Help Faults & Frustrations with your NEW S5 - Q&A

[Moopy4u]

An exciting new device release from Samsung... It sure does raise the question - is it really worth upgrading your existing device?

Well, if your anything like me and were on an S3 or earlier model - the answer is certainly yes!

As with any new device running the latest version of Android, there are bound to be various findings from consumers - be they software related, manufacturers defects, or even hardware problems.

But it's not always easy to tell the difference between these possibilities to determine whether or not you should just put up with it or take it back to your provider / store of purchase for return.

The important thing is that no one should feel stupid about questioning something that frustrates them or that they think is not working as it should. Some of the most helpful answers you will ever get are from your peers.

The last 8 years of my life I have worked in the technology industry with the last 3 years for a Telco provider so when it comes to YOUR rights and questioning your new S5, I am happy to help clarify any concerns... But even with my experience I still have concerns and frustrations that even I have to ask about!!

So this thread is to offer Q&A. Ask your questions and I will be happy to help answer them to the best of my knowledge. Hopefully someone can help answer mine which I will outline below. If anyone has any feedback I would love to hear it.


ISSUE #1:
VERY INTERMITTENT SCREEN FREEZING -
I have had my S5 for just over a week now and a couple of times now when my phone has rung, I went to answer it and it wouldn't even register my swipe to answer the call. After 15 seconds of trying to answer, it went to voicemail. I hear this is not an uncommon fault and it has only happened twice, but I wonder if anyone has had similar issues and if resetting has fixed it? I figure it's early days and there could even be a SW release for this fix on it's way.

ISSUE #2:
BLUETOOTH AUTOPLAYS DEFAULT MUSIC PLAYER -
This annoys me the most to the point where I resort to screaming! I have my S5 paired with my late model Mazda 3 which has Bluetooth built in. It is great for my spotify music playing... When I leave the car and then get back in, the device reconnects as it normally should and will resume playing the spotify music which is exactly what it should do. HOWEVER, After I get out the car, if I close spotify or sometimes just at random, when I get back in the car it will automatically recede to playing my DEFAULT Audio player (Music) and will play the first file out of my MUSIC app. I have a call recorder on my phone, where the .wav files save and show in my music app, so as you can imagine it drives me crazy every time the first recorded audio saved plays (automatically) when I get in the car. Has anyone else had this happen or have any good ideas for fixes?

ISSUE #3:
CAMERA IS HORRIBLE INDOORS -
This is not really an issue, just a disappointment. I was shocked to see my partner using an S3 getting better indoor photos than my brand new S5. The pictures are so grainy and patchy. When it comes to outdoors with sufficient light the camera is awesome, but indoors, even with flash, anti-shake, HDR and various other setting combinations it just COULDN'T (no matter how hard I tried) shoot a better shot than the S3. My feeling is that the S5 tries too hard to keep EVERYTHING in the shot in focus and tries to deliver a clear, sharp and crisp image. Due to this it lacks with light balancing and delivers a result that looks pixelated or dull even when you are attempting to focus on a specific object. The S3 takes more attention to the position you focus on and delivers an image where the focus point is sharp and crisp while the surrounding is (as it should be) fuzzy/not in focus. What are your thoughts on the S5 camera for indoor use?

ISSUE #4:
TOUCHWIZ UI IS SO SLOW -
This is getting annoying... You think with a 2.5GhZ Quad core top of the line processor that everything will be quick and responsive... However even with NO applications open, accessing even the most basic thing such as Phone Dial Pad, Messaging or the APPS menu still incurs a near 1-second wait time which to me doesn't seem right. I am not open to downloading a different launcher, as I pay good money for a new flagship phone I expect the whole experience to be top notch... But this is a bit of a disappointment. Sadly, there is no real fix to this and I am sure there are many others like myself that find this very same thing annoying - so I would love to hear from anyone else who is in the same boat.

That's my rant... Lets hear yours!
Would look forward to any response for my issues.

Cheers,
Richie.

 

[josborne6]

An exciting new device release from Samsung... It sure does raise the question - is it really worth upgrading your existing device?

Well, if your anything like me and were on an S3 or earlier model - the answer is certainly yes!

As with any new device running the latest version of Android, there are bound to be various findings from consumers - be they software related, manufacturers defects, or even hardware problems.

But it's not always easy to tell the difference between these possibilities to determine whether or not you should just put up with it or take it back to your provider / store of purchase for return.

The important thing is that no one should feel stupid about questioning something that frustrates them or that they think is not working as it should. Some of the most helpful answers you will ever get are from your peers.

The last 8 years of my life I have worked in the technology industry with the last 3 years for a Telco provider so when it comes to YOUR rights and questioning your new S5, I am happy to help clarify any concerns... But even with my experience I still have concerns and frustrations that even I have to ask about!!

So this thread is to offer Q&A. Ask your questions and I will be happy to help answer them to the best of my knowledge. Hopefully someone can help answer mine which I will outline below. If anyone has any feedback I would love to hear it.


ISSUE #1:
VERY INTERMITTENT SCREEN FREEZING -
I have had my S5 for just over a week now and a couple of times now when my phone has rung, I went to answer it and it wouldn't even register my swipe to answer the call. After 15 seconds of trying to answer, it went to voicemail. I hear this is not an uncommon fault and it has only happened twice, but I wonder if anyone has had similar issues and if resetting has fixed it? I figure it's early days and there could even be a SW release for this fix on it's way.

ISSUE #2:
BLUETOOTH AUTOPLAYS DEFAULT MUSIC PLAYER -
This annoys me the most to the point where I resort to screaming! I have my S5 paired with my late model Mazda 3 which has Bluetooth built in. It is great for my spotify music playing... When I leave the car and then get back in, the device reconnects as it normally should and will resume playing the spotify music which is exactly what it should do. HOWEVER, After I get out the car, if I close spotify or sometimes just at random, when I get back in the car it will automatically recede to playing my DEFAULT Audio player (Music) and will play the first file out of my MUSIC app. I have a call recorder on my phone, where the .wav files save and show in my music app, so as you can imagine it drives me crazy every time the first recorded audio saved plays (automatically) when I get in the car. Has anyone else had this happen or have any good ideas for fixes?

ISSUE #3:
CAMERA IS HORRIBLE INDOORS -
This is not really an issue, just a disappointment. I was shocked to see my partner using an S3 getting better indoor photos than my brand new S5. The pictures are so grainy and patchy. When it comes to outdoors with sufficient light the camera is awesome, but indoors, even with flash, anti-shake, HDR and various other setting combinations it just COULDN'T (no matter how hard I tried) shoot a better shot than the S3. My feeling is that the S5 tries too hard to keep EVERYTHING in the shot in focus and tries to deliver a clear, sharp and crisp image. Due to this it lacks with light balancing and delivers a result that looks pixelated or dull even when you are attempting to focus on a specific object. The S3 takes more attention to the position you focus on and delivers an image where the focus point is sharp and crisp while the surrounding is (as it should be) fuzzy/not in focus. What are your thoughts on the S5 camera for indoor use?

ISSUE #4:
TOUCHWIZ UI IS SO SLOW -
This is getting annoying... You think with a 2.5GhZ Quad core top of the line processor that everything will be quick and responsive... However even with NO applications open, accessing even the most basic thing such as Phone Dial Pad, Messaging or the APPS menu still incurs a near 1-second wait time which to me doesn't seem right. I am not open to downloading a different launcher, as I pay good money for a new flagship phone I expect the whole experience to be top notch... But this is a bit of a disappointment. Sadly, there is no real fix to this and I am sure there are many others like myself that find this very same thing annoying - so I would love to hear from anyone else who is in the same boat.

That's my rant... Lets hear yours!
Would look forward to any response for my issues.

Cheers,
Richie.

Issue #1
I had this same issue with my galaxy S4. I have since purchased the Galaxy S5 and a Note 3 both on T Mobile. From what I've read, my problems with the s4 answering we're due to the wifi calling built into the T Mobile models. When I would disable the wifi calling, I had no problems answering. I have had no problems with wifi calling on the S 5 or note 3.

Issue #4
It seems when they develop the animations for TouchWiz, they tend to slow the phone down or at least appear so. If you go into developer options and reduce the innovation scales you will see a much more responsive TouchWiz when you press the icons. Also disabling the S voice double tap on the home button will increase the responsiveness of the home button also. Hope that helps.

 

[axel_2078]

Issue #2 - I also have a Mazda 3 (2010 model) and if my sound system is set to auxillary, the music player on the phone will automatically start playing music as soon as my car starts up and the bluetooth syncs. This doesn't happen unless auxillary was already selected, OR if I manually switch over to the auxillary. However, this exact same thing also happened with my HTC Droid Incredible and my iPhone 4s, so it's not unique to this phone. The biggest difference seems to be that when my Droid Incredible or iPhone 4s did this, they picked a random track to play, but my Galaxy S5 seems to keep opening up the Samsung music app and playing the same track once the bluetooth sync is established. It's a minor annoyance to me since I've gotten used to it.

 

[mountainfisher]

After going to developer options and taking the animations and innovations off. Phone is even more responsive.

 

[Moopy4u]

@josbourne6 - Interesting to hear about the freezing issue on other model phones. I have seen it on the note 3 before, which happened frequently not just when trying to answer the calls. This sort of problem happening regularly justified repair or replacement.

I turned off that option in the developer menu and I feel like it may have helped a wee bit, but still doesn't feel zippy as I would like it lol.

@axel_2078 - I wondered if it may be car model specific... I wonder if there are some settings that can be changed in the car then. I'm going to have to try either way or I'll go crazy. I don't know how you can just live with it lol. I will advise how I get on.

@mountainfisher - I certainly notice a small improvement but still not enough to make me feel comfortable with the speed and responsiveness of the UI. Thanks for trying though.

Cheers,
Richie.