The Galaxy W is my first smartphone and I got it almost as
soon as it became available. As far as I was concerned I am a genius because I
bought a phone that can compete with the iPhone 4 of that time at less than
half the price. It was perfect.
But it wasn't long before I find that the phone started to
lag. I upgraded, this time to a Galaxy S3. At last, a flagship in my hand.
Surely, this is the phone that will do everything I need smoothly and quickly.
I was wrong again. Apps constantly forced closed, skipped
frame in my game, a screen that constantly turned itself off (it appear to be
an overzealous proximity sensor) and a battery that drains itself quickly are
among the many problems I faced. It became a frustrating experience just making
a call because I couldn’t end the call as the screen won’t come back on.
Eventually a factory reset solved the problem (except the battery drain)
although I must comment that an iPhone never require a reset to runs smoothly.
I know because my sister uses an iPhone 4 with 8GB and she never face a single
problem. It isn’t an issue of usage either as I WhatsApp more while she
Facebook more. She doesn’t play game on her phone after she gave up Candy Crush
but the heaviest game I have in my phone is only the “Beach Buggy Blitz” which
runs problem free on my old tablet.
Speaking of which the tablet in question is actually a
Samsung too. Ironically the old dual cored Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is the best
Samsung device I ever owned. I never have a problem with it and its battery
just last, even when I have a 3G SIM inside for data. And Beach Buggy Blitz
runs smoothly even on the highest graphic setting compared to the (now ex ex)
flagship S3 which sometimes lag even at the lowest setting. I kinda missed my
tablet after I sold it and have grown to prefer its on-screen keys compared to
the one physical two capacitive combos of most Galaxy branded products.
Did I just have a bad copy? I think it’s something simpler.
When a lightly skinned mid-range tablet runs more smoothly than the heavily
skinned flagship phone, the reasonable conclusion is simply that TouchWiz
customization messed up Android optimization!
In fact, here’s an idea for a Nokia promotion. Run a
campaign asking users, “How’s your phone after a year?” and let participants
compared one of their year old Samsung against a one year old Lumia. I am
reasonably confident most will find the Lumia running way more smoothly.
Problem is it can be quite a smear campaign against Android as people may
assume the problem is with the platform. It is not. My tablet already proven
itself a smooth operator on Android as has my friend’s HTC HD2 which she been
using for more than 3 years without a problem.
I really am not a Samsung hater. In fact I really liked the
Note 3 and was almost willing to accept its physical and capacitive buttons
combo (again) but I just can’t get past the fact that I am almost expecting its
performance to slow down after some usage (my boss who upgraded from an iPhone
to it has already started complaining). My S3 is behaving now, albeit at lower
than optimum performance but I don’t know when it will start misbehaving again.
It’s obvious my next phone will not be a Samsung but change
is not easy especially since I really like its camera and a good camera is one
of my important criteria. I am already very used to changing the focus to macro
when shooting up close, or fiddling with the exposure compensation or metering
mode and quickly changing the resolution if I just want to share something over
WhatsApp. The options available within its own camera app is one thing that I
really come to appreciate.
