Help Questions about Galaxy S2 :)

[alec92]

Hey guys,

A few questions about my Galaxy S2 running Android 2.3.5. I've read a lot of the stickies on this forum and on others but still have a few questions:



1) Why does my Galaxy S2 charge so slow via my car charger and wall chargers? My iPhone charged 100x faster... Is Micro USB not able to charge as fast as the iPhone connector?

2) If my phone is locked and I press a button, the screen remains fully lit for 20+ seconds. Is there a way to change this to about 5 seconds? But when the phone is unlocked and I'm using it I don't want it to ever dim and I don't want it to ever lock automatically.. Is this possible? I couldn't find either of these in the settings??

3) Is there any way to speed up my device at all? It lags slightly when I unlocked it and want to open an app.. I've put my music and photos on my 32GB card so it's only really the OS and apps on the actual phone's hard drive. The non-standard apps that I have installed are:
- Asphalt 6
- Facebook
- Defender
- Shazam
- Swiftkey X
- eBay
- Adobe Reader
- Fancy Widgets
- WidgetLocker
- JuiceDefender Ultimate
- Zedge
- Flashlight
- Paper Camera

Are any of these known to slow down the device? Any tips (besides the obvious ones) for speeding up the device?

4) I found a link (spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0AnO2-4y6yE1gdDJRekl4QmkyNmIzUmRvX2h3UDVkQXc&output=html ) which shows what's safe to remove... But how exactly do I go about removing them so that everything is removed and irrelevant files aren't left behind?

5) I haven't rooted the device yet... Should I? There's not much more I want to do to my phone besides make it quicker if possible, as it already does everything I want and more!

6) How can I backup my whole device as an image (I'm almost starting to miss the fact that iTunes backed up my iPhone and it was so easy to restore everything...)?


Cheers!

 

[alec92]

anyone??

 

[Slug]

Hi Alec,

1) Why does my Galaxy S2 charge so slow via my car charger and wall chargers?

The charging current is deliberately low(er) than than the max to prolong battery life. Charging isn't linear; if the stored voltage in the battery is low then it will charge quickly to a certain threshold then the rate slows down until its fully charged.

2) If my phone is locked and I press a button, the screen remains fully lit for 20+ seconds. Is there a way to change this to about 5 seconds? But when the phone is unlocked and I'm using it I don't want it to ever dim and I don't want it to ever lock automatically.. Is this possible? I couldn't find either of these in the settings??

Not as standard; there's only the one screen timeout setting. There's probably an app on the Market that allows it, though.

3) Is there any way to speed up my device at all? It lags slightly when I unlocked it and want to open an app..

That's by design. The processor clocks down (and switches off its second core) when idle, and the 'lag' is due to it ramping back up. Changing this behaviour would involve rooting and replacing the stock kernel with a different one.

4) I found a link (spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0AnO2-4y6yE1gdDJRekl4QmkyNmIzUmRvX2h3UDVkQXc&output=html ) which shows what's safe to remove... But how exactly do I go about removing them so that everything is removed and irrelevant files aren't left behind?

This is something else that requires root access, as all apps are installed on a partition of the internal memory not normally accessible.

5) I haven't rooted the device yet... Should I?

See previous answers.

6) How can I backup my whole device as an image

Root again.... ClockWorkMod Recovery allows just this type of backup.

Hope this is of some help.

 

[alec92]

Thanks so much for your advice!

What's the easiest/safest way to root the device?

Cheers

EDIT: Another question.. Am I better to keep my photos and music on my phone or memory card (Samsung 32GB micro SDHC)?

 

[sleeco]

Hi, an easy way to freeze apps you do not want to use is an app from the market called "Bloat Freezer", you cn always unfreeze them if needed.