Hello.
I am about to buy the SGS2 and have a couple of questions before I go ahead with my purchase. Currently I have a HTC Desire, and need to know how much I need to change. Here we go:
1) Battery life: I know that it very much varies depending on the usage, but given on average how many hours/days do you actually get out of that battery. With Desire, I am getting 1.5days on medium/low usage.
2) USB: I have a few usb's that were bought for my Desire, and was wondering if I could use them with SGS2? I am specially concerned about the mini-usb ending and its shape. Could anyone confirm whether it looks similar to this or not:
http://www.universalgadgets.co.uk/images/products/Big11_e947682u6x5it.jpg
3) In terms of recoveries and etc, does such thing exist with SGS1/2? Can I use the ClockWorkMod recovery with this?
4) Is the panel full-true multi-touch? Not emulated, since I 'heard' that SGS1 was emulated, and you could only use two fingers in specific motion. This was not the case with HTC Desire, and definitely not the case with iPhone. (please don't bite me for using the 'i' word here ;P )
5) Also, any issues that you (personally) have had with SGS1/2?
I appreciate your help, since I am going to pay £500, thought I should ask my questions first.
Thank you,
Mo.
nothing against u but how can u compare skoda with latest mercedes? are u mad? if u have enough money to buy sgs2 why would u use outdated acesories?
and your questions can be answered...look futher this web site... HTC battery life sux btw...and its well known information...
regards
Hunteres said:
nothing against u but how can u compare skoda with latest mercedes? are u mad? if u have enough money to buy sgs2 why would u use outdated acesories?
and your questions can be answered...look futher this web site... HTC battery life sux btw...and its well known information...
regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I had already done a google search, XDA search and youtube search, nothing that could be found (which was proven useful for me).
Don't get me wrong, I am not comparing HTC Desire with SGS2. That would be stupid. Hence why I am buying SGS2.
About accessories: The question is, why would I need to buy more accessories - If I can use the one that I already have?! Also, since when, USB2's can get outdated??!
Battery life: On HTC website, it says that it has up to 340hrs of standby time. That's a lie. Also, the battery is only 100mA less than SGS2 battery (yes I know dual core and etc etc). So, again, how many days you are 'actually' getting from this?
Thank you,
Mo.
But the question that remains is, how much battery do you actually get?
mofirouz said:
Hello.
I am about to buy the SGS2 and have a couple of questions before I go ahead with my purchase. Currently I have a HTC Desire, and need to know how much I need to change. Here we go:
1) Battery life: I know that it very much varies depending on the usage, but given on average how many hours/days do you actually get out of that battery. With Desire, I am getting 1.5days on medium/low usage.
2) USB: I have a few usb's that were bought for my Desire, and was wondering if I could use them with SGS2? I am specially concerned about the mini-usb ending and its shape. Could anyone confirm whether it looks similar to this or not:
http://www.universalgadgets.co.uk/images/products/Big11_e947682u6x5it.jpg
3) In terms of recoveries and etc, does such thing exist with SGS1/2? Can I use the ClockWorkMod recovery with this?
4) Is the panel full-true multi-touch? Not emulated, since I 'heard' that SGS1 was emulated, and you could only use two fingers in specific motion. This was not the case with HTC Desire, and definitely not the case with iPhone. (please don't bite me for using the 'i' word here ;P )
5) Also, any issues that you (personally) have had with SGS1/2?
I appreciate your help, since I am going to pay £500, thought I should ask my questions first.
Thank you,
Mo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) My battery life has been able to last me through a full day of use. It doesn't have amazing battery life but, it doesnt have terrible battery life. I usually go through around 15-18 hours of use on it. Texts, some games, internet browsing, and a lot of music use and I still haven't had the battery die on me before the day is over.
2) That USB cord should work fine with the SGS II
3) As of right now, there isn't a CWM recovery for the SGS II but, Samsung uses a program called Odin where you can flash different things.
4) As far as I know, the SGS II supports full multi-touch. I remember seeing a video of them testing it can't find the link tho :/
5) The only issue I have with it so far is once its fully charged a notification appears. It might not seem like a problem but, it has woken me up once or twice which is annoying.
Hope this helps.
mofirouz said:
Thanks! I had already done a google search, XDA search and youtube search, nothing that could be found (which was proven useful for me).
Don't get me wrong, I am not comparing HTC Desire with SGS2. That would be stupid. Hence why I am buying SGS2.
About accessories: The question is, why would I need to buy more accessories - If I can use the one that I already have?! Also, since when, USB2's can get outdated??!
Battery life: On HTC website, it says that it has up to 340hrs of standby time. That's a lie. Also, the battery is only 100mA less than SGS2 battery (yes I know dual core and etc etc). So, again, how many days you are 'actually' getting from this?
Thank you,
Mo.
But the question that remains is, how much battery do you actually get?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mate u didnt do a research...if u did u will find out that SGS2 has far better battery performance then any HTC..thats mean heavy ussage - very heavy + gaming etc is around 12-16 hours - medium use is more then 24h and soft usage with 3g on and sync on + phone calls and some wifi is about 1,5-2 days..i hope thats enough ..about battery..
Super Amoled plus - latest technology display - full multi touch ..extremly well responsive - once again..latest technology!...
and if u wanna know more about battery performance there is already topic about it...but i believe u saw it..right?
regards
I have just moved from the HD2 (on Gingerbread) so a close match for your Desire. I was getting battery down to an average of 60% after 24hrs SGS2 is about 70% on the same useage. My car charger works just the same . No clockwork yet, but most devs have only just managed to get their hands on one this week and there is already one rom available. Multi touch works. I loved my HD2 (still do) but this is better.
ok, cool. Thank you guys. Answered my questions
In terms of battery life, I put a lot of effort into tweaking the crap out of my Desire. Using VillianROM and an undervolted+underclocked cpu I tended to sit around 70% after a regular workday, which was probably twice what I had on stock.
My SGS2 is completely unmodified or rooted, running stock KE2. The same usage patterns yield me around 85% battery after a full workday, and under heavy web browsing the battery life difference seems even more pronounced.
Factoring in the fact that I'm experiencing the documented battery drain bug causing aroung 50% of my battery usage to be taken up by "Android OS" and "WiFi Sharing", I would expect this battery life to improve quite significantly beyond this point once this bug is fixed.
tl;dr Battery life is acceptable, and much better than Desire. Expect it to be extremely good once a few software bugs are fixed.
Q: I WAS told this phone won't work on t-mobile. Only at&t.
Any 1 running it on tm? Advice plz
Vibrant
I'm awaiting delivery of my new unbranded and unlocked Galaxy S2 really looking forward to having the best phone on the market, since March last year ive had a HD2 which was/is a superb phone and has served me well but ive sold it on to fund buying this, i notice some user names on here who used to be post on the HD2 forums just have a couple of questions regarding the few ROM's which are currently available for the GS2.
The most popular appear to be Villian ROM and Litening ROM, both seem to have superior battery life and are very fast, the Litening ROM sems to be easier to flash (i stand corrected on that) and you can flash this without having to root your phone first, im experienced in flashing ROM's for the HD2 but this is all new ground for me so out of those 2 ROM's which would you recommend beginning with, any pro's and con's,etc,etc ive read both threads and both appear to be excellent ROM's, Pulser in particular appears to be a very skilled developer.
Also any other recommendations/tips you have starting out, is it a good idea to get rid of all the Samsung bloatware to preserve battery life,etc,etc.
I've read quite a bit on here so im aware of certain things already but even though ive been on XDA a long time im so used to the HD2 i feel like im starting over again (well i suppose i am in a way)
Cheers folks..
I made the same jump as you and Im very happy with it.
With regards to the "easiest" rom to flash, I dont think theres any difference really, as long as you follow the instructions carefully its really very simple.
The VR thread has very clear and simple instructions. You'll get used to it
Bloatware, I would reccomend just leaving it as it is and seeing how your battery life is. If you feel it could improve then start stripping things out and see if it gets better. I've only got rid of the wifi sharing crap and can still make it through a day with 40% left. That could probably improve as well if I bothered to tinker some more.
You could always flash the lite version of villain rom, which contains NOTHING.
Not really willing to compare the two you mentioned as I havent tried litening so that would be unfair. For me, the main advantage of using VR is the VillainTweaks app and the level of support available, should you need it.
Cheers for the response and tips, just one thing about the Villian ROM is it very stable with minimal or no bugs/lag?
I've already acesertained that the battery life is superior so that is great to hear,and i can see that Pulser unlike some devs does seem to be involved in the thread (support) which is also a positive thing.
I might keep the stock on it for a few days then flash, I suppose if your on XDA it obviouss your gonna be flashing a custom ROM at some stage.
In all honesty I can think of only one bug I have suffered and I have seen it reported on other ROMS not just VR, sometimes my screen timeout settings will return to the default 30 second setting.
I have had 2 random reboots in the month or so that I've had the phone and both of those only occured after I had gone over 100 hrs without a reboot....
As for lag.....
Run your stock ROM for a few days, enjoy the blazing speed and responsiveness of this beast of a phone.
Then flash VR and marvel in complete amazement at the fact that this thing can get even faster
I keep mine underclocked to 800Mhz (sometimes I'll bump it up to 1Ghz for gaming) and its way snappier than my HD2 ever was.
Was similar to the first time I flashed an energy rom instead of stock winmo...
conantroutman said:
In all honesty I can think of only one bug I have suffered and I have seen it reported on other ROMS not just VR, sometimes my screen timeout settings will return to the default 30 second setting.
I have had 2 random reboots in the month or so that I've had the phone and both of those only occured after I had gone over 100 hrs without a reboot....
As for lag.....
Run your stock ROM for a few days, enjoy the blazing speed and responsiveness of this beast of a phone.
Then flash VR and marvel in complete amazement at the fact that this thing can get even faster
I keep mine underclocked to 800Mhz (sometimes I'll bump it up to 1Ghz for gaming) and its way snappier than my HD2 ever was.
Was similar to the first time I flashed an energy rom instead of stock winmo...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just out of curiosity mate why do you keep your phone underclocked to 800Mhz?
jonny68 said:
Just out of curiosity mate why do you keep your phone underclocked to 800Mhz?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a balance between speed and extending battery life that little bit more. It really doesn't feel any slower at 800 than it does at 1.2 but it uses less power.
Sent From My Fingers To Your Face.....
Recommend:
Sounds good when i get mine i think ill try that.
Just 2 more questions i forgot to ask first time
I haven't seen anyone mention using X-Scope browser on these forums just Dolphin and stock, X-Scope for me was the best browser i know of and i used it all the time with my HD2 am i to assume this browser also works fine with the GS2?
Also does ROM manager work on the GS2, reason i ask is because when i had the HD2 sometimes after installing certain apps or a new ROM i would get force closes but after fixing permissions in either ROM manager or CWM it usually fixed that problem.
Cheers
Just tested x scope and it seems to work fine.
Rom manager is not something I've ever been a fan of, theres no way of knowing what your flashing. You can fix permissions through cwm anyway.
Sent From My Fingers To Your Face.....
As I said, I'm a noob when it comes to not the Galaxy Note but also the Android Operating system. Before switching to Android in April, I was stuck on iOS (iPhone 4) for more than 2 years; before that was the good old Symbian OS on a Nokia N95 8 GB. So far, since making the switch, the experience has been great. Themes, ringtones, tons of customization are just some of the things that are easily possible with "jailbreaking" on my former device.
That being said, I'm still adjusting to my new phone even after 3 months. Thats why I'm starting this thread; I need help on a few questions. So, here it goes (I did search for a lot of these, but no solid solutions) -
1. One of the great things about my old phone was the battery life. Even after using the phone's music function, checking facebook/emails/news/weather every now and then, I would still have around 60%~80% juice left after an 8~10 hour shift at work. None of that on the Note. Just having the 4G running leaves me with around 40%~50% juice after work, with no hard usage like going on the web, or using my phone as a music player. How come? I understand that most of the juice is used by the big-ass display; but there is a still a huge consumption even when the display is not turned on at all. I recently came across a term called deep sleep on the forum; I'm not sure if my phone goes to that or not. How do I check (keep in mind that I'm a noob; I installed CPU Spy, Battery Spy and BetterBatteryStats, but what am I looking for. I'll include a pic from all these apps)? Basically, how do I increase battery life?
2. Charging/Data cables - I dont understand this.. I have included a picture of 3 cables. The 1st one of my brother's from an old HTC phone. This is the only cable I can use to transfer date to and from my phone; that too with a lot care because if I move my phone around, the connection gets lost and I cant even charge my phone unless I unplug the cable, put my phone in a stationary position and replug the cable. The 2nd one is the cable I use to charge my phone. I cant use it to transfer data (I guess because of the little head converter); again, with this cable I cant move my phone around. I have to keep the phone screen-up for it to charge; cant pick it up or move it around or no charge. The 3rd cable is useless. It came with a pair of bluetooth head set. I cant transfer data, nor charge my phone. On some cables, my phone shows its charging; but it either charges very very slow, or shows its at a 100%, but as soon as I take the cable out, the % goes down to 60~85. The phone seems to charge fine on a car charger I have (not a USB car charger, this one has no removable parts). I think it might be the USB port on my phone, but not sure.
3. The 4th picture is of the Go Task Manager widget. Currently its showing 239 MB of RAM free. I closed Battery Spy, and it came down to around 300~325 MB free. Does Go Launcher take a lot of memory? How can I free more RAM? Didnt the Galaxy Note have 1 GB of RAM; what happened to the remaining 305 MB of RAM?
4. ROM - FLOODED = the only word I can use after I saw the Android Development section. So many choices. Is it worth flashing my phone with one of these? Which one do you recommend? Is the one for CyanogenMod good? What exactly does Nightly Built mean?
5. Flashing the phone with a custom ROM voids the warranty, right? Does the "flashing counter" thing work (I read somewhere that there's an easy way of flashing the counter in Recovery to 0)? I included a pic of a crack thats on my screen (long story short, I dropped my phone screen down on a rock). I'm about to send it to AT&T (since I have insurance from them) for the screen (hopefully they'll send me a new one, which will fix the whole charging/data transfer problem too). Will they check the counter too? Should I flash the counter? I have to pay $200 for a claim, be it water damage, accidental damage, theft, loss, etc; if they do check the counter, should the just drop the **** out of the phone so it dosnt work at all?
Long read, I know. Just wanted to cram in as much information as possible so that I can get answers as soon as possible. Any and all answers will be appreciated. Thanks a lot for taking the time to read through the whole thread and replying (if you do).
Ways to increase battery life:
- I hear using wifi as much as possible instead of data is a huge improvement as well as turning off auto sync and you can turn wifi off when the display is off. Also the typical of having it on a low brightness, finding out if you have any rogue apps that are causing more drain than they should. The last resort is to get either multiple batteries or an extended one with a different back case. Aside from those things, you are only going to get so much on time display from the note. I get on average 3.5 hours and can push my phone to about 22 hours from 100%. Milestone 6 Rom, KingKangKernel 5
About the cables:
- Buy a new usb cable. If you ever intend on modifying your phone or even transferring any time of data, you are going to NEED to have a secure and trustworthy connection. And by a new wall adapter. (most phone cables come with the little adapter head for outlets so just make sure it comes included). Pop it off for computer use, and pop it on for wall use. There are a ton of threads about those in the accessories section so you may want to give that a peek. They also have info there about possible substitution batteries.
Ram:
-I don't understand this too much because haha I suck with some techy stuff. But I believe that touchwiz uses a lot of the ram (could be completely wrong) But, I know that a lot of those apps that you are never going to use AT&T(insert name here) apparently constantly are using power and resources. I used to try to clear the ram all the time and it never really went down. Haha sorry I can't help more with this part.
Roms:
- Milestone 6 with KingKangKernel5 ALL THE WAY!!! I would be willing to walk you through the process step-by-step with all the files and such that you would need if you'd like. Other than that, you need to have an idea of what you want before going to the development side of things. Do you want Touchwiz, OC, UV, BLN (YOU WANT BLN lmao), miui, cm9, cm10 (haha), aokp, aosp, aocp, a stock feel, customization out the ying yang. Decide all this stuff and then your choices will narrow drastically to about two or three. From there, it is easy to experiment and possibly decide you had your requirements all wrong and start the process from the beginning haha.
Warranty:
- Get your next insurance claim through BB (best buy). Their black tie protection covers anything as many times as you want without that 200 dollar fee (might as well get a new phone at that ridiculous price!!!) for only ten dollars a month. : D
-Don't know how AT&T does their insurance stuff but I feel if your issues are physical (scratch/ port) that they have no reason to deny you a claim even if there is proof of modification because rooting doesn't crack your screen or break your port. Hahaha, but they can be uptight so I would suggest possibly getting the claim first and then delving into the developmental side of things. There is an odin flashable zip to bring your counter back to 0. I have never tried it personally but many people have had a ton of success with it so I would suggest checking out that thread and just reading carefully what other people do so that you do not make a mistake with anything.
Hope this helps. Hahahahaha, sorry it's so long.
Custom roms improve batt life greatly because on a stock phone u have tons of apps running in the background if u root and flash a rom u can freeze all of them that u want plus now we can over clock our kernels to make r note fly as far as the rom for u ....well u just have to try them diff strokes for diff folks lol i use cm9 roms alot u got to remember ur note has a huge screen so its gonna pull more batt...i also use jucie defender ultimite ...bigjoe has a super everything thread for this phone u can find all ur answers there
sent from memosphere remix
1. Battery life varies strongly with usage, in CPUSpy each bar represents how much time the phone processor has spent at each speed. The more time spent at lower speeds the better for your battery life.
If you scroll to the bottom of the list the lowest speed should either be: 384 MHz or Deep Sleep
The phone only enters Deep Sleep if the phone screen is off, and no apps are calling for CPU time. This speed saves the most battery. Rogue apps could be preventing your phone from sleeping. BetterBatteryStats is a tool to help you discover these apps and either: change your usage patterns or uninstall them.
Check CPUSpy first. If Deep Sleep is not at the bottom, or its bar is relatively small then check BetterBatteryStats for the rogue app.
However even if it's in Deep Sleep if you get around the city a lot during the day the phone will be switching radio towers often, switching uses quite a bit of battery. If you stay in a single place for a while you should be able to leave it on a desk for 8 hours and find that you have lost none or almost no battery at all (Such as at night when you are sleeping).
This is a "4G" phone, carrier coverage is spotty and if you are in an area with bad reception or poor coverage, your phone's radio must switch to a higher power level to maintain a connection with the cell tower thus using more battery. 4G towers are more sparse, and therefore 4G has worse coverage compared to your previous phones.
2. You should be using the cable included with your phone. Charging cables obviously will not carry data. But data cables will do both, get yourself a good cable.
3. Don't worry about ram at all. Android has one of the finest ram management systems out there. The phone has 1 GB of ram, 200-300 MB is reserved for the kernel and kernel processes. Therefore you actually have around 700MB, the phone uses the remaining space to caches apps and other required data so that your experience is more fluid and "Lag-free". Not to mention the ram background services and apps are using. Which brings me back to my original point. Don't worry about it, fiddling with it could ruin your experience with the device and use more battery. Don't use apps to clear it, Google has already stated that this doesn't do much.
4. The original rom is your best bet if you want all of the features of the phone. Cyanogenmod is your second choice, Cyanogenmod does not have S-pen support and some of the services provided from Samsung. Cyanogenmod is very lightweight and is the most popular choice among all android devices.
Nightly-Built means that the rom is basically updated every night, so that you can receive the latest features and improvements. You can check every day and there will be a new update for your phone with the latest additions and fixes. However not all nightly builds are stable, but they are reliable at the moment.
5. The counter only counts when you use ODIN to flash bootloaders and kernels I believe. When most of us say "flashing" we mean flashing through ClockWorkMod or CWM for short. CWM does not advance the counter I believe. There are no reports of anyone being denied warranty because of the counter. Do not flash the counter reset, this does count as a "flash" and it is still detectable by AT&T.
tutusinghsohi said:
As I said, I'm a noob when it comes to not the Galaxy Note but also the Android Operating system. Before switching to Android in April, I was stuck on iOS (iPhone 4) for more than 2 years; before that was the good old Symbian OS on a Nokia N95 8 GB. So far, since making the switch, the experience has been great. Themes, ringtones, tons of customization are just some of the things that are easily possible with "jailbreaking" on my former device.
That being said, I'm still adjusting to my new phone even after 3 months. Thats why I'm starting this thread; I need help on a few questions. So, here it goes (I did search for a lot of these, but no solid solutions) -
1. One of the great things about my old phone was the battery life. Even after using the phone's music function, checking facebook/emails/news/weather every now and then, I would still have around 60%~80% juice left after an 8~10 hour shift at work. None of that on the Note. Just having the 4G running leaves me with around 40%~50% juice after work, with no hard usage like going on the web, or using my phone as a music player. How come? I understand that most of the juice is used by the big-ass display; but there is a still a huge consumption even when the display is not turned on at all. I recently came across a term called deep sleep on the forum; I'm not sure if my phone goes to that or not. How do I check (keep in mind that I'm a noob; I installed CPU Spy, Battery Spy and BetterBatteryStats, but what am I looking for. I'll include a pic from all these apps)? Basically, how do I increase battery life?
To increase battery life you can do a few things. Obviously, use as low brightness as you can stand using, and also try to use wallpapers with lots of black, as black pixels do not draw any power on amoled displays. Next, from your CPU spy pic it looks like a rogue may be holding your device in partial wake lock, as your 384 MHz stage has twice the time of your deep sleep stage. Uninstall any apps you dont need, like benchmarks and other one time use apps like that. Also, if you have stuff constantly syncing, that will drain battery with the screen off too. If you need push email, leave sync on, but change the sync settings of less essential apps to manual sync only, so your phone only syncs those when you use the app. Along with the syncing, if you are in an lte area, data usage will eat much more battery than the iphone for the same data usage. Lastly, if you have crappy cell service, that will also contribute to faster drain.
2. Charging/Data cables - I dont understand this.. I have included a picture of 3 cables. The 1st one of my brother's from an old HTC phone. This is the only cable I can use to transfer date to and from my phone; that too with a lot care because if I move my phone around, the connection gets lost and I cant even charge my phone unless I unplug the cable, put my phone in a stationary position and replug the cable. The 2nd one is the cable I use to charge my phone. I cant use it to transfer data (I guess because of the little head converter); again, with this cable I cant move my phone around. I have to keep the phone screen-up for it to charge; cant pick it up or move it around or no charge. The 3rd cable is useless. It came with a pair of bluetooth head set. I cant transfer data, nor charge my phone. On some cables, my phone shows its charging; but it either charges very very slow, or shows its at a 100%, but as soon as I take the cable out, the % goes down to 60~85. The phone seems to charge fine on a car charger I have (not a USB car charger, this one has no removable parts). I think it might be the USB port on my phone, but not sure.
Buy the stock Samsung wall charger/cable. It will do wonders for you. Solid connection, full speed charging, and data transfer.
3. The 4th picture is of the Go Task Manager widget. Currently its showing 239 MB of RAM free. I closed Battery Spy, and it came down to around 300~325 MB free. Does Go Launcher take a lot of memory? How can I free more RAM? Didnt the Galaxy Note have 1 GB of RAM; what happened to the remaining 305 MB of RAM?
Don't worry about ram usage, android as an os manages it just fine by itself. No need to constantly kill apps or use task killers other than the stock one if you absolutely need to kill something. Constantly killing apps/clearing ram can actually decrease your battery life as well, as constantly killing and restarting apps uses far more resources than leaving them running. Also, if you're constantly killing apps that have push syncing or interval syncing, they will just restart anyways, essentially just killing battery every time you clear ram. Lastly, use as few Widgets as possible. They are nice and pretty, but unless you need them they're just another service that is running, and will slow down your launcher performance if you have too many.
4. ROM - FLOODED = the only word I can use after I saw the Android Development section. So many choices. Is it worth flashing my phone with one of these? Which one do you recommend? Is the one for CyanogenMod good? What exactly does Nightly Built mean?
Remember, there's no rush, and no "best rom", so just take your time reading how to flash each rom, and try each one out that looks appealing to you. Nobody can tell you what will suit you best, and since all of the roms are great around here, you really can't go wrong trying any of them until you find what fits you best. Custom roms are totally worth it, as they have all of the fat trimmed and are really fun to play with. Be careful though, you may find yourself developing an addiction after you get the hang of things. =].
5. Flashing the phone with a custom ROM voids the warranty, right? Does the "flashing counter" thing work (I read somewhere that there's an easy way of flashing the counter in Recovery to 0)? I included a pic of a crack thats on my screen (long story short, I dropped my phone screen down on a rock). I'm about to send it to AT&T (since I have insurance from them) for the screen (hopefully they'll send me a new one, which will fix the whole charging/data transfer problem too). Will they check the counter too? Should I flash the counter? I have to pay $200 for a claim, be it water damage, accidental damage, theft, loss, etc; if they do check the counter, should the just drop the **** out of the phone so it dosnt work at all?
Yes, flashing roms does void your warranty but only temporarily. You can set it back to stock firmware again and be just fine returning or replacing it. People have also returned their phones with the counter tripped, as it seems that as of right now, neither att or Samsung cares about it. Have you flashed anything yet? If not, get your phone replaced before you do just to be sure, then when you get your new one back, you can have already read and downloaded everything you need to root and rom it as soon as you get it back. =].
Long read, I know. Just wanted to cram in as much information as possible so that I can get answers as soon as possible. Any and all answers will be appreciated. Thanks a lot for taking the time to read through the whole thread and replying (if you do).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2
tutusinghsohi said:
3. The 4th picture is of the Go Task Manager widget. Currently its showing 239 MB of RAM free. I closed Battery Spy, and it came down to around 300~325 MB free. Does Go Launcher take a lot of memory? How can I free more RAM? Didnt the Galaxy Note have 1 GB of RAM; what happened to the remaining 305 MB of RAM?
4. ROM - FLOODED = the only word I can use after I saw the Android Development section. So many choices. Is it worth flashing my phone with one of these? Which one do you recommend? Is the one for CyanogenMod good? What exactly does Nightly Built mean?
5. Flashing the phone with a custom ROM voids the warranty, right? Does the "flashing counter" thing work (I read somewhere that there's an easy way of flashing the counter in Recovery to 0)? I included a pic of a crack thats on my screen (long story short, I dropped my phone screen down on a rock). I'm about to send it to AT&T (since I have insurance from them) for the screen (hopefully they'll send me a new one, which will fix the whole charging/data transfer problem too). Will they check the counter too? Should I flash the counter? I have to pay $200 for a claim, be it water damage, accidental damage, theft, loss, etc; if they do check the counter, should the just drop the **** out of the phone so it dosnt work at all?
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Ok first keep in mind I came to android with almost the same background as you and about the same time.
Question 3: anything with Go in the name I have seen huge team usage... also custom Roms will be a great thing for your ram you will see big changes if you go with anything like AOKP AOSP or AOCP. These are as close to basic unmodified android as you will find with little to no extras.
4: cyanogen mods are good in my opinion, nightly builds are not finals they are updated nightly... as for a Rom I tried a few and have found my favorite is the collective builds.they just came out with the AOCP (newly updated coming soon) and there is one member of the team that likes ultra slim builds and he slims them down to the bear bones. When ready to flash give them a shot.
5: flashing will void warranty, with that said so did the crack you have. This counts as physical damage. So insurance is the best option. I do agree best buy ins is great but as you have att ins might as well use it. With a crack screen I think you will get a different device to fix charge port but will most likely get refurb phone. I would root and flash with this one so you can do it and IF anything goes wrong you need an instant replacement any way and your not out anything
Other 2 questions I didn't feel I was the one to answer nor am I a expert on any of this, just the info I have
Sent from my AoCP Note
Battery life isn't the greatest on the Note, but it's acceptable. If you use it a lot, the battery will drain. You can try using a different CPU governor (lulzactive, smartassv2, etc. in custom kernels) to improve battery life or just use powersave (which decreases performance but improves battery life). You also have to account for the huge screen which is OLED, not LCD. With an LCD (like the iPhone 4 has) there is an array of white LED's that illuminate the screen. There's probably 8 or so of them. The LCD glass is a color filter which colors the white light from the backlight. The LCD itself uses little power, and the LED backlight only has 8 or so LED's. The Note uses an AMOLED screen (Active-Matrix Organic LED) in which each individual pixel is four independent LED's (RGBG). They're small LED's and use little power on their own, but you have 1280x800x4 of them (well, not quite due to the pentile arrangement staggering pixels). When they're all on (white screens) it uses a lot of power, especially when brightness is up. On the plus side, when they're all off (dark screens) they use much less power. To save power on an AMOLED, use a darker background/theme.
As for RAM usage, the Note has 1GB and you really don't need to worry about checking it. Android manages RAM very well, especially when it has 1GB to work with. When you leave an app in Android it isn't closed, merely pushed back in an application stack. Only when Android determines that RAM is filling up does it start removing stale apps from this stack.
Personally I've used my Note with many different cables without issue. The included Samsung charger and cable work very well, and I think has the most solid connection of all of them, but I've had success with a cord from my Archos media player as well as my HP TouchPad tablet. The TouchPad's wall charger also gives a slight charging boost as it provides more power (2A vs. 1A) but the Note's highest charge rate is around 1.1A so you don't see a huge difference. It does need a bit more than a standard 500mA USB port provides, so if you plan to charge it off your PC or a 500mA charger, you need to turn off the screen and leave it off, otherwise the screen will eat up the power, leaving none for the battery.
My favorite ROM is CyanogenMod 9. This is a built-from-scratch (Google's source + modifications) ROM that includes a lot of nice features while retaining the stock Android look and feel. I personally do not like TouchWiz or the customizations that Samsung added to their Note ROMs but many people do. It's all about personal preference. A nightly build means that a new release of the ROM is posted (usually by an automated system) every night. This is what CyanogenMod uses for most devices, as their project has many developers and is constantly updating. You don't need to update every day, but a nightly ROM means that you always have access to the latest updates if you want them.
As for the flash counter, I would warranty the phone before flashing a custom ROM. I generally don't take warranty into account on my tech purchases because with all the hacking I do it's often void, but usually if you restore the stock firmware they will fix hardware issues obviously not caused by your ROM flashing..
Thank you all for the quick replies.
Regarding the cable, I've come across this on amazon - /gp/product/B007JZGO6S/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=AR2TEZS0WRV7S
Good to buy?
@Ph0n3D0rk - Thank you. Due to the short battery life I've been experiencing, I always use my phone on brightness all the way down with "Automatic Brightness" option turned off. I only have 200 MB per month data, so wifi's the only way to go . I've been looking into extra (or extended batteries); maybe soon. I read into Milestone 6; seems pretty interesting. I might give it a go (maybe when I get the replacement). I'll private message you about it.
@JB calhoun - Thank you. I've started looking into different kinds of ROMs. Is it possible to try out 2 different types or ROMs at the same time? What I mean is that say if I install CM9, then I want to try Milestone 6; will I have to remove CM9 to try Milestone 6? Also, does installing a new ROM every time (almost all instructions say to do a "Wipe data/factory reset") means all my data (on the phone ofcourse and not on the SD card) will be lost? I'm mainly worried about my text messages and whatsapp conversations (I think all other data settings are saved by Google, and reapplied once the app is installed back again, right?)
@SkyStars - Thank you. I tried using BetterBatteryStats, but I have no idea what I'm looking for. Should I be looking at Processes, Partial Wakelocks, Other or Kernel Wakelocks; and then what in these? I've heard a lot about CyagnogenMod. When you say it does not support S-pen, does it mean that the phone has no use for it at all? Can we still maneuver the screen with it, or take screenshots? Or does it just stop working? So, I should stay away from flashing the counter? My counter (I think) right now says 4.
@welchertc - Thank you. I found out about keeping a black wallpaper to decrease battery use a few weeks ago; I've had a black wallpaper since. I'll remove useless apps, then lets see what happens. Is the link I provided in the beginning ok, or should I search for something else? I was wondering about killed apps popping up after some time (Facebook for example). I have email sync turned off. I've been trying to turn off sync for a few apps, but some of them dont give me such an option (eg. The Drudge Report). I have started looking for some ROMs. But I ask you the same question I asked JB about ROMs - Can I have only 1 ROM at a time? And, will have to erase everything every single time? The warranty problem's the same with Apple. Just like you said, it seems to be the same with Apple - just reinstall the stock iOS, and you're ready to go (I had my iPhone changed after I went back to stock from a jailbroken firmware after it also developed battery issues; the new phone I received was brilliant in the battery department). I think my counter is up to 4.
@spade1031 - Thank you. Milestone 6 is an AOKP release. I'll look into the other releases you've mentioned as well. I've been using the Go Launcher because I tried AWD, and didnt like it. Any other nice ones out there? (But maybe I wont need them after a ROM install).
@CalcProgrammer1 - Thank you for the very informative and in-depth writing. What exactly is a CPU governor? If it is what I think it is, then I think I used one back when AT&T hadnt rolled out ICS, and I had (somehow) rooted the older version. I installed an app (dont remember the name) that basically let me create profiles in which I could set the max and min CPU usages; is that it? So I shouldnt worry about closing apps using any witget? The reason I ask is because the phone tends to get a bit slugish when a lot of apps are open, and available RAM (as shown on Go Taskmanger is around ~75 MB). I'll try not closing any apps from now on and note the difference. If I do go with CyanogenMod, what exactly will I be losing in terms of TouchWiz? I have flashed before (tried ICS before it officially came out), so my flash now is at 4. Should I take a chance and turn it in as is and see if they still change it; or should I try flashing the counter before turning it in?
Once again, thanks everyone for the replies.
tutusinghsohi said:
Thank you all for the quick replies
@spade1031 - Thank you. Milestone 6 is an AOKP release. I'll look into the other releases you've mentioned as well. I've been using the Go Launcher because I tried AWD, and didnt like it. Any other nice ones out there? (But maybe I wont need them after a ROM install).
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Dude your gonna hate me but this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1538926
Best launcher for the Note? Has a ton of info.. most people will still use a custom launcher after a Rom but it is all personal pref. I like apex (got the paid version) nova isn't bad but not for me... I'm now playing with sslauncher, like this as landscape and portrait can be set 2 different ways and has text icons built in and also NO GRID you have to follow for the icons
Sent from my AoCP Note
spade1031 said:
Dude your gonna hate me but this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1538926
Best launcher for the Note? Has a ton of info.. most people will still use a custom launcher after a Rom but it is all personal pref. I like apex (got the paid version) nova isn't bad but not for me... I'm now playing with sslauncher, like this as landscape and portrait can be set 2 different ways and has text icons built in and also NO GRID you have to follow for the icons
Sent from my AoCP Note
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Thanks a lot for the link.. I'm going through the thread now..
Go Launcher is alright (for now) because of all the widgets they make.. They turn out pretty crappy when used with other launchers..
Just tried Nova Launcher. Seemed good, but I think I've gotten used to Go Launcher.. But I will definitely make a switch soon..
Also, one of the very first replies to the thread you posted about suggests overclocking. Will I be able to do that when installing custom ROMs?
Regarding how to read Better Battery Stats, the developer of the app is very active on xda and you can actually get help reading the logs from the app on the app thread on xda.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
Make sure you read the OP to see how to post the logs and also it'll give you insight into how to understand what the app is telling you.
tutusinghsohi said:
@welchertc - Thank you. I found out about keeping a black wallpaper to decrease battery use a few weeks ago; I've had a black wallpaper since. I'll remove useless apps, then lets see what happens. Is the link I provided in the beginning ok, or should I search for something else? I was wondering about killed apps popping up after some time (Facebook for example). I have email sync turned off. I've been trying to turn off sync for a few apps, but some of them dont give me such an option (eg. The Drudge Report). I have started looking for some ROMs. But I ask you the same question I asked JB about ROMs - Can I have only 1 ROM at a time? And, will have to erase everything every single time? The warranty problem's the same with Apple. Just like you said, it seems to be the same with Apple - just reinstall the stock iOS, and you're ready to go (I had my iPhone changed after I went back to stock from a jailbroken firmware after it also developed battery issues; the new phone I received was brilliant in the battery department). I think my counter is up to 4.
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To turn off all auto syncing, like I do, Just go into accounts and sync under settings and there should be one box or slier to uncheck to turn off all auto syncing. You can also leave it on and configure your individual accounts such as email, twitter, and facebook to sync automatically or not. =]
And yes, you can only truly run one ROM at a time. You could make a nandroid of one ROM, flash another and configure it, then nandroid the second once you have it set up, then keep restoring those two nandroids every time you want to switch. Although that is pretty ineffective if you like to keep switching things up on your homescreens, as the nandroids stay exactly the same.
You also don't need to erase everything per se. All of your pictures and stuff are a good idea to backup, to your computer or an sd card, if you're flashing a rom that requires a full wipe. Your apps and app data will be wiped, so definitely buy titanium backup pro if you haven't already, as that will allow you to restore all of your apps between flashes. Also, there are various sms backup apps, though I've never used one so I can't recommend any. email you can obviously resync quite easily, same with contacts once you have them all synced to your gmail account. Other than that, about the only thing you can't restore afaik is exactly how you have your homscreens/wallpaper setup.
tutusinghsohi said:
4. ROM - FLOODED = the only word I can use after I saw the Android Development section. So many choices. Is it worth flashing my phone with one of these? Which one do you recommend? Is the one for CyanogenMod good? What exactly does Nightly Built mean?
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There is really only like 3-4 unique roms in there. The majority of them are peoples themed versions one of those.
CM9 is by far the smoothest but I am having problems with GAPPs 7/19 build. Im currently running AOSPxXx until I can sort out the GAPPs issues Im having.
tutusinghsohi said:
Thanks a lot for the link.. I'm going through the thread now..
Go Launcher is alright (for now) because of all the widgets they make.. They turn out pretty crappy when used with other launchers..
Just tried Nova Launcher. Seemed good, but I think I've gotten used to Go Launcher.. But I will definitely make a switch soon..
Also, one of the very first replies to the thread you posted about suggests overclocking. Will I be able to do that when installing custom ROMs?
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To be honest I tried overclocking only once am I was on a super light weight Rom, with that I didn't see much improvement but I have noticed the people do see am improvement are also using bigger Rom s. Again I'm sure you will see this many times more you are on here "flash it and find out" the reason is no one has done every combo out there. But over clicking will help at times just keep in mind your not happy with the battery now? And your gonna run your phone harder? Lol
Sent from my AoCP Note
Just wondering how it going? Get your new phone? Flash anything? If so what and what do you think of it?
Sent from my AoCP Note
My two words of advice is
1. Get extra batteries/wall charger I bought 3 batteries and charger for like 12 bucks
2. Get cm9 its amazing
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
My personal impression regarding Go launcher is that its very complete (widgets included) but for my experience its a heavy battery drainer so unfortunately i had to uninstall it
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda app-developers app
pretty much based on size and its waterproof feature. I do a lot of hunting, fishing and snowmobiling. I primarily plan to use this device for GPS and mapping and wondering if I can rely on it in favor of my Garmin Dakota 20. There's not much on the web that addresses its capabilities in this specific manner. Will I be disappointed? Are there specific ROMS available that might improve my experience in using the device in this manner? I'd obviously be interested in optimal battery life. I did order a couple of spare 1800mAh batteries and standalone charger in hopes of getting me through a solid day on the trail.
HemRoyd said:
pretty much based on size and its waterproof feature. I do a lot of hunting, fishing and snowmobiling. I primarily plan to use this device for GPS and mapping and wondering if I can rely on it in favor of my Garmin Dakota 20. There's not much on the web that addresses its capabilities in this specific manner. Will I be disappointed? Are there specific ROMS available that might improve my experience in using the device in this manner? I'd obviously be interested in optimal battery life. I did order a couple of spare 1800mAh batteries and standalone charger in hopes of getting me through a solid day on the trail.
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There are some roms, who improve battery life, don't know about gps. But if you install another rom, you will void your warranty and you won't be able to flash the specific original rom for your region, cause for most devices there's only the generic rom to flash (shouldn't be a problem if you have to take it to service, just that you know)...
If you want to use the active instead of your garmin, you will have to find a very good navigation app, because as I think, you need something for area where are no streets, too. And most navigation apps haven't got this feature...
I have an active myself. If you want to keep it down to it's basic functions (which is basically already set as an outdoors device) i would suggest that you don't upgrade to ics and keep the original gingerbread software which has far less battery draining than any ics based rom. About the GPS, i used it severalk times for travbelling and never for tracking so don't know how it works in deep thick woods, but always had speedy lock on and precise navigation. Unlike above user stated most navigation (one with offline maps would probably be best) apps are for trekking and offraod activities, what you can do is modify your gps.conf file to make it specific to your region or area so satellite lock time will be much improved. Just search the forum for gps speed fixes, there's also a patch for agps to help increase satellite locking time.
I own this phone and wanted to do the same as you.
All setups i tried were not stable. sometimes the external power cable got disconnected, sometimes just the app closed.
after months of testing, i reverted to gamin products as they offer a much more rugged and robust hardware. I never managed to track > 20 hours on my active-phone.
Sent from my Pro using xda premium
Thanks for all of your input folks.
I did receive the phone on Friday and had a chance to check it out over the weekend. My first impression is that it has a comfortable size and mass to it and I do not mind the screen size at all. It seems quite speedy and the (Gingerbread) OS operates like butter. I did have difficulty getting the GPS function to lock at first. After prolonged attempts, it wasn't until I installed an app called GPS Test did it finally lock - not quite sure what the difference was, perhaps AGPS may have been responsible. Since then however, I have been attempting to maintain GPS-only locating as I am certain that data would not be available in the majority of my usage areas. I looked at most of the GPS Mapping/Tracking apps and settled on the paid version of AlpineQuest - excellent app. I got my waypoints from my Garmin loaded onto my SD card and was quickly navigating the trails in the woods behind my house. Great stuff!
I got just over 8hrs of solid use out of the first charge on the stock battery, so the phone should keep up with a full day on the trails. I have also ordered a couple of spare batteries and standalone charger for backup. Since this first day of use, I have been using the GPS Test app exclusively to verify my satellite lock prior to using AlpineQuest. I did notice that after prolonged non-usage or following a charge cycle I did have some difficulty locking on to the satellites, however each time it was solved with a phone reboot - after which the GPS Test app would lock on within seconds (even inside the house). Each time I was in airplane mode with WiFi off. I will have to monitor the satellite locking for consistency before I am all in with this device but so far I am quite please with its (stock) performance.
the phone & the user may be active, but the battery is certainly not. the display is not that bright under bright sunlight situations :X
hi, i have the active as well and so far i am pretty satisfied.. not VERY satisfied due to Battery life.. but without that issue, I am satisfied...
I have dropped this baby 4 times already on concrete (2 waist level 2 chest level) and the phone just bounced without any cracked screen (it does have some dents on the silver lining around the screen though), but i can guarantee that this phone is shock proof because on those 4 times, the phone did not even turn-off or restart or even battery breaking out from its case...
I do not do trails but so far, the NavFree app has been very good to me with my driving direction needs... easy locking with GPS and pretty good directions...
Try also searching for build.prop tweaks in the development area of this forum because i think it can help in the phone's performance and a little bit of battery life.. i can do intermittent non-heavy image/flash website surfing and the battery could last more than 8 hours and if I just have my phone on stand by (just waiting for messages and calls and reply to them) battery could last more than 24 hours...
I have to ask you though, were those 1800 batteries better than the 1200 ? I was also thinking of buying spares...
rullean said:
I have to ask you though, were those 1800 batteries better than the 1200 ? I was also thinking of buying spares...
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I haven't got them yet, but these are the one's I ordered.
I'm on the .62 build so looks like I have to flash an earlier firmware just to get root. I'd really like to get rid of some of this extra crap and get link2sd going. If you are rooted, what firmware are you running? I just hope the GPS performs just as well on an earlier build.
HemRoyd said:
I haven't got them yet, but these are the one's I ordered.
I'm on the .62 build so looks like I have to flash an earlier firmware just to get root. I'd really like to get rid of some of this extra crap and get link2sd going. If you are rooted, what firmware are you running? I just hope the GPS performs just as well on an earlier build.
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you have to tell me if you notice some increase in battery life with those 1800's...
regarding rooting, i followed this procedure with no problem: http://talk.sonymobile.com/message/241059
just follow it step by step.. also, if you are not aware, you have to flash the kernel using the flashtool before you can flash the rom through CWM.... in anyway, you should not be afraid of bricking your phone because I was able to always restore my phone through that link's procedure.. however, pls do not take my word on it because what works for me might not work for you even if we have the same phone... we still might have a different stock.. so rooting your phone is always at your own risk (my disclaimer, hehehe)...
regarding rom, i find the free experia rom's quite good... after initial loading of the rom, i got more than 400mb free internal space.. so they did remove a lot of bloated apps that you dont really use...
just as side note: i installed cm10 fxp138 on my active and the battery lasts for 36hours and more. i really like 4.1 jb.
Update
OK, so I am rooted and remain locked. I ended up flashing stock 4.0.2.A.0.42 and then this ROM:
ROM][GB][ALL MDPI] HASA v5 [2.3.7][27/9/12]
My prayers have been answered! This ROM is fast and lean! Thanks very much to sandy7 for his work on this! I followed his instructions exactly as in his first post, however did not need to install the revised camera lib as I had no issues with the camera. I've had absolutely zero issues and love the speed.
Now for the battery life. I finally got the spare batteries I mentioned in the previous post (shipped from China). My initial observation is that these batteries smoke the stock one by a large margin. I still need to spend a little more time on this ROM to be certain. As mentioned before, my goal is to replace my standalone GPS unit with this phone. I am not using phone or data, so I am in airplane mode all the time. I am using wifi a bit. With the stock battery I got about 1 day and 12 hours of standby and light use on wifi and gps with 10% remaining. On the replacement battery I got 3 days and 16 hours with 35% remaining before I decided to try the stock battery again. The stock battery began to drain as soon as I put it in and was down to 85% within the first hour. I don't know, perhaps these stock batteries are junk? I am open to suggestions on how to properly do a test and comparison.
omg.. really? so those china batteries work for you? damn.. I want those.. i will buy those..