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Frustrated to the point of switching to another phone.....

I'm just curious if anyone got so frustrated with their LG Ally that they switched to another Android phone and what they thought about it. Don't get me wrong, I love MOST of my Ally - I love the keyboard, I love the apps and the touchscreen, I love the Android OS . I've only had it a week, but the poor battery performance is just driving me crazy to the point that I'm almost paranoid about even using the phone. I barely use it - couple of quick phone calls with my kids, emails, texts, a couple of games - that's it, and it doesn't last a day.

And I have tried all of the "fixes" - Advanced Task Killer, letting the battery run all the way down and charge all the way back up, "airplane mode" - and it still barely lasts the day. My friend has the original Android and she is stunned at my battery life. She uses hers all the time and her battery lasts DAYS. I know that shutting of this, and doing that will help save the battery life, but I guess I just don't want to have to think about it. I've got other stuff to worry about!

So I'm wondering if anyone else has gone through the same thing as me, but went that extra step and dumped the Ally and went to another Android phone. Was it better, worse, the same as the Ally? Are you glad you switched, or do you regret your decision?

"If you can't be a good example, be a horrible warning....."

Comments

tr1kst4nce

All smart phones are going to have rapid battery drainage to some degree... especially if you have apps that run all day. But it may just be you are one of the people that got a bad battery. If you haven't had it long... I'd go in to the store you bought it at and tell them about the rapid drainage and it not lasting long even with minimal use and they will probably just swap out the battery for you. If that fixes the problem, great. If not they will tell you to bring the phone back and it's something internal I bet. In which case since your phone is so new they'll probably just give you a new one and send that one back as a defect or something.

TheGreatOne

Battery life is a problem on the Ally.If you do a search on the forums,you'll find threads/posts of where people complained. The solution to fix the problem is to buy an extended battery life for the phone.It may be expensive,but well worth it.

Check out the app called Power Manager Full. That app is supposed to extend your battery. You may want to consider buying it (only 99 cents).

AZSALUKI

what tr1 said....and what greatone said. the biggest complaint on the inc (besides having to WAIT for it) is the battery life. but you should get a day out of it with average use. so it could be a bad battery. i get about 20 hours of "up time" with about 2-3 hours of that being "awake time" (actual use i beliebve?) on the incredible. so if i use it just a bit more than i normally do...i won't even get through a full day. try purchasing an extended battery if you can find an inexpensive one online.

rydiwags

I am beginning to think it is just the newer phones in general!!My hubby has a Rogue and his battery gets half the battery life my Blackberry Curve gets and I am always on my phone(talk,text,FB etc) while he just talks and texts!! I think that all the technology in the phones is just to much for the batteries! They just have not caught up yet!!

AZSALUKI

rydiwags....you're right. when you start puting 1 gig processors and all of the bells and whistles (wifi, gps, etc) on these phones and are still using 1300 or 1500 mah (or whatever measurement?) batteries....somethin's gotta give. that's why almost every new phone releases an extended battery. the problem is that many of us buy these phones based partially on the size. i'd love to get the 3500 battery for my droid inc, but it will make it MUCH more thick. until they figure out how to pack more juice into those tiny batteries, i believe battery life will be an issue on all of the new phones. apple is claiming that the iphone4 battery will get 10 hours of actual usage. i haven't researched it to see how true that is....but i'm aint buyin that claim.

Niteperson

Not sure if you were aware, but there are several tricks to extend battery life...

* Make sure GPS is off. Turn it on only when needed.

* Use Wifi sparingly. Wifi drains battery like crazy.

* Make sure your screen shuts off in a reasonable amount of time. Mine is set to shut off after 2 minutes of idle time.

* If you have a lot of widgets running, you might try removing a few of them to see if it helps.

Also, avoid task managers. Android does a great job of managing tasks on its own, and task managers really aren't needed. Some of them actually do more harm than good by shutting down tasks prematurely.

lyndarva

I'm not happy with any of the new phones. They are too new and untested on the streets, most don't have updates issued yet. On top of that, support techs don't seem to know a thing about the new phones. On other phones I have had in the past, they could answer right off the bat. Now they have to go get one, look at a simulator, read the specs. I have done all of that before I called.

The LG Ally has potential. It is in the same ballpark as IPhone - I had one, the coverage not so great due to the provider.

My phone seems to be buggy per Verizon. There are trouble tickets in on it. I'm trying to decide what to do. I just went from a Blackberry Bold (bad, and I love Blackberry), so I have to jump ship or pay full price to get another one.

The issues I have had so far that have no answers yet (unless indicated):

1. More disconnects than I have had on other phones. It has cut off on me calling Verizon for help several times.

2. When using a phone tree (Verizon, push 3), the screen goes black. I have attempted to try to reset the screen, the timing, etc.

3. I changed my Gmail password on my computer. I was told by Verizon and LG that the only way to reset it on the Ally is to reset the phone to factory settings.

4. The notification bar at the top is very difficult to work with. You take a lot of time to try to pull it down, another time it rolled down by itself and I had trouble getting rid of it.

5. The Wifi and 3G Browser don't play well. I found this out when my wifi at home went out. It didn't switch over automatically to the 3G browser. I have my wifi set not to connect with any other wifis, for security reasons. I was told by tech support you have to manually switch between 3G and wifi. That just doesn't make sense. Also, I paid for data and I want to use what I paid for so I am not using my wifi any more.

6. I set the touch pad so it isn't supposed to vibrate when I touch it, but it does.

7. I have noticed in some Ally forums that people indicate to do various steps that some of us don't have access to, whether it is because of our email type or whatever.

8. After having the IPhone, I found the Android Apps as being flakier, not being as plentiful and costing more.

9. I don't like the way the Ally locks and how quickly it locks.

10. You have less control over the Apps placement on the screens than with the IPhone, and Verizon/LG/Google has quite a few Apps on it that I wish I could delete.

11. The battery life is really really bad. I turn my phone off at night (more about that), I have wifi off, I have few Apps that are constantly updating, and it still disappears very quickly.

12. I turn my Ally off every night before I go to bed. I did last night, and I confirmed it was turned off per the selection. This morning the phone was on.

13. Verizon.

14. The screen "pages" - besides true lack of control over the icons on the pages, I just pressed the home button several times and it didn't go to the home page.

I am positive I am leaving something off.

Advantages over IPhone:

The volume is much better. With IPhone, you have to download an App that boosts the sound; seriously.

The Ally is more compact than the IPhone.

The Ally has a choice of keyboards.

You don't have to use AT&T, which has worse coverage for a lot of people.

Lovelilady

This is a big "THANKS" to everyone who commented. I've had the phone for almost 2 weeks now, and I have to say - except for the battery life which still sucks - I'm really learning to love my Ally. I look at the other choices out there, and I can't think of anything I would want in its place.

Thanks again for all of the feedback!

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