Custom ListView Rendering Speed. Is there a faster way?

I have a custom ListView of about 400 items (may expand to about 1000 in future). Each row includes an load on-demand thumbnail image and 2 labels. Currently it's implemented Alloy template with sqlite data-binding. On simulators and modern Android devices, the loading time is quick. However on my "old" iPhone 4, the delay before seeing the list is quite noticeable, about 2-3 seconds. I'm wondering if the following alternatives would be faster to render?

1. Statically code all rows in Alloy. (Generate from external helper script)
2. Parse a .json file and dynamically generate the rows.
3. JSON binding ? (not sure if it's as simple as sqlite binding)

Any thoughts?