Buying a new smartphone

[Magnum]

lol tbh the best thing to do is, give the phone to a repair shop and update it.

i searched for a official 4.0.4 release for his model number, and i couldn't find it even in sammobile

then its best for him to go for the Kies method. its slow but its the best for amateurs/noobs

[jdnet]

then its best for him to go for the Kies method. its slow but its the best for amateurs/noobs

Well boys, I did some looking around. There isn't any update for my model yet but it should be available in the next month or two. I guess I should just wait for that. Also I downloaded kies to no avail. I guess I'll play it safe until an official update comes along. Thanks for the info. Also got a quick question. Does a Galaxy sii take a really long time to charge? It seems like this one takes about 3 times as long as the wildfire s I had.

[whatever]

Well boys, I did some looking around. There isn't any update for my model yet but it should be available in the next month or two. I guess I should just wait for that. Also I downloaded kies to no avail. I guess I'll play it safe until an official update comes along. Thanks for the info. Also got a quick question. Does a Galaxy sii take a really long time to charge? It seems like this one takes about 3 times as long as the wildfire s I had.

Yes. It takes long time. I usually charge it overnight and the battery can hardly last a day. Right now mine is 50% discharged in 7 hrs

[The Stig]

Yes. It takes long time. I usually charge it overnight and the battery can hardly last a day. Right now mine is 50% discharged in 7 hrs

And there is the cause of your problem, modern batteries dont need to be charged more than 2.5 Hours, the only thing you are doing is heating up the battery and its cutoff circuit and degrading its battery life.

Set the phone to auto off at night and charge it in the morning when you get to the office, is that so hard ?

[Magnum]

Well boys, I did some looking around. There isn't any update for my model yet but it should be available in the next month or two. I guess I should just wait for that. Also I downloaded kies to no avail. I guess I'll play it safe until an official update comes along. Thanks for the info. Also got a quick question. Does a Galaxy sii take a really long time to charge? It seems like this one takes about 3 times as long as the wildfire s I had.

How long does it take?

Yes. It takes long time. I usually charge it overnight and the battery can hardly last a day. Right now mine is 50% discharged in 7 hrs

i keep wifi on 24x7, brightness at 75%, play a bit of games, use GPRS at times, leave network to auto mode(2G/3G), listen to music and the battery lasts for one whole day. if i dont use WIFI and GPRS at all it'll last two days easily

[nexus]

Well boys, I did some looking around. There isn't any update for my model yet but it should be available in the next month or two. I guess I should just wait for that. Also I downloaded kies to no avail. I guess I'll play it safe until an official update comes along. Thanks for the info. Also got a quick question. Does a Galaxy sii take a really long time to charge? It seems like this one takes about 3 times as long as the wildfire s I had.

my SGS2 take around 3 hours to charge to full 100%

[Schiffer]

same here, around 3 hours to full charge from a dead state and 'whatever' never, charge a phone overnight, it reduce the lifetime of the battery and gives poor standby time

[whatever]

And there is the cause of your problem, modern batteries dont need to be charged more than 2.5 Hours, the only thing you are doing is heating up the battery and its cutoff circuit and degrading its battery life.

Set the phone to auto off at night and charge it in the morning when you get to the office, is that so hard ?

Probably true. But there are two things preventing that. One is I use it as an alarm and the other is, I addicted to use phone in the toilet in the morning

[kalana]

best place for this is http://forum.xda-developers.com/

since JD's phone is from Aussie. there is no specific section for it. but i guess it works with the ROMs for international version

[Pericles]

Does a Galaxy sii take a really long time to charge? It seems like this one takes about 3 times as long as the wildfire s I had.

You charging off the computer USB, or the wall charger?

[The Stig]

Ahhh i see tons of bad battery charging habits mentioned here, Ill share some things that i picked up and have some personal experience with. Well of course i cant prove any of them so you are free to believe what ever you want.

1) Forget what most of the sales guys say, you do not need to charge the battery 12 hours the first time. All Lithium-ion and Lithium polymer batterys come 40% pre-charged as an emergency reserve. Charging for 4-6 hours is more than sufficient. The extra charge time is to make sure that all parts of the battery are initially aligned for saturation properly.

2) For the first 3 charge cycles fully charge and fully discharge the battery, this is so that the phones battery meter can properly calibrate itself to read battery charge level. If you feel that the battery is out of calibration after usage for sometime fully discharge and fully charge, it doesnt hurt to do this process once every 3-4 months to keep things in shape.

3) On a regular basis do not i repeat do not let your battery drain out before you charge it. The whole "wait till the battery if fully depleted and then charge" is 90's technology and pretty much most of the phone sellers i have met seem to be giving this wrong information. In the ealry 90's when we used "gadol bagaya's" and those phones with antennas they used a type of battery called nickel-cadmium batteries and they had this issue called the "memory effect" where if you charge the phone before its fully discharged it will lose some of its battery capacity. This problem does not exist in Li-ion and Li-polymer batteries. In fact with modern batteries its the exact opposite, if you fully discharge the battery it will loose some of its capacity and life time.

So tip no 3: charge the battery when ever possible, even if its at 40% or even if it has depleted only 10% charge it. Charge it when ever and where ever possible, trust me it will have a massive effect on the lifespan of your battery. (dont get this confused with overcharging, im not telling you guys to keep it plugged in all times but charge it in short bursts)

4) Do not over charge your battery. its like keeping a mug under a tap, once the mug is full the pressure from the water forces the new water to go in and the old to go out. Though this seems harmless in the scenario of the mug when it comes to batteries it has a massive effect. A phones battery life depends on how many fully charges and full depletes are done and cause each cell has its own lifespan of charge and deplete cycles when you over charge a battery what you are doing is pushing in new electron and pushing out the old ones. This process is equal to that of fully charging and fully depleting and usually batteries only have around 500 full discharge cycles and you will eat at right through those cycles if you over charge it as you are asking it to do overtime work.

I think i covered most of it and if you guys want more proof here is a good article to read (http://batteryuniver...based_batteries)

Oh yeah and to preserve battery life;

switch off 3g and select gsm network mode (saves about 30% battery life)

use less widgets and background apps, if you are not using an app close it don't minimize it.

Turn bluetooth, wifi, gps off in not needed

Probably true. But there are two things preventing that. One is I use it as an alarm and the other is, I addicted to use phone in the toilet in the morning

Urrgg i dont even want to imagine what you are doing in the toilet with your phone

But seriously even a 5 year old can figure out a solution for your problem, charge it in the evening when you get home say from 7-9.30 maybe ?

Edited September 9, 2012 by The Stig

[The Stig]

Well boys, I did some looking around. There isn't any update for my model yet but it should be available in the next month or two. I guess I should just wait for that. Also I downloaded kies to no avail. I guess I'll play it safe until an official update comes along. Thanks for the info. Also got a quick question. Does a Galaxy sii take a really long time to charge? It seems like this one takes about 3 times as long as the wildfire s I had.

Like peri said it depends on the charger, the usb port can only give 5V 500mA so a rough calculation for a 1650mAH battery would be 3 hours and 20 minutes. I dunno what the amperage of the charger for the s2 is but generally a factory one give around 5V 700-850mA so that should take (again roughly) only around 2 hours and 20 minutes.

[Magnum]

my SGS2 take around 3 hours to charge to full 100%

same here

same here, around 3 hours to full charge from a dead state and 'whatever' never, charge a phone overnight, it reduce the lifetime of the battery and gives poor standby time

i always charge it overnight, should stop doing it once i get ma phone back

[Magnum]

Like peri said it depends on the charger, the usb port can only give 5V 500mA so a rough calculation for a 1650mAH battery would be 3 hours and 20 minutes. I dunno what the amperage of the charger for the s2 is but generally a factory one give around 5V 700-850mA so that should take (again roughly) only around 2 hours and 20 minutes.

so if you buy a damn high power charger it would charge really fast?

[whatever]

4) Do not over charge your battery. its like keeping a mug under a tap, once the mug is full the pressure from the water forces the new water to go in and the old to go out. Though this seems harmless in the scenario of the mug when it comes to batteries it has a massive effect. A phones battery life depends on how many fully charges and full depletes are done and cause each cell has its own lifespan of charge and deplete cycles when you over charge a battery what you are doing is pushing in new electron and pushing out the old ones. This process is equal to that of fully charging and fully depleting and usually batteries only have around 500 full discharge cycles and you will eat at right through those cycles if you over charge it as you are asking it to do overtime work.

Well, I'm no expert in battery technologies. But your analogy of mug under a tap is relevant to the process called trickle charging, which does not use in Lithium iron batteries. Also check any data sheet of Lithium iron battery charging ICs and you will find that it has a "dead band'. i.e once the charger cut-off it does not start charging cycle until the voltage drop to a certain level. It will not overcharge no matter how long you leave it on the charger.

I have charged all my previous phones in overnight, but never replaced the batteries. Still charging the iPhone in the same way, nearly 2 years now, no battery issue at all.

[Schiffer]

anyway putting aside the stupid charging rituals of some people or should i say whatever and since that JD found out there is no updates available to his model yet, got some intresting news for our android boys. Peri would love this

Motorola and Google is sueing apple now for stealing there patents

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/273177/scitech/technology/apple-patent-wars-far-from-over-google-motorola-join-the-fray

and i must say, i agree with peri now, motorola has really up there game on there new devices

[NRX]

Ahhh i see tons of bad battery charging habits mentioned here, Ill share some things that i picked up and have some personal experience with. Well of course i cant prove any of them so you are free to believe what ever you want.

+ Charge when the phone is switched off.

[Pericles]

anyway putting aside the stupid charging rituals of some people or should i say whatever and since that JD found out there is no updates available to his model yet, got some intresting news for our android boys. Peri would love this

Motorola and Google is sueing apple now for stealing there patents

http://www.gmanetwor...a-join-the-fray

and i must say, i agree with peri now, motorola has really up there game on there new devices

That news has been around a couple of weeks and really, it is a misleading headline, since it's just Moto with the lawsuit, not Google. Obviously, big G will have approved it (as stated in the article) but they are not a named party in the case. There was lots of speculation that the reason why Google was interested in buying Moto in the first place with their patent portfolio, as one of the early pioneers in the Cellular tech field, Moto actually has proper technology patents, unlike the "design patent" BS that Apple has.

[Magnum]

Well, I'm no expert in battery technologies. But your analogy of mug under a tap is relevant to the process called trickle charging, which does not use in Lithium iron batteries. Also check any data sheet of Lithium iron battery charging ICs and you will find that it has a "dead band'. i.e once the charger cut-off it does not start charging cycle until the voltage drop to a certain level. It will not overcharge no matter how long you leave it on the charger.

I have charged all my previous phones in overnight, but never replaced the batteries. Still charging the iPhone in the same way, nearly 2 years now, no battery issue at all.

I have also heard of this, this is why i dont mind charging my phone at night.

[The Stig]

so if you buy a damn high power charger it would charge really fast?

Well technically yes but i dont think most manufacturers make a higher amperage version than the standard and you will have to buy a third party one and im not sure if they will actually deliver what it promises,so far the highest i have encountered is a 900mA charger. How much is yours ?

Well, I'm no expert in battery technologies. But your analogy of mug under a tap is relevant to the process called trickle charging, which does not use in Lithium iron batteries. Also check any data sheet of Lithium iron battery charging ICs and you will find that it has a "dead band'. i.e once the charger cut-off it does not start charging cycle until the voltage drop to a certain level. It will not overcharge no matter how long you leave it on the charger.

I have charged all my previous phones in overnight, but never replaced the batteries. Still charging the iPhone in the same way, nearly 2 years now, no battery issue at all.

The answer to that is yes and no. Yes some batteries have a cutoff IC but not all and even if it does it doesnt necessarily divert all the current back, it only limits the amperage limiting the flow. If that was the case then charging the battery for the first time more than 2-3 hours after the phones meter says its full is pointless isnt it ?

But it isnt, even though the phone reads it as full (they calculate the mAh and thats how the phone knows how much the battery is charged) all the individual atoms may not be saturated and thats why its recommended to leave it for around 4-6 hours the first time from which one can clearly see that even though the battery is full and the cutoff IC is diverting the current back to the charger still some escapes.Yes not a lot at once but overall over a lifespan of a battery roughly we are talking about 20-30 charge cycles being taken off and not to mention the damage done by the heat, so point being dont do it if you can avoid it but again its your phone and i dont care what you do with it.

[Magnum]

Well technically yes but i dont think most manufacturers make a higher amperage version than the standard and you will have to buy a third party one and im not sure if they will actually deliver what it promises,so far the highest i have encountered is a 900mA charger. How much is yours ?

i have no idea! at the moment i dont have ma S2 with me, but using ma BB and it has a 500mA charger

[whatever]

Stig, sorry about dragging the argument...

The answer to that is yes and no. Yes some batteries have a cutoff IC but not all and even if it does it doesnt necessarily divert all the current back, it only limits the amperage limiting the flow.

The ‘cut off’ thing that I’m talking about is not from a separate IC, but is an integral part of the charging system itself. First of all don’t assume that charging process is single stage process. There is a standard algorithm with at least 3 stages for lithium-iron batteries (initial low current, constant current and constant voltage). These chips have temperature sensor input as well. (When the temperature exceed certain level, holding the charging process is a part of algorithm)

No charging system will let the Lithium iron batteries overcharge, because it is highly dangerous. Once it is cut-off, no current is flown to the battery (except for the negligible leakage current) and there is nothing to divert.

If that was the case then charging the battery for the first time more than 2-3 hours after the phones meter says its full is pointless isnt it ?

My understanding is that, it is not necessary to keep charging extra hours when you are charging a lithium iron for the first time. (If possible please show me any literature which recommends this). It has no effect.

(they calculate the mAh and thats how the phone knows how much the battery is charged) all the individual atoms may not be saturated and thats why its recommended to leave it for around 4-6 hours the first time from which one can clearly see that even though the battery is full and the cutoff IC is diverting the current back to the charger still some escapes.Yes not a lot at once but overall over a lifespan of a battery roughly we are talking about 20-30 charge cycles being taken off and not to mention the damage done by the heat, so point being dont do it if you can avoid it but again its your phone and i dont care what you do with it.

Phone read the battery voltage directly through a ADC ( Analog to Digital Converter). And when it says full, it really is full.

For example, iPhone uses LTC4066 chip. According to the datasheet, once the battery is fully charged, it shutdown the charging and the charging cycle will not begin until the voltage drop back to the recharge threshold. So long as the phone is connected to the charger, it draws the power from charger instead of the battery. So the chance is very little for voltage to drop back to the recharge threshold. Effectively, you are isolating the battery from the phone when it is fully charged and still connected to the charger.

Edited September 11, 2012 by whatever

[Magnum]

was it stig who was looking for a dual sim Android phone? check this out

http://www.galaxys2forums.com/samsung-galaxy-s2-lounge-(off-topic)/dual-sim-dual-standby-samsung-galaxy-note-ii-in-the-works-for-china/new/#new

[Shanjeev]

Hi guys,

Give me your opinions on the Samsung Galaxy S2 and Sony Xperia P and which is the best buy?

Thanks,

[Crosswind]

Finally managed to check out some Sony phones within my budget at a phone shop. After doing a comparison with Xperia Sola, Xperia Neo L and Xperia U, my mind is more inclined towards the Neo L. It appears to have the biggest screen of the three and doesn't have the boxy shape of the other two. It also runs ICS out of the box. On the downside, the build quality of all Sony phones seem to be rather poor.

Would anyone like to comment on the Neo L?

Btw I am still open to the idea of getting a Samsung, HTC or a Motorola but didn't get a chance to take a look at them yet.