Can't really disagree with this. After using my wife's iPhone 4S, my Droid X always feels like something less than direct manipulation. [Edit: And to be fair, my wife's old 3GS and her 3G before that were always more responsive to touches than any of my Android phones.]
I say this with every OS release and every major hardware upgrade, but I really hope the Galaxy Nexus[0] and ICS finally make up some of the difference with hardware acceleration of the UI.[1]
[0]: Terrible mouthful of a name, Galaxy Prime or Nexus Prime would've been so much better.
[1]: This is my next/Verge reporting notwithstanding. Reports are that some leftover jitteriness is due to apps not having opted into hardware acceleration yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Note: Our initial performance observations were focused on touch response and not system-wide performance, and were based on a Galaxy Nexus being used by one of Google’s staff. The demo units during the show were definitely smoother in operation. All of them featured an early build of Ice Cream Sandwich, however, so we’ll make our final calls on the phone once we have a review unit in hand.
re [0]: It seems clear that it's a political choice-- Google's not releasing a flagship that's not a "Nexus," and Samsung's not releasing a high-end phone that's not a "Galaxy."
When all the rumored names were flying around, I suspected this would be it, but I was hoping it would be some sort of dual release, with Google selling the 'Nexus Prime' directly, and Samsung releasing the Galaxy [X] on carriers. Maybe that would've been worse, though.
I say this with every OS release and every major hardware upgrade, but I really hope the Galaxy Nexus[0] and ICS finally make up some of the difference with hardware acceleration of the UI.[1]
[0]: Terrible mouthful of a name, Galaxy Prime or Nexus Prime would've been so much better.
[1]: This is my next/Verge reporting notwithstanding. Reports are that some leftover jitteriness is due to apps not having opted into hardware acceleration yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.