Related
I'd like to get some feedback from this community on what people feel works and doesn't work as far as Dev Opts and other settings they use to maximise battery life.
I don't want this to turn into a *****-fest - because I personally have been getting on average about 15h + a day as a moderate user and think this phone/OS combo is capable of more.
I'm relatively new to Android and while there are posts in other forums none of them relate to GN/ICS. There are so many settings to play with and many of them might otherwise go unexplored and unexplained to a lot of users.
A perfect example of this is something I read elsewhere earlier tonight in another rant-based thread. Someone suggested turning Developer Options> Background Process Limit to "At most, 3 processes". I gave that a try and in both instances I got a SOD (not immediately but I'm thinking it may not be sound advice after all).
Something else to consider might be stock apps which are safe to disable.
Things that are known to work or have a majority consensus will be compiled into a list in this thread.
To make things easier, try use a path to the setting you're talking about: Settings > Apps and suchlike.
Thats weird, i've been using that setting all day. I wonder if its an app you have installed thats having its process killed and not liking it. Do you get the same if you set it to 4?
I haven't found much except the obvious screen brightness and setting it to 2g instead of 3g - but that can actually be worse if you have a lot of things syncing often and a congested GPRS network.
Oh and I also have Force GPU rendering on, but i don't think that has much effect.
Good idea for a thread btw.
Thanks. I've heard so many people quote the pitfalls of early adoption (now I'm one of them) I think there may be something in the apps point you make. Narrowing it down is going to be tough I suspect.
I use the below setting on my Nexus S to get two days moderate use:
Brightness at 8% fixed
Black still image wallpaper
Bluetooth off
Gps off
Wifi at home
Always sync off
Others sync off, facebook, gplus
Yupe, that suits my usage pattern. I dont like to bebothered with emails and social network notifications. If I need them, open and update manually.
Really big boost on battery life. I expect this is the same or better with ICS.
Interesting. Good tips gogol.
Yesterday/today I managed to get 1d3h out of the phone.
Admittedly, I didn't put the phone through the punishment I usually subject it to.
I never enable BT, and also turn down the brightness on my screen to about 10%. I do leave sync on but try to limit it to necessary apps only and not app contacts.
Yesterday though, I didn't enable wifi at all (didn't need to really, was in the office all day). I made a few calls, sent a few texts and did my usual commute (about 3hours there and back) listening to music (PowerAmp) and messing around with EQ settings a fair bit.
Because I got 1d though, I got in an extra morning (1. 5hours) of music on the way to work.
So overall I'm pretty happy that I can get on average 15h as a moderate user and a ton more as a light-ish user
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
I updated to the new K6 radio a few days ago and reset the process limit back to standard. I managed 1 day 3 hours with 28% left this morning. I used 2 hours 26 minutes of screen time.
For me the new radio seems to have made a massive difference. I think it has to do with it camping one band/tower for longer and not constantly switching between 3 and HSDPA when there's a data transfer.
In the interest of making things easy for those who are holding off on the KitKat OTA, I thought it might be a good idea to consolidate all of our experiences into one thread. This is intended to cover mainly the changes specific to this OTA over Razr M-flavored Jellybean.
I'll start with my experience/thoughts and edit in additional findings. (Note: I'm bootloader locked, and now unrooted.)
The Good
The UI is definitely smoother. It doesn't jitter or stall under heavy usage anywhere near as much as it did in Jellybean.
Battery life when the phone is asleep seems to have been improved a little.
USB audio out is now supported.
The occasional "screen jitter" that plagued the Jellybean build is gone.
KitKat's Quick Settings panel is quite handy.
The native lock screen now supports adding, removing, and rearranging widgets.
Although it can't be installed from the Play Store, the Google Experience Launcher can be sideloaded and works just fine.
The Neutral / Very Subjective
The AOSP keyboard has changed; the keys are smaller and, in landscape, very squashed. You may need to adjust to it (I'm trying, but it's a struggle) or find a replacement.
Battery life when the phone is actively in use has not been noticeably improved in my experience; but it hasn't been noticeably worsened, either.
There's now a shortcut to the camera from the lock screen, which can be used even if the phone is locked by a pattern/PIN/etc. (Great if you're a shutterbug; not so great if someone else decides to troll your Dropbox/Drive account.)
The Google Camera app works - but Photosphere can't be used, as the Razr M doesn't have a gyroscope.
The Bad
No more root, for those with locked BLs (me). (Saferoot fails, and many users are reporting losing root even when they try survival methods.)
Wi-Fi tethering via most apps (e.g., FoxFi) has been blocked, so now you must pay your carrier for the feature unless a new workaround is discovered.
All notifications I've seen so far now flash the notification light white, instead of unique colors. This may be frustrating for some who used the colors to decide whether to check the phone immediately or later. (Luckily, there are ways to address this.)
The Blur launcher is same 'ol, same 'ol. It uses a solid black background for the soft keys and notifications bar (rather than taking advantage of KitKat's transparency support), and it still has that Quick Settings menu on the left (which is redundant now). In addition, Holo Launcher (which I was using) doesn't account for the space used by the softkeys at all, making it difficult to use. (I've switched to Nova Launcher, which is working fine.)
I've experienced some weirdness with the application switcher. Sometimes it drops me to the launcher right after displaying the list, and sometimes apps will overwrite another's position on the list, or be dropped from the list entirely without reason (this is always temporary, however - just bring up the switcher again).
Some apps can no longer write to the SD card - or at least not wherever they please. We still have the Files browser, mercifully (but I favor Total Commander anyway, which seems to work perfectly).
The audio quick switch on the lock screen has been removed. Also, the buttons for entering a PIN are smaller.
(Leraeniesh) Under heavy usage, the Razr M may get hotter under KitKat than it did under Jellybean, and may drain the battery more.
(GPIX) Some users have noticed decreased network performance in some apps, such as Chrome or YouTube, while on Wi-Fi and with Wi-Fi power-saving enabled.
(GPIX) Several users have reported popping noises - when a sound begins to play, or in the middle of playback. (I haven't experienced it, however.)
Swype is no longer included. If you used it in Jellybean, you will need to purchase it on the Play Store after taking the OTA.
(ls3c6) Some have encountered problems with sharing the address book to paired devices over Bluetooth.
My opinion, overall:
It's a nice upgrade, but all of little problems I've encountered (bugs, Verizon blockades, the works) make this feel like a bit of a letdown after the 6-month wait. In the end, after just three days, I find myself wishing I could take the phone back to Jellybean.
Here's hoping for either some exploitable holes or maintenance updates.
My opinion
Leraeniesh said:
So I popped my sim back into the XT907 for the weekend, and heres what I've noticed (when compared to 4.1.2).
Higher temps - previously, my XT907 hovered around 85F-100F, but with 4.4.2, I've noticed it drift toward 110F with 5+ minutes of active use.
Worse battery life - On 4.1.2 I averaged around 20% after 16 hours moderate use. With 4.4.2, I'm averaging around 5% in the same span.
Lesser LTE coverage - This may be something with my area, but I can usually get 2-3 bars of LTE in the Livingston County area on 4.1.2 (I've noticed the XT907 accel in this category). While on 4.4.2, I could not get any LTE coverage in the same area, and could only find it within more populated areas.
Slower performance - I'll always be amazed by how quick the XT907 was on 4.1.2, beating out devices with similar specs in the same price category. With 4.4.2, I've noticed frame drops, stutters, and random reboots be a common occurrence over the last few days of usage.
Overall, I'm satisfied with 4.4.2, but I still prefer the overall usability with 4.1.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worth noting that I am using an unlocked bootloader, with CWM and SuperSU (only really did this to remove VZW bloat and install Xposed)
Leraeniesh said:
So I popped my sim back into the XT907 for the weekend, and heres what I've noticed (when compared to 4.1.2).
Higher temps - previously, my XT907 hovered around 85F-100F, but with 4.4.2, I've noticed it drift toward 110F with 5+ minutes of active use.
Worse battery life - On 4.1.2 I averaged around 20% after 16 hours moderate use. With 4.4.2, I'm averaging around 5% in the same span.
Lesser LTE coverage - This may be something with my area, but I can usually get 2-3 bars of LTE in the Livingston County area on 4.1.2 (I've noticed the XT907 accel in this category). While on 4.4.2, I could not get any LTE coverage in the same area, and could only find it within more populated areas.
Slower performance - I'll always be amazed by how quick the XT907 was on 4.1.2, beating out devices with similar specs in the same price category. With 4.4.2, I've noticed frame drops, stutters, and random reboots be a common occurrence over the last few days of usage.
Overall, I'm satisfied with 4.4.2, but I still prefer the overall usability with 4.1.2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On 4.1.2 the "signal bars" were calculated by a xml in, I believe, SystemUI.apk. You could simply adjust the figures to show more or less bars, which Moto adjusted to show more. But having no LTE maybe a bad radio or a problem stemming from a bad flash. My Razr M doesn't get hot, no random reboots, and battery life seems to be the same. I haven't had any problems on KitKat.
ATTACK said:
On 4.1.2 the "signal bars" were calculated by a xml in, I believe, SystemUI.apk. You could simply adjust the figures to show more or less bars, which Moto adjusted to so more. But having no LTE maybe a bad radio or a problem stemming from a bad flash. My Razr M doesn't get hot, no random reboots, and battery life seems to be the same. I haven't had any problems on KitKat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gonna be doing some more testing in that regard. Even my M7 with its garbage radios gets LTE just about everywhere in the Metro Detroit area.
So far my experience with 4.4.2 has been positive. I agree with OP's list and would like to add these under the issue category.
ISSUE:
Decreased WiFi effectiveness/throughput - There is a noticeable decrease in performance on apps like Youtube and Chrome web browser.
Audio Popping noises - Some experience a popping noise when the sound driver starts up while others experience it during playback.
I have had the KitKat OTA now for 2 days and haven't found anything major wrong. The changes to the keyboard bugged me but I use swiftkey so that was moot. I also have an issue I haven't seen listed yet. The new sound for screen taps....it seems to give that "popping" feedback (that ive seen listed as an issue on driver start-up) ALL the time. I maybe get 1 clear sound out of every 5-6 screen taps. That is the only real "problem" I can find as of this point though. Does anyone have any insight on that?
Also activated Dev Mode and changed to ART runtime. Might be placebo but app response seems to be noticeably better! Not groundbreaking by any means but better than 4.1.2 for sure. Overall I am happy with the upgrade. Rather, will be happy once a root exploit comes up (I miss my debloating! On that note though, disabling apps never seemed to work right with 4.1.2....after hitting disable the app would show back up in active processes after a short time. Now I've gone 24 hours and 3 phone reboots and that damn NFL app is STILL disabled and NOT running as a background process. Might just have been an issue with my phone in particular before, but its fixed now!)
I am generally happy.
It fixed all the issues I had with Dhackers KitKat.
and feels about the same once you have rid of all the Bloat.
I like and I am happy that we still surprisingly got the update unlike the Galaxy S3
Happy =)
Just wanted to comment on the heat issue mentioned above:
I have only had KitKat for 2 days but I have definitely noticed a difference in heat after extended use compared to JB. One of the things I really liked about my Razr M was lack of heat so hopefully this is a fluke and I wont notice it too much in the future.
---
With that said, no big issues.
I don't like the keyboard -seems smaller, or something, The heptic feedback seems to be different too (for the worse IMO).
The lockscreen number pad seems smaller - definitely liked the number pad from JB.
I had to change the messaging app (hated the all white/lack of contrast). Using "8sms" if anyone is curious.
I also changed launchers to use the google-now launcher so the "okay google" thing would work on the homescreen and also get the transparency notification bar. But, in doing that I did lose the circle widgets which I liked. Can't win for losing sometimes...
---
On a positive note, Chrome/google searches seem to be much faster. The UI seems about the same (no complaints with JB).
If battery life can increase then I'll be satisfied with update (so far, no difference).
My experience has been very positive. My phone was bootloader locked and not rooted before (and, of course, after) the OTA. I cleared the cache partition from the recovery menu post-install but have not done a FDR. General impressions:
-- UI is overall much snappier/quicker. Extremely noticeable.
-- Love the new quick settings panel that you can get to after pulling down the notifications shade.
-- KK's changes to how the SDcard works have not been a big deal at all for me. The native "Files" app seems to have complete read/write access, as does ES File Explorer.
-- Like the new clock feature to automatically add a "home" display when traveling outside a pre-defined timezone.
-- Hate the new way you set the alarm on the clock. (Really, whoever came up with that input method should be transferred to a department where s/he can never affect design decisions again.)
-- I miss the audio silencer/mute on the lockscreen.
-- Battery life has been interesting. When I first installed the update (morning of 05/15), battery life was definitely worse, probably by about 50%. It has gradually been getting better, however, and now is probably only about 20%-25% worse than JB. Why it would change I have no idea, but it definitely is (I've been keeping notes, and am sure it is actually happening). I have noticed, using the Battery History details screen, that there are a LOT less wakelocks in KK than JB. In JB, I used to see tons of "Awake" indicators on that screen that did not pair with "Screen On" indicators. In KK, there are very few incidences of "Awake" that are not paired with "Screen On." Someone smarter than me will have to explain how that translates into worse battery life.
-- It may be my imagination, but it seems like the battery charges faster w/ KK. If it's not my imagination, I wonder if that means that the apparent decrease in battery life is really an issue of improper calibration/accuracy.
I have not experienced some of the things others have reported:
-- No random reboots.
-- No changes to WiFi or 4G signals. I don't use Bluetooth so can't comment on that.
-- No popping noise when using audio. (Note: I have seen some reports in other forums that a FDR fixes this issue for those who have it.)
I'm on locked BL, definitly non root, and I happen to installed MotoCam from a store n IT DID INSTALLED. .
Opens up, takes pictures beautifully. .
Only problems are the slide in menu is glitchy AND after taking HDR pic, cam UI is not there. Only live cam feed.
Other than these issues, it's playing nicely ESPECIALLY auto HDR does work, surprisingly!
How can I make those problems go away??
Sent from my XT907 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
4039995825
GPlX said:
So far my experience with 4.4.2 has been positive. I agree with OP's list and would like to add these under the issue category.
ISSUE:
Decreased WiFi effectiveness/throughput - There is a noticeable decrease in performance on apps like Youtube and Chrome web browser.
Audio Popping noises - Some experience a popping noise when the sound driver starts up while others experience it during playback.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
go into wifi settings...in the setting "uncheck" the box "wi-fi optimization" it made my WiFi significantly better..
Nidstang said:
-- No popping noise when using audio. (Note: I have seen some reports in other forums that a FDR fixes this issue for those who have it.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Attempted a FDR on my phone, unfortunately it did not work for me. I will attempt to clear the cache partition to see if that may help the issue if
possible. So far i can only get the boot menu for a couple seconds and im lucky to get a selection in time.
EDIT: I cleared the cache partition, no effect. (NOTE: it seems to get into the recovery menu after selecting it at boot menu, you have to hold power & vol UP for a couple seconds)
crazy4android said:
go into wifi settings...in the setting "uncheck" the box "wi-fi optimization" it made my WiFi significantly better..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is an excellent point. I'll shut off the optimization and will edit my results in after tinkering with it for a while.
EDIT2: Without doing speedtests etc. It is very noticable that the wifi has improved. Youtube & other apps load as fast as they did on 4.1.2
Haven't looked into it so this MIGHT be a feature of the Google Now Launcher I installed, but I JUST noticed if you swipe down from the clock area of the new lock screen, you can add widgets! Am I crazy or is this a new feature on our phones? If so, LOVE it! Helps mitigate the loss of the quicklinks from our old 4.1.2 lock screen.
kashif87 said:
I'm on locked BL, definitly non root, and I happen to installed MotoCam from a store n IT DID INSTALLED. .
Opens up, takes pictures beautifully. .
Only problems are the slide in menu is glitchy AND after taking HDR pic, cam UI is not there. Only live cam feed.
Other than these issues, it's playing nicely ESPECIALLY auto HDR does work, surprisingly!
How can I make those problems go away??
Sent from my XT907 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe you can uninstall updates to the cam in apps
bwer1233 said:
Haven't looked into it so this MIGHT be a feature of the Google Now Launcher I installed, but I JUST noticed if you swipe down from the clock area of the new lock screen, you can add widgets! Am I crazy or is this a new feature on our phones? If so, LOVE it! Helps mitigate the loss of the quicklinks from our old 4.1.2 lock screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lockscreen widgets were introduced in Android 4.2.2.
Just want to let people know that the Google Now Launcher is working great on 4.4.2 including the "ok Google" functionality.
You can't download it from the play store. I just grabbed the apk from this thread.
http://www.xda-developers.com/andro...-and-gpe-devices-apk-mirrored-for-all-others/
Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk
rooted + cwm
can't use "memory" feature under settings, while calculating settings app would crash
how can I go to hiddent menu? *#*#4636#*#* is failed until my M get kk updrade...
tieuvienson2005 said:
how can I go to hiddent menu? *#*#4636#*#* is failed until my M get kk updrade...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are many "phone info" apps in the Market. Or create the short cut with Activity Launcher.
Also the Cam sucks on my Wife's m so get the Lenovo from my Moto x signature link.
I've lately got into developing mobile apps and even though i've promoted this as beta, people seem to be using it, but nobody's reporting back! - same goes for all of my apps, i don't get it...
Anyway, i need real feedback and I was wondering if any folks here with a rooted android could help test this app out, it was made on Kitkat, so while yes, it works fine for me, it may not for you... I've had one feedback comment saying that his modem data was not switching off on lollipop, so i added support for that now allowing him or her to use the app as intended, but after replying via the playstore, nothing was heard of him since... almost suspicious lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpsPnMRO86w
Find it on Android's Playstore... Craig's Battery Saver ROOT
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=saver.battery.craigs.craigsbatterysaver :good:
How it works..... read on
How it works, if you're interested!
2 things use up battery power
1. apps that are CPU intensive, eg constantly repeating to connect (this would only happen under malware, as most apps would never do this, it would see the socket it closed/dead and stop and wait until user input, malware would constantly reconnect.. but 99/100 apps will just stop and then do nothing meaning all genuine apps should 'idle' not really using up cpu time....
2. Hardware services, bluetooth, mobile data, wifi, gps, these services are all hardware, so your cpu will switch on each of these services and each one has a significant drain on your battery, go bed at 11pm, by 9am it may have drained 30 - 40% or more... with this app, it will have drained under 1 - 3% depending on your battery (tablets for example should run for days with this app if rooted)
So this app does 2, it first remembers which hardware was on before the screen goes off, so no confusing switch wifi on when wifi's already on (as i've seen on other apps?!) reason why i wrote this because all the other apps i came across sucked really, almost but not quite etc etc..
With this tool, if you're a light user you could quite easily see 60% battery improvement! the bonus side affect of this app is also interesting, for 1, it charges quicker! if you accidentally fall asleep, it will conserve as much power as possible, obviously sms,telephone/mobile network is still running in the background so you can't completely stop a device from draining...
the other bonus side affect was, it kills dead all facebook notifications, twitter, well it would as it disables wifi, modem. 3g, bt when the screen goes off! :good:
1 more feature, if you drop your phone? then what?... take where's my droid, i sms it asking for location... it replies "GPS OFF" and "modem off" simple, send the text message to your phone with "on" without the " " around on, and the app will disable itself so it does not switch off the services and then at the same time it enables Wifi, Modem Data, Gps, Bt pretty useful huh... then on where's my droid, you'll get GPS combined with AGPS data from mobile data giving you pin point accuracy, as soon as you get the data of where it is... type in
off (to turn this feature off) or
on (to turn on all your services)
It also disables itself taking calls...
It has a smart check feature too, let's say after you switch the screen on and for some reason wifi failed to switch on ? after 3 seconds it will then check again to see if wifi is indeed on... if it's not on, it attempts to switch it on again...
Feedback is greatly appreciated so i can support a larger range of devices.... thank you for reading! (Suggestions, welcome!)
So basically what your device is and what's not working (along with build version, lollipop/kitkat etc) and i'll see if i can find a way to add it in to support your droid! - one more thing, i've been releasing updates like a crazy woman collecting cats lately and even though it does all this it's only supporting "Extreme power saving option" come tuesday i hope to have that sorted out so that every few minutes it can wake up to check for twitter/facebook messages for all of those who hate the sound of a phone being blissful quiet
if you're rooted and it does not look like that in the video [top of screen] (not the interface, but the services, i've already updated the UI)
anyway, help me to make it better for you...
One more thing, there are no push notifications, no popup adds, no huge banners, all my apps have one tiny advert to help support the countless hours of programming i'm putting into this apps, with each upgrade i aim to make them more stable and more usable, and i really need peoples help and support even if that is criticism - it's "beta" but i'm almost ready to bring it out after i add the wake up services....
Nobody has a rooted device?
Unlike other battery savers... it really does work
With a few useful actions missing, and really funky updating and subsequent battery drain-
How do you like AW 2.0 on your HW?
What do you miss the most?
What's your favorite new thing from 2.0?
Will you stay with 2.0?
I've been running DP for months and I don't really remember what I should be missing. I am happy with current performance and features will stay on 2.0
Edit.... Can't see poll in app....
jowofoto said:
With a few useful actions missing, and really funky updating and subsequent battery drain-
How do you like AW 2.0 on your HW?
What do you miss the most?
What's your favorite new thing from 2.0?
Will you stay with 2.0?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Like it a lot. Just a little bit of a learning curve.
2. I miss the longer battery life. I charge it every night, but I was usually at 50% on 1.5, now I usually at 15%.
3. Answering calls. On 1.5, when I swiped to answer, I routinely swiped my launcher and lost the call. On 2.0 you tap to answer.
4. Definitely.
jowofoto said:
With a few useful actions missing, and really funky updating and subsequent battery drain-
How do you like AW 2.0 on your HW?
What do you miss the most?
What's your favorite new thing from 2.0?
Will you stay with 2.0?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there are good things and very bad ones. I'm tending to not really like it. Reasons listed below.
I don't even know where to begin with... Here is a (probably incomplete) list of what I miss the most:
double tap on button for theater mode
contacts are not synced with the PHONE, instead it only syncs contacts from your Google account (which I'm not using, I'm using my own CardDAV server but I've seen already the exact same problem with Exchange, so this is not a niche problem - Calendar works well with my CalDAV server and is in sync with what is set up on the phone)
Google Now (all that below worked like a charm before the upgrade) - Google assistant is not really usable (for me at least), and far away from good or perfect:
it becomes quite useless without the contacts (can't make calls, as there are no contacts - can't send messages, etc.) - and making phone calls or sending messages is the primary use case for the voice control on my watch
saying "Call Jon Doe on mobile" (did a test cause I really need to call my wife often) keeps asking me for which number to call (seriously, Google Assistant? Are you that smart?)
saying "Send Telegram/WhatsApp/Text Message to Jon Deo - Hello World" will remain on a screen with buttons to cancel or send instead of sending that "Hello World" message (again: are you serious? Why should I use voice commands if I in return have to interact manually with my device again? What is the deeper meaning behind that?)
Old apps don't work anymore (I installed Heart Trace on the phone but it's not appearing on the watch - also not after doing the "sync apps" in the Wear app) - sure this will change for all apps that are still maintained by their devs - but others won't
notifications peek cards - especially for the music player. this is horrible and a really a big issue for me. And also for non-music player notifications: I just don't see at first sight (and without fiddeling with the watch) that there are notifications - the "complications" watch faces are ugly (IMHO) and I really hope that the dev of my watch face will include a small icon telling me that there are 1, 2, 3, 99 notifications pending.
tripple tap on the button for brightness boost - although I never used it (I just didn't know it existed until after upgrading to 2.0) I really see the benefit of this shortcut and would have started to use it - especially as summer is just around the corner and in bright sunlight the watch is hard to read.
swipe from right to left for the apps list (why would I want to swipe for changing the watch face??) swiping should really be associated to an action I use often - MAKE IT USER CONFIGURABLE!! (this holds true for most of the issues, and also for the good things below)
DND mode synced with the phone. Now, this is really controversial as it depends on the individual use case. I need it synced with the phone (either phone and watch muted or both on vibrate/loud). In any case: JUST LET THE USER DECIDE! (seriously, Google! How hard is this?)
battery live - was way better with AW1.5. Had 30-50% left after 22-24h - now it's completely drained after 20-22h with similar usage. Trying the stop sync over wifi setting next.
To be fair, there are a couple of nice features that I like:
the drop down quick settings - the individual screens for each setting were just horrible in terms of UX!
the apps carousel and the favorite apps shortcuts
the possibility to install apps directly on the watch
full fletched Telegram app (got to give props to the Telegram devs rather than to Google but still: I like)
possibility to stop the notifications from popping up all over the screen (a real problem if you are in a meeting at work with the customer and your friend sends you embarrassing messages so that every one can read them - other scenarios problematic, too) - instead now only a small icon appears and that's it
I'm really only centimeters/inches away from downgrading. Got the AW1.5 image already downloaded, giving AW2.0 some more days of testing, but if that list above keeps growing, I'll downgrade for sure.
There are also other issues with the UI/UX:
i.e., the scroll indicator on the right - historically, that makes sense. But on a watch (which most people are wearing on the left hand) when you reach to the screen for scrolling, you're actually obscuring the screen so you can't see the scroll bar anyway. So what's the point? also, the scroll indicator has the same size no matter how long the list is.
There is probably more, but I've had enough for today.
Cheers
dmckami said:
Old apps don't work anymore (I installed Heart Trace on the phone but it's not appearing on the watch - also not after doing the "sync apps" in the Wear app) - sure this will change for all apps that are still maintained by their devs - but others won't
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heart trace works. For some apps I get notifications on watch to install watch companion app, for others I have to manually install on watch via play store. Sometimes you can't find the app in the watch store unless you have it installed on the phone...
derausgewanderte said:
Heart trace works. For some apps I get notifications on watch to install watch companion app, for others I have to manually install on watch via play store. Sometimes you can't find the app in the watch store unless you have it installed on the phone...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I'll check that once I have charged the watch again. It ran out of battery mid-day today :-/
jowofoto said:
With a few useful actions missing, and really funky updating and subsequent battery drain-
How do you like AW 2.0 on your HW?
What do you miss the most?
What's your favorite new thing from 2.0?
Will you stay with 2.0?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. It's okay. There's a lot of potential, but it doesn't feel like it has been fully realized yet.
2. Not requiring me to press "ok" after I dictate a text message. That defeats the whole purpose of hands free messaging. The battery life downgrade is a bummer, but I charge my watch every night anyway so it doesn't really matter to me. I went from having 60-70% battery left in the afternoon to having about 50% left.
3. Facebook messenger finally works. In fact, all of my notifications work, though some work better than others. I'm looking at you, Outlook. Also, having a keyboard is nice. I think it works surprisingly well considering the tiny screen that it's on.
4. Yeah.
TheSt33v said:
. I'm looking at you, Outlook..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have Outlook installed on the watch? It's working for me.
With double and triple tap back it would be perfect for me.
derausgewanderte said:
You have Outlook installed on the watch? It's working for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, and it does work, but not as well as the other notifications. The notification is there when I swipe up, but it doesn't appear in a noticeable way when I first get it like my other apps. I have to go looking for it.
twitter on android wear 2.0
Is it just me or is there no twitter support for android wear 2.0?
Well my experience is that wear 2.0 is not an improvement as far as performance and efficiency goes. Been running it for 5 days. now. the watch is laggy, so much so that starting and stopping the stopwatch leads to unreliable times. press the stopwatch start button on my watch face and approx 1/2 second later it starts (tap and the vibration feedback also comes about 1/2 second later). any watch animations seem to be laggy like they are running at 20 frames. battery is lasting half as long (used to be 48 hours, now lucky if I get 24 hours). Love the new app launcher layout but in true google style they half arsed it and didn't carry it into a single other menu on the watch so the usual inconsistency from the guys that implement the standards, well done Google.
RudeboyXL said:
Well my experience is that wear 2.0 is not an improvement as far as performance and efficiency goes. Been running it for 5 days. now. the watch is laggy, so much so that starting and stopping the stopwatch leads to unreliable times. press the stopwatch start button on my watch face and approx 1/2 second later it starts (tap and the vibration feedback also comes about 1/2 second later). any watch animations seem to be laggy like they are running at 20 frames. battery is lasting half as long (used to be 48 hours, now lucky if I get 24 hours). Love the new app launcher layout but in true google style they half arsed it and didn't carry it into a single other menu on the watch so the usual inconsistency from the guys that implement the standards, well done Google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I found that having the triple tap feature enabled for zooming was causing my touch reaction lag. no biggy, not a feature I need enabled. but I have found the battery life to be terrible. seems to have gotten worse. The watch uses about 5-10% per hour, if not more at times with little to no use. Can't even get through a full day. This is ridiculous. I went from having state of the art smartwatch with amazing UX to a power hungry wrist calculator. I literally don't like looking at my watch anymore as I'm without doubt going to see my battery drop about 15-20% since I last looked at it. Pathetic. I'm not performing another factory reset as it clearly is the ROM that's the problem. Huawei need to sort this out. All that time waiting and this is what we are given.
Usability wise, it's still nowhere nearly as comfortable to use an an Samsung Gear S3. That said, the UI is smoother and with better readable notifications. The Spotify-card on the Watch is a pain to use though. Sometimes it appears and sometimes it does not (also happens with Play Music).
Battery life is utterly dissapointing. I've had AW2.0 since OTA-day, now at least a week and I get about 1.5 days out of it. On AW1.5 I used to get 4-5 days out of it. Such an gigantic drop in batterylife is something I do NOT like. Now I can't brag about my watch lasting 5x longer than my collegue's Apple Watches :/
So far, Gear S3 is still by far the best watch money can buy. But if you really want Android Wear, imho the Huawei Watch still is by far the best buy.
1. Keyboard is not that easy to use but its good to have keyboard, apps got much better, battery drain is same as always for me (good).
2. I was on DP since DP4 released, but i remember AW1.5 had more beautiful UI that AW2's UI.
3. I can send voice messages via telegram!
4. Definitely.
Sent from my Huawei Mate 8 using Tapatalk
Other then the fact that somehow my max speaker volume changed to super low and the double tap to sleep is gone I am happy. Working with HW support, I did a reset which killed bat for about 4 hrs, but now bat life is same or slightly better than before and play services on watch is much smaller than after OTA update. New navigation took a day or two to get used to, but OK with it now. Like the fact that I have a little more control of what is on watch and how it is used. Probably going back to HW for speaker repair under warranty ( days left). Palm on watch to sleep doesn't work for me, but not a big deal. A few tweaks and it should be a nice OS.
amin318 said:
1. Keyboard is not that easy to use but its good to have keyboard, apps got much better, battery drain is same as always for me (good).
2. I was on DP since DP4 released, but i remember AW1.5 had more beautiful UI that AW2's UI.
3. I can send voice messages via telegram!
4. Definitely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The voice message feature for telegram is great! It actually makes the watch smarter...no more quick replies or voice message via Google(especially if you speak in an unsupported language)....
And you can also hear the voice messages you receive on the watch directly via the speaker....
Just like a wrist walkie talkie
I just pray to god Whatsapp will implement this as well...
2.0 is the single worst software update I have ever seen. ...
It's almost as if it bypassed even the simplest quality control check!!
Swipe left is now taking you to a watchface rather than menu?? Like seriously?? OMG
Where can I downgrade?
I have had my P20 for about three month now... and it's OK but the Huawei "enhancements" and some other things are very frustrating.
1) Almost none of my "background" stuff works... Meaning things like Google Photo backup, SMS Backup & Restore scheduled backups, and other scheduled services don't run until I open the apps. Not much good to have automatic backups if they aren't automatic. Also, Google Rewards does not notify me of new surveys. Things that happen in the background seems to happen for a short time after you open the app, then they just stop.
2) Multitasking is a joke... On my old Moto G5+, I could have Facebook, Candy Crush Saga (don't judge, I have invested too much time to quit), Pandora, MeWe, Gmail, Messenger, Nine Mail, and a host of other apps running with no issues switching back and forth without them "reloading". On my P20 with the same RAM and supposedly a faster processor, if I am in Candy Crush Saga and switch to Facebook, then switch back, Candy Crush reloads when I was in the middle of level... Much less trying to have Pandora or a few other things going simultaneously. And yet I typically have 1.8-2.1GB of RAM available, it's impossible to actually multitask without apps restarting constantly.
3) Delayed or no notifications... From most apps... Gmail, Facebook, XDA, Nine (a real problem, this is my work email), Calendar, etc. Almost every app that isn't open gives delayed notification, sometimes a minute or two, sometimes hours, sometimes not until it is opened. Other times notifications show up, but no sound is given at all.
These things all seem to be related to how aggressive the memory and application management is to maintain the battery... Sort of making up for the hardware's inefficiencies through software. But it works, battery life is quite good.
4) Inability to change "default" apps like the Gallery... I hate the Gallery, but I love Google Photos as the "gallery" app. You can change it in the settings to the default, but few applications "honor" that setting. And for some reason the Gallery doesn't see all the photos I download with Photos. Weird... And even when you set other non-Huawei apps as defaults, it only works sometimes. This goes back to EMUI's software framework I think. Never had this issue on Motos, Nokias, Pixels, etc.
5) More of an annoyance than anything else, but what the heck is with the lock screen wallpaper? I can't get rid of the Huawei papers, they show up no matter what I do or how many of my own I add, the stock ones keep showing up. I have gone into the lock screen settings and disabled ALL of the embedded ones, and only my folder of about 50 or so images, and I keep getting the stock Huawei ones show up in the rotation.
Then there is the lockups... For example, open Google and search for something, switch to images, and maybe turn on GIF filter or something... This thing will grind to a halt in nothing flat, granted my old Moto would lag a bit, but it was 100 times better than this thing. I get the same thing in some apps but not others without consistency. Or if my UC-One app for work rings, sometimes it works, other times it locks up tight and needs a hard reboot to recover... No other phone out of the 80 or so at work does this. It's just so inconsistent.
And my last gripe is the data lag... At random times, regardless if on mobile data or WiFi, it will just lag out for 10 seconds to 2 minutes, usually once or twice a day, but not consistently... Everything looks fine, good signal strength regardless of source and other devices work fine, but no data will be moving and videos freeze and buffer, Facebook pictures don't load, etc. Granted, this really started after the May 2019 update.
It sounds like I hate this phone, but I do like a lot of things about it... The battery life if good, the charge times are good, the camera is excellent, the sound quality is acceptable, nice screen, not too big or overweight. But man, that new Pixel 3a XL at $20/month is sure looking pretty good.
Am I all alone here, or do others have the same issues?
Oh dude. 99 % of things you mentioned can be handled in the phone settings like telling phone not to shut apps in the background. You should Google before you write things down.
Ragarding your last point with lag: try doing a soft reset and install you carrier settings once again.
I've got the phone for half a year now and after searching and changing some settings it works better than anything else I've seen on a phone I paid 350 EUR for.
EuBir said:
Oh dude. 99 % of things you mentioned can be handled in the phone settings like telling phone not to shut apps in the background. You should Google before you write things down.
Ragarding your last point with lag: try doing a soft reset and install you carrier settings once again.
I've got the phone for half a year now and after searching and changing some settings it works better than anything else I've seen on a phone I paid 350 EUR for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I take no offense from your comment, but I am not a noob... I have been working with Android since Eclair and smartphones in general much longer, including working on several ROM development teams and am an RC here. I did Google and DID turn off Huawei's "App Launch" management that I assume you are talking about trying to stop the optimizations from EMUI, and a few other things, but this is AFTER that. Although some of them seemed to help a little, it doesn't fix the problems.
Not only have I soft reset, I have done complete factory resets and all of my carrier settings are current... The lag also occurs on WiFi.
My post was kind of a rant, not necessarily looking for a solution unless there was one, and I was looking to see if I was the only one with these issues. Nor am I saying this isn't a good phone... Many of the things I have talked about would not bother many people.
In my case, I'm happy with the phone. Obviously I had some other problem, especially in some of the points you mentioned in the post. As the backup of Google Photos that did not work, but when I opened the app. However, selecting that all applications start manually has worked correctly for me.
I have disabled several applications using ADB. I know it does not erase them definitively, but hey, it's something. I also hate or just do not like the amount of applications that the phone has installed, I see them as unnecessary. I've always tried to use Google apps: calendar, dialer, calculator, clock, contacts, file manager, keep notes, etc. (that means I also disabled the original dialer).
But there is something that haunts me since I upgraded to EMUI 9. And it is a bug in recent applications that has a blue shadow that only appears when using a launcher. As I read, the solution is to disable the EMUI launcher, I did it once, but I prefer the appearance of recent applications of EMUI 9 than the previous ones. (Although I believe that this is poorly implemented).
Disable Huawei power genie app. I think it will solve all your problems with background apps.
You can find instructions online.
Your battery will take a small hit.
The biggest issue is the wifi, very capricious
I have no problem watching a 1080p stream on twitch... but loading the newsfeed on FB, twitter, is sometimes impossible. I have to switch to 4g to load the newsfeed and it's very annoying ... Sometimes i can browse the internet for 5minutes, then nothing would load, for no reason ...
The battery management settings is also very aggressive, and notifications often displayed 1h, 2h late. Occasionally i get a "1 message from " " ... 1 day" on messenger app
One thing i really miss is viper4audio ... I did everything, i can't get this thing to work.
Appart from that, it's a good medium range phone.
maxime4611 said:
The biggest issue is the wifi, very capricious
I have no problem watching a 1080p stream on twitch... but loading the newsfeed on FB, twitter, is sometimes impossible. I have to switch to 4g to load the newsfeed and it's very annoying ... Sometimes i can browse the internet for 5minutes, then nothing would load, for no reason ...
The battery management settings is also very aggressive, and notifications often displayed 1h, 2h late. Occasionally i get a "1 message from " " ... 1 day" on messenger app
One thing i really miss is viper4audio ... I did everything, i can't get this thing to work.
Appart from that, it's a good medium range phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what phone you have.I think you are on a wrong thread.This is for Huawei P20 which is a premium phone not a midrange phone.
It's not a 800€+ phone, and there's the p20 pro. I bought it for 379€ in europe, just a month after it's release. So for me it's more a medium range phone ^^ the top medium range
costindaemon said:
Disable Huawei power genie app. I think it will solve all your problems with background apps.
You can find instructions online.
Your battery will take a small hit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for this. I was so tired of having to reload recent apps. It was so bad on my phone that just switching between 2 apps would close the first.
maxime4611 said:
It's not a 800€+ phone, and there's the p20 pro. I bought it for 379€ in europe, just a month after it's release. So for me it's more a medium range phone ^^ the top medium range
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well,for me there are the specifications that make a phone premium/midrange or entry-level.The P20 has specifications that matches a premium 2018 phone.If you were so lucky to find a new P20 in spring 2018 for less than 400 euros,good for you.
costindaemon said:
Disable Huawei power genie app. I think it will solve all your problems with background apps.
You can find instructions online.
Your battery will take a small hit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ryandos said:
Thank you so much for this. I was so tired of having to reload recent apps. It was so bad on my phone that just switching between 2 apps would close the first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to disable the Power Genius app, it can actually do some good... disabling it is functionally equivalent to going to Settings -> Battery -> App Launch and turning off "Manage All Automatically" and that will leave you like most other Android device with the kernel managing everything.
I disabled this at first after @costindaemon mentioned it, but Gmail app notifications, especially for non-Gmail accounts, got wonky... So I re-enabled Power Genius but turned it off as I stated above, then went through the apps and turned some on that I wanted "suppressed"... Gmail is an enigma here though, if it's management is turned off I had issues with notifications and accounts, and in App Launch it had a warning saying something like that, so I turned it on for that app and it's been good since. I have since just monitored the usage with GSAM's App Sucker and anything high on the battery usage list that I didn't want I turned on the Manage Automatically for that app and it no longer misbehaved. Think I have found the happy medium here.
I still have some issues with the phone, most just annoyances now... not to the level of frustration I was at before though. Still looking at that Pixel 3a XL though... it's in the cart, financing approved, but I just can't seem to pull the trigger yet. lol
acejavelin said:
You don't need to disable the Power Genius app, it can actually do some good...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right. I made a mistake in thinking that disabling power genie worked, when in reality it was just rebooting my phone that temporarily fixed the problem.
I did a bit of googling into a "ram leak" on the P20 and it was actually because I was using a 3rd party launcher (Nova). The solution was to disable the stock Huawei launcher, and since I did that 2 days ago my free ram has not gone below 1000mb. I've installed another launcher in case Nova mucks up.
But it looks like you've moved onto the 3a now, hopefully it's better than the awful software experience that comes with this phone xD. I definitely won't be buying Huawei in the future.
Ryandos said:
You're right. I made a mistake in thinking that disabling power genie worked, when in reality it was just rebooting my phone that temporarily fixed the problem.
I did a bit of googling into a "ram leak" on the P20 and it was actually because I was using a 3rd party launcher (Nova). The solution was to disable the stock Huawei launcher, and since I did that 2 days ago my free ram has not gone below 1000mb. I've installed another launcher in case Nova mucks up.
But it looks like you've moved onto the 3a now, hopefully it's better than the awful software experience that comes with this phone xD. I definitely won't be buying Huawei in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I got my Pixel on Monday... Already think it's 10 times better, except the camera. That 2x "optical zoom" was damn nice although the Pixel's pictures seem a better quality even though they take longer to process. For the camera, I'm still giving the edge to the Pixel but I haven't played with it much yet.
All my issues are gone now and battery life is noticeably better. The Huawei will be going up on the local classified ad sites soon, hopefully the market for them isn't completely tanked.
Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk
Your lockscreen issue is solved by deleting the excess wallpapers from the lockscreen. As you cycle into the first one, tap it and...
Any issues you have don't exist for me. Likely because i always first disable/uninstall most major google apps immediately.
Any problems i've noticed don't appear to me as device specific but rather OS related. To me, this thing performs quite well with impressively low battery drain by comparison.