Why I might return my Incredible.

[Gorilla*]

Ok, So I have had the phone for 2 weeks now and here are my observations.

1. As it has been said countless times, the battery is barely adequate.. I can barely make it through the day and that is with what I consider moderate use.

2. Android OS is very unstable in my opinion. Many many many times daily the app im in will pop up and say an error has occurred and this app must be forced closed.... This happens way to often.. Its irritating as heck.

3. The good, The camera I love, I love the apps, I love the hardware the screen is gorgeous... Phone calls are clear, and I haven't had reception problems...



But this is becoming a thorn in my side... If I can't get through a day without the battery giving up, or having my apps constantly force close This phone is a lot of hardware without any polish IMO.


I may keep it, but it pains me when non 3rd party apps will force close, like sms, mms, gmail, and even the Sense UI... This is when im not taxing the phone, and use task killer every once in a while.


Does anyone here feel me? I want to love the incredible, and do love most things about it, but its just not ready for mass market I don't think... Bigger battery and stability issues need to be addressed.

I am thinking of getting the bold 9650...

Thoughts?

 

[JustinHEMI]

Gosh, it sucks to be you. I have been with android since the moto droid came out. I have yet to force close an app. In fact, I haven't had any issues that some of you seem to constantly have. But, if you are having all those issues, then sure, return it. Not sure why we need a post about it.

 

[CatsTide]

task killer is your problem

 

[armoredsaint]

Ibtss

 

[krelvinaz]

Curious what apps you are using that are force closing. I've not seen that yet.

 

[xb_toaster]

^agreed. I haven't had enough problems to make me want to get rid of my inc. Sure I have had a few apps force close once in awhile but I just go and reopen it. No electronic device is going to be perfect even a great home computer needs task manager to close non-responding page. As for the battery, its not a blackberry, your running a phone with high resolution and running apps that most likely use 3g network. I can get through most of the day on a charge but there are days I use it heavily and I have to throw it on my car charger. No big deal IMO. I think the postives greatly out weigh the negatives.

 

[russell5]

task killer is your problem

+1


I also have had android since droid. Last november.

The only problems i have had was with stuff i was tinkering with. If i didn't tinker i never had a problem.

Most likely your kill tasks that programs need to run thats why stuffs force closing.

Stop using task killer for a few days you should see the FC stop.

 

[Gorilla*]

Maybe I will try this....

 

[FlyPenFly]

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

 

[jamor]

1. Still don't understand this. I'm at 23 hours with 39% left.

Turn off your phone for the charge at the end, you will get an extra 10%

 

[Reddog80p]

Not one force close for me in my 2 weeks. Perhaps a hard reset will do you some good.

 

[Ruggar]

I had the Samsung Omnia (the first one) and several BB's that I loved so going to something new made me reluctant. But there was a cool factor so I upgraded and plunged in.

The battery was annoying for me too. More than annoying it was pissing me off to be honest. However once I read all the forum posts (http://androidforums.com/htc-incredible/75227-battery-threads-read-me.html), made tweaks to my settings and downloaded Task Panel my battery life went through the roof. The trade-off is I'm not connected 24x7x365 which I can live with because when I am not using the phone... I am not using the phone. I don't need to have weather updates or get my email when I am sleeping. When I am using it or when I wake it from sleep it updates everything as well as grabs all my mail, etc in seconds. I went from having to charge it two-three times a day to once (overnight only). It took a lot of reading the forums and learning how different apps use the connections and what the different settings actually did/meant to dial in my phone how I need it.

Don't be so quick to judge the OS for apps crashing. It could and probably is an app causing the crash. Not the OS. Maybe not even the app you are currently using. Even though you say they are non 3rd party apps it is possible that a 3rd party app unrelated to one you are using is causing things to crash. I don't have any problem with any of the stock apps. Never had a crash. That doesn't help you. But it should reaffirm that at least based on my experience the stock apps aren't crashing and they should not crash for you either. It's a pain, but as a last ditch effort before you return it have you tried a reset?

 

[JustinHEMI]

Good luck!

I have read many more negative articles and posts about task killers than positive. I don't use them nor do I plan to. My phone runs perfectly fine.

 

[MisterMixelpix]

I can vouch for the talk about force closing. I stopped doing that and that problem went away.

I've heard tell that the battery issue is more a problem with the gauge than the battery itself, so I'm installing "Battery Left" and giving it a few days to calibrate itself, then we'll see what's actually going on. I have yet to let the thing run all the way to dead yet.

 

[JustinHEMI]

I agree, my phone is hanging out just fine with power.

 

[cdodge]

I am not sure how someone has had the droid and this phone and has never had a force close, that seems kind of wierd to me.

I do get force closes but not enough to bother me.

As far as the battery goes, there is an issue with the battery not charging all the way and I am assuming HTC will fix it with an update. To fix it yourself do what the other guys mentioned. After its completely charged shut off the phone and it will cahrge for anouther 20 or 30 minutes. I tripled my battery life by doing that and no its not an exageration either, i was extreemly pissed witht the battery life at first and now the battery has been way more than expected.

 

[kyle1745]

I would try a couple of things...

1. Review what apps your running and if you need them.
2. Remove any unneeded apps
3. Ensure if you are running task killer that it is doing what your expect, some run it a bit aggressive without understanding what it is doing. If used correctly I think it is a great app.

Battery life could be better, but I think it is true with any smart phone. Why I think it maybe so noticeable with this device as you can now do things you may not have with other devices. For example I used my Blackberry for msging and RSS feeds and rarely the web or etc... I find the incredible handles some things so much better that I want to use it more than my previous smart phones.

I have also found that if I use it heavy in the am I simply plug it in for 30mins or so and get a good chunk of power back. In a full week now with moderate use I only have been low on power 1 time and that was after a 15+ hour day with good use.

 

[W4LLY]

Things that kill your battery the most:

Auto-Brightness

Non-gmail E-mail checking intervel (5, 10, 15 minutes, ect.)

GPS Toggled On

How do I know this? Auto-brightness is a problem on all smart phones...including the iPhone. Basically that slider bar is constantly being adjusted...which is constantly taxing the battery. Also, after doing a whipe of my phone, i was lazy and did not set up my e-mail (which i normally have refresh every 5 minutes or so to be as close to "push" as possible). I had 3g on all day and could not for the life of me figure out why my batter was lasting so long. I thought it was magic.

So, maybe try setting those imap/pop e-mails to a lesser interval. Are your e-mails that dire? Mostly, if someone is dying they call or text me.

Another cool thing that might help your battery, with an incredible.

Use a black background:

Not the most interesting or fun thing, but from what i've read, OLED's don't burn battery when the background is back.

If you're still really upset with the phone not lasting, switch to a blackberry, because it's the only phone that has good battery (the iPhones sucks, trust me, I deal with them all day) and that's because blackberries are boring and don't do anything.

 

[sxshep]

I've only had one instance of force closing...

I was opening my email, and trying to download a picture from my Gmail account... I clicked the attachment, and for a good 5 minutes it just said "Searching for photos" while I was trying to get the picture to open. Then, I hit the home button and the screen turned black with only the top status bar lit. I tried dragging down the status bar but nothing would happen, and even hit the sleep/power button then hit again to the unlock screen, but was still stuck on that screen.

So, I pulled the battery (wouldn't let me turn off the phone) and restarted it, but this time it was the same only it let me turn off the phone with the power button this time.

So again, I turned it off, restarted it, and low and behold it started workign again. Dunno what the deal was, but I haven't tried opening attachments since.

 

[JustinHEMI]

I am not sure how someone has had the droid and this phone and has never had a force close, that seems kind of wierd to me.

I do get force closes but not enough to bother me.

As far as the battery goes, there is an issue with the battery not charging all the way and I am assuming HTC will fix it with an update. To fix it yourself do what the other guys mentioned. After its completely charged shut off the phone and it will cahrge for anouther 20 or 30 minutes. I tripled my battery life by doing that and no its not an exageration either, i was extreemly pissed witht the battery life at first and now the battery has been way more than expected.

Its weird to me that people have to force close apps. Probably user error.

 

[cdodge]

Its weird to me that people have to force close apps. Probably user error.

Sorry, I read that wrong. I though he meant apps throwing the force close. I have never had to manually force close an app myself.

Like everyone else said get rid of the task killer. You would only see minimal gains in battery life which is not worth the headache of using one. I use to use one and i spent more time playing with the task killer then i did enjoying the phone

 

[jamor]

Things that kill your battery the most:

Auto-Brightness

Where do you get this? I am on auto brightness and my display reads that I don't get more than 8% on heavy use (3% light use).

 

[Gorilla*]

All good responses and tips, but the bottom line is I don't want to compromise.. I don't want to turn GPS off, which in fact doesnt use extra battery life unless it is being utilized by an app..

I don't wanna manually check email....

I want everything to work like it should, I shouldnt have to baby this phone along..

 

[kyle1745]

You may want to check your usage screen... My display use is very low compared to other items like the system and Cell standby.

People keep talking about turning the screen down but I doubt that's your biggest consumer.

Things that kill your battery the most:

Auto-Brightness

Non-gmail E-mail checking intervel (5, 10, 15 minutes, ect.)

GPS Toggled On

How do I know this? Auto-brightness is a problem on all smart phones...including the iPhone. Basically that slider bar is constantly being adjusted...which is constantly taxing the battery. Also, after doing a whipe of my phone, i was lazy and did not set up my e-mail (which i normally have refresh every 5 minutes or so to be as close to "push" as possible). I had 3g on all day and could not for the life of me figure out why my batter was lasting so long. I thought it was magic.

So, maybe try setting those imap/pop e-mails to a lesser interval. Are your e-mails that dire? Mostly, if someone is dying they call or text me.

Another cool thing that might help your battery, with an incredible.

Use a black background:

Not the most interesting or fun thing, but from what i've read, OLED's don't burn battery when the background is back.

If you're still really upset with the phone not lasting, switch to a blackberry, because it's the only phone that has good battery (the iPhones sucks, trust me, I deal with them all day) and that's because blackberries are boring and don't do anything.

 

[jamor]

All good responses and tips, but the bottom line is I don't want to compromise.. I don't want to turn GPS off, which in fact doesnt use extra battery life unless it is being utilized by an app..

I don't wanna manually check email....

I want everything to work like it should, I shouldnt have to baby this phone along..

You have to just understand the time we are in.

We are in a time where cell phone technology is skyrocketing and batteries aren't. You have to make sacrifices or buy a bigger battery.

Can't be pushin and pullin 10 programs while playing video games and surfing the net for hours expecting to get a full days worth.

It's just technology reality right now man.