Samsung Galaxy S Series

[Grasshopper]

I got the Galaxy S2 3 weeks ago and have 2 major problems with it. Before I take it back for a replacement I thought it best to try the experts.

The 1st problem is battery life. I'd describe myself as a moderate user ie. a few texts and emails here and there, half an hour of browsing, 10 mins of calls, half hour of music player. At best I get 12 hours of life. Done the usual checks of screen brightness, no live wallpapers, restricting auto updating widgets etc. No different.

Initially charged battery for 16 hours and let the battery drain a couple of times. Since then, I've been topping the thing up at least 3 times a day and losing around 10% an hour on standby. This phone was touted as being one of the best for battery life, so far it's worse than I ever imagined. It's running on the stock 2.3.3 version, but is this really to be expected?

2nd problem. The overall response time on touchscreen presses is wildly variable. Generally, once in an application the response and loading times are more or less instant. Exiting an application is a different matter and takes on average 4 seconds. When you're attempting to flick between screens this soon becomes annoying. Probably worst affected is the picture gallery which takes several seconds to access with a loading message displayed, then the usual 4 seconds to exit. I probably only have 50 pics in there.

Having watched a few youtube hands on videos for comparison, the handsets shown swap between applications and screens instantly. Therefore I'm guessing it's a faulty handset. Is there anything I should check before returning for a new one.

Thanks in advance.

[thesoupdragon]

Before you return it, I would suggest you do a Factory Data Reset.

Your problems seem to be firmware related, not hardware!

Go into > Settings > Privacy > Factory Reset.

You will need to backup all your stuff first as this will return the phone to an "As New" condition.

[Grasshopper]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try and let you know what happens.

Not sure it's going to solve the battery issue entirely but I live in hope!

[thesoupdragon]

Charge the Battery to 100%

Perform Factory Data Reset, also wipe the Internal SDcard as well, backup your stuff first!

The battery will take several Days to settle down, as the battery level is calculated by a Caching system.

This needs to see the battery at 100% and also at the lowest recommended level, approx 20%.

Gradually the reported battery level will become more accurate, but give it time!

TSD

[Grasshopper]

Thanks, hopefully I can back everything up using Kies Air (just one of the applications I haven't yet tried).

I have another problem with email but I don't know if it's connected to the slow running problem. I have a Gmail and a Hotmail account.

I've set the Hotmail to default with a setting of check every 30 mins in the Samsung Email client and set email to "push" in the individual hotmail app.

Despite this I don't seem to be able to send email (recipients don't receive) and when I go to check my inbox I just get the "refreshing" and "loading" timers running at the bottom (full signal) with no new messages registered for over a week. The Gmail app seems to work perfectly although I don't receive many emails on this account.

Having come from a Blackberry's system where the messaging was all unified, easy and instant, I'm not sure if this sort of thing is to be expected, or whether it's all down to an issue with firmware.

I will probably answer my own question once I've done the re-boot.

[Grasshopper]

OK, so here is what happened.

Went to Factory data reset, left back up and restore from Google  boxes ticked, held my breath and rebooted...

When it finished the startup, I don't recall it giving me an "Access Point Names" mobile network option, or maybe I skipped it by mistake. Whichever the case, there was no mobile network signal, even after going into networks and manually selecting Vodafone.

After consulting another forum I found a similar query of someone else who rebooted to find their phone also had no signal. They were advised to do another reset without the SIM card inserted, then restart with the SIM back in. After another factory reset doing this, the Vodafone prompt for "PAYG" or "Vodafone" appeared, I selected "Vodafone" and after that, everything was fine.

After playing around, I am cautiously happy and relieved to report the homescreen lag problem seems to be fixed, along with the email account problem, which now shows all my up to date emails.

Therefore many thanks for the advice given, it seems to have fixed everything. I'll keep my fingers crossed that things stay this way. The battery still seems to run down at the same rate, but I'll keep an eye on it now that everything else is working as it should and hope it wears in to achieve at least a day and a half instead of 12 hours!

Thanks again. 

[thesoupdragon]

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Grasshopper wrote:

Therefore many thanks for the advice given, it seems to have fixed everything. I'll keep my fingers crossed that things stay this way. The battery still seems to run down at the same rate, but I'll keep an eye on it now that everything else is working as it should and hope it wears in to achieve at least a day and a half instead of 12 hours!

Thanks again. 

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Hi Grasshopper,

I am glad that the firmware is working as it should for you now!

I don't think a Day and a half is going to be a realistic option, not without turning everything off!

I personally prefer to have all the features of my Smart phone working and carry a charger with me!

Once the phone reaches 50% battery left, you will be surprised how long it lasts!

[Grasshopper]

Now into a week after the reset and all things seem to be mainly fine and snappy again, apart from the Gallery, which takes about 17 seconds on average to load a few videos and pictures.

The battery however, is as bad if not worse. I'm tempted to update to 2.3.5 as I hear it is better for battery life, although I find it hard to believe 12 hours of moderate use can be normal for 2.3.3. I can't help think the battery must be faulty after all.

At work I find myself keeping it plugged into the PC most of the time, just to keep the battery from going into freefall. Feels more like I've got a netbook than a mobile phone at the moment. Trying not to get envious hearing about iPhone 4 users getting 2 days out of a charge.

Will give it another week before I give up on the battery and ask for a replacement.

[Grasshopper]

3 months later, I seem to be back to square one.

The laggy touch responses got worse, the battery remained the same ie. 12 hours a cycle, then I got a screenful of "force close" error messages that made the handset unusable.

I took the handset back to the store where they wiped the device and rebooted it with version 2.3.5. For a few weeks after this, the handset seemed to work fine. Touch response seemed to be quick and the battery seemed slightly improved. Then the problems began to start reappearing.

I get the same lag when doing simple things like unlocking the screen or trying to type an email with key taps taking a second or two to register and haptic feedback doing the same. The battery seems to be getting worse again, programs force close and the RAM seems to be on a pretty constant 700mb with no active applications running. Emails on my main account take hours to come through, sometimes if at all.

I don't know if I just have a faulty handset or whether this is par for the course. Having never had an Android phone before, I have no comparison. At this point I'd never go near a Samsung/Android phone again. It might have some of the best specifications of a handset out there, but when you press a button or swipe the screen, you just can't trust it to work. 

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[Northern-dj]

sound like the chache is clogged up try a app calle 1 Tap Cleaner Pro Vodafone roms are kwon for this as there laggy to start with 

ICS sorts that all out 

My S slows down but after running this it speeds back up 

Also Ditch FAcebook and twitter apps they suck big time any other third part app works better you can get teat cast from samsung apps 

[Grasshopper]

I tried the 1tap cleaner and surprisingly it seemed to help. I've had a number of false dawns with this phone so I'll cross my fingers that this speeds everything up in general. The RAM has gone down to a more respectable 450mb and the general lag also seems to have gone.

If it means running the cleaner every now and then to have no more problems I might just possibly fall back in love with this phone.

Thanks for the help.