10 ways to speed up your Samsung Galaxy S8
The Samsung Galaxy S8 is already a blazing fast smartphone, but there is nothing time doesn’t wear down. Even the best devices start showing a little performance deterioration after months of usage. We can assure you it’s not just tech gremlins messing with your phone, and you can do some things to keep the phone running smoothly over the long run.
In this article we are going to show you some of the best ways to keep your Samsung Galaxy S8 as fast as it should be running. Without further ado, let’s jump right into our list of 10 tips and tricks for a snappy Galaxy S8 experience.
Speed improvement tips
Change the performance mode
The Samsung Galaxy S8 is a very capable device. It’s actually over-powered, and most users don’t need every bit of processing this device can output. This is why they have created multiple performance modes to adapt to the user’s needs.
Some people want more battery life, some want better media consumption… and others want all the speed they can get. The latter will want to go to Settings > Device Maintenance > Performance Mode and select “Game”.
By the way, ignore the “High performance” option. All that does is improve the overall display experience, not exactly the speed. It will increase resolution, brightness and other factors that make for a better experience, but it doesn’t make the phone faster. Game mode does.
Now, keep in mind this will make the phone more resource intensive. This means there are higher chances of things like over-heating and short battery life.
Lower the resolution
Your Samsung Galaxy S8 display has 4,262,400 pixels (2960×1440), which can be pretty taxing on the processor and GPU. Lower resolutions can keep your device running much smoother. Thankfully, this handset has an option for decreasing the definition all the way down to 720p.
Simply go to Settings > Display > Screen Resolution and drag the slider to the left. Aside from WQHD+ (2960×1440), there are options for FHD+ (2220×1080) and HD+ (1480×720). The lower the resolution, the less your CPU and GPU have to work to portray an image on your display. Consequently, your device should speed up.
Uninstall unnecessary apps
Clogging up your memory with unused apps is no good for performance. On top of that, many of these applications often run in the background, affecting both your handset’s speed and battery life.
Get rid of all the apps you are not using! Samsung or your carrier may also include some pre-installed applications – dump them too. Just uninstall, or failing that disable, everything you are not using. This will keep your phone running smoother and your app tray cleaner.
Simply go to Settings > Application manager and select the “All” tab. Pick the app you want to get rid of and uninstall it. Some apps can’t be deleted. If such is the case, you can still disable them. They will not show up in the drawer or use up your precious resources.
Clear the cache every now and then
There’s a huge debate on whether you should clear cache or not. After all, the purpose of cache memory is actually to make your phone faster. Your device saves data from commonly used apps and websites. Retrieving information from local storage saves both time and data. With that said, we also stand behind the fact that clearing the cache memory every now and then actually helps.
After a while, cache data can bulk up, become corrupted and run into other unexpected issues. This may cause your phone to act up. Clear it every month or so, and you should be fine. The good news is you no longer have to go looking for weird apps to perform this task. Samsung has built this feature right into the Samsung Galaxy S8.
Go to Settings > Device maintenance and hit “Optimize now”. This will clear the cache memory, as well as a few other things. Keep in mind the device will feel a little slower right after clearing the cache. This is because it is re-downloading all the information that keeps your device snappy. It should all be good after a couple days.
Activate Download Booster
Before anything, let us tell you straight off the bat that using this feature will use up your precious gigabytes, even if you are connected to WiFi. This is because this nice little feature boosts your download speeds by using both your WiFi and data connection simultaneously. I wouldn’t use it all the time (unless I had unlimited data), but it is a nice tool to take advantage of when in a rush.
To turn Download Booster on go to Settings > Connections > More connection settings > Download Booster and toggle the feature on. A warning will pop up. Go ahead and select “Turn on”. Now you will see your download speeds increase significantly, making your browsing experience much faster when you have a good 4G and WiFi signal.
Dump the widgets!
Widgets are convenient, but they can get out of hand. And when they do, not only will they look ugly, but they will also slow your phone down. Widget animations and updates require processing power, so try to keep your home screens as clean as possible.
Developer options
You will need to enable Developer options for the last few tips. This makes an extra slew of settings visible to the user. These settings are hidden because of their unnecessary nature (to the general consumer), but it offers some great tweaks for those who really want to customize the experience.
How to enable developer options:
- Open the Settings app.
- Select “About phone”.
- Select “Software info”.
- Look for the “Build number” and tap on it 7 times.
Now you are ready to delve into the “Developer options”. The section will appear under “Settings”.
Limit background processes
Your phone is always doing stuff in the background, and when these processes pile up they can really slow your device down. You can limit them to keep performance at its maximum. Simply head over to “Developer options” and look for “Background process limit”. Select it and limit background processes as much as you feel comfortable. After this, you can restart the device and enjoy the improved speeds. However, be aware that setting this too low may prevent some of your most commonly used apps from grabbing updates in the background.
Reduce animation scales
Animations are nice, but they do make things slower and use up processing power. This means turning them off is for the best when aiming for a faster device. Simply go to “Developer options” and look through the animation settings. Set them all to 0.5x for optimal performance.
Don’t keep activities
Android’s multi-tasking prowess is impressive, but it can also be one of the reasons why phones slow down from time to time. The “Don’t keep activities” developer setting makes it so that apps don’t run in the background when closed or switched, keeping RAM memory free to use elsewhere. We should say that the Galaxy S8 isn’t exactly short of RAM though, and this will mean apps restart when switching between them, so it’s not really a setting for multi-taskers.
Simply go to Settings > Developer options and check the box labeled “Don’t keep activities”. Restart after tweaking this option.
Nothing works?
Just wipe the phone
Phones are tricky. There are plenty of factors to consider when trying to troubleshoot or improve them. If you have tried it all but are still not satisfied with the results, the best thing you can do to keep your device as fast as possible is wiping it clean. This is done by performing a factory data reset.
This process essentially cleans your phone and gets the software back to factory status. It will be just like the first day you laid fingers on it. You will even have to go through the set-up process and all that again. Do keep in mind a factory data reset will delete everything, so back up all important files before doing this.
If you are ready, simply go to Settings > Generla management > Reset > Factory data reset. Tap “Reset” and you will be asked for the PIN. Let the phone do its thing.
That’s all folks! Hit the comments to let us know what you do to keep your devices running smoothly. Did any of these tips specifically help you out?
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