Is *anyone* happy with their S6 Active?

[Doohickie]

I replaced my phone with a Kyocera DuraForce Pro, which in many respects is a fine, and apparently rugged, phone. The one aspect where it falls short is that it doesn't support Advanced Messaging (and their Tech Support sucks in that they didn't want to admit it).

So I'm back on the market. I'd kind of like a ruggedized, water resistant phone since I ride a bicycle a lot which seems to lead to rougher treatment than most people give their phones.

In the AT&T stable, the next choice for ruggedized is S6. Looking around this forum it looks like lots of threads from people with issues with the phone, and no one talking about how it's the GRATEST FONE EVAR.

So.... is it buggy?

Is it rugged?

Has anyone trashed theirs in normal-ish use?

 

[Tim1954]

The S6 is a marvellous device! Rugged, not so much with glass front and back, this is not the phone to toss around carelessly. Nor without a very hard core case at any rate... The S7 is water resistant and slightly less precious but still requires gentle handling.. Again, a tough case would be advantageous for you...

 

[Doohickie]

If I need to buy an Otter Box or whatever, what's the point of getting a ruggedized version of the phone?

 

[macarser]

The S6 Active is my first Android drive and I do recommend it from my personal experience so far.

Personally, I prefer the Windows Phone OS, however the app market made Android just the better choice. My wife and I both moved to Android, her the S6 Edge, me the S6 Active. She's not liking her phone at all, doesn't even use the Edge portion of it which is sort of silly to have bought it for that, and it seems buggy. She can't rely on her text messages being received or sent for some strange reason which is her biggest problem with it.

My only real complaint about the S6A is it can sometimes get a bit warm and that, sometimes, a bit too many apps start popping up with the "This app has stopped working" message and requires me to close.

As far as the heat goes, granted, I'm a bit of a multi-tasker, I'll be on the phone, I'll be walking around with Ingress running, and I host my son's phone's (a BLU R1 HD) internet through my HotSpot setup, so I understand why it might be hot. I've even been told by my phone it can't record video as it's internal temperature is too hot (has only happened once). Even still, that is not a common issue, the warmth, but it does happen from time to time.

Beyond that, the S6A has done everything I've needed it for which has been nice to have and rely on.

 

[Doohickie]

Personally, I prefer the Windows Phone OS, however the app market made Android just the better choice.

I started out on Windows Phone as well and I like the feel of the OS, and migrated over to Android for the same reason.

Thanks for the review. You have me leaning toward the S6A again.

The sad part is, I really like the ruggedness of of the Kyocera along with some other features, but if they can't message like the rest of the world, it really dampens my enthusiasm for the phone. My wife sent me a MMS text yesterday (multiple users) and I couldn't get it because her phone has Advanced Messaging which asks for read receipts in MMS which makes it impossible for a phone without Advanced Messaging to receive the message. She shut off that functionality for now, but if anyone else sends me a multi recipient message, I won't be able to receive it.

One question: Do you have any issue with the 32GB of storage? Do you find that it's enough? (I'm not the kind of guy that stores my world on my phone, but I notice the S6A doesn't have a memory slot.)

 

[lafountain]

The S6 is a marvellous device! Rugged, not so much with glass front and back, this is not the phone to toss around carelessly. Nor without a very hard core case at any rate... The S7 is water resistant and slightly less precious but still requires gentle handling.. Again, a tough case would be advantageous for you...

He is asking about the S6 Active, not the base S6.

 

[lafountain]

My wife had the S6 Active for a year and she loved it, had no issues with it. She would still have it but she upgraded to the S7 Active and gave the S6 Active to her mom. The phone was dropped a few times but never had any issues after being dropped, just some minor scuffs on the casing.

 

[macarser]

One question: Do you have any issue with the 32GB of storage? Do you find that it's enough? (I'm not the kind of guy that stores my world on my phone, but I notice the S6A doesn't have a memory slot.)

I went with the 64gb version because it does not have a memory slot. I am currently sitting at 52gb used, so for my use, the 32gb wouldn't have been enough.

Being said, I have 251 apps installed, not including all the default apps that I disabled to remove from my list and free the space of from their updates. That may be more than what you use.

 

[warmachinerox]

I have the 32gb verison and I have plenty of space. I don't use a lot of apps nor do I keep a lot extra stuff on my phone. I stream most of my music as well. Lots pictures/videos of the kids. I love the phone. I've dropped it numerous times and taken it into the pool / ocean numerous times with no issues. I use a simple Tudia case for it. When we go on vacation in December I may get an otterbox for it only because we'll be hiking a lot over rocky terrain.

 

[htcrazy]

I really like my S6A. I also have an S7A, but prefer the S6A. It is a little lighter plus I prefer the 16mp camera @ 16:9. I bought the 64gb version so space has not been a problem.

 

[Doohickie]

I ended up sticking with my Kyocera for the time being. My family members shut off Advanced Messaging on their phones so now we can exchange multi-user messages.

Having paid off half my bricked G4, I didn't want a super-expensive phone, and I kind of like the idea of a ruggedized phone. AT&T's choices are limited there, and even if I looked outside of ruggedized, there's still not much out there presently that gets me excited, at least not at a reasonable price.

The Kyocera was less than $420, so I got it on the 24 month AT&T Next plan which means I can trade it in after a year. If it serves my purposes I'll keep it, but I have an off-ramp if I decide it's not my cup of tea.

 

[bawboh86]

I climb mountains, camp, and backpack. I also like to run and am getting into parkour. I am on a trail AT LEAST every weekend. I have had to cross frigid rivers and have slid down large inclines of snow on my butt (usually purposefully, on accident a couple of times). After experiencing scrambling rocks, snow, hail, water, and nice hot summer days, my phone is still kicking. I am QUITE pleased with how well it has held up. So pleased that after one of my partners ruined her moto phone, I made her get the S7 Active in order to keep up with her even better.

FYI: I have no Otterbox. The case has dings and there are some cracks in the lower right corner of the glass (not on the screen - they ended at the buttons), so if you want to have resell value, I'd suggest a case just to keep it looking nice. If cosmetics mean nothing to you, the S6 Active has been a beast for me.

 

[bawboh86]

Just realized you went with Kyocera again. That's what I get for not reading all replies. LOL

 

[T48]

I ended up sticking with my Kyocera for the time being. My family members shut off Advanced Messaging on their phones so now we can exchange multi-user messages.

Having paid off half my bricked G4, I didn't want a super-expensive phone, and I kind of like the idea of a ruggedized phone. AT&T's choices are limited there, and even if I looked outside of ruggedized, there's still not much out there presently that gets me excited, at least not at a reasonable price.

The Kyocera was less than $420, so I got it on the 24 month AT&T Next plan which means I can trade it in after a year. If it serves my purposes I'll keep it, but I have an off-ramp if I decide it's not my cup of tea.

Am not sure if you purchased another Kyocera or stuck with your current one. If it is the latter, see what Black Friday brings. Would imagine ATT would be more willing to have a sale on last years S6A if they have some stock instead of the current S7A line.

 

[BobthibTris]

Let me start by saying I am OK with my S6 active. Happier with this than the S2 or S4 versions. The Otter box helps too at keeping out moisture and sweat during exersize.

NOw for the bad news.

I have a Samsung S6 Active. Well, I've had 4. The first lasted about 18 months but the battery went bad and I got a refurb under warranty. Worked fine until I got the Marshmallow 6.0 upgrades. The I started having all kinds of bluetooth problems. My heart rate strap stopped connecting, my Omron BP monitor stopped communicating, My Honda link stopped, and I started getting intermittent dropouts with my BTLE speakers and headphones. At first I blamed my Yurbuds headsets and had them replaced under warranty. But that didn't solve the problem. Drop outs got more frequent and I noticed that all my bluetooth speakers started doing the same, since I was using them more. I called ATT and after lots of updates, resets etc, they sent me a new (refurb) phone. I took several days porting everthing over and making sure I lost nothing (despite the less than perfect Samsung Smart Switch, which is good, but not perfect.) When that phone had the same problems then next day I called back ATT. After hours of arguing, the sent me to the local ATT repair center. The guy there finally after an hour admitted that Samsung has major BTLE problems with 6.0 as do other MFGRS. He offered to replace the phone but admitted it would probably exhibit the same or similar problems. I did it none the less (I've gotten pretty proficient at the process, but it's still a PIA.) Its only been a few hours so I don't know if I'll still have BT dropouts on my speakers/headsets, but I suspect I will. FYI - I have NO PROBLEMS AT ALL with any of these BTLE devices on either my wife's UPTODATE iPhone 6 or my old S4 Active on 4.X. The problem is MARSHMALLOW.

This is more of a Rant than any request for assistance as I'm sure the problems is bugs in the BTLE code. I hear there are problems (per the ATT rep) with Neugat 7.0 also.

 

[DroidFromVA]

I'm okay with it, but the lack of storage space - I have a lot of apps and am a photo/video bug - and so-so software have left me wanting more. I will upgrade when the phone no longer gets security updates or gives out. Whichever comes first.

 

[Doohickie]

Am not sure if you purchased another Kyocera or stuck with your current one. If it is the latter, see what Black Friday brings. Would imagine ATT would be more willing to have a sale on last years S6A if they have some stock instead of the current S7A line.

I kept my current Kyocera, but I *just* bought it (under AT&T Next) new in October. Because it's about 2/3 the cost of a flagship phone from LG or Samsung, I put it on the 24 month plan which means I can trade it in after a year. So I'll watch to see what, if any, Black Friday specials there are this year, but I'll probably wait until next year to trade it in for something else. If it looks like Black Friday deals are worth it, I may go for one of those next year.

Assuming the S7 Active is looking good next year (no battery problems develop), I may target that, assuming an S8 is in the works. I kind of expect Samsung to push S8 to the market quickly to get past the stigma of exploding S7 Notes, which could lead to a fire sale (see what I did there?) on the S7 models without battery issues.

 

[Doohickie]

I have a Samsung S6 Active. Well, I've had 4. The first lasted about 18 months but the battery went bad and I got a refurb under warranty. Worked fine until I got the Marshmallow 6.0 upgrades. The I started having all kinds of bluetooth problems. My heart rate strap stopped connecting, my Omron BP monitor stopped communicating, My Honda link stopped, and I started getting intermittent dropouts with my BTLE blah blah blah...

I had no idea what BTLE meant. Searched around a little.... "Bluetooth Low Energy"

 

[soogriff]

I've used my S6 Active off and on. I mainly come back for the camera (destroys my iPhone 6s). Despite taking a ton of pictures, I don't have an issue with storage space because I periodically upload them to my Google Photos account before deleting them off my phone. I don't store a ton of music on my phone; I mainly stream from apps. I have a very thin Tudia case for my phone. Works fine and keeps it from getting scuffed.

 

[htcrazy]

I really like mine. I have several other phones including the S7 Active. I honestly prefer the 16:9 ratio of the S6 Active. It is just the right size for me. The S7A is larger and heavier. I have an Axon 7 for music, but my S6 Active is my daily driver. I have the 64 gb version and space is not a problem. I offload pictures and videos as soon as possible.