Compilation of things to check on new SGII

[ihbsbA]

I have read and read these forums and I've come up with a list of things I need to check if (when) I get this phone... have I missed anything?

LOS - which I understand is a bug that happens sometimes after rooting (which I intend to do first thing) - I have read that this is happening to SOME people, but not everyone and a reboot fixes it. Is there more to this issue than I've mentioned?

WiFi connectivity - I've seen users say they lose their signal in their homes after being idle. I don't know how to test this other than to use WiFi and see if it drops after a few minutes. I've read from 10 to 30 minutes. Is there a fix for this? (Seems like I've read there is, but apparently I've forgotten to bookmark it) I know to make sure WiFi is set to "never" sleep.

Signal issues - obviously I will know how well my Evo 4G performs now, so I will only have that to compare and will do so using this phone in as many places as I can immediately. (Anyone want to chat? lol)

Slow notification LED - this bugs me. I use visual indication of what's going on with my notifications more than vibration OR sound - I like my phone to be silent and I do NOT wear my phone. I've heard there are apps to correct (or speed up) this LED? I've also heard there are only blue and red options, correct?

Did I read this phone has a PLASTIC screen??? Is that true? Does it scratch easily? I have had my Evo since launch and I don't use a protector..... I don't have a single scratch on my phone. Worried about plastic.....

Battery issues are not a problem for me, I will have extra batteries and such - coming from the Evo, though, I hear is a big improvement. Even if it's the same, that's fine.

What am I going to hate going from Sense to Touch Wiz?
Are there any other "glitches" that I've forgotten?
I want to be able to deal with this phone for my 20 months. I'm at 17 with Evo and could keep going - pretty happy with it.

Thanks friends! :-*
Evo_Girl

 

[GCMS]

I have read and read these forums and I've come up with a list of things I need to check if (when) I get this phone... have I missed anything?

LOS - which I understand is a bug that happens sometimes after rooting (which I intend to do first thing) - I have read that this is happening to SOME people, but not everyone and a reboot fixes it. Is there more to this issue than I've mentioned?

WiFi connectivity - I've seen users say they lose their signal in their homes after being idle. I don't know how to test this other than to use WiFi and see if it drops after a few minutes. I've read from 10 to 30 minutes. Is there a fix for this? (Seems like I've read there is, but apparently I've forgotten to bookmark it) I know to make sure WiFi is set to "never" sleep.

Signal issues - obviously I will know how well my Evo 4G performs now, so I will only have that to compare and will do so using this phone in as many places as I can immediately. (Anyone want to chat? lol)

Slow notification LED - this bugs me. I use visual indication of what's going on with my notifications more than vibration OR sound - I like my phone to be silent and I do NOT wear my phone. I've heard there are apps to correct (or speed up) this LED? I've also heard there are only blue and red options, correct?

Did I read this phone has a PLASTIC screen??? Is that true? Does it scratch easily? I have had my Evo since launch and I don't use a protector..... I don't have a single scratch on my phone. Worried about plastic.....

Battery issues are not a problem for me, I will have extra batteries and such - coming from the Evo, though, I hear is a big improvement. Even if it's the same, that's fine.

What am I going to hate going from Sense to Touch Wiz?
Are there any other "glitches" that I've forgotten?
I want to be able to deal with this phone for my 20 months. I'm at 17 with Evo and could keep going - pretty happy with it.

Thanks friends! :-*
Evo_Girl

Alot of the the signal issues is going to depend primarily on 2 things 1) your location and 2) if you happen to get a defective phone out of the batch. Otherwise you shouldn't have any signal issue.
The screen is not plastic. It's gorilla glass and is supposedly scratch resistant alot of people have naked phones. I still put screen protector on mine. The phone overall does have like a plastic feel to it but it's because it's so lightweight compared to an Evo i was holding my sister's evo and it felt like a brick in my hands. Slow LED was a little annoying but got used to and it's not too slow but that's subjective. As far as Sense and Touch Wiz it will take some used to the differences. The only thing i can say that irked me was that the screen never stays full on. Example when your Evo is plugged and charging the lockscreen is always visible unless you don't want it to. The Epic will go to sleep in about 10 seconds. It irks me because i customize my lockscreen to show off and when i charge its only up for like 10 sec. Overall you will find that the minor and i stress minor irks with the phone are far out weighed by the capability, looks and feel of the phone. It's a great phone try it you have 14 day to play with it. Good Luck.

 

[JayWill]

LOS - which I understand is a bug that happens sometimes after rooting (which I intend to do first thing) - I have read that this is happening to SOME people, but not everyone and a reboot fixes it. Is there more to this issue than I've mentioned?

LOS is not related to root, but can manifest itself or can happen more often on a modified kernel. However, if you root and use the stock kernel that's been recompiled, you will not increase or decrease your potential for LOS events. The real issue with LOS is once signal is lost, the phone will not regain a signal on its own without a reboot, which can result in missed calls, battery drain and other issues.

WiFi connectivity - I've seen users say they lose their signal in their homes after being idle. I don't know how to test this other than to use WiFi and see if it drops after a few minutes. I've read from 10 to 30 minutes. Is there a fix for this? (Seems like I've read there is, but apparently I've forgotten to bookmark it) I know to make sure WiFi is set to "never" sleep.

Don't know, as I've never had any wifi issues.

Signal issues - obviously I will know how well my Evo 4G performs now, so I will only have that to compare and will do so using this phone in as many places as I can immediately. (Anyone want to chat? lol)

Yep give it some good testing against your EVO. I would document your dBM on the EVO in areas you frequent, then compare it to what you get on the E4GT.

Slow notification LED - this bugs me. I use visual indication of what's going on with my notifications more than vibration OR sound - I like my phone to be silent and I do NOT wear my phone. I've heard there are apps to correct (or speed up) this LED? I've also heard there are only blue and red options, correct?

Yes Blue and Red only, however, some people have been able to get a Magenta color with a 3rd party app like Handcent, Go SMS or Lightflow and setting the color to Green. Regarding the slow flash, if you do use another SMS App like the ones I mentioned, you can set the color to White, which results in a very fast flashing Red LED.

Did I read this phone has a PLASTIC screen??? Is that true? Does it scratch easily? I have had my Evo since launch and I don't use a protector..... I don't have a single scratch on my phone. Worried about plastic.....

Nope, its Gorilla Glass. Never hurts to use a screen protector though. Mine is naked, and I don't have any scratches yet, although I tend to be VERY careful.

Battery issues are not a problem for me, I will have extra batteries and such - coming from the Evo, though, I hear is a big improvement. Even if it's the same, that's fine.

You should see major battery life improvement over the EVO

What am I going to hate going from Sense to Touch Wiz?

That boils down to personal preference. TouchWiz is great, but doesn't provide near the level of eye candy as Sense. You may also miss certain Sense features that are not in TouchWiz. For eye candy, you can make up for some of it by using a widget app like Fancy Widgets.

Are there any other "glitches" that I've forgotten?

Look for your screen not responding when plugged into a charger. Look for strange battery drain that could be signal related. Just because you get a good signal in your area on your EVO doesn't mean you'll experience the same on the E4GT. I think that about covers the basics. It seems you've really done your homework.

Good Luck!

 

[ihbsbA]

LOS - which I understand is a bug that happens sometimes after rooting (which I intend to do first thing) - I have read that this is happening to SOME people, but not everyone and a reboot fixes it. Is there more to this issue than I've mentioned?

LOS is not related to root, but can manifest itself or can happen more often on a modified kernel. However, if you root and use the stock kernel that's been recompiled, you will not increase or decrease your potential for LOS events. The real issue with LOS is once signal is lost, the phone will not regain a signal on its own without a reboot, which can result in missed calls, battery drain and other issues.

So, when does the LOS appear? I mean, is there a way to know it's happening so you can reboot? I want to identify this early so I can exchange it if it happens in the event it's just my handset.
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Signal issues - obviously I will know how well my Evo 4G performs now, so I will only have that to compare and will do so using this phone in as many places as I can immediately. (Anyone want to chat? lol)

Yep give it some good testing against your EVO. I would document your dBM on the EVO in areas you frequent, then compare it to what you get on the E4GT.

Do you use an app for this? Or do you check it manually? (if so, how?)
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Slow notification LED - this bugs me. I use visual indication of what's going on with my notifications more than vibration OR sound - I like my phone to be silent and I do NOT wear my phone. I've heard there are apps to correct (or speed up) this LED? I've also heard there are only blue and red options, correct?

Yes Blue and Red only, however, some people have been able to get a Magenta color with a 3rd party app like Handcent, Go SMS or Lightflow and setting the color to Green. Regarding the slow flash, if you do use another SMS App like the ones I mentioned, you can set the color to White, which results in a very fast flashing Red LED.

Ohh, I do remember reading that somewhere. Thanks for the reminder -- I do use SMSPro - Handcent is a PITA.
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What am I going to hate going from Sense to Touch Wiz?

That boils down to personal preference. TouchWiz is great, but doesn't provide near the level of eye candy as Sense. You may also miss certain Sense features that are not in TouchWiz. For eye candy, you can make up for some of it by using a widget app like Fancy Widgets.

Ok, let me reask that --- I don't use the weather/clock widget from Sense, nor do I use many of the widgets (those are app specific anyway, right? so Sense doesn't matter...) so I guess I don't really understand what SENSE does or what I will miss... I liked how the phone looked in demo - so maybe I will actually enjoy Touch Wiz...
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Are there any other "glitches" that I've forgotten?

Look for your screen not responding when plugged into a charger. Look for strange battery drain that could be signal related. Just because you get a good signal in your area on your EVO doesn't mean you'll experience the same on the E4GT. I think that about covers the basics. It seems you've really done your homework.

Why THANK YOU.... I actually have read these forums for a while, but read as much as I could - I'm not sure why it's such a big decision to switch, even if Samsung never updated the phone, it will probably be fine. I have never updated the Evo except to Froyo... haven't done the little updates since..About the screen staying on, I prefer it not to - you can't get an app to make it stay on? Also, I've heard about auto-brightness not working, but I never use auto brightness, I hope there's a way to turn it off? I've heard some of the screen not responding depends on the type of charger, is that what you mean, or are you referring to the stock charger? Also, do you have excessive heat with yours?

Good Luck!

 

[ihbsbA]

The only thing i can say that irked me was that the screen never stays full on. Example when your Evo is plugged and charging the lockscreen is always visible unless you don't want it to. The Epic will go to sleep in about 10 seconds. It irks me because i customize my lockscreen to show off and when i charge its only up for like 10 sec. .

I don't like my screen to stay on, so I will probably be fine with this...will it stay on when playing a video on YouTube or when listening to Slacker? You can't set it to stay on? Is there not an app to allow you to?

 

[GCMS]

I don't like my screen to stay on, so I will probably be fine with this...will it stay on when playing a video on YouTube or when listening to Slacker? You can't set it to stay on? Is there not an app to allow you to?

Yes, when playing a video it will stay on. If there is an app that allows it to stay on during the charging process i'm not aware of it. Can't really go wrong with this phone I think you'll be impressed with it.

 

[JayWill]

So, when does the LOS appear? I mean, is there a way to know it's happening so you can reboot? I want to identify this early so I can exchange it if it happens in the event it's just my handset.

You'll know you got a LOS event if you look at your screen and see a circle with a red line through it. I've never had one single LOS though, and you may not either. But other than looking at the screen, you will not know your phone had a loss of service. Someone over at XDA came up with a rather brilliant way to use a paid App (I forget what it's called) to automatically reboot your phone if you experience a LOS event. Don't worry about that now though. I wouldn't concern yourself with LOS unless you actually experience one.

Do you use an app for this? Or do you check it manually? (if so, how?)

It's right in the phone's settings. On the E4GT is under Settings > About phone > Status then scroll down to Signal strength, which is measured in - dBm. The lower number the better. My signal right now having full bars in the status bar is at -65 dBm. Use this number and not the bars when comparing signal strength.

About the screen staying on, I prefer it not to - you can't get an app to make it stay on? Also, I've heard about auto-brightness not working, but I never use auto brightness, I hope there's a way to turn it off? I've heard some of the screen not responding depends on the type of charger, is that what you mean, or are you referring to the stock charger? Also, do you have excessive heat with yours?

Some people like to actually use the phone while on the charger (like in the car for example). This has been a problem for some people as the screen can become unresponsive when plugged in to the charger. And yes it seems to be related to some of the stock chargers that come with the phone. Mine works just fine.

Yes you can disable Auto-Brightness, which I have done. I never found it to work very well.

I only had my phone heat up beyond what I would consider normal one single time. I had the phone plugged into a computer with a USB cable and I was transferring over some large music files (audiobooks). Since that time I've never had unexpected overheating.

 

[ihbsbA]

I do remember reading about the unresponsive screen, particularly in reference to the cheapy WalMart chargers ---something about the strength of the charge..... Thanks for your responses Jay - I appreciate it!

 

[TheMacs]

You'll likely be very happy with the switch after a brief adjustment period.

The significant lighter weight, the much improved speed, and the far better screen are three biggies.

Sense to TW will be a bit of an adjustment, but not bad at all. Just play with it a lot in the initial 2-week period. If there's something you must have from Sense, one of the many Launchers will likely cover it.

I found the LED a bit of a pia due to its slow blink rate. I too like the visual, and think it could be improved. But it's not been a deal killer for me.

No overheating at all on mine. And battery life is at times amazing, and other times average. YMMV depending on your use of course.

Seems like the crazy screen issues are due to the charger, not the phone.

Good luck!

 

[DirkBelig]

I don't miss anything from Sense and find the configurability of TW to be pretty slick. I sometimes wonder if people use alternative launchers just to be all nerd snobby over not settling for stock?

I LOVE the glass on the GS2. I don't know what sort of coating they have on it, but it's so slick and barely registers finger oils. I don't use a screen protector because they pooch the quality of the image; what's the point of having a Super AMOLED Plus display if you're going to put something over it that makes it look like sandpaper?

I've had no wifi drops or LOS issues. GPS locks in less than 5 seconds, though it seems to have a larger margin of error than my EVO did. (30-50 ft off instead of <20 ft.)

 

[bjones521]

For all you guys that say this phone has gorilla glass.....where did you read that??? My phone has hella scratches on my screen. I accidently put my phone in my pocket where my keys. I pulled my phone out and nothing but scratches!!!

 

[GCMS]

For all you guys that say this phone has gorilla glass.....where did you read that??? My phone has hella scratches on my screen. I accidently put my phone in my pocket where my keys. I pulled my phone out and nothing but scratches!!!

Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch - Full phone specifications

Read under display

 

[JayWill]

For all you guys that say this phone has gorilla glass.....where did you read that??? My phone has hella scratches on my screen. I accidently put my phone in my pocket where my keys. I pulled my phone out and nothing but scratches!!!

Samsung Galaxy SII Gorilla Glass Confirmed | Android Community

No reason they would have used anything different on our variant in my opinion. Also, remember that gorilla glass is scratch resistant, but not scratch proof. Something like keys in a pocket scraping the screen can definitely cause scratches.

 

[JosephD1014]

If you want to keep your screen on while charging or connected to USB, get "Stay Awake Widget" from the marketplace - it's free and you activate it with a homescreen widget that lets you select to stay awake on USB, Charging, or Both!

Hope this helps

 

[ihbsbA]

In what instances would it matter if my GPS is off by 20 or 50 feet? Just curious... I mean, will it put me a block over in navigation or something? Maybe those of you who do caching need this accuracy?

 

[TheMacs]

You're right - driving, 20 vs 50 ft may not matter too much. But on foot, 30 ft matters.

Keys vs glass, I'm betting on keys everytime. If my naked phone is in my pocket, nothing else is. Not worth the risk.

 

[JayWill]

You're right - driving, 20 vs 50 ft may not matter too much. But on foot, 30 ft matters.

Yeah, it could cause you to walk into a Starbucks different from the one you had your GPS set for.

 

[ihbsbA]

Lmao Jay.. are any of you rooted???

Sent from my Evo 4G using Tapatalk.

 

[JayWill]

Lmao Jay.. are any of you rooted???

Sent from my Evo 4G using Tapatalk.

Yes. I gained root and CWM by flashing the LoStKernel using Odin. Rooting is different on a Samsung phone than a HTC, but it's quite easy once you get familiar with it. Rooting with a stock kernel is rather easy as well, which I summarized here http://forums.androidcentral.com/sp...eta-keyboard-without-rooting.html#post1353497 . With this method, you can rest assured that it will not change your LOS exposure if you're worried about that at all. There are some nice tweaks in the LoStKernel though and I haven't experienced on single LOS with it.

 

[mrcminnesota]

I have found with 3 different Epic 4G Touch phones that I "do not" roam (I have correctly set up the roaming including following the tip of how to activate roaming). I actually roamed once and that is how I know I have done it correctly (noted 300 kb in my usage). I actually get a triangle in the left side of notification bar and a notification message about "loss of data connectivity." I still have phone signal. I am not the only one that has experienced it - I live in the Twin Cities and someone else posted this similar issue. In further research it may have to do with how Samsung antenna (weak signals)/radio plays with certain tower hardware/configuration.

There has been a decreased signal (I don't get the LOS) but it is not horrendous for me. I did have two phones that actually had a WiFi issues (I exchanged the first one immediately as I could not connect to WiFi) and the second one a Sprint Technician stated there was a hardware issue with WiFi and 4G and it was defective (I exchanged that phone). No problems with the current one as far as WiFi.

I have also found that TW Launcher does not stay as the default (occasionally it will ask for me to chose and I check default and chose but it will pop up again later).

It does not have all the built-in widgets that HTC has but I have learned to adjust. You will need to review settings (there is no external sd card so you need to change camera settings for storage to default to external sd card). Also, when looking at files on the "sd card" it is not really the external sd card - you need to make sure you are looking at the file "external sd card" - I lost a few pics because I didn't know the difference.

Even with these issues, I have stayed with this phone because it is responsive, beautiful screen, camera quality, processor speed - my daughter who has an iphone even thought it was better (she is on Verizon). I also like the Kies software to be able to sync up files with my PC "without" a cable - just over the network.

I am hoping there is a fix for my loss of data connectivity but if not, I won't purchase another Samsung unless I know they have fixed that signal issue. Good luck.