Do Not Buy an HTC Incredible 2

[Kalokagathon]

Again, I've had zero issues with the phone. Had it for about 2 months now and no problems whatsoever.

I think your response was directed at me, but it wasn't really relevant. The fact that your phone works fine isn't some pixie dust that makes my phone work fine. And yes I am fully aware of the fact that the overwhelming majority of folks have perfectly functioning Inc2s. Telling me your phone is fine is like telling me to fix my car by looking at yours.

One quick point:

As far as the LED thing, that seems rather trivial...hit the power button and see if you have any missed things. You are looking at the phone already, doesn't take much more effort to just push that power button real quick does it?

1) When your phone is depleted after four hours of use, nothing that uses the battery is trivial. 2) The led starts flashing when it gets down to about 20-30%. If I followed your advice, that would mean I would get only 70%-80% of an already short battery life. Shorter battery life is no solution for short battery life.

 

[vzwuser76]

I think your response was directed at me, but it wasn't really relevant. The fact that your phone works fine isn't some pixie dust that makes my phone work fine. And yes I am fully aware of the fact that the overwhelming majority of folks have perfectly functioning Inc2s. Telling me your phone is fine is like telling me to fix my car by looking at yours.

One quick point:

1) When your phone is depleted after four hours of use, nothing that uses the battery is trivial. 2) The led starts flashing when it gets down to about 20-30%. If I followed your advice, that would mean I would get only 70%-80% of an already short battery life. Shorter battery life is no solution for short battery life.

His reply was not directed at you, but at the OP referring to anyone not having problems as drinking the "koolaid". Which is interesting since it sounds like most of his problems have been fixed, and the issue that hasn't been resolved is something that is a function of the manufacturer software. So if that's your stumbling point, either see if Verizon can exchange the phone or sell it and get one that will work for you. What angers me is that one person has an isssue and suddenly the phones a pos. While it may be your experience, that doesn't mean it's everyones and that people shouldn't give the phone a chance. Manufacturers can have a bad batch, say with the soldering process or a bad batch of components.

I'm sorry if this comes off as harsh, but you guys act like we should feel ashamed if we can't get your phone working correctly. We (at least most of us anyway) are not employed by HTC or Verizon. We are doing this to help fellow owners so that maybe when the day comes when we have an issue, someone can help us as well. If our community here can't help you, try asking the people who are responsible for the phone (HTC & VZW). If they cannot resolve the issue, get a replacement. If they won't/can't do that, sell the phone and get something that works for you. While we like to help people we can only do so much.

So I'll see what I can do. On the subject of the led activating on low battery, that has been on phones since the first generation. It will probably not draw a lot of juice, but as you said when you're losing a lot of battery to begin with, it doesn't help, so let's look at why you're having rapid battery loss to begin with.

Now as far as the battery life, you say your display is eating up 90% of your usage, so let's look at that. You have auto-brightness off, but where is your brightness set? And what is your screen timeout set to? I usually set mine to 20-30% and screen timeout between 30 sec.-1 minute. It's also possible that you have an app that is not letting your phone sleep which is like leaving the screen on constantly. Now while the app may not be using much in terms of resources, that fact that it doesn't let the phone sleep maybe the issue here.

Next what are you syncing? I have Google set to sync real time and weather set to 1 hour, nothing else. So are you syncing multiple email accounts with a low sync interval? Is there anything else that you have updating freqently?

Another thing that could be the culprit is the fast boot feature. If this is enabled when you pwer down the phone it's not actually powered down in the traditional sense, but more like a sleep/hibernate condition like on a laptop. And like a laptop it will continue to use battery while in this sleep/hibernate condition> Generally it uses around 15-20% overnight. The solution is to disable fast boot. While it will take longer to boot up (around a minute without fast boot enabled) you will save around 15% of your battery, which to me is a good tradeoff.

Now, that last thing I can think of is what is your signal reception? Don't go by the bars as they aren't accurate (on any phone). From the homescreen hit Menu > Settings > About Phone > Network, and Signal strength will be the second field. What is you reading in dBm? Poor signal stregnth can be a major battery killer be cause the radios in the phone will be constantly searching for a better signal, thus draining battery.

With the settings I have (20-30% display brightness, 30 sec.-1 min. screen timeout, on wifi 85% of the time, and signal usually in the 70s to lower 80s) I get around 2-3 days on a charge. That's with the original battery and assuming I'm not playing games or watching videos, which can suck down the battery pretty quickly. But I've never had it where I couldn't get through a day on a single charge.

So let me know how yours is setup and let's see if we can get this resolved. If we can't then it may be time to call Verizon and see about a replacement.

 

[vzwuser76]

Wow a reply from someone not drinking the koolaid. I've resolved most of my issues through a factory reset. I still can't get infinite reminders though. Another option that came stock on the phone was to turn the phone upside down to automatically turn on the speaker phone. I thought it was a cool idea, but guess what, doesn't work. Who knows what else doesn't work that I haven't found yet.

Did they do any QA on this phone before release? Did they do any QA before this ginger snap thing? Wtf?

I have to admit though that I'm not having the battery issues Kalokagathon is having. I complained about it in my first post but the factory reset seems to have made it better.

We have discussed the infinite reminders thing extensively so I'll reply to your other remarks.

As I mentioned to Kalokagathon, why is having a phone that isn't having issues akin to drinking the koolaid. Just because you had issues doesn't mean everyone has them. It's also very rude after members either help or try to help you with your issues to then insult them. Like either the koolaid comment or earlier wanting thanks for "discovering" that the factory reset sovles the alarm clock issue that you were having. If I recall it was suggested to you by rcrott11, and after it works you want the credit. I'd start giving credit where it's due or you might find yourself not being able to get help later on.

As far as the flip the phone to silence calls, it does work. First you mention turning it upside down, now I'll assume you mean face (touchscreen) down. The thing is that after you place it face down, it only silences that particular call. If another call comes in, you have to pick up the phone and place it face down again to silence that call. Now if you want all calls silenced for period of time you could put a sound widget on your homescreen and set it to silence or vibrate while you want quiet time. Now if it is not working at all that could be a software issue, and would possibly require a call to HTC or Verizon.

On the Gingerbread update, I had an Incredible1 and the Froyo release was a lot less smooth than the Gingerbread on the Incredible2. Most people recommend a factory reset after a firmware update, at least when the update is a new OS. They do so so that there isn't anything left from the old OS that could cause glitches on the new one. The same thing happens with PC OSs, even though most don't bother with it, it's still recommended.

Now I'm sure someone will say that "Why doesn't Apple have this problem?" Because they are updating one phone once a year, with little changes having to be made for different carriers, and they still end up releasing patches for glitches that end users find.

Now look at HTC. Since the Inc1 was released until now, they've had OS updates for around 12 phones on around 8 different carriers. That's almost an OS update a month. The fact that their updates go as smooth as they do is actually remarkable. I would love to see Apple have to deal with that, rather than just one phone and one OS, then we'd see how great a software company they are.

So the solution if you want minimal issues is to go to iOS and the i*hone. But while it is a smartphone, as far as customization it's less capable than most dumbphones. The other OSs out there (BB, Windows, HP/Palm) have their issues updating as well, with some worse than Android.

The other option if you want something tailored specifically for you is to root and flash custom ROMs or create one yourself. That is where Android's power is. If something doesn't suit you, you can change it yourself. So far I haven't had the need to root, but when the day comes it's nice to know that I can.

 

[sashimigrade]

I say drinking the koolaid because everyone here just wants to cheer and dance about their phones. God forbid if we discuss anything wrong with it. And if you're just angered because of my tone than get some thicker skin bro. I've not cursed or called anyone names. I was able to find others on other sites having the exact same problems as I was. Then you guys act like you don't know what I'm talking about and the phone is beyond reproach.

Plus you guys don't read my posts anyway. The Storm thing ended up being funny but I wasn't talking about silencing calls or whatever you're talking about. I was talking about turning the phone upside down to activate the speaker phone. I've tried it about 3 times and haven't been able to get it to work.

If you want to call the LED thing and the other minor problems I have remaining trivial, that's fine. I guess they are. However, you're on a slippery slope if you continually accept substandard software and cheer about it.

Geesh, wake up people. I have an idea, change the title of this forum to "HTC Droid Incredible 2 Best Phone in the Universe - Positive Posts Only".

 

[vzwuser76]

I say drinking the koolaid because everyone here just wants to cheer and dance about their phones. God forbid if we discuss anything wrong with it. And if you're just angered because of my tone than get some thicker skin bro. I've not cursed or called anyone names. I was able to find others on other sites having the exact same problems as I was. Then you guys act like you don't know what I'm talking about and the phone is beyond reproach.

Plus you guys don't read my posts anyway. The Storm thing ended up being funny but I wasn't talking about silencing calls or whatever you're talking about. I was talking about turning the phone upside down to activate the speaker phone. I've tried it about 3 times and haven't been able to get it to work.

If you want to call the LED thing and the other minor problems I have remaining trivial, that's fine. I guess they are. However, you're on a slippery slope if you continually accept substandard software and cheer about it.

Geesh, wake up people. I have an idea, change the title of this forum to "HTC Droid Incredible 2 Best Phone in the Universe - Positive Posts Only".

The problem is that when you came on here it sounded more like you wanted everyone else to feel the same about the phone as you do, and if we don't we are koolaid drinkers. I'm not saying the phone doesn't have it's issues, they all do. Show me a phone you think is perfect & I'll bet you find people who say it's crap. But does that mean it is because some are having problems with it?

My issue is that on my original Inc I could go into voicemail settings and change it to add a couple of pauses and my pin so it would automatically log into my voicemail when it dialed it. On my Inc2 I can add the pauses/pin# in but it no longer auto logs in. So now I have to press the keypad 4 times. A horror story I know.

There is no phone that is perfect and would please everyone. That's because one person will want something different from the next person. You want infinite led reminders, I want my phone to auto login to my voicemail. The next person will want something else. As a company, how do you expect them to anticipate what each person wants and then deliver it to them? It's just not realistic. Most of us accept this fact that anything, no matter what it is, will not be perfectly suited to our needs and we deal with it. It's called the real world. So yes, the phone does have it's problems, EVERY phone does, and EVERY phone will.

As far as the speakerphone comment, I apologize. I was doing too many things at once and thought you were talking about flip to silence. The flip to speakerphone does work on mine. Have you tried de-selecting and then re-selecting it in the sound settings? Sometimes it helps. If it doesn't like I said earlier, call HTC or Verizon, see if they can solve it or get you a replacement. You have 1 year of warranty, use it. If they won't help you, sell it and get something else.

 

[Jman42028]

well said vzwuser76, spot on.

Its not that we are upset that you have issues with the phone, its that you came on here complaining and saying dont buy it, its horrible, blah blah blah. Trying to create some kind of rally point, on the incredible 2 forum. Pretty lame.

Bad batches absolutely do happen, they happen with everything that is mass manufactured. It is possible that you just got a bad one, or it could be that dreaded id 10 t error too....

Anyways, the forum is here to help trbouleshoot and help aleviate issues you may have, not for you to come here and trash the product just because you can't seem to get it to work for you. How many threads on this forum are people asking questions or trying to get troubleshooting? probably 95%. Getting help isn't a problem, thats what its here for. The trolling thread, like you inteded this one to be, is a waste of time. Thats all you were/are doing is trolling, trying to get a reaction, and its very lame and childish. But hey, it worked, you got your reaction right??

 

[Kalokagathon]

So if that's your stumbling point, either see if Verizon can exchange the phone or sell it and get one that will work for you. What angers me is that one person has an isssue and suddenly the phones a pos. While it may be your experience, that doesn't mean it's everyones and that people shouldn't give the phone a chance. Manufacturers can have a bad batch, say with the soldering process or a bad batch of components.

Totally agreed, but it doesn't look like they're going to exchange the phone and I can't legitimately sell it knowing it's a bad phone (if, that is, it is a bad phone). I don't at all assume that any manufacturing process is going to be foolproof. It just seems like all the gremlins in the VZW and HTC factories went rape happy with my phone. Not enough to make you think the phone is defective, until a bunch of small but troublesome problems add up. Even Mybackup Pro went defective on me; and I don't hear anybody complaining about that one.

I'm sorry if this comes off as harsh, but you guys act like we should feel ashamed if we can't get your phone working correctly. We (at least most of us anyway) are not employed by HTC or Verizon. We are doing this to help fellow owners so that maybe when the day comes when we have an issue, someone can help us as well. If our community here can't help you, try asking the people who are responsible for the phone (HTC & VZW). If they cannot resolve the issue, get a replacement. If they won't/can't do that, sell the phone and get something that works for you. While we like to help people we can only do so much.

I totally hear where you're coming from, but I to clarify that I have neither said nor implied that anybody who owns this phone is a tool. Even with all the problems I've had, I would still recommend the phone to folks: it would appear that 99.9% of people who get the phone love it, get great battery out of it, and don't have to turn everything back off and on just to keep it alive--and those are good odds. (Most folks seem to get as much battery as I did with my Curve 8330, and I find that amazing.) And therefore the chances of a potential customer having an experience like mine is very, very slim. And given its capabilities, it's a worthwhile risk to take. I would simply tell people that as soon as they have any problems at all, to jump right on here for a few days and if that doesn

 

[Jman42028]

well playing games will cause your display to stay on constantly, not to mention recording your finger movements and touch's, so that could very well be the culperit. I don't play many games on mine, tho I do have an emulator on it and play snes games on occasion, but I have to stop after about 30 mins cuz my hands cramp up and my eyes start to hurt, dunno how you can do it for 1.5 hrs, but honestly, playing a game, graphic intensive or not, is gonna cause the battery to drop a great deal.

Have you tested your battery without playing games? Whats it getting on a day without doing games, just some casual web surfing?

I can stream mlb games for 3 or 4 hours (depending on the game) and only have my battery go down a tiny bit. But when I play games, angry birds or whatever, it definitely drops faster.

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

...HTC Droid Incredible 2 Best Phone in the Universe...

Woohoo!

Caught you sayin it...

OK, so out of context, but maybe someone will be breezing through this thread and see this quote and say to themselves "Boy! This guy really changed his mind! The phone must be really great afterall..."


K,
We don't all have to agree.

I just think rants are not invitations to discussion. They are an invitation to bicker, to get defensive, to "fight back".

Let's leave this bickering and move on to ideas, mature (if not light)discussion, constructive banter if you will.

 

[vzwuser76]

Totally agreed, but it doesn't look like they're going to exchange the phone and I can't legitimately sell it knowing it's a bad phone (if, that is, it is a bad phone). I don't at all assume that any manufacturing process is going to be foolproof. It just seems like all the gremlins in the VZW and HTC factories went rape happy with my phone. Not enough to make you think the phone is defective, until a bunch of small but troublesome problems add up. Even Mybackup Pro went defective on me; and I don't hear anybody complaining about that one.



I totally hear where you're coming from, but I to clarify that I have neither said nor implied that anybody who owns this phone is a tool. Even with all the problems I've had, I would still recommend the phone to folks: it would appear that 99.9% of people who get the phone love it, get great battery out of it, and don't have to turn everything back off and on just to keep it alive--and those are good odds. (Most folks seem to get as much battery as I did with my Curve 8330, and I find that amazing.) And therefore the chances of a potential customer having an experience like mine is very, very slim. And given its capabilities, it's a worthwhile risk to take. I would simply tell people that as soon as they have any problems at all, to jump right on here for a few days and if that doesn’t fix it to take it back. It's an awesome phone...IF you're not me or Sushimi or several other guys I've run across. Also, I have been extremely grateful for every piece of help and advice I've been given, except the one above where I mistakenly thought Jman was responding to me (I had forgotten that Sushami had a led problem as well), and I apologize for that. You in particular have been very helpful each time you've responded to my queries. And let me also say, I by no means assume that I haven't overlooked something obvious. The solution to my problem could be staring me in the face.



Real quick before we do that: shouldn't my turning the led notification light off turn it off for low battery, as well? I realize the battery's not listed in the led-flashing options, but...I don't know, that's how desperate I am.



Brightness is at 25% and screen timeout is 1 minute. I never go more for these. I even put a dark background photo up, in the hopes that a darker picture would use less power.

As for the apps, I've been looking but I can't seem to find anything untoward. I updated the blockbuster app like folks say (though, strangely, my bb app doesn't allow me to disable updates afterwards) and shut it down in "Manage." And I've force closed and uninstalled every app that I can that keeps popping up under "Running" in "Manage". Please take a look at these, the only apps running on my phone:

Settings
Retro Clock
Calendar (stopped it but it keeps coming back on; "Include weather" is turned off in Calendar settings)
Google Services
Maps (stopped it but it keeps coming back on)
HTC DM (have no idea what this is)
com.smithmicro.DM (no idea again)
Smart Keyboard Pro


I disabled those PVW apps everyone complains about, but I think they keep coming back on after every reboot.



I have weather syncing every four hours. I'm not sure what you mean when you say Google is syncing real time. Are you talking about: in Settings>Accounts & Sync? I have background data and auto-sync disabled. None of my accounts on that list are syncing. I sync my Google and Yahoo accounts (only two altogether) manually, about once every five hours or so. (Side note: my sent messages don’t get saved to my sent box in the mail app.) To the best of my knowledge I only have weather and my clock syncing (Date & Time in Settings is set to automatic).



I totally agree. I don’t mind waiting. But unfortunately I already have fast boot turned off. Interestingly, I lost 20%-25% battery last night with the phone not powered off but just timed out.



My reading is -82 dBm. Roaming is off.



Now I know what porn addicts go through: to see at a distance what you can’t touch.

Do you keep your mobile network on with the wifi on? I’ve tried going back and forth between one or the other, but I think—I’m not sure—I’ve had better battery life with both on. Again, I’m not sure.


I tested my battery last night after factory reset and bump charge. I played a very simple, children's game on it, very minimal graphics, for no more than 1-1.5 hours. Battery dropped about 40%. That may be normal for games, but I keep running into folks who play graphic-intensive games for two hours and lose no more than 30%. Not that I care about the games. I don't play them much at all.



Thanks again for looking at this, I really appreciate it.

As far as the tool thing that was more at the OP, sorry to have dragged you into that.

On an Inc2 with an SLCD screen, a lighter color will be better than a darker color, whereas an Inc1 will do better with a darker color due to the amoled screen. Also, you're using a static wallpaper, not a live (animated) wallpaper, correct? They can drain a ton of juice.

As far as settings it doesn't sound like you have anything out of whack. I do keep mobile data on. What it does is when you get a wifi signal it automaitcally disables 3G & runs off of wifi. Another question I have is are you under wifi or 3G most of the time? 3G data will draw more than wifi, especially if you're in a structure that decreases your signal it can drop pretty quickly. There is also a wifi setting that could be causing a drain. Under Wireless & Networks, go to Wi-Fi Settings, then press the Menu button & select Advanced. Try unchecking Best Wi-Fi performance, as that eats a lot of battery.

One thing you mentioned is that you're constantly killing apps and that they're coming back. Repeatedly killling apps takes juice, especially when they just end up coming back. The Android OS is not helped by task killers or killing them just to get rid of them. Android manages resources where they're needed. The only time I kill an app is if it's locked up or otherwise acting buggy. Now maybe some of the apps should die after you kill them but they're not. In that case there may be a problem with the app in general or with how it interacts with your phone and how it's setup.

Gameplay, even though it's not graphics intensive, still leaves the dsiplay on, which causes drain. Basically anything that keeps the screen on will contribute to the 90% battery usage, especially if it's for longer periods.

One thing you could try (though a little drastic) is to do a factory reset but leave it bone stock. That is what Verizon techs normally advise after going through the easier stuff. Don't add any apps, sync with anything (other than Google for contacts & such), and leave everything off (bluetooth, gps, 3G, wi-fi screen at 25% & timeout at 1 min.) and see if it lasts then. If that works then start adding things you use slowly until you see the rapid battery loss and then look at what was just added. The only thing to remeber before doing a factory reset is to write down any settings you want and backup whatever you can. If you have apps you want to redownload later, use Appbrain. Once you are done with the troubleshooting the issue, you can re-sync with Appbrain and it will auto download your apps.

If you don't want to go that route, I'd suggest talking with Verizon. They'll probably have you do some troubleshooting steps (like what I desccribed above). If that doesn't solve the problem and you can't get anywhere close to a day of use without charging it, there is no reason they wouldn't offer you a replacement as long as your account is in good standing. Now you had mentioned that they won't exchange the phone, but were you trying for a replacement or another phone? They will seldom exchange for a different phone unless you've gone through a lot of replacements. But as far as a replacement, that is the next step after the troubleshooting process fails. Hope that helps.

 

[Kalokagathon]

but I have to stop after about 30 mins cuz my hands cramp up and my eyes start to hurt, dunno how you can do it for 1.5 hrs, but honestly, playing a game, graphic intensive or not, is gonna cause the battery to drop a great deal.

Yeah, my brother does it all the time, and I don't see how he does it either. I hate games, especially on the phone. The gaming world just passed me right by. I'd much rather ride my bike or organize my garage. Storage tetris!

Have you tested your battery without playing games? Whats it getting on a day without doing games, just some casual web surfing?

I rarely play games, only if I'm stuck somewhere and bored out of my mind. I've got too much else to do. I was treating the way I normally use the phone as my non-gaming test, and just downloaded that game yesterday to test it to see how something more interactive would use the battery. Prior to playing that game last night, I spent one hour re-setting my phone up post-reset, which drained by battery by about 20%, and then I played that game, and then I browsed online last night--mainly forum stuff and a couple of Cracked articles--for about two or three hours. In between the phone was timed out a lot. Those three events brought a bump-charged-to-full battery down to 15%, right after resetting. And that was with only mobile network connected while I was on the internet. Today I've mainly been using the phone to tweak this or that, and do a little more organization post-reset--on it a lot, but no phone calls, one 15-minute internet session, no messages, no email, no music, and all syncing/connection turned off except mobile data. Phone's been bump-charged-to-full-from-15% three times now in the past 24 hours (yesterday at around 4pm, this morning, and just now), and it has been on that whole time. Right before powering down 30 minutes ago, Up Time was about 24 hrs, and Awake Time was at about 10 hrs. The 10 hours was pretty heavy, which is why I think I needed to charge it three times, but I usually use much less than that and still have to charge it twice in a day.

I can stream mlb games for 3 or 4 hours (depending on the game) and only have my battery go down a tiny bit. But when I play games, angry birds or whatever, it definitely drops faster.

People keep mentioning this angry birds thing everywhere. I'm not a gamer, but am I missing out on the technological event of the year? Seems like everybody but me knows what that is.

 

[Kalokagathon]

VZWuser76: I read your reply, but unfortunately I have to run out the door before I can try your tips and reply. I will definitely respond, barring unforeseen dangers, tonight or tomorrow. Just wanted to make sure you knew I didn't leave you hanging.

 

[Jman42028]

angry birds is a cool little game, its based on physics (kinda) where you slingshot "birds" into objects to kill pigs. It sounds goofy but its actually pretty fun and addictive.

What is your reception like at your home when your using all this data? If its a lower signal that can wreak havok on the system, cuz its constantly trying to get the better signal and speeds. And yes, wifi is faster and uses less juice than 3g.

Also, the live wallpaper was a good callout, I totally spaced on that. If you are using a live wallpaper that will use a lot of extra juice, and could lead to the higher display ratings you are seeing in the battery manager.

Also, as was mentioned, ATK is totally un needed with the android OS. Don't use it, if you have it, delete it. Its very counterproductive and causes way more problems than it helps. Juice Defender is the way to go for battery issues, but I used it on my original inc, and honestly, I don't know how much it really helped. There was a very lengthy thread on the original inc forum about JD.

Internet browsing for 3 hours or so will also drain a lot of battery, because that screen is on and sensing and responding to your touches.

I had my phone fully charged (not bump charged tho) at 7pm last night. I didn't plug it in overnight, do not use juice defender. As of now about 24 hours later, I have 35% battery. That was after streaming audio for about an hour the day before and for about 2.5 hours today. I'm streaming on 3g also, not on wifi. I check on webpages occasionaly, but I don't spend near the amount of time browsing as you are talking about, so that could be why my battery lasts so much longer.

 

[ProfessorLumpy]

In regards to battery life, all smartphones suck. It's just to the amount of the users settings and the battery on how bad it sucks. I've had the Dinc 2 for a month now and I love it. I can go about a day and a half with my battery (which I got the extended battery included for free, thanks Verizon!) and sometimes it lags and apps reboot but I dont think it's the phone. The apps suck hardcore. Honestly, I miss Froyo, but it's not a big deal.

By no means is it the best phone I've had, as that award goes to my LG VX
3100 I had way back when, but I think it's a nice phone for someone who wants a smaller version of the Thunderbolt with no 4G (Which made no difference, the guy at the store said by the time my next upgrade is due in 2013, my area will have 4G...I'm just happy to have an Android.)

 

[Kalokagathon]

On an Inc2 with an SLCD screen, a lighter color will be better than a darker color, whereas an Inc1 will do better with a darker color due to the amoled screen. Also, you're using a static wallpaper, not a live (animated) wallpaper, correct? They can drain a ton of juice.

Counter-intuitive re the light vs. dark screen, but I switched to a lighter screen this morning. No, I don't use animated wallpaper. Killed that after the first few days.

As far as settings it doesn't sound like you have anything out of whack. I do keep mobile data on. What it does is when you get a wifi signal it automaitcally disables 3G & runs off of wifi. Another question I have is are you under wifi or 3G most of the time? 3G data will draw more than wifi, especially if you're in a structure that decreases your signal it can drop pretty quickly. There is also a wifi setting that could be causing a drain. Under Wireless & Networks, go to Wi-Fi Settings, then press the Menu button & select Advanced. Try unchecking Best Wi-Fi performance, as that eats a lot of battery.

That was already unchecked on my phone. When you say above that you use wifi 85% of the time, do you have it on even when you're driving around town, running errands, that sort of thing? I would have thought that unless you had a committed wifi signal nearby, that the wifi would drain the battery chasing after signals. In any case, I've been tinkering with switching back and forth between wifi and 3G--3G one day, wifi the next--but it didn't seem to make a lot of difference. I will set the mobile data and wifi both on more or less permanently and see if that helps.

One thing you mentioned is that you're constantly killing apps and that they're coming back. Repeatedly killling apps takes juice, especially when they just end up coming back. The Android OS is not helped by task killers or killing them just to get rid of them. Android manages resources where they're needed. The only time I kill an app is if it's locked up or otherwise acting buggy. Now maybe some of the apps should die after you kill them but they're not. In that case there may be a problem with the app in general or with how it interacts with your phone and how it's setup.

I don't use any task killers at all. I was only killing apps like that during the latter part of last week, when I thought it was time to go after malfunctioning apps to sort out the juice drain. The only problem is that I know that some apps are supposed to run more or less permanently, but I don't know how to tell whether a given app is one of those apps.

Gameplay, even though it's not graphics intensive, still leaves the dsiplay on, which causes drain. Basically anything that keeps the screen on will contribute to the 90% battery usage, especially if it's for longer periods.

Like I said, I'm not much of a gamer. Though I did try out Jman's suggestion for Angry Birds. I can see why that one is addictive. Again, I only played it once, though.

One thing you could try (though a little drastic) is to do a factory reset but leave it bone stock. That is what Verizon techs normally advise after going through the easier stuff. Don't add any apps, sync with anything (other than Google for contacts & such), and leave everything off (bluetooth, gps, 3G, wi-fi screen at 25% & timeout at 1 min.) and see if it lasts then. If that works then start adding things you use slowly until you see the rapid battery loss and then look at what was just added. The only thing to remeber before doing a factory reset is to write down any settings you want and backup whatever you can. If you have apps you want to redownload later, use Appbrain. Once you are done with the troubleshooting the issue, you can re-sync with Appbrain and it will auto download your apps.

I'm actually looking forward to trying this. Starting over with a clean slate is always a good feeling.

Has anybody streamlined a process for which settings one should normally keep and so forth?

Anything to watch out for using AppBrain? I've written down a list of all the apps I want to keep, just in case something goes whacky. I've heard that if folks download an app individually on the Market, it wipes out the list of the rest of the apps they had downloaded. Any problems to watch out for like that on AppBrain? Can I download each app individually from my list on there without worrying about stuff like that?

If you don't want to go that route, I'd suggest talking with Verizon. They'll probably have you do some troubleshooting steps (like what I desccribed above). If that doesn't solve the problem and you can't get anywhere close to a day of use without charging it, there is no reason they wouldn't offer you a replacement as long as your account is in good standing. Now you had mentioned that they won't exchange the phone, but were you trying for a replacement or another phone? They will seldom exchange for a different phone unless you've gone through a lot of replacements. But as far as a replacement, that is the next step after the troubleshooting process fails. Hope that helps.

Yeah, I was actually talking about an exchange for another phone. But I'll give it another week for tinkering and fine tuning before I ask them to replace it.

Again, thanks a lot.

 

[Kalokagathon]

angry birds is a cool little game, its based on physics (kinda) where you slingshot "birds" into objects to kill pigs. It sounds goofy but its actually pretty fun and addictive

I totally see that. That is actually one of the funner games I've seen. This and Skies of Glory.

What is your reception like at your home when your using all this data? If its a lower signal that can wreak havok on the system, cuz its constantly trying to get the better signal and speeds. And yes, wifi is faster and uses less juice than 3g.

My signal seems to be pretty good; wifi is definitely faster at home, but I also have it signed in to my stand-alone router. I just haven't been able to test whether wifi signals are better than 3G when I'm out and about. My brother said that on his Inc Charge, the wifi hunted and hunted, so he turned it off completely and only uses his 4G.

Also, as was mentioned, ATK is totally un needed with the android OS. Don't use it, if you have it, delete it. Its very counterproductive and causes way more problems than it helps. Juice Defender is the way to go for battery issues, but I used it on my original inc, and honestly, I don't know how much it really helped. There was a very lengthy thread on the original inc forum about JD.

I don't use any task killers, but I do have JD Ultimate. Again, this was one of those apps that glitched on me. I bought the ultimate, which is supposed to unlock everything in the app, but it only unlocked about 30% of the options. (And yeah, it's definitely ultimate and not plus JD.) I uninstalled it and reinstalled, same problem. I'm going to try to delete it and buy it again new. The customization apps, it seems to me, were helpful--the ones I could use anyway.

Internet browsing for 3 hours or so will also drain a lot of battery, because that screen is on and sensing and responding to your touches.

Definitely, but I was only pushing the browsing to see just how quickly I could drain the battery. My primary use for this phone, besides the phone and messaging itself, are apps that I would run for 15-30 minutes for exercising, organization, and so forth.[/QUOTE]

[/QUOTE]I had my phone fully charged (not bump charged tho) at 7pm last night. I didn't plug it in overnight, do not use juice defender. As of now about 24 hours later, I have 35% battery. That was after streaming audio for about an hour the day before and for about 2.5 hours today. I'm streaming on 3g also, not on wifi. I check on webpages occasionaly, but I don't spend near the amount of time browsing as you are talking about, so that could be why my battery lasts so much longer.[/QUOTE]

Streaming video for me kills the battery in about 3 hours.

 

[vzwuser76]

Counter-intuitive re the light vs. dark screen, but I switched to a lighter screen this morning. No, I don't use animated wallpaper. Killed that after the first few days.

Yeah you'd think that since the SLCD generates light that a darker wallpaper would be more battery efficient, but from what I hear LCDs in general use more juice to generate blacks. AMOLED on the other hand simply turns off pixels to generate a black, which is why their blacks are better and darker screens save more battery.

That was already unchecked on my phone. When you say above that you use wifi 85% of the time, do you have it on even when you're driving around town, running errands, that sort of thing? I would have thought that unless you had a committed wifi signal nearby, that the wifi would drain the battery chasing after signals. In any case, I've been tinkering with switching back and forth between wifi and 3G--3G one day, wifi the next--but it didn't seem to make a lot of difference. I will set the mobile data and wifi both on more or less permanently and see if that helps.

I usually leave both on, unless I'm going to be away from wi-fi for a long period (also if I remember to turn it off).

I don't use any task killers at all. I was only killing apps like that during the latter part of last week, when I thought it was time to go after malfunctioning apps to sort out the juice drain. The only problem is that I know that some apps are supposed to run more or less permanently, but I don't know how to tell whether a given app is one of those apps.

Auto task killers or killing them through the OS (under settings/applications), if they're coming back all the time it takes battery to kill them and more battery for the process to restart. I'd say if it comes back after you kill it, leave it go. If it's using alot of battery when running and can't be killed, either send a message to the developer and see if this is normal or simply uninstall it.

Like I said, I'm not much of a gamer. Though I did try out Jman's suggestion for Angry Birds. I can see why that one is addictive. Again, I only played it once, though.

Sounds like that's not a contributing factor since your gameplay is intermittent and your large battery draw is everyday.

I'm actually looking forward to trying this. Starting over with a clean slate is always a good feeling.

While it is time consuming, starting with a clean slate is IMHO the best way to go. Even if you don't see any glaring issues, there may be something that's building and will present itself later. I still haven't done a factory reset after the Gingerbread update, but I've been a little lazy lately.

Has anybody streamlined a process for which settings one should normally keep and so forth?

Not that I know of.

Anything to watch out for using AppBrain? I've written down a list of all the apps I want to keep, just in case something goes whacky. I've heard that if folks download an app individually on the Market, it wipes out the list of the rest of the apps they had downloaded. Any problems to watch out for like that on AppBrain? Can I download each app individually from my list on there without worrying about stuff like that?

I've never heard of that happening, but it's possible I guess. Basically, you download & install Appbrain, sign in, sync your phone with Appbrain and that's it. I think you can set it to auto sync also but you can do it manually as well. I would do it before any major OS update definitely. I have downloaded lots of apps and have never had any issues losing them, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Yeah, I was actually talking about an exchange for another phone. But I'll give it another week for tinkering and fine tuning before I ask them to replace it.

Again, thanks a lot.

No problem. Normally, Verizon won't swap out to a different phone untill you've gone thru 3-5 devices. Even after that they don't want to do it, but if another phone has a better track record, they'd be better off sending you one more replacement rather than multiple ones.

 

[jcattron]

Star Tacs were awesome. I think I still have mine somewhere. However I got my Incredible 2 as a replacement from Verizon yesterday and I absolutely love it.

 

[vzwuser76]

Star Tacs were awesome. I think I still have mine somewhere. However I got my Incredible 2 as a replacement from Verizon yesterday and I absolutely love it.

I never had a StarTac, but a variant of it for awhile. When my phone died (Nokia 252) a friend loaned me his Motorola Timeport. Think a StarTac, but silver, with a multicolor display (black background with green, blue, & red characters/icons), a less breakable antenna, and an optional pda attatchment. I tried to get my friend to sell it to me but he wanted to keep it as a backup. I ended up going to a Nokia 5185, that was a letdown lemme tell ya.

 

[blkbeltkid17]

I'm sorry to you fans out there but this is the worst phone I've ever owned. I have been using mobile phones since the days of the original brick phone and car phone. I have never had so many problems with a phone. First of all it's not 4g and the battery still sucks. Then there's the notifications, you're only notified of a missed call for 5 minutes and it turns itself off. So if you go to drop a deuce and someone calls you, you will have no idea that you missed the call until you wake the phone up. Then there's the led, it only works with green and amber so you can't adjust colors for notifications. Also, when you have it charging, the blinking notification light doesn't work because it's busy telling you that it's still charging. Then all the sudden I couldn't touch my clock widget to set an alarm. Apparently this is a known issue because of the last software update. Plus I'm having countless other little issues that I never had with a motorola droid or any other smartphone for that matter. I really can't believe it. Oh and then there's the reception bars that don't work. An internet search will enlighten you that it's an programming issue and doesn't reflect you're actual reception but really? You get something like that wrong. Wtf is going on?

Oh, and for those of you saying to download apps, I have and they don't work either. You can't even find missed reminder or missed call in the market anymore. I had missed reminder but it stopped working after the update. Really? A reminder that goes away after 5 minutes? Are you joking?

What a piece of s#$%. Smart phone? Really?

Plus the bloatware seems way worse than any other phone I've had. I just tried to download an alarm clock app and there is no sound! And yes, the alarm volume is turned all the way up on the phone and the app. I can't even use this phone as an alarm clock. WHAT!

My brother has the first edition and loves it. Since when is the second edition worse than the first? They must have laid off all their good programmers to save money.

I agree with you 100% amen brothet

 

[SkiDekuyper]

gingerbread root for the inc2 is out. quit complaining and make your phone your own!

 

[bberryhill0]

I agree with you 100% amen brothet

So what phone are you getting when you return the Incredible 2?

 

[blkbeltkid17]

I can't return mine now but I am ending my contract with verizon and will prob get an evo 3d or sensation

 

[trankster]

This discussion (rant) is pretty useless and tiring. Most here are very satisfied with the INC2. If you don't like the phone, buy another! I remember similar complaints about the INC1. I have owned both INC and INC2 with no significant issues; and have learned how to use the phone to meet my needs. There are no perfect smartphones and tradeoffs with all. Time to move on.

 

[blkbeltkid17]

Man my main complaint is I have had 5 phones in 6 weeks... You deal with that and see if you want the phone any more