Wait for S4 or not? Replacing SGSII

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
Im looking into getting a new phone to replace my SG SII, im replacing it due to battery/charging issues its developed over the last 6 months. Basically it doesn't keep track of accurate battery levels, keeps charging for 10% or so after its unplugged, randomly turns itself off and when doing so also kills battery to near 0%.

Example phone is at 90% just took off charger, slowly creeps up to 94% charge then turns itself off 5 min later(mostly turns self off within 30 min of coming off charger), I let it sit for 60 min in a completely off state, calls go straight to VM, phone responds to zero button input but when I turn it back on its hot enough to cook eggs on and reading less than 5% battery levels. It does this with 9 batteries so far that ive tried from 6 different manufactures so safe to say its the phone not the batteries.



So ive narrowed it down to Note 2 or SGS4. Any reason to wait for S4?

This phone would mostly be used for content consumption and games and texting, I have a company phone I use for 90% of my voice communications.

Or better yet suggest another phone that has all these features:

- 720p or greater res screen at least 4.5"
- SD card slot
- 2000mah battery or greater that is removeable
- quad core soc
- Supports LTE(Rogers Canada is provider)
- Wifi N band(dual band 5Ghz support preferred)
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
9,427
16
81
The current state of your phone seems an utter nightmare. I'd get the Note if you can carry it, or a temporary secondhand S3.
 

you2

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2002
6,808
1,867
136
If you really like the phone (i.e, battery is the only issue) you could just get a new battery. Then again the new phones are quite a step up. The htc-one is getting rave reviews if you can live with sense and without an sd-lost. The note 2 is wicked good if you can live with the width (size); I woudl wait for a few reviews on the s4 just to make sure it has good reception et all (the note 2 has extermely good reception, audio, battery life; significantly better in these areas over the s3; i've not heard much about the s4 audio or reception). To be honest if the htc-one had a removeable battery and unlocked boot-loader i would probably be all over it; i much prefer htc lcd screens to samsung oled (personal preference). Btw I have a note 2; nice phone but a bit unwiedly at times and it can be very sensitve when reaching 'cross screen :) )
 

styrafoam

Platinum Member
Jun 18, 2002
2,684
0
0
Example phone is at 90% just took off charger, slowly creeps up to 94% charge then turns itself off 5 min later(mostly turns self off within 30 min of coming off charger), I let it sit for 60 min in a completely off state, calls go straight to VM, phone responds to zero button input but when I turn it back on its hot enough to cook eggs on and reading less than 5% battery levels. It does this with 9 batteries so far that ive tried from 6 different manufactures so safe to say its the phone not the batteries.

I had a friend with a nexus S that did the exact same thing after a bad update, the radio partition needed to be reflashed from what i could gather but he gave up on it and bought a new phone before it was resolved. Did you try a factory reset?
 

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
32,901
11,038
136
You tried resetting that old phone to factory settings then updating to the latest ROM?

Edit: Also if you've been happy with your S2 it would be daft not to see what the S4 can do for you.
 
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Dari

Lifer
Oct 25, 2002
17,133
38
91
That's a lot of batteries to see where the problem is. Sounds like a firmware issue.
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
I had a friend with a nexus S that did the exact same thing after a bad update, the radio partition needed to be reflashed from what i could gather but he gave up on it and bought a new phone before it was resolved. Did you try a factory reset?

I have tried stock firmware, CM 9, CM 9.1 and a few other roms as well. Same issue with all. If anything CM 9.0 seems to be the best with stock being the worst.
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
You tried resetting that old phone to factory settings then updating to the latest ROM?

Edit: Also if you've been happy with your S2 it would be daft not to see what the S4 can do for you.

This is what I was thinking originally but really the S4 just seems like a note II with a smaller and higher res screen.

And while that's not a bad thing I don't really think 720p to 1080p is going to make much difference on something as small as a cell phone screen considering people don't notice the jump from 720p to 1080p on TV's till you get into the 40"+ size.
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
That's a lot of batteries to see where the problem is. Sounds like a firmware issue.

I know, I would have stopped sooner it just really seemed like a battery issue to me. Luckily my girlfriend, brother, and father all have S2's so I gave my extra batteries to them to use so at least I didn't just toss them in the trash.
 

GregMal

Golden Member
Oct 14, 1999
1,427
0
71
Are you using a memory card in it? If so, remove it and see if the battery charge is better.....
 

poofyhairguy

Lifer
Nov 20, 2005
14,612
318
126
Are you using a memory card in it? If so, remove it and see if the battery charge is better.....

Good call. Two weeks ago my SGS2 was just KILLING my batteries. Turns out my Micro SD card was dying and it was making the media scanner never quit. Even formatting the card didn't work.

Replaced it with a new card and all is well.
 

krumme

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2009
5,956
1,595
136
This is what I was thinking originally but really the S4 just seems like a note II with a smaller and higher res screen.

And while that's not a bad thing I don't really think 720p to 1080p is going to make much difference on something as small as a cell phone screen considering people don't notice the jump from 720p to 1080p on TV's till you get into the 40"+ size.

Well i think it will make a difference here because the amoled is pentile meaning the sharpness is not quite comparable to lcd sharpness. IMHO the S3 needs the last in sharpness before its not important anymore. S4 is surely there, also because there is a new layout for the screen. Perhaps you want to see review on gsmarena.com
 

ChronoReverse

Platinum Member
Mar 4, 2004
2,562
31
91
Yeah, for the GS3 versus the One X at least, you can definitely tell there's rather notable difference even not side by side.

Hopefully 1080p is the magic bullet.
 

AnMig

Golden Member
Nov 7, 2000
1,760
3
81
Don't know if its relevant to your sg2 but my gnex (Samsung) also started behaving wierd, basically it would sometimes not recognize my charger or even if unplugged would still think its charging.

After a few days of research I isolated it to USB charging port on the phone. I even ordered a replacement port from China to replace it.

I heard from one of those numerous post regarding broken USB ports that it may be related to not using Samsung micro USB cables. I am quite guilty of this as I would just use any micro USB charger or cable I could find (old blackberry, mono price, Asus).

Someone had mentioned to keep using original Samsung cable to sort of rehabilitate the charging port. I tried this and my gnex has bee going strong for the past couple of months.

Tried different ROMs but it was clearly a micro USB charging port issue.


Good luck

So its easy cheap fix to try saved me money as I was about to get a note 2.
 

dbk

Lifer
Apr 23, 2004
17,685
10
81
had the exact same issue with my battery after the phone died. It refused to charge back up again. I swapped the samsung battery and with my spare anker battery and charged the samsung one externally. Once the samsung battery was fully charged, it worked fine again.
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
Just wanted to let you guys know i went with a Note 2, i got it yesterday.

So far im very happy with it even the stock rom, i've already rooted it but will probably leave it stock rom for a while since jelly bean appears to be good in stock format.

The battery life of this thing is unbelievable, the size takes some getting used to but since im not using it much as an actual phone i dont see it being a issue. Netflix looks amazing on this thing compared to my S II.

Also Rogers Canada LTE speeds are out of this world, it got a 40% FASTER ping than my cable connection at home, and while only half the transfer speeds its not like you need cable speeds on a phone its the ping that makes more difference than anything else.

After seeing the LTE speeds i went ahead and upped my plan to 6 GB of data lol, i only had a 1GB plan before.
 

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
32,901
11,038
136
Just wanted to let you guys know i went with a Note 2, i got it yesterday.

So far im very happy with it even the stock rom, i've already rooted it but will probably leave it stock rom for a while since jelly bean appears to be good in stock format.

...

Glad you settled on something your happy with. I've only ever heard good reports from note2 owners.

About ROMs, I'm quite a fan of the stock Samsung ones lately. Just use titanium to freeze all the stuff you don't use and install a decent launcher.
 

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
32,901
11,038
136
I was thinking about the same thing as the OP and went with the Sony Xperia Z and am really damn pleased with it.

You tested out the water resistance yet?

I dropped my S4 into the bath the other day, that certainly made me think that water proofing was a nice thing to have. :eek:

Edit: That should be S3, wishful thinking I guess. :(
 
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Aristotelian

Golden Member
Jan 30, 2010
1,246
11
76
You tested out the water resistance yet?

I dropped my S4 into the bath the other day, that certainly made me think that water proofing was a nice thing to have. :eek:

Yeah it works as advertised. I live in Belgium at the moment and it makes the UK seem like a dry place to live - I consider the water resistance quite a bonus. I couldn't wait for the SGS4, and didn't really like the handset of the HTC One (I know that it's supposed to be considered gorgeous...) but I preferred the aesthetics of the XZ too. These days I think we're spoiled for choice, and even enthusiasts in the mobile market won't find clear winners in any area.

And yeah, I've seen people drop phones (walking home from the pub is a good example) into puddles that end up bricking their phones - this time I wanted a bit of insurance :)