Android phones slows down before iPhones and that’s quite famous. iPhones are known to run smoothly for years, unlike Android. Well, that’s the thing which we’ve known since a while, but how true it is – and if that’s true then what’s the reason behind this?
It’s common for people to blindly suggest iPhones to friends or relatives when someone asks for suggestion for a long-term smartphone due to the same reason, though it’s changing slowly due to improvements and options among Android smartphones.
So, is it true that Android smartphones start getting sluggish with time. And if that’s true then what’s the reason behind the same and what makes iPhones smoother for so long. We’re going to find all these here.
Before we begin, keep in mind, we’re going to mainly talk about flagships here because we’re also comparing them with iPhones.
Do Android Phones Slows Down with time?
Well, it’s quite normal for Android smartphones to slow down over time. However, things are changing slowly. It’s not like before when even the flagships used to stutter after a little while. It was much more common with Samsung phones, especially for graphics-intensive tasks like gaming.
Things have changed though and on a positive note too. Android phones stays fast and snappy for much longer than before. However, most of them still slow down – if not all. There are reasons behind, and it’s “not always” fault of your phone manufacturer for the same.
Why Android Phones Slows Down before iPhones?
There are many reasons behind this, though, the impact isn’t as much as before because while Android itself is much better than before, the smartphones are also coming powerful processors. Let see some of the most common reasons.
Badly optimized third-party apps:
It’s one of the main reasons behind Android phones slowing down. A lot of people I know usually have bunch of third-party apps installed even if they open them once in a while.
These apps are not always properly optimized for every device. Unlike iPhones and iPads, Android developers don’t have luxury to optimize apps for only a few devices. There are bunch of Android phones from a bunch of brands, so the developers cannot optimize their apps for every device, even if they wish to.
Considering not every app is optimized, especially those from new or totally ignorant developers (yes, there are many), the app might not behave correctly. Such apps could run in background for no reason and could even eat-up unexpectedly higher resources.
Background App Usage:
I did cover it a bit above. People often install a lot of apps on their phone and even if the apps are perfectly optimized, if you’ve installed 100’s of apps, most of them are going to run in background and use resources silently. And due to this, your phone cannot perform to its fullest.
In case of iOS, things are different. It doesn’t let insane number of apps run in background for no reason. And often kills even useful tasks (such as downloading files) in background. So, while it’s totally a poor thing to do, it is useful for the people who install apps like crazy. Ah well, not really useful but whatever!
Processor:
Well, first of all, iPhones have been leading in terms of processing power since a while now and considering most apps are optimized, they perform great for longer duration. Also, in terms of CPU processing power, Android phones have been like two years behind iPhones and even though they’re getting closer, they’re still far behind in terms of graphic processing power.
And addition to this – we have Android flagships from many brands. And not every brand uses the best stuff.
During SoC manufacturing, the silicon wafer used also differs in efficiency and it’s called CPU binning. There are some SoC which are less efficient than the others which are called low-binned CPUs. These usually find it difficult to reach their maximum CPU frequency or maintain them and also tends to heat more but are still sold to manufacturers at lower cost.
Smartphones using low-binned processors usually triggers thermal throttling sooner than their counterparts. And considering they find it difficult to maintain higher frequency, their performance is also not as good the others. Hence, they’re already behind their own counterparts, so they start struggling with smooth performance soon.
Also, you might be interested in reading Why Android phones are heating up more than iPhones?
Cache Build-up slows down Android before iPhones:
It seems to have improved a lot but the issue still exists in many flagships. Android phones tends to build-up cache with use and with time, your phone starts slowing down. It happens mainly when you don’t restart your phone often, however, it’s not a big concern with every recent flagship Android device. It is still a big problem for mid-range and low-end devices though, but considering we’re comparing Android with iPhones, I don’t think we should talk about them here. This makes Android phones slows down before iPhones.
So, while there are certain brands which have made marginal improvement over this, there are still many whose flagships suffers sluggishness after not restarting it for several days.
SD Card can slow down Android:
Most flagships have already ditched memory cards but there are still few which got microSD card slot. And believe it or not, they could be the reason for slowness of your Android smartphone.
Android smartphones are coming with UFS storage now which is blazing fast while microSD cards, on the other hands are slow and could be extremely slow depending on the card. And there are people who like to keep their apps’ data saved in SD card, so they can save their Internal storage space. And that makes their phone perform much slower while interacting with such apps. Meanwhile, iPhones are having NVME storage and don’t come with SD card slot, so people are just not able to slow down their iPhone with SD card.
Conclusion:
The condition of Android flagships isn’t the same as before. However, if you’re getting “budget flagship” then you must remember that they must have made compromises in some places. There are still many flagships which have cost cuttings which makes those Android phones slows down before iPhones, even if they are powered by powerful SoC.
At last, while the long-term performance of iPhones remains good, Android phones are no longer far behind, as long as you’re comparing something which is equally good.
