Why Android’s UI Isn’t As “Smooth” As iOS

-


Android vs iPhone
A few Google+ posts by a Google Engineer and by a former Google intern and soon-to-be Microsoft intern correct poor "facts" and shed some light on why Android's user interface isn't as smooth as iOS's. The reason may not be what you think it is.



Dianne Hackborn, an engineer at Google, hopped on Google Plus to set straight some of the misinformation that's been floating around about Android.
She says that some form of hardware acceleration has always been utilized by Android, since Android 1.0. This includes window compositing, menu transitions and pop-ups, the notification bar's animation, and some others.
However, prior to Android 3.0 - "Honeycomb," the tablet-targeted OS - drawing inside of a window was usually software based, and hardware acceleration wasn't needed to get 60fps frame rates. Honeycomb changed things to add more prevalent hardware acceleration options to developers. Android's newest version, 4.0 or "Ice Cream Sandwich," hasn't made drastic changes except that hardware acceleration is on by default now.
A key fact of the debate of Android performance has been the use of hardware acceleration. Hackborn describes why using it isn't really as ideal as people think it is:
Hardware accelerated drawing is not all full of win. For example on the PVR drivers of devices like the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus, simply starting to use OpenGL in a process eats about 8MB of RAM. Given that our process overhead is about 2MB, this is pretty huge. That RAM takes away from other things, such as the number of background processes that can be kept running, potentially slowing down things like app switching.
Overall, Hackborn sets quite a few facts straight in her long post. Be sure to check it out.
Andrew Munn, a former Google intern and soon-to-be Microsoft intern, took Hackborn's facts and aimed to explain why Android doesn't provide as smooth of a user interface as iOS, WebOS, or even Windows Phone 7.
RedmondPie summarizes Munn pretty well:
UI rendering processes in iOS occur with dedicated threads with real-time priority whereas on Android, UI rendering processes occur along with the main thread with normal priority. Whenever an iOS devices detects touch, it stops other processes and focuses all attention to rendering the UI. Android devices don’t do this, instead general processing and UI rendering occurs concurrently which results in choppy UI.
Munn states in his disclaimer that he has tried to do as much research as he can, but he did not work on the Android framework, nor has he gone through Android's rendering source code.
If you're more interested, be sure to check out the original posts linked below. They contain quite a bit of valuable information, especially considering that Android's lack of smoothness is one of its biggest criticisms.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alliance of Valiant Arms

-
Image
Alliance of Valiant Arms Overview It seems that ijji is really trying hard to cash in on the MMOFPS craze as Alliance of Valiant Arms (AVA for short), is the third MMOFPS published by ijji. Even though there are already a boat-load of good MMOFPS games on the market, more and more game publishers are putting out their own shooting games. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if these games weren’t all remarkably similar. To be fair, though, even though AVA doesn’t exactly break away from the cookie-cutter tactical MMOFPS mold, it is an extremely polished and graphically impressive game that’s well worth playing. Great Fluid Gameplay Like most modern MMOFPS games, Alliance of Valiant arms looks and plays smoothly. After creating a character players will be asked if they wish to complete the game’s tutorial. Honestly though, anyone who’s ever played an MMOFPS game before won’t need this tutorial, but I recommend going through it anyway – it only takes five minutes and it’s
Read more

Lexus CT 200h F SPORT Concept on Display at 2010 SEMA Show

-
Image
Note: Lexus CT 200h F Sport also made global debut 2010 Australian International Motor Show just last month. Below are pictures of Lexus CT 200h F SPORT in Australia. How do you take a fun to drive sporty five-door premium compact hybrid that has a combined EPA-estimated fuel economy rating of 42 mpg to the next level? Build a CT 200h F Sport Concept. Although this vehicle is just a concept, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Highlights F Sport 18×8.0-inch alloy wheels with Pirelli PZero Nero 225/40R/18 front and rear F Sport high performance Big Brake Kit – Front with 12.9 x 1.1-inch cross-drilled rotor F Sport performance adjustable suspension and adjustable dampening shocks [ www.japanesesportcars.com ]
Read more

2014 Acura RLX

-
Image
Debuted at the 2012 New York Auto Show as  a concept car  about 7 months ago, the Acura RLX production model official made its debut today at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show. As the Acura’s flagship model, replacing the RL, the 2014 RLX is a luxury performance sedan which is the most advanced, powerful and spacious Acura Sedan. The 2014 Acura RLX is motorized by an all-new V-6 engine which produces 310 horsepower and 272 lb.-ft of torque.  Mated with a 6-speed AT, the 2014 Acura RLX is projected to secure a top spot in its class for fuel efficiency, which is rated 20 mpg in the city, 31 mpg on the highway and 24 mpg combined. As a mid-size luxury sedan, the all-new Acura RLX enjoys the best 38” rear-seat legroom; it has the longest 36.4” tandem seating gap, and most voluminous front and rear shoulder space. The 2014 Acura RLX is scheduled to be released in the spring of 2013.
Read more