Name a better benchmark or measure and I willl try it. The result will be exactly the same - fewer apps leads to faster performance. I am not talking about a few apps running (any Android app can handle that) - just having many run.
I ran a little test twice today on my phone. You should try the same test on y our phone with the task killer turned off. I have a question at the end of this exercise.
Phone: htc Evo 4G
ROM: FreshEvo 4.1.1.0
Manufacturer skin: Sense 2
Custom kernel: No
Overclocked: No
Memory management app: Android managed
Task manager app: Android managed
Steps I took:
1. Rebooted to work with a fresh system
2. Opened the following apps and tapped the
Home button after each app was fully loaded:
Root Explorer
GPS Test Plus
Android Market
Quick Settings
Quick Boot
Screenshot
Android Settings
Terminal Emulator
Titanium Backup
Blogger
Dolphin HD
Facebook
Gmail
IM+ Pro
Default Web Browser
Messages
Gtalk
Twitter
Calculator
Calendar
Checkbook
Clock
Docs
MapQuest
Google Maps
OneBusAway
People
Text Edit
WeatherBug
Amazon Kindle
Camera
Youtube
GReader
That's more than 30 apps with some with some of them being power hungry. At no time did I notice any lag while starting any of those apps.
3. Checked my lists:
Running:
Android Settings
Terminal Emulator
Messaging
IM+ Pro
Blogger
Calendar
Google Maps
Android Market
So, 8 of the thirty apps I Manually launched were still running after taking the screenshots.
Cached:
People
Messages
Twitter
Mail
Clock
OneBusAway
Text Edit
WeatherBug
Amazon Kindle
Camera
Youtube
GReader
Screenshot
Calendar
So, 14 of the thirty apps I manually launched were still running after taking the screenshots.
Cached apps do not use power or memory.
What happened to the other 8+ apps that I launched? Android manages things rather well
Have a look at the RAM used and RAM free in the screenshots I took. I internationally kept movig the screen so the screenshot would include the scrollbar to give an idea of how many apps were in each list.
Screenshot of running apps. Notice they are listed in RAM Used:
Screenshot of cached apps. Notice they are listed in RAM Free:
These are unedited screenshots. Does it appear from the scrollbars that I have more than 30 apps running or cached? Not to mention the apps and services that android launches itself.
Why would I need a benchmark app? The system isn't lagging, plenty of memory free and I don't use any type of task killing method other than what Android does by itself. I'd be willing to bet your phone would run much better if you stopped killing tasks.
In my opinion a benchmark app is just another app that wastes system resources. But, then again, I'm just a developer who has an understanding of how the system works.
Android knows what its doing and, unless you've read and understood every line of code in android and all 3rd party apps, it knows more about what its doing than we do.