Samsung Galaxy S6 hype thread

[vi edit]

So I've been off the charger for an hour and a half, 16 minutes of screen time, zero calls and 10 minutes of wifi music streaming. At 90% battery life.

Want to like this phone, and was happy with the free upgrade to 64 gig storage for the price of 32 gig...but. Uhg. Dat battery life. Can't do it. From what I've been reading there seems to be some issue with T-Mobile S6's. They have some extra special level of battery drain that's even worse than most other brands. Yay.

My work G2 on the other hand has been off the charger as long, did 20 minutes of cellular music streaming, a couple emails, some texts and web browsing over cellular in the same time. It's at 95%. G2 is on Android 5.0.2. S6 is on Android 5.1.1.

As far as the Samsung account, yeah I disabled it. It's just the concept that irks me. It's totally unnecessary and that mentality is ultimately why Android is never going to be as easy to work with as iOS. Amazon already created their own store. Now Samsung is trying to push their own. Plus the Play store.

The fragmentation in OS levels is enough, then you push this other crap.

 

[Commodus]

So I've been off the charger for an hour and a half, 16 minutes of screen time, zero calls and 10 minutes of wifi music streaming. At 90% battery life.

Want to like this phone, and was happy with the free upgrade to 64 gig storage for the price of 32 gig...but. Uhg. Dat battery life. Can't do it. From what I've been reading there seems to be some issue with T-Mobile S6's. They have some extra special level of battery drain that's even worse than most other brands. Yay.

My work G2 on the other hand has been off the charger as long, did 20 minutes of cellular music streaming, a couple emails, some texts and web browsing over cellular in the same time. It's at 95%. G2 is on Android 5.0.2. S6 is on Android 5.1.1.

As far as the Samsung account, yeah I disabled it. It's just the concept that irks me. It's totally unnecessary and that mentality is ultimately why Android is never going to be as easy to work with as iOS. Amazon already created their own store. Now Samsung is trying to push their own. Plus the Play store.

The fragmentation in OS levels is enough, then you push this other crap.

I don't mind the Samsung account too much, redundancy notwithstanding... it's the battery life that hurts the S6. I sympathize with the pressure to include a Quad HD screen, but Samsung should have done everything in its power to include a battery that was larger than before, not smaller. Instead, the company continued its obsession with beating/copying Apple and went for thinness. It's good that the S6 is great at fast charging, but you shouldn't have to rely on it.

 

[vi edit]

41 minutes screen time, 0 calls, 0 texts, 8 hours off the charger. 29% left.

Probably going to take it back and grab a G4 since you can still get the SD card and extra battery from them through tomorrow.

 

[s44]

You have a defective one.

 

[vi edit]

You have a defective one.

It sounds like about any of them on T-Mobile are defective. Something to do with how the wifi calling works. I'm in a cellular deadzone at work and wifi calling was the entire reason I even switched to T-Mobile. It was the only way I could even get a signal.

On the S6 the Cell Standby was the largest battery consumer at 36% of the battery life. On the G2 sitting next to it (also T-Mobile) the Cell Standy is only 4% of battery life.

 

[dawheat]

It sounds like about any of them on T-Mobile are defective. Something to do with how the wifi calling works. I'm in a cellular deadzone at work and wifi calling was the entire reason I even switched to T-Mobile. It was the only way I could even get a signal.

On the S6 the Cell Standby was the largest battery consumer at 36% of the battery life. On the G2 sitting next to it (also T-Mobile) the Cell Standy is only 4% of battery life.

Yeah that sounds like a horrible T-mobile bug. For all of my coworkers in Manhattan who have the S6 on AT&T and Verizon, battery life is ok - in real life somewhere between the S4 and S5. Some have done stuff like disable Google Now which helps a bit, but not really necessary.

Anytime a phone drains at that level, something is going wrong. Too bad QC isn't there - but I wonder how much blame Tmo has to take. Between this and iPhones crashing (again likely attributed to wifi calling), things could be better.

 

[Demo24]

So my dad has an s6 on Verizon and overall seems to be good, but battery life is...less than stellar. In particular he took a day trip lately and it drained to zero without using it. Any suggestions on the best way to reduce battery drain when traveling like that? Seems Android always has troubles with battery life when going somewhere.

 

[vi edit]

Found more info about deleting some cache folder and lots of people having good results with that. Did it, rebooted and phone immediately felt cooler in hand. Will give it a shot tomorrow and see if it's any better. Others suggested turning off VoLTE and frankly if that's a "fix" I don't want it fixed. That's a band aid at best.

 

[soulcougher73]

I just picked up the Camo White S6 Active this weekend. So far im enjoying it from a gen 1 Moto X. Went to bed last night at 11pm and had 42% battery left.

 

[vi edit]

After deleting that cache partition last night it's been better.

At 8 hours off the charger it's at 46%. There's 90 minutes of screen time within the Amazon music app, and I've been streaming Amazon prime music most of the day. At 12:00PM I was at 11% of battery being consumed by Cell Standby. Per some suggestions on XDA I disabled VoLTE and did that at noon. 3 hours later that cell standby is at 17%. Although the connection time stopped going up after that point.

It's better, I'm still not sure I'm thrilled with it. One key thing about today though is that I'm in a spot that has very good cellular coverage. Yesterday was in a dead zone.

My G2 in the same time had 40 minutes of screen time, most of which was chrome browsing which is very memory and battery hungry and it's still at 85% and the cell standby doesn't even show up as something that used the battery.

Got a few more hours to decide if I want to dump the S6 and go for the G4 before the promo is up. :/

At least it only takes 30 minutes to top it off...but that's more of a consolation than a perk.

 

[ponyo]

Battery anxiety is a terrible feeling. You shouldn't have to deal with that kind of subpar battery life in 2015. Who wants to deal with disabling and tweaking all the time? Take that S6 back.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Yeah, that's just terrible to have to deal with. Battery life is paramount in a smartphone; there's no excuse for it in 2015.

 

[WelshBloke]

After deleting that cache partition last night it's been better.

At 8 hours off the charger it's at 46%. There's 90 minutes of screen time within the Amazon music app, and I've been streaming Amazon prime music most of the day. At 12:00PM I was at 11% of battery being consumed by Cell Standby. Per some suggestions on XDA I disabled VoLTE and did that at noon. 3 hours later that cell standby is at 17%. Although the connection time stopped going up after that point..

8 hours of streaming music sounds ok at 46% battery.

 

[zerogear]

I've had a GS6 for a day, and it's likely going back.

I'll start with the positives. Camera is the best of any phone I've used. End of story. It's an incredible shooter and the double tap of home button to launch is the fastest access I've seen in a mobile device.

Screen is nice.

Build quality is very good. It's a sharp looking, solid and well put together product. Even if it is a total rip off the iP6. It's not like they even tried to hide it.

That said. Uhg.

I didn't realize how much I hated Samsung. The Note 2 was my first Android device. Then I moved on to a MotoX, then a Droid Turbo and I've got a G2 as my work phone. After having on screen buttons with the "back" button being on the left side of the screen I just can't deal with having it on the right hand corner. Having to physically push the home button is annoying. And it's just a pain after using the other devices.

I hate that when it connects to my car it defaults to the samsung music player with some cheesy hymnal song that I can't seem to find any way to change. And then it shows up as the default song on the display and no other music program will show title and artist.

Samsung account? WTF. No. I already have a Gmail account I need to have to sign in. Don't need one for Samsung too.

I hate the size. It's the same problem I have with the iPhone 6. It's too tall. Coming from a Droid Turbo and a G2 I prefer wider phones. They are oddly, easier to hold and just better for viewing sites. Plus the keyboards just have a bit wider breathing room for me for texting. I didn't think I wanted something as big as the G4, but after messing around with that more, it's actually easier to hold and operate. Plus I totally miss the knock on/off of the LG's.

The finger print scanner is terrible. I have maybe a 20% success rate on that and that's with three different fingers being ID'd.

But most annoying is the battery life. I know I'm not getting Droid Turbo life. But I wasn't expecting this. I lost 20% in 60 minutes with about 20 minutes worth of that being screen time. Sure it charges fast, but holy battery life anxiety. No way I would ever feel comfortable doing a 12 hour day off the charger with this thing. Bleh.

It looks nice, it takes nice pictures, but other than that it's a pain to hold and use, and the battery life sucks.

Pretty much yeah. S6 camera is good, but LG G4's is better. But everything about Samsung UI/Software rubs me the wrong way. Returned the S6 for G4 within week of getting it.

 

[vi edit]

Left the S6 sitting on my counter while I ate dinner tonight and it dropped 3% in about 20 minutes doing absolutely nothing. Last straw. Ate the return fee and took it back in exchange for a G4. It's definitely not as "premium" of a device in terms of look or feel. Don't like the screen as much either. But it's lot more comfortable in hand and with an hour of screen time while I set it up it's only dropped 4% of battery life. Plus I still got in on the free battery, charger and SD card deal that ended today. Took some of the sting out of the return fee.

Guys at T-Mobile stand played the fool. 30+ pages at XDA don't really lie. Plus T-mobile's own forums have a lot of complaints. Not sure if it's a Samsung, Tmobile or Lollipop issue.

 

[Artdeco]

Insert random bleeding edge comment here...

Sorry you had a bad experience, they look cool as hell...

I'm dealing with project fi's quirks at the moment, just got an invite for my backup Google Voice #, am going to try to get them to release my primary #, and use the backup for Project Fi.

 

[zerogear]

Left the S6 sitting on my counter while I ate dinner tonight and it dropped 3% in about 20 minutes doing absolutely nothing. Last straw. Ate the return fee and took it back in exchange for a G4. It's definitely not as "premium" of a device in terms of look or feel. Don't like the screen as much either. But it's lot more comfortable in hand and with an hour of screen time while I set it up it's only dropped 4% of battery life. Plus I still got in on the free battery, charger and SD card deal that ended today. Took some of the sting out of the return fee.

Guys at T-Mobile stand played the fool. 30+ pages at XDA don't really lie. Plus T-mobile's own forums have a lot of complaints. Not sure if it's a Samsung, Tmobile or Lollipop issue.

Just a note from my experience, I had a lot of lag spikes when the G4 was fresh out of the box, people told on XDA me that once the OTA takes place, do a factory reset. It'll resolve the lag spikes. Seems to be working, so FYI if you experience anything similar.

 

[vi edit]

Sorry you had a bad experience, they look cool as hell...

They look like a better iPhone

Seriously though, they are very nice looking phones. That black sapphire color is very sexy and the metal trim does definitely create a perception of quality. But it's an uncomfortable, cold slab of material that I'm scared to operate. What's the point of the beauty if you have it in a case all the time?

I wanted to like it, but the drain at idle doing nothing when a $50 Nokia and a $150 2 year old LG phone curb stomped it was just too much. There's something buggy going on with Samsung and T-Mobile's wifi calling setup under Android 5.

 

[Achtung!]

Left the S6 sitting on my counter while I ate dinner tonight and it dropped 3% in about 20 minutes doing absolutely nothing. Last straw. Ate the return fee and took it back in exchange for a G4. It's definitely not as "premium" of a device in terms of look or feel. Don't like the screen as much either. But it's lot more comfortable in hand and with an hour of screen time while I set it up it's only dropped 4% of battery life. Plus I still got in on the free battery, charger and SD card deal that ended today. Took some of the sting out of the return fee.

Guys at T-Mobile stand played the fool. 30+ pages at XDA don't really lie. Plus T-mobile's own forums have a lot of complaints. Not sure if it's a Samsung, Tmobile or Lollipop issue.

Dropping 3% in 20 minutes? That's pretty normal if you had data/WiFi on and some background programs as well.

Happens to all other modern phones.

 

[mrochester]

Dropping 3% in 20 minutes? That's pretty normal if you had data/WiFi on and some background programs as well.

Happens to all other modern phones.

3% in 20 minutes definitely isn't right as that would give you a standby time of only 11 hours.

 

[vi edit]

Dropping 3% in 20 minutes? That's pretty normal if you had data/WiFi on and some background programs as well.

Happens to all other modern phones.

LOL. No. My wife's iPhone 5s can stay on overnight for 7 hours and is barely down 3%. My G2 has had standby times of over 32 hours and that's with an exchange active sync, and three other email accounts including gmail. My G4 went 90 minutes off the charger with 25 minutes of screen time and 20 minutes of cellular streaming and was only down 3%.

20 minutes with the screen off in decent cellular coverage and down 3% is pathetic.

 

[Artdeco]

Dropping 3% in 20 minutes? That's pretty normal if you had data/WiFi on and some background programs as well.

Happens to all other modern phones.

Um no...

 

[vi edit]

This is more better....

G4 today...

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=E46BB480E134A82A!6385&authkey=!ABVYmVfRHdhIpTw&v=3&ithint=photo%2cpng

That's with about 7 hours of music streaming and 90 minutes of screen time. Phone standby doesn't even register on the battery use screen.

 

[foghorn67]

Dropping 3% in 20 minutes? That's pretty normal if you had data/WiFi on and some background programs as well.

Happens to all other modern phones.

no.

 

[zerogear]

Dropping 3% in 20 minutes? That's pretty normal if you had data/WiFi on and some background programs as well.

Happens to all other modern phones.

Just... no.