Dazed Confused Disappointed

[lesley57]

I have the Gear S2 SM-R730T watch and unfortunately I've had several problems with it. The first problem I noticed was the call forwarding. It doesn't seem to work, so I played around with a few settings and tried turning off WiFi and now call forwarding seems to work, but calls ring 5 times before they roll over to my watch - who wants to wait for 5 rings for a voice mail or call pick up these days? There must be a way to shorten the number of times the call rings before it forwards to the watch. Can anyone help me with this question?

The second problem I have is battery life. I rarely get to 4pm or 5pm before the watch is dead. I take it off the charger at 100% at 7am every day. I did have email, text, calendar, Good, incoming calls, missed calls, and voice mail notifications and I had WiFi, NFC, and GPS turned on. The watch face is set at 3 but it is on all the time. I just dropped email notifications and turned WiFi, NFC and GPS off. I did a factory reset but am still not getting past 5pm before the watch dies. I have read other posts here and elsewhere where battery life should be much better than what I am experiencing. Does anyone have any ideas of what else I can try?

The Samsung print ads are still showing Samsung Pay capability however Samsung has not released the app yet. This is the one thing about the way Samsung has rolled out this product that really disappoints me. From the outset, they did not advise their public that there was two versions of the watch, and I am not just talking about the styles. I am talking about the S1 BT version and the S2 G4 version. I am sure I am not the only fool that purchased the BT only version thinking they would be able to use it in the same way as the previous Gear as a tethered watch that didn't require a cell line but just a BT connection to answer and make calls. But I digress, what I really need to know is this - when will the company make good on the promise made by their print ads and release the Samsung Pay app for the watch?

 

[ShaggyKids]

I didn't like the call forwarding feature either for the same reason, takes too long for a call to travel from phone to watch before voicemail picks up. I *think* (but not positive) that what happens is a call hits your phone and goes through the number of rings it takes for the phone voicemail to pick up. When that doesn't happen call forwarding kicks in so your callers then have some additional rings to listen to before you or your watch voicemail pick up. I don't use call forwarding as a rule. If I need it, it's there for me.

I gave my watch phone # to like 2-3 people as an alternate # in case of emergency. No calls I get are so important that I need to have them forwarded to my watch. This comes from my strong privacy needs, I don't want people listening to my phone calls even if it's just a telemarketer calling. My watch is more for emergency outgoing calls when it comes to using it's phone capability. It also alleviates me having to take my phone with me when I walk my dogs and my husband and kids can still reach me.

I have simple needs for my S2 while others seem to use it for nearly everything and I just recently I went 2-3 days before needing a charge. I think the more you use it the more of course you're draining your battery. On all the time? That to me would be an auto-battery drain feature. Is it really necessary to have the screen on all the time or do you just like it that way?

My Gear S had horrible battery issues at first. I turned the screen brightness down to almost off (seriously the next step was off) but the screen didn't even appear to dim even a smidge and I obtained better battery life immediately. I could see the screen with no problem at all and I have old eyes. An update that came through also seemed to help.

What I would try is starting over with the apps selection. Choose one or two of the most important ones you need, go a few days with just those selected and see what happens. Add more one at a time. Perhaps you can narrow down one that really eats the battery and will find you can do without it as well.

When I see people who use many apps (especially always on) and subsequently complain about battery life I can only think they're expecting an awful lot from one tiny battery. I think your watch battery may be fine but you're expecting too much from it and the only way to find out is some kind of testing such as what I've mentioned.

Not saying it's maybe not defective and you should exchange it, just trying to give you some thoughts & ideas.

 

[jjhoneck]

My battery life was abysmal until someone told me to switch data from "3G on" to "Autoswitch". This turns off the cellular radio whenever you are connected to your phone.

Battery life jumped from 12 (or less) to 20+ hours, instantly. Since I sleep at night, anything more than that would be overkill, so I'm happy.

Verizon call forwarding works just fine for me.

As for apps, it's just a matter of time. They seem to be coming out in dibs and drabs.

 

[KahneFan]

I would agree with the Autoswitch, saved me some battery. Also, I turned my brightness down to 4 and have no issues. I could probably even go a little lower, but I'm good. As for always on, I just tried to find a watch face with an ambient face that I also liked.

 

[Mom2Ninjas]

For what it is worth... calls forwarded from my AT&T work phone go right through, no problem. Calls from my sprint phone take a long time to reach the watch. Its on Sprint's end I believe.

 

[Mom2Ninjas]

And your screen being on all day is gonna kill your battery.