How much do you hate lag?

No matter how much we like something, there’s always a part of it that dims the bright light. Something, however miniscule, that can really ruin a day sometimes, or even a whole week if the thing keeps popping up. It happens, and usually it’s just a part of dealing with technology. There are so many things going on at any one given moment that something is bound to go wrong eventually. But, as normal as that is, it’s still frustrating sometimes. Or, if you’re like me, then when it comes to lag it’s not just frustrating, it’s downright infuriating.

As our phones get faster, we expect certain things. In fact, as our phones get more powerful every other week, we demand certain things. Because while we’re packing all sorts of power under the hood, it doesn’t mean squat if the manufacturers are also loading it down on the software side of things. As advanced as our phones are in the hardware department, and as advances as our phones are in the software department, we shouldn’t be arguing that one side fights the other, or that one side is more important than the other. No, we’re talking about a marriage of hardware and software. That’s what we should be going for. What we should have.

And with devices like the Motorola DROID RAZR, Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the HTC Rezound, we shouldn’t expect anything less. Truth be told, when these devices launch all we should be hearing about is how each one performs out of this world compared to what we had a few months ago. Dual-core processors? Works like a freakin’ dream with Android 2.3.5. 1.5GHz is pure bliss with Sense 3.5. Do you get where I’m going with this? And while all that is well and good, and that’s living in the perfect world, how many of you want to take a bet on whether or not that happens?

In truth, it probably won’t. Why? Because our favorite manufacturers do load our phones down with software, because they’re so powerful. They’re trying to show everything off in one sweet, sleek package, and unfortunately it usually gets the better of them. Even if we don’t see lag in the first week of a launch, it just seems inevitable that it will happen, that at some point down the line (and I’m not talking about a year, but somewhere closer to right after launch), we will hear that a device is slow. And slow is never what you want to hear. Ever.

I seriously hate lag. I hate it. I hate lag so much that I’ll actually put my phone down wherever I am and just stop using it. It’s even worse when I’m doing something that’s integrated with the phone, like going through my contact list. If I’m browsing a web page or something, I can kind of deal with it. Sure, it shouldn’t happen with these advanced mobile Browsers, but oh well. I don’t live in a perfect world. But my contact list! Are you serious? No, that’s unacceptable. Lag is maybe something I’ve learned to deal with, but as I continue to see it, even with these high-end devices, it drives me a bit more insane every time it happens. Every single instance and I wish it would just go away.

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