Help Samsung GS2 users: does alarm work if phone off?

[DazdNConfusing]

Hi everyone,

I've got about a month to go until I can get an upgrade on Orange from Blackberry curve 8520 to something a bit more exciting. Am dithering between GS2 and HTC Sensation. I prefer the look and feel of the Sensation and HTC Sense, but I know the internal memory and battery are rubbish compared to GS2.

I realise that the GS2 is probably the better phone, and I'm just being seduced by the Sensation's "prettiness". However, I think I may have found the deal breaker that will tip me towards the GS2.

Does the GS2 alarm work if the phone is switched off?

It seems such a simple thing but HTC don't seem to understand how many people use their phone as an alarm clock but don't want it sitting their using battery, even in airplane mode overnight.

Please enlighten me people.

Thanks

 

[XplosiV]

I don't believe it does, I don't know of any android phones that do, I know my old LG Cookie used to though, the option was called 'auto power on' in the settings.

However if you are worried about having your phone on while sleeping and wasting battery life, there are a number of ways to minimize battery consumption when you need to. These include;

Turning screen brightness down (20-30% should be sufficient)
Turning off mobile data (long press power button for the option)
Turning off auto sync & background data (in settings/notification drop down page)
Change screen timeout to suit you if it's to long.

On a rooted phone some of these tasks maybe easier depending if you change to an aftermarket firmware like cynogen mod.

Also on a rooted phone you can pay for an app that will let you customize the cpu usage for optimum performance or battery life depending on phone state.

Hope this helps.

 

[DazdNConfusing]

Thanks, I didn't realise that it was an Android wide problem. I guess I'll just have to just buy a good old fashioned alarm clock again if I don't want my phone on over night.

 

[XplosiV]

I'm not going to go as far as to say it definitely is an android wide issue, but I've not heard of it being used on any other android phones, so it's possibly an android issue, and one I would love google to fix. It's a small price to pay for what you get though.

 

[Motorhomer]

Thanks, I didn't realise that it was an Android wide problem. I guess I'll just have to just buy a good old fashioned alarm clock again if I don't want my phone on over night.

Sorry if I'm missing something here as I'm waiting for my first Android phone to be delivered (a Samsung Galaxy S2 of course). I'm so old-fashioned that I'm still on the Palm Centro!

Anyway, I'm assuming that my new phone will come with some kind of plug-in charger so if you want to use the alarm function why not simply leave it plugged in and charging then there's no need to switch it off?

Lateral thinking or I'm talking out of my backside through ignorance! I'm sure that you'll all tell me soon!

 

[XplosiV]

Thats what I do, but some people might be under the impression that this may adversely affect long term battery life, or they may have some other concern/reason not to do this themselves.

 

[DazdNConfusing]

The reason I don't normally leave my phone to charge over night is because I get distracted by the blinky led and the waste of energy through the charger once the phone is charged, However, seeing as the GS2 doesn't have a led and modern chargers are more energy efficient, I guess it wouldn't hurt to charge it overnight.

I do like using the alarm for camping and festivals but I think I might just get a cheap old school phone for those occasions anyhow.

 

[mocart]

This may be a real problem. I am travelling a lot and I don't wish to be awaken in the middle of the night by a caller from an other time zone. If I am for instance in US, and incoming call is from Europe. The caller can not know where I am in the world. By this reason I switch the phone off but still need the alarm to wake me up in the morning. I really hope this is not an android problem.

 

[dlw]

This may be a real problem. I am travelling a lot and I don't wish to be awaken in the middle of the night by a caller from an other time zone. If I am for instance in US, and incoming call is from Europe. The caller can not know where I am in the world. By this reason I switch the phone off but still need the alarm to wake me up in the morning. I really hope this is not an android problem.

Thats what airplane mode is useful for, turns all network settings off

 

[Slug]

Or, if you still need to receive email/SMS overnight, activate "silent mode" - the alarm will still sound.

 

[iynCognito]

Thats what airplane mode is useful for, turns all network settings off

iPhones don't alarm when switched off either. As others have suggested, just put your phone into airplane mode at night if you don't want to be bothered by any calls / e-mails / texts. I do this sometimes and only uses 1 or 2 % battery all night!

Also, you can silent all notifications so no calendar reminders wake you up.

On the SGS2 the alarm volume settings are set for each individual alarm, so you can set it at whatever volume and whether or not to vibrate independent of the other ring / notification volume settings.

Personally, I use Tasker to create widget profiles for daytime / nightime etc so all the volumes / network data etc are set with one click.

 

[mocart]

Thanks guys, I am relieved now and can sleep well without any disturbance

 

[MrChemist]

I found that you can't actually sleep without any disturbance, because your Galaxy will issue a plaintive little tune at 5 am, at top volume, to tell you that the battery is going flat.
This wakes up the wife, who resents it because she was hoping to sleep in that morning. All day you are in trouble and it doesn't get any better at better at bedtime because she is so tired.

 

[Slug]

your Galaxy will issue a plaintive little tune at 5 am, at top volume, to tell you that the battery is going flat.

The solution to that is surely then to charge it overnight?

 

[JoAnninna]

My hubby and I just got the Galaxy SII and love the phone but hate that the alarm will not go off if phone is off. We had the Blackberry Curve, and with that phone was able to set a time the phone would shut down (obviously not totally?) and a time it would turn on again. So off at 12am, on at 6am, alarm goes off at 7am... gonna miss that... Airplane Mode or silent will have to do I guess... Unless there is a way to set a time to go off and a time to come back on with the Galaxy SII???

 

[jammie1212]

guys is there an app that will wake up the phone? considering that android allows pretty much everything else to be changed, cheers