After 13 years, Android is finally becoming “super smooth” thanks to… Android 12

By alex mathos On May 19, 2021

It’s no secret that Android has a reputation for being … laggy. When it comes to high-end phones, these days are pretty much gone, but mid-range and budget units can use a little more “smoothness”.

The “smooth” old days

Part of the problem is the power-hungry operating system. Android is famous for running many background processes and therefore devices require more powerful hardware to handle the demanding system.

In the last ten years, hardware has experienced a massive bump. For example, RAM has increased from 2-3 GB to 8-12 and even 16-18 GB on some advanced gaming phones like ROG Phone 5 & The ultimate edition. Treatment power is almost on par with Apple’s flagship kit is available in iPhone 12, though it leaves a bit to be desired when it comes to graphics.

Nevertheless, the massive bump in RAM and horsepower delivers excellent performance in every daily scenario. Even companies like Samsung, which had a reputation for making “laggy” phones (thanks to the heavily tweaked TouchWiz UI on top of Android), has come to deliver amazing results in the performance department.

12th time is a charm

After 13 years, Android is finally & quot; super smooth & quot; thanks to ... Android 12

Now, Google is finally starting to pay attention to other aspects of “smoothness”. Android 12 is said to introduce stricter controls with background processes such as Android System Server, Activity Window and Package Manager.

These background processes “often talk to each other at the same time”, often causing budget and middle class entities to “think” more than they need to respond to both the user’s requirements and the background processes.

“There are several different parts of the system trying to talk to the operating system at the same time, and that’s when you see things shake … By smoothing all this out … we’ve been able to get all the movement and animation super smooth. “

Sameer Samat, VP of Product Management for Android & Google Play

This is not a “feature” you can turn on / off. Google promises that the less attention-seeking background process will make your phone feel smoother, faster and more responsive. The main gains will be in animations – they are expected to be less nervous. This should also improve the gesture navigation system, which is noticeably less polished than that on the iPhone.

Together with Qualcomm’s increasingly powerful chipset and the trendy screens with high refresh rates, this is expected to make all Android phones feel faster than they did before. Of course, we look forward to testing Android 12 even before we jump to any conclusions, but we’m excited. Especially about budget phones, which are becoming even more competitive than they were before.

This along with the new graphics, widgets and upcoming privacy features (which seek to match Apple’s latest security effort), makes Android a more … polished version of its old self, and we dig it.