In the interest of making things easy for those who are holding off on the KitKat OTA, I thought it might be a good idea to consolidate all of our experiences into one thread. This is intended to cover mainly the changes specific to this OTA over Razr M-flavored Jellybean.
I'll start with my experience/thoughts and edit in additional findings. (Note: I'm bootloader locked, and now unrooted.)
The Good
The UI is definitely smoother. It doesn't jitter or stall under heavy usage anywhere near as much as it did in Jellybean.
Battery life when the phone is asleep seems to have been improved a little.
USB audio out is now supported.
The occasional "screen jitter" that plagued the Jellybean build is gone.
KitKat's Quick Settings panel is quite handy.
The native lock screen now supports adding, removing, and rearranging widgets.
Although it can't be installed from the Play Store, the Google Experience Launcher can be sideloaded and works just fine.
The Neutral / Very Subjective
The AOSP keyboard has changed; the keys are smaller and, in landscape, very squashed. You may need to adjust to it (I'm trying, but it's a struggle) or find a replacement.
Battery life when the phone is actively in use has not been noticeably improved in my experience; but it hasn't been noticeably worsened, either.
There's now a shortcut to the camera from the lock screen, which can be used even if the phone is locked by a pattern/PIN/etc. (Great if you're a shutterbug; not so great if someone else decides to troll your Dropbox/Drive account.)
The Google Camera app works - but Photosphere can't be used, as the Razr M doesn't have a gyroscope.
The Bad
No more root, for those with locked BLs (me). (Saferoot fails, and many users are reporting losing root even when they try survival methods.)
Wi-Fi tethering via most apps (e.g., FoxFi) has been blocked, so now you must pay your carrier for the feature unless a new workaround is discovered.
All notifications I've seen so far now flash the notification light white, instead of unique colors. This may be frustrating for some who used the colors to decide whether to check the phone immediately or later. (Luckily, there are ways to address this.)
The Blur launcher is same 'ol, same 'ol. It uses a solid black background for the soft keys and notifications bar (rather than taking advantage of KitKat's transparency support), and it still has that Quick Settings menu on the left (which is redundant now). In addition, Holo Launcher (which I was using) doesn't account for the space used by the softkeys at all, making it difficult to use. (I've switched to Nova Launcher, which is working fine.)
I've experienced some weirdness with the application switcher. Sometimes it drops me to the launcher right after displaying the list, and sometimes apps will overwrite another's position on the list, or be dropped from the list entirely without reason (this is always temporary, however - just bring up the switcher again).
Some apps can no longer write to the SD card - or at least not wherever they please. We still have the Files browser, mercifully (but I favor Total Commander anyway, which seems to work perfectly).
The audio quick switch on the lock screen has been removed. Also, the buttons for entering a PIN are smaller.
(Leraeniesh) Under heavy usage, the Razr M may get hotter under KitKat than it did under Jellybean, and may drain the battery more.
(GPIX) Some users have noticed decreased network performance in some apps, such as Chrome or YouTube, while on Wi-Fi and with Wi-Fi power-saving enabled.
(GPIX) Several users have reported popping noises - when a sound begins to play, or in the middle of playback. (I haven't experienced it, however.)
Swype is no longer included. If you used it in Jellybean, you will need to purchase it on the Play Store after taking the OTA.
(ls3c6) Some have encountered problems with sharing the address book to paired devices over Bluetooth.
My opinion, overall:
It's a nice upgrade, but all of little problems I've encountered (bugs, Verizon blockades, the works) make this feel like a bit of a letdown after the 6-month wait. In the end, after just three days, I find myself wishing I could take the phone back to Jellybean.
Here's hoping for either some exploitable holes or maintenance updates.
My opinion
Leraeniesh said:
So I popped my sim back into the XT907 for the weekend, and heres what I've noticed (when compared to 4.1.2).
Higher temps - previously, my XT907 hovered around 85F-100F, but with 4.4.2, I've noticed it drift toward 110F with 5+ minutes of active use.
Worse battery life - On 4.1.2 I averaged around 20% after 16 hours moderate use. With 4.4.2, I'm averaging around 5% in the same span.
Lesser LTE coverage - This may be something with my area, but I can usually get 2-3 bars of LTE in the Livingston County area on 4.1.2 (I've noticed the XT907 accel in this category). While on 4.4.2, I could not get any LTE coverage in the same area, and could only find it within more populated areas.
Slower performance - I'll always be amazed by how quick the XT907 was on 4.1.2, beating out devices with similar specs in the same price category. With 4.4.2, I've noticed frame drops, stutters, and random reboots be a common occurrence over the last few days of usage.
Overall, I'm satisfied with 4.4.2, but I still prefer the overall usability with 4.1.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worth noting that I am using an unlocked bootloader, with CWM and SuperSU (only really did this to remove VZW bloat and install Xposed)
Leraeniesh said:
So I popped my sim back into the XT907 for the weekend, and heres what I've noticed (when compared to 4.1.2).
Higher temps - previously, my XT907 hovered around 85F-100F, but with 4.4.2, I've noticed it drift toward 110F with 5+ minutes of active use.
Worse battery life - On 4.1.2 I averaged around 20% after 16 hours moderate use. With 4.4.2, I'm averaging around 5% in the same span.
Lesser LTE coverage - This may be something with my area, but I can usually get 2-3 bars of LTE in the Livingston County area on 4.1.2 (I've noticed the XT907 accel in this category). While on 4.4.2, I could not get any LTE coverage in the same area, and could only find it within more populated areas.
Slower performance - I'll always be amazed by how quick the XT907 was on 4.1.2, beating out devices with similar specs in the same price category. With 4.4.2, I've noticed frame drops, stutters, and random reboots be a common occurrence over the last few days of usage.
Overall, I'm satisfied with 4.4.2, but I still prefer the overall usability with 4.1.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On 4.1.2 the "signal bars" were calculated by a xml in, I believe, SystemUI.apk. You could simply adjust the figures to show more or less bars, which Moto adjusted to show more. But having no LTE maybe a bad radio or a problem stemming from a bad flash. My Razr M doesn't get hot, no random reboots, and battery life seems to be the same. I haven't had any problems on KitKat.
ATTACK said:
On 4.1.2 the "signal bars" were calculated by a xml in, I believe, SystemUI.apk. You could simply adjust the figures to show more or less bars, which Moto adjusted to so more. But having no LTE maybe a bad radio or a problem stemming from a bad flash. My Razr M doesn't get hot, no random reboots, and battery life seems to be the same. I haven't had any problems on KitKat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gonna be doing some more testing in that regard. Even my M7 with its garbage radios gets LTE just about everywhere in the Metro Detroit area.
So far my experience with 4.4.2 has been positive. I agree with OP's list and would like to add these under the issue category.
ISSUE:
Decreased WiFi effectiveness/throughput - There is a noticeable decrease in performance on apps like Youtube and Chrome web browser.
Audio Popping noises - Some experience a popping noise when the sound driver starts up while others experience it during playback.
I have had the KitKat OTA now for 2 days and haven't found anything major wrong. The changes to the keyboard bugged me but I use swiftkey so that was moot. I also have an issue I haven't seen listed yet. The new sound for screen taps....it seems to give that "popping" feedback (that ive seen listed as an issue on driver start-up) ALL the time. I maybe get 1 clear sound out of every 5-6 screen taps. That is the only real "problem" I can find as of this point though. Does anyone have any insight on that?
Also activated Dev Mode and changed to ART runtime. Might be placebo but app response seems to be noticeably better! Not groundbreaking by any means but better than 4.1.2 for sure. Overall I am happy with the upgrade. Rather, will be happy once a root exploit comes up (I miss my debloating! On that note though, disabling apps never seemed to work right with 4.1.2....after hitting disable the app would show back up in active processes after a short time. Now I've gone 24 hours and 3 phone reboots and that damn NFL app is STILL disabled and NOT running as a background process. Might just have been an issue with my phone in particular before, but its fixed now!)
I am generally happy.
It fixed all the issues I had with Dhackers KitKat.
and feels about the same once you have rid of all the Bloat.
I like and I am happy that we still surprisingly got the update unlike the Galaxy S3
Happy =)
Just wanted to comment on the heat issue mentioned above:
I have only had KitKat for 2 days but I have definitely noticed a difference in heat after extended use compared to JB. One of the things I really liked about my Razr M was lack of heat so hopefully this is a fluke and I wont notice it too much in the future.
---
With that said, no big issues.
I don't like the keyboard -seems smaller, or something, The heptic feedback seems to be different too (for the worse IMO).
The lockscreen number pad seems smaller - definitely liked the number pad from JB.
I had to change the messaging app (hated the all white/lack of contrast). Using "8sms" if anyone is curious.
I also changed launchers to use the google-now launcher so the "okay google" thing would work on the homescreen and also get the transparency notification bar. But, in doing that I did lose the circle widgets which I liked. Can't win for losing sometimes...
---
On a positive note, Chrome/google searches seem to be much faster. The UI seems about the same (no complaints with JB).
If battery life can increase then I'll be satisfied with update (so far, no difference).
My experience has been very positive. My phone was bootloader locked and not rooted before (and, of course, after) the OTA. I cleared the cache partition from the recovery menu post-install but have not done a FDR. General impressions:
-- UI is overall much snappier/quicker. Extremely noticeable.
-- Love the new quick settings panel that you can get to after pulling down the notifications shade.
-- KK's changes to how the SDcard works have not been a big deal at all for me. The native "Files" app seems to have complete read/write access, as does ES File Explorer.
-- Like the new clock feature to automatically add a "home" display when traveling outside a pre-defined timezone.
-- Hate the new way you set the alarm on the clock. (Really, whoever came up with that input method should be transferred to a department where s/he can never affect design decisions again.)
-- I miss the audio silencer/mute on the lockscreen.
-- Battery life has been interesting. When I first installed the update (morning of 05/15), battery life was definitely worse, probably by about 50%. It has gradually been getting better, however, and now is probably only about 20%-25% worse than JB. Why it would change I have no idea, but it definitely is (I've been keeping notes, and am sure it is actually happening). I have noticed, using the Battery History details screen, that there are a LOT less wakelocks in KK than JB. In JB, I used to see tons of "Awake" indicators on that screen that did not pair with "Screen On" indicators. In KK, there are very few incidences of "Awake" that are not paired with "Screen On." Someone smarter than me will have to explain how that translates into worse battery life.
-- It may be my imagination, but it seems like the battery charges faster w/ KK. If it's not my imagination, I wonder if that means that the apparent decrease in battery life is really an issue of improper calibration/accuracy.
I have not experienced some of the things others have reported:
-- No random reboots.
-- No changes to WiFi or 4G signals. I don't use Bluetooth so can't comment on that.
-- No popping noise when using audio. (Note: I have seen some reports in other forums that a FDR fixes this issue for those who have it.)
I'm on locked BL, definitly non root, and I happen to installed MotoCam from a store n IT DID INSTALLED. .
Opens up, takes pictures beautifully. .
Only problems are the slide in menu is glitchy AND after taking HDR pic, cam UI is not there. Only live cam feed.
Other than these issues, it's playing nicely ESPECIALLY auto HDR does work, surprisingly!
How can I make those problems go away??
Sent from my XT907 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
4039995825
GPlX said:
So far my experience with 4.4.2 has been positive. I agree with OP's list and would like to add these under the issue category.
ISSUE:
Decreased WiFi effectiveness/throughput - There is a noticeable decrease in performance on apps like Youtube and Chrome web browser.
Audio Popping noises - Some experience a popping noise when the sound driver starts up while others experience it during playback.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
go into wifi settings...in the setting "uncheck" the box "wi-fi optimization" it made my WiFi significantly better..
Nidstang said:
-- No popping noise when using audio. (Note: I have seen some reports in other forums that a FDR fixes this issue for those who have it.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Attempted a FDR on my phone, unfortunately it did not work for me. I will attempt to clear the cache partition to see if that may help the issue if
possible. So far i can only get the boot menu for a couple seconds and im lucky to get a selection in time.
EDIT: I cleared the cache partition, no effect. (NOTE: it seems to get into the recovery menu after selecting it at boot menu, you have to hold power & vol UP for a couple seconds)
crazy4android said:
go into wifi settings...in the setting "uncheck" the box "wi-fi optimization" it made my WiFi significantly better..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is an excellent point. I'll shut off the optimization and will edit my results in after tinkering with it for a while.
EDIT2: Without doing speedtests etc. It is very noticable that the wifi has improved. Youtube & other apps load as fast as they did on 4.1.2
Haven't looked into it so this MIGHT be a feature of the Google Now Launcher I installed, but I JUST noticed if you swipe down from the clock area of the new lock screen, you can add widgets! Am I crazy or is this a new feature on our phones? If so, LOVE it! Helps mitigate the loss of the quicklinks from our old 4.1.2 lock screen.
kashif87 said:
I'm on locked BL, definitly non root, and I happen to installed MotoCam from a store n IT DID INSTALLED. .
Opens up, takes pictures beautifully. .
Only problems are the slide in menu is glitchy AND after taking HDR pic, cam UI is not there. Only live cam feed.
Other than these issues, it's playing nicely ESPECIALLY auto HDR does work, surprisingly!
How can I make those problems go away??
Sent from my XT907 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe you can uninstall updates to the cam in apps
bwer1233 said:
Haven't looked into it so this MIGHT be a feature of the Google Now Launcher I installed, but I JUST noticed if you swipe down from the clock area of the new lock screen, you can add widgets! Am I crazy or is this a new feature on our phones? If so, LOVE it! Helps mitigate the loss of the quicklinks from our old 4.1.2 lock screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lockscreen widgets were introduced in Android 4.2.2.
Just want to let people know that the Google Now Launcher is working great on 4.4.2 including the "ok Google" functionality.
You can't download it from the play store. I just grabbed the apk from this thread.
http://www.xda-developers.com/andro...-and-gpe-devices-apk-mirrored-for-all-others/
Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk
rooted + cwm
can't use "memory" feature under settings, while calculating settings app would crash
how can I go to hiddent menu? *#*#4636#*#* is failed until my M get kk updrade...
tieuvienson2005 said:
how can I go to hiddent menu? *#*#4636#*#* is failed until my M get kk updrade...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are many "phone info" apps in the Market. Or create the short cut with Activity Launcher.
Also the Cam sucks on my Wife's m so get the Lenovo from my Moto x signature link.
Related
It seems like there are many things changed and/or fixed in FD24 build [rom/kernel/modem]
FD24 ICS OTA is now availabe and you can download it from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1619474
Big thanks to kc_exactly for his post and ACS team for providing the download link.
Update: I just updated another phone from Stock Rooted EL29 to Stock rooted FD24.
I tried to update one of my stock rooted EL29 phone following the QBKing's guide but no success for rooted phone (downloaded OTA version). So, used sfhub's no data FD24 one-click odin method. No wipe at all and just flashed over EL29.
Before: EL29 modem/EL29 Rom/Rogue EL29 recovery Kernel/rooted.
After: FD24 modem/FD24 Rom/Stock Kernel/rooted.
There was nothing special and just used sfhub's one-click odin. Everything worked like a charm.
Please post your findings in here.
First Noticeable change made - notification bug fixed (sfhub reported).
Menu -> Settings - items rearranged. System updates separated from About phone
'Activate this device' menu added to settings (with improved options. You can update the profile and prl from here also)
For me, I'm getting one or two more voice signal bar after flashing it. I need some people confirms that - if this is true, the battery life would be great in this rom!
*3G*
So far, battery life is not bad at all. - 1 hour 50 minutes - 4% used (mine only and based on my usage)
update:
3 hours - 6% drop with 3G.
3 and half - 7%. About 1% drop in every 30 minutes so far.
9 hours - 20% with 3G. This is real big improvement and my test was focus on the battery savings during the idle time (only with my tweaks and not using any battery saving apps). Now I'm planing to test about battery consumption only using wifi.
*Wifi*
With same condition, I've tested wifi battery consumption and it was not good when it's compared with 3g battery consumption.
6 hours - 20% used with wifi turned on all the time.
*4G*
*Turn Off everything - Voice Signal Only*
Update: To extend your battery life even more, check this thread out - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1610741
Collections of changes - FD24
Reserved for collections of changes.
Some update related screenshots added.
*What's working or not *
.flac format music not supported (jerrypp)
wifi icon changed. It used to have the up and down arrows showing the traffic - moved back to previous version - weboide
Chrome is fixed? (satur9ine) - Nope. Bad scroll stutter, some locking up (kingdazy)
bluetooth devices wouldn't autoreconnect/autoconnect - fixed (Compusmurf)
bluetooth "bug" that's still there (Compusmurf, Dchibro)
JabraClip still isn't able to pair with my device (beast4romtheeast)
when screen is off bluetooth voice activation does not function at all (grncherry)
getting force closes of the email app in combined view only (Kamrondroid, sqb33, jamesey) - replace the emial app with previous version (workaround)
Battery timing is much improved then previous leaks but wifi reception has suffered ([email protected])
* still big discussion is going on in everywhere about the scrolling, camera and bluetooth devices. Many users reported that scrolling is not smooth but more people reported that it's better than previous build.
*battery life*
Battery life is really great for me. I tested the battery life during the phone is in sleep or idle mode. So far, this one is the best rom I've ever been used. Battery life could be different based on the signal strength and phone usage. So this result is only based on my usage and limited in my location. But generally speaking, this would be the same trend in your situation also.
(screenshot attached)
I can not play .flac format music
Wow..the font has changed to roboto on fd24?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
bubur_bewok said:
Wow..the font has changed to roboto on fd24?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. Screenshots were taken after my tweaks. I'm using flip font as default.
The wifi icon changed. It used to have the up and down arrows showing the traffic.
The scroll seems faster.
It also seems like the fading (when it goes to sleep or wakes up) is slower, more noticeable than FD19.
Signal seems weaker at first glance, but haven't really looked into it yet.
Can anyone check if Chrome is fixed? That is the first thing I check with every kernel update...
satur9ine said:
Can anyone check if Chrome is fixed? That is the first thing I check with every kernel update...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. Bad scroll stutter, some locking up.
Sent from my calculator watch.
On top of other things folks mentioned, an odd bug I was having (but not now) was that bluetooth devices wouldn't autoreconnect/autoconnect.
Seems to be working in this one.
And I do NOT like that new WIFI icon. I miss the pretty little arrows. LOL
A whole lot of fugly, IMHO.. theming, we must do...
strongsteve said:
A whole lot of fugly, IMHO.. theming, we must do...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean after flashing or in those screenshots posted above? I think the ones in this thread are after the user's personal theming/tweaks. I can't imagine even Sprint would do that to us
neodorian said:
Do you mean after flashing or in those screenshots posted above? I think the ones in this thread are after the user's personal theming/tweaks. I can't imagine even Sprint would do that to us
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Theme didn't changed at all. Only density is 200 from 240. And my tweaks do not change anything on appearance.
Those screen shots are Sprint specific stuff. Not ICS stuff.
Bielinsk said:
Those screen shots are Sprint specific stuff. Not ICS stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would consider it's a part of ICS because it's there in this build.
My interpretation of Steve's words is, there could be lots of things that we need to touch up and/or un-necessary based on FD24.
strongsteve said:
A whole lot of fugly, IMHO.. theming, we must do...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very very nice to hear from you steady in here. Does this mean you are doing something, right? Was waiting for your rom long long time.
Wonder if the Wi-Fi may be related to a change in other Wi-Fi settings... I don't get my E4GT back full-time for another 12 days but I'll definitely have to test my particular issue once I can get it to the office. I'm optimistic this meant they stuck with what worked on GB and just recompiled the driver for ICS.
8 days without a fix hopefully means they squashed a lot of bugs. May also (hopefully!) mean we're getting another step closer to OTA.
If anyone has a peek at the official changelog can you please see a PM? Have a few ??s to see if maybe it will hint if the issues were addressed or not.
A bluetooth "bug" that's still there:
On headsets that had BT audio AND phone, you used to be able to unselect the BT audio profile and it would stick. This no longer works. On reconnect, the "disabled" profile will start back up each time.
Ah well, not a big issue, I can force it off in my headset. LOL
Anyone getting good battery so far?
Posted from my Epic 4G Touch on EL29
batting1000 said:
Anyone getting good battery so far?
Posted from my Epic 4G Touch on EL29
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not bad so far after I plugged out. 1 and half hour - 5% used (Actually measuring started from 98, was not fully charged).
Actually this is great for me based on in my reception area and my experience with other roms.
So far, there's no one else talking about the battery life yet. It's too early to say something.
Compusmurf said:
A bluetooth "bug" that's still there:
On headsets that had BT audio AND phone, you used to be able to unselect the BT audio profile and it would stick. This no longer works. On reconnect, the "disabled" profile will start back up each time.
Ah well, not a big issue, I can force it off in my headset. LOL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine was already doing this on previous builds. It's annoying because having media audio connected to my Sony car stereo causes my phone to randomly reboot. Then again, that's a symptom of bigger problems with Bluetooth ... for me anyways.
Hey guys just wanted to take some time to make a post about some things that I am getting use to. I have been an apple product owner for the past 5 years and this is my first non iphone. So far I enjoy my phone but there are some small quirks that I am having issues with. I will list and detail these issues.
1. Haptic feedback always finds a way to disable itself. I always have to go back into the settings and re apply the haptic feedback.
2. The battery is god-awful. I'm not rooted or undervolted. Just stock at&t phone and I'm lucky to get 6 hours off the charger. As in my phone comes off the charger at 9am and by 3pm it is already dead. Is this typical? I read that the facebook app affects the battery life, so I removed it.
This is one of my biggest complaints. My iphone 4S easily went from 9am-7 or 8 in the evening.
3. My home button is not solid. When I push it the feedback is not consistent. Sometimes it makes a light click, other times it feels normal. I feel like maybe something has gotten into the surrounding area around the home button. I take care of all my electronics so I doubt this is the issue, but I didn't want to discount the idea.
4. I have downloaded an advanced task killer, but are there any other tricks or tips you guys could let me in on? Or any apps that would be recommended? I would appreciate the feedback!
5. When receiving photos from iphone owners my phone displays pics as a video file? How can I just get normal mms's from iphones?
OH YEA...when is the GS3 going to get jellybean? My at&t phone still has ICS, and I keep checking for software updates every 24 hours and as of this evening I have not found any updates to the new OS.
1. where are you enabling haptic feedback?
2. as always, battery life depends on usage. screen on time? do you have a lot of apps that could use data? do you have both wifi and data enabled when you're not around wifi? try disabling any stock apps you don't use.
3. i don't have anything to say about this. try comparing to other s3s if you can. then you can figure out if your phone is a problem or it's all of them. i personally don't care nor try to feel the difference if there is one. i tend to use back until i exit the app, not use the home button.
4. task killers are not beneficial to you at all. they actually tend to kill the battery faster. uninstall yours and see how your battery life fares.
5. no one knows when official jelly bean will come. if you root and install a custom recovery and start flashing roms you can try jelly bean right now. but it won't be with touchwiz nor will it have everything working as you would find it in your stock rom.
sent from my I747.
cehf said:
1. where are you enabling haptic feedback?
2. as always, battery life depends on usage. screen on time? do you have a lot of apps that could use data? do you have both wifi and data enabled when you're not around wifi? try disabling any stock apps you don't use.
3. i don't have anything to say about this. try comparing to other s3s if you can. then you can figure out if your phone is a problem or it's all of them. i personally don't care nor try to feel the difference if there is one. i tend to use back until i exit the app, not use the home button.
4. task killers are not beneficial to you at all. they actually tend to kill the battery faster. uninstall yours and see how your battery life fares.
5. no one knows when official jelly bean will come. if you root and install a custom recovery and start flashing roms you can try jelly bean right now. but it won't be with touchwiz nor will it have everything working as you would find it in your stock rom.
sent from my I747.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the quick reply. My on screen time is typically in the lower 4 hour range, I would post a screenshot but I am unable to since I am a junior member. I will not disable data as that is completely unacceptable on a smart phone. I didn't realize but my friend deleted my task killer a couple days ago. Using his GS3 I can tell a noticeable difference in home buttons-I wonder if at&t will replace my phone (within 22 days)? I guess I'm waiting for JB just like everyone else.
I am enabling haptic feedback via settings>sound>haptic feedback btw.
I've had my GS3 for about 4 days now and my battery life is awesome. I can go from about 8:00am to around 11pm before the battery icon even turns red.
apparently there's a gsiff_daemon bug or cell standby bug? i haven't personally experienced those, so i couldn't tell you much about them. turning off data is only acceptable if you're trying to avoid an overage, so i get where you're coming from. if your task killer is gone and you're still getting horrible battery life, something else may be the culprit.
a few suggestions: disabling unused stock apps (flipboard, those att apps if you don't use them). i don't know what you need synced but if you don't need your calendar or browser synced you should turn off sync for that. do you use the power saving option? if you don't need much processing power i'd turn that on. auto brightness may help too.
about the home button, if it irritates you too much att will likely replace it. maybe the new unit will have better battery life?
kicker18 said:
I am enabling haptic feedback via settings>sound>haptic feedback btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try enabling from accessibility?
sent from my I747
I think the biggest thing that seems to help battery life is keeping the power saving mode turned on all the time. Seems to make a HUGE difference with battery life (especially on stock), but doesn't really seem to affect functionality.
Yea I removed all those crappy widgets.
My phone is always in power saver mode! I'm going to try to get a new unit tomorrow. How does this work? When i had my iPhone I just scheduled an appt at the apple store and they would always switch my phone out whenever I had issues under 1 year.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
If you bought at a local store, you should be able to call them up and ask for a replacement for a defective device.
It shouldn't cost you anything as you are within their 30 day return window.
Oh... and as for official JellyBean.... isn't the rumor so far saying potentially late Q3/early Q4? Apparently the International version of the S3 with the quad-core processor is expected to get Jellybean shortly after the "Samsung Mobile Unpacked" event taking place in Germany tomorrow. Haven't really seen anything concrete about when our S3's will see an official release... but seeing as T-Mobile also just recently had an official build leak for the S3, i wouldn't be surprised if the late Q3/Early Q4 speculation could be correct.
Root, install custom rom, install Ktoonsez kernel... Battery life will easily double. If you really want to get the most out of your battery, consider AOKP or CM10... Jelly Bean based, with 0 bloat and almost none of the background process the stock TW rom runs in the background.
Sent from my SGS III
kicker18 said:
Thanks for the quick reply. My on screen time is typically in the lower 4 hour range, I would post a screenshot but I am unable to since I am a junior member. I will not disable data as that is completely unacceptable on a smart phone. I didn't realize but my friend deleted my task killer a couple days ago. Using his GS3 I can tell a noticeable difference in home buttons-I wonder if at&t will replace my phone (within 22 days)? I guess I'm waiting for JB just like everyone else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4 hours screen time is a lot... even on my iPhone 4 and priors (I had them all) with that much screen time I wouldn't get more than 7-8 hours. Keep in mind you are going from a 3.5 screen to a 4.8... this screen will eat up battery at a faster rate.
With an average of 2 hour screen time I usually get 15-20 hours out of a full charge pending usage. Nothing special, rooted running triune, stock cpu settings.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
That's right 3-4 hours of 720p quality is good
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
I haven't even began reading up on rooting. I probably wont root my phone unless I absolutely have to. I enjoy stock reliability. Also when I go into settings> accessibility, there is no option to enable haptic feedback.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
I think after a bit of tweaking you will see better battery life. I get much better battery life than my sister does on her 4S. Also, disabling data won't hurt anything if you are not using the phone. I. Don't charge my phone overnight anymore.... I disable data while I'm sleeping and charge in the am while I'm getting ready for my day. With a few tweaks you should be able to make it through a full day, even with 4 hours screen time. Take some of the suggestions others have mentioned here.
kicker18 said:
Hey guys just wanted to take some time to make a post about some things that I am getting use to. I have been an apple product owner for the past 5 years and this is my first non iphone. So far I enjoy my phone but there are some small quirks that I am having issues with. I will list and detail these issues.
1. Haptic feedback always finds a way to disable itself. I always have to go back into the settings and re apply the haptic feedback.
2. The battery is god-awful. I'm not rooted or undervolted. Just stock at&t phone and I'm lucky to get 6 hours off the charger. As in my phone comes off the charger at 9am and by 3pm it is already dead. Is this typical? I read that the facebook app affects the battery life, so I removed it.
This is one of my biggest complaints. My iphone 4S easily went from 9am-7 or 8 in the evening.
3. My home button is not solid. When I push it the feedback is not consistent. Sometimes it makes a light click, other times it feels normal. I feel like maybe something has gotten into the surrounding area around the home button. I take care of all my electronics so I doubt this is the issue, but I didn't want to discount the idea.
4. I have downloaded an advanced task killer, but are there any other tricks or tips you guys could let me in on? Or any apps that would be recommended? I would appreciate the feedback!
5. When receiving photos from iphone owners my phone displays pics as a video file? How can I just get normal mms's from iphones?
OH YEA...when is the GS3 going to get jellybean? My at&t phone still has ICS, and I keep checking for software updates every 24 hours and as of this evening I have not found any updates to the new OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. happens to me as well when i turn powersaver on and then off again. (powersave disables haptic feedback, but it doesn't turn on again sometimes when i turn powersave back off) probably will be fixed in next update.
2. don't have this issue at all. how is your screen on time and what do you do on your phone? (ie: any specific apps/games you use?)
3. my home button is definitely solid.
4. do NOT download advanced task killer. it is not needed as android will kill off apps when it needs to. there's also a built in task killer if you'd like. just long press home button and click task manager.
5. happens to me as well but when i save the photo it changes back to jpq file.
6. jellybean hasn't been released yet for s3
Root your phone, install CWM and ktoonsez's sammy kernal. Stock rom by default has the performance governor enabled, which I believe has the phone either running at the lowest clock or the highest clock with no real middle. Rooting your phone and installing a custom rom will allow you to have access to more governors that will treat your battery much nicer as well as his custom kernal has added features and just performs faster as well as has better battery life.
There are all kinds of tutorials on the site and I'm sure even some youtube videos on the process. The only other thing I'll add is to READ READ READ on how to do the process, READ READ READ the thread for possible issues and READ READ READ some more for fixes to any issues that may arise.
The great thing about android is the ability to change almost everything about how your phone acts and operates. Once you start you'll end up like me that whenever you get a new phone, you'll already have downloaded root/custom rom/custom kernal on your home computer so that you're ready to get off of stock within 30minutes of being home.
kicker18 said:
Hey guys just wanted to take some time to make a post about some things that I am getting use to. I have been an apple product owner for the past 5 years and this is my first non iphone. So far I enjoy my phone but there are some small quirks that I am having issues with. I will list and detail these issues.
1. Haptic feedback always finds a way to disable itself. I always have to go back into the settings and re apply the haptic feedback.
2. The battery is god-awful. I'm not rooted or undervolted. Just stock at&t phone and I'm lucky to get 6 hours off the charger. As in my phone comes off the charger at 9am and by 3pm it is already dead. Is this typical? I read that the facebook app affects the battery life, so I removed it.
This is one of my biggest complaints. My iphone 4S easily went from 9am-7 or 8 in the evening.
3. My home button is not solid. When I push it the feedback is not consistent. Sometimes it makes a light click, other times it feels normal. I feel like maybe something has gotten into the surrounding area around the home button. I take care of all my electronics so I doubt this is the issue, but I didn't want to discount the idea.
4. I have downloaded an advanced task killer, but are there any other tricks or tips you guys could let me in on? Or any apps that would be recommended? I would appreciate the feedback!
5. When receiving photos from iphone owners my phone displays pics as a video file? How can I just get normal mms's from iphones?
OH YEA...when is the GS3 going to get jellybean? My at&t phone still has ICS, and I keep checking for software updates every 24 hours and as of this evening I have not found any updates to the new OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. I've noticed that when I enable battery save mode, it turns off haptic feedback, so it might be that.
2. Like others said it depends on what you do with your phone, but on average, I usually get 15-20+ hours on a charge with at least 3 hours screen time.
4. I wouldn't use task killers. But it's smart to do a little management of tasks yourself. For example, when you want to exit an application, don't just hit the home button, hit the back button until the app exits. From my experience, depending on the app, this will actually exit the app and not just leave it running in the background. Also, every once in a while, I pull up the multitasking screen by long pressing the home button, and I hit the "remove all" button to close any applications that I don't need running in the background.
Also, you may want to try installing Juice Defender. What that app does is turn off the data connection when the phone is in idle, and it turns it back on every 15 or 30 minutes (configurable) to synch, check email, etc. The phone connection is always on. It's actually made a noticeable improvement to my battery life. But this also depends on if it's ok with you that you only synch every 15 minutes. For my girlfriend, she likes to get 10 minute warnings when ebay auctions end, and with this installed she's missed some auctions. So it doesn't work for her.
Imo, the single best way to save battery is to get an app to automate toggling data off when you lock your phone. I've been using a Tasker profile to turn my data off after the phone has been locked for 10 minutes, and turns it back on when my screen unlocks. With data off, my phone drains maybe ~1.5%/hr.
Whatever you do though, you likely won't get more than 3-4hrs of screen time, considering the phone is 720p and 4.8".
Herp derp SGS3 Tapatalk 2
Just a departure from what I'm use to(my battery on my old 4S was substantially better)...if I didn't want my data on all the time I could have bought a dumb phone ya know? Anyways with data turned off battery drain was better ~5% hour.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
I found it very hard to find information from people who actually have the update in other threads because it is mixed with information on how to actually obtain and install the update.
So what are your impressions of tge 5.1.1 update ? Please only post if you have the update installed and running for at least few hours.
My impressions:
- Battery life is worse, like 30% worse with Wi-Fi detection on, even if mostly using Bluetooth.
- Still can't edit the canned response list Emoji drawing is a bad joke.
- I can't dismiss notifications with flick gestures (only hide them)
- Very smooth and responsive UI overall
- No annoying "Ok Google" text on watch face until you say "ok Google" 5 times
Battery life for me for 5 times better.... One thing, this enables 'always on' apps... I would check some of your apps and see what battery consumption is. I've been in my watch since about 10am and I have 53% left right now. Way better than anything I have ever gotten. This is with wifi on.
It's pretty fantastic for me. I have no complaints. The processor is old, but I'm very impressed with how optimized they've made it. The lag just doesn't interrupt my work flow, unlike with the Apple Watch at least. There's no major delay. Will likely be buying V2 or V3 depending on how I feel the life cycle for these devices will be.
Updated yesterday. I feel like the battery lasts less, but you have to give it 2-3 days to settle down. Liking the new features, but I don't think I'm gonna use Wi-Fi too much since it drains battery.
For now, I'm keeping WiFi, gestures, and ambient mode off. This way within a week I'll have a true comparison of battery life. Then I'm going to test each function and how it effects battery. I'll let everyone know how it goes.
Have the update one day now,
Good points:
-Smootness
-less buggy
-wifi when out of range
-wrist flick(great idea)
-Google maps maps
Bad points:
-Wrist flick is hard to perform correct (think it is a learning curve)
-When wifi is active on whatch and is connected but phone isn't connected to internet it still says it is connected.
-Laggier in first minutes after boot
-Lock screen sometimes activates when on wrist.
Overall i'am happy. Batterylife is to early to judge
I got the update yesterday after resetting my device. The first thing that I have noticed is that I can no longer dismiss notifications that only take up the bottom part of the screen. I have to pull the notification up and can then dismiss it. If this is what the developers intended, then that it is a major step backwards.
Also where do I setup which apps should stay "always on"?
Battery life after the update is disasterous, about 6% per hour but I need to give it a few days to sort itself out.
The dismissing of notifications is very much hit and miss and is impracticable.
At the moment I am not impressed with the update. Hopefully things will sort themselves out over the next few days.
For me, the update has been surprisingly good.
Good:
- Battery life (which I must admit, was my primary concern) is as good as it was prior to the update, even with the watch connected to WiFi.
- I love the flicking gestures, they work exactly as I imagined they would, although they're not as smart as they should (you can swipe available cards up and down, but when a card has multiple sub-cards, you can't scroll between them).
- Performance is great, specially considering it's a device with 512MB RAM, UI is still responsive enough and with very little lag.
- I love the new contact screen, it saves me a lot of time for quick calls when I can't remember the contact name (I normally use Google Now to call someone).
Bad:
- For the life of me, I haven't figured out how to enable always-on apps. It's one of the features I've been waiting for so eagerly, specially for Google Keep's checked notes (which I use A LOT).
- The WiFi connection is USELESS if you leave your phone home and find a protected WiFi network, because you NEED the phone to input the password. It kinda defeats the whole purpose.
One thing I noticed after the update is all of my hangouts threads became unmerged. Now each person has SMS/Hangouts as seperate threads. My one buddy experienced the same issue when his watch updated. Not sure why the software update would cause that, but it's upsetting.
Overall, I'm really liking the update. The only thing that's really bugging me is that you can't seem to dismiss notifications unless they're open. I'm used to being able to dismiss them immediately if I can get all the information I need from their title. Now, I actually have to swipe up first to open them, and only then can I dismiss them. It's not so bad that I can't live with it, but it is annoying.
The update has exceeded my expectations so far. I have only had it installed for about 12 hours. Battery life seems better. Worst case I don't think it has gotten any worse which was a huge concern because it hasn't been so wonderful. It seems to give more feedback and explanations so I'm not guessing as much. For example when I added a playlist it informed me that the battery needed more charge to download to the watch. Prior to the update I would have been scratching my head all day and then it would magically download when I charged up at night.
I really hope the WiFi works as advertised. I can think of many ways it could be useful to me. It seems like there are lots of times when I want notifications in case of an emergency because I'm a single dad but I also don't want to carry the phone with me.
My biggest annoyance with update is that now I have to open cards before they can be swiped away. Most times I can tell what a card is telling me and used to swipe them away without opening them.
Seems more responsive.
As others have said, removal of swiping / dismissing the previews was not a good call.
Not entirely sure, but looks like I won't be able to connect to my work WiFi which uses certificate based EAP-TLS authentication ? Will see when I'm back in the office next week.
Sent from my Lollipop TF700T
Do the other watches have the same issue (yeah, I'm calling it an issue instead of a feature) with the notification swiping? Or maybe this is something Motorola did thinking they were compensating somehow for the flat tire? Regardless, I hope there's an update to fix it, it just annoys the piss out of me every time.
My first day battery report.
Off charger at 9am, end of the day (11pm) 67%. This is with WiFi and ambient mode off so I can have a direct comparison to prior then update. But to me that is a huge improvement.
Has anybody figured out how to enable the App Always On feature?
I've updated my watch yesterday and wanted to let my watch get to 0% to calibrate the battery because of the new update. so I didn't put my watch off at night, and the next morging (today) my watch was 10% and the screen was totally black and it wasn't responding to the side button so I tried to hold it for 30 seconds to let it restart I saw the normal bootupscren but as soon it was staring the app it became black again. I now have let it charge to 100% and it it's responding perfectly again. Does anyone know what was wrong?
Thanks for your time!
user of android said:
I've updated my watch yesterday and wanted to let my watch get to 0% to calibrate the battery because of the new update. so I didn't put my watch off at night, and the next morging (today) my watch was 10% and the screen was totally black and it wasn't responding to the side button so I tried to hold it for 30 seconds to let it restart I saw the normal bootupscren but as soon it was staring the app it became black again. I now have let it charge to 100% and it it's responding perfectly again. Does anyone know what was wrong?
Thanks for your time!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed the same behavior when mine was at 2%. It did not respond to screen touches and only switched on for about half a second after clicking the side button several (5 or more) times. It still took about 30 minutes for the watch to finally shut down. Maybe this is because of a very aggressive battery saving mode?
I must add that I did reset the watch after the 5.1.1 update was fully installed and wanted the battery to drain completely for the same reason you did: to recalibrate it.
Sent from my One S using XDA Free mobile app
Mister-B said:
Has anybody figured out how to enable the App Always On feature?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm thinking it may only be an AMOLED feature.
Mine had the same issue at 10%. I wonder if this is related to the performance issue Motorola was talking about.
I don't know if I am happy or sad that this is widespread. Hopefully they patch this up.
With a few useful actions missing, and really funky updating and subsequent battery drain-
How do you like AW 2.0 on your HW?
What do you miss the most?
What's your favorite new thing from 2.0?
Will you stay with 2.0?
I've been running DP for months and I don't really remember what I should be missing. I am happy with current performance and features will stay on 2.0
Edit.... Can't see poll in app....
jowofoto said:
With a few useful actions missing, and really funky updating and subsequent battery drain-
How do you like AW 2.0 on your HW?
What do you miss the most?
What's your favorite new thing from 2.0?
Will you stay with 2.0?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Like it a lot. Just a little bit of a learning curve.
2. I miss the longer battery life. I charge it every night, but I was usually at 50% on 1.5, now I usually at 15%.
3. Answering calls. On 1.5, when I swiped to answer, I routinely swiped my launcher and lost the call. On 2.0 you tap to answer.
4. Definitely.
jowofoto said:
With a few useful actions missing, and really funky updating and subsequent battery drain-
How do you like AW 2.0 on your HW?
What do you miss the most?
What's your favorite new thing from 2.0?
Will you stay with 2.0?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there are good things and very bad ones. I'm tending to not really like it. Reasons listed below.
I don't even know where to begin with... Here is a (probably incomplete) list of what I miss the most:
double tap on button for theater mode
contacts are not synced with the PHONE, instead it only syncs contacts from your Google account (which I'm not using, I'm using my own CardDAV server but I've seen already the exact same problem with Exchange, so this is not a niche problem - Calendar works well with my CalDAV server and is in sync with what is set up on the phone)
Google Now (all that below worked like a charm before the upgrade) - Google assistant is not really usable (for me at least), and far away from good or perfect:
it becomes quite useless without the contacts (can't make calls, as there are no contacts - can't send messages, etc.) - and making phone calls or sending messages is the primary use case for the voice control on my watch
saying "Call Jon Doe on mobile" (did a test cause I really need to call my wife often) keeps asking me for which number to call (seriously, Google Assistant? Are you that smart?)
saying "Send Telegram/WhatsApp/Text Message to Jon Deo - Hello World" will remain on a screen with buttons to cancel or send instead of sending that "Hello World" message (again: are you serious? Why should I use voice commands if I in return have to interact manually with my device again? What is the deeper meaning behind that?)
Old apps don't work anymore (I installed Heart Trace on the phone but it's not appearing on the watch - also not after doing the "sync apps" in the Wear app) - sure this will change for all apps that are still maintained by their devs - but others won't
notifications peek cards - especially for the music player. this is horrible and a really a big issue for me. And also for non-music player notifications: I just don't see at first sight (and without fiddeling with the watch) that there are notifications - the "complications" watch faces are ugly (IMHO) and I really hope that the dev of my watch face will include a small icon telling me that there are 1, 2, 3, 99 notifications pending.
tripple tap on the button for brightness boost - although I never used it (I just didn't know it existed until after upgrading to 2.0) I really see the benefit of this shortcut and would have started to use it - especially as summer is just around the corner and in bright sunlight the watch is hard to read.
swipe from right to left for the apps list (why would I want to swipe for changing the watch face??) swiping should really be associated to an action I use often - MAKE IT USER CONFIGURABLE!! (this holds true for most of the issues, and also for the good things below)
DND mode synced with the phone. Now, this is really controversial as it depends on the individual use case. I need it synced with the phone (either phone and watch muted or both on vibrate/loud). In any case: JUST LET THE USER DECIDE! (seriously, Google! How hard is this?)
battery live - was way better with AW1.5. Had 30-50% left after 22-24h - now it's completely drained after 20-22h with similar usage. Trying the stop sync over wifi setting next.
To be fair, there are a couple of nice features that I like:
the drop down quick settings - the individual screens for each setting were just horrible in terms of UX!
the apps carousel and the favorite apps shortcuts
the possibility to install apps directly on the watch
full fletched Telegram app (got to give props to the Telegram devs rather than to Google but still: I like)
possibility to stop the notifications from popping up all over the screen (a real problem if you are in a meeting at work with the customer and your friend sends you embarrassing messages so that every one can read them - other scenarios problematic, too) - instead now only a small icon appears and that's it
I'm really only centimeters/inches away from downgrading. Got the AW1.5 image already downloaded, giving AW2.0 some more days of testing, but if that list above keeps growing, I'll downgrade for sure.
There are also other issues with the UI/UX:
i.e., the scroll indicator on the right - historically, that makes sense. But on a watch (which most people are wearing on the left hand) when you reach to the screen for scrolling, you're actually obscuring the screen so you can't see the scroll bar anyway. So what's the point? also, the scroll indicator has the same size no matter how long the list is.
There is probably more, but I've had enough for today.
Cheers
dmckami said:
Old apps don't work anymore (I installed Heart Trace on the phone but it's not appearing on the watch - also not after doing the "sync apps" in the Wear app) - sure this will change for all apps that are still maintained by their devs - but others won't
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heart trace works. For some apps I get notifications on watch to install watch companion app, for others I have to manually install on watch via play store. Sometimes you can't find the app in the watch store unless you have it installed on the phone...
derausgewanderte said:
Heart trace works. For some apps I get notifications on watch to install watch companion app, for others I have to manually install on watch via play store. Sometimes you can't find the app in the watch store unless you have it installed on the phone...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I'll check that once I have charged the watch again. It ran out of battery mid-day today :-/
jowofoto said:
With a few useful actions missing, and really funky updating and subsequent battery drain-
How do you like AW 2.0 on your HW?
What do you miss the most?
What's your favorite new thing from 2.0?
Will you stay with 2.0?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. It's okay. There's a lot of potential, but it doesn't feel like it has been fully realized yet.
2. Not requiring me to press "ok" after I dictate a text message. That defeats the whole purpose of hands free messaging. The battery life downgrade is a bummer, but I charge my watch every night anyway so it doesn't really matter to me. I went from having 60-70% battery left in the afternoon to having about 50% left.
3. Facebook messenger finally works. In fact, all of my notifications work, though some work better than others. I'm looking at you, Outlook. Also, having a keyboard is nice. I think it works surprisingly well considering the tiny screen that it's on.
4. Yeah.
TheSt33v said:
. I'm looking at you, Outlook..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have Outlook installed on the watch? It's working for me.
With double and triple tap back it would be perfect for me.
derausgewanderte said:
You have Outlook installed on the watch? It's working for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, and it does work, but not as well as the other notifications. The notification is there when I swipe up, but it doesn't appear in a noticeable way when I first get it like my other apps. I have to go looking for it.
twitter on android wear 2.0
Is it just me or is there no twitter support for android wear 2.0?
Well my experience is that wear 2.0 is not an improvement as far as performance and efficiency goes. Been running it for 5 days. now. the watch is laggy, so much so that starting and stopping the stopwatch leads to unreliable times. press the stopwatch start button on my watch face and approx 1/2 second later it starts (tap and the vibration feedback also comes about 1/2 second later). any watch animations seem to be laggy like they are running at 20 frames. battery is lasting half as long (used to be 48 hours, now lucky if I get 24 hours). Love the new app launcher layout but in true google style they half arsed it and didn't carry it into a single other menu on the watch so the usual inconsistency from the guys that implement the standards, well done Google.
RudeboyXL said:
Well my experience is that wear 2.0 is not an improvement as far as performance and efficiency goes. Been running it for 5 days. now. the watch is laggy, so much so that starting and stopping the stopwatch leads to unreliable times. press the stopwatch start button on my watch face and approx 1/2 second later it starts (tap and the vibration feedback also comes about 1/2 second later). any watch animations seem to be laggy like they are running at 20 frames. battery is lasting half as long (used to be 48 hours, now lucky if I get 24 hours). Love the new app launcher layout but in true google style they half arsed it and didn't carry it into a single other menu on the watch so the usual inconsistency from the guys that implement the standards, well done Google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I found that having the triple tap feature enabled for zooming was causing my touch reaction lag. no biggy, not a feature I need enabled. but I have found the battery life to be terrible. seems to have gotten worse. The watch uses about 5-10% per hour, if not more at times with little to no use. Can't even get through a full day. This is ridiculous. I went from having state of the art smartwatch with amazing UX to a power hungry wrist calculator. I literally don't like looking at my watch anymore as I'm without doubt going to see my battery drop about 15-20% since I last looked at it. Pathetic. I'm not performing another factory reset as it clearly is the ROM that's the problem. Huawei need to sort this out. All that time waiting and this is what we are given.
Usability wise, it's still nowhere nearly as comfortable to use an an Samsung Gear S3. That said, the UI is smoother and with better readable notifications. The Spotify-card on the Watch is a pain to use though. Sometimes it appears and sometimes it does not (also happens with Play Music).
Battery life is utterly dissapointing. I've had AW2.0 since OTA-day, now at least a week and I get about 1.5 days out of it. On AW1.5 I used to get 4-5 days out of it. Such an gigantic drop in batterylife is something I do NOT like. Now I can't brag about my watch lasting 5x longer than my collegue's Apple Watches :/
So far, Gear S3 is still by far the best watch money can buy. But if you really want Android Wear, imho the Huawei Watch still is by far the best buy.
1. Keyboard is not that easy to use but its good to have keyboard, apps got much better, battery drain is same as always for me (good).
2. I was on DP since DP4 released, but i remember AW1.5 had more beautiful UI that AW2's UI.
3. I can send voice messages via telegram!
4. Definitely.
Sent from my Huawei Mate 8 using Tapatalk
Other then the fact that somehow my max speaker volume changed to super low and the double tap to sleep is gone I am happy. Working with HW support, I did a reset which killed bat for about 4 hrs, but now bat life is same or slightly better than before and play services on watch is much smaller than after OTA update. New navigation took a day or two to get used to, but OK with it now. Like the fact that I have a little more control of what is on watch and how it is used. Probably going back to HW for speaker repair under warranty ( days left). Palm on watch to sleep doesn't work for me, but not a big deal. A few tweaks and it should be a nice OS.
amin318 said:
1. Keyboard is not that easy to use but its good to have keyboard, apps got much better, battery drain is same as always for me (good).
2. I was on DP since DP4 released, but i remember AW1.5 had more beautiful UI that AW2's UI.
3. I can send voice messages via telegram!
4. Definitely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The voice message feature for telegram is great! It actually makes the watch smarter...no more quick replies or voice message via Google(especially if you speak in an unsupported language)....
And you can also hear the voice messages you receive on the watch directly via the speaker....
Just like a wrist walkie talkie
I just pray to god Whatsapp will implement this as well...
2.0 is the single worst software update I have ever seen. ...
It's almost as if it bypassed even the simplest quality control check!!
Swipe left is now taking you to a watchface rather than menu?? Like seriously?? OMG
Where can I downgrade?
I have had my P20 for about three month now... and it's OK but the Huawei "enhancements" and some other things are very frustrating.
1) Almost none of my "background" stuff works... Meaning things like Google Photo backup, SMS Backup & Restore scheduled backups, and other scheduled services don't run until I open the apps. Not much good to have automatic backups if they aren't automatic. Also, Google Rewards does not notify me of new surveys. Things that happen in the background seems to happen for a short time after you open the app, then they just stop.
2) Multitasking is a joke... On my old Moto G5+, I could have Facebook, Candy Crush Saga (don't judge, I have invested too much time to quit), Pandora, MeWe, Gmail, Messenger, Nine Mail, and a host of other apps running with no issues switching back and forth without them "reloading". On my P20 with the same RAM and supposedly a faster processor, if I am in Candy Crush Saga and switch to Facebook, then switch back, Candy Crush reloads when I was in the middle of level... Much less trying to have Pandora or a few other things going simultaneously. And yet I typically have 1.8-2.1GB of RAM available, it's impossible to actually multitask without apps restarting constantly.
3) Delayed or no notifications... From most apps... Gmail, Facebook, XDA, Nine (a real problem, this is my work email), Calendar, etc. Almost every app that isn't open gives delayed notification, sometimes a minute or two, sometimes hours, sometimes not until it is opened. Other times notifications show up, but no sound is given at all.
These things all seem to be related to how aggressive the memory and application management is to maintain the battery... Sort of making up for the hardware's inefficiencies through software. But it works, battery life is quite good.
4) Inability to change "default" apps like the Gallery... I hate the Gallery, but I love Google Photos as the "gallery" app. You can change it in the settings to the default, but few applications "honor" that setting. And for some reason the Gallery doesn't see all the photos I download with Photos. Weird... And even when you set other non-Huawei apps as defaults, it only works sometimes. This goes back to EMUI's software framework I think. Never had this issue on Motos, Nokias, Pixels, etc.
5) More of an annoyance than anything else, but what the heck is with the lock screen wallpaper? I can't get rid of the Huawei papers, they show up no matter what I do or how many of my own I add, the stock ones keep showing up. I have gone into the lock screen settings and disabled ALL of the embedded ones, and only my folder of about 50 or so images, and I keep getting the stock Huawei ones show up in the rotation.
Then there is the lockups... For example, open Google and search for something, switch to images, and maybe turn on GIF filter or something... This thing will grind to a halt in nothing flat, granted my old Moto would lag a bit, but it was 100 times better than this thing. I get the same thing in some apps but not others without consistency. Or if my UC-One app for work rings, sometimes it works, other times it locks up tight and needs a hard reboot to recover... No other phone out of the 80 or so at work does this. It's just so inconsistent.
And my last gripe is the data lag... At random times, regardless if on mobile data or WiFi, it will just lag out for 10 seconds to 2 minutes, usually once or twice a day, but not consistently... Everything looks fine, good signal strength regardless of source and other devices work fine, but no data will be moving and videos freeze and buffer, Facebook pictures don't load, etc. Granted, this really started after the May 2019 update.
It sounds like I hate this phone, but I do like a lot of things about it... The battery life if good, the charge times are good, the camera is excellent, the sound quality is acceptable, nice screen, not too big or overweight. But man, that new Pixel 3a XL at $20/month is sure looking pretty good.
Am I all alone here, or do others have the same issues?
Oh dude. 99 % of things you mentioned can be handled in the phone settings like telling phone not to shut apps in the background. You should Google before you write things down.
Ragarding your last point with lag: try doing a soft reset and install you carrier settings once again.
I've got the phone for half a year now and after searching and changing some settings it works better than anything else I've seen on a phone I paid 350 EUR for.
EuBir said:
Oh dude. 99 % of things you mentioned can be handled in the phone settings like telling phone not to shut apps in the background. You should Google before you write things down.
Ragarding your last point with lag: try doing a soft reset and install you carrier settings once again.
I've got the phone for half a year now and after searching and changing some settings it works better than anything else I've seen on a phone I paid 350 EUR for.
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I take no offense from your comment, but I am not a noob... I have been working with Android since Eclair and smartphones in general much longer, including working on several ROM development teams and am an RC here. I did Google and DID turn off Huawei's "App Launch" management that I assume you are talking about trying to stop the optimizations from EMUI, and a few other things, but this is AFTER that. Although some of them seemed to help a little, it doesn't fix the problems.
Not only have I soft reset, I have done complete factory resets and all of my carrier settings are current... The lag also occurs on WiFi.
My post was kind of a rant, not necessarily looking for a solution unless there was one, and I was looking to see if I was the only one with these issues. Nor am I saying this isn't a good phone... Many of the things I have talked about would not bother many people.
In my case, I'm happy with the phone. Obviously I had some other problem, especially in some of the points you mentioned in the post. As the backup of Google Photos that did not work, but when I opened the app. However, selecting that all applications start manually has worked correctly for me.
I have disabled several applications using ADB. I know it does not erase them definitively, but hey, it's something. I also hate or just do not like the amount of applications that the phone has installed, I see them as unnecessary. I've always tried to use Google apps: calendar, dialer, calculator, clock, contacts, file manager, keep notes, etc. (that means I also disabled the original dialer).
But there is something that haunts me since I upgraded to EMUI 9. And it is a bug in recent applications that has a blue shadow that only appears when using a launcher. As I read, the solution is to disable the EMUI launcher, I did it once, but I prefer the appearance of recent applications of EMUI 9 than the previous ones. (Although I believe that this is poorly implemented).
Disable Huawei power genie app. I think it will solve all your problems with background apps.
You can find instructions online.
Your battery will take a small hit.
The biggest issue is the wifi, very capricious
I have no problem watching a 1080p stream on twitch... but loading the newsfeed on FB, twitter, is sometimes impossible. I have to switch to 4g to load the newsfeed and it's very annoying ... Sometimes i can browse the internet for 5minutes, then nothing would load, for no reason ...
The battery management settings is also very aggressive, and notifications often displayed 1h, 2h late. Occasionally i get a "1 message from " " ... 1 day" on messenger app
One thing i really miss is viper4audio ... I did everything, i can't get this thing to work.
Appart from that, it's a good medium range phone.
maxime4611 said:
The biggest issue is the wifi, very capricious
I have no problem watching a 1080p stream on twitch... but loading the newsfeed on FB, twitter, is sometimes impossible. I have to switch to 4g to load the newsfeed and it's very annoying ... Sometimes i can browse the internet for 5minutes, then nothing would load, for no reason ...
The battery management settings is also very aggressive, and notifications often displayed 1h, 2h late. Occasionally i get a "1 message from " " ... 1 day" on messenger app
One thing i really miss is viper4audio ... I did everything, i can't get this thing to work.
Appart from that, it's a good medium range phone.
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I don't know what phone you have.I think you are on a wrong thread.This is for Huawei P20 which is a premium phone not a midrange phone.
It's not a 800€+ phone, and there's the p20 pro. I bought it for 379€ in europe, just a month after it's release. So for me it's more a medium range phone ^^ the top medium range
costindaemon said:
Disable Huawei power genie app. I think it will solve all your problems with background apps.
You can find instructions online.
Your battery will take a small hit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for this. I was so tired of having to reload recent apps. It was so bad on my phone that just switching between 2 apps would close the first.
maxime4611 said:
It's not a 800€+ phone, and there's the p20 pro. I bought it for 379€ in europe, just a month after it's release. So for me it's more a medium range phone ^^ the top medium range
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Well,for me there are the specifications that make a phone premium/midrange or entry-level.The P20 has specifications that matches a premium 2018 phone.If you were so lucky to find a new P20 in spring 2018 for less than 400 euros,good for you.
costindaemon said:
Disable Huawei power genie app. I think it will solve all your problems with background apps.
You can find instructions online.
Your battery will take a small hit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ryandos said:
Thank you so much for this. I was so tired of having to reload recent apps. It was so bad on my phone that just switching between 2 apps would close the first.
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Click to collapse
You don't need to disable the Power Genius app, it can actually do some good... disabling it is functionally equivalent to going to Settings -> Battery -> App Launch and turning off "Manage All Automatically" and that will leave you like most other Android device with the kernel managing everything.
I disabled this at first after @costindaemon mentioned it, but Gmail app notifications, especially for non-Gmail accounts, got wonky... So I re-enabled Power Genius but turned it off as I stated above, then went through the apps and turned some on that I wanted "suppressed"... Gmail is an enigma here though, if it's management is turned off I had issues with notifications and accounts, and in App Launch it had a warning saying something like that, so I turned it on for that app and it's been good since. I have since just monitored the usage with GSAM's App Sucker and anything high on the battery usage list that I didn't want I turned on the Manage Automatically for that app and it no longer misbehaved. Think I have found the happy medium here.
I still have some issues with the phone, most just annoyances now... not to the level of frustration I was at before though. Still looking at that Pixel 3a XL though... it's in the cart, financing approved, but I just can't seem to pull the trigger yet. lol
acejavelin said:
You don't need to disable the Power Genius app, it can actually do some good...
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Click to collapse
You're right. I made a mistake in thinking that disabling power genie worked, when in reality it was just rebooting my phone that temporarily fixed the problem.
I did a bit of googling into a "ram leak" on the P20 and it was actually because I was using a 3rd party launcher (Nova). The solution was to disable the stock Huawei launcher, and since I did that 2 days ago my free ram has not gone below 1000mb. I've installed another launcher in case Nova mucks up.
But it looks like you've moved onto the 3a now, hopefully it's better than the awful software experience that comes with this phone xD. I definitely won't be buying Huawei in the future.
Ryandos said:
You're right. I made a mistake in thinking that disabling power genie worked, when in reality it was just rebooting my phone that temporarily fixed the problem.
I did a bit of googling into a "ram leak" on the P20 and it was actually because I was using a 3rd party launcher (Nova). The solution was to disable the stock Huawei launcher, and since I did that 2 days ago my free ram has not gone below 1000mb. I've installed another launcher in case Nova mucks up.
But it looks like you've moved onto the 3a now, hopefully it's better than the awful software experience that comes with this phone xD. I definitely won't be buying Huawei in the future.
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Yeah, I got my Pixel on Monday... Already think it's 10 times better, except the camera. That 2x "optical zoom" was damn nice although the Pixel's pictures seem a better quality even though they take longer to process. For the camera, I'm still giving the edge to the Pixel but I haven't played with it much yet.
All my issues are gone now and battery life is noticeably better. The Huawei will be going up on the local classified ad sites soon, hopefully the market for them isn't completely tanked.
Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk
Your lockscreen issue is solved by deleting the excess wallpapers from the lockscreen. As you cycle into the first one, tap it and...
Any issues you have don't exist for me. Likely because i always first disable/uninstall most major google apps immediately.
Any problems i've noticed don't appear to me as device specific but rather OS related. To me, this thing performs quite well with impressively low battery drain by comparison.