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ICS is a mix of gingerbread and Honeycomb and it has fully hardware acceleration unlike honeycomb which has partially.
I do wonder why navigating in ICS with a Galaxy Nexus isn't as fluid and smooth as let's say a Samsung Galaxy tab?
Here's an example on Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftljZ9yGsiE
And if you have used a Galaxy Nexus or seen video with it, you can clearly see that when opening the app drawer and navigating in the OS isn't as smooth as Honeycomb.
Could anyone clear this out for me?
retskrad said:
ICS is a mix of gingerbread and Honeycomb and it has fully hardware acceleration unlike honeycomb which has partially.
I do wonder why navigating in ICS with a Galaxy Nexus isn't as fluid and smooth as let's say a Samsung Galaxy tab?
Here's an example on Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftljZ9yGsiE
And if you have used a Galaxy Nexus or seen video with it, you can clearly see that when opening the app drawer and navigating in the OS isn't as smooth as Honeycomb.
Could anyone clear this out for me?
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Click to collapse
My GN seems just as smooth, if not smoother, than my GTab 10.1 running honeycomb... (although I havent updated it to 3.2 yet)
if your galaxy nexus is not as smooth as a galaxy tab then your either running a crappy rom, or have way to many things running at the same time.
my GN is the smoothest device i've ever owned. It puts my asus transformer to shame. and it puts the galaxy tabs i've used to shame as well.
The only thing better than my Gnex on ICS is the Xoom on ICS. It has made this tablet way better. Unlocked bootloaders is where its at! ICS smokes HC in real world use. Both 4.0.3 which I doubt that video had. 4.0.2 wasn't nearly as smooth
My iPad and iPod Touch are barely smoother than my GN, s it's pretty good imo.
Mandelbrot.Benoit said:
The only thing better than my Gnex on ICS is the Xoom on ICS. It has made this tablet way better. Unlocked bootloaders is where its at! ICS smokes HC in real world use. Both 4.0.3 which I doubt that video had. 4.0.2 wasn't nearly as smooth
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Click to collapse
I really have to get ICS on my tab...
Have you actually used a Galaxy Nexus, or just seen it in videos? You would know that it's super smooth with hardly any lag.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
Is it possible to overclock the GPU in the Galaxy Nexus? Is it 304 Mhz or 384?
Btw guys, videos are usually shot 30 fps; the smoothness factor will be gone if you watch said videos instead of using the device first-hand.
I've seen some stutter here and there (just got my GN today) but nothing phenomenal. It's just as, if not smoother than, my iPad 2; that's impressive.
yeah mine seems incredibly smooth too so I think they are in fact the same. However I noticed the 2 Verizon units were choppy as all hell. Maybe the GSM version is somehow different? Makes no sense I know.
RogerPodacter said:
yeah mine seems incredibly smooth too so I think they are in fact the same. However I noticed the 2 Verizon units were choppy as all hell. Maybe the GSM version is somehow different? Makes no sense I know.
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Were they demo units with apps installed? The more apps I've installed/running the slower my nexus runs. I've mostly stripped down my apps to essential ones that I use only. Way better than my moto atrix IMO
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
The GNex launcher is way more responsive than my Xoom. The only time I have experienced stuttering in the launcher was when I'm running any live wallpaper other than phase beam.
El Daddy said:
The GNex launcher is way more responsive than my Xoom. The only time I have experienced stuttering in the launcher was when I'm running any live wallpaper other than phase beam.
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Click to collapse
yeah this is a good point. if theres a LWP running on a GNex, the smoothness gets destroyed. toss a static wallpaper and it'll put the iphone to shame.
Compared with Honeycomb? Not sure, I hated Honeycomb on the Asus Transformer so much I sold it and removed any memories of the mess that was Honeycomb from my brain.
But compared to my Galaxy S2 (Exynos version) running Gingerbread, certain things are noticeably not as smooth. I notice this most when I open the app launcher on the Nexus, if it wasn't open recently there is some real lag while everything fades into view.
And please, don't give me any crap about being on a buggy ROM or having too much crap installed, this is and has been my experience on a plain old Galaxy Nexus from the day I bought it.
In fact, the slight amount of lag is the one thing I miss about my Galaxy S2... I don't know if it was Gingerbread or that amazing Exynos chip but the S2 was buttery smooth, whereas the Nexus IMO is just adequately smooth for the hardware.
Shawn_230 said:
Compared with Honeycomb? Not sure, I hated Honeycomb on the Asus Transformer so much I sold it and removed any memories of the mess that was Honeycomb from my brain.
But compared to my Galaxy S2 (Exynos version) running Gingerbread, certain things are noticeably not as smooth. I notice this most when I open the app launcher on the Nexus, if it wasn't open recently there is some real lag while everything fades into view.
And please, don't give me any crap about being on a buggy ROM or having too much crap installed, this is and has been my experience on a plain old Galaxy Nexus from the day I bought it.
In fact, the slight amount of lag is the one thing I miss about my Galaxy S2... I don't know if it was Gingerbread or that amazing Exynos chip but the S2 was buttery smooth, whereas the Nexus IMO is just adequately smooth for the hardware.
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Yeah thats what I was thinking! The Galaxy Nexus isn't as smooth as people want it to be.
Sigh. Just wait til 4.0.3. You're comparing a version of Android and TouchWiz that have had a lot of time to mature.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
kangxi said:
Sigh. Just wait til 4.0.3. You're comparing a version of Android and TouchWiz that have had a lot of time to mature.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Hey... if things get better with 4.0.3 then all the better. I may be critical but I'm not here to see Android or Samsung fail, I want them to be as good as they can be.
But as for maturing hasn't this version of Android been brewing for 12 months now? It's basically Honeycomb, and that's kind of what scares me a little... ICS was supposed to be Honeycomb without all the bugs and issues
I personally was thinking ICS would be the the best of both worlds, Honeycomb UI and stability and responsivess seen in 2.2/2.3. It's a decent mix of both, but far from the best of both worlds as some of the Honeycomb grossness has seeped in.
Facts straight from a member of the Android team at Google:
https://plus.google.com/105051985738280261832/posts/2FXDCz8x93s
"Full" hardware accelerated drawing within a window was added in Android 3.0. The implementation in Android 4.0 is not any more full than in 3.0. Starting with 3.0, if you set the flag in your app saying that hardware accelerated drawing is allowed, then all drawing to the application’s windows will be done with the GPU. The main change in this regard in Android 4.0 is that now apps that are explicitly targeting 4.0 or higher will have acceleration enabled by default rather than having to put android:handwareAccelerated="true" in their manifest. (And the reason this isn’t just turned on for all existing applications is that some types of drawing operations can’t be supported well in hardware and it also impacts the behavior when an application asks to have a part of its UI updated. Forcing hardware accelerated drawing upon existing apps will break a significant number of them, from subtly to significantly.)
Some have raised points along the lines of Samsung Galaxy S2 phones already having a smoother UI and indicating that they are doing something different vs. the Galaxy Nexus. When comparing individual devices though you really need to look at all of the factors. For example, the S2's screen is 480x800 vs. the Galaxy Nexus at 720x1280. If the Nexus S could already do 60fps for simple UIs on its 480x800, the CPU in the S2's is even better off.
The real important difference between these two screens is just that the Galaxy Nexus has 2.4x as many pixels that need to be drawn as the S2. This means that to achieve the same efficiency at drawing the screen, you need a CPU that can run a single core at 2.4x the speed (and rendering a UI for a single app is essentially not parallelizable, so multiple cores isn't going to save you).
My GNex can be a bit choppy with a LWP on. Other than that, it's very smooth.
Shawn_230 said:
Compared with Honeycomb? Not sure, I hated Honeycomb on the Asus Transformer so much I sold it and removed any memories of the mess that was Honeycomb from my brain.
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My wife's transformer with 3.2 is pretty damn smooth.. almost iPad smooth. large improvement over 3.1. What version did u have?
my GN is amazingly smooth except for a couple of apps... google reader comes to mind as an example of one that really shouldn't be laggy but is. Most everything else is great.
sounds like u need to go back to your galaxy s2.
So? The resolution of Gnexus (1280x720) is "adapted" to Android?
Also, the XDA community of Gnexus is low? And, the performance in general, or with big game like Asphalt 7, NOVA 3, Mass Effect, is good and fluid?
Gnex ftw. And the butter and jelly.
butter and jelly please...
Nexus imho. I have a few friends with the S2 in various models... they all comment on how slick the nexus is.
If you're into rooting and installing custom ROMs = any of the two, altough I prefer the Nexus.
If not rooting and installing custom ROMs = the Nexus.
Why? You don't have to deal with (quite frankly) the ugliest damn UI in the android world (with Motoblur and MIUI sharing the second place). Nexus devices are pure Google (altough most Galaxy Nexuses are plagued with Samsung specific firmware version) (yakjuxw, yakjukr, yakjuux, so on so forth)
Plus the Galaxy Nexus has a larger and more beautiful screen, bigger resolution, looks better, software touch buttons (the navbar). So what if the Samsung S2 has a better GPU? I bet it wouldn't perform all too well either with 720p resolution..
Now that we have jb there's no reason to buy the gs2 anymore...especially the T-Mobile one. Dev support is almost at 0.
Didn't I just close this same thread in Galaxy S II?
Duplicating posts & crossposting is against the rules.
Closed
After jumping from the Galaxy Nexus to the Note 2, I realize that there are so many improvements that Touchwiz brings on top of stock Android that heavily outweighs being a version "behind". I used to visit the GNex forum almost exclusively, still I decided to move to the note for the bigger screen, awesome battery life and SD card slot "despite" it having Touchwiz, I thought I would bite the bullet and live with the horror of an OEM skin.. now I realize that the phone is much better off with it on top of Android.
Pros:
- Camera is way better with a lot more options, notably burst mode and widescreen.. why does stock force you to take 4:3 pictures? this isn't 1998 anymore, all monitors/TVs are widescreen
- Gallery is much improved with different view types, video previews, play on hover, etc..
- FB contact integration out of the box, no need to mess around with Haxsync or other apps
- Multi-window, that alone trumps stock
- T9 Dialer
- Smart stay: When reading long text I got used to touching my screen every 30 seconds to keep it from turning off, never again
- Smart rotate: call this a "gimmick" all you want, but it's really nice to be able to lie down and read something without first disabling auto-rotate
- Contact list: smoothly integrated with the Phone app, no more ugly white theme that's oddly out of place with the rest of the UI
- S-Beam is much faster and more practical than Android Beam (you have both in Touchwiz anyway)
- Not counting all the s-pen apps since those are specific to the Note 2
- Overall feel of the OS feels less segmented and more cohesive
- Loads of small improvement all across the OS, things that make you say "oh nice, I don't need 4-5 steps to do that anymore"
* I know that "there's an app for that" for some of these features, but they will never work as seamlessly as on a single unified framework.
Cons:
- The TW launcher is smooth but limited (so is the stock JB launcher), running Nova lets you customize it as you like while keeping all the TW advantages.
- Some features are more gimmicky like "pan to zoom" or "double tap to top of list" but you can just ignore them and use the normal way of doing things.
Nexus fans (I was one of them) keep braggin about how their phones run "pure, untouched, sweet, [...] unadulterated, vanilla Android" as if it was a huge advantage, claiming Touchwiz is ball-and-chain bloatware that slows down the phone.. well if you call the Note 2 slow then you need to get your head checked. I'm aware that it's got twice the processing power of the current Nexus, but my point is that Touchwiz does not slow it down one bit.
Read this on another forum:
"Samsung gets a lot of hate for TouchWiz, and so they should - its bad, unbelievably bad, colossally bad. Its as far away from Android as can be in terms of looks.
On the Note 2, however, TouchWiz is fantastic, Samsung made the improvements where it counts for the device’s tablet aspects. The S-Pen is really useful, as is the software Samsung developed for it. The multi-tasking is so good, you wouldn’t think Samsung had it in them to do it. I just recently got the software update over the air for the dual window multi-tasking and tested it out this morning - it’s just great and I cannot fault it one little bit. I hate to say it but I don’t even feel like wanting an AOSP ROM for this device because I stand to lose so many features in regards to the S-Pen."
I don't care about not getting 4.2 or whatever 4.n+1 will be right away, Samsung has done a wonderful job with Touchwiz on the Note 2 and I'd rather have them take their time to build on top of what they have right now then release something quick and dirty.
Are there any advantages to stock Android besides having faster access to the latest AOSP version? Please don't reply with "this is what Google intended it to be" or "the hardware is made for the software" (as if the Note 2 isn't made for TW), I'm talking about features, performance, reliability.
btw, before buying the GNex I had a Galaxy S1, so I was extremely biased against TW before buying the Note 2.. the latest version is much less in your face and just feels like an extra coat of polish on top of stock rather than a hostile takover.
Stock JB Touchwiz here
_ There's a notable lag in the widget drawer.
_there's a notable lag in the contact startup .
_ the design of the TW is ridiculous, what is with all the green and orange colors ? compared to the dark blue of the stock it looks like ass ..
_ it is nowhere near as smooth in JB since obviously samsung knows nothing about project butter and how to implement it, and in ICS TW we have the infinitely annoying redraw issue ...
Defaq? What is the point of this thread?
Seriously ? If you like touchwiz, then go and buy s3 or note 2 or any other Samsung phone.
Fatelord said:
Stock JB Touchwiz here
_ There's a notable lag in the widget drawer.
_there's a notable lag in the contact startup .
_ the design of the TW is ridiculous, what is with all the green and orange colors ? compared to the dark blue of the stock it looks like ass ..
_ it is nowhere near as smooth in JB since obviously samsung knows nothing about project butter and how to implement it, and in ICS TW we have the infinitely annoying redraw issue ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange.. my experience and all the reviews I've read show that the UI is practically lag free, are you using the Note 2 or the S3?
question
I also don't understand why you started this topic here.... it's okey if you like it better than stock android, but why start a topic...
Who the hell takes pictures in 16:9 aspect? 4:3 is and always will be the standard for frames and photos...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
You're entitled to your opinion, as is anybody else. I will politely disagree with it however. TouchWiz, in my opinion, is just ugly.
The biggest perk to AOSP is that it's made to be built on while TouchWiz and other OEM flavors are designed to be an "end product." Nexus devices are intended to be tinkered with, which is a big draw for some people.
The skins never feel like they age well either. All of my non-AOSP devices seem to get sluggish and just feel outdated much earlier in their lifespan. Meanwhile, AOSP seems to manage to keep devices moving, even into their golden years. My old Eris has Jellybean (with some flaws but it's there!), but would be extremely unlikely to be capable running a modern Sense.
mvn01 said:
I also don't understand why you started this topic here.... it's okey if you like it better than stock android, but why start a topic...
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Click to collapse
Why join xda just to make this post?
But seriously, nothing wrong with starting a topic to discuss the pros and cons of both ROMs.. Also it is relevant to start it here since my experience with stock was mainly on the Nexus platform. If some people prefer stock that's great, and I'm open to hearing their reasons.
akira02rex said:
Who the hell takes pictures in 16:9 aspect? 4:3 is and always will be the standard for frames and photos...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Yep, that's why you should have the option to choose which ratio you prefer.. isn't the point of Android to give you the choice? so why is stock locking you down to one ratio?
http://blog.wtfconcept.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/yao-noob-*****.jpg
Is this a troll or is he serious? Go and post in the note 2 section.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
ITT: Trolls trolling trolls trolling trolls.
Hi all,
I purchased a Note 8.0 for college at the beginning of the year. I really liked it. My dad wanted a tablet for Christmas this year so my family decided to get him the Note 10.1 2014 WiFi edition based on research and my experience. Once he got it open and started playing with it I noticed that my 8.0 appears to run much more smoothly than his brand new 10.1. The lag is most noticeable in the S Note app, or really anything that requires drawing or writing (he loves to play draw something 2 with us.) It is also noticeable when swiping through the home screens.
I ran the AnTuTu benchmark to make sure his was running as fast as it should compared to mine. He scored ~34000 and my 8.0 got a little over 20000. Those results were about what I expected.
Do you guys think his device is messed up or is this normal for the 10. 1 2014? I am pretty sure we can get a replacement if it isn't working correctly. I just did not expect a much faster device to run (what appears to be) is slower in any way.
Thanks for the input
Unforgiven93 said:
Hi all,
I purchased a Note 8.0 for college at the beginning of the year. I really liked it. My dad wanted a tablet for Christmas this year so my family decided to get him the Note 10.1 2014 WiFi edition based on research and my experience. Once he got it open and started playing with it I noticed that my 8.0 appears to run much more smoothly than his brand new 10.1. The lag is most noticeable in the S Note app, or really anything that requires drawing or writing (he loves to play draw something 2 with us.) It is also noticeable when swiping through the home screens.
I ran the AnTuTu benchmark to make sure his was running as fast as it should compared to mine. He scored ~34000 and my 8.0 got a little over 20000. Those results were about what I expected.
Do you guys think his device is messed up or is this normal for the 10. 1 2014? I am pretty sure we can get a replacement if it isn't working correctly. I just did not expect a much faster device to run (what appears to be) is slower in any way.
Thanks for the input
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately that's normal. I find the 10.1 with much more lag than my N3 (which is very smooth)
I've learned to live with it, as long as the apps don't run poorly--which they don't.
There are a lot of threads on the 'lag' issue you're seeing.
I have both devices, my note 8 is running 4.2.2 stock and is a wifi only model with 16gb internal memory. My Note 10.1 2014 is an LTE model with 32gb, running 4.3 stock.
And i must say, fortunately (or unfortunately), it seems to me that's not a hardware issue. My note 8 flies, it's butter smooth compared to the Note 10.1 2014. I think Samsung screwed up badly with touchwiz.
For me the software driving the Note 8 feels much more light and mature compared to the Note 10.1 2014. Transitions, scrolling, swipes, everything feels snappier.
Bought the Note 10.1 2014 thinking this device would be a beast. And on paper it is. With the benchmarks too. But with real world usage The Good "old" Note 8 delivers a better experience.
The 10.1 2014 is so heavily bloated, with all sort of DRM, and unnecessary services running (knox?) in the background that the experience could be so much better.
I bought the p605M (here in Brazil) and here where I live, the official updates takes so much longer to roll out. But I hope when eventually 4.4 or even an new 4.3 version comes out, the performance will be improved. Read here in the forums that newer 4.3 roms resolved some lags and the wake up problem.
Would love to find a ROM compatible with my specific version p605M, I would root right away. But I'm afraid to screw up. For sure is not compatible with 605 roms.
2 to 3 seconds wake up lag? That's a joke. Samsung.
Sent from my SM-P605M using XDA Premium HD app
well also you have to remember that he screen is like 3x the resolution
curiousmileo said:
well also you have to remember that he screen is like 3x the resolution
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Yeah, that's true. But it has theoretically a better processor to handle all the pixels. Hope with software implementations they fix the performance.
Sent from my SM-P605M using XDA Premium HD app
But your All forgetting you can root, delete bloatware, freeze touchwiz home and have nova launcher, then compare it to the 8.0, head and shoulders above
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
its not as snappy as my xperia z ultra but i barely notice the lag, i didnt root just turned off/ disabled a few samsung bloat and used nova launcher. the one thing that bothers me is that there is no way to hide the notification bar while browsing the web nova lets u hide it in the home screen.
nielo360 said:
its not as snappy as my xperia z ultra but i barely notice the lag, i didnt root just turned off/ disabled a few samsung bloat and used nova launcher. the one thing that bothers me is that there is no way to hide the notification bar while browsing the web nova lets u hide it in the home screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GMD let's you but have to be rooted you also get loads of shortcuts to play with my using touch gestures.
There are four things at play that affect graphics performance:
Display area. You're comparing devices with 5.7" (N3), 8" (N8), and 10.1" (N10.1-14) displays. All things being equal h/w has to work harder to fill and refresh a larger display area.
PPI. The N8 has a woeful 189 PPI. The N10.1-14 has 299 PPI and the N3 has 388 PPI. The pixels-per-inch combined with size of the display area determine the load the SoC has to carry.
H/W. The N3 and N10.1-14 have identical h/w. Filling a 388 PPI 5.7" display is far less of a burden on the SoC than filling a 10.1" 299 PPI display. So of course the N3 will have less lag and appear "smoother." If you "pinch zoom" on the home screen of the N3 to display multiple home pages it's almost instant. Not so much with the N10.1-14. As for the N8, 189 PPI on an 8" display is obviously less of a burden on Exynos 4412/Mali 400 than 299 PPI on a 10.1" display is for Exynos 5420/Mali-T626.
S/W. I can't help but feel the N10.1-14 was rushed to market. It certainly doesn't feel as "finished" and the s/w integrated as well as the N3. I had one of the first N10.1-12's sold. It took a couple of updates including the "Premium Suite" addition a couple of months after launch for it to feel "finished." Hopefully with future updates Samsung can better tune graphics performance to make the N10.1-14 feel more fluid.
The best analogy is BMW using the same 6 cylinder engine in the 3, 5, and 7 series. The 3-series will perform much better and feel more nimble because there's less mass to haul around. The N3 is a 3-series and the N10.1-14 is a 7-series in terms of "bulk." As for the N8, it's a 3-series with a 4 cylinder but less bulk makes it feel more nimble than a 7-series with a 6.
The display, at least to me, is one of the most outstanding features of the N10.1-14 and the biggest reason I moved to it from the N10.1-12. If the consequence is the occasional millisecond long stutter in a transition, so be it. And OP, make sure your father's N10.1-14 has all the updates (I think there have been two in the U.S.). I have no lag or delays in the specific applications you mentioned. In fact, I've noticed no lag or stuttering when working in a single specific application; only occasionally in transitions or sharing data across apps.
BarryH_GEG said:
There are four things at play that affect graphics performance:
Display area. You're comparing devices with 5.7" (N3), 8" (N8), and 10.1" (N10.1-14) displays. All things being equal h/w has to work harder to fill and refresh a larger display area.
PPI. The N8 has a woeful 189 PPI. The N10.1-14 has 299 PPI and the N3 has 388 PPI. The pixels-per-inch combined with size of the display area determine the load the SoC has to carry.
H/W. The N3 and N10.1-14 have identical h/w. Filling a 388 PPI 5.7" display is far less of a burden on the SoC than filling a 10.1" 299 PPI display. So of course the N3 will have less lag and appear "smoother." If you "pinch zoom" on the home screen of the N3 to display multiple home pages it's almost instant. Not so much with the N10.1-14. As for the N8, 189 PPI on an 8" display is obviously less of a burden on Exynos 4412/Mali 400 than 299 PPI on a 10.1" display is for Exynos 5420/Mali-T626.
S/W. I can't help but feel the N10.1-14 was rushed to market. It certainly doesn't feel as "finished" and the s/w integrated as well as the N3. I had one of the first N10.1-12's sold. It took a couple of updates including the "Premium Suite" addition a couple of months after launch for it to feel "finished." Hopefully with future updates Samsung can better tune graphics performance to make the N10.1-14 feel more fluid.
The best analogy is BMW using the same 6 cylinder engine in the 3, 5, and 7 series. The 3-series will perform much better and feel more nimble because there's less mass to haul around. The N3 is a 3-series and the N10.1-14 is a 7-series in terms of "bulk." As for the N8, it's a 3-series with a 4 cylinder but less bulk makes it feel more nimble than a 7-series with a 6.
The display, at least to me, is one of the most outstanding features of the N10.1-14 and the biggest reason I moved to it from the N10.1-12. If the consequence is the occasional millisecond long stutter in a transition, so be it. And OP, make sure your father's N10.1-14 has all the updates (I think there have been two in the U.S.). I have no lag or delays in the specific applications you mentioned. In fact, I've noticed no lag or stuttering when working in a single specific application; only occasionally in transitions or sharing data across apps.
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Very well written
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I'm not no phone expert but why would Samsung have a different Touchwiz UI for all their phones. Can't us note 4 uses get the same as the note 5? Like the camera shortcut would be nice to have.
If the note 5 had no features that the note 4 didn't have and was only better in benchmarks and camera and possibly battery depending on samsung's optimization (even though they alienated a fair amount of customers by removing the removeable battery), no one who owned a note 4 or maybe even a note 3 would upgrade. All they would get would be a speed boost and many might not even need that. Many custom roms will give your phone the features of newer touchwiz phones. These aren't official from samsung though.