Two threads in one!

[Dayquil]

Hello all. I have been browsing this forum for about the last two weeks, since my wife got the Huaway Ascend and I have 2 quick (hopefully) questions for you guys.

I just bought a Samsung Prevail from Boost 2 days ago and am running into a few minor problems.

Thread 1)

Has anyone else had any issues with very short battery life? Im talking from 100% to dead in ~6hrs? Most of that time is just farting around looking at apps in the market, playing a little bit of Words with Friends or surfin the web or Facebook. Now I know that running games, internet, etc etc will run the battery out faster than if its not doing anything, but seriously....6hrs?

Im unsure of what any, if there are any, good apps to help reduce battery usage are out there without trying every one of them. I have Advanced Task Killer right now. I have tried a few different "batter saver" apps, like Superbox 10 and 1-2 others with no luck. Im not sure if Im just not using the apps correctly or what. Other than that, the only apps that I have downloaded so far is facebook, bank app, words for friends, pandora, flashlight, and 3d weather clock.

Any information on that matter would be SO helpful!

Thread 2)

Im still very very new to the concept of rooting phones, but I looked around and couldnt/didnt see anything regarding this, but what exactly does rooting do? I understand the basic concept of it, deleting the preloaded apps and, as far as I can tell, changing the "os" of the phone to something else. What I dont understand though, is I read about people saying "it makes the phone run faster etc", but exactly how much faster vs stock?

What are some of the other benefits from rooting your phone? Is it reversible? Such as, if I damage my phone and need to repair it, with insurance, can I "undo" the rooting and revert it back to its factory os etc?

Im sorry for all these dumb questions, but I want to know as much as I can before I attempt something like this on my phone. If there is a thread that I missed, which is possible, please let me know.

/thread

Thank you very much in advance for any and all help with these issues.

 

[lunatic59]

Welcome to the forums.

Issue number one, battery. This is a common wake-up moment for most people, but while batteries are getting better, a Phone like the Prevail is doing a heck of a lot with a limited amount of power. 6 - 8 hours of constant use isn't too bad for a smart phone. That said, there are things you can do. The first thing is get rid of the task killer. That app will eat your battery faster than Whinnie the Pooh in an apiary It is important you understand that task killers are NOT a swiss army knife solutions. You should probably read this article to understand exactly how Android manages apps.


First thing you'll need to do is Cycle the battery once. Modern Li ion batteries do not have a memory, but you do have to teach android what a full charge is, so it can report power properly. Let your battery run down until the phone shuts off. Then using the AC adapter, let the phone continuously charge until full. Then unplug the phone, and shut it off if it's on. Plug it back in. If plugging the phone it turns it on then while it's plugged in, turn it off and let it charge for at least another hour, even if the phone says fully charged. Reboot the phone.

Be advised that you only need to do this once as repeated deep discharge cycles can harm the battery.

For general power saving, turn off WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS antennas when you aren't using them and set the screen brightness to low or auto. Also, don't sync data frequently. gmail is push, so that won't matter, but any widgets or mail accounts that sync data should do it only once an hour or less.


All rooting means is gaining administrative access to the phone's file system. You can tweak a rooted device to perform better provided you know what you are doing, but we are talking incremental boosts, not exponential.

 

[Dayquil]

Awesome. I had no idea about the cycle thing so I am doing that right now since the phone died last night lol. As far as the rooting, since I read that they dont have it done yet, that will give me time to read up on it more.

Thank you very much for the tips.

 

[new optimus]

Awesome. I had no idea about the cycle thing so I am doing that right now since the phone died last night lol. As far as the rooting, since I read that they dont have it done yet, that will give me time to read up on it more.

Thank you very much for the tips.

The biggest thing with rooting is to get rid of preloaded apps that run and kill the battery.
Also gives the ability to add apps that use system to function.

 

[Dayquil]

I like the thought of that, and Im sure its not THAT hard. I guess my real question is, if I root my phone, can I reset it back to normal? Is there a guide or whatever that will walk you through all the apps you need to do it? Im nervous about trying this on my brand new phone and screwing it up.

 

[Necrotoxin]

As for your battery if you add the power control widget you can turn on and off gps synch bluetooth and wifi as needed and adjust your screen brightness with a single click. Its a stock widget on the phone and it does help battery life at least minimally.

 

[new optimus]

I like the thought of that, and Im sure its not THAT hard. I guess my real question is, if I root my phone, can I reset it back to normal? Is there a guide or whatever that will walk you through all the apps you need to do it? Im nervous about trying this on my brand new phone and screwing it up.

Normally there is a way to go back to unrooted, though at this moment I am unsure if there is. I suspect that if samsung has an update tool like lg does you could use that to reset the phone back to stock.

 

[LAWLETTE]

First thing you'll need to do is Cycle the battery once. Modern Li ion batteries do not have a memory, but you do have to teach android what a full charge is, so it can report power properly. Let your battery run down until the phone shuts off. Then using the AC adapter, let the phone continuously charge until full. Then unplug the phone, and shut it off if it's on. Plug it back in. If plugging the phone it turns it on then while it's plugged in, turn it off and let it charge for at least another hour, even if the phone says fully charged. Reboot the phone.

Very witty. I never even though that the phone might not be reporting the proper percentage! I did this process, and I can't say for sure that they batter "lasts longer" because it it properly reported, but there has been less "guessing" in the sense that the number hasn't fluctuated up and down as much. Good tip!

 

[androidnewbie2]

The built in/onboard memory is low on this device to begin with and there are several pre-installed apps that I can't uninstall. So if I understand correctly, rooting will allow me to remove those apps? Also learned that many apps won't allow me to save on my micro sd card which is a huge bummer! Also, does anyone know if this phone is getting any android operating system updates from 2.2.2? Thanks.

 

[new optimus]

The built in/onboard memory is low on this device to begin with and there are several pre-installed apps that I can't uninstall. So if I understand correctly, rooting will allow me to remove those apps? Also learned that many apps won't allow me to save on my micro sd card which is a huge bummer! Also, does anyone know if this phone is getting any android operating system updates from 2.2.2? Thanks.

Yes a rooted phone will allow you to remove unwanted apps. Just be careful you dont uninstall something that makes the phone work as then you will have a nice paperweight. Yes the phone has very minimal ram and internal storage bit of a disappointment but I knew that before I got mine so it is what it is. When enough development is done on this phone you can partition part of your sd card to ext3 and have the phone think that partition is part of your internal memory thats what im waiting for.

 

[Dayquil]

I beginning to think more about rooting this phone, mostly just to get rid of all that crap software thats on there. Still gonna wait a little bit, so they can do more testing etc. All in all, very interesting things.

/EDIT
Ok, Im pretty sure Ive asked already, but Im going to again because Im anxious. If I download the version 1 root package for the phone, and root the phone etc etc, how easy would it be for me to reset it to factory? Do I need an app for doing that in particular? Cant wait to try it out, just making sure it can be undone

Thanks

 

[fivehunnit]

as i am new to the site and android i have just rooted my prevail and so far so good i really don't no wat to get rid of as-far as apps go i got rid of sum but not really sure wat really need to go if sum one could help with that seeing as we all have the same dam phone lol and the power save tip is great because like the first post said it crazy how fast the battery go's but I'm just waiting on a new os because the stock is horrible i got a few a+ apps like adw launcher,ultimate favs,app2sd,better keyboard,adfree,juice defender,pocket cloud,ROM manager,titanium back up,but tegrak overclock seems not to work but if sum 1 could help me fully tweak this phone out it would be most helpful.....

 

[fivehunnit]

I beginning to think more about rooting this phone, mostly just to get rid of all that crap software thats on there. Still gonna wait a little bit, so they can do more testing etc. All in all, very interesting things.

/EDIT
Ok, Im pretty sure Ive asked already, but Im going to again because Im anxious. If I download the version 1 root package for the phone, and root the phone etc etc, how easy would it be for me to reset it to factory? Do I need an app for doing that in particular? Cant wait to try it out, just making sure it can be undone

Thanks

i have seen this asked in a nother post so wat the guy said was as of now there is no downgrade once you root it because its new but there will be in do time......

 

[Avarwen]

Yes a rooted phone will allow you to remove unwanted apps. Just be careful you dont uninstall something that makes the phone work as then you will have a nice paperweight. Yes the phone has very minimal ram and internal storage bit of a disappointment but I knew that before I got mine so it is what it is. When enough development is done on this phone you can partition part of your sd card to ext3 and have the phone think that partition is part of your internal memory thats what im waiting for.

Would you have to have root your phone to use the partition app? Just got this phone I love it but hate that it has such low memory.

 

[new optimus]

Would you have to have root your phone to use the partition app? Just got this phone I love it but hate that it has such low memory.

If you mean the market app link2sd I am not sure.
If you mean the phone actually thinking the partition is part of its internal memory yes rooted is very needed, That ability is not yet out though.

There is a way to unroot now.

http://androidforums.com/galaxy-prevail-all-things-root/349351-can-i-unroot.html#post2784041