Photon has become less impressive

[mcp6530]

I got my Photon about a month ago and for the most part have loved it. But this past week, it's been struggling to find and keep a 3g/4g signal, it greys out all the time which indicates it's not connected to the data network. 15 or 20 minutes later it connects again. In general the 3g data is much slower than before also.

Also, the battery life sucks now, it's just a little better than my Epic used to be. I only get about 2.5 hours of display time out of it now and about 8 hours of battery life if i'm not on wifi. Yes, I have removed all widgets and applied all of the usual tricks to increase battery life.

And one more thing while i'm complaining, why can't the phone figure out i'm on wifi? why does 3g light up sometimes when i'm clearly on wifi with a strong signal????

I think something may be faulty with the radios on the phone, anyone else noticing any issues lately???

 

[sjamie]

I'm experiencing a few of the same issues and I know it is time for a factory reset for me. I've been downloading many apps trying to get the phone the way that I like it and there's probably a few conflicts somewhere.

 

[LancerzRalliart]

The 3g/4g speed problems are sprints network acting up as usual. The official sprint forums mainly consist of these types of posts. Doesn't matter what phone you have.

 

[Sean-Troy]

honestly my battery life is great I don't do facebook foursquare or twitter and I have it set to performance so I'm not trying to save battery the signal flux is maybe killing your battery hopefully you get your issues resolved

 

[anon(22885)]

FYI: Grey signal does not mean your roaming. The signal only turns blue when you are currently syncing to Google, i.e. your phone is syncing contact, gmail, or other Google content.

 

[mcp6530]

FYI: Grey signal does not mean your roaming. The signal only turns blue when you are currently syncing to Google, i.e. your phone is syncing contact, gmail, or other Google content.

that's interesting - when i go grey, i can't get on the internet...when i'm blue, which is the usual, there is no problem.

 

[sjamie]

that's interesting - when i go grey, i can't get on the internet...when i'm blue, which is the usual, there is no problem.

Same here!

 

[fintablayze]

The only time your signal bar is blue is when background data is turned on. However, I have noticed that signal strength and 3g speeds are better when background data is on.. It's very strange. Anyone else experiencing this?

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk

 

[Sean-Troy]

Mine aswell

 

[mcp6530]

interesting, you're right. i just turned off background data and it's still grey and i can still access the internet. I don't know what happened that day when it was grey and i couldn't get on the net.

Ran some tests with background data off first on 3g and 4g, then i enabled background data and it turned blue and ran the same tests.

speedtest when grey on 3g: (background data off)
149, 1398, 952, 776
85, 503, 495, 482 up (go figure)
decent speeds

speedtest when grey on 4g: (background data off)
8250, 12205, 3414,10567 dl
1689, 1650, 1668, 1687 up
crazy fast speeds on 4g this today.

speedtest with background data ON so it's blue 3G:
841, 598, 766, 896 dl
451, 123, 479, 163 up

speedtest with background data ON so it's blue 4G:
6191, 8149, 8413, 6553 dl
1660, 1130, 1039, 520 dl

 

[Gator352]

Sprint is also announcing something on the 7th. It's speculation and I have no proof but it's rumored to be EVDO REV B. It's a software upgrade and they have been doing it market by market.

 

[mcp6530]

Well, for some reason my battery has made a dramatic improvement. I did turn off background data and I'm not sure if that was the culprit but yesterday I got 24 hours of battery life! Just over 4 hours of screentime, that was huge. I was on wifi most of the day with a couple hours of 3g also.

With background data off though, i didn't get my email pushed very consistently - so that could be a problem.

 

[Sean-Troy]

You have to wake the phone after 15 minutes it cuts off data i have great battery life but i don't do facebook foursquare twitter which of course helps you can try just changing the frequency of your least used email account as Im set to performance and have the screen brightness a lil over half and four email accounts and google plus

 

[dguidry12]

It maybe that they are doing work to the sites in your area. Sprint network is getting worse as more smart phones are coming out and more people are moving towards them.

 

[Sean-Troy]

grey just means that you are not currently syncing with Google not to be worried

 

[jbuggydroid]

Well hopefully sprint gets working on their network which is what I am hearing they are doing. Just wish they would be upfront about it. Wonder what is going to happen once the iphone hits and more people come to sprint

 

[ronnienyc]

You should make sure to pull out the battery now and then. I was having some issue last week and pulling the battery solved everything. simply powering down the phone does not work.