iPhone 5's touchscreen is much faster than Galaxy S4's

[RaduTyrsina]

​Have you ever had the feeling that typing on Android phones is harder and less-responsive than typing on an iPhone? Well, if you have, then now it’s time for you to find out that iPhone's touchscreen has a much faster response time than its Android or Windows rivals. This is according to benchmarks from cloud streaming company Agawi.

Speaking to Venturebeat, Peter Relan, Agawi’s CE​​O, said the following:

“App responsiveness is judged by how quickly the app can respond to your inputs. Smartphones with touchscreens that have lower MART scores feel snappier. This is probably why, to many users, the iPhone keyboard feels more responsive than an Android phone keyboard."

To measure the App Response Time (ART) of such smartphones like iPhone 5, the Galaxy S4 or the HTC One, the company has used a 240fps high-frame rate camera and Touchscope, built especially for these benchmarks. The App Response Time is basically the delay between user’s touch on the display and device’s on-screen response.

The iPhone 5 had an average response time of only 55 milliseconds, while Samsung Galaxy S4 was the closest device to iPhone’s performance, with a “late” result of 114 milliseconds. Even the iPhone 4 fared really well, taking second place with 85 milliseconds. Lumia 928, which was also included in the test, scored a time of 117ms, while HTC One and Google’s Moto X were the last ones, with 121 and 123ms.

Peter Relan sees Apple as the absolute leader in this field:

“Apple trounced the competition. There is this whole other dimension of responsiveness that Agawi cares about.”

But what’s really surprising is that a two-year old iPhone 4 beat out top Android devices present in the benchmark. This clearly shows that Apple is elaborately analyzing every aspect of its smartphones, so that the user could get in the end a refined experience.

Source: VentureBeat

 

[Skull One]

Would like to add something to RaduTyrsina excellent article to help put the above test in to context.

First and foremost this isn't a hardware issue. Both Samsung and HTC make very good hardware and they do use top of the line capacitance touch screen technology just like Apple. BUT.....

iOS is a natively compiled application framework. What this means is that iOS apps almost never have to deal with the overhead of the operating system to function. Plus background processes (something Samsung likes to brag about) don't usually, if ever, interfere with the end user experience.

Android on the other hand has several layers it most go thru because the application doesn't know what type of hardware it will be running on (the major drawback of the Dalvik Virtual Machine architecture). Then when you add in background processing, even a quad core CPU can't instantly respond to the user's inputs.

If they were able to remove the Android OS limitations this test would be a lot closer for the final results. But since Android can't be removed from the equation, this test is more accurately a measure of the OSes responsiveness.

IE Apple can do more with a single core CPU (iPhone 4) than Samsung can do with a quad core CPU (Galaxy S4).

Think about that the next time you see a Samsung multitasking commercial.

 

[Combatmedic870]

Would like to add something to RaduTyrsina excellent article to help put the above test in to context.

First and foremost this isn't a hardware issue. Both Samsung and HTC make very good hardware and they do use top of the line capacitance touch screen technology just like Apple. BUT.....

iOS is a natively compiled application framework. What this means is that iOS apps almost never have to deal with the overhead of the operating system to function. Plus background processes (something Samsung likes to brag about) don't usually, if ever, interfere with the end user experience.

Android on the other hand has several layers it most go thru because the application doesn't know what type of hardware it will be running on (the major drawback of the Dalvik Virtual Machine architecture). Then when you add in background processing, even a quad core CPU can't instantly respond to the user's inputs.

If they were able to remove the Android OS limitations this test would be a lot closer for the final results. But since Android can't be removed from the equation, this test is more accurately a measure of the OSes responsiveness.

IE Apple can do more with a single core CPU (iPhone 4) than Samsung can do with a quad core CPU (Galaxy S4).

Think about that the next time you see a Samsung multitasking commercial.

Im sorry but this really isnt a noticeable thing. Ive had my iphone 5 for 6 months and was an android user prior(for 3 years), latest was the S3. Moving from the S3 to the iphone 5, there was nothing really noticeable in regards to the touch screen. They are both semi inaccurate, they both have lag sometimes. When texting they both respond the same. With the S3 though i did use swift key, so i didnt have to press it out like i do with the iphone so that could be a reason i didnt notice it. Of coarse now people are going to say they can notice it. But what ever is clever. The iphone 5 is a fine phone. So is any other high end phone right now. Pic your poison and enjoy. Im personally moving to a Note 3 next. Just because i want to try out the S pen and large screen. I dont really understand the whole fight between android fan boys and apple. They are both fun, great OS's, people should choose what suits them best, not just by pure brand/OS loyalty.

BTW when i see a note 3 multitasking video, i wish that IOS could do the same.

Weird to compare touch screen responsiveness vs multi tasking. Your talking about a 60/30 millisecond lag time vs multitasking. As an OIS user i would choose samsung multitasking vs the 30/60 millisecond lag time.

 

[Skull One]

Im sorry but this really isnt a noticeable thing.

To 98% of the users out there you are very correct. I notice the difference but that is due to the fact that I have been both an Android and iOS developer over the last 4 years.

Ive had my iphone 5 for 6 months and was an android user prior(for 3 years), latest was the S3. Moving from the S3 to the iphone 5, there was nothing really noticeable in regards to the touch screen. They are both semi inaccurate, they both have lag sometimes. When texting they both respond the same. With the S3 though i did use swift key, so i didnt have to press it out like i do with the iphone so that could be a reason i didnt notice it. Of coarse now people are going to say they can notice it. But what ever is clever. The iphone 5 is a fine phone. So is any other high end phone right now. Pic your poison and enjoy. Im personally moving to a Note 3 next. Just because i want to try out the S pen and large screen. I dont really understand the whole fight between android fan boys and apple. They are both fun, great OS's, people should choose what suits them best, not just by pure brand/OS loyalty.

Couldn't agree more with you your last sentiment. And that is why I use both Android and iOS devices every day.

BTW when i see a note 3 multitasking video, i wish that IOS could do the same.

Weird to compare touch screen responsiveness vs multi tasking. Your talking about a 60/30 millisecond lag time vs multitasking. As an OIS user i would choose samsung multitasking vs the 30/60 millisecond lag time.

Multitasking is a an interesting topic of discussion. Mainly because most people don't understand what multitasking really is. If you have two applications open and both are waiting for user input, then that is not multitasking. But if you are watching a video while typing an email, that is multitasking.

And yes Samsung has come a very long way with providing true multitasking under Android. Will be purchasing a Samsung Note 10.1 2014 on launch day because of that feature as well as the S-Pen. Hope that Samsung will work out all the kinks with the Note 3

 

[Combatmedic870]

To 98% of the users out there you are very correct. I notice the difference but that is due to the fact that I have been both an Android and iOS developer over the last 4 years.



Couldn't agree more with you your last sentiment. And that is why I use both Android and iOS devices every day.



Multitasking is a an interesting topic of discussion. Mainly because most people don't understand what multitasking really is. If you have two applications open and both are waiting for user input, then that is not multitasking. But if you are watching a video while typing an email, that is multitasking.

And yes Samsung has come a very long way with providing true multitasking under Android. Will be purchasing a Samsung Note 10.1 2014 on launch day because of that feature as well as the S-Pen. Hope that Samsung will work out all the kinks with the Note 3

Yea i have my phone 5 and nexus 7 2nd gen

LOL yea, I hope the kinks are worked out of the Note 3 before its released!!

I will also be getting a note 10.1 2014 on launch day! I wanted the latest one but it just didnt deliver really. low res screen, not enough ram ect. The new one looks like a great product and will replace my current nexus 7(cause who needs a 7 inch tablet with a 5.7 inch phone!)