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15.31 Laggy Interface?

Sbarry17
2 months ago

I just updated my 47mm Amoled to 15.31 and noticed that some of the watch faces, specifically Iron Grit, have caused the interface to significantly slow down. It’s very noticeable when scrolling down to glances from the watch faces and then up to the notifications center. I know they changed the size of the text on that face, maybe that is causing some delays?

Anyone else noticing the same?

  • 0 4 days ago

    Very likely this is the last Garmin i buy, unacceptable having this fixing timing for such expensive device

  • 0 4 days ago

    It is pretty bad. Not sure what their QA process is, but to release messed up version one after another with the same bug is... weird. Maybe there's too much focus/pressure on new features than bug fixes and stability... That kind of bug is something that automation might miss but a quick manual test... I mean it's so in your face. Memory leak? Concurrency issues?... Just allow your devs to work on this problem, folks!

  • 0 4 days ago in reply to Tom Zajaczkowski

    I agree this is really bad. I only lucked out that I read about this before upgrading. as much as some of the new features and other big fixes FW15 brought to the table, I will live with FW13.35 unless this is addressed. I'm not 100% happy with 13.35, but at least my watch feels functional.

  • 0 4 days ago

    I've tried with 15.33 and it remains laggy. I also found it interesting that:

    1. The Iron Grit it is laggy even to load it in the watch faces menu. It always seems to take a little longer to load than the others (sometimes noticeably longer). 
    2. When Iron Grit is in use, everything gets slower: activating the menus, loading activities

    Not related to Iron Grit, but ... I when powering off and on the watch, that Fenix 8 animation is pretty laggy too. 

  • 0 4 days ago in reply to Tom Zajaczkowski

    It's not just a single watch face. I use Garmin's default watch face – Frost. I have the same issue. I'm also a beta tester and regularly share updates about lag and slowdowns in my emails. The situation has improved only in some areas on 17.XX (all previous builds). But it's still there – in the widget menu (the list scrolls with the Down button), in sports app data screens, and in the sports app shortcut menu. They've fixed the lag after completing a workout (this actually worked 90% of the time, but there are still some minor stutters). The watch has dramatically little RAM and a weak SoC, making it difficult to prioritize. As a former computer repair shop owner, this is clear and obvious to me. It's no secret that until there's a breakthrough in battery life, Garmin, wanting to maintain its status as "the best battery life among sports watches and smartwatches," will cut performance wherever possible. It's hard to blame them for this, as all their marketing is based on long battery life. That's why they're tinkering with MicroLED screens and dragging their feet on LTE. I think only a watch with a silicon cell (currently a new feature in smartphones) and a MicroLED screen, which is more energy-efficient (research shows up to 40% more energy efficient), will see any improvement.

  • 0 4 days ago in reply to Mierzej87

    With a SoC from 2021, the same for all watch Series since then, Garmin can't improve screen resolution, add tons of features and expect any improvement into interface smoothness.

    ---

    Suunto, Coros were able to provide great battery products with smoothness interface and map navigation, with amoled and GNSS multi-band by default.

    Yes we can compare number of features or map details/routing, but it's not important for 90% of the customers.

    ---

    Garmin SoC performance comparison --> forums.garmin.com/.../garmin---benchmark---f7-e2-comparison-positioning

  • 0 3 days ago in reply to Mierzej87

    I appreciate these insights and they mirror my suspicions.

    since you've been on the bleeding edge with the beta, I am wondering if they have at least fixed the lag with the countdown timer during strength training. I think having the watch stutter through a 5 second countdown (or worse for others who use breathing exercises) is really something that can't be there at any cost of battery life and should have been caught before being put into a public release.

    it do wonder if the Forerunner 970 is any different in terms of performance and SOC

    FW13.35 is not wicked fast, but at least it's functional. as I noted previously, I'm holding onto it (even with its minor bugs and flaws) until this lag issue is improved (most notably the strength training countdown I noted above).

    also, I wonder: are their watch faces that are "fine" under FW17. (I am guessing that Frost and Iron Grit are the most "complicated" of the stock watch faces -- but it does seem strange that everything has been slowed down beyond those faces midway through the FW15 cycle)