As someone who has moved back to iOS with the 15 Pro and overall happy with the device, but also own a Samsung S23 and tried the Pixel 8 Pro, one thing I notice is how slow everything moves in iOS and I think that gets misrepresented as smoothness.
Take swiping from the left to go back a screen on the apps that support it, on some apps I thought it didn’t do it but what I realised was that I was swiping too fast being used to Android. I am having to learn myself to swipe left from the edge at around a third of the speed I do it on Android. On the S23 and P8 Pro it’s so instantaneous.
Also the Reddit app, sure it scrolls smoothly, but it also scrolls way slower than my S23. I actually prefer the way faster and slightly less smooth scrolling on the S23. I’ve noticed it in many many apps, it’s like animation and scrolling speed is on ‘slow’.
Like I said still overall happy with the device, just a observation. Is there any way to speed it up in iOS?
iPhones take their time to show you everything which is received by us as smoooooth. Android on the other hand, if there are flickers or stutters - it mostly tries to get to your face as soon as possible by leaving little room for animation. That is sometimes if not mostly perceived as Android not being smooth.
This is not to say iPhones are just that. A great deal of attention and care went to build the UI and its animations. Overall it feels very natural and smooth. Pixel UI vs One UI - you can definitely see how Google eliminates stutters and the overall feel of it is smooth. One UI struggles with stutters and animation inconsistencies.