Slow slow scrolling

[Guest MikeWalsh]

Hi there,

I got a ZTE Blade running some form of Modaco rom (logo on boot screen) with:

Android Version: 2.2

Build Number: UNI_CN_V880 1.0 (MCR v7)

I don't know what ROM it is.

But the scrolling is really very slow.

When first booted, bringing up the main menu gives a stuttery frame rate, scrolling the menu/applications list is very stuttery and laggy. And even while trying to scoll the Settings menu it stuttered and opened something else.

Coming from an iPhone where everything is so tight, this is a bit of a surprise.

Is there any other recommended ROM that has buttery smooth performance?

Thanks

[Guest k0zmic]

Hi there,

I got a ZTE Blade running some form of Modaco rom (logo on boot screen) with:

Android Version: 2.2

Build Number: UNI_CN_V880 1.0 (MCR v7)

I don't know what ROM it is.

But the scrolling is really very slow.

When first booted, bringing up the main menu gives a stuttery frame rate, scrolling the menu/applications list is very stuttery and laggy. And even while trying to scoll the Settings menu it stuttered and opened something else.

Coming from an iPhone where everything is so tight, this is a bit of a surprise.

Is there any other recommended ROM that has buttery smooth performance?

Thanks

Try Swedish Spring and CM7. These too are probably the best performing.

Also, since you're coming from an iPhone then it's likely that you'll get the impression that scrolling just isn't as smooth.

Oh and you're running Modaco r7, the latest release of that ROM was r12.

Edited May 19, 2011 by k0zmic

[Guest MikeWalsh]

Try Swedish Spring and CM7. These too are probably the best performing.

Also, since you're coming from an iPhone then it's likely that you'll get the impression that scrolling just isn't as smooth.

Oh and you're running Modaco r7, the latest release of that ROM was r12.

Hi thanks for helping identify the firmware :P

I've seen a lot of people say the CM7.0.x releases are both buggy and not very responsive on the Blade.

I might try Swedish Spring, thanks for the tip!

[Guest Ron=)]

Hi thanks for helping identify the firmware :P

I've seen a lot of people say the CM7.0.x releases are both buggy and not very responsive on the Blade.

I might try Swedish Spring, thanks for the tip!

I reccomend you download launcher pro from the market..

[Guest k0zmic]

Hi thanks for helping identify the firmware :P

I've seen a lot of people say the CM7.0.x releases are both buggy and not very responsive on the Blade.

I might try Swedish Spring, thanks for the tip!

CM7 is a lot better now, there are a few bugs but it's worth ago. Read here for more info: http://wiki.modaco.com/index.php/ZTE_Blade_CyanogenMod

As Ron said, give LauncherPro a go as well on your current ROM.

[Guest hedgepigdaniel]

CM7 is a lot better now, there are a few bugs but it's worth ago. Read here for more info: http://wiki.modaco.com/index.php/ZTE_Blade_CyanogenMod

As Ron said, give LauncherPro a go as well on your current ROM.

I use and like CM7, but I can't say that it is as smooth as the others. general performance is better, but scrolling is not as smooth as the good 2.2 ROMs

[Guest camille1462]

I use and like CM7, but I can't say that it is as smooth as the others. general performance is better, but scrolling is not as smooth as the good 2.2 ROMs

then the Swedish Spring is a good answer. I use the remix one and really like it. No bug identified yet after several weeks and very smooth...

[Guest iKrautDroid]

Lol I was an iTouch user before I got my first android phone, the T-Mobile Pulsar which was shipped with 1.5.

The bad performance more than shocked me...

[Guest iKrautDroid]

Lol I was an iTouch user before I got my first android phone, the T-Mobile Pulsar which was shipped with 1.5.

The bad performance more than shocked me...

[Guest deksman2]

then the Swedish Spring is a good answer. I use the remix one and really like it. No bug identified yet after several weeks and very smooth...

I don't agree.

SS is not really smooth UI wise (remix or original - I tried both) and battery-life could be better.

General stability is fine indeed, but I think it's possible to incorporate decent battery life with smooth UI.

[Guest Mushroom_Lord]

I don't agree.

SS is not really smooth UI wise (remix or original - I tried both) and battery-life could be better.

General stability is fine indeed, but I think it's possible to incorporate decent battery life with smooth UI.

Just change your launcher: The ones in FLB are much nicer than the ones with JJ and SS Imho.

Now in the launcher battle there are three main candidates (IMO)

1) Launcherpro - incredibly smooth between homescreens, very customizable in appearence. Slightly slower app drawer.

2) Stock launcher (as packaged with FLB) - Lovely looking app drawer which is incredibly smooth. No so customizable and slow between homescreens.

3) SPB Mobile Shell - The smoothest of them all. All in lovely 3d. Most iPhone like UI. There are some "leaked beta" versions on the web out there. Otherwise it will drain your wallet as well as battery.

[Guest fox2000]

Just change your launcher: The ones in FLB are much nicer than the ones with JJ and SS Imho.

Now in the launcher battle there are three main candidates (IMO)

1) Launcherpro - incredibly smooth between homescreens, very customizable in appearence. Slightly slower app drawer.

2) Stock launcher (as packaged with FLB) - Lovely looking app drawer which is incredibly smooth. No so customizable and slow between homescreens.

3) SPB Mobile Shell - The smoothest of them all. All in lovely 3d. Most iPhone like UI. There are some "leaked beta" versions on the web out there. Otherwise it will drain your wallet as well as battery.

Is it possible to put FLB's launcher into SS?

[Guest Mushroom_Lord]

Is it possible to put FLB's launcher into SS?

Yes, of course! (:

Step1

Just download a FLB ROM.

Open the zip file on a pc.

Navigate to /system/app/ and take out launcher2.apk (if thats what its called :P) and put it on your phones SD card.

Step2

Now on your phone:

Using a Root explorer delete launcher2.apk (or whatever it is called) rom /system/app/ and copy paste the FLB one there instead.

Now reboot :rolleyes:

Alternative step2

*assumes you have the FLB launcher2.apk on your phones SD card. And your Swedish spring ROM zip file.*

If you can't get a root explorer working for whatever reason then:

Open Astro file manager (not sure if others work)

Copy your FLB launcher2.apk

Find your Swedish spring ROM zip file

Open it and navigate to /system/app/ (dont unzip it use the browse file option - should you be prompted)

Delete the SS launcher2.apk

Paste your FLB launcher2.apk.

And then re-install your ROM without wiping. Should get the Flb launcher <_<

I think I probably made this harder than it really is...

Edited May 22, 2011 by Mushroom_Lord

[Guest deksman2]

Just change your launcher: The ones in FLB are much nicer than the ones with JJ and SS Imho.

Now in the launcher battle there are three main candidates (IMO)

1) Launcherpro - incredibly smooth between homescreens, very customizable in appearence. Slightly slower app drawer.

2) Stock launcher (as packaged with FLB) - Lovely looking app drawer which is incredibly smooth. No so customizable and slow between homescreens.

3) SPB Mobile Shell - The smoothest of them all. All in lovely 3d. Most iPhone like UI. There are some "leaked beta" versions on the web out there. Otherwise it will drain your wallet as well as battery.

I tried LauncherPro... was unimpressed since I almost never use it to store apps.

I use app drawer and that's what is painfully laggy in SS.

Everything else (apart from less efficient battery-life) is fine.

[Guest fox2000]

Yes, of course! (:

Step1

Just download a FLB ROM.

Open the zip file on a pc.

Navigate to /system/app/ and take out launcher2.apk (if thats what its called :P) and put it on your phones SD card.

Step2

Now on your phone:

Using a Root explorer delete launcher2.apk (or whatever it is called) rom /system/app/ and copy paste the FLB one there instead.

Now reboot :rolleyes:

does not work. stuck on boot android logo.

[Guest Mushroom_Lord]

does not work. stuck on boot android logo.

I don't see why that would happen! You did replace it, right?

Anyhow just reflash your ROM zip file without wiping and you'll be fine :P (restores /system/)

[Guest fox2000]

Yes, I simply replaced it. Launcher got immediately broken (hitting home wasn't having any effect...). Rebooted and stuck on android logo.

Of course I reflashed SS and everything turned back on, but also the horrid builtin launcher did :P

Edited May 23, 2011 by fox2000

[Guest jeddy1]

Yes, I simply replaced it. Launcher got immediately broken (hitting home wasn't having any effect...). Rebooted and stuck on android logo.

Of course I reflashed SS and everything turned back on, but also the horrid builtin launcher did :P

just install flb launcher first if they are not launcher2.apk both and then hit home!tick the box as default and then with rootmanager.apk(install it first) you can delete from system the SS launcher.it should work if launchers are not both lancher2.apk and then reboot and done!

EDIT: why u dont install flb rom?

Edited May 23, 2011 by jeddy1

[Guest Hanks6]

i've found FLB Froyo to be the smoothest rom (and also the best battery life), currently using it with Launcher Pro.

[Guest SkiesOfAzel]

Hi there,

I got a ZTE Blade running some form of Modaco rom (logo on boot screen) with:

Android Version: 2.2

Build Number: UNI_CN_V880 1.0 (MCR v7)

I don't know what ROM it is.

But the scrolling is really very slow.

When first booted, bringing up the main menu gives a stuttery frame rate, scrolling the menu/applications list is very stuttery and laggy. And even while trying to scoll the Settings menu it stuttered and opened something else.

Coming from an iPhone where everything is so tight, this is a bit of a surprise.

Is there any other recommended ROM that has buttery smooth performance?

Thanks

There is no rom that can offer you buttery smooth performance everywhere for one simple reason, the Android toolkit isn't hardware accelerated like iOS or even symbian for that matter. That means that you need a very powerful cpu in order to make it run smoothly and it's also one of the reasons it's so power hungry. You can get the gingerbread launcher for your blade (search for android 2.3 launcher on the market) which is hardware accelerated but that will only offer you smooth scrolling in the drawer (main menu) and nice open close drawer animations but that's about it. Normal lists will still not be hardware accelerated, and thus scrolling them will remain choppy whatever rom you use, even if you overclock (i've tried them all and my cpu is clocked at 748 which is as high as it gets for the blade).

As for which rom you should use, CM7 still has a few bugs but offers the best performance, followed by SS which is rock solid.

[Guest Grain]

There is no rom that can offer you buttery smooth performance everywhere for one simple reason, the Android toolkit isn't hardware accelerated like iOS or even symbian for that matter.

All nice and well, but GPU acceleration will not help with stuttery performance in general. GPU acceleration basically increases fill rate/speed (max fps). It will not influence set up times (min fps). For example, the UI is slow immediately after Android boot since many housekeeping data structures still need to be created/icons loaded/classes passed through the JIT compiler. Clearly these issues do not get addressed by using hardware acceleration for drawing - which is only the last part in a chain of actions that determines performance.

Personally I doubt there's much difference between ROMs (2.2 and 2.3, that is) concerning UI smoothness if you compare them on fair grounds (i.e., use the same launcher). People often think CyanogenMod is slow but in fact it's only its ADW launcher that's pretty slow. In games, Cyanogen is typically quite a bit faster than other ROMs since Android 2.3 comes with improved Dalvik. Concerning raw graphics power there'll be almost no differences between 2.2 and 2.3 ROMs since the same basic hardware support libraries are used.

[Guest SkiesOfAzel]

All nice and well, but GPU acceleration will not help with stuttery performance in general. GPU acceleration basically increases fill rate/speed (max fps). It will not influence set up times (min fps). For example, the UI is slow immediately after Android boot since many housekeeping data structures still need to be created/icons loaded/classes passed through the JIT compiler. Clearly these issues do not get addressed by using hardware acceleration for drawing - which is only the last part in a chain of actions that determines performance.

I agree that multiple threads and java don't help with performance either, but you can significantly improve performance with a properly implemented h/w acceleration and a compositor. You need to initialise the window and pass the surface texture to the compositor in the gpu, and the cpu can indeed delay this process. Since You only need updates between the gpu and the cpu when a state is changed (by user input usually) or finalized, a loaded cpu will be less of a bottleneck during the actual transformation. Try for example making the open/close drawer animations of the gingerbread launcher stutter, you will be hard pressed :P. Scrolling is trickier than simple animations, but implementations on other managed platforms (like wp7) are very efficient despite the distance from the metal.

Personally I doubt there's much difference between ROMs (2.2 and 2.3, that is) concerning UI smoothness if you compare them on fair grounds (i.e., use the same launcher). People often think CyanogenMod is slow but in fact it's only its ADW launcher that's pretty slow. In games, Cyanogen is typically quite a bit faster than other ROMs since Android 2.3 comes with improved Dalvik. Concerning raw graphics power there'll be almost no differences between 2.2 and 2.3 ROMs since the same basic hardware support libraries are used.

Yea, 2.3 is more efficient in 3d but 2d performance is almost the same. ADW is certainly a bad choice for an underpowered phone like the blade, but since cm is targeting many other more powerful devices i understand why they use it. As for h/w support, a newer kernel would be nice, but i don't think ZTE will ever give us one to play with...

[Guest Grain]

Yea, 2.3 is more efficient in 3d but 2d performance is almost the same.

That's quite the opposite of what I wrote? :P

I wouldn't know why for example an OpenGL app (if limited by GPU) should run faster on Android 2.3. It'll just run as fast as on 2.2.

Any application that uses Dalvik a lot *will* run faster and, above all, more smooth on 2.3 because of its optimizations and especially concurrent garbage collection that prevents/lessens 'hiccups'.

But this applies only to high-cpu apps and games, and certainly not to the launcher or normal UI elements.

[Guest SkiesOfAzel]

That's quite the opposite of what I wrote? :P

I wouldn't know why for example an OpenGL app (if limited by GPU) should run faster on Android 2.3. It'll just run as fast as on 2.2.

That would be the case if all apps were written in assembly :rolleyes:. Since Dalvik is the VM of the system, it's responsible for creating the machine code from the application bite code and thus directly impacts the performance everywhere, whether we are talking about the implementation of a simple list or an opengl binding. The more complex the operation though, the more room for optimisation there is, that's probably why games run better on 2.3. So as long as we are talking about opengl code written in java, Dalvik does affect 3d performance. Drivers can also dramatically affect performance but since cm7 uses the same drivers that came out with the Froyo ZTE kernel the only important factor to take into consideration is the improved Dalvik in 2.3.

[Guest Grain]

Since Dalvik is the VM of the system, it's responsible for creating the machine code from the application bite code and thus directly impacts the performance everywhere, whether we are talking about the implementation of a simple list or an opengl binding. The more complex the operation though, the more room for optimisation there is, that's probably why games run better on 2.3.

The major feature of Dalvik in Android 2.3 in comparison with 2.2 is concurrent garbage collection. This means that applications that create many temporary objects in memory run much smoother (not necessarily faster) in 2.3 because "tidying up" the trail of temporary objects will not stall these applications anymore. This is crucial for games unless they are optimized for reusing objects. However, I guess there have been many other optimizations in 2.3 Dalvik as well.