Overall Usability

[jwood333]

I would like to start by saying that I am new to the android genre (I bought my eris 4 weeks ago) but I am not new to the smartphone industry. I have owned multiple blackberrys, which eventually led to the decision of buying the eris. Coming from blackberry I am used to "maintaining" my phone, i.e. closing apps, clearing caches. I make it a point to consistently use Advanced Task Killer on my device which was recommended to me by the VZW sales rep upon purchasing my phone. However, after the most recent OTA update I have started to experience significant lag and "soft resets." I recognize that the eris has an out of date processor, and it is foolish to expect that any phone will operate without some type of annoyance. With this being said, my phone lags to the point of user frustration. My best example of this occurred today, Dec 25. I was purging my SMS inbox from all the merry christmas texts, and my phone consistently spent 3-5 seconds between the delete text screen, and returning to the inbox. I deleted 15 texts, and in this time the phone also managed to return to the HTC startup screen twice. In a given day I experience this soft reset upwards of 10-15 times, a major inconvenience for any type of phone user. Lastly, after receiving the update my phone has froze multiple times on the lock screen. It tends to happen when I recieve a text/e-mail, press the end button to unlock the screen and the phone freezes at the unlock screen. It is unresponsive to any button combinations, and any attempts to swipe the screen in all directions. So with my previously mentioned problems, I am coming here for advice.
A.) What can I do, aside from ATK, to aid my phone in a more swift and userfriendly experience?
B.) Could it be possible to have a "lemon"?

I appreciate all advice you guys can give me!

Thank you and Merry Christmas!

 

[DDustiNN]

I have had the same problem with random lock-screen unresponsiveness. Mine is usually after a phone call. In fact, the latest one was directly after a phone call. I pressed the "End Call" button (big red button at the bottom of the screen) I think, and then the screen was now showing the dialer/contacts. It was unresponsive to any touches though, and would not do anything. I pressed the End key, which turned the screen off. Then I pressed it again to turn it back on, and I was just at the lock screen but not able to do anything. I had to pull the battery, which was annoying because the phone takes forever to start back up... ugh...

 

[kraze0g]

my complaint right now is that as i was calling friends and family from my eris today (xmas) - the darn phone was calling people i did not want to talk to because of random scrolling on the call list and the pushing of contacts on accident because of the scrolling. very frustating when you are waiting for your brother to pick up and a work employee instead gets a call from me while he is with his family thinking i have something important to relay to him. i guess it's not such a big deal but i have no idea where this problem came from because i never ran into it before. so, i did a soft reset and used my housephone. blah. i have a couple weeks to return this phone for a droid or something better that is scheduled to come out from android to verizon in january and now im bitterly inclined to do so. i love this phone, i hate the bugs hopefully ill hear some encouragement from others with this phone and not have to give it back because it truly is a beautiful well rounded phone. but business takes precendence over looks, and i need something reliable so im not prone to make stupid mistakes myself .. (i.e. calling people you never wanted nor should be calling to talk to today and possibly getting in trouble). when i told this to a friend who owns a droid at dinner, he laughed at me and simply said 'thats what u get for buying a budget phone over the real deal'. made me very angry since my phone IS part of my business and i would never sacrifice business for an extra 100 dollars ah, where to go from here...

 

[Droidn00b]

I am not having trouble with the lock screen but the sense input keeps freezing when I try posting on a different forum. It's causing me to hav to exit threads and Pms. I hope this is something simple. I'm so tired of exchanging phones.

 

[kraze0g]

I am not having trouble with the lock screen but the sense input keeps freezing when I try posting on a different forum. It's causing me to hav to exit threads and Pms. I hope this is something simple. I'm so tired of exchanging phones.

your telling me! i need to make a decision on what im going to do, (1) keep the eris and deal with the problems an older processor and senseUI does, (2) return it and try the moto droid or (3) get a refund and wait for this upcoming verizon android phone in mid january. lets hope for the best with the eris and the update!

 

[Droidn00b]

I'm concerned about having to switch to a non-Android phone.

The problem with that is that I'll have to send the Droid back soon to avoid the ETF. I have a family share plan with the Eris. Two contracts I shouldn't have in the first place!

Sending both phones back and waiting wouldn't be a major deal for me, but I'm the account holder with the ERIS. What about the two people on the family plan? I gave them their phones for Christmas and they don't live near me. I don't want them to do without cell service due to having cancel with their other carrier!

 

[aleis]

it would be foolish to switch. once this phone is rooted, BYE BYE problems! the only problem, how long will it take to root...?

 

[MisterMcGoo]

I had my first notable lag problem yesterday. When I was typing a text message, there was a noticeable lag from the time I touched the key to the response from the phone. I only have about 5 apps (3 of which are games) that i've downloaded. I closed apps and cleared all my cache from those apps and the lag stopped. I think once they have more time to tweak the OS, things will be better. This is still a very new phone and will need some time and a few more patches till it can reach its full potential.

 

[Needsdecaf]

I would like to start by saying that I am new to the android genre (I bought my eris 4 weeks ago) but I am not new to the smartphone industry. I have owned multiple blackberrys, which eventually led to the decision of buying the eris. Coming from blackberry I am used to "maintaining" my phone, i.e. closing apps, clearing caches. I make it a point to consistently use Advanced Task Killer on my device which was recommended to me by the VZW sales rep upon purchasing my phone. However, after the most recent OTA update I have started to experience significant lag and "soft resets." I recognize that the eris has an out of date processor, and it is foolish to expect that any phone will operate without some type of annoyance. With this being said, my phone lags to the point of user frustration. My best example of this occurred today, Dec 25. I was purging my SMS inbox from all the merry christmas texts, and my phone consistently spent 3-5 seconds between the delete text screen, and returning to the inbox. I deleted 15 texts, and in this time the phone also managed to return to the HTC startup screen twice. In a given day I experience this soft reset upwards of 10-15 times, a major inconvenience for any type of phone user. Lastly, after receiving the update my phone has froze multiple times on the lock screen. It tends to happen when I recieve a text/e-mail, press the end button to unlock the screen and the phone freezes at the unlock screen. It is unresponsive to any button combinations, and any attempts to swipe the screen in all directions. So with my previously mentioned problems, I am coming here for advice.
A.) What can I do, aside from ATK, to aid my phone in a more swift and userfriendly experience?
B.) Could it be possible to have a "lemon"?

I appreciate all advice you guys can give me!

Thank you and Merry Christmas!

This exacty describes the operation of my phone. Except the deleting texts issue. I have disabled Sense UI and am running straight Android, which seems to be an improvement.

However, I am very disappointed in plain Android coming from Sense.

 

[kraze0g]

if you pay for sense, you should get sense. ;\ sacrificing the main pull for this product for it to work the way you want it to is somewhat ridiculous imo ;o

 

[Needsdecaf]

if you pay for sense, you should get sense. ;\ sacrificing the main pull for this product for it to work the way you want it to is somewhat ridiculous imo ;o

I agree. However a phone that is usable id more important to me.

I really hope that sense on 2.1 is better.