why is android a problem

[JohnMFord]

I spend time both here and over at the x-star pilot forum. I have noticed that there are quite a few posts concerning problems with the DJIGO app and Android devices. I have also noted that over at the xstar forum I rarely see similar posts. I don't quite understand why a company like Autel Robotics can produce a stable app (Starlink) for Android devices and DJI has so many problems. I wold love to own a Mavic but I refuse to have to get an Appple device when I have several perfectly good Android devices running the latest Android version(7.0). DJI is the king of the quadcopter industry so what is their problem. I just don't get it.

johnf

 

[ed1nh0]

I don't know Autel Robotics nor its products. Actually never heard before.
But my guess is their app was primarily made for Android devices.

 

[Gp™]

In french... " chaqu'un sa merde". As you are an android lover, dji prefers apple than android. So what?

 

[Gp™]

As soon as i got my mavic, i have addapted myself to what dji seems to put in front. If i was not on the moove, i would sell the mavic and buy .... a SYMA 45 dollars ...

 

[Gp™]

...works pretty well with android

 

[Tas47]

I wold love to own a Mavic but I refuse to have to get an Appple device when I have several perfectly good Android devices running the latest Android version(7.0). DJI is the king of the quadcopter industry so what is their problem. I just don't get it.

My guess is that unlike IOS most Android devices come with each manufacturer's own UI which can effect the device's performance when running resource hungry apps like Go 4.
So far I've tried two Android phones from Asus and Xiaomi which both perform well, and two tablets from Samsung and FNF. The Samsung (Galaxy A 7) I'd rate as a miserable failure with lag, freezes, crashes etc., while the FNF (iFive Mini 4s) has been relatively reliable.
All of those devices run Android 6.01.

 

[JohnMFord]

Tas47, you make some excellent points. I wonder if an app like Litchi would also similar problems with the tablet you mentioned, the Samsung.

johnf

 

[Tas47]

I wonder if an app like Litchi would also similar problems with the tablet you mentioned, the Samsung.

I'll never know that,I gifted the thing to the grandkids. Going from what I've read here (and elsewhere) I suspect that there's something with the Samsung tablet UI which interferes with the performance of the Go app.

 

[normr]

My guess is that unlike IOS most Android devices come with each manufacturer's own UI which can effect the device's performance when running resource hungry apps like Go 4.
So far I've tried two Android phones from Asus and Xiaomi which both perform well, and two tablets from Samsung and FNF. The Samsung (Galaxy A 7) I'd rate as a miserable failure with lag, freezes, crashes etc., while the FNF (iFive Mini 4s) has been relatively reliable.
All of those devices run Android 6.01.

That's exactly it, Android is such a hodgepodge mess depending on the manufacturer, model, processor, and because of all these subtle differences it's very difficult to write a program that can be counted on to be stabile whereas with iOS, one company (Apple) manufacturers the hardware and the operating system software, there isn't this problem trying to figure out how the hardware and software is going to react, in other words, less guesswork.

 

[EsiMavic]

My guess is that unlike IOS most Android devices come with each manufacturer's own UI which can effect the device's performance when running resource hungry apps like Go 4.
So far I've tried two Android phones from Asus and Xiaomi which both perform well, and two tablets from Samsung and FNF. The Samsung (Galaxy A 7) I'd rate as a miserable failure with lag, freezes, crashes etc., while the FNF (iFive Mini 4s) has been relatively reliable.
All of those devices run Android 6.01.

Hey man can you name the asus n xiaomi devices please.

 

[Tas47]

Hey man can you name the asus n xiaomi devices please.

No worries, the Asus is a Zenfone Max (ZC550KL) and the Xiaomi is a Redmi Note 3 Pro Special Edition ('Special Edition' has Band 28 LTTE coverage, other specs are identical to Note 3 Pro).

 

[draxler_17]

This is on the back of my mavic's box. I've been using android all my life but I bought an apple product just for my mavic as a dedicated device. Flawless connections and no troubles encountered ever since.

 

[GerdS]

DJI is a good hardware designer and manufacturor but not the world's best programmers. So both GO apps for Android have a memory leak which causes the RAM to fill up, leading to lagging and often frezzing of the whole device.
I am still hoping that the development of Android-based CrystalSky monitors will enforce DJI to put more effort onto fixing this long and well known memory leak, or if they continue with failing, DJI will hire experienced Android developers for doing the fix.

 

[tcope]

DJI has 70% of the UAV market share. Autel's market share is probably in the single digits. People usually don't post when everthing is working perfectly. So you are going to see more posts about DJI. Does not mean the software is an worse. If anything, we see very few issues with DJI products and their software.

 

[JohnMFord]

Well, as of this year DJI has been around for 11 years. They were founded in 2006. Autel Robotics was founded in 2014 (3 years ago) It will be interesting to see where they are in 2025. Or if they will even still be around.

 

[MikeyNick]

That's exactly it, Android is such a hodgepodge mess depending on the manufacturer, model, processor, and because of all these subtle differences it's very difficult to write a program that can be counted on to be stabile whereas with iOS, one company (Apple) manufacturers the hardware and the operating system software, there isn't this problem trying to figure out how the hardware and software is going to react, in other words, less guesswork.

This is much more a challenge for how things "look" than how they "work". Android's heterogeneity should not be used as an excuse for bad programmers.

If DJI doesn't address their two biggest issues (customer service and software quality), then I see Autel becoming a big name in the industry. After my P3P customer service fiasco, I spent weeks researching any other company I could give my money to than DJI, and Autel was the only one that almost won me. In the end, I decided that having a very portable quad was the most important thing to me right now. However, I plan on buying Autel's P4P competitor when it gets released, hopefully later this year.

 

[EsiMavic]

No worries, the Asus is a Zenfone Max (ZC550KL) and the Xiaomi is a Redmi Note 3 Pro Special Edition ('Special Edition' has Band 28 LTTE coverage, other specs are identical to Note 3 Pro).

Thanks

 

[JohnMFord]

MikeyNick, that is exactly the point I was trying to make when I started this discussion, so thank you. I think DJI is an amazing company. As far as I am concerned the Mavic is a masterpiece of technological engineering. But blaming the instability issue that the djigo app has with Android on the Android system is just an excuse for either bad or lazy programming. Several drone manufacturers have created apps that work perfectly well with either IOS and Android. Other app designers have created thousands of apps of all sorts that work on Android devices no matter who makes them. DJI should be no different. Thanks.

johnf

 

[ElPocho]

That's exactly it, Android is such a hodgepodge mess depending on the manufacturer, model, processor, and because of all these subtle differences it's very difficult to write a program that can be counted on to be stabile whereas with iOS, one company (Apple) manufacturers the hardware and the operating system software, there isn't this problem trying to figure out how the hardware and software is going to react, in other words, less guesswork.

This is pretty much the most correct answer here. It's the device/OS mix that makes things wonky.

 

[Kilrah]

I've been using android devices since I have my Mavic and had no problems.
The problems with Android are highly overrated and much less frequent than one could think when browsing forums. Of course there are combinations that don't work well, more than with iOS devices since there are thousands more possible combinations around android than iOS, but as usual only people who have problems come and talk about them.