Android Complex UI : Initial Creation Takes ~100ms — Is This Expected or Can It Be Optimized?

I’m working on an Android app that uses a RecyclerView with a custom Adapter and ViewHolder. The RecyclerView contains EditText views, and the properties of these views (such as text, color, padding, font size, etc.) are dynamically loaded via JNI from a native C++ layer.

The problem I’m encountering is the initial creation of the RecyclerView and how long it takes to populate and render the EditText views. The entire process takes around 100ms. I’m wondering if this is normal for a complex UI like this, or if there are ways to optimize the creation process.

Details:

1. RecyclerView Setup: The RecyclerView is populated with EditText items where each item’s properties are fetched from the native layer.

2. Performance Concern: The initial creation (setup, layout, and data population) takes ~100ms, and I'm wondering if there are optimizations I can apply to improve this time.

Code:

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

     private lateinit var recyclerView: RecyclerView
     private lateinit var adapter: EditTextAdapter

    companion object {
        init {
             System.loadLibrary("recyclerviewtest")
        }

        external fun nativeGetItemCount(): Int
        external fun nativeGetStringProperty(index: Int, propId: Int): String
        external fun nativeGetIntProperty(index: Int, propId: Int): Int
        external fun nativeGetFloatProperty(index: Int, propId: Int): Float
    }

override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)

    val start = System.nanoTime()

    recyclerView = RecyclerView(this).apply {
        layoutManager = LinearLayoutManager(this@MainActivity)
    }

    adapter = EditTextAdapter(this)
    recyclerView.adapter = adapter

    val rootLayout = LinearLayout(this).apply {
        orientation = LinearLayout.VERTICAL
        addView(recyclerView, LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, 0, 1f))
    }

    setContentView(rootLayout)

    // Initialize data and trigger first data fetch
    adapter.setInitialData(nativeGetItemCount())

    val durationMs = (System.nanoTime() - start) / 1_000_000.0
    Log.d("Performance", "Create ALL duration (including layout): $durationMs ms")
}

}

class EditTextAdapter(private val context: Context) : RecyclerView.Adapter<EditTextViewHolder>() {
private val items = mutableListOf<ItemProps>()

fun setInitialData(count: Int) {
    items.clear()
    for (i in 0 until count) {
        items.add(loadProps(i)) // Load data from JNI
    }
    notifyItemRangeInserted(0, items.size)
}

private fun loadProps(index: Int): ItemProps {
    return ItemProps(
        text = MainActivity.nativeGetStringProperty(index, 0),
        textColor = MainActivity.nativeGetIntProperty(index, 1),
        paddingTop = MainActivity.nativeGetIntProperty(index, 2),
        paddingLeft = MainActivity.nativeGetIntProperty(index, 3),
        fontSize = MainActivity.nativeGetFloatProperty(index, 4),
        backgroundColor = MainActivity.nativeGetIntProperty(index, 5)
    )
}

override fun onCreateViewHolder(parent: ViewGroup, viewType: Int): EditTextViewHolder {
    return EditTextViewHolder(context)
}

override fun onBindViewHolder(holder: EditTextViewHolder, position: Int) {
    holder.bind(items[position])
}

override fun getItemCount(): Int = items.size

}

Performance Observations:

• The initial creation of the RecyclerView (with all EditText views) takes around 100ms to complete.
• Data is fetched from JNI for each EditText item during the initial population of the RecyclerView.

Questions:

• Is ~100ms for the initial creation and population of a RecyclerView with hundreds of EditText views considered normal?

• What optimizations can be applied to speed up the initial setup?