Android Phone

[zembonez]

I get a pretty solid day of use out of mine and charge it at night. If you leave a bunch of stuff running in the background, it will eat up batteries. I leave the WiFi on all the time, but I shut down anything else I'm not using.

When you bought yours was it running 2.2 or did you have to do the upgrade from samsung's website? The even have a warning on thier site that the upgrade has a chance to erase all data from your phone and sim cards.

Mine came with 2.2. Emily is still running the previous system on hers (2.0?)... I have not upgraded it and she likes it the way it is.

 

[Rum Runner]

On battery life: I use Advanced Task Killer, to minimize other running stuff, but I also find that having a charger at home, work, and in my car makes life easy too.

 

[Texan2]

On battery life: I use Advanced Task Killer, to minimize other running stuff, but I also find that having a charger at home, work, and in my car makes life easy too.

I am addressing all of these issues as soon as I get home today.

 

[San Antone RR]

With 2.2 or above, task killers are actually a battery drain.
Go to Settings and turn off wi-fi, GPS, wallpaper animations and auto updating.
Disable auto brightness.
Also fully discharge and completely charge it several times.

These should help batt life.
Gimme a call if you need some help with it, TC2.

 

[Texan2]

With 2.2 or above, task killers are actually a battery drain.
Go to Settings and turn off wi-fi, GPS, wallpaper animations and auto updating.
Disable auto brightness.
Also fully discharge and completely charge it several times.

These should help batt life.
Gimme a call if you need some help with it, TC2.

I downloaded "Advanced Task Killer" and it says that the new version addressed the battery drain issue. Whether or not that is correct I have no clue. After a day of use I am getting a bit more comfortable. I cant really turn WI-FI off as I use it alot. I will check the other stuff.

 

[Rum Runner]

With 2.2 or above, task killers are actually a battery drain.

Interesting. I have been using ATK since before 2.2 and it used to make a big difference. I googled for more details and found:
Android Task Killers Explained: What They Do and Why You Shouldn't Use Them

Watchdog sounds like a much better idea.

 

[San Antone RR]

Swipe your finger down from the top and see if there is a wi-fi toggle there. I seem to remember that version of Froyo has it. You can quickly turn on and off that way. With it on, it is constantly scanning for networks and will cause battery drain.
If not, you can place a widget for wi-fi on the main screen to speed up enabling/disabling. Android is pretty power hungry.

Also, Look at this: http://www.power-skin.com/battery-cases/ap1505i90/samsung-galaxy-powerskin.html Got mine at the T Mobile store.
I have one for my MyTouch4G. It has a rubber case and doubles your battery. Get a Zagg Invisible Shield for the face as well. Best Buy.

 

[Texan2]

ok...so now i'm dropping ATK

 

[Texan2]

Ok....so now I have used this phone for almost a month and the verdict is in. I absolutely hate it. As in want to thrown it into a brick wall type of hate. I will be switching back to a Blackberry as soon as I can.

 

[weiss27md]

Going to Blackberry is taking a step back. I think the best Android phones are HTC. I've been using my outdate Sprint HTC Hero for almost a year now and it is still very capable. My mom has an HTC Evo 4G and that thing is nice, 4.3" screen and very fast.

 

[nalioth]

Agreed, Blackberries are a big step backward compared to Android.

What don't you like about your Android phone?

 

[Greg_TX]

Going to Blackberry is taking a step back. I think the best Android phones are HTC. I've been using my outdate Sprint HTC Hero for almost a year now and it is still very capable. My mom has an HTC Evo 4G and that thing is nice, 4.3" screen and very fast.

Sorry, but the HTC 'Sense' UI makes the phone almost useless as a phone. They change the call answer screen to something where you have to drag down a bar to answer. It does this if the screen is locked or not - when it rings, the drag bar comes up. The problem is that if you have this thing in your pocket and pull it out to answer, sometimes the bar gets swiped down on the way out of your pocket and the the call gets dropped. If the touch sensitivity can be changed it maybe wouldn't be as much of an issue, but I can't find a way to change that. There's an app out there somewhere I found that replaces the bar with buttons, but then the phone wouldn't ring half the time. IMO, the Sense UI makes the device useless if you expect anyone to call you.

 

[nalioth]

Sorry, but the HTC 'Sense' UI makes the phone almost useless as a phone. They change the call answer screen to something where you have to drag down a bar to answer. It does this if the screen is locked or not - when it rings, the drag bar comes up. The problem is that if you have this thing in your pocket and pull it out to answer, sometimes the bar gets swiped down on the way out of your pocket and the the call gets dropped. If the touch sensitivity can be changed it maybe wouldn't be as much of an issue, but I can't find a way to change that. There's an app out there somewhere I found that replaces the bar with buttons, but then the phone wouldn't ring half the time. IMO, the Sense UI makes the device useless if you expect anyone to call you.

Ah. You don't have a problem with an Android phone, you have a problem with the crapola HTC shoveled on top of it.

Vanilla Android is great. Got "answer" and "hangup" buttons and none of that crazy stuff you describe.

If you're lucky, your phone can use this: Cyanogen


Whatever you do, don't blast all Android phones because of the stupid interface HTC decided to inflict on people that use some of its phones.

 

[Texas1911]

I had a HTC Hero 2 and liked it ... very portable, good battery, but I upgraded to the HTC Evo 4G and it's an awesome phone except the battery life. I can barely get a single day out of the battery, but it's fast when I need it.

 

[ChunkyMonkey]

I have the HTC Evo and love it. From the start, battery drain was an issue. I installed the Advanced Task Killer, but found it drained the battery as it kept attempting to kill programs causing the drain. But, found I would use it to kill programs initially and randomly, but then immediately kill it when done with the others. I also bought the extended life battery from Wireless Toyz. My HTC Evo 3D should be here soon, we'll see how that goes. I've loved the Android tech more as I've become more used to them.

 

[Greg_TX]

Ah. You don't have a problem with an Android phone, you have a problem with the crapola HTC shoveled on top of it.

Vanilla Android is great. Got "answer" and "hangup" buttons and none of that crazy stuff you describe.

If you're lucky, your phone can use this: Cyanogen


Whatever you do, don't blast all Android phones because of the stupid interface HTC decided to inflict on people that use some of its phones.

I have no problem with Android per se; I was plenty happy with the Droid 1 I had since it came on the market. If I could just get the left/right answer buttons back on the one I have then all would be well.

 

[Texan2]

The email system is the only reason I need a smart phone. Blackberry's email server is far and away the best. They are the only one that has their own email server. Right now I get some emails and not others....some I get a day later. With Blackberry I could take a pic and email it, and pick which email account I wanted to use to send....not now.

I think one of the biggest issues is that where I live there is no 4g, no 3g, no 2g.....we only have GPRS (think 1g). Android needs lots of "signal" to work well. It takes 5 minutes sometimes to open an email. With BB it was 2-3 seconds.

I have no doubt that Android does lots more "tricks" than a BB....but if email is your goal the BB is still unsurpassed. Also has the most secure email system.

Within a couple days I always "click" with my new phones and their use becomes natural. Not this one...nothing seems natural and the navigation seems to be a PIA compared to a BB (my opinion)

As far as HTC, I looked at one (HTC 7), but it didnt have wi-fi calling.....instant disqualification.

 

[Texan2]

I feel like this Android is like a swiss army knife that has 114 blades and can do everything you can possibly think of.

My Blackberry was a 2-blade folder. Doesnt do everything, but what it does it does very well.

 

[zembonez]

Too bad you don't like the new phone. They are complex, but I use mine for about 200 things now...

 

[Texan2]

What don't you like about your Android phone?

For instance, I am currently trying to use the facebook app. I have wi-fi in my house so I am on a wi-fi signal. Took 2:13 to load the first page of facebook. Tried to send some pics I took with the phone yesterday, keeps telling me they wont send, then last night it finally sent one, it took 5 minutes to send it. this is all while I had a wi-fi signal.

Perhaps its just a defective phone? I took it back to the phone store I bought it from and they did something to it and said it was fine.

I dont want to bash the whole platform, it just doesnt seem to be for me. I need something that works and works right...everytime. My BB did that for me, this one doesn't.