One unhappy S2 owner

fontburn · Jun 27, 2011

Hi,
After using my trusty orange branded HTC Hero for two years I finally upgraded to the S2.

Pros
Screen - just really really nice
Speed - everything moves at such a pace.
Camera - finally a decent smart phone with a decent camera.

Cons
Very poor battery - not even lasting the day
Heat issue on the top left.

Since only having the phone for 4 days I'm left disappointed. The heat issue is one thing I might actually send it back to orange for. Browsed the web for 10 minutes last night and checked my 2 emails and when I went to put the phone to my ear it was red hot I couldn't even touch it against the skin. Thought it might have been something running so turned it off today and had not even 5 mins on angry birds and same again.

Battery. Well being an android user I know how to eek as much battery out as possible. But mine was fully charged to day and battery is at 71% after 7h 37m with Display using 43% and Adroid Os 14%. At this rate I'll be out of battery by the end of the working day before I need to charge. I was getting 2.5 days with the hero. A collegues S2 is lasting much longer with heavier use. Only differance we can spot is the fact he has the KE7 sim free firmware and I have the orange branded one.

Should I exchange or look at the HTC Sensation even with the smaller battery it seems to be out performing the S2.

Peninsula · Jun 27, 2011

One thing I do to max the battery life is periodically check the battery usage graph to see if my phone is running something in the background when I think its idle.

If you check the graph and look at the bars below it, is your phone constantly in the "awake" state?

fontburn · Jun 27, 2011

Awake is about 20% in total.

uktivo · Jun 27, 2011

Welcome to the forum.. Sorry to hear the day start you have had. With regards to the heat issue. I too had a massive problem with heat, in fact my 6 year old daughter actually burnt her ear when she picked my phone up to answer a call after it had been downloading 4 files.. I changed the phone and I've updated to the KE7 firmware. since then (touch silicon) I've had no real issues with heat.

Hope this helps?

daivik · Jun 27, 2011

I think you may have a faulty handset. In general the GS2's battery is supposed to be better than the Sensations.

loony · Jun 27, 2011

sounds exactly like mine phone.

i would put the performance as below par compared to others and am going to see if they can give me a replacement to at least see if its my useage or the phone.

playin a game will kill the battery quickly, shutting down services/apps will see it flatline thou.
when you go into running services, you can see all the crap thats active and shutting them down only to see them start back up again is depressing.
i full understand why everyone ROOTS. (lol hard to say that and not giggle, but you know what i mean)

I am certain ROOTing the phone WILL fix alot of issues aswell as KE7 as said by UKTIVO, but im not going to root until i know i have a good handset and i have to wait for vodafail to release the update until then. kinda stuck.

But i love the phone. its easy to give up on it but i happy to work with it and reap the benifits.

VegasTouch · Jun 27, 2011

fontburn said:
Hi,
After using my trusty orange branded HTC Hero for two years I finally upgraded to the S2.

Pros
Screen - just really really nice
Speed - everything moves at such a pace.
Camera - finally a decent smart phone with a decent camera.

Cons
Very poor battery - not even lasting the day
Heat issue on the top left.

Since only having the phone for 4 days I'm left disappointed. The heat issue is one thing I might actually send it back to orange for. Browsed the web for 10 minutes last night and checked my 2 emails and when I went to put the phone to my ear it was red hot I couldn't even touch it against the skin. Thought it might have been something running so turned it off today and had not even 5 mins on angry birds and same again.

Battery. Well being an android user I know how to eek as much battery out as possible. But mine was fully charged to day and battery is at 71% after 7h 37m with Display using 43% and Adroid Os 14%. At this rate I'll be out of battery by the end of the working day before I need to charge. I was getting 2.5 days with the hero. A collegues S2 is lasting much longer with heavier use. Only differance we can spot is the fact he has the KE7 sim free firmware and I have the orange branded one.

Should I exchange or look at the HTC Sensation even with the smaller battery it seems to be out performing the S2.

YES ...and the firmware can make a big difference. I have flashed many different ROM OS's and some are better with battery life than others. If yours is stock, id definitely take it back for the heating problem alone.

fontburn · Jun 28, 2011

I agree that the newer firmware may make a differance in terms of the battery performance, but I'm with orange and rotting the device will invalidate the warranty. I did this with my Hero in the days before 2.1 but that was a year in.

I'd be more inclined to root if I could go back to original Orange Rom if I have any probs with the phone.

--

As of the heat issue - has anyone replaced the handset ? and the new one didn't have this issue. Is there a faulty batch or is it me looking for the issue now?

---

Thanks for the reading.

Randy · Jun 28, 2011

fontburn said:
I agree that the newer firmware may make a differance in terms of the battery performance, but I'm with orange and rotting the device will invalidate the warranty. I did this with my Hero in the days before 2.1 but that was a year in.

Yes, I would think Rotting your phone would invalidate your warranty lol

xmjox · Jun 28, 2011

I think, if I remember correctly, that one of the new firmware updates was specifically to fix a problem with SGS2's on the Orange network? I'm on O2 myself so don't remember the details, but it's definitely worth seeing if you have the latest firmware. Also, I would return the handset for the heat issue as that definitely sounds faulty.

akanimbus · Jun 28, 2011

I'm on my second phone and am still having heat and battery issues. While downloading the yahoo messenger and plug-in apps yesterday my battery monitor recorded a temperature of 40C :eek:

! That's hotter than my laptop!!

I think this was caused by a poor 3g signal (Tmobile) and a very lengthy download which in light of the heat radiating from the phone compelled me to abort the download and remove the battery. I later downloaded the apps via Wifi without any probs.

I'm a fairly light user of this phone but only just manage to get a day or sometimes 2 days use from the battery. My solution, albeit not a very good one, was to buy a couple a couple of spare batteries and plugin battery charger from fleabay

2x 1500mAh Battery+Charger for Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 | eBay UK
I keep one of these as a spare in my wallet and I have to say they are very good value for money although not an ideal solution for a

Randy · Jun 28, 2011

akanimbus said:
I'm a fairly light user of this phone but only just manage to get a day or sometimes 2 days use from the battery. My solution, albeit not a very good one, was to buy a couple a couple of spare batteries and plugin battery charger from fleabay

2x 1500mAh Battery+Charger for Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 | eBay UK
I keep one of these as a spare in my wallet and I have to say they are very good value for money although not an ideal solution for a

Slug · Jun 28, 2011

fontburn said:
I'd be more inclined to root if I could go back to original Orange Rom if I have any probs with the phone.

The shipping Orange UK firmware and kernel are available here.

As of the heat issue - has anyone replaced the handset ? and the new one didn't have this issue.

At least two members have posted here that replacement handsets don't exhibit the issue. I'd definitely advise seeking a replacement for your own - this level of heat generation is not normal.

akanimbus · Jun 28, 2011

Randy said:
And these fit the S2.. is that correct???

That's an affirmative, I've been using them for a few weeks now with no probs.

Aatos.1 · Jun 28, 2011

Mine was just warm, not hot, when in the stock configuration. So I say if anyone has a hot phone, return it. My brothers ran hot, he exchanged it and the new one is just fine. Don't hesitate to do this.

I literally just finished changing to the VillianROM 1.4 after reading the post by Slug. Now my phone is really a rocket, runs great and no warmer than before (which is barely warm, certainly not hot).

biffsmash · Jun 28, 2011

I've had two SGS 2's now, both of which get hot, sometimes, under some circumstances, and to be fair, it's well documented that they will get hot.

Battery lasts at least a day with everything turned on and light/medium use on mine.

fontburn · Jun 28, 2011

Well I'm ringing Orange tech support today so the issue is at least logged. If they offer a replacement then I'll take it.

Is there any way to backup all the settings and such like in one go so I dont have to go through the whole process again. Not that much of an issue, but a chore netherless.

Thanks for the stock ROM heads up. Might give it ago on the next one as being 4-5 versions behind is a silly compared with some of the samsung fixes add in KE7.

fontburn · Jun 28, 2011

Well - Orange are colleceting and swapping out tomorrow. Can't complain with the customer services.

Hopefully this will stop the heat issue - although I do think it is down to software rather than hardware. I played angry birds last night for 30-40 mins whilst on charge and no heat issue apart from the warmth of the screen and battery but both were normal IMO.

Lets just see what the new one brings. Dont want to lose me sexy black monolith

loony · Jun 28, 2011

im pretty sure kies backup will do setting for you. (via cable, not kies AIR)

VegasTouch · Jun 28, 2011

fontburn said:
I agree that the newer firmware may make a differance in terms of the battery performance, but I'm with orange and rotting the device will invalidate the warranty. I did this with my Hero in the days before 2.1 but that was a year in.

I'd be more inclined to root if I could go back to original Orange Rom if I have any probs with the phone.

--

As of the heat issue - has anyone replaced the handset ? and the new one didn't have this issue. Is there a faulty batch or is it me looking for the issue now?

---

Thanks for the reading.

In the Amazon App store there is an App called Z4Root. Free and a one click app that roots AND unroots the device. Its that simple. It used to be in the Market but it got removed.

Id take yours back and get a new handset.

loony · Jun 28, 2011

wow....anyone tried this app? looks so simple compared to the root process!?!?!

androidexpat · Jun 28, 2011

Pretty soon one day these new smartphones are going to be requiring built in fans to keep them cool.

garment69 · Jun 28, 2011

On your battery life. If you are at 71% after 7.5 hours that equates to about 3.8% per hour discharge rate That's pretty good in my book. Excellent even.

Randy · Jun 28, 2011

androidexpat said:
Pretty soon one day these new smartphones are going to be requiring built in fans to keep them cool.

Or we could pay a Student to follow us around and blow on it :eek:

vengance007 · Jun 28, 2011

i say if u want to return ur phone u might as well wait for the new GS2 that is coming out this month. sammy are aware of the heat issue and the battery drain. if they are smart enough (fingers crossed) the new 2.3.4 update should solve these issue i say SHOULD!! because i no android updates arent like apples..... lets b honest and this is from a android fan boy

One unhappy S2 owner

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