I think I agree with a bunch of stuff you posted, but I can't get past this comment.
> That's something no other smartphone could do.
Either I'm misreading you, or you have a strangely narrow version of the world we live in. What is so magical about the iPhone that no other smartphone can "react quickly to your input by showing you a nice, smooth but slow animation while work is being done in the background"?
(Part of my doubt probably comes from using a OnePlus 7 Pro as my daily driver. 90Hz refresh rate and everything is ridiculously fast and smooth. But that's not actually possible, is it?)
There is nothing magical about the iPhone especially not on the hardware side.
I don't know how but if you look at input response time charts, especially in the early days, the iPhone is among the best, if not the best by a large margin. Less abstraction layers? Better tuned OS? More attention given to latency? More trickery? Apple's level of integration and closed ecosystem certainly helps here, and I can easily imagine Steve Jobs pissing off every single employee that wasn't fired for the smallest hiccup. I am far from an Apple fan and I don't own any of their stuff but I have to admit that on some points, they are really good. And as a developer, I have a lot of respect for those who care about performance.
Your OnePlus 7 Pro is a beast. It is fast and smooth because it has quasi-desktop class hardware inside. That's the "solution" I was referring to.
To be fair, Android did work on smoothness. It was called "project butter". But IMHO, they still didn't manage to match Apple on equivalent hardware. I don't know about the situation right now but I hope everything is smooth considering the ridiculously powerful hardware they put in modern flagships.
The iPhone has used a 120hz touch digitizer for a long time, while Android phones have usually used only a 60hz touch digitizer. So while the screen refresh rate was only 60hz, they could start reacting and creating the animation sooner.
> That's something no other smartphone could do.
Either I'm misreading you, or you have a strangely narrow version of the world we live in. What is so magical about the iPhone that no other smartphone can "react quickly to your input by showing you a nice, smooth but slow animation while work is being done in the background"?
(Part of my doubt probably comes from using a OnePlus 7 Pro as my daily driver. 90Hz refresh rate and everything is ridiculously fast and smooth. But that's not actually possible, is it?)