Database Users

Love my SGS2 but need your help

Hi Guys,
I have just moved from my iphone4 (well not completely) to an SGS2 which is my first dance with android.
Am quite happy with my purchase however am having some issues.
1) The phone gets warm at times. Sometimes too warm. Any of you facing that issue. Sometimes the screen is warm other times the area around the camera gets really warm.
2) I m not getting decent wireless coverage. In places around my house where I get 2 bars on my iphone, the SGS2 gets barely one. Which is very annoying considering the SGS2 is the best phone out there!
If anyone is facing the above issues and have been able to solve them, pls advise.
Thanks advance,
a2zt
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

I have come from an iPhone 4 too. Yes the phone does get very warm around the camera and screen in certain situations.
Wifi signal is pretty erratic, but speeds are the same as my iPhone. I just think the signal bars are not accurate.
You will also find that battery life is not as good either.
It's a great phone in all other respects and hopefully future updates will improve things

when its warm, i mean hot, the dual core cpu goes wild, no worries, its a safety feature built in, so you don't end up with a bunch of melted plastic in your hands
the wifi signal its strange, but not just on this phone, on every phone i have ever tested, ~250, i have seen this weirdness in action, in places where i get full signal on one phone, i get zero bars on another... so don't worry and try to connect to networks with at least 2 bars

simacca said:
I have come from an iPhone 4 too. Yes the phone does get very warm around the camera and screen in certain situations.
Wifi signal is pretty erratic, but speeds are the same as my iPhone. I just think the signal bars are not accurate.
You will also find that battery life is not as good either.
It's a great phone in all other respects and hopefully future updates will improve things
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
allthough theres this big op bug on the sgs ii some of it is fixed in new roms.
Hopefully soon samsung will fix this

Also when it gets warm for no reason wifi sharing may be running also eating up my battery.
androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s2/365603-ridiculous-wi-fi-sharing-bug.html
Without rooting I use "osmonitor" app to detect when it is eating up the CPU making the phone warm and then I have to kill wifisharing manually.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

a2zt said:
2) I m not getting decent wireless coverage. In places around my house where I get 2 bars on my iphone, the SGS2 gets barely one. Which is very annoying considering the SGS2 is the best phone out there!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From previous discussions, it seems the SGS2 and certain routers don't get along well. A couple of us with high-end Netgear's (N600/N750) seem to be getting excellent coverage. I get good signal through three stories of concrete with very little battery drain (one of the by-products of a weaker signal). I know you shouldn't have to replace your router to please your phone, but it's something to consider.

Thanks for the responses guys.
I am using Dlink E2000 router with an external antenna. Does that play nice with SGS2?
Any suggestions on which custom Rom I should try?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

a2zt said:
Hi Guys,
1) The phone gets warm at times. Sometimes too warm. Any of you facing that issue. Sometimes the screen is warm other times the area around the camera gets really warm.
Yes multiple posts on this topic dont worry its dual core .
2) I m not getting decent wireless coverage. In places around my house where I get 2 bars on my iphone, the SGS2 gets barely one
Bars do not measure signal strength use a proper measure like
http://www.appbrain.com/app/wifi-analyzer/com.farproc.wifi.analyzer
If anyone is facing the above issues and have been able to solve them, pls advise.
Again multiple posts on the forum .
Custom rom you choose but rooting and custom rom voids warranty .
Villain rom for me at present .
jje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

a2zt said:
Any suggestions on which custom Rom I should try?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I updated to the new XEU KF3 official ROM last night and it improved Wi-Fi strength for me noticeably.

Dramatic Battery life improvement

I had been suffering terrible battery life of late espically with Blue tooth enabled, however just recently 2 events occurred that coincided with a dramatic improvement
1. I switched from T-Mobile (UK) to GiffGaff
2. Partly as a result of that switch (and me being a little thick and forgetting to apply the ADN settings in order to get internet over 3g working after the switch over) I carried out a factory reset via the Settings -> About Phone menu options
Since I have done this my battery life has gone from less than a day to at least 2 days and possibly into 3 and that is with Blue tooth switched on
I am not sure that these 2 events caused it but something has happened all of a sudden to make such an improvement
fyi:
O/S 7.10.8107.79
F ver 1.1.7.10
R Ver 1.1.7.10

it's the factory reset. helps for some users. i'm not ready to reset and reinstall though. got too many maps downloaded on the phone. so i'll stick to my spare charger...

I tried resetting to check if it worked for me. And it didnt. The remaining battery estimate was reset and hence it estimated more battery life than the real experience. After a week or so the letter was back "to normal": 1 day and a few hours... my firmware is 1.0.16.10 though.
Sent from my LG-E900 using Board Express

Cellphone's battery usually lasts longer when in a carrier with stronger signal. Maybe the signal of your new carrier is stronger than the old one where you stay for the most part of your day.

GolfVR6 said:
Cellphone's battery usually lasts longer when in a carrier with stronger signal. Maybe the signal of your new carrier is stronger than the old one where you stay for the most part of your day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is definately true, GiffGaff (O2) has a much stronger signal where I live / work , I couldn't get a signal in our office down south, but now I get 5 bars!
So far I have gone 2 days and 4 hours with our charging and battery life is at 39%

jg400 said:
So far I have gone 2 days and 4 hours with our charging and battery life is at 39%
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you get that battery life with 3G connection on ALL the time?
Sent from my LG-E900 using Board Express

Do both carriers provide 3G or not?

Andriics said:
Do both carriers provide 3G or not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They do yeah.

GolfVR6 said:
Cellphone's battery usually lasts longer when in a carrier with stronger signal. Maybe the signal of your new carrier is stronger than the old one where you stay for the most part of your day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True... a phone that is not receiving a strong signal will continually seek a better connection... thus eating up battery.
Setting to a lower band for voice & text will greatly increase battery life.

Reset doesn't work on my optimus 7
Sent from my LG-E900 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

Battery
Hi, I have an LG Optimus L7 P705g. My battery life is really good ever since I turn the Batter Power Saver on.

3G Drain on Jelly Bean

Are we likely to see a fix for this? We know there is a problem with 3G drinking battery but how likely are we to see a fix. Solutions like disable 3G aren't viable for a lot of people, so I just wondered what peoples thoughts on this were.

Try changing your modem. You should see a slight improvement in battery life, nothing major but still better than nothing.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

Yeah a modem did help but I still had a big problem. Are we likely to see a fix, I remember this being a problem with ICS which is why I reverted back.

Its not the modem. My phone stock uses the XXKG3 modem, and i have been using that on ICS and now into JB. Jellybean definitely has worse battery concerning 3G / H for some reason. I just barely squeeze a day out of mine.

Yeah, I was struggling to get even a day. I tried almost all of the Jelly Bean ROMs and they all suffered from the same problem. I really wanted to stick with JB, especially C-ROM because it was like a dream to use but on a good day I'd get about 7 or 8 hours maybe? I would always have to plug it in twice a day. Currently trying SauROM which is better but I'm starting to think that the best for battery life is genuinely a stock rom like JVS.

skezza said:
Yeah, I was struggling to get even a day. I tried almost all of the Jelly Bean ROMs and they all suffered from the same problem. I really wanted to stick with JB, especially C-ROM because it was like a dream to use but on a good day I'd get about 7 or 8 hours maybe? I would always have to plug it in twice a day. Currently trying SauROM which is better but I'm starting to think that the best for battery life is genuinely a stock rom like JVS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
with any rom I've got a day and 6 hours depends on usage

On Jelly Bean?

did you limited your speed to 3g or do you also use hsdpa? if you use hsdpa, give 3g a try i think the battery drain in 3g is a lot lower ... in my opinion if you are not downloading 3g is fast enough to browse or youtube.
for just instant messaging you can give 2g a try

2G isn't really usable on Three mobile.
I don't know how to limit to just 3G. But yes I normally use HSPDA. That said, we should be able to use it without draining our battery

I'm not getting any major battery drain here. I can last a full day on HSDPA and or WiFi.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium

Really?

skezza said:
Really?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium

if you will buy a strong battery 1800-1900 mAh, you will see the different

Yeah, that's the alternative. Bigger battery I guess.

skezza said:
2G isn't really usable on Three mobile.
I don't know how to limit to just 3G. But yes I normally use HSPDA. That said, we should be able to use it without draining our battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You CAN limit to just 3G. You have to go to Advanced Settings or Galaxy S Settings (depends on a ROM) and go to HSDPA and put it to UMTS mode only. It'll switch it to 3G and will consume less battery
Sent from my GT-I9000

Helloworld294 said:
You CAN limit to just 3G. You have to go to Advanced Settings or Galaxy S Settings (depends on a ROM) and go to HSDPA and put it to UMTS mode only. It'll switch it to 3G and will consume less battery
Sent from my GT-I9000
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in my opinion, thats the point, go to settings/advanced/RADIO in your case hsdpa + hsupa should be ticket, simply tick umts an you should notice, the changing radio icon in the status bar (no longer h, but 3g).
your 3g and hspa power consumption depends really strong from the signal strenght and in your phone is connected constantly or changes often. bad reception causes a large waist of battery power.

My guess is you have Google Now / Maps running in background which always uses your data.

darristan said:
My guess is you have Google Now / Maps running in background which always uses your data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On slim 2.9, I found that removing G now, and turning off all location tracking increased battery life. Now I can get a day and about an hour/90mins of screen on time with data/wifi only on when using it. I suppose after more than 2 years of use on the one battery charging every day or more, there's only so much one can expect from a device and battery.

But isn't it recognized that this is a problem? The 3G Bug? Nothing to do with Google Now etc

theskymoves said:
Now I can get a day and about an hour/90mins of screen on time with data/wifi only on when using it. I suppose after more than 2 years of use on the one battery charging every day or more, there's only so much one can expect from a device and battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in my opinion thats not enough, do you mean 24 hours or 16 hours? could be a little more with 90 mins of screen time, but you shouldnt need more.
inverted apps can by the way help too, avoid white and light colours as background

Worst battery life ever

So, I've been using my Nexus 4 for several months, but in the last one I'm having really bad battey life. The OS is always active as you can see in the screenshots below; any advice?
Battery life is pretty good on wifi, but it's really bad on 3G

Looking at your screenshot, you have a no bar signal, so it appears that may be what is draining your battery. Go to Settings, more...., Wireless & networks, and tick Use only 2G networks. Try that for a day and see what kind of improvement you get.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Check your wakelocks.... Kernel especially... And radio could be the cause too. Try the .54 radio.... Users reported stronger signals
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

If you use go sms, the update from the 8th (I believe) causes wakelocks.

Me too! I am getting worse. Brightness level is on minimum and only had it on like 100% for about 15 minutes. I don't get it, I have tried everything.

quiro91 said:
So, I've been using my Nexus 4 for several months, but in the last one I'm having really bad battey life. The OS is always active as you can see in the screenshots below; any advice?
Battery life is pretty good on wifi, but it's really bad on 3G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use matrix/trinity/franco kernel..
will increase ur battery life by 20% easily
and search for respective settings..

Battery life discussion thread

There doesn't seem to be a thread for discussing battery life, so here you go.

I've been quite happy with it, lasting 2 days on average before it needs a charge with light to medium use (Messaging, web browsing, email)
Few battery charts: http://imgur.com/a/d0V2F

the priv battery have been good with me, it can last a day full without charge, a heavy use of gaming also can last a day

I've had opposite results with my battery. I get about 6 hours with light to medium use. I've only had it a two days so I'm assuming like all my other androids it's get better after some use and a few recharges.
Sent from my STV100-1 using XDA Premium HD app

kamileon said:
I've had opposite results with my battery. I get about 6 hours with light to medium use. I've only had it a two days so I'm assuming like all my other androids it's get better after some use and a few recharges.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Theres a few things that also improve battery life significantly, going into developer options and changing transitions to .5 or off completely, and if your in an area that doesnt have GSM or CDMA, you should turn that option off in your network signals.
I think theres a really good post on crackberry for it
http://crackberry.com/ten-tips-and-...ery-life?_ga=1.242249799.473049905.1448047720
thats a general info battery life post

Cryptongolem said:
Theres a few things that also improve battery life significantly, going into developer options and changing transitions to .5 or off completely, and if your in an area that doesnt have GSM or CDMA, you should turn that option off in your network signals.
I think theres a really good post on crackberry for it
http://crackberry.com/ten-tips-and-...ery-life?_ga=1.242249799.473049905.1448047720
thats a general info battery life post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll check it out, thanks
Sent from my STV100-1 using XDA Premium HD app

Cryptongolem said:
Theres a few things that also improve battery life significantly, going into developer options and changing transitions to .5 or off completely, and if your in an area that doesnt have GSM or CDMA, you should turn that option off in your network signals.
I think theres a really good post on crackberry for it
http://crackberry.com/ten-tips-and-...ery-life?_ga=1.242249799.473049905.1448047720
thats a general info battery life post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why would animation scale improve battery?
Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk

From what i've read on numerous forums, the battery level drains a lot faster when subjected to certain task. For example, gaming does not seem to put a huge amount of strain on the device or battery, however general web browsing does.
Same goes for the heating issue - I've yet to actually document what puts the device under strain causing battery life issues.
For me - as a rule, the battery isn't so great. It's better than the Z5 which I sent back, but around 2/3 as good as my Moto X Play. I'd expect the device to be lasting a LOT longer given the battery capacity (near on par with the MXP) however, as mentioned there are certain tasks which seem to drain the battery quicker than others.
I usually get around 3.5-4 hours screen on time a day out of a full charge.
---------- Post added at 04:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:34 PM ----------
Cryptongolem said:
Theres a few things that also improve battery life significantly, going into developer options and changing transitions to .5 or off completely, and if your in an area that doesnt have GSM or CDMA, you should turn that option off in your network signals.
I think theres a really good post on crackberry for it
http://crackberry.com/ten-tips-and-...ery-life?_ga=1.242249799.473049905.1448047720
thats a general info battery life post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of these will make tiny differences that wont really save the battery life enough for an end user to notice. Things such as scaling down animations will help with the performance slightly which, yes, will affect the battery but we're talking 1-2mAh per day.

Yeah I'm noticing pretty stinky battery life on this guy compared to my G4 which is weird because they both have an 808 and the battery is larger on the Priv along with a smaller screen. Really like the phone overall but I'm not at all enthused by having to charge this thing constantly. Plus it's always running hot for me even if I'm only using it to respond to a text message or two. Really not happy to have to return it. Also seems to get laggy for me on Google Chrome which is lame. Very high potential phone I just dont have the time to wait and wait for updates to fix the battery and heat issues.

sirrkitt said:
Yeah I'm noticing pretty stinky battery life on this guy compared to my G4 which is weird because they both have an 808 and the battery is larger on the Priv along with a smaller screen. Really like the phone overall but I'm not at all enthused by having to charge this thing constantly. Plus it's always running hot for me even if I'm only using it to respond to a text message or two. Really not happy to have to return it. Also seems to get laggy for me on Google Chrome which is lame. Very high potential phone I just dont have the time to wait and wait for updates to fix the battery and heat issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a shame you're going to return it but understandable - I am confident that BB will improve the battery performance over time, but it's just a case of when. The pro's of the phone (power, speed, screen, camera etc) outweigh the need for a good battery life for me.
Keep us posted.

Agreed. I really liked the phone but mine gets hot and laggy and I've got the screen click in the bottom left corner and the back has that strange hollow feeling that seems to be complained about all over Crackberry. It could even just be a t-mobile thing but I don't want to take my chances especially when the phone is so expensive. Fingers crossed that they release an awesome update or skmething for this phone, though. But with just 25 minutes of screen on time (phone on for just one hour total) I've lost nearly 20% battery. Can't figure it out either. Brightness all the way down, Bluetooth and WiFi off, Gmail sync off, WiFi calling disabled, BBM disabled and it still is hot as could be and eating battery. What I would do to have access to wake lock detector!

adaimespechip said:
From what i've read on numerous forums, the battery level drains a lot faster when subjected to certain task. For example, gaming does not seem to put a huge amount of strain on the device or battery, however general web browsing does.
Same goes for the heating issue - I've yet to actually document what puts the device under strain causing battery life issues.
For me - as a rule, the battery isn't so great. It's better than the Z5 which I sent back, but around 2/3 as good as my Moto X Play. I'd expect the device to be lasting a LOT longer given the battery capacity (near on par with the MXP) however, as mentioned there are certain tasks which seem to drain the battery quicker than others.
I usually get around 3.5-4 hours screen on time a day out of a full charge.
---------- Post added at 04:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:34 PM ----------
Most of these will make tiny differences that wont really save the battery life enough for an end user to notice. Things such as scaling down animations will help with the performance slightly which, yes, will affect the battery but we're talking 1-2mAh per day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Truly, after completing all of these battery tips, i didnt even do every one on that list, but changing the sync + radio + animations has DRAMATICALLY increased my battery life, went from half day to full day without charge. Radio definitely seemed to be a HUGE drain when trying to access GSM in my area. animations i cant say made a huge increase but the phone is SO much quicker, felt slow and laggy with it on.

Ok, so I have been running my phone a few days now with the new setup. I am now getting 11 - 12 hours of battery with moderate use. That's about twice what I was getting. So it's now comparable to battery life of other phones I had.
So I have the T-Mobile variant, the SVT100-1. My guess was it was all the bloat ware TMo put on the device that was eating g battery. Here is a list of the apps I disabled, since we will probably not getting root and won't be able to uninstall them.
Lookout (BlackBerry App)
Mobile money(TMo)
TMobile My Account
TMobile TV
Visual Voicemail (TMo)
Yahoo Finance
Blackberry Help
A few of the Google keyboard input languages (these more for space nothing performance)
Over the next few days I will enable each one to see if it effects battery life so I can determine which one is killing battery.
Sent from my STV100-1 using XDA Premium HD app

kamileon said:
I've had opposite results with my battery. I get about 6 hours with light to medium use. I've only had it a two days so I'm assuming like all my other androids it's get better after some use and a few recharges.
Sent from my STV100-1 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what you facing the problem as same as for me also.but I had 3months now only it's like that previously it's good only.

kamileon said:
Over the next few days I will enable each one to see if it effects battery life so I can determine which one is killing battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Were you able to narrow it down at all?

I'm getting around 4-5 hrs of screen on time - around 16 hrs with moderate use. I notice it heats up quite a bit while on chrome.
Hoping the update to marshmallow will help with the advanced standby feature for apps. Wifes s7 edge has crazy battery life and it only has a couple hundred more mAH capacity. Going to try enabling only 4g/3g since it looks like I have weak LTE signal everywhere I go.
Sent from my STV100-3 using Tapatalk