iPhone 5 touchscreen latency measured, found to be 2.5 times faster than closest Android device

The touchscreen on the iPhone 5 is 2.5 faster than Android devices when responding to touch input. The iPhone 5 registers touches in 55 milliseconds, compared to 85 milliseconds on the iPhone 4. These measurements come by way of app streaming company Agawi, which measured the iPhone 5 against several Android and Windows Phone devices using their TouchMarks benchmarks:

As you can see, the results are remarkable. At a MART of 55ms, The iPhone 5 is twice as responsive as any Android or WP8 phone tested. All the Android devices’ MARTs fell in the same 110 – 120ms range, with the WP8-based Lumia 928 falling into that bucket as well. (Incidentally, the ranges all span about 16ms, which is expected given the 60 Hz refresh rate of these smartphones. 1/60s = 16.6ms)

The fastest non-Apple device tested was the Samsung Galaxy S4, which registered touch input in 114 milliseconds. The HTC One and Moto X were also tested. Agawi believes that the sensitivity of Apple's screens might be due to better optimization or calibration of the touchscreen hardware on Apple devices, or the fact that iPhone apps are written in Objective-C. Agawi plans to use TouchMarks to measure touch latency on more devices soon, including the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, as well as more Android and Windows Phone handsets.

Have you used iPhone 5 as well as Android and other devices? If so, have you noticed the difference?

Source: Agawi AppGlimpse