Topic: The Samsung Galaxy S2 thread

[Cone]

ICS on t-mobile is really starting to piss me off now put my fone on charge before i went to bed woke up this morning fully charged an hour later and am down to 50% not even done much with it also whats app seems to freeze getting folk messaging me 30/40 mins after they started

I've read and also been told by someone that has the phone that it apparently goes back to normal after a few days.

It had better. I updated mine yesterday, charged overnight and it was dead halfway through the day today.

[damian]

Sounds like T-Mobile testing hasn't been as good as O2, and yet they took longer to release it. I've had no problems up to now (apart from Sky Go not working, but thats ICS in general, not O2).

Fucking terrible phone.  Probably the 2nd worst I've ever owned (after the Dell Streak) and I've owned quite a few.

What are the problems you are having with it?

I've owned mine since August last year, not had any major issues at all.

Have previously owned several Nokia's, Sony's, and still own an iPhone 3gs, all of which I've been fed up with after a few months, not this one though.

[Azi]

Sorry if this sounds obvious but have you tried switching it off and back on?  Battery drain that bad normally only happens to me when an app hasn't shut itself off properly.

yep tried that aswell (or its been forced on me to restart it cos it freezes )

 

Fucking terrible phone.  Probably the 2nd worst I've ever owned (after the Dell Streak) and I've owned quite a few.

up until two weeks ago id say this was the greatest phone ive owned once the bugs have been ironed out it will be back to being a great phone ive learned the lesson of not upgrading the software untill its been thoroughly tested

[danwms]

What are the problems you are having with it?

[wz4jc3]

Since the ICS update, I have found my battery life has increased.

[keithcun]

Sounds like T-Mobile testing hasn't been as good as O2, and yet they took longer to release it. I've had no problems up to now (apart from Sky Go not working, but thats ICS in general, not O2).

Ironically, Sky Go works on mine with ICS.

Since the ICS update, I have found my battery life has increased.

Unfortunately, I think the updates are all carrier dependent, they aren't the same, they put their bloatware in and other adjustments.

[wadey-LFC]

My batterys been rather shite since the ics update.

[Terry_Tibbs]

Been following this on twitter and the Galaxy SIII been launched tonight, on sale from May starting in Europe first. Apparently it comes with something Samsung are calling Smart Stay which knows when you're looking at the screen and stops it turning off. Also they've added a function where if you're texting someone, but decided to call them instead raise the SIII to your ear & actives a 'Direct Call' feature.



It'll be a bugger to fit in yer pocket though!
 

[conman]

Been following this on twitter and the Galaxy SIII been launched tonight, on sale from May starting in Europe first. Apparently it comes with something Samsung are calling Smart Stay which knows when you're looking at the screen and stops it turning off. Also they've added a function where if you're texting someone, but decided to call them instead raise the SIII to your ear & actives a 'Direct Call' feature.



It'll be a bugger to fit in yer pocket though!
 

live unpacking

http://www.thenextgalaxy.com/

[Surprise me.]

Nothing special. Doesn't look great either.

[Pendzo]

Hmm don't look too bad, that eye recognition thing sounds perfect for me.

[Cusamano]

Bit dissappointed purely from an aesthetic point of view.

[conman]

i think the phone is great!

looks much nicer than the S2 also

[Guz-kop]

Looks absolutely huge just like all new android smartphones. S2 is about as big as it should go IMO. I tried playing around with the One X the other day and can't see myself using it with one hand that comfortably although it looks like an absolute beast of a phone.

I've been able to upgrade for ages now and was waiting to see if the S2 is coming down in price. I guess it will soon but not sure if I should wait another month for the s3 or just get a cheaper plan for the s2 or even stick with htc. Lots of decent options for android phones at the moment.

[damian]

From the official SIII site, doesn't look like there is that much new. Looks quite a bit different, maybe a bit nicer than the S2, but the other features wouldn't make me want to pay to upgrade (maybe a free upgrade, but that's not due until August 2013, so will be another new one by then.

[Jimmy Conway]

Looks like some unique features to the S3. Ones ive not seen on Android before.
 a 4.8 inch screen though, yikes. Not sure it will fit in my jeans.

[Beav]

When does a phone screen become so big that it becomes a tablet, because this must be close.

The SII is massive imo and I wouldnt have gone any larger with it. Will have to have a mess around on it when it comes out.

Also, im not big on its aesthetics.

[Jimmy Conway]

When does a phone screen become so big that it becomes a tablet, because this must be close.

The SII is massive imo and I wouldnt have gone any larger with it. Will have to have a mess around on it when it comes out.

Also, im not big on its aesthetics.

Apparently the cut off to a tablet is 5"

[damian]

Apparently the cut off to a tablet is 5"

The Galaxy Note is 5.3" but classed as a smartphone.

[LanceLink!!!!!]

These phones are getting too big now I reckon, I posted my old Sony Vivaz for recycling yesterday and after a couple of months using the S2 the old Sony felt tiny.

[Guz-kop]

When does a phone screen become so big that it becomes a tablet, because this must be close.

The SII is massive imo and I wouldnt have gone any larger with it. Will have to have a mess around on it when it comes out.

Also, im not big on its aesthetics.

Agreed.

For me if you can't use it with one hand comfortably then it's too big. My HTC desire is about as big it should be IMO

[Surprise me.]

I quite like the Galaxy Note. I don't know how I would carry it around but still, easy stylus to use as well with some good features on that. If the release a new one in the coming months I might get one. I could never carry a tablet around like I've seen quite a few people doing so something like the Note is a good compromise. Carrying around a 10" tablet is just ridiculous. As long as it fits in the pocket!

[Beav]

I quite like the Galaxy Note. I don't know how I would carry it around but still, easy stylus to use as well with some good features on that. If the release a new one in the coming months I might get one. I could never carry a tablet around like I've seen quite a few people doing so something like the Note is a good compromise. Carrying around a 10" tablet is just ridiculous. As long as it fits in the pocket!

I adore the Note, but it is massive. Ive been torn on whether to trade in my SII for it for weeks, looks absolutely fantastic.

[damian]

I adore the Note, but it is massive. Ive been torn on whether to trade in my SII for it for weeks, looks absolutely fantastic.

Same. I've wanted a tablet for ages but can't afford one, S2 is great but not quite big enough to use as a tablet and I think the Note would do the job.

Unfortunately my contract isn't up until July 2013 though. I also have a contract with T-Mobile which expires this August, but I can't afford both so intend to let it expire. I have a horrible feeling I'll do a stupid thing when the time comes though and go for an upgrade, vowing to cancel my O2 contract when it expires next July

[BCCC]

Any decent deals on the new S3 yet? My contract is up at the end of the month.

[chrisG]

Any help available,  Girlfriend has upgraded her Samsung Galaxy S 2 to ICS. Done over wireless from a push notification.

So it's working fine and it has upgraded to 4.0.2 however after a few weeks it is running really slow.

Also it keeps crashing and saying TWlauncher crashed.

Anyone had similar problems?

[NA_]

Any decent deals on the new S3 yet? My contract is up at the end of the month.

The deal Three are offering seems good,
All-you-can-eat-data, 2,000 minutes, 5,000 Three-to-Three minutes, and 5,000 texts
£34
with no upfront fees.

Edit: Ohh plus a possible £100+ quidco

[Keith Lard]

Agreed.

For me if you can't use it with one hand comfortably then it's too big. My HTC desire is about as big it should be IMO

Tis true. The iPhone hits the sweet spot in terms of size. This move to massive clown phones is getting silly. I don't mind phones getting thicker to accommodate a bigger battery, but longer and wider .... No thanks.

[shockwave_dave]

Anybody here ever have an issue connecting their S2 to Kies and how was it resolved?

Cannot get mine connected to Kies at all to get the ICS firmware update

[wadey-LFC]

Probably an easy answer but I cant find it, but how do I get rid of the keyboard icon in the corner while using swift key?

[killer-heels]

I quite like the Galaxy Note. I don't know how I would carry it around but still, easy stylus to use as well with some good features on that. If the release a new one in the coming months I might get one. I could never carry a tablet around like I've seen quite a few people doing so something like the Note is a good compromise. Carrying around a 10" tablet is just ridiculous. As long as it fits in the pocket!

Its massive. Plus there is no way you would be able to make a phone call without looking like an idiot.

[damian]

Anybody here ever have an issue connecting their S2 to Kies and how was it resolved?

Cannot get mine connected to Kies at all to get the ICS firmware update

Had a problem connecting mine to my laptop a few days ago, turned out I had to turn USB Debugging on (Settings > Developer Options > USB Debugging). Worked straight away after I ticked that box.

[buzzing]

Anybody here ever have an issue connecting their S2 to Kies and how was it resolved?

Cannot get mine connected to Kies at all to get the ICS firmware update

Had that issue on my pc, but works without issue on my laptop. Never bothered to look into what the cause is

[GBF]

is ICS the biggest pile of shit Android ever released, fact!

[keithcun]

is ICS the biggest pile of shit Android ever released, fact!

You're not wrong.
Went out the other day, phone fully charged at 8:30 and apart from a 5 min call and the phone connected to my car via bluetooth when I was in it, it was never used for anything and the phone had drained itself dead at about 7pm.
This morning I did a factory reset and have installed nothing but what needed updating and it's currently been on battery for 2:30 mins and it's at 80% with Android OS at 79% use, screen 16% use, mediaserver 3% (4 songs on Youtube) and cell standby 2%.

It's just not acceptable and bordering on unusable without a spare battery.

[damian]

You're not wrong.
Went out the other day, phone fully charged at 8:30 and apart from a 5 min call and the phone connected to my car via bluetooth when I was in it, it was never used for anything and the phone had drained itself dead at about 7pm.
This morning I did a factory reset and have installed nothing but what needed updating and it's currently been on battery for 2:30 mins and it's at 80% with Android OS at 79% use, screen 16% use, mediaserver 3% (4 songs on Youtube) and cell standby 2%.

It's just not acceptable and bordering on unusable without a spare battery.

My battery started draining itself fairly quickly again, even though I was using JuiceDefender, would be at about 20-30% when I got home. However in my case I'd kept the screen on full brightness (just because it looks good). A couple of days ago I turned it down to 50% brightness and left it as that, been using the phone as much as usual (couple of phone calls, twitter, linked in, text messages etc.), by 7pm last night it was still on 80-90%. Until I started watching some video's on it, started draining fairly quickly then (about 20% by the time I went to bed at about midnight).

At the moment it's showing about 95% (battery is green apart from the pin), been off charge since about 7.30am, and I've used it for accessing this forum a few times, emails, twitter and linkedin throughout the morning. Seems the brightness makes a massive difference (though can't say it will be the same in your case as I don't know what you have your brightness set at).

EDIT: Just read your post again, missed the bit about "Android OS at 79%". Mine is actually 89% left on the battery, Android OS 40%, Screen 36%, Cell Standby 9%, Phone idle 6%, Tapatalk 4%, Internet 3%, Android System 2%, Google Services 2%.

EDIT 2: Still not plugged it in, now showing 64% battery, 13 hours after I unplugged it. Oddly though the battery indicator still looks like its at about 85-90%, barely moved from earlier.

One thing you could try that I read somewhere is cleaning the contacts of your battery with a cloth, apparently this should be done every few months to keep the battery in good condition. I did do that with mine last week so maybe that's why I'm getting improved battery life.

[GBF]

You're not wrong.
Went out the other day, phone fully charged at 8:30 and apart from a 5 min call and the phone connected to my car via bluetooth when I was in it, it was never used for anything and the phone had drained itself dead at about 7pm.
This morning I did a factory reset and have installed nothing but what needed updating and it's currently been on battery for 2:30 mins and it's at 80% with Android OS at 79% use, screen 16% use, mediaserver 3% (4 songs on Youtube) and cell standby 2%.

It's just not acceptable and bordering on unusable without a spare battery.

I havent got much of a problem with battery compared to you (Im on tmobile and using Go Power Master for battery mgt).  It is the Wifi and mobile data signals which are quite shite at the moment.  They keep disconnecting - specially the Wifi - or slow to connect to.  So far I havent seen any good thing with ICS that Go Launcher did not already offer. 

[Surprise me.]

It seems like everyone with this phone is complaining about the ICS update. I'm not going to bother updating my dads phone as a result. He barely uses it as a smartphone anyway.  ICS on my phone is brilliant though. The browser is really good for one. I put all the complaining down to Samsung messing with it and trying to fit it into TouchWiz, which has got to be the worst launcher out there by far.

[Paul-LFC]

ICS is finally out for Talkmobile S2s. I don't know whether to risk updating with Kies though, I've read a lot of reports of it randomly bricking people's phones. I could try the OTA update on the phone, but I don't know if that works properly either - last time I tried it a few weeks ago it "updated" and then said there was another update, it did this about 5 times in a row before I assumed it wasn't working and cancelled it.

[buzzing]

My battery is fine. Noticed no change from the old OS to ICS. Main issue I have is wifi freeze