Sprint epic 4G impressions

Picked up my Epic yesterday.....best choice I've made in phones yet.
 
Root it and put on Epic Experience or Bubby's AOSP Magic on it. Loving mine.


Earlier today:

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And afterwards:

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I'd rather not void my warranty, plus I have best buy's black tie warranty. If something happens to it I'm pretty much stuck paying $650 for a new phone.
 
HydroBudz said:
I'd rather not void my warranty, plus I have best buy's black tie warranty. If something happens to it I'm pretty much stuck paying $650 for a new phone.
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Dont buy those garbage warranties and just get insurance on the phone.
 
not to mention rooting your phone is completely reversible. When a Sprint employee tells you to root your phone (which I just did), you're safe.

Besides, a little tip... Gather in close so I can whisper it... Closer... Closer...

ROOTING DOESN'T VOID YOUR WARRANTY WITH SPRINT


*ahem* Sorry, this isn't apple. There is no official policy on rooting.
 
Question. Since having my Epic I've noticed battery life to be teh suck. Meaning, I get about 2 hours of use before it's deadski, maybe 3-5 on standby. I have the app killer and run it every time I'm done using the phone. Common problem? Also takes forever to charge. 2-3 hours on the wall charger. Good freakin god.
 
HydroBudz said:
Question. Since having my Epic I've noticed battery life to be teh suck. Meaning, I get about 2 hours of use before it's deadski, maybe 3-5 on standby. I have the app killer and run it every time I'm done using the phone. Common problem? Also takes forever to charge. 2-3 hours on the wall charger. Good freakin god.
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Something is wrong. My wife gets 12+ hours on hers easily.

The app killer may be your problem. If you kill an app thats set to run most of the time it will just get started again causing your app killer to kill it and so on.

The memory management in android is actually really good. Many people fall into the trap of thinking app killers are a good thing and end up screwing their battery life up even more with them.

If you are really concerned with it then use an app like Autokiller memory optimizer which just changes the memory settings in android and lets the system kill apps itself.
 
HydroBudz said:
Question. Since having my Epic I've noticed battery life to be teh suck. Meaning, I get about 2 hours of use before it's deadski, maybe 3-5 on standby. I have the app killer and run it every time I'm done using the phone. Common problem? Also takes forever to charge. 2-3 hours on the wall charger. Good freakin god.
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Your battery life/charge sounds just like mine. I ran no task killers, either (except ATK on start-up to wipe some stuff I never use).
 
First off, stop using Advanced Task killer. I can't stress this enough. Secondly, root your phone and install the SDX App Remover, then remove the DRM services that Samsung has running in the background. Autostarts is another app that can block these from starting up, but SDX remover will get rid of them completely.

In addition, go into your wifi advanced settings and change the wifi to "never sleep". You'll notice a HUGE increase in battery life after this one.
 
Planning on getting this phone next month. Yes I will be rooting it.

Question though - I heard some of the mods don't support 4G. has this been addressed? I'd like to actually make use of the extra $10 a month I'm spending for 4G access
 
entropism said:
First off, stop using Advanced Task killer. I can't stress this enough. Secondly, root your phone and install the SDX App Remover, then remove the DRM services that Samsung has running in the background. Autostarts is another app that can block these from starting up, but SDX remover will get rid of them completely.

In addition, go into your wifi advanced settings and change the wifi to "never sleep". You'll notice a HUGE increase in battery life after this one.
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Why does ATK chew up battery life?

Additionally, I don't have my Wifi even turned on. Sometimes I use it while I'm home, but mostly it's off completely.

I still don't understand why it takes 2-3 hours to charge. And that's a low end figure.
 
HydroBudz said:
Additionally, I don't have my Wifi even turned on. Sometimes I use it while I'm home, but mostly it's off completely.
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Turn it on. WiFi uses less juice than the CDMA radio. Also, my Fascinate takes 2~3 hours to charge IIRC. I can kill it in 7 hours though if I'm on it nonstop.
 
Jodiuh said:
Turn it on. WiFi uses less juice than the CDMA radio. Also, my Fascinate takes 2~3 hours to charge IIRC. I can kill it in 7 hours though if I'm on it nonstop.
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I'm not at home a lot, so what good is Wifi going to do me besides burning up battery power while scanning for networks I'll never use? When I am home my phone is the last thing I grab if I need the internet. That's what my netbook is for.
 
HydroBudz said:
Why does ATK chew up battery life?

Additionally, I don't have my Wifi even turned on. Sometimes I use it while I'm home, but mostly it's off completely.

I still don't understand why it takes 2-3 hours to charge. And that's a low end figure.
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Because a lot of people run ATK in the background to auto-kill tasks. It's a handy program, but only if you use it 1 time on start-up, and let Android manage from there.

Wireless never even showed up on what was chewing through the battery, it was always screen at something like 80% (even if it was locked most the day).
 
HydroBudz said:
Why does ATK chew up battery life?

Additionally, I don't have my Wifi even turned on. Sometimes I use it while I'm home, but mostly it's off completely.

I still don't understand why it takes 2-3 hours to charge. And that's a low end figure.
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http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/

Obviously, turn wifi on when you're home, turn it off when you're not.

As for your low battery time, I have a feeling you were one of many hit with the common CDMA android bug. Go into settings, then about phone, then battery use. Check the "cell standby" percentage. If it's above 5-10% or so, you're affected by the bug, and it will SERIOUSLY drain your battery. Basically, the phone is looking for a WCDMA tower, which it will never find, and it burns the battery quick. To fix, when you boot up, turn on airplane mode, wait 10 seconds, then turn airplane mode off.

Also, I have to reiterate, rooting your phone and removing the DRM crap mediahub adds to your phone will almost double battery life as well.
 
entropism said:
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/

Obviously, turn wifi on when you're home, turn it off when you're not.

As for your low battery time, I have a feeling you were one of many hit with the common CDMA android bug. Go into settings, then about phone, then battery use. Check the "cell standby" percentage. If it's above 5-10% or so, you're affected by the bug, and it will SERIOUSLY drain your battery. Basically, the phone is looking for a WCDMA tower, which it will never find, and it burns the battery quick. To fix, when you boot up, turn on airplane mode, wait 10 seconds, then turn airplane mode off.

Also, I have to reiterate, rooting your phone and removing the DRM crap mediahub adds to your phone will almost double battery life as well.
Click to expand...

IMO it's still a good idea to task kill on boot. It wipes out a lot of stuff that doesn't restart, but isn't safe to remove, either.
 
entropism said:
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/

Obviously, turn wifi on when you're home, turn it off when you're not.

As for your low battery time, I have a feeling you were one of many hit with the common CDMA android bug. Go into settings, then about phone, then battery use. Check the "cell standby" percentage. If it's above 5-10% or so, you're affected by the bug, and it will SERIOUSLY drain your battery. Basically, the phone is looking for a WCDMA tower, which it will never find, and it burns the battery quick. To fix, when you boot up, turn on airplane mode, wait 10 seconds, then turn airplane mode off.

Also, I have to reiterate, rooting your phone and removing the DRM crap mediahub adds to your phone will almost double battery life as well.
Click to expand...

Have a guide on how to root my phone and remove the DRM?

And, yes, cell standby is at 64%. :( Bah.
 
HydroBudz said:
...what good is Wifi going to do me...
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entropism said:
Obviously, turn wifi on when you're home, turn it off when you're not.
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Unless you're shutting your phone off or disabling syncing services and apps, it's using more power on 3G than it would on WiFi. Especially if it's constantly looking for signal. I'd recommending doing what Entrop mentioned and setting WiFi sleep policy to never as well.

entropism said:
As for your low battery time, I have a feeling you were one of many hit with the common CDMA android bug...removing the DRM crap mediahub adds to your phone will almost double battery life as well.
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Interesting, I've never read that before. IIRC, mine's well above 5~10% as well. Any idea if the mediahub's an Epic only thing or does it run on the Fascinate as well?

HydroBudz said:
Have a guide on how to root my phone and remove the DRM?
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Epic 4G Android Development
 
Zurginator said:
IMO it's still a good idea to task kill on boot. It wipes out a lot of stuff that doesn't restart, but isn't safe to remove, either.
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Hence why I recommended using an app called Autostarts. No chance of causing issues like ATK does.

As for the rooting and removing DRM, there's a one click root on XDA, and the app to remove the DRM files is called SDX Stock app remover.

Jodiuh, not too familiar with the Fascinate, but I'd check XDA to be sure. Don't want to give the wrong info out here.
 
I believe it's listed under Allshare MediaHub. I'll check on a stock phone tomorrow.
 
Thanks for the help. I'll be messing with my phone this evening if I'm not too caught up in Black Ops.
 
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