Android rot…

Is it still a thing, and if it is, are there reliable means of mitigation? I’m not going Android right now. Maybe grab a cheap Moto to try sometime next year, but this and updates still worry me about being able to go all in. Right now I want to know about performance rot.

Conversation 20 comments

  • Winner

    23 October, 2019 - 1:23 am

    <p>My Pixel 2XL is nearly two years old and I don't see any issues.</p><p>Might be more of a problem (but I don't know) on phones by say Samsung as they add more crapware-type apps to the OS.</p>

  • melektaus

    23 October, 2019 - 1:53 am

    <p>I suspect this is not an issue anymore, at least on modern pure-Google devices (Pixel 2, 3 etc) based on my experience of the last few years. </p><p>It definitely was a thing back when I owned a Nexus 7 which was quite a handy device at first, but became basically unusable over a year or two, so I understand your concerns. </p><p><br></p>

  • jean

    23 October, 2019 - 2:12 am

    <p>I did "sidegrade" from a Lumina 950XL to the Huawei P30 Pro (with Launcher 10) – besides some annoying behaviour (such as having to set the display brightness to not-automatic after each restart) and the plethora of crapware from both Huawei and Google – performance is great and the updates mostly non-intrusive (but still too frequent thanks to the crap ware components)</p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      23 October, 2019 - 4:40 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#482811">In reply to jean:</a></em></blockquote><p>If you deactivate the Huawei and Google apps in settings, they don't appear on the home screen or apps draw.</p>

  • PeterC

    23 October, 2019 - 2:13 am

    <p>I’ve found oxygen os to be excellent on one plus devices in recent years. No rot issues at all. My wife’s Samsung work phones are terrible. </p><p><br></p><p>I’ve found flashing lineage os to be really rot free and a great way to experiment with stuff to see where and how rot type issues occur. My findings are google play store/services and many social media apps kill handsets in various ways. This might sound obvious but it’s true and worth bearing in mind. </p><p><br></p><p>ive just received my oneplus 7t and I’m switching my daily driver from iOS/iPhone back to oneplus and oxygen os. </p>

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    23 October, 2019 - 4:38 am

    <p>It was a serious problem on my Google Nexus 5X, but on my Hauwei Mate 10 Pro and P20 phones it has not been an issue at all (20 months and 15 months respectively).</p>

  • minke

    23 October, 2019 - 6:25 am

    <p>Two years in on my Pixel 2 and no issues.</p>

  • codymesh

    23 October, 2019 - 7:53 am

    <p>IMO, Android rot is no longer an issue. Android 8 introduced real limits on what apps can do in the background and save for the rare errant app (you'll see a notification about an errant app), performance usually stays pretty consistent </p>

  • kevin_costa

    23 October, 2019 - 7:53 am

    <p>I have a Moto X Force (known as Droid Turbo 2 in the US), which is a phone from 2015, Snapdragon 810, 3GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, Android 7.0. I'm a somewhat heavy user of my phone, using as my 'replacement' computer device when I'm not home, with lots of apps installed (and most of Google apps disabled). The performance today is okay, good most of the time, clunky at some moments. I had to replace my battery at the end of last year because of the expected degradation.</p><p>So, android is much better today than before, but still have a bit of a 'rot effect' after some time. Expect to do a hard reset every year to keep your experience fluid. I don't have a lot of experience with new handsets, and newer versions of Android, maybe they improved in this aspect.</p>

  • canamrotax

    Premium Member
    23 October, 2019 - 11:21 am

    <p>As someone who repairs and sell phones every day, the better the specs of the device, the less you will notice any problems. People with low end devices notice it right away. </p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      24 October, 2019 - 6:00 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#482917">In reply to canamrotax:</a></em></blockquote><p>My wife has a Huawei P-Smart, $250 phone, 20 months old, not bit rot yet.</p>

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    23 October, 2019 - 12:40 pm

    <p>Thanks for the responses everyone! It seems that my best option might be a used higher-end handset or a solid midrange device.</p><p><br></p><p>Any suggestions?</p>

    • minke

      23 October, 2019 - 1:05 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#482947">In reply to jimchamplin:</a></em></blockquote><p>The Pixel 3 on sale for $499 or the Pixel 3A for $399 are the bargains to beat right now. No worries about updates with the Pixels and you get uploads of photos at original quality with the 3, unlike with the 4.</p>

    • PeterC

      23 October, 2019 - 1:49 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#482947">In reply to jimchamplin:</a></em></blockquote><p>I’m not sure about US price and availability, but I’d take a look at; </p><p>oneplus 7t</p><p>asus zenfone 6 </p><p>oppo Reno ace (excellent specs, 65w fast charging and 90hz screen)</p><p><br></p><p>the oppo and oneplus are very very similar. huawei make great handsets and there’s some great second user a gradevprices on p30 pros and mate 20 pros, but I like fiddling with handsets so I often return to oneplus as the online support and plethora of roms etc is just great.</p>

  • ghostrider

    23 October, 2019 - 3:21 pm

    <p>Never had it on my Moto 5G, and certainly don't have it on my Pixel 3a. If you constantly install lots of stupid apps and blindy accept all the security prompts – expect problems. Keep your phone lean and clean, and you'll have no problems whatsoever. Android is a very mature OS now and in it's later versions, the equal of anything else out there (cue Apple owner uproar!)</p>

  • illuminated

    23 October, 2019 - 4:56 pm

    <p>I've got the rot. No idea when it happened and what app or apps are causing it or if it is storage issue but every morning it takes 20-30 seconds for the first app to start. During the day the phone is not that quick as it seemed to be. Chrome seems to be one of the hogs but even with nothing running it seems kind of slow. Also the updates for my phone stopped about a year ago. Woo hoo. </p>

    • jimchamplin

      Premium Member
      23 October, 2019 - 6:53 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#483032">In reply to illuminated:</a></em></blockquote><p>What's the phone?</p>

      • illuminated

        23 October, 2019 - 7:36 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#483068">In reply to jimchamplin:</a></em></blockquote><p>Moto Z</p>

  • robincapper

    23 October, 2019 - 7:50 pm

    <p>Not a problem with my old daily Samsung S7 Edge. Only a 32Gig phone but use SD card to keep a couple of gig or so free phone space. Most problems I've seen are people filling up phone storage, then updates etc become problematic.</p>

  • bluesman57

    23 October, 2019 - 8:23 pm

    <p>I haven't had that happen with my last 4 or 5 phones, but I take care not to install apps that cause it, like Facebook. It's easy to tell now what apps are causing problems. It's not the OS. You need to go in and set permissions for all apps, too, because some apps will just spam the internet all the time if you don't.</p>

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