📱 Seven months in, my Galaxy M14 lags on WhatsApp and the keyboard

My Samsung Galaxy M14, the 128 GB one I bought in March, has become slow after only seven months. WhatsApp takes a few seconds to open, the keyboard lags behind my typing, and the camera sometimes freezes. I cleared the app cache last week and storage shows only 41 GB used, so it's nowhere near full. It was quick for the first few months, I had no complaints about it at all. The slowdown seems to have started around the August update, though I can't swear to it. That's the only change I can think of, I haven't installed anything big since then. I mostly use it for WhatsApp, YouTube and Google Pay, nothing heavy like games. So I'm surprised a phone this new is already struggling with the basic stuff. Will a factory reset fix this, or will the lag just come back in a month or two? I've got lots of family photos on it, so I'd have to back everything up first. That's a whole evening of work and I'd rather not do it for nothing. Is there something else I can try before wiping the phone completely? Also, does anyone know if Samsung has said anything about the August update causing lag? I searched online but only found people complaining, nobody with a real answer. My cousin thinks I should just buy a new phone, which is not happening seven months in. Any ideas are welcome at this point, even ones that sound a bit silly.

On the August update theory, my cousin's A14 started stuttering right after one, so it could be true. His reset at a mobile shop brought the speed back, but the lag returned within three weeks. What finally worked was a lighter launcher and replacing heavy apps like Facebook and Instagram with their Lite versions. Clearing Gallery thumbnails from Settings, Apps, Gallery, Storage also made the camera open faster. Since you have not backed up yet, copy your photos to a laptop or pen drive first. Try the launcher and Lite apps next, and reset only if the lag stays.

My Galaxy M13 did the same thing around the seventh month, with the same keyboard lag. A factory reset helped for about two months, and I backed up photos to a laptop first. Try these before wiping anything. Turn on Developer options and set Window, Transition and Animator scale to 0.5x. Disable preloaded apps you never touch from Settings, Apps. Put rarely used apps to sleep under Settings, Battery, Background usage limits. Also check for a pending software update, since a later patch cut the lag on mine. If it is still slow after a week, then do the reset.