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- Thread starter nayan504
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- samsung galaxy s3
to Clifie, i made the switch from evo to galaxy s3 last month. excellent choice! i originally was gonna get the new evo lte until i realized you can't take the battery out or watch movies while its charging, due to the placement of the charging hole. that was really stupid to put it on the side it sits on while the kickstand is out. the galaxy camera is amazing. the phone is excellent but you will lose some call quality and speed because the galaxy s3 is only 3g on sprint, until they create 4g lte. that part sucks cause i drop calls all day long.
Rolo42
Android Enthusiast
Can you elaborate, even provide screenshots? How is your WiFi router configured? What is the phone doing exactly?
While I am a brand new owner, both the folks at Verizon and my company IT guy said this phone is a battery hog and keep it on a charger in the car. I have found that I can go about 12 hours before battery hits 50% with only charging it during the night. I have not graduated to music and games yet, still working on my email and trying to find a hands free compatible unit for the car. Happy charging~
Flooi
Lurker
Owner of the new Samsung S3 and new user of an Android Smartphone.
I read thru all the questions here and thought I'd put in my answers, tips and experiences:
can i charge the sg3 on the pc?
Yes but it takes longer to charge than from the supplied charger (I noticed that wall charger takes about 3hours while pc charger takes about 6hours). Also don't use an older phone charger to charge a new model phone; recent phones need a stronger charger to fully charge. If you use older charger with new phone you will struggle to fully charge. If you use a new charger with an old phone you are likely to fry the phone.
Battery:
Having the wifi on chows battery. if you don't need it, switch it off. Use your Mobile Data for stuff like downloading from the Play Store (I find most apps are quite small), browsing the internet and Whatsapp. Bluetooth is the same, so switch it off (also viruses can now be transferred via Bluetooth).
Having the vibrate function on also eats battery, so turn off all the unnecessary vibrate settings.
Phone speaking to you?:
Turn off the Drive Mode
Driving Mode:
Is supposed to be a handsfree function that reads out what is happening on your phone. It's supposed to read text messages but I have not used this function yet. It also has very little settings to play with. I have not used this setting yet.
Wallpaper resolution:
width 720 x hight 1280 pixels
This is the default screen resolution. ADW will give a different resolution. You can try the Zedge app in the Play Store. This website reads your phone and gives you wallpapers according to the screen size of the device currently browsing it. I recommend making your own wallpapers in Photoshop. That way you can coordinate your lock and home screen wallpapers
Notification bar:
Have never found a setting to enable this but a recent update has now added the Brightness bar to it with a handy Settings shortcut. Personally, i prefer the Notification Bar to be as clean as possible so I can see if there is programs running in the background.
Problems with Wifi connection:
I could connect to the wifi at work and restaurants but not at home. For a month long I could and then suddenly not. Later I discovered that my router at home had randomly assigned me an IP that was already in use by another computer. I manually set my phone IP:Settings > Turn on Wi-Fi > Long press your network > Modify Network Config > Show advanced options > IP settings: make this "Static" > change the IP address.
Backup:
Something I did not know is that it seems you have to manually backup your phone. It has an automated backup (that you still have to enable because it is off by default) but only works if you phone is (1) connected to wifi (2) screen is off and (3) charging.
Now my question for the forum:
When I unlock my phone (by either pin lock, pattern lock etc) it has this annoying 3second long fade to the home screen. This was not like it before I Factory Reset my phone (long story), it was fairly instant. I have cleared the ram and memory, I have restarted multiple times, I have looked for a setting of some sort but found none.
Can anyone help or guide me to the solution? I do not want to download an app as it worked fine. Can the factory reset have broken it some how?
Thank you
I read thru all the questions here and thought I'd put in my answers, tips and experiences:
can i charge the sg3 on the pc?
Yes but it takes longer to charge than from the supplied charger (I noticed that wall charger takes about 3hours while pc charger takes about 6hours). Also don't use an older phone charger to charge a new model phone; recent phones need a stronger charger to fully charge. If you use older charger with new phone you will struggle to fully charge. If you use a new charger with an old phone you are likely to fry the phone.
Battery:
Having the wifi on chows battery. if you don't need it, switch it off. Use your Mobile Data for stuff like downloading from the Play Store (I find most apps are quite small), browsing the internet and Whatsapp. Bluetooth is the same, so switch it off (also viruses can now be transferred via Bluetooth).
Having the vibrate function on also eats battery, so turn off all the unnecessary vibrate settings.
Phone speaking to you?:
Turn off the Drive Mode
Driving Mode:
Is supposed to be a handsfree function that reads out what is happening on your phone. It's supposed to read text messages but I have not used this function yet. It also has very little settings to play with. I have not used this setting yet.
Wallpaper resolution:
width 720 x hight 1280 pixels
This is the default screen resolution. ADW will give a different resolution. You can try the Zedge app in the Play Store. This website reads your phone and gives you wallpapers according to the screen size of the device currently browsing it. I recommend making your own wallpapers in Photoshop. That way you can coordinate your lock and home screen wallpapers
Notification bar:
Have never found a setting to enable this but a recent update has now added the Brightness bar to it with a handy Settings shortcut. Personally, i prefer the Notification Bar to be as clean as possible so I can see if there is programs running in the background.
Problems with Wifi connection:
I could connect to the wifi at work and restaurants but not at home. For a month long I could and then suddenly not. Later I discovered that my router at home had randomly assigned me an IP that was already in use by another computer. I manually set my phone IP:Settings > Turn on Wi-Fi > Long press your network > Modify Network Config > Show advanced options > IP settings: make this "Static" > change the IP address.
Backup:
Something I did not know is that it seems you have to manually backup your phone. It has an automated backup (that you still have to enable because it is off by default) but only works if you phone is (1) connected to wifi (2) screen is off and (3) charging.
Now my question for the forum:
When I unlock my phone (by either pin lock, pattern lock etc) it has this annoying 3second long fade to the home screen. This was not like it before I Factory Reset my phone (long story), it was fairly instant. I have cleared the ram and memory, I have restarted multiple times, I have looked for a setting of some sort but found none.
Can anyone help or guide me to the solution? I do not want to download an app as it worked fine. Can the factory reset have broken it some how?
Thank you
Flooi
Lurker
Owner of the new Samsung S3 and new user of an Android Smartphone.
I read thru all the questions here and thought I'd put in my answers, tips and experiences:
can i charge the sg3 on the pc?
Yes but it takes longer to charge than from the supplied charger (I noticed that wall charger takes about 3hours while pc charger takes about 6hours). Also don't use an older phone charger to charge a new model phone; recent phones need a stronger charger to fully charge. If you use older charger with new phone you will struggle to fully charge. If you use a new charger with an old phone you are likely to fry the phone.
Battery:
Having the wifi on chows battery. if you don't need it, switch it off. Use your Mobile Data for stuff like downloading from the Play Store (I find most apps are quite small), browsing the internet and Whatsapp. Bluetooth is the same, so switch it off (also viruses can now be transferred via Bluetooth).
Having the vibrate function on also eats battery, so turn off all the unnecessary vibrate settings.
Phone speaking to you?:
Turn off the Drive Mode
Driving Mode:
Is supposed to be a handsfree function that reads out what is happening on your phone. It's supposed to read text messages but I have not used this function yet. It also has very little settings to play with. I have not used this setting yet.
Wallpaper resolution:
width 720 x hight 1280 pixels
This is the default screen resolution. ADW will give a different resolution. You can try the Zedge app in the Play Store. This website reads your phone and gives you wallpapers according to the screen size of the device currently browsing it. I recommend making your own wallpapers in Photoshop. That way you can coordinate your lock and home screen wallpapers
Notification bar:
Have never found a setting to enable this but a recent update has now added the Brightness bar to it with a handy Settings shortcut. Personally, i prefer the Notification Bar to be as clean as possible so I can see if there is programs running in the background.
Problems with Wifi connection:
I could connect to the wifi at work and restaurants but not at home. For a month long I could and then suddenly not. Later I discovered that my router at home had randomly assigned me an IP that was already in use by another computer. I manually set my phone IP:Settings > Turn on Wi-Fi > Long press your network > Modify Network Config > Show advanced options > IP settings: make this "Static" > change the IP address.
Backup:
Something I did not know is that it seems you have to manually backup your phone. It has an automated backup (that you still have to enable because it is off by default) but only works if you phone is (1) connected to wifi (2) screen is off and (3) charging.
Now my question for the forum:
When I unlock my phone (by either pin lock, pattern lock etc) it has this annoying 3second long fade to the home screen. This was not like it before I Factory Reset my phone (long story), it was fairly instant. I have cleared the ram and memory, I have restarted multiple times, I have looked for a setting of some sort but found none.
Can anyone help or guide me to the solution? I do not want to download an app as it worked fine. Can the factory reset have broken it some how?
Thank you
I read thru all the questions here and thought I'd put in my answers, tips and experiences:
can i charge the sg3 on the pc?
Yes but it takes longer to charge than from the supplied charger (I noticed that wall charger takes about 3hours while pc charger takes about 6hours). Also don't use an older phone charger to charge a new model phone; recent phones need a stronger charger to fully charge. If you use older charger with new phone you will struggle to fully charge. If you use a new charger with an old phone you are likely to fry the phone.
Battery:
Having the wifi on chows battery. if you don't need it, switch it off. Use your Mobile Data for stuff like downloading from the Play Store (I find most apps are quite small), browsing the internet and Whatsapp. Bluetooth is the same, so switch it off (also viruses can now be transferred via Bluetooth).
Having the vibrate function on also eats battery, so turn off all the unnecessary vibrate settings.
Phone speaking to you?:
Turn off the Drive Mode
Driving Mode:
Is supposed to be a handsfree function that reads out what is happening on your phone. It's supposed to read text messages but I have not used this function yet. It also has very little settings to play with. I have not used this setting yet.
Wallpaper resolution:
width 720 x hight 1280 pixels
This is the default screen resolution. ADW will give a different resolution. You can try the Zedge app in the Play Store. This website reads your phone and gives you wallpapers according to the screen size of the device currently browsing it. I recommend making your own wallpapers in Photoshop. That way you can coordinate your lock and home screen wallpapers
Notification bar:
Have never found a setting to enable this but a recent update has now added the Brightness bar to it with a handy Settings shortcut. Personally, i prefer the Notification Bar to be as clean as possible so I can see if there is programs running in the background.
Problems with Wifi connection:
I could connect to the wifi at work and restaurants but not at home. For a month long I could and then suddenly not. Later I discovered that my router at home had randomly assigned me an IP that was already in use by another computer. I manually set my phone IP:Settings > Turn on Wi-Fi > Long press your network > Modify Network Config > Show advanced options > IP settings: make this "Static" > change the IP address.
Backup:
Something I did not know is that it seems you have to manually backup your phone. It has an automated backup (that you still have to enable because it is off by default) but only works if you phone is (1) connected to wifi (2) screen is off and (3) charging.
Now my question for the forum:
When I unlock my phone (by either pin lock, pattern lock etc) it has this annoying 3second long fade to the home screen. This was not like it before I Factory Reset my phone (long story), it was fairly instant. I have cleared the ram and memory, I have restarted multiple times, I have looked for a setting of some sort but found none.
Can anyone help or guide me to the solution? I do not want to download an app as it worked fine. Can the factory reset have broken it some how?
Thank you
I'll agree that charging with a PC takes longer than with the supplied wall charger. But the rest of your charging info is VERY wrong, at least in my experience. My family has so many older and newer chargers and phones around the house we can't keep track of which charger is for which phone. And we don't try because it hasn't made a difference with our phones. The oldest phone is about 2.5 to 3 years old. The newest phones are our 2 SGS3's. There are (Or recently have been) at least 4 different brands of phones and 7 different models. They all charge just fine on any charger. One charger is some off-brand retractable charger that's at least 3 years old. My wife manages a hotel and it was left in the "Lost and found" for a very long time so who knows how old it is. She found it 3 years ago. It's the fastest and oldest charger in the house and charges all phones just fine.
No long delays in charging. No fried phones.
I always have Wifi on when I'm at home. I was battery testing last weekend and I got about 36 hours from full charge down to about 15%. Wifi on the whole time. It automatically hooks up to my router whenever I'm at home. Not a battery hog at all. However, using mobile data is absolutely a battery hog. Especially if your phone doesn't get very strong reception. If the phone has to constantly search for or struggles to maintain a signal connection then it's going to use a lot more battery. For areas with weak 4G connections, if the phone is constantly switching between 3G and 4G it will also drain the battery faster. In my experience, (And everyone else in my family--4 brands, 7 different models in the last few years) Using Wifi versus mobile data (1x, 3G, whatever) is the best way to extend battery life.
I only use Bluetooth in my car and I sometimes forget to turn it off when I get home. It probably does drain my battery a little faster than with it off but I've left it on all day a few times and it didn't seem to make a big difference in battery life. Certainly not anywhere near enough to call it a "Battery hog". I'm sure I could leave it on for 24 hours and still get at least 24 hours out of one battery charge. Only my wife and I use Bluetooth but it's pretty much been the same with the 5 different phones we've had in the past 2.5 years. Some a little more than others but nothing excessive.
I don't know much about what it takes to transfer a virus via Bluetooth. But I don't think that's much of a real threat for people like me. First of all, someone would have to be able to connect to my phone via Bluetooth. Possible? Sure, I guess. Easy and fast? Probably not. I'm only using Bluetooth when I'm driving or walking around in a store or parking lot. Is someone going to be able to hack into my phone's Bluetooth in the few moments I'm within the very short distance that Bluetooth functions? Probably not. And when I forget and leave it on at home I'm too far away from anyone else to be worried. Unless the phone hacker ninja is sneaking around on my property to uncover the urgent secrets contained on my phone, I think I'm safe enough for now.
I might be more concerned (But probably not) if I worked somewhere where I was relatively stationary for long periods of time around people I don't know who might want to do me harm. Otherwise, fearing hacking via Bluetooth is just paranoia. Vibrate? My phone always has vibrate enabled as well as haptic feedback. Pretty much the same response for this one as with Bluetooth. Yes, it will use a little more battery but nothing worth shutting off over. I've always had it on since I bought my SGS3 so maybe I don't know what battery life would be like with vibration disabled. But considering I easily get 24 hours of battery life between charges I'd say it's probably not sucking too much battery life. And again, same with pretty much all phones we've had. I suppose if your phone is very active and is very frequently vibrating it will drain the battery faster than mine. But I do get several phone calls a day and quite a few texts. Probably about average I'd guess.
I realize that everyone has different experiences and what you stated must be what you've experienced. But they shouldn't be posted as facts or warnings because in my experience (4 brands, 7 different smart phones, several years) what you stated regarding charging/chargers and battery life/what kills a battery is pretty much wrong. The 7 phones we have/had all behave a little differently but they're all fairly similar in the areas I stated. The SGS3's that my daughter and I have are the kings when it comes to battery life though. They started off really poorly but it didn't take too long for them to really improve dramatically with regards to battery life.
Benny
Rolo42
Android Enthusiast
Any phone is a battery hog if not configured properly. Otherwise, they're "full of it". I get 8-1/2 hours screen time+WiFi at full brightness, full wakelock. I'm not seeing the "hog" factor here.
The other consideration is that the SIII is new and users are going to be playing with it more than their 1-2-year old phone.
Rolo42
Android Enthusiast
The USB standard is 500mA current draw; if the phone sees a USB connection, it will only pull 500mA (which sucks for those of us who have 1.5A USB ports; I need to find an easy way around that). Additionally, don't connect it to a passive hub with other devices connected to it as the aggregate current draw will be over 500mA and cause problems (Windows should alert you.)
If the phone sees an AC charger, it will pull 1A; always be sure the power supply can provide (output) at least a much current at the proper voltage as the device you're attaching to it. Some older ones are 700-800mA.
Trying to draw more current (load) from a power supply that can't handle it has a great risk of damaging the power supply, the device, and cause a fire. Don't think for a minute that a device won't fry to protect a fuse! (had a PC do that to me once...fortunately I was right there when the fireworks started)
It depends. A good WiFi signal will consume less power than a mobile signal (unless you're in pitching distance of the tower). If you're using enough data, leave WiFi on. Additionally, there is a WiFi sleep option that may strike the optimum balance.
I don't recommend this as it can create more of the same problem you're working around and yet even more problems if routing information changes (new subnet, DNS IPs, etc.). You're best bet is to go back to dynamic IP assignment and reboot the router. Ideally, reboot the router after all devices connected to it are turned off and turn them back on after the router is finished initialising.
RAM and memory are synonymous and are cleared when you reboot or turn off the device. I can't remember stock recovery options, do you remember what you cleared precisely? Did you do it from recovery? (VOLUP+HOME+PWR buttons)
What prompted the FDR? Whatever it was may not have been fully cleared or it was reintroduced. Did you reinstall all your apps and were their settings backed up/restored?
What widgets do you have on your home screens? Does it still hitch (3 seconds of fade-in) with no widgets on any of those screens? (If it doesn't, add a couple at a time and test it.)
Flooi
Lurker
To bennybbc:
I did say "my answers, tips and experiences", I never said facts.
I also did mention new user of an Android Phone, my last phone was the Samsung Star, so as you can see I'm very much used to phone who's battery lasts more than 2days. When I'm at work and I have a 98% battery when I connect to the Wifi there, it is about 42% when I leave at the end of the day, hence I called only the Wifi a "battery hog". During that time I just send IM's. How are you able to make it last so long? I watched the Wifi screen for a bit once and notice that it said "Scanning..." every now and then, which means it never just connect and that's it, it regularly scann the area for more connections.
By turning off all that I stated in my 1st post I can get just about 2days of battery life while Downloading, IM, play games, listen to music, call and sms; and some minimal wifi usage)
I read on one forum about a guy telling how he fried his old phone (can't remember the model but it was definitely not made in the last 3years) when he connected a new charger to it. I thought this seems plausible.
And I have always had vibrate off so don't know how long my battery lasts with it on XD
To Rolo42:
I've not had any problems since I changed my phone IP. I will check again as the router was set to give out specific IP's to people. I think it has now been disabled.
I do not clear the ram often, must I do it then? I use the Home button and then Task Manager > Clear Ram.
I Factory Reset because I could not connect to the Wifi. For a month I could and then suddenly not (that's when the router gave me an IP already in use). I thought it might have been me playing with setting I shouldn't, I turned back all settings and I left it for a week but it still had problems. I saved all my photo's and images to my memory card and Factory Reset. As I'm new to how the whole smartphone works, I lost all my contacts. That's when I found that I had to manually backup every now and then. I have reinstalled most of my apps I had but the games I had on are all different.
My home screen has no widgets, only 4apps I use regularly (WhatsApp, Flashlight, Navigation and Camera). This fade also happens whenI'm on an internet page, contacts, different screen with widgets, etc
I did say "my answers, tips and experiences", I never said facts.
I also did mention new user of an Android Phone, my last phone was the Samsung Star, so as you can see I'm very much used to phone who's battery lasts more than 2days. When I'm at work and I have a 98% battery when I connect to the Wifi there, it is about 42% when I leave at the end of the day, hence I called only the Wifi a "battery hog". During that time I just send IM's. How are you able to make it last so long? I watched the Wifi screen for a bit once and notice that it said "Scanning..." every now and then, which means it never just connect and that's it, it regularly scann the area for more connections.
By turning off all that I stated in my 1st post I can get just about 2days of battery life while Downloading, IM, play games, listen to music, call and sms; and some minimal wifi usage)
I read on one forum about a guy telling how he fried his old phone (can't remember the model but it was definitely not made in the last 3years) when he connected a new charger to it. I thought this seems plausible.
And I have always had vibrate off so don't know how long my battery lasts with it on XD
To Rolo42:
I've not had any problems since I changed my phone IP. I will check again as the router was set to give out specific IP's to people. I think it has now been disabled.
I do not clear the ram often, must I do it then? I use the Home button and then Task Manager > Clear Ram.
I Factory Reset because I could not connect to the Wifi. For a month I could and then suddenly not (that's when the router gave me an IP already in use). I thought it might have been me playing with setting I shouldn't, I turned back all settings and I left it for a week but it still had problems. I saved all my photo's and images to my memory card and Factory Reset. As I'm new to how the whole smartphone works, I lost all my contacts. That's when I found that I had to manually backup every now and then. I have reinstalled most of my apps I had but the games I had on are all different.
My home screen has no widgets, only 4apps I use regularly (WhatsApp, Flashlight, Navigation and Camera). This fade also happens whenI'm on an internet page, contacts, different screen with widgets, etc
clitrenta
Android Enthusiast
I also disagree. This phone is no more a battery hog than any other smart phone. Obviously it depends on what you have running and how much you use it. I have my brightness turned on the highest setting. I have WiFi on at home but off at work. I also have a few widgets but try to control their update rate to some extent. I take the phone off the charger at 5am and it will last until after supper unless I'm playing on it a lot during the day in which case I will throw it on the charger for about an hour. This is typical of most of the phones I've had so no - I wouldn't label it a battery hog.
mrsmith2002
Newbie
HUH???
I thought there are still two 4Gs out there, 4G-WiMax, and 4G-LTE. Has this changed very recently?
Rolo42
Android Enthusiast
No, that's correct. I'm guessing the point was "LTE" == "4G".
That is inadvisable as you are undermining the OS. You should never need to do this.
You can create a Samsung account and have it automatically synch your contacts to the cloud so you can restore them if necessary. Verizon has the same thing and it includes data as well.
Bgillie007
Lurker
I was just wondering why when i save things on my EXT SD card it still shows up in the internal storage?
Disd0rkanerd
Lurker
How to seperate my mp3 and ringtones so they don't all play in music player on Samsung galaxy s3 ? Help please
.nomedia text files doesn't work either
.nomedia text files doesn't work either
Rolo42
Android Enthusiast
Can you be more specific? (screen shots are effective)
If your files are listed in /mnt/sdcard, then they are not on the external SD card.
SUroot
Extreme Android User
Driving mode might activate when in a car dock (not sure) otherwise there's a toggle in the notification area on my International.
It reads out your incoming SMS messages / who is calling you (etc) so you dont have to take your eyes of the road. Thats pretty much it
Disd0rkanerd
Lurker
can anybody help me seperate my mp3 and ringtones so they don't all play in music player
ilordvader
Well-Known Member
Rolo42
Android Enthusiast
It does this with the iBOLT for SIII.