Daniel Eran Dilger
A study benchmarking the touchscreen latency of popular tablets shows Apple's iPad mini and full sized iPad 4 leading response times of other tablets, with Android offerings dead last.
Cross platform mobile ad vendor Agawi has released test results from its TouchMarks study of various tablets, including Microsoft's Surface, Amazon's Kindle and Android tablets by Nvidia, Samsung and Google's Nexus-branded tablet built by Asus.
The study measures how quickly apps can respond to touch events, quantifying the responsiveness, or laggy lack thereof, in tablets. The results are a combination of hardware quality and software platform responsiveness.
Apple's iPad mini and iPad 4 led the with scores similar to Apple's iPhone 5 in a previous benchmarking of smartphones. Apple's tablets scored a significant margin ahead of cheaper tablets, particularly Samsung's Galaxy Tab 3 and the Nexus 7, but also Amazon's latest Kindle Fire HD and Nvidia’s Shield, an Android dedicated gaming device with graphics specifications similar to iPhone 5s.
Agawi said its findings were "a result that’s perhaps now unsurprising," given that the previous test of smartphone responsiveness showed Apple's iPhones performing 1.5 times faster than the fastest high end alternatives on the market.
Even Apple's 2010 iPhone 4 performed significantly better than current offerings ranging from Samsung's Galaxy S4, Nokia's Lumia 928, HTC One, or Google's MotoX.
Improvements in touchscreen latency result in a more natural and responsive experience for the user, but most consumer products are aiming to deliver cheaper devices, resulting in the laggy performance easily discernible on these lower cost devices.
As a result, the company concluded, "if you primarily use your tablet for reading, watching videos or browsing the web, then shop around and pick the best tablet – iOS, Android, Windows 8 – that suits your needs. With their lower price points and high PPI screens you may find an Android tablet works perfectly for you. If, however, you’re into latency-sensitive applications like games or interactive music apps, then your best bet might be an iPad."
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Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
54 Comments
The evidence continues to mount. Why does none of this mean anything? It's preaching to the choir. You'll never convince the fans of the laggy systems that this even exists. It's all propaganda to them. Cheap Android tablets and phones are what's making it look like Apple is losing the battle. It's not even the "good enough" argument. These cheap devices are atrocious but Google doesn't care as long as they are running Android. Google is about ad revenue, not the reputation of its operating system.
Fandroids have long disputed this and they often lie through their teeth claiming stuff like "Android is no longer laggy, it's been fixed in the last update, blah blah blah!". They've been saying that for years now. Don't these pathetic people and lowlifes get tired of lying all of the time?
It's good that more and more of these tests are showing just how far ahead Apple is. Most other devices are basically unusable. Going from an Android device to an iOS device must be like pure heaven. It's like going from eating out of garbage cans in a dark back alley to eating at a five star restaurant. The difference is not small, to put it mildly.
Like the article says, any sort of games or apps that require low latencies is far, far better on iOS, no question about it. The whole experience is better.
Like I've always said, Android is garbage, the user experience is so bad, that it's like torture. I have no time for disgusting lag when I am using a device. To be honest, I'd rather be waterboarded than having to use an Android tablet. Look at those latency figures for Android! What an embarrassing joke!
Samsung Galaxy Tab? Dead - last. Trounced by the lowly Surface RT even. Ouch!
Even a three-year-old iPhone 4 is faster than Samsung's flagship Galaxy S4! The test doesn't even include the new and even faster iPhone 5s.
I kind of feel sorry for the Android folks that continue to ignore reality...but not too sorry though. ;)
[quote name="Apple ][" url="/t/160003/agawi-touchmark-contrasts-ipads-fast-screen-response-to-laggy-android-tablets#post_2413547"]Fandroids have long disputed this and they often lie through their teeth claiming stuff like "Android is no longer laggy, it's been fixed in the last update, blah blah blah!". They've been saying that for years now. Don't these pathetic people and lowlifes get tired of lying all of the time? It's good that more and more of these tests are showing just how far ahead Apple is. Most other devices are basically unusable. Going from an Android device to an iOS device must be like pure heaven. It's like going from eating out of garbage cans in a dark back alley to eating at a five star restaurant. The difference is not small, to put it mildly. Like the article says, any sort of games or apps that require low latencies is far, far better on iOS, no question about it. The whole experience is better. Like I've always said, Android is garbage, the user experience is so bad, that it's like torture. I have no time for disgusting lag when I am using a device. To be honest, I'd rather be waterboarded than having to use an Android tablet. Look at those latency figures for Android! What an embarrassing joke! [/quote]Really? Get your facts straight before you dismiss everything as garbage. I own an iPad and a nexus 7 and the nexus is an amazing machine faster than iPad 4 with iOS 7. The specs are more than double than the iPad. Yes yes I get it specs isn't anything!
Not surprised. When I switched to GS 3 and I so much hated its screen response which was so lagging compared to iPhone 4 that I dumped the phone after 1 day and go back to iPhone for good. Fandroids are denial, but if you're really using an iPhone, you can tell the difference in screen response once you switch to an android phone. To one each own, some people finds lagging is acceptable, not me. I just hate it.