Choppy Android Menu

[Rdmkr]

My TianHe H920+ performs a bit poorly in the android main menu. Other 2D applications seem to ruin quite smoothly so this seems to be a problem specific to the android menu. Switching screens happens quickly and without chops or delays for about 3 times, then the 4th there is a +/- half second lag period. Is this common with MTK6589 phones, or specific to this model or my device? I haven't noticed anything like this in other 2D interfaces. 3D games run fine. Is this likely to be a hardware or software problem? Can rooting and installing roms possibly fix it?

[GizBeat]

Do you mean the app drawer or the home screen?

How about a short review of your H920+ and some pics from it's camera?

[Rdmkr]

Do you mean the app drawer or the home screen?

How about a short review of your H920+ and some pics from it's camera?

Both, unfortunately.

I'll write something of a review later; in brief: I'm very happy with it, although I was used to phones with much lower specs. Screen is incredible, very high quality, not "FHD in name only" or anything like that. The speed is great on most fronts, but the android menu lag problem is very irritating. If other MTK T phones don't suffer from that and the problem is not easy to fix, I'd recommend getting another one. But I'm keeping my hopes up for now.

The battery drains quite quickly when the screen is on at full brightness, but turning down brightness conserves a lot of energy. Stand by time is very long; I often have over 90% left after a day of standby time. The battery has contradictory information on it; 2800 mAh on the front but 3.7V @ 6.66 wh on the back, which would imply a 1800 mAh if I'm not mistaken. My experiences aren't conclusive; it can both drain energy quickly or last very long depending on it is used and I don't have a similar phone to compare it to. Fortunately it comes with 2 batteries so even when you get in trouble there's a plan B. I keep it around in my wallet for emergencies like that. Haven't had to use it yet.

I'll have to try some high end 3D games to be able to report on the graphical performance. So far I've only tried Temple Run 2, which runs perfectly smooth.

Antutu score is a healthy 14207 before I've done much to optimize it. I think that's decent considering it's on a 1920 x 1080 screen. Detailed scores:

Ram: 2830
CPU Integer: 4267
CPU Float Point: 3192
2D Graphics: [1080x1920] 696 (this one looks a bit weak to me; almost half of samsung S3...)
3D Graphics: [1080x1920] 2503
Database IO: 560
SD Card Write: (10.6 MB/s) 106 - slow SD card
SD Card Read: (5.3 MB/s) 53

Will post pics from the camera later.

ps. the red + black design looks great, by the way. that was the biggest surprise to me. it's plastic but not cheap looking in the slightest. could easily be mistaken voor the real HTC Butterfly that it's "inspired" by

[GizBeat]

Well it's not abnormal to pause when flipping through widgets in the app drawer.

Occasional pauses are also not abnormal. If it's happening often though, then it's likely a firmware issue if your other 2D apps are running butter.

Some pics from the camera in the picture forum would be great. Thanks for your contribution.

[Rdmkr]

Well it's not abnormal to pause when flipping through widgets in the app drawer.

Occasional pauses are also not abnormal. If it's happening often though, then it's likely a firmware issue if your other 2D apps are running butter.

Some pics from the camera in the picture forum would be great. Thanks for your contribution.

It's possible that I'm just expecting too much of this phone, but then I'd be interested in ways to remove some graphical bells and whistles from the android menu so that it at least runs smoothly at a slight eye-candy trade-off.

And yes, I'm glad you mentioned widgets because it's typically those that are on the screen when the lag appears.

The weak 2D score on antutu that I mentioned could simply be the problem. Although it's strange that the menu shifts go fast for +/- 3 times and lag only the 4th and 5th time, going fast again a few times, etc, etc. I'd expect a 2D graphics problem to be more consistent. From my limited knowledge though it looks like some kind of memory reservoir is being filled and clogs up after a few screen sweeps...

Pics coming up soon.

ps. if anyone reads this that has a MTK6589 non-turbo phone with FHD screen, do you have a similar problems? the lower CPU and GPU performance should typically make the problem even worse on those, if it's not a Tianhe specific problem or something wrong with my own phone.

[GizBeat]

Well it's not abnormal to pause when flipping through widgets in the app drawer.

Occasional pauses are also not abnormal. If it's happening often though, then it's likely a firmware issue if your other 2D apps are running butter.

Some pics from the camera in the picture forum would be great. Thanks for your contribution.

It's possible that I'm just expecting too much of this phone, but then I'd be interested in ways to remove some graphical bells and whistles from the android menu so that it at least runs smoothly at a slight eye-candy trade-off.

And yes, I'm glad you mentioned widgets because it's typically those that are on the screen when the lag appears.

The weak 2D score on antutu that I mentioned could simply be the problem. Although it's strange that the menu shifts go fast for +/- 3 times and lag only the 4th and 5th time, going fast again a few times, etc, etc. I'd expect a 2D graphics problem to be more consistent. From my limited knowledge though it looks like some kind of memory reservoir is being filled and clogs up after a few screen sweeps...

Pics coming up soon.

ps. if anyone reads this that has a MTK6589 non-turbo phone with FHD screen, do you have a similar problems? the lower CPU and GPU performance should typically make the problem even worse on those, if it's not a Tianhe specific problem or something wrong with my own phone.

The widget thing is normal. It's nothing to do with CPU.

Your 2D Antutu score is normal.

Try Apex from Play to see if that smooths things with homescreen and app drawer.

[Rdmkr]

Well it's not abnormal to pause when flipping through widgets in the app drawer.

Occasional pauses are also not abnormal. If it's happening often though, then it's likely a firmware issue if your other 2D apps are running butter.

Some pics from the camera in the picture forum would be great. Thanks for your contribution.

It's possible that I'm just expecting too much of this phone, but then I'd be interested in ways to remove some graphical bells and whistles from the android menu so that it at least runs smoothly at a slight eye-candy trade-off.

And yes, I'm glad you mentioned widgets because it's typically those that are on the screen when the lag appears.

The weak 2D score on antutu that I mentioned could simply be the problem. Although it's strange that the menu shifts go fast for +/- 3 times and lag only the 4th and 5th time, going fast again a few times, etc, etc. I'd expect a 2D graphics problem to be more consistent. From my limited knowledge though it looks like some kind of memory reservoir is being filled and clogs up after a few screen sweeps...

Pics coming up soon.

ps. if anyone reads this that has a MTK6589 non-turbo phone with FHD screen, do you have a similar problems? the lower CPU and GPU performance should typically make the problem even worse on those, if it's not a Tianhe specific problem or something wrong with my own phone.

The widget thing is normal. It's nothing to do with CPU.

Your 2D Antutu score is normal.

Try Apex from Play to see if that smooths things with homescreen and app drawer.

Just from toying around with it for a minute or two... I think installing Apex fixed the problem. I'll have to try it for a bit longer to be sure, but for now, thanks a LOT.

[Rdmkr]

Its still working well after a few hours... thanks, I owe one for that suggestion.

[The187Hitman]

i had a similar problem! remember giizbeat u asked me to do the same thing?.. but when i upgraded to the newer ROM, it was fixed.