The no-so-Epic 4G ?

[FallNAngel]

Perhaps I'm jumping the gun on this, but after reading some threads on this forum, does anyone else feel a bit... "cheated"? I mean, it was my understanding that the Epic was supposed to be the "best of the best"; at least for the Galaxy S series of phones, but the more I use mine (picked it up on launch day), the more I get aggravated with it; and almost entirely because of the battery. After reading, so far it looks like the list of complaints is:
* navigation keys (back, search, home, and menu) aren't sensitive enough.
* screen issues
* issues mounting the SD card on x64 OS's
* keyboard issues

Personally, I've had zero issues with these so far. The one issue I do have and I can't seem to fix; is the battery. I've turned off damn near everything. Brightness is all the way down, 4G, GPS and WiFi turn off. The phone is left to charge until it's full and when I turn the screen on < 5m later, it seems to be down 25%. I've even purchased JuiceDefender to help manage the battery life and it's *still* ridiculously bad; even then JD can't manage the 4G radio and apparently neither can Tasker (it shows WiMax, but won't let me selection it).

I mean, hopefully Froyo fixes issues that *can* be fixed but who knows when that'll be. Seriously, I'm not waiting until the last day of Sept (when I'm past the point of no-return (literally) with Sprint) for them to drop Froyo and see how things improve. After the Evo draining the battery like crazy was anyone hoping for something a bit more manageable on battery life? I just find it unfortunate that other carriers don't have a second radio to manage yet at this point can get similar speeds without the battery issues of a second radio.

 

[ratchetjaw#AC]

I am honestly loving this phone. Bought me an extra battery if needed. I can barely make a day with moderate use. Hopefully it will get better with froyo but even if it doesn't this is the best phone on the market for me

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

Nah, I love mine. Amazes me more everyday

 

[FallNAngel]

Well another inherent issue is that Sprint uses a higher frequency signal, which means less penetration into buildings. I knew this prior to getting the phone and everything aside from the battery I'm fine with. I've had the phone for less than a week so I obviously still want to give it a little bit more time, but I *literally* charged the phone with it turned off until it said the battery was full, took it off the charger and put it back on and it didn't say it was full... just went back to charging. Went out with the wife to run some errands and less than 2 hours later it says my battery is almost dead. What did I do during those 2 hours? Surfed the web for maybe 15m.

Yeah, the more I play with this phone the more I think either something is *very* wrong or Samsung / Sprint kicked this thing out the door without looking at it.

 

[IIJBII]

OP - well written post. I have to agree with you on the battery life. I have an EVO and Epic and (from my experience) the Epic battery is worse then the Evo. Also, when I check what's been using the battery the most and ot shows "display" it makes me wonder where all the claims for super amoled being better for battery life came from. I agree it's much brighter and looks very sharp but the battery i'm not sure about.

I like this phone a lot. I don't mind TouchWiz at all but I think the battery life could be improved quiet a bit.

Again, very well written post (I don't have that skill).

 

[Mook1e]

Sounds like you have a bad battery or something. I would return the phone for another one right now and if you have the same problem, move on to another device.

 

[IIJBII]

Well another inherent issue is that Sprint uses a higher frequency signal, which means less penetration into buildings. I knew this prior to getting the phone and everything aside from the battery I'm fine with. I've had the phone for less than a week so I obviously still want to give it a little bit more time, but I *literally* charged the phone with it turned off until it said the battery was full, took it off the charger and put it back on and it didn't say it was full... just went back to charging. Went out with the wife to run some errands and less than 2 hours later it says my battery is almost dead. What did I do during those 2 hours? Surfed the web for maybe 15m.

Yeah, the more I play with this phone the more I think either something is *very* wrong or Samsung / Sprint kicked this thing out the door without looking at it.

This sounds like something is very wrong. My battery doesn't last long but it's not nearly that bad at all. I would say something is wrong with your device or battery. That seems extreme.

 

[jfenton]

I think you have an issue with either your phone or battery.

I took mine of the charger at 5:00 this morning, have checked and replied to email,whenever they have come in, made or answered 8 phone calls and have done 9 text messages and mine is just barely above 1/2 charged according to the battery indicator.

GPS and WIFI are off, screen brightness on auto, 2 minute timeout on the screen and I turned off everything un needed in the Application > Running Services.

One thing which has made a difference for me...I'm using Launcher Pro with a solid black screen.

 

[FallNAngel]

I don't mind touchwiz either. My biggest complaint about it is that you can't change the bottom row of buttons... *that* irks me. Especially since if I'm going to try Google Voice, I won't use the Messaging app... which kinda hoses the feng shui of the ui. All in all, a minor inconvenience though.

Thanks for the compliment; I'm trying to convey that I do otherwise like this phone and not trying to troll the forum. Hell, if anyone has other suggestions, I'm open to them. At this point though; I'm fairly certain I've disabled everything humanly possible and this phone is just going to be a battery hog. Unless Samsung can get this taken care of by say... the 20th or so, I'll likely be returning this phone and canceling the service. Something I really don't want to do... not looking forward to going back to my iPhone 3g on ATT.

I'd consider a post-Froyo Vibrant, but I believe it'll be a noticeably higher monthly bill than Sprint and may not even solve the issues I'm having.

To those saying the battery drainage is extreme... that time in particular, I did have 4G enabled. Still seems crazy though. I do have a live wallpaper (the galaxy.. I figure it's what... 40% black?) and being that I won't be on the homescreen long anyway that it wouldn't be a huge deal. What makes this all worse is that it takes for-freaking-ever to charge... frustrating to have your phone on the charger more than it is in use. </vent>

So what's the battery replacement process like at Sprint? Do I need an appointment? Sign away my first born?

 

[keenan6]

We'll obviously see more people around here with some issues/complaints because they're asking for help.

I think I've seen only 1 or 2 posts telling us how much they loved the phone.

Every new phone/gadget is gonna have some problems and we're always gonna have people crying about the smallest annoyance. Can't please everyone.

 

[FallNAngel]

Oh absolutely; that's a given in most any situation. It's rare that you hear how happy someone is with a service or product, but they'll sure as hell write a novel about how a staff member didn't say "thank you".

Honestly, this has been an adjustment coming from the iPhone (my first "smartphone") to the Epic 4G (my first Android phone). So far, I really do like it. If I could get the battery life I want from it, that'd be great. As it is, my iPhone will get 1 - 1.5 days between charges. I don't hammer on the thing, I just use it when I need to and charge when the battery dies.

 

[keenan6]

I think the battery will eventually get better. When I first got my EVO, I barely made it thru 3 or 4 hours. I continued using the phone just as much as I did when I first got it, but the battery lasted for more than 6 hours a month down the road.

 

[nc2nc2]

Perhaps I'm jumping the gun on this, but after reading some threads on this forum, does anyone else feel a bit... "cheated"? I mean, it was my understanding that the Epic was supposed to be the "best of the best"; at least for the Galaxy S series of phones, but the more I use mine (picked it up on launch day), the more I get aggravated with it; and almost entirely because of the battery. After reading, so far it looks like the list of complaints is:
* navigation keys (back, search, home, and menu) aren't sensitive enough.
* screen issues
* issues mounting the SD card on x64 OS's
* keyboard issues

Personally, I've had zero issues with these so far. The one issue I do have and I can't seem to fix; is the battery. I've turned off damn near everything. Brightness is all the way down, 4G, GPS and WiFi turn off. The phone is left to charge until it's full and when I turn the screen on < 5m later, it seems to be down 25%. I've even purchased JuiceDefender to help manage the battery life and it's *still* ridiculously bad; even then JD can't manage the 4G radio and apparently neither can Tasker (it shows WiMax, but won't let me selection it).

I mean, hopefully Froyo fixes issues that *can* be fixed but who knows when that'll be. Seriously, I'm not waiting until the last day of Sept (when I'm past the point of no-return (literally) with Sprint) for them to drop Froyo and see how things improve. After the Evo draining the battery like crazy was anyone hoping for something a bit more manageable on battery life? I just find it unfortunate that other carriers don't have a second radio to manage yet at this point can get similar speeds without the battery issues of a second radio.

Well, after a few exchanges. I like my Epic ALOT, not one that I have received was without some issue, but this is usually how it is with the release of new phone. But samsung definitely needs to beef up their quality control. 249.99/499.99 + tax is a hard pill to swallow when your phone has issues and/or you are not totally satisfied with the product!

 

[deadpanwalking]

To the OP: you most definitely have a bad phone or battery. I am running 4 different widgets, have a live wallpaper running in the background, have GPS and 4G turned on, and after about 3 hours of use after a full charge my battery sits at around 70 percent. I am also running Launcher Pro which would help you out with configuration of the bottom row of buttons. You can have up to three different rows of 5 buttons of anything that you want. I chose to install Launcher Pro not so much for its configurability but more because of its speed. I can't speak from personal experience due to the fact that I installed LP almost as soon as I got the phone home, but its plenty fast for me as I am coming from a slow Palm Pre.
Also, as far as penetration inside of buildings, its interesting that you will go back to ATT if the Epic doesn't work out for you, as its pretty much universally agreed that they have the worst service out of all the major carriers. When I had ATT, I couldn't even make calls inside my home. I had to step outside. I've been able to make calls from the comfort of my own home since switching to Sprint.
So bottom line: your phone is screwy. Exchange it.

P.S. - Another lovely thing about owning a non-Apple product is that you can BUY A SPARE BATTERY.

 

[marisdaman]

I honestly can say on launch day till the past 2 days my battery was really bad. But now its seemed to level out. Maybe the battery has to get a few full charges to hold up better. I can only speak on my 2 epics of course it may not be the case for you.

 

[youngzayiles]

My question is how does the battery hold up if ur not on 4G all the time... what's a typical day on 3g?

 

[IIJBII]

I thinl the OP has made a great and Very fair post here and I think most wll agree it sounds like something is wrong with the phone or battery.

Do you have gmail setup? I know I had to go into the settings to change it from syncing with Picasa [which I don't have]. Really want to see you get this worked out as you seem like a savy [very fair & smart ] consumer who could add a lot to this forum and other post.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[BushLeague]

Have you tried Advanced Task Killer? I was having the same issues with Battery life. I turned off all of my settings along with lowering my brightness levels to the lowest settings. My batteries still drained with little to no usage. That was a huge dealbreaker considering my last device was a blackberry which lasted me over a day easily with heavy usage.

Then I used Advanced task Killer from the market. It not only doubled my battery life, it also allowed me to pick and choose which apps I wanted to run in the background. While Touchwiz did come with a task manager, it did not show all the apps that were running in the background which was the culprit of my battery drains.

If your problem was battery drains during standby, do yourself a favor and get ATK and set it to kill apps when the screen is off. My phone has been unplugged for 10 hours and 33 minutes and still has roughly 71% left with light usage. I was on the verge of returning the device and now I'm definitely feel it's a keeper.

 

[sndplace]

Today the battery seems to be getting better. In my house i get 4 bars for signal and am on wifi. It seems to last long here. I was at my brothers house where I connected to his wifi but my cell service kept on going into roaming , no signal , was there for about 7 hours . checked my emails , took about 15 pictures of the baby and family and checked my citys on pocket empires several times for 5 mins its showing little more then 50% on top and 41% on the battery wiget. going to leave it till it dies out.
I'm also coming from a pre and this being my frst android phone it has been an experience and i love the phone so far.

 

[FallNAngel]

Also, as far as penetration inside of buildings, its interesting that you will go back to ATT if the Epic doesn't work out for you, as its pretty much universally agreed that they have the worst service out of all the major carriers. When I had ATT, I couldn't even make calls inside my home. I had to step outside. I've been able to make calls from the comfort of my own home since switching to Sprint.
So bottom line: your phone is screwy. Exchange it.

No, I'm not so much "going back" to ATT, I'm still *on* ATT with my iPhone. I never canceled the plan or transfered my number just in case the Epic didn't pan out. I have a family plan on ATT so I can't just cancel it and bounce around since doing so will affect other people. Plus, doing this allows the option to say "I'm gonna wait a month for <insert next awesome phone here>" and just deal with ATT. I'm trying to switch from ATT because I really don't like the reception I'm getting with my iPhone 3G or it's responsiveness (admittedly, a 2yr old device).

I really like the fact that Sprint has a truly unlimited data plan, is cheaper than other carriers and offers discounts. Hell, I didn't even think I'd get a discount when I picked up my Epic. The salesperson at the store I went to kinda went through the trouble to *find* one for me; great CS. All things I'm unlikely to find from other carriers.

P.S. - Another lovely thing about owning a non-Apple product is that you can BUY A SPARE BATTERY.

I have no problem with buying a spare battery if I feel I'll just be away from the charger for so long that I'll actually need one. I'm not going to buy a new battery just because the device is overly power hungry or the battery is defective.

My question is how does the battery hold up if ur not on 4G all the time... what's a typical day on 3g?

Still not so great. Not the worst, but not great. Especially since I have JD set to turn off data and wifi when the screen is off, 4G and GPS are off by default (Tasker handles turning on GPS when I need it), brightness is at a minimum, manual sync on everything and I exit all apps when I'm done. I would've expected I'd be getting *at least* what I'm getting with my iPhone now. Thing is, it's rather hard to get a baseline when you never know if the battery is fully charged or not. Using JuicePlotter I can see the battery (supposedly) gets to 100%, then drops to ~70%, then back to 100% repeatedly. Who knows if it's JD having issues with a new device or if something is *actually* defective though.