screen, the page resumes loading. The same applies for animations. They stop if you scroll and resume once you release your finger.
 
Well when I tried Xperia phones they are quite laggy with the touch screen. Same with some Samsung.

Admittedly the Galaxy 4 seems better but the same can't be said for many others.
 
gadget123 said:
To this day I've yet to find a mobile which is as responsive.

Many Android phones just don't respond to a first click on the internet browser or it takes a few pushes for texts.

Why is there not a half decent touch phone? Yes they have improved but I have to admit the Iphone 3GS still beats these Android phones.
Click to expand...

My android phone is as responsive as my iPhone 4,4s, 5.
 
nickchallis92 said:
What a load of rubbish
Click to expand...

TheProFTW said:
I don't get what you're trying to say.. The iPhone is fast in a lot of things, but the touch screen being faster? LOL!

Most capacitive touch screens are the same speed in reaction, even my low-end Sony Live has a quick touch screen.

Maybe you're comparing to the real-low end android phones, the ones with resistive touch screens.
Click to expand...

617aircav said:
My android phone is as responsive as my iPhone 4,4s, 5.
Click to expand...

I notice that Android users deliberately ignore this fact of it being perceptively smoother.

They simply choose to see it as being the same.

It's the best part of having a closed system.

For people to admit to themselves that Android has less smooth touch response would be equivalent to admitting the huge downside of having an "open" system where you can install all types of 3rd party garbage and customize.

They can't handle admitting that. They are too proud of that selling point which is their number one boast in the Android world; being customizable and open.

The Galaxy 4/Note 2 or any top tier phone still has not caught up though.

The Android OS is to blame, not hardware. It doesn't matter how powerful the processor gets or how much memory it gets thrown at it.

And the low end Android phones are just ridiculous. I've seen people push a button 3 times before it registers the push.

But with top tier phones, it's just feels like you are operating the GUI at like 20FPS and on iPhone it feels like everything is 60FPS. It's the best I can explain it.

All praise goes to the marriage of the OS to the Hardware and the closed system philosophy.

The main reason I would never switch as well.
 
Last edited:
Bobby Corwen said:
I notice that Android users deliberately ignore this fact of it being perceptively smoother.

They simply choose to see it as being the same.

It's the best part of having a closed system.

For people to admit to themselves that Android has less smooth touch response would be equivalent to admitting the huge downside of having an "open" system where you can install all types of 3rd party garbage and customize.

They can't handle admitting that. They are too proud of that selling point which is their number one boast in the Android world; being customizable and open.

The Galaxy 4/Note 2 or any top tier phone still has not caught up though.

The Android OS is to blame, not hardware. It doesn't matter how powerful the processor gets or how much memory it gets thrown at it.

And the low end Android phones are just ridiculous. I've seen people push a button 3 times before it registers the push.

But with top tier phones, it's just feels like you are operating the GUI at like 20FPS and on iPhone it feels like everything is 60FPS. It's the best I can explain it.

All praise goes to the marriage of the OS to the Hardware and the closed system philosophy.

The main reason I would never switch as well.
Click to expand...

Never had such issues with my HTC one.
 
nickchallis92 said:
What a load of rubbish
Click to expand...

TheProFTW said:
I don't get what you're trying to say.. The iPhone is fast in a lot of things, but the touch screen being faster? LOL!

Most capacitive touch screens are the same speed in reaction, even my low-end Sony Live has a quick touch screen.

Maybe you're comparing to the real-low end android phones, the ones with resistive touch screens.
Click to expand...

http://youtu.be/J6oWDLk31EQ

http://youtu.be/RVDMOP1pWCQ

I believe he's referring to these above. I'm sure JB has lessened it somewhat but I can still see the lag on the HTC One and S4, especially when pinching to zoom on webpages or photos. There's a slight delay between the finger motion and the action on screen with any kind of finger input.
 
gotluck said:
i believe this is due to ios prioritizing the UI above all else.
Click to expand...

This.

iOS will suspend loading/downloading while you are doing something related to the touch screen.

Load a busy web page in safari (or any browser on iOS) and start scrolling without taking your finger off the screen (up and down). The web page will never load, until you stop. It does this in a lot of different ways. Take Tapatalk for example, it will lock out touch response when its loading.

Android on the other hand will load while you are touch the screen. And usually it feels like a delay in the touch response when that's happening.

The you can't rule out apps either. Like the Pizza Hut app (don't judge me) is a laggy mess on iOS. I can't say iOS is laggy because one app sucks. You can find browsers in android that are much smoother then others just due to being written better.
 
Windows phones are just as fast, even the older ones (7,7.5).

Android unless you have a nexus, doesn't hold a candle
 
Stuntman06 said:
Are you referring to the responsiveness while the page has not completely loaded yet? I know on my Android phone, if the page is still loading, it may not be very responsive when you tap the screen. The same thing happens on my PC browser. Some pages take some time to load and while loading, it isn't responsive to mouse clicks.

I think Safari on iOS may suspend the rendering of the page if you use the touch screen to zoom or scroll. Once you stop touching the screen, the page resumes loading. The same applies for animations. They stop if you scroll and resume once you release your finger.
Click to expand...

iOS uses multithreading more extensively, which is why your animations still occur while the page is rendering
 
Just testing the iPhone 5 next to the nexus one. Both are super responsive. Depends on what android device you have.
 
Apple does use a touchscreen that has more response points than the others. The article I read was from a few years back, so android may have caught up by now.
 
bjb.butler said:
This story again? An actual Google employee came and and bashed this "former intern" and his rubbish, which is completely inaccurate.
Click to expand...

Ok, post the story. I haven't read it and I never really followed this story that much (articles on the nitty gritty of software seem to be few and far between).

I'd be interested in what made the first major wave of Android so laggy for touch. Now it's not even an issue but I remember those old days. Any insight? :confused:
 
I use both everyday (see my sig) and iOS has a more fluid touchscreen response. My android has a 1.5ghz dualcore with 2gb of ram so its not slow, but the touch response still "lags" in certain elements where the iPhone keeps up. I can't explain it technically, but if you think Android Jellybean is as smooth as iOS i don't know what to tell you. The videos above seem to explain it/describe it.
 
NT1440 said:
Ok, post the story. I haven't read it and I never really followed this story that much (articles on the nitty gritty of software seem to be few and far between).

I'd be interested in what made the first major wave of Android so laggy for touch. Now it's not even an issue but I remember those old days. Any insight? :confused:
Click to expand...

Not the exact article I was looking for, but it still sheds valuable insight.

http://blog.crazybob.org/2011/12/truth-about-android-ios-ui-performance.html
 
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