Samsung Galaxy S2 Problems:
*Since this article went live a few months ago, and has now received over 15,000 page views, as of Jan 1st 2012, I thought it best to write an article on how to improve your smartphone battery life.
So what is wrong with my Samsung S2 that warrants a plain old rant…?
Well firstly, here is what is not wrong with the Samsung S2:
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- It has a wonderful bright Super AMOLED screen that can light up arenas.
- It has dual 1.2 Ghz processors so is no slouch.
- Slim and very light.
- It integrates with Google maps to give you a pretty good sat nav (when it works well)
- It has enough RAM to make playing games responsive and fun.
- It offers SWYPE as an input method and makes pressing buttons totally redundant once you get the hang of it.
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Unfortunately though, like many things in this wonderful world. The Yin and Yang have to be at odds with each other to create the occasional beauty that you see with the Samsung S2.
So what is the Yin to the Above Yang?
Quite simply BATTERY LIFE!
As someone who works from a place with a power socket, or having access to my computers USB lead for most of the time, there are perhaps fewer times when I need to use my phone all day without any chance of a top up…cue yesterday.
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Agenda:
- Meeting at 10.30am
- Meeting at 3.00pm
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Schedule:
- Leave house at 8.30 to catch train, occasionally read news on phone using 3G connection when possible (lots of tunnels make it tough)
- Walk to meeting point at 10.00 after train journey using GPS satellite for help, this lasts 15 minutes.
- Have meeting.
- Walk to train station to catch a new train…not using GPS as it got me well and truly lost, and it was easier to find my way back once I had done the initial walk.
- Wait around in one area of the City and have a bite to eat while using the restaurants Wi-Fi.
- Catch a train to next meeting in another City…not using phone, as at 2.00 pm I am worried about battery life…have been out of the house now for around 5.5 hours.
- Get to the next City and use Sat Nav once more for general directions, find it totally useless and realise my battery had lied and it had now jumped to nearly dead….great…I have no pen to write down numbers (my fault) and no way of easily contacting my meeting point if this phone dies on me…luckily I get there OK and the battery has a smidgens of life still in it.
- Just before the meeting I text my better half to let her know that I will not be asking her to pick me up as arranged loosely after the meeting, as I will not be able to be any more specific as to timing, not knowing how long this meeting will last, and seeing my phones battery finally dying.
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So at 3.15 pm my battery had gone and my phone was nigh on useless.
Duration of day….between 6 and 7 hours.
Amount of time using phone?…Really quite minimal apart from GPS which was also used sparingly after the first 15 minutes at my first meeting.
Conclusion: What happened to the Nokia’s that used to last 5 days with one half charge…yeh I know they never used data etc but seriously this is the one big issue facing mobile technology right now and one that needs to be solved.
Otherwise the term mobile is slightly ironic don’t you think?
Of course we can all carry spare batteries, but why should we, and if this is needed, why don’t manufacturers factor this in and be honest.
If tablets and smartphones are to be truly mobile they damn well need to have a battery life that can handle being used on a days work schedule without a charge. Actually, 2 days work would not be ridiculous to request.
I pay huge amounts for my phone each month, and really, the Samsung S2 battery is not even good enough for using during one days work, with full charge from the outset.
If you are away from a trusty power supply, never mind an actual full 24 hour day on the road….the battery life of the S2 can not even offer one third of that duration without dying a death….not good.
Think twice about buying the Samsung S2 if you need to have battery life for a full day….of course spares are an ugly option though!
Though this seems to work very well:
*Update – As this article has ended up being quite the flagship for Mobile Inquirer, I now feel a need to clarify that I think the Samsung S2 is a cracking phone (note initial praise) and the battery life issue is not actually a fault of the Samsung S2 per se, that said, I do feel that battery life needs to be addressed at manufacturing/design/R&D level and something needs to be done about the issue all mobile devices face in order to make them truly mobile and functional as intended.
*Ok before I go on, an update again – I think it would be useful to get a petition to help manufacturers see just how much of an issue battery life really is to people:
If you feel as strongly as most of the people who have commented on this post (which has been read over 10,000 times as of Mid December), carry on sending us your comments and add your email to the petition so we can pass this on to the device manufacturers ourselves.
If you choose to opt in to the newsletter sign up, you agree that we can add you to our popular mailing list to keep you updated with news surrounding this matter and in general, one email a day maximum.
Socially mobile!
And please join in the debate by going to our Facebook site here, giving us a like if you are feeling nice, and our twitter site here, and following is, and then get involved using the #MoreJuice hashtag when you are referring to this particular post or your general annoyance at how short your mobile phone battery lasts!
This is what you are saying to device manufacturers:
I am signing this petition as I am unhappy with the general battery life of my smartphone, I believe it to be unacceptable to last shorter than a full day on a full charge, and would prefer that my device was larger to accommodate a bigger battery if this was to improve performance of my “mobile” device.
Otherwise, please ensure that the performance of my phone matches the expected enjoyment and use that I should obtain from my mobile device, or provide me with a spare battery or similar option to improve my battery life at purchase.
Small victory for Mobile Inquirer with help from you guys
I must now point you to a new article here, where Samsung Promise All Day Battery For Smartphones which relates to Samsung’s new stance on improving smartphone battery life, hopefully this article and your help has gone some way to forcing this shift in mindset that will help the average smartphone user get a full days use out of their phone as they expect!
Anthony Munns