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Unhappy With Recent GS5 Purchase

GalaxyGirl

Newbie
Oct 30, 2011
15
0
I hope you all can help with suggestions. I recently purchased a Galaxy S5 and I doubt if I'll keep it. I have limited time to return and/or exchange.

1. The phone is simply too big for me. Could you all suggest the best smaller android phone in your opinions? I had a Droid Charge which I really loved. I thought it best to move on from a three year old phone. The Charge's lag was my only complaint. Something the size of the Charge would be great.

2. When my info was transferred from my Charge to the S5, all of my 4800 pics were put into one folder in no particular order. On my Charge they were in several manageable folders by date. Now I have to search through almost 5000 pictures to find one I am looking for - a daunting task.

3. Going back to my Charge is an option but I'd have to fix the lag.

I'm currently on Verizon but am able to change that, too, as my two year contract is up. However, I do have a Kindle on Verizon.
 
2. When my info was transferred from my Charge to the S5, all of my 4800 pics were put into one folder in no particular order. On my Charge they were in several manageable folders by date. Now I have to search through almost 5000 pictures to find one I am looking for - a daunting task.
Create folders and move the pictures into them, in whatever setup makes sense to you.

3. Going back to my Charge is an option but I'd have to fix the lag.
Since the lag isn't due to something broken, it can't be fixed. A 3 year old phone is going to lag unless you limit it to 3 year old apps.

I'm currently on Verizon but am able to change that, too, as my two year contract is up. However, I do have a Kindle on Verizon.
You determine the carrier by which one gives you coverage where you need it, not by which phones they have. The greatest phone in the world with no coverage has no advantage over a rock.
 
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Create folders and move the pictures into them, in whatever setup makes sense to you.

Since the lag isn't due to something broken, it can't be fixed. A 3 year old phone is going to lag unless you limit it to 3 year old apps.

You determine the carrier by which one gives you coverage where you need it, not by which phones they have. The greatest phone in the world with no coverage has no advantage over a rock.

With almost 5000 pics to go through and create folders for, that would take forever. It's my only option? There's no way a different way of transferring them would have helped? Maybe there's only one way of transferring pics.

OK. I had googled around and saw there ways to improve lag. I really don't want to keep my Charge anyway. Past time to move on.

I live in an area where all the major carriers work. Friends and family members have AT&T, Sprint, etc. Nobody seems to have any coverage problems. I'm with Verizon simply out of habit. Started with them years ago and just stayed.

Any suggestions on a great but smaller phone? Thanks.
 
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I was very happy with the size of my Galaxy S4. The S5 is just a smidge big for me. However, the quality of the screen won me over. If Samsung put out an S6 that was an S5 in the size of the S4... I would get it.

I'm surprised dates didn't carry over with your pictures. There's a setting (when in the Gallery level) to sort by "Albums" or "Time". Would that not help?

Good luck.
 
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if the pic are on an sd card on the old phone why not just put that sd card on the new phone. can't get any easier than that.if not you can still do it thru you computer then transfer the whole 5000 pic to the sd card.

With almost 5000 pics to go through and create folders for, that would take forever. It's my only option? There's no way a different way of transferring them would have helped? Maybe there's only one way of transferring pics.

OK. I had googled around and saw there ways to improve lag. I really don't want to keep my Charge anyway. Past time to move on.

I live in an area where all the major carriers work. Friends and family members have AT&T, Sprint, etc. Nobody seems to have any coverage problems. I'm with Verizon simply out of habit. Started with them years ago and just stayed.

Any suggestions on a great but smaller phone? Thanks.
 
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I was very happy with the size of my Galaxy S4. The S5 is just a smidge big for me. However, the quality of the screen won me over. If Samsung put out an S6 that was an S5 in the size of the S4... I would get it.

I'm surprised dates didn't carry over with your pictures. There's a setting (when in the Gallery level) to sort by "Albums" or "Time". Would that not help?

Good luck.

Thanks. I only have one album now - full of every picture - so I don't think that will work. I am going to look into it though.
 
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You can view your pictures by date or album or however you want to filter it? It just sounds like you dont like the phone, simply get rid of it then. Its by far the best phone I have ever owned but to each his own regarding that.

Bear

Thanks. You would think but all of my pictures were transferred on the same day at roughly the same time (it took about 20 min to transfer my contacts and pics).

I can create folders now and add my pics to it. Almost 5000 pics is gonna take a lot of time though. I suppose I could do 100/day over 50 days so I don't go nuts doing this.

I'm not sure if I like the phone itself yet. I definitely think it's very big and working on all of these pics will be a drag (for some reason I thought they'd stay in their respective folders when I transferred).

I've actually made a list of features my Charge had that my GS5 doesn't. The Charge was my first smartphone, I used it for almost three years, and I find myself missing things and comparing.
 
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I went from S3 to S5. At first size was an issue but you get accustomed quickly and I would not go back. Phone is very good at most things. Give it some time. I am sure you could sell it easily if beyond warranty

Thanks. Almost everybody says it's the best android phone on the market. I'm kind of glad the size bugged somebody else in the beginning!:eek:

I've read about people not wanting "a small tablet" in their pocket and blogging that there's a good case for the Galaxy Mini. Then I read about the Mini's keys being so small people have to use a stylus.:banghead:
 
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I'm puzzled at your size complaint. Didn't you see, hold S5 before getting it?

Anyway for slightly smaller size, One, Moto X come to mind. But they don't have sd slot which might make your photo transfer more difficult if you run into date/sorting issue.

Thanks. I actually did a lot of research before buying the S5. Basically it came down to the S5, the HTC One, the Xperia, or doing a complete switch and buying the iPhone5.

I've never seen an Xperia in person (where the heck are they?), my friend has an HTC One and it looked even bigger to me but that's probably because she had a huge Otterbox case on it, the S5 has the best phone camera around and is largely considered to be the best android phone currently. As for the iPhone5, I have never used an Apple product before and did want to stay with android.

I did see and hold the G5 for a very short time before I purchased. Then I used it for a day and felt my wrist aching a bit if you can believe that. I've been told to hold the phone higher up so the weight doesn't go backwards in my hand. I was holding it for long periods of time in the middle towards the bottom.

Maybe this is all just new phone jitters. I'm going to try to work out the picture problem (they were all transferred into one folder at one time) and give the phone some more time.
 
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Have your tried one hand mode? It shrinks the whole screen down to a more manageable size.
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Thank you ^^ I did. Wow does it shrink the screen! It went straight to 4" in length and quite narrow in width. My problem is the actual handset size though. I have a few days left to return the Galaxy S5, which I've had some time to use now, and believe it is a fantastic phone. It's still too big for me.

I've gone back to the store twice in the past week - to get one for my daughter (she loves the S5) and to ask about the transfer of my 4800 pictures that were within several folders, from my old phone (Droid Charge) onto the Galaxy S5. As I said in my OP, my pictures are a mess. I have one giant folder with 4800 pics in it in no particular order of date or type (camera, screen shots, downloads, apps such as Instagram or TwitPic, etc.) If I managed to move 50 pics/day it would take me almost 100 days to fix this.

One of the more techie guys at the store showed me an app that will transfer my pictures within their respective folders from my Droid Charge to another phone. The name of the app escapes me at the moment but he said he'd do it for me. In case anyone else reading is interested, I'll be back with the name of that app after he does it. There's no point in him doing that now to a phone I'm probably not keeping.

In the meantime, each time I've gone back to the store I've complained about the GS5 size and expressed an interest in the Galaxy S4 Mini. Both times I am strongly recommended not to purchase the S5 Mini since it's obviously not on par with the S5 I've already bought. The SAs won't even discuss the S5 with me. Weird.

I've read reviews of the S4 Mini and some are horrible and some are fantastic. I'm going to read some more about it on here. The S5 Mini has not come out yet and it was expected to by now. I could wait for it, I suppose, but I doubt it will be very different from the S4 Minis, plus I'd have to return the GS5 I have, go back to my old Droid Charge, wait, and purchase the Mini 5 whenever it comes out. Big hassle and I'm already getting sick of this.

I believe the main differences besides size are the camera, the internal memory, and battery life. I can add external memory, the camera is an 8MP which I've been happily using on my Droid Charge for almost three years, and I'm used to carrying an extra charged battery in my purse for my Droid Charge if need be.

I'm off to read the G4 Mini board here. One thing I'm concerned about is the volume complaints. I am definitely going to use this phone for talking because I'm eventually getting rid of my land line. Call volume is important and so is sound in general, of course.

I think my only other choices for a smaller sized android phone would be the Droid Razr, the HTC Incredible (older phones), the HTC One Mini, or the iPhone5 - a completely different operating system and I can't put my favorite, often used app, Color Notes, on an iPhone.

If I'm wrong about anything in this post, please do let me know. Thanks.
 
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