For people considering this phone - get something else

[CTB6]

I've had it. I gave this phone the benefit of the doubt and time. I'm a 41-yr-old professional who wants a phone that works as a phone, and also has some nice smartphone features.

I accepted the fact that the Transform was running Android 2.1 while most of the competition was running 2.2. I accepted that the processor wasn't the fastest out there. I'm not a gamer, I don't care about animated wallpapers, and I don't need a professional-level camera.

Immediately it became apparent that the phone was a royal pain in the butt to operate when I inadvertently bumped the screen and navigated away from the "hang up" screen during a call. I cannot count the number of infuriating times I've had where I couldn't kill an accidental call (or a real one) because of this. However, the rest of the features worked acceptably, so I kept with it.

Now we've been updated to 2.2, and the phone is worse than ever. Good points? I can now end a call using the power button. That concludes the list of good points. The phone is now buggy, had endless Force Closes, eats batteries three times as fast, has slowed down even further, and flat out doesn't work half the time. And once again, it isn't like I'm trying to link 100 accounts to my phone and launch nuclear missiles with it. I'm just trying to call people, text people, and read email accounts.

Even for the $49 I paid for it, this phone is complete junk. It has great call quality, but what does that matter when you can't use the *#&% thing? Trying to do something so simple as edit my contacts to fix the sorting that the Facebook sync that I never enabled messed up can't be done smoothly because the phone just wants to crash and Force Close on me.

So to anyone considering this phone, skip it. I thought the Samsung haters online were just that - haters. I now see that they have a point. This purchase was a mistake, and now changing it in any way will cost me monthly fees thanks to Sprint slapping on the 3G and 4G fees, so I'm stuck with this doorstop of a phone. I cannot state it more clearly than this - it is a piece of crap and should be avoided. I miss my "dumb" phone, and that's pretty bad considering all the potential the Android platform offers.

 

[[TheAndroid]]

I've had it. I gave this phone the benefit of the doubt and time. I'm a 41-yr-old professional who wants a phone that works as a phone, and also has some nice smartphone features.

I accepted the fact that the Transform was running Android 2.1 while most of the competition was running 2.2. I accepted that the processor wasn't the fastest out there. I'm not a gamer, I don't care about animated wallpapers, and I don't need a professional-level camera.

Immediately it became apparent that the phone was a royal pain in the butt to operate when I inadvertently bumped the screen and navigated away from the "hang up" screen during a call. I cannot count the number of infuriating times I've had where I couldn't kill an accidental call (or a real one) because of this. However, the rest of the features worked acceptably, so I kept with it.

Now we've been updated to 2.2, and the phone is worse than ever. Good points? I can now end a call using the power button. That concludes the list of good points. The phone is now buggy, had endless Force Closes, eats batteries three times as fast, has slowed down even further, and flat out doesn't work half the time. And once again, it isn't like I'm trying to link 100 accounts to my phone and launch nuclear missiles with it. I'm just trying to call people, text people, and read email accounts.

Even for the $49 I paid for it, this phone is complete junk. It has great call quality, but what does that matter when you can't use the *#&% thing? Trying to do something so simple as edit my contacts to fix the sorting that the Facebook sync that I never enabled messed up can't be done smoothly because the phone just wants to crash and Force Close on me.

So to anyone considering this phone, skip it. I thought the Samsung haters online were just that - haters. I now see that they have a point. This purchase was a mistake, and now changing it in any way will cost me monthly fees thanks to Sprint slapping on the 3G and 4G fees, so I'm stuck with this doorstop of a phone. I cannot state it more clearly than this - it is a piece of crap and should be avoided. I miss my "dumb" phone, and that's pretty bad considering all the potential the Android platform offers.

You have very much apparently never rooted, nor used any of my guides to fix this memory problem. Heres the news. I am EB28 Froyo, and totally stock. No ROMs. I'm running a custom kernel called Crudkernel which is in it's beta at the moment, and I flashed my kernel by rooting and loading custom recovery on my phone. I froze various apps that I don't use on my phone using Titanium backup Pro. Apps like Sprint ID, Sprint Zone, Sprint TV, Task Killer, My Files, Maps, and more. My phone can't load these applications into it's memory and therefor, I keep 25-35MB of RAM at all times which makes my phone a speed demon with no Force Closes or lag. More than plenty for me to run an all consuming application like Angry Birds in the background while looking at my mail for a moment because the kernel or Android 2.2 will instantly kill apps that havn't been in use for the longest amount of time and are taking up memory that my phone needs. If you guys' havn't noticed neither... Our 2.2 update came from Samsung and not Google. Samsung probably loaded the wrong amount of maximum RAM in our phones, and by doing that, the burden to take care of our phones rides on our shoulders. Read the guides I created for the community and seek answers before giving up. You may say "It's a smartphone, I shouldn't have to do that." But that would be wrong. It's up to the owner to manage their phone once they buy it, not the creators. Hope you get the chance to read my guides so you can be happy with your phone like everyone else is on these forums.

[TheAndroid]

 

[CTB6]

TheAndroid, you're one of the best contributors I've seen to online forums, so I respectfully thank you for your advice. However, when I buy a car, I don't expect to have to remap the engine management system so that it can get me to work without stalling every day. The phone should work without rooting, period. It doesn't, and as such is a poor product. I already have enough things to manage in the day without having to reprogram a poorly-developed product. The reprogramming of which will, of course, remove the ability to take it in for repairs, should a genuine hardware issue occur.

I've read a bit of your guides, and all of it is great info. However, it's also way more time and effort than should be needed for a product that was released to the public under the expectation of being a complete, functioning product. I work for a company that makes consumer products and we'd have been out of business a long time ago if we sold things with this amount of development shortcoming.

If a person wants and expects to buy a phone and have it work, the Transform is not that phone. There's no getting around that. The only choice I have to avoid getting reamed by Sprint on fees now is to try and risk bricking this POS phone by rooting. Obviously your guides will help, so they are certainly appreciated. But if I were a person who wasn't adept technically (and this stuff is not my field, but fortunately I can learn), I'd be SOL with this thing. That's the basis of my post. If I knew what I know now back in December, I would not have bought this thing, even for the discounted price.

Interesting that my friend with an Epic has the same complaints about his phone as well, now that he's been updated to 2.2. Seems like a common theme here.

 

[CTB6]

Good stuff from [TheAndroid]

May I ask stupid questions here?

* What's a kernel? I like to know what I'm changing before I change it. I'm not a Linux programmer, so I don't know what it means.
* When you freeze apps as you mentioned above, are you able to still run them if you want? Meaning, you mentioned that you froze Maps; I assume you can still run Maps if you actually want to by selecting it. Would that be correct?
* "so you can be happy with your phone like everyone else is on these forums." Judging by the amount of complaints on this forum, I wouldn't say "everyone else" is happy with their Transform, but I get your gist.

Thanks.

 

[xkillswitchx23]

When you freeze a app its just like uninstalling it but you dont, like if you freeze your maps app it doesn't show up in the app drawer, and you cant run it untill its thawed.

Kernels fix's problems with the phone, like the Kernel im running right now makes my battery improve ALOT, my phone has been on all day and ive been using it all day and there is 72% battery left but before my battery would already be dead.
Im not as smart as The Android so i would wait and see what he says before you take accountability for what ive said

 

[jay322]

You could try resetting your phone to factory, it worked for me but you lose all your apps and stuff. Also use a home launcher replacement (like launcher pro or go launcher) it makes the phone look nicer.

 

[Cooper271]

Nobody is really answering your questions....
Imagine your phone as a body. The skin and bones is the hardware. Your kernel is the organs. It controls everything, like the brain or the heart.
When you "freeze" an app, you can no longer run it until you "thaw" it. Therefore, you don't freeze apps you use regularly. I prefer to uninstall apps instead of freezing them. My phone operates great without Sprint ID.
Most of the people complaining on here aren't root users. And although you are correct in saying we shouldn't have to root, rooting any phone unlocks its full potential.

 

[CTB6]

Cooper, thanks. I read TheAndroid's guide titled "Custom Recovery and Root 2.2," and I just want to make sure I understand before I make a brick. Does one have to root before doing the steps in that guide, or do those steps constitute rooting, and thus doing the stuff in that guide will result in a rooted phone plus the alternate kernel? Clearly the only way to salvage this purchase is to root it, and I like doing things right the first time. So gotta learn all the details before doing something dumb. Thanks.

 

[[TheAndroid]]

Everything in my guide is literally brick-proofed. There is no possible way you can brick your phone with my guide. Just make sure you download one of Vampirefo's Kernels, I recommend not using the OC kernel until your used to moding your phone. I don't mod my phone thinking its a chore. I love making my phone the way I want it. Thats just my mentality on it CTB. The more you mess with your phone and see it's capabilitys, you'll understand.

 

[xkillswitchx23]

Yeah CTB6 i was just like you about a week ago. I wanted to root my phone but i was scared i would mess it up but like what he said^ his guide is just about brick proof

 

[nstg8r]

I agree with CTB6 in that we shouldn't have to root our phones to get them to work. Especially since my phone worked great prior to froyo.

Rooting is a nice feature for those who like to tweak and customize their phones. But, even though rooting is relatively easy to do, I'm guessing over 90% of Transform owners never even heard of rooting or visit forums like this.

Perhaps in the future, Samsung, HTC, LG, Google, etc., will allow users like [TheAndroid] to beta test their updates to make sure they work before they are forced upon us. It seems obvious to me, the "hacker" community is better at it than their own engineers.

 

[rbasusparky]

CTB6, I'm sorry to hear about your experience with the Transform so far. However, I and two other people that I know have had very good experiences with our transforms on 2.1 and with the update to 2.2 especially with the updated features. We are running stock transforms and have never rooted. Here is what I have done to my phone to ensure it's smooth operation: The only ID on my phone aside from the default "My ID" is the "Sprint ID". You can manage the apps loaded with it by hitting the ID key->Menu->Manage->Sprint ID->Manage and you can then select which apps/wallpaper to remove. I only removed one app and kept everything as I liked some of the widgets and apps that came with the Sprint ID. I've installed quite a bit of apps and widgets and filled up my 5 homescreens with them yet I've been able to maintain about 125-140MB/161MB of RAM. I still have about 80-95 MB of memory left depending on apps/widgets I'm loading and trying out. Since I updated to 2.2, I moved all the apps that I could move to the SD card(Applications->Manage Applications and cleaned up the cache on all the apps (e.g. Market app). I then opened the browser, hit Menu->More->Settings and just like IE, cleaned up the cache, history, and cookies (you can do form data as well for security). I usually clean the apps cache and the browser once every day before I sleep. I took out all the tutorial widgets (sent to "trash") from "My ID" and cleaned out all the hoomescreens on it. I use the Sprint ID as my ID (you can empty out the Sprint ID homescreens and use the MY ID as your default ID instead. I took out the Spint Zone widget and used the stock android power control widget instead to toggle wifi, bluetooth, gps, sync and brightness. I then added an "airplane mode" widget, "battery life" widget, and "ringer toggle" widget. I also deleted the messaging widget and contacts widget for now. I use "agenda widget" and springpad (installed the springpad small and list view widget) the stock google search widget and replaced the Sprint weather(and clock) widget with Fancy Widget. I run stock 2.2 launcher and I never have installed a task killer since android OS (especially since 2.0 is designed to manage memory when it needs it. I do use "Manage Applications" and "Running Services" features on the phone and now in 2.2 the default Task Manager that we were provided to manage apps. I don't play much games but I do have Angry Birds Rio which works very well on the transform. To maximize battery life, I usually turn off GPS and location networks unless I need it, I turned brightness at half or low (makes a big difference) and use wifi only at home. I set my location manually on my weather and clock widgets and keep the refresh to 2 hours - I don't mind doing the manual refresh on the weather if I have to. I also changed the setting on my clock to launch the clock app instead of the configuration setting so that I can easily set my alarms. With some browsing, emails, a few calls, text messages, stock google voice search/actions and some Tune-in radio, I can easily get battery life of 15-30 hours. Keeping about 20-25 MB of RAM like TheAndroid says above seems to be key to having the transform run smoothly! I also shut down my phone occasionally just to have the phone stop any runaway processes and restore the RAM in use to whatever is running when the phone is started just like one would do at times with their laptops or desktops. You can also do a battery pull (taking out the battery and wait for about a minute to re-install it and restart the phone). Unlike a factory reset, you won't lose any data but you may have to it if an app freezes the phone like when I installed "accuweather quick". I think they were installing a new version as I was downloading it because my phone had never frozen before and the app worked fine after my battery pull, un-installation and re-installation of the app. I hope this helps.

 

[zabrooks]

Honestly, Samsung is the worst phone I have ever owned. I have rooted it, its running VamfireFro's kernel and 2.2 EB28 deodexed, all that crap. It is still way worse than my HTC Hero, which was also rooted and running Cyanogenmod 7.0 (Android 2.3.3).

HTC is a faster phone (even with slower technologies). Nothing seems to work right on the phone all of the time, even when I unwrapped it the camera button only launches the camera sometimes?!?! Its little things like this that annoys the crap out of me, and this phone is loaded with them. But I love the screen very bright, battery life is great, and the keyboard is a nice layout.

That being said. I love the Transform forum, and SDX-devs you guys are freaking awesome. You all post very great information and are updating this thing all the time. So kudos to you!!! Ill be checking around for more updates, maybe we can eventually get CyanogenMod ported over, I tried and failed (It just isn't as simple as the HTC) .

 

[Cooper271]

Not going to lie, this phone does suck. And if you follow his directions exactly it is 100% brick proof, but there is one step (deleting the file in SWUpdater) which if you don't do...... you're screwed.

 

[[TheAndroid]]

Not going to lie, this phone does suck. And if you follow his directions exactly it is 100% brick proof, but there is one step (deleting the file in SWUpdater) which if you don't do...... you're screwed.

Well yeah other than that of course which is why we always make sure before we flash anything in SWUpgrader that we have the correct .tar in the binary folder. I'm not going to joke either guys, this phone does get stuck sometimes and little things like holding a touch sensitive button makes the phone vibrate like no tomorrow, and I have the App2SD not working atm. I can say one thing though, if your getting a 3G phone on Sprint, It's the Transform or the Optimus. I wanted my keyboard and a lager screen and well... Its what I got now, and of course I'm going to make the best of it.

 

[Cooper271]

Yeah. Sometimes I have Optimus envy but I love my Transform. It does suck but I love the phone itself. Going back now I would pay the extra money and get the Evo 4G but too late now haha.

 

[nstg8r]

Honestly, Samsung is the worst phone I have ever owned. I have rooted it, its running VamfireFro's kernel and 2.2 EB28 deodexed, all that crap. It is still way worse than my HTC Hero, which was also rooted and running Cyanogenmod 7.0 (Android 2.3.3).

I own/owned lots of Samsung products and, except for this phone, they have all performed outstandingly. It's a shame they couldn't put out a better product.

My last phone was an HTC Touch (WM6). Very easy to tweak and customize (without having to root or unlock). The only downside was poor call quality, which is actually a pretty big issue since after all it is a phone.

 

[QbanCgar]

You have very much apparently never rooted, nor used any of my guides to fix this memory problem. Heres the news. I am EB28 Froyo, and totally stock. No ROMs. I'm running a custom kernel called Crudkernel which is in it's beta at the moment, and I flashed my kernel by rooting and loading custom recovery on my phone. I froze various apps that I don't use on my phone using Titanium backup Pro. Apps like Sprint ID, Sprint Zone, Sprint TV, Task Killer, My Files, Maps, and more. My phone can't load these applications into it's memory and therefor, I keep 25-35MB of RAM at all times which makes my phone a speed demon with no Force Closes or lag. More than plenty for me to run an all consuming application like Angry Birds in the background while looking at my mail for a moment because the kernel or Android 2.2 will instantly kill apps that havn't been in use for the longest amount of time and are taking up memory that my phone needs. If you guys' havn't noticed neither... Our 2.2 update came from Samsung and not Google. Samsung probably loaded the wrong amount of maximum RAM in our phones, and by doing that, the burden to take care of our phones rides on our shoulders. Read the guides I created for the community and seek answers before giving up. You may say "It's a smartphone, I shouldn't have to do that." But that would be wrong. It's up to the owner to manage their phone once they buy it, not the creators. Hope you get the chance to read my guides so you can be happy with your phone like everyone else is on these forums.

[TheAndroid]

where can one find your link to ROOT your phone?

 

[xkillswitchx23]

where can one find your link to ROOT your phone?

http://androidforums.com/transform-all-things-root/307457-guide-custom-recovery-root-2-2-guide.html

 

[CTB6]

The only ID on my phone aside from the default "My ID" is the "Sprint ID".

Same here.

yet I've been able to maintain about 125-140MB/161MB of RAM. I still have about 80-95 MB of memory left depending on apps/widgets I'm loading and trying out.

Wow, I'm usually around 24-35MB.

Since I updated to 2.2, I moved all the apps that I could move to the SD card(Applications->Manage Applications

Yep, already did that.

I took out all the tutorial widgets (sent to "trash") from "My ID" and cleaned out all the hoomescreens on it.

Where do I find those tutorials? I'd like to clean those out but didn't find them.

I hope this helps.

Thanks, I'm trying all that I can at the moment and will eventually try The Android's guide. Just need to set aside the time.

 

[tfek70]

CTB6, while I'm not as old as you, (I'm only 40), I was able to follow The Android's guide. Do your due diligence on the SDX website and learn about these phones. It's pretty interesting if you are a tinkerer. The mad geniuses that actually make kernels and roms are incredibly brilliant. They have inspired me to go back to school and work towards a degree in writing code for mobile devices. It's a huge growth field. These phones are cheap enough that if somehow you do brick it, its replaceable. About the only way you could feasibly brick your phone (and I worked hard to come up with his scenario) would be if you somehow lost the USB connection between your computer and your phone while using SWUpdater. Rooting now is pretty safe if you can follow simple directions. Go for it!

 

[rbasusparky]

CTB6, my RAM usage is around 125-140/161 meaning I have around 21-36 MB free. My internal storage is around 75-95 MB.

The tutorial widgets on "My ID" were the ones that had the captions about how to install a widget or place them on a homescreen. I just made sure all the screens were empty. It seems that you can install a "Clean" ID. You may want to uninstall the "Sprint" ID and install the Clean ID instead which gives you the following - "The Clean ID allows you to have a basic phone experience featuring only the core communications functions (voice, data, email, voicemail, SMS) without any additional applications added to your device." It has a black wallpaper. This might work the best in ensuring minimal applications/widgets being installed that you don't want.

I've been pretty selective as to what widget or app to use making sure it has mimimal impact on the CPU. There are information out there on optimizing android phones like not selecting automatic brightness adjustment or running a lot of widgets like the Facebook widget for one. I choose to launch the Facebook app instead. I'm trying to figure out whether it is better (less lag and smoother scrolling) to use an alternative launcher like launcher pro or goLauncher or ADW as well. However, I've heard of issues with alternative launchers since numerous phone models updated to 2.2. Perhaps someone can share their experiences with alternative launchers with their transforms and whether they see improved speed over the stock 2.2 launcher.

 

[zabrooks]

I own/owned lots of Samsung products and, except for this phone, they have all performed outstandingly. It's a shame they couldn't put out a better product.

My last phone was an HTC Touch (WM6). Very easy to tweak and customize (without having to root or unlock). The only downside was poor call quality, which is actually a pretty big issue since after all it is a phone.

I may give another Samsung product a try. I just cannot believe this quality. Its very crappy. I am just holding out for HTC Evo 3D.

 

[Gamingguyx]

About the only way you could feasibly brick your phone (and I worked hard to come up with his scenario) would be if you somehow lost the USB connection between your computer and your phone while using SWUpdater. Rooting now is pretty safe if you can follow simple directions. Go for it!

I actually had the issue of losing USB between my computer and phone while in SWUpdater.

Even though your phone looks like it's stuck in downloading, you just need to power it down, by holding the power button, then booting back into download.

That worked for me.

Essentially I'm saying this to reinforce that the guide is still, minus not removing binary files, brick-proof.

 

[Gamingguyx]

Also, CTB, I was EXTREMELY hesitant to root my phone. And while it does occasionally lock on me to where I may need to reboot, it is so much more enjoyable rooted than stock.

Running 2.1 was a nightmare for this phone for me. I would barely be able to hang up or get back to my home screen afterward. This was a big concern for me because, like you, I thought, "Of all things that this phone should do correctly is end a call"

Rooting has changed that and I don't use the power button to end a call. I can say my faith has been restored in this phone, but like others, not in Samsung.

Intimidating to root? Yes. Should we have to? Probably not. But from what I've read about other Android phones, it is the way to go regardless of the make and model.

I would be surprised if you followed all the guides and came out more disappointed than you were before rooting. Granted you may not be 100% happy after doing so, and probably won't be, it WILL improve this phone for you. Even in doing menial tasks as calling, texting and email.