Is Upgrading to Jelly Bean worthwhile?

[eptiger]

Did anyone upgrade from ICS to Jelly Bean and see improvements? My phone crashes multiple times a day (dropping battery life when this happens, sometimes from ~51% to 1%), drains battery quite fast (I'll have my phone idle for 2 hours sometimes and see a 20% drop in battery life without me using it directly), and the screen becomes unresponsive at times forcing me to restart it. Back when I was on GB in the beginning, I didn't have these issues, but replacing the battery, wiping the phone, and replacing the phone have only helped temporarily. These issues always recur.

Will Jelly Bean make my life any better? =P I'm eligible for a phone subside in about 4 weeks, so I'm planning to upgrade to probably some non-Samsung Android phone at that point.

Elton

 

[Ovidiu Preda]

I see that you have a Galaxy S2 Epic 4G. If you have a phone that originally came with Gingerbread and now has been upgraded to ICS, I don't think Jelly Bean will be any better. Maybe a little more stable but I don't think you will see any kind of performance benefit. While everyone wants to be on the latest Android build, a lot of the older phones can't handle it well. Especially phones with limited RAM. Today's phones have between 1 and 2 GB of RAM. Everything runs much smoother with 2GB of RAM. I currently use the Samsung Galaxy S4 on Verizon. It runs great. Never had to reboot. Never crashes on me at all. It is an amazing phone. It runs Jelly Bean 4.2.2. I'm happy with it and I am in no hurry for the 4.3 update whenever that may be. I think 4.3 adds some features that most tablet owners will take advantage of but aren't a necessity for phone users.

You also never mentioned if the ICS was some custom ROM or if your carrier pushed it out to your phone. I have heard that if you root your phone and install CyanogenMod or some other popular ROM, your phone usually runs smoother. Can't tell you that from experience. I have no need to root or unlock the bootloader of my GS4. I am happy with it the way it is and I don't have an itch or the time to mess with my phone. Also, usually higher end phones run better. As with most things, you get what you pay for. Older phones are usually offered for free or at a fraction of their original price. The reason is that they are trying to get rid of them and their specs aren't what the current line of phones are. That means buying a 12-18 month old phone and trying to upgrade it to the latest Android version will not be a good experience. That is just my opinion.

 

[srkmagnus]

In general, yes, I would say upgrade to Jellybean. Is touchwiz JB worth the update? I couldn't say. I've been using CM10.1 for a while now and it's great - no complaints.

 

[eptiger]

You also never mentioned if the ICS was some custom ROM or if your carrier pushed it out to your phone. I have heard that if you root your phone and install CyanogenMod or some other popular ROM, your phone usually runs smoother. Can't tell you that from experience. I have no need to root or unlock the bootloader of my GS4. I am happy with it the way it is and I don't have an itch or the time to mess with my phone. Also, usually higher end phones run better. As with most things, you get what you pay for. Older phones are usually offered for free or at a fraction of their original price. The reason is that they are trying to get rid of them and their specs aren't what the current line of phones are. That means buying a 12-18 month old phone and trying to upgrade it to the latest Android version will not be a good experience. That is just my opinion.

I didn't buy an older phone, I bought a brand new phone last spring running Gingerbread =P I would not say I got what I paid for because in the early summer last year when I got ICS is when the phone was no longer stable.

It's Sprint's ICS, not a custom ROM. I was reticent to try a custom ROM, but looking back I wish I had once ICS wreaked havoc on my phone.

Thanks for the advice!

Elton

 

[cyberdman]

Absolutely upgrade your E4GT to Jellybean and never look back. It has made this phone monumentally tolerable over ICS. It is like a new phone again and I know others would agree. After you do however, make sure you re-disable the stupid Sprint Connections Optimizer and disable Google-Now and you phone should work fantastically. Google-Now while it is cool, I never use it and on this phone it causes it to battery drain like a sucking vampire. Disable it and battery life improves dramatically. I probably don't have to tell you about the Sprint Connections Optimizer since you were on ICS and what a joke that thing is - of course maybe I do it you were saying you had a ton of problems on ICS. That thing is junk and destroys this phone, make sure it is disabled too.

 

[eptiger]

I don't use the connections optimizer. I do use Juice Defender though, which I think works pretty well as far as keeping the radios disabled except for AutoSync and when I use the phone.

Maybe I will do the upgrade then. I also don't use Touchwiz, I use GO Launcher EX, but from looking at Battery Mix I don't think it causes an extra battery life drain.

Thanks,

Elton

 

[cyberdman]

The update to Touchwiz with the Jellybean update makes it look and behave very much like stock Android. Try it out first, you might like it.

 

[eptiger]

I ended up upgrading and after a few days things look much more stable than ICS! It did require a full wipe though (not optional - the USB storage wasn't usable without a format). I still have some slowdowns, but the phone doesn't crash regularly (in fact, hasn't crashed at all - it's more proactive in killing non-responding apps). Swapping out my battery for an Ankur one has resolved my battery issues, as well.

Elton