Develop Bugs

"Don't keep activities" - anybody use it?

Love the phone but a few times the launcher has redrawn after exiting an app because of most likely memory issues. Anybody using this option? Assuming over time this would keep more memory free and reduce this issue. Any thoughts?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

mobilehavoc said:
Love the phone but a few times the launcher has redrawn after exiting an app because of most likely memory issues. Anybody using this option? Assuming over time this would keep more memory free and reduce this issue. Any thoughts?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is one of the reasons why I don't like that Google included these developer options pre-installed on this phone. They're developer options for a reason, we can install them if we need to.
This feature is designed so that developers can test their app to be sure that data is properly saved when is no longer in the foreground. For example, if a user receives a phone call or jumps to another app, the app needs to do what is necessary to save it's data. At times, Android can kill a process in the background. If the user plans to go back (perhaps they finished the phone call), they want to see what it is they were working on last. The developer is supposed to handle this case by rebuilding everything as it was before (to provide that seamless experience for the user when switching between apps).
This debug feature helps us test that it works.
For the average user, all you're really more likely to do is slow down your apps. As they will have to rebuild themselves when you resume them, and you may even open yourself to more quirky bugs (for those apps that didn't properly test the above scenario).
So please don't enable it unless you're doing it for development purposes. My 2 cents.
*EDIT* Here's a page from the Android Dev Guide justifying my explanation:
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/debugging/debugging-devtools.html
Immediately destroy activities
Tells the system to destroy an activity as soon as it is stopped (as if Android had to reclaim memory). This is very useful for testing the onSaveInstanceState(Bundle) / onCreate(android.os.Bundle) code path, which would otherwise be difficult to force. Choosing this option will probably reveal a number of problems in your application due to not saving state. For more information about saving an activity's state, see the Activities document.
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Click to collapse
(and yes, they used to call it "Immediately destroy activities")

Thanks. I turned it off. Did notice some bugs while on. I just wish with 1GB of RAM the launcher wouldnt have to reload. Hopefully things get better. Might just be my apps but it happens quite often when leaving the browser.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

mobilehavoc said:
Thanks. I turned it off. Did notice some bugs while on. I just wish with 1GB of RAM the launcher wouldnt have to reload. Hopefully things get better. Might just be my apps but it happens quite often when leaving the browser.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
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Click to collapse
weird.. how many widgets do you have on your launcher? the more widgets you have, the slower the launcher is.
Have you tried another launcher? The stock launcher has never been known for being fast and efficient, although I haven't had any issues with it (whereas I'm a LauncherPro fan on my other devices).

kwazi said:
weird.. how many widgets do you have on your launcher? the more widgets you have, the slower the launcher is.
Have you tried another launcher? The stock launcher has never been known for being fast and efficient, although I haven't had any issues with it (whereas I'm a LauncherPro fan on my other devices).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have quite a few Widgets but nothing too crazy I don't think. I use LauncherPro on my other devices as well but I love this new launcher so I'm going to stick it out. Like I said the most common task that causes the issue is when I'm using the web browser and then come out of it. Otherwise its been stable. I've noticed the same thing with Honeycomb on my Xoom so it might just be one of those things I have to put up with.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

i'm also noticing some redraw and occasional lag when hitting the home button.
I'm hoping that CM9's custom launcher will have an option to lock it in memory- that may increase the performance by a lot.
also when replacement launchers like go launcher start optimizing more for ICS those might be good options.

Have you tried converting your launcher into a system app? You'll need to use Titanium Backup Pro or something similar to do it for you, or simple copy the APK into your system/app folder... Really sped up my launcher!

shawnshine said:
Have you tried converting your launcher into a system app? You'll need to use Titanium Backup Pro or something similar to do it for you, or simple copy the APK into your system/app folder... Really sped up my launcher!
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Click to collapse
Did you see the date on this thread, almost 8 months old
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

95Z28 said:
Did you see the date on this thread, almost 8 months old
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
... and yet people still continue to discover the thread and benefit from it.
Thanks for clarifying the meaning of "Don't keep activities"

my razr xt910 cannot be counted upon to run smoothly with all the apps simultaneously running and forcing itself to go into reboot. i then fancied an iPhone single styled system (as compared to Android multi-talks) cuz iPhone looks robust and responsive. all the killer that claimed to do the job looked more of a farce and then when i stumbled upon the destroy activity i was like OMG. srsly b4 using it I've only got just inner 100mb of ram, after using it i have a whooping 400mb ram. UI appears faster and all. regarding the relaunching of apps and battery life being used up. i think I'll start to worry about it on a later date. what say any body. ooh yes to add on, even after i deleted 40 apps on my phone it still hanged like fcuked. i guess i can reinstall them back again and not have to worry about it. btw i can't seem to root my xt910 for nuts so i can't custom ROM it along with all other fanciful mods that i hear about what others did to their phones.

How can I enable true multitasking in ICS?

I love my Galaxy Nexus, but what's driving me crazy is how it shuts down any app whenever I switch out of it, even if I use the -completely useless so far- multitasking soft key. So for instance I'm waiting for a YouTube video to load, so I temporarily switch out of it to do something else (this is a smartphone isn't it) and come back, and find it reopening the video as if I just did it. Same thing with the browsers. I have 2-3 tabs open, and decided to check out something on the homescreen. Big mistake. When I get back will have to wait for all the tabs to reload.
Anyway to keep apps running in the background?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

I think YouTube just does that. It has been mentioned before. No problem with the browser.
My grandma beat me down and took my nexus. Sent from a jitterbug with beats by dre.

If your using a Verizon nexus, it partly has to do with Verizon's cdma network, not just android. Plus it would slow your phones operation down and you would see more force closes due to limited resources.
Edit— sorry everybody, did a little drunk forum trolling last night. Everything I posted was false. The other poster was correct and I deserve all the shame.
Transmitted from my Galaxy Tab 10.1 via Tapatalk

Most likely you have an app running thats killing processes. If you have any task manager/killer remove it immediately.
As far as youtube goes, youtube will NEVER keep a video paused or continue playing if you leave. It saves what you were on, but thats it. few reasons for that.
Now, my experience today and no issues.
Facebook, Browser (4 tabs), NFL'11, and twitter all running and they all saved what i was doing and none of them ever closed.
in fact, 3 hours after, the 4 tabs were still open. I've actually had tabs open for 3 days straight that i forgot to close and the browser just made new ones.
and these are not just text sites. I had the Battlefield 3 battlelog, nfl.com, battlefield wiki, and the verge mobile all on.

My browser will keep pages open for days if I wanted to...strange! You're using stock browser?
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stock browser is awesome. especially the inverted mode.

Pretty amateur thread. Come on
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Stardate Tab 10.1 said:
If your using a Verizon nexus, it partly has to do with Verizon's cdma network, not just android. Plus it would slow your phones operation down and you would see more force closes due to limited resources.
Transmitted from my Galaxy Tab 10.1 via Tapatalk
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I can't find one fact in your entire statement. What could CDMA possibly have to do with it? Also, you wouldn't see more 'force closes'. When Android runs low on RAM it selects the oldest cached app and ends it, unless it's active.

once again, amateur thread. **** needs to be closed down

TareX said:
I love my Galaxy Nexus, but what's driving me crazy is how it shuts down any app whenever I switch out of it, even if I use the -completely useless so far- multitasking soft key. So for instance I'm waiting for a YouTube video to load, so I temporarily switch out of it to do something else (this is a smartphone isn't it) and come back, and find it reopening the video as if I just did it. Same thing with the browsers. I have 2-3 tabs open, and decided to check out something on the homescreen. Big mistake. When I get back will have to wait for all the tabs to reload.
Anyway to keep apps running in the background?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Do you have Don't keep activities checked in the development part of settings? Go to Settings>Developer Options, scroll all the way down, and look if you've enabled the option I've mentioned above
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

I have this exact same problem, with the browser and even with games.
I have no task manager. I have watchdog which i believe doesnt kill any processes itself and i have juice defender; could that be whats causing this problem?

I keep hearing about this, am I seriously the only one that can swipe apps away from the recent apps and they actually close?
Sent from my Google phone

ChongoDroid said:
I keep hearing about this, am I seriously the only one that can swipe apps away from the recent apps and they actually close?
Sent from my Google phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
possibly you are...
because for me and more than 5 of my friends using the same phone, those swiping aways only close the shortcut regardless of the app running in background or not.

DO THE FOLLOWING
1) go to settings, apps, running apps.
2) with that open, hit the multitask button that shows all apps running.
3) swipe away
4) watch it get killed off your running apps list.
5) grow up

Im not sure what all the *****iness is about but the problen I and i believe the OP were having was quite real and serious.
Any time you switched out of an app or game, even if only for a second, when you switched back it would restart the app or game and in the case of the browser reload the webpage.
Now, ive uninstalled watchdog and the problem seems to have gone away.
Is anybody else using watchdog having this problem?

People need to understand that devs put this code INTO THEIR APPS. Killswitches are hard coded into apps to let the system kill them if they have been in the background. A good example is Opera Mobile. It has a low priority that is coded in BY THE DEV.

schizophrenia said:
possibly you are...
because for me and more than 5 of my friends using the same phone, those swiping aways only close the shortcut regardless of the app running in background or not.
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Click to collapse
Not possibly, I know I am. Home key keeps it running, back key caches/closes it. Certain apps perform differently as foreground tasks and some as background tasks. I think some can't be multi tasked like big games and stuff but as previously said that's on the dev side not androids.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Killing apps..

I found some articles on net talking about harmful influences when using task killers apps.
I'm using SlimICS at the moment and I want to know if when I use the killing button that I've added on my navigation buttons harms my phone as the task killers do..
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus while relaxing..

Don't kill apps unless you have a misbehaving one that's adversely affecting your phone.
The OS can manage apps and memory so much better than you ever could.

martonikaj said:
Don't kill apps unless you have a misbehaving one that's adversely affecting your phone.
The OS can manage apps and memory so much better than you ever could.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to add: If you have a misbehaving app, don't bother killing it. Just uninstall it. It's not worth the trouble.

These task killers and memory optimizers are really good for lower end devices that have little memory. I used them on a phone that only had 356MB of RAM and only run at about 30-40MB free. A better way to address these issues is to run the V6 Supercharger script on a rooted device.
As for the GNex, why do you need to run task killers? You're not having memory performance issues, are you?

netbuzz said:
These task killers and memory optimizers are really good for lower end devices that have little memory. I used them on a phone that only had 356MB of RAM and only run at about 30-40MB free. A better way to address these issues is to run the V6 Supercharger script on a rooted device.
As for the GNex, why do you need to run task killers? You're not having memory performance issues, are you?
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Click to collapse
Yep. On my old ZTE Blade I really did feel a significant difference in smoothness after killing off some apps, so I don't entirely agree with the notion that you should never ever even consider doing it (which seems to be what some people advocate), but on the GNex there doesn't seem to be a need for it unless a specific app is misbehaving. I don't know if that's just because of the more powerful hardware or if it's also because of the much improved OS (I imagine it's both), but there you go.

JaiaV said:
Just to add: If you have a misbehaving app, don't bother killing it. Just uninstall it. It's not worth the trouble.
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Click to collapse
This. I use watchdog to monitor rogue apps. Engadget was s repeat offender so it had to go.
As mentioned the OS does a great job on its own.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

You need nothing more than to swipe apps away when you're done with them in the multitasking window, which doubles as a task manager of sorts.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

MikeyMike01 said:
You need nothing more than to swipe apps away when you're done with them in the multitasking window, which doubles as a task manager of sorts.
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Click to collapse
Again, why even bother? The OS handles this just fine.

Although, that doesn't necessarily "kill" background apps. There is a box in "developer settings" that, if you check it, will kill any application after using it. I haven't tried it out but it may just work.
Sent from my GummyNex!

LocoTSX said:
Although, that doesn't necessarily "kill" background apps. There is a box in "developer settings" that, if you check it, will kill any application after using it. I haven't tried it out but it may just work.
Sent from my GummyNex!
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Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure that's as bad as using a task killer.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Ntavelis said:
I found some articles on net talking about harmful influences when using task killers apps.
I'm using SlimICS at the moment and I want to know if when I use the killing button that I've added on my navigation buttons harms my phone as the task killers do..
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus while relaxing..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
even cyanogenmod has a kill app button, i dont think it does anything to your phone.

IMO the only useful reasons to kill a background app are if it's wasting your battery, bandwidth, or it's some kind of logger. In those cases you're better off just uninstalling it. Android is designed to keep things in memory to save start-up time and related battery drain, and so you have the benefit of the task-selector button. It knows when to clear enough memory to keep your foreground app and you happy. Task killers are holdovers from the days when they were useful.
galaxy nexus (gsm) / cm9 / trinity @ 1.4GHz

I learned a long time ago that in Android/Linux free RAM is wasted RAM.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Ics/jb does not need app killers if you press the recent app key and swype it left or right the app gets killed
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

martonikaj said:
Again, why even bother? The OS handles this just fine.
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Click to collapse
No, not really. And if it were "bad" they wouldn't put it into Android. You should swipe them away when you're done with them.
I Am Marino said:
I'm pretty sure that's as bad as using a task killer.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
There's nothing bad about closing apps you're done with.
What's bad is the auto task killers.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

MikeyMike01 said:
No, not really. And if it were "bad" they wouldn't put it into Android. You should swipe them away when you're done with them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it really does nothing positive to swipe apps away when you're done with them. As the poster a couple above me said, free RAM is wasted RAM. The OS will keep everything in order. You're unnecessarily micromanaging your apps when you swipe them away. Your phone just works harder and for longer re-opening apps over and over again when you kill them manually.
Your RAM is powered and draining battery whether its full of apps or not. It's in your best interest to let the OS fill up your RAM (all the way up to about 90% full) and let it kill things as necessary when you load an app that needs more than is available. The OS will handle it. I know everyone has it engrained in their minds from using Windows for so long to keep as much RAM free as possible, but its just not the case in Android anymore.

martonikaj said:
No it really does nothing positive to swipe apps away when you're done with them. As the poster a couple above me said, free RAM is wasted RAM. The OS will keep everything in order. You're unnecessarily micromanaging your apps when you swipe them away. Your phone just works harder and for longer re-opening apps over and over again when you kill them manually.
Your RAM is powered and draining battery whether its full of apps or not. It's in your best interest to let the OS fill up your RAM (all the way up to about 90% full) and let it kill things as necessary when you load an app that needs more than is available. The OS will handle it. I know everyone has it engrained in their minds from using Windows for so long to keep as much RAM free as possible, but its just not the case in Android anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whatever you want to believe. I'm not going to waste my time on convincing you.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

MikeyMike01 said:
Whatever you want to believe. I'm not going to waste my time on convincing you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hah alright.

Background app updates

I've noticed that when Play is updating apps in the background, everything on my phone instantly becomes super sluggish. I don't remember this always being the case on the GNex, and even on my old Nexus One it just tended to allocate priority to the foreground app and finish the updates whenever it was convenient.
Is it just me or have app updates suddenly become more CPU intensive?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Ive always experienced this
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

I don't let any of my apps update automatically. There have been times when I have had a dozen updates available at the same time. I look at what is available and decide when I want to update at my convenience.

I'm referring to when I have a bunch of updates and I go click the update all button. I don't do auto updates either.
But for whatever reason, when I switch to another app it can't seem to give enough priority to the foreground for me to do even simple tasks in other apps. If I open the browser and try to type in a URL during app updates, it force quits.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

This sounds like normal behavior to me. When updating multiple apps, the play store is installing & downloading apps simultaneously. This uses CPU time & causes I/O load on your internal memory. Of course the device will feel more sluggish when busy with such tasks.

Petrovski80 said:
This sounds like normal behavior to me. When updating multiple apps, the play store is installing & downloading apps simultaneously. This uses CPU time & causes I/O load on your internal memory. Of course the device will feel more sluggish when busy with such tasks.
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Click to collapse
This is a pretty damn powerful processor. Why in the world should downloading and replacing a few files bring it to a grinding halt? I I have been using Android for almost three years now and I truly think this behaviour has gotten worse since the days of the Nexus One.
Could it maybe be related to the new incremental updates feature? That would certainly increase the processing load involved in downloading and installing.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

patruns said:
I don't let any of my apps update automatically. There have been times when I have had a dozen updates available at the same time. I look at what is available and decide when I want to update at my convenience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats the best way
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

[Q] Anyone else notice some lag after the first few days? need help if you have!

So i've only had the phone for a few days and started noticing lag mainly in the settings yesterday.
It was buttery smooth the first few days until yesterday. I'll try to create a clear description of what is happening.
Everything in terms of hitting applications, sliding/switching pages, and browsers seems smooth but I'm getting doubts since settings have started lagging. So as of now, the settings menu is where I really notice the problem. What happens is I would press any of the choices such as display, sound, storage, etc and it would light up blue as a sign that I pressed it. Basically, the blue lighting stutters/lags as it turns into a deeper color and fades away proving that there is some lag. That itself is very irritating on such a powerful phone. The page also lags a bit as it's opening so it's obvious that it does lag. I don't understand why something as simple as settings might be causing this?
have any of you guys noticed this? I tried clearing ram, restarting phone, messing with dev options by changing animation and something else to .5x while enabling "force GPU rendering." I'm running stock touchwiz on baseband T889UVALJ1 if that helps. Keep in mind i'm not really tech savvy so try to suggest things in an easy to understand way please.
Any help is greatly appreciated and I hope you guys can help me fix my problem!

Been using it for the past 1 month plus and I do not have any lagging issues. I am on stock rom as well.

No lag either, been using the Note 2 for 2 months now. Check your apps with BetterBatteryStatts (too many backgroundservices runing).

No lag either. Did u install some crappy apps that run backstage
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app

Thanks for the replies so far and before I spend some money on apps or what not, is there any way I can post a 5 second animation of what is happening? Kind of like a 5 second gif of my screen? A mix of a screenshot and video so like a screen vid? Are there are any apps that can do that(preferably free). I'll try to find an app that can do that in the meantime and will edit if I find something useful.
Edit: No idea what this is or how it ended up on my phone but could this be the culprit? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tgrape.android.radar
People say it's bloatware and s-suggest from samsung but i'm not sure why it would be shown as an app on the play store website

I have noticed the phone can lag a bit if you have a heavy live wallpaper running.
Just sharing my thoughts on this

did you modify anything? no lags on my N2.

normally i'd say if you leave your phone on for a few days in a row, clear the memory every once in a while (press and hold home, go task manager, ram tab, clear memory) or reboot it, just so you dont have anything residual in your ram.
when android sees that you have 2gb of ram, it doesnt auto kill as many apps as it would if you were to have only 1gb of ram (my note 1 autokilled sooooooo frequently that it was annoying), so your ram ends up getting filled with some apps that you only used once in a while.

SquirtingCherry said:
I have noticed the phone can lag a bit if you have a heavy live wallpaper running.
Just sharing my thoughts on this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did have a live news wallpaper before but I disabled it and switched to one of the stock wallpapers and the problem persists..
parrotlarch said:
did you modify anything? no lags on my N2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I didn't modify anything, were you referring to anything specific or some kind of setting?
Souai said:
normally i'd say if you leave your phone on for a few days in a row, clear the memory every once in a while (press and hold home, go task manager, ram tab, clear memory) or reboot it, just so you dont have anything residual in your ram.
when android sees that you have 2gb of ram, it doesnt auto kill as many apps as it would if you were to have only 1gb of ram (my note 1 autokilled sooooooo frequently that it was annoying), so your ram ends up getting filled with some apps that you only used once in a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wrote that I tried clearing ram and restarting phone but it didn't help. Thanks for trying though

Yeah, I get a bit of lag here and there, specially if I haven't cleared running/background apps in a while.
I just do it from the task manager, and also check out what apps are using the most battery, and possibly therefore are some of the likely culprits.
I actually use this app called Carat, which is an "Energy bug detector app" (whatever that means), but it helps identify apps that are draining the battery, and incidentally, partially contributing to the lag.
Also obvious thing like live wallpapers or touchwiz in general (including all the 'special' Samsung features like smart rotate, smart stay, smart motion) probably add to it to. Nova launcher and a static wallpaper might help.

I'll try to post a video sometime soon showing the lag. It's not serious lag, but it does stutter and lag a decent amount compared to my first few days which is what sucks.

mitchillen said:
I'll try to post a video sometime soon showing the lag. It's not serious lag, but it does stutter and lag a decent amount compared to my first few days which is what sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure that power saving is turned totally off in settings to avoid UI lag.

ItzMar said:
Make sure that power saving is turned totally off in settings to avoid UI lag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah that was one of the first things I tried, didn't help.

This happen to me..If surf net lag this could help..check your network setting.
if your SIM card is 3G,set it to "GSM/WCDMA AUTO MODE" instead of LTE..
Hope it help

william1974 said:
This happen to me..If surf net lag this could help..check your network setting.
if your SIM card is 3G,set it to "GSM/WCDMA AUTO MODE" instead of LTE..
Hope it help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I have a T-mobile Galaxy note II. It should be the 4g LTE variant but lte is not available yet. I think it is the n7105
Under the settings, I only have gsm/wcdma, gsm only, and wcdma only.
I'm not sure what I have to do

Anybody experience lagging on the xda app. Im getting some stuttering when scrolling. Mine's running on full stock rom even when I clear the memory...
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app

DroidPH said:
Anybody experience lagging on the xda app. Im getting some stuttering when scrolling. Mine's running on full stock rom even when I clear the memory...
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try enabling Force GPU rendering in developers options. That usually helps with that, or at least it seemed to in my case. Report back if it actually helped

quick update:
I found a vid and my lag basically looks like this http://youtu.be/0qyijcTeHcU?t=2m27s
Look at when he clicks on display, there is clearly some lag even if it is half a second - 1 second. I'm almost certain that my lag is even worse than that, but not by too much. It's just a pain in the ass after the first few days. Would flashing a custom rom like jedi X 7.2 help out with this since it's running a bravia engine?

MohJee said:
You can try enabling Force GPU rendering in developers options. That usually helps with that, or at least it seemed to in my case. Report back if it actually helped
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually it did :good: Unfortunately I've lost 10% battery within minutes of using the XDA App. Unticked...I clicked thanks for your help mate.