Galaxy M23 laggy, freezing, micro stutters, micro lags, performance regression

[maffle]

Not sure if anyone from Samsung even looks into this forum, or if it is just a user based forum.

I bought the Samsung M23 and was using it for the last 3 weeks. The phone has many issues and is horrible slow, with a lot of performance regressions. There is something totally not right with the ROM / One UI 4.1. I am using latest August update, it is a German / EU phone.

- random micro stutters and micro lags, when swiping down notifications, for example when opening Google Assistant freezes for 2-3 seconds often

- performance regression when more and more apps are in the background / sleep, the phone becomes more and more slow, you notice this for example when scrolling in play store and it is slow and laggy, if you open task manager and close all, the issue goes away

- when leaving the phone in sleep mode, for example 10 hours, and turn it on, it lags and freezes for around 20 seconds and is unusable

- opening camera taking a photo, phone freezes for 3 seconds

- random freezes in lots of places like opening a share menu from apps

The only way to work a bit against these issues is to remove ANY Samsung service, remove everything possible, disable anything possible:

- remove Samsung account and any Samsung sync

- remove any Samsung app you can remove, and disable any you can disable

- switch to 3rd party launcher like Nova

- disable as much as you can in the System, like animations, blur, quickshare, share contacts/apps

This problem is also discussed in another German forum where other people bought the phone, and it is reproduced by other people too.

I want Samsung to look into this, and see if they can make some performance improvements or fix the regression bugs with this phone. The phone is mostly not sold much or used by many people in US / EU so these bugs mostly were reported before.

It seems to me Samsung just copy pasta the ROM from other S21/S22 phones with at least 6GB of RAM, to this phone whith has just 4GB RAM, without testing it much or improving it and make sure the OneUI 4.1 runs fine with just 4GB RAM. It seems to be too overloaded with too many Samsung services which slows down and takes too much RAM.

[BandOfBrothers]

This is a a Community forum where users help each other and discuss ideas and products and suggest troubleshooting tips @maffle 

However the Samsung Team here do read all posts and intercede where relevant to help too.

I suggest to also send feedback via the Samsung Members App.

There are generic troubleshooting guides that sometimes can help but sometimes a phone is helped by software updates which is why it's a good avenue to send feedback to Samsung.

Apologies if you've tried these already.

• Clear Cache Files from the phone's System Partition Section  > https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-do-i-clear-the-cache-on-my-device/ You may need to insert your earphones or hook upto a powered On Laptop to access the Clear Partition Section. This may help with lag or stutters as this clears the phone of old/unused or broken cache files.There is also a Repair Apps option in the Menu System too. 
• Safe Mode  > https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-to-start-my-galaxy-device-in-safe-mode/ turns off downloaded apps and themes etc which may highlight an app or theme that's causing conflict. 

I wish you all the best.  😎 

[maffle]

Can any mod here please report this to Samsung?

[Ploert]

I have the same problems with this phone. When in app its smooth sailing but waking it up is like waking up a teenager, phone unuseable for like 5 to 10 seconds.

I did do some experimenting with ramplus, turning it off had some effect but still not very satisfying. Now I have put it to 8gb ( 4gb ram + 8gb ramplus) and now its pretty good. Normally you don't have these options, you can add them with adb command. 

I have no idea how fast the shooting of pictures should be with this hardware combination but it ain't fast for sure. Turning of hdr might help a bit, its fake anyway and pictures look more natural without it and saves cpu cycles and thus should be faster.

As final resort you could debloat the phone with one of many adb command lists on the internet but it might have unwanted effects. Do at your own risk.

Bottomline, samsung dropped the ball on this phone, it shouldn't be so bad, sure its not a high end phone but it should run better.

*almost forgot that the adaptive brightness is horrible indoor / low light, jumping up and down, dark - bright - dark - bright. So I disabled it.

other than that I like the phone, speaker is pretty amazing when you crank up the bass a bit in settings. Love the screen, no fear of burn in and bright enough outdoors. (Sure it has a reddish tint but its budget phone, bought it for 100 euro, so its a steal.

[michasacuer]

Have the same issue with my Samsung M23. Micro stutters, freezes. It's really annoying. My mother has the same phone (4gbs of ram) and her phone runs smoothly so it's completely random! Deneps on the production "batch" I guess. Some phones run smooth, some not. I have first hand experience with my phone and my mother's phone. I use the phone for the Instagram, Facebook, standard stuff. My 4 years old phone (Redmi note 8 pro) runs much better than this abomination 

[Minines]

Hello everyone! 
I have exactly the same issue, I changed from a M21 to a M23 on December 2023 and I can say it is unbearable the lag on the M23. My old M21 worked way better than the M23. Is there any way to correct this? Is this related to the last software update? 
Many thanks and kind regards! 

[Ploert]

I have found a solution, install another launcher.

I installed nova launcher and no more snail like waking up, instant wake up.
Also no more extreme slowdowns etc. 

So the problem is with one UI launcher in combination with this phone, maybe to heavy. I tested for 24 hours and it is now a normal phone. Not a fast one but what you can expect from this cpu/ram combination.

(I have ram plus disabled, for long time now, nothing to do with the above but keep it in mind).

I have 4gb ram version.

edit

It still working good, thought I had one slow start but that might have been the camera app opened. Havn't noticed anything else. Now it's fine to use for what it is.