Poll: how did your Note 4 die? Is it still working?

[nahoku]

I've only had it for like a couple months.
I'm going to order the Anker battery and see how that works out

I really recommend you contact TMO... might save you some money.

 

[dragonspirit1185]

I really recommend you contact TMO... might save you some money.

They will just send me out another OEM battery

 

[nahoku]

They will just send me out another OEM battery

Yes, but it'll be free. Hopefully you'll get a good one as not all of them exhibit this problem. Good luck!

 

[dragonspirit1185]

Yes, but it'll be free. Hopefully you'll get a good one as not all of them exhibit this problem. Good luck!

I highly doubt it this was a courtesy that they gave me since my phone is so out of warranty. Though if the OEM batteries are having a lot of issues then why would I just keep trying them?
I can order a battery from Amazon and it was still does the same thing I can just return it. If it doesn't do the same thing and it whines up fixing my issues then the $16 will be worth it.

 

[nahoku]

I highly doubt it this was a courtesy that they gave me since my phone is so out of warranty. Though if the OEM batteries are having a lot of issues then why would I just keep trying them?
I can order a battery from Amazon and it was still does the same thing I can just return it. If it doesn't do the same thing and it whines up fixing my issues then the $16 will be worth it.

Well it's certainly up to you what you wish to do. Even if it was a courtesy though, the battery itself should come with the 1 year warranty. This alone should be enough for them to replace the battery regardless how old your phone is. The phone age is irrelevant to the battery warranty. I have had 6 OEM batteries and 2 of them displayed the problem after some time. The other 4 have been running fine for a very long time. Batteries are batteries, so they do fail and Note 4 batteries aren't failing any more frequently than others are. At least we're lucky enough to be able to replace them in the phone! I'd rather take my chances on a free carrier supplied battery, that should be an original Samsung, than having to purchase a 3rd party one. But again, it's up to you. Good luck again!

 

[Makad]

I had two Note 4s, the first one lasted about a year before it wouldn't hold a charge. It would charge and then it would drain in minutes. My Warranty company sent me another and in about a year it did the same thing. They didn't have a replacement for it so they refunded me the full amount I paid for the note 4. I used the refund money to buy a note 7, and we know what happened with that.

 

[bootlooped]

I'm on my second Note 4 from T-mobile.

I had previous one 4-5 months. It was unsteady from the beginning. Bootlooped sometimes. After getting a new battery from Frye's (unidentifiable brand), it was OK for a while. Occasionally very slow. Then burst of bootlooping, freezing, overheating.

Replacement phone OK so far with same off brand battery.

 

[dragonspirit1185]

I bought an Anker battery off of Amazon and I don't have the issue anymore and I called T-Mobile and told them that I had to buy a non OEM battery and they credited me the money that I spent on the battery to my bill.

 

[nahoku]

I bought an Anker battery off of Amazon and I don't have the issue anymore and I called T-Mobile and told them that I had to buy a non OEM battery and they credited me the money that I spent on the battery to my bill.

Glad you got it going. Very nice of TMO to take care of you like that!

 

[natehoy]

Still have my original Note 4 and it's still going strong. Right now it's at home relegated to streaming duty, but I may swap it and my S7 Edge out and see how it does out and about now that I've changed phone plans.

 

[datum9]

The stock battery is awful. ZeroLemon makes nice stuff. Their 10,000 mAh battery.

 

[dlcpa]

Constant crashing is never good for a phone... or computers for that matter!

I have my Note 4 for 3 years. It generally doesn't lag. It went to Samsung because the screen died and they did a complimentary repair, very classy and decent of Samsung.

They didn't want to fix it at first because they couldn't read the sticker on the inside of the phone that has the IMEI address. I have no idea why they couldn't read it or i removed it because it was blank but I was able to get verification that it was my phone and what the IMEI address was through AT&T and I had to send it back to them and then they fixed it and it's really running really well.

I keep having to replace batteries and I'm getting them from Anker and Anker has really been great about it as they replace them for free when they belly in the middle so that you can spin the battery around on a flat surface.

I have 4 batteries so I rotate them. However, as nohoku said continual crashes aren't great for the phone, what about continual battery pulls?

Back to the batteries bellying, sometimes it is hard to close the back plate. As I said before Samsung didn't want to fix my phone without the ticket on the inside being readible, especially when the screen is dead. Then I realized when seeing the smudged IMEI #on the ticket inside the other day, i reakized what was happening because of the bellying battery, it would rub out the printing. It was also causing reboots because the battery itself got bigger because it bellied, it lost direct contact with the inside contact points and rebooted.

So why is this happening? I have the phone on really bright and that really kills battery life and makes the phone hotter and often times I don't even realize it but location devices is on and that really makes the phone hot. So I think those two factors are causing batteries to belly and maybe even in the case of the Note 7, where there is no place to expand to, explode.

Other than the battery issue, I don't see any reason why I would want to spend $1,000 to get a Note 8 that will give me what more than I have from the Note 4? Plus I need a new case and the tax and screen protector which I hear is $50. I just don't see the point. Samsung is,offering $400 off on your prior phone but they stopped it at the Note 5. I might have considered it with that discount but even so I'm talking about $600 plus I'm giving up my backup phone that's got to be worth $100 and then I need new stuff so that's another $75 so I'm still almost $800 and I'm not sure that it's worth it for a little bit better camera.

There is no substantial lag time on the Note 4 and I'm running 6.0.1 so what else am I going to gain for that much money?

Then I would also need $200 insurance because my Note 4 would be gone and all I have left is the Note 2.

For now I'm sticking with the Note 4.

 

[jlczl]

I have my Note 4 for 3 years. It generally doesn't lag. It went to Samsung because the screen died and they did a complimentary repair, very classy and decent of Samsung.

They didn't want to fix it at first because they couldn't read the sticker on the inside of the phone that has the IMEI address. I have no idea why they couldn't read it or i removed it because it was blank but I was able to get verification that it was my phone and what the IMEI address was through AT&T and I had to send it back to them and then they fixed it and it's really running really well.

I keep having to replace batteries and I'm getting them from Anker and Anker has really been great about it as they replace them for free when they belly in the middle so that you can spin the battery around on a flat surface.

I have 4 batteries so I rotate them. However, as nohoku said continual crashes aren't great for the phone, what about continual battery pulls?

Back to the batteries bellying, sometimes it is hard to close the back plate. As I said before Samsung didn't want to fix my phone without the ticket on the inside being readible, especially when the screen is dead. Then I realized when seeing the smudged IMEI #on the ticket inside the other day, i reakized what was happening because of the bellying battery, it would rub out the printing. It was also causing reboots because the battery itself got bigger because it bellied, it lost direct contact with the inside contact points and rebooted.

So why is this happening? I have the phone on really bright and that really kills battery life and makes the phone hotter and often times I don't even realize it but location devices is on and that really makes the phone hot. So I think those two factors are causing batteries to belly and maybe even in the case of the Note 7, where there is no place to expand to, explode.

Other than the battery issue, I don't see any reason why I would want to spend $1,000 to get a Note 8 that will give me what more than I have from the Note 4? Plus I need a new case and the tax and screen protector which I hear is $50. I just don't see the point. Samsung is,offering $400 off on your prior phone but they stopped it at the Note 5. I might have considered it with that discount but even so I'm talking about $600 plus I'm giving up my backup phone that's got to be worth $100 and then I need new stuff so that's another $75 so I'm still almost $800 and I'm not sure that it's worth it for a little bit better camera.

There is no substantial lag time on the Note 4 and I'm running 6.0.1 so what else am I going to gain for that much money?

Then I would also need $200 insurance because my Note 4 would be gone and all I have left is the Note 2.

For now I'm sticking with the Note 4.

I here ya on wanting to stick to the Note 4. I wish they re-released it with updated internals but left the design identical (as well as leaving it as developer friendly as the early Note 4 firmware releases). The Note 4 was the best of it’s time and possibly ever, right behind the HTC HD2.

 

[catberryday]

My Note 4 made it 2 years and 9 months. The August AT&T security update sent into a bootloop. AT&T wouldn't help restore it just wanted me to purchase a new phone. Instead I switched to Verizon.

 

[nahoku]

I have 4 batteries so I rotate them. However, as nohoku said continual crashes aren't great for the phone, what about continual battery pulls?

Battery pulls? Typically, a "battery pull" is a term used when something goes wrong with the phone and the only way to recover/reset the phone is to pull the battery out without turning the phone off. Is this what you're doing? If you're just turning off the phone, replacing the battery with your spare, and then turning the phone back on, then it's no problem. People, myself included, have been swapping spare batteries into phones for a long time. I once had 6 spares I rotated constantly and my Note 4 still works pristine after almost 3 years.

So why is this happening? I have the phone on really bright and that really kills battery life and makes the phone hotter and often times I don't even realize it but location devices is on and that really makes the phone hot.

You answered your own question and listed the biggest battery eaters. Turn down the brightness unless there's some insane reason you need it up that high, and turn off gps when you're not using it. Besides screen and gps, bad charging could also cause the batteries to swell. There are many fake OEM chargers and external charging beds that don't regulate as well as they need to and thus can damage batteries. I can only guess you're not charging your spares in the phone?

 

[dlcpa]

Battery pulls? Typically, a "battery pull" is a term used when something goes wrong with the phone and the only way to recover/reset the phone is to pull the battery out without turning the phone off. Is this what you're doing?

I can only guess you're not charging your spares in the phone?

Yes, I just pull the battery without shutting it down. It made sense until now and I have seen junk files on PCS that kept going down without a proper clothes. Is there any utilities that go through the files to see if there are files without proper end of file marks.

I think charging in the phone actually causes more swelling than charging in a charger. I never seem to pick up a battery that was charging the charger where it's swelled and whenever I have discovered batteries that swelled they came out of a phone.

 

[nahoku]

Yes, I just pull the battery without shutting it down.

I'm an engineer, and while I can't say for sure that just yanking the battery will damage your phone, I also can't say I would recommend it. I would think a "proper" shutdown should be done first by turning off the phone before replacing the battery. It's like on PCs... you shouldn't just yank the power cord to shut down the computer. The proper sequencing of closing down tasks and processes before shut down should occur so the OS doesn't corrupt. I would think on a phone, it also needs to properly shut down processes to protect the OS. Turn off the phone first before replacing the battery.

I have seen junk files on PCS that kept going down without a proper clothes. Is there any utilities that go through the files to see if there are files without proper end of file marks.

I'm not quite sure I understand what you're asking here.

I think charging in the phone actually causes more swelling than charging in a charger. I never seem to pick up a battery that was charging the charger where it's swelled and whenever I have discovered batteries that swelled they came out of a phone.

Just because you don't "see" an external charger doing damage during charging doesn't mean nothing might be happening. Two of my batteries that swelled were charged externally as I rarely charged in the phone at the time they failed. I did charge in the phone when I didn't have one of my spares, so I really have no idea when/what caused the damage. Batteries fail after time, and that's something I accept will happen... that's why I love phones that have replaceable batteries like our Note 4's.

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

My husband's Note 4 just died. Went into a reboot loop following an update a couple of days ago. He changed batteries and factory reset, cleared the cache. Nothing helped. Will work plugged in but not on battery. Just bought him a first gen pixel off Ebay. It should arrive by Wednesday.

 

[agaskew]

Arrived July 2015, still going strong. I replaced the battery with an Anker one from Amazon as the original was dying a bit quickly.

Note 4 is rooted and currently running Android 7.1.2 (LineageOS) I got an S8 a year ago but TBH I prefer the Note 4 with its near- Stock Android install, its so slick. Sometimes the S8 stutters. One day LineageOS for the S8 will appear and I expect it could absolutely fly.

 

[TechNut79]

Still working, albeit slower at times and the is terrible. Will move to something newer when allows.