I need phone repair/selection advice.

[nt40lanman]

Hello all,

Firstly, please, This is a long read but I'm fairly new at Android so if you don't have anything helpful to say, save it. In return I'll try to keep my ranting down

Over a year ago I switched from Windows Phone 10 (still miss it) to Android. I chose Android over Apple primarily because I have 2 MS e-mail accounts with separate contacts lists and Apple won't handle that well. I got an inexpensive Galaxy S7 off Amazon, which I thought would get me going. I think my problems are a buggy phone, an old phone, a Samsung phone, and Android in general.

It has gotten slower and I now realize the online "octa-core" specs I have seen on phone comparison sites are not the "Quad core" phone I got. And the battery has gone from 28 hours to 14 or 16 tops now. I probably need to step up to a newer phone but I'm not spending $800 on something I could easily smash or drop in a lake.

As for bugginess, every so often it just forgets things like syncing contacts from my lists into the "contacts" app. I go to dial and have no contacts and have to re-set the settings. Sometimes it gets warm and burns through battery for no reason. Sometimes it gets insanely slow when I open it after it doing nothing at all. And maps are painful. I had to install "Maps Go".

As far as Samsung goes, I hate all the bloatware and samsung apps I can't delete. It randomly tries to switch me back to the Samsung messaging app. And they bug me EVERY day about my Samsung account.

I would welcome diagnostic and repair advice to clean up and speed up my phone but I'm probably headed for a new phone so I'd take advice on that too. I'll probably get a used phone because again, not spending $800 on a phone, just want bump up to something more usable. Something a similar size to my S7. And "Stock Android" might be nice so I could choose what I want installed.

 

[B. Diddy]

It has gotten slower and I now realize the online "octa-core" specs I have seen on phone comparison sites are not the "Quad core" phone I got.

What's the exact model number (in Settings>About Phone)? The global variant has the Samsung Exynos 8890 SoC, which is octa-core, while the US variant has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, which is quad-core. Having more cores doesn't necessarily mean an SoC is more powerful, though -- Exynos SoCs are generally less powerful than the flagship Snapdragons.

And the battery has gone from 28 hours to 14 or 16 tops now.

That could very well be due to an aging battery. The S7 is 4 years old, and depending on the previous owner's usage pattern (I'm assuming this is either a used or refurbished phone), the battery can start to show signs of deterioration as early as 12-18 months, or as late as 3-4 years. But there are a lot of factors that can affect battery life, like poor cell signal strength, misbehaving apps in the background, etc. It could also explain the phone getting warm and draining battery more.

It can help to see battery stats. Charge up to 100%, then let it drain to 20-30% with normal usage, without charging in between. Then show us:

1. The main Settings>Battery screen.
2. The fullscreen battery graph screen (which may show Awake time and Cell Signal Strength).
3. The Screen category (to see total Screen On time).
4. The Cell Standby category, if present (to see Time Without Signal).


http://forums.androidcentral.com/ge...ide-how-post-screenshots-android-central.html
You might have to install a 3rd party battery monitor, like GSam Battery Monitor, to get the Cell Signal Strength graph.

As for bugginess, every so often it just forgets things like syncing contacts from my lists into the "contacts" app. I go to dial and have no contacts and have to re-set the settings.

Are you saving your contacts to your Google account, or some other account (like your Samsung account or the local Phone account)? I always recommend saving contacts to your Google account, since that should reliably sync automatically to your Google Contacts in the cloud.

As for the general sluggishness that you experience, it might help to do a cache partition wipe, if you haven't already: https://www.t-mobile.com/support/de...t/wipe-cache-partition-samsung-galaxy-s7-edge

 

[nt40lanman]

Hi B Diddy

It's a SM G930A. I checked it with CPU-Z and it's a Snapdragon 820

I installed the GSAM Battery monitor and will charge it and post a screenshot. In Battery Usage, Android System is always at the top of the list.

My contacts live on outlook.com and office.com and are synced in. Works fine until my phone gets forgetful.

I've wiped the cache partition a few times.


I'm looking towards maybe a lower end Nokia as an upgrade, maybe the 7.1 for it's smaller screen.

 

[B. Diddy]

It's not unusual for Android System to be one of the top battery users -- it's the system, after all.

I don't use Microsoft for my contacts, so unfortunately I can't comment about any glitches that might occur with contact syncing there.

If you're looking for a great budget/midrange phone, look no further than the Pixel 4a. But it might depend on what's important to you in a phone. The 4a is great because of the superb Pixel camera, the reliable and enduring support from Google in terms of security updates and Android version upgrades, and excellent battery life. But no SD card support, if that's important to you.

 

[L0n3N1nja]

I still have my S7 and it's got most of the same issues, most of them are battery related, I know it for a fact (has over 1200 charge cycles and most batteries are deteriorating by 500 charges, but since I don't use it daily I don't replace it.

Bad battery equals poor battery life, it gets hot easily which further degrades battery life and causes the SOC to over heat and throttle bringing performance to a crawl.

Also with Samsung numerous apps utilize the Samsung account, that's why it keeps asking you, personally just use my Google account for it.

I'd recommend a new phone, yours probably needs a battery and with it being over 4 years old it doesn't get updated any more. I'd recommend the Google Pixel 4a based on the information you gave. They start $350 new, run stock Android, and is a more compact device but I don't know the exact size.

 

[mustang7757]

I still have my S7 and it's got most of the same issues, most of them are battery related, I know it for a fact (has over 1200 charge cycles and most batteries are deteriorating by 500 charges, but since I don't use it daily I don't replace it.

Bad battery equals poor battery life, it gets hot easily which further degrades battery life and causes the SOC to over heat and throttle bringing performance to a crawl.

Also with Samsung numerous apps utilize the Samsung account, that's why it keeps asking you, personally just use my Google account for it.

I'd recommend a new phone, yours probably needs a battery and with it being over 4 years old it doesn't get updated any more. I'd recommend the Google Pixel 4a based on the information you gave. They start $350 new, run stock Android, and is a more compact device but I don't know the exact size.

I remember my s7 edge got hot often , beautiful phone but performance

 

[L0n3N1nja]

I remember my s7 edge got hot often , beautiful phone but performance

S7 was great to me until I had no home internet one year and left my S7 plugged into a charger while using miracast to my TV nightly and abused it as a mobile hotspot. Once the battery started to go it got HOT.

Also the only phone I've ever had that shut off due to over heating.

 

[mustang7757]

S7 was great to me until I had no home internet one year and left my S7 plugged into a charger while using miracast to my TV nightly and abused it as a mobile hotspot. Once the battery started to go it got HOT.

Also the only phone I've ever had that shut off due to over heating.

Oh wow !
Mine got hot doing simple day to day task

 

[nt40lanman]

Thanks for the replies!! This morning, my S7 changed it's own keyboard back to a google one from my MS SwiftKey.

Seems like some of my issues, battery and performance could be battery related. How do I find out how many charge cycles? Is there a way to gauge the actual battery capacity?

The Pixel 4a looks good. It's a little more than I wanted to spend but it is new not used. And it's almost the same size as my S7. I'm still looking at Nokias too. Honestly I have simple needs, just reliability, battery and don't **** me off. Just about any camera is fine with me although I do miss my Lumia 950 camera.

 

[B. Diddy]

How do I find out how many charge cycles? Is there a way to gauge the actual battery capacity?

AccuBattery has a battery health test.

You might want to look at the TCL 10L as well: https://www.amazon.com/TCL-Unlocked...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU6836049. It's gotten solid reviews so far.

 

[L0n3N1nja]

Seems like some of my issues, battery and performance could be battery related. How do I find out how many charge cycles? Is there a way to gauge the actual battery capacity?

I use an app called Charge Cycle Battery Stats from the Playstore to determine charge counts. It works immediately on any device I've tried with a sealed battery.

AccuBattery as linked above has the ability to tell you the estimated remaining capacity or health of your battery. It won't immediately tell you the health of your battery but should within a charge cycle or two. AccuBattery has more thorough information and tracks battery stats over time if you leave it on your phone long term.

 

[L0n3N1nja]

Oh wow !
Mine got hot doing simple day to day task

Which is sort of ironic considering Samsung bragged about the new liquid cooling and ability to dissipate heat while gaming on it. That and the low light camera were supposed to be 2 of the big highlights.

 

[mustang7757]

Which is sort of ironic considering Samsung bragged about the new liquid cooling and ability to dissipate heat while gaming on it. That and the low light camera were supposed to be 2 of the big highlights.

Yeah your right, another I liked little more back then was the edge panel features

 

[nt40lanman]

An update, I installed Accubattery and CPU-Z. Accubattery is off track a bit as I charged the phone to 40% before turning it on, and Accubattery thought I had 150% battery. After a few charge cycles, it is in the low 90s and dropping every charge cycle. Also,while I was using maps and charging, the phone felt warm. I ran CPU-Z and it told me 1 core was disabled and the other 3 were limited due to heat. I held the phone to the AC vent for a few minutes and it recovered, but that has to be part of my performance issues.

Could a bad battery cause heat and handicap the CPU?

 

[nt40lanman]

New update, Accubattery has my battery at 85%. Is that a significant degradation?

 

[nt40lanman]

Correction, 84% and 307 charge cycles.

 

[B. Diddy]

As a point of reference, Apple recommends changing the battery if it drops to <80%: https://www.pocket-lint.com/phones/news/apple/143585-iphone-battery-health-explained. You're probably ok for a little while longer, but you'll probably notice poorer and poorer battery life as time goes on.

 

[nt40lanman]

Thanks for that link B. That tells me I'm in trouble. This S7 is a quad core, where S7s seem to spec online as Octacore. I'm going to move on. I'm leaning towards Nokia as I liked their Windows phones and they have good features and specs for the money. I'll start a new thread looking for advice on that.