Samsung Galaxy S5 - new phone advice

kiddums

So Im due an upgrade soon. Im looking at the S5.
Im coming from an S3 mini, which Ive had foe 2 years. This phone has bogged down in terms of speed, despite regular factory resets. And the battery life is shockingly bad, replaced the battery several times, but they never last more than a month or 2 before they're also down to only lasting 2/3 hours on a full charge.

I dont want to be getting something that will end up the same as that. Is the S5 a good phone over time, or is it only good in the short term? Does it have the same battery issues?

Digital Solitude

You're either buying cheap batteries or they're getting way too hot if they're crapping out that quickly.

All electronics start to slow down and crap out with time, the S3 is a three year old phone, no matter what phone you pick up, within three years it'll be the same story.

If you're happy with Samsung, then the S5 should be a good bet. Look at HTC One M8 for an alternative either

kiddums

In know Im buying cheap batteries as thats all I could really find.
I dont think its getting too hot.

I accept that, but this is at the point where its near un useable a few days after a reset.
I just want one that will last the contract duration.

My network doesnt have any HTC's.

Digital Solitude

You could try putting a custom rom such as Cyanogenmod onto it, should be able to squeeze some more life out of it, it'll certainly be better than it is now.

kiddums

I was thinking about doing that but Im afraid I'll brick my phone.
I'm still looking for a n00b guide to it.

Digital Solitude

Its either get a new phone, custom ROM and it works, or custom ROM and it bricks it, so new phone

You don't really have much to lose. Its a fairly simple procedure

AnimalRights

S5 should be fine and an almighty upgrade

Digital Solitude

http://beta.download.cyanogenmod.org/install

You could try this, its fairly hard to brick an Android tbh, I've often flashed ROMs for totally different phones by accident and been able to recover them

kiddums

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Its either get a new phone, custom ROM and it works, or custom ROM and it bricks it, so new phone

You don't really have much to lose. Its a fairly simple procedure

I'll take a look this evening and see if I can have a go at it. Does it take long to do?

Digital Solitude

At most, about an hour or two

kiddums

Digital Solitude wrote: »

At most, about an hour or two

Thats my evening sorted then

N64

The reason why the batteries keep on crapping out on you is because you're buying non genuine samsung batteries. Try these next time (they're dispatched by amazon themselves so very unlikely that these are fakes) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-EB-F1M7FLU-1500-Battery-Galaxy/dp/B00BBCVIEI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1433179982&sr=8-2&keywords=samsung+s3+mini+battery+genuine

Digital Solitude

I just copped you were using the S3 mini and not the S3. Try Cyanogenmod and see what difference it makes, but an upgrade is probably best. Full sized S5 will be a monumental upgrade

corwill

Digital Solitude wrote: »

I just copped you were using the S3 mini and not the S3. Try Cyanogenmod and see what difference it makes, but an upgrade is probably best. Full sized S5 will be a monumental upgrade

And once you have your new phone, you can experiment with the S3 mini to your heart's content. It's a good phone for experimentation, loads of custom ROMs out there for it.

fatherted1969

Just got the S5 a few weeks ago. Upgraded from the S2 which is some difference. Very happy with it so far. I send out group texts and on previous phone I had to set the groups up in groups of ten as the S2 would only text out groups that way. Is this phone the same or can I set up a larger group on my phone ?