Android, Phonegap, and JQuery

Have made two attempts now to use phonegap and jquery mobile for quick app development. Both times (last year and last month) impressed with how quickly a working app can be put together, but then frustrated by the slowdown that hits the app whenever you actually try to do something (show big list, search data, filter list, etc). Despite a lot of good work on it, it's just unusable for anything more than demoing ideas. Last time I switched back to developing the app for Android only in code, this time I'm giving jqmobi, Intel App Framework (really bad name, hard to search for) a go. So far so good, although nowhere near as advanced as JQuery. But perhaps that's why it still works.