Not quite. For instance, on a Galaxy S II, going to the home screen while in the mail app takes ~2 seconds. Doesn't matter how many times I do it, or even if I just do it in a loop, switching between mail and home. It's probably not even Android's direct fault - I wouldn't be surprised if this is Samsung's horrible software shining through - but it's very frustrating, and I don't use other devices to compare it to.
It's a digression (and an apples-to-oranges one at that) but your experience is definitely not typical. I have a Samsung Epic (Sprint's Galaxy S variant) running their new EI22 Gingerbread stack (very likely the same userspace base you have). And I don't see this at all. I don't use the built-in mail app, preferring K9. And I don't use the default home screen (Launcher Pro is just plain better). But the transition to the home screen is always instantaneously animated. Certainly nothing like 2 seconds.
So I'd put that up to a plain old bug (albeit a really frustrating one, and knowing the Android ecosystem one unlikely to be fixed), not a platform misfeature.
A big part of the delay on the GS II is the Vlingo voice functionality. Did you know (I ask because many people don't know) that if you tap the home button twice it brings up voice mode? The ability to recognize double clicks imposes a certain floor on the responsiveness of that button.
That most certainly does bother me, and I've yet to discover how to disable it so it simply reacts immediately.
Why should it? The iPhone uses a home double-click to pull up the task manager/switcher interface. Yet single clicking the home button still instantly gives you the response you expect.
>Yet single clicking the home button still instantly gives you the response you expect.
The task manager/switcher is a child of the home screen. This overloaded functionality makes sense that you go to the home screen immediately and if you happen to click again it goes to the secondary mode.
Vlingo on the GS II has nothing to do with the home screen. It is its own world.
Should they have made the very first click instantly go to the home screen anyways (which could involve a lot of busy work given how rich an Android homescreen can be)? Good question. I don't think the two are directly comparable however.
