Why my RecyclerView scroll became janky on low-end devices and how I fixed it

I was testing my student quiz app on a Tecno Spark 4 and noticed the scroll performance went from smooth to really janky when loading lists with images and text. At first I thought it was the images, but after profiling with Android Studio I realized the issue was actually the ViewHolder binding - I was doing too much work on the main thread inside onBindViewHolder. The fix was simple: I moved all the heavy lifting to the adapter's onBindViewHolder by using a background thread for image loading and making sure I wasn't recreating objects unnecessarily. I also added a ViewHolder recycling check to avoid binding stale data. After the change the scroll felt buttery even on that cheap device. Here is the key part: bindViewHolder(holder, position) { val item = items[position] holder.bind(item) // keep this lightweight, no network calls here } Lesson learned: always profile on a real low-end device, not just the emulator.

Replies

AmaniOct 10

Thanks for sharing, Alex. Switching to a ListAdapter with DiffUtil can often cut down the binding work even further while keeping smooth updates.

Kevin MwangiOct 10

Good catch on the main thread, profiling on the actual Spark 4 makes all the difference. Once you move image loading to Coil or Glide like they mentioned, also try setting a fixed size for the RecyclerView rows if you can, that alone usually smooths things out on those Tecno devices.

Wanjiru KamauOct 10

Ah, that's a solid lesson. On top of what everyone said, checking your XML layouts for nested weights or deep view hierarchies can also help a lot on lower-end Tecnos. A flat ConstraintLayout usually measures faster than nested LinearLayouts.

Esther NyamburaOct 10

Nice one, Alex. On top of what everyone else mentioned, one thing that helped me with a similar issue on a Spark 4 was making sure images were resized before loading them into the RecyclerView. Even with Glide you can set an override width and height so it doesn't try to decode a full camera picture into a tiny thumbnail. Saves a lot of memory and keeps scrolling smooth.

Joshua SsemakulaOct 11

Nice one, Alex. Did you try using Glide or Coil for the image loading? Those libraries already handle background threading and caching so you don't have to reinvent that piece, on a Tecno Spark they make a real difference.

Aline UwaseOct 11

Nice breakdown, Alex. For anyone else struggling on a Spark or similar device, even just switching to Glide or Coil for images (they handle the background thread stuff automatically) can make a big difference. Also, if you haven't tried it yet, giving each row a fixed height in the layout stops the adapter from measuring every time you scroll.