New Phone! LG V20!

I got rid of my shitty Samsung Galaxy Note Edge.

My daughter and I had been having boot loop issues.  I don't think it's an app or battery issue.  I think it's an OS/firmware issue.  Why?  Because there was nothing in common with my daughter's installed software and mine.  She's a teen and I'm almost 50 years old...we used totally different software across the board.  It wasn't a battery issue because I actually had my daughter's phone replaced (at $200, that was NOT a cheap "fix")...2 months later, the exact same issue started occurring again on her new phone.  The battery and phone were new.

So, I got tired of running the battery down to 30% where the phone would automatically shut down and reboot, go to the red Verizon screen, then reboot again, then again, then again, and again, and again.  The only way to stop it is to remove the battery.  Many times when removing it, the phone shows no battery power left to restart the phone...you usually have to plug the phone in to let it fast charge for awhile to get it to where it'll have enough power to restart.  Bottom line is that I now think that Samsung has quality control issues.  Everyone I know that has or has had a Samsung phone has had some type of issue that had hindered their phones in major ways.  I won't be buying another Samsung anytime soon.

Nor would I be going back to Apple.

I was eligible for an upgrade but it took me a long time to decide between the LG V20, the LG G5, the Google Pixels  (Pixel and Pixel XL), and the HTC 10.

I wanted a removable battery, expandable storage, and a large screen (at least as large as my Note Edge).

I almost settled on the Pixel XL, but wanted something more than just stock Android.  I'd had also had to give up both a removable battery and expandable external storage in getting that phone.  Yes, I know that with the Pixel, you get unlimited cloud storage via Google, but if you are not near a wireless AP and you don't have unlimited data, unlimited cloud storage is not going to be a good solution.

I've had the HTC One M8 as a work phone...my daughter had one as well.  It was a solid phone.  It had expandable storage but a built-in battery.  It had forward-facing speakers that sounded awesome.  The phone never gave me or my daughter issues.

I've never owned an LG phone and was eyeballing the G5 because I'd considered it awhile back, before I got the Note Edge.  I decided against the G5 because it isn't a recent phone and always seem to get phones that are not top-tier.  Two years ago, the G5 may've been top-tier, but not now.  I'd never heard of the V10 (for some reason).  I'd not even heard of the V20 until I began to search for Pixel competitors.  When I looked at the V20's specs, it compared to the Pixel very well, but was also cheaper, while also having expandable storage and a removable battery.  It is very much a top-tier phone.

I bought the LG V20.

There's a ton to like about the V20.  Basically, if you like the Pixel, you'll like the V20.  Like I said, they're very much comparable to each other.

The things I don't like about the V20:

The USB-C cable.  I can't stand it.  The cable that it comes with is way too short.  I had to go to Best Buy and get a Belkin car charger kit (5' cable) and what I did was swap the OEM cable for that one so that I can use the 5' cable to charge the phone and still use it while in bed.  The OEM is just long enough for me to use to charge the phone while it is mounted on my dash.  As well, with all my other Android phones, I always had spare micro-USB cables around the house that I could use to charge my phones (I also had a bunch of power adapter bricks).  I bought this phone and only had ONE USB-C cable.  I could not use any other of my cables.  I went to my sister's house and the phone needed to be charged...she had a ton of spare cables but no USB-Cs.  So now I have to ensure I have spare USB-C cables (one for my bedroom, one for my car, one for my Jeep, one in my wife's car)...they're not exactly cheap, either.

The V20 also has a feature that's called Smart Settings.  You can automate some things on the phone, like configure the phone to enable wifi when you get home, or turn off wifi when you leave home...things that you might do manually to save battery power, for example.  Well, Verizon removed that feature from Verizon V20s for some reason.  That was one of the features that drew my attention to the phone.  Yes, I can use 3rd party software to automate processes on this phone.  For example, I can use Tasker to do the same things.  Tasker isn't exactly easy to use...it's powerful but it's not intuitive.  Plus, I had created some tasks when I had my Note Edge.  The app maintainer upgraded the app, and all of a sudden my apps disappeared, never to be found again.  I wouldn't have to deal with that if Verizon hadn't removed the Smart Settings.  :/

Oh, and my damned Samsung Gear S won't work with this phone.  That's not an LG problem...it's another Samsung issue.  Samsung appears to be unwilling to enable this phone to work with non-Samsung phones.  When smart watches cost as much as they do nowadays, they should NOT be made to refuse communication with phones that are not the same make.  So, I won't be buying any more smart watches for awhile.  I'll await a neutral wearable maker before I spend my hard-earned cash on another watch.  I suppose I could use my Pebble but after taking calls from my Gear S, I refuse to step down to a Pebble...sorry.

The speaker could stand to be louder (it would be nice to have a forward-facing speaker on this phone, too).

The screen is very vivid and bright.

The phone doesn't feel bogged down and the interface isn't laggy.

The OS out-of-the-box is v7.0 (Nougat)...the only other phones that are using Nougat are the Pixel (naturally) and the HTC 10 (only just last week did that make the news).

As with my other phones, I'll keep you all updated on any glaring issues and will share any praises.

UPDATE - I replaced the LG V20 with the LG V30 (three years after I created this post).  Two years sfter that, I replaced that phone with the LG V60.  The V60 also came with a separate offer for a (free) dual screen case, which makes it very versatile - I ordered the dual screen case.  My wife also bought me a Wacom Bamboo Plus stylus for use with the V60 and dual screen.  All three were great phones.  I still have the V30 and V60, and actively use the V60 - the V60 is my backup phone.

My Android Phone's Browser Was Hijacked!

Last week, I went to a website on my smartphone and something took over the native Samsung web browser.  In fact, it was affecting the Chrome web browser as well.  Rebooting the phone didn't solve the issue.  A factory reset would've worked but I wanted something less impacting than resetting my phone.  AV apps didn't detect the browser hijack, which is a pity...AV apps for PCs tend to discover such anomalies, but smartphone apps are quite behind in this regard.

I found a fix, though.  I had to clear the cache (of the browser app) and force stop the app.

Note that this was not a malicious compromise of the phone.  I clicked nothing when the browser was hijacked and was prompting for me to acknowledge that I had viruses on my phone.  If I had clicked the links the links the hijack attempt was trying to force me to click, chances are that the phone would've been compromised, though.  As it was, the prompting didn't go away until I cleared the app cache and force restarted the browser app.

This was the very first time I've ever experienced such an issue with an Android smartphone (or any smartphone).

Samsung Gear S Replaced; Samsung Galaxy Note Edge and Android 6.0.1

So, I received my replacement smartwatch.

What can I say, other than "it works"?  I thought I'd get one in a box with a new cradle.  Nope.  They gave me the watch replacement and that is all.  At least it works, though.  We'll see if it'll last a year.  I'm not so sure.  This whole owner experience was fine until the watch died and I got to see how Samsung handles warranty claims.  Although they did good, I've the feeling I'll be pissed 18 months from now when the replacement watch dies without warranty coverage.  I don't even know if the watch is new or refurbished.  I'll investigate whether the watch is new (or a refurb) and find out if a new watch has a full warranty (it should)....and, I'll also discover how well the warranty coverage is for a refurb.

I had to activate the new watch and pair it with my phone.  While that wasn't complicated, it wasn't as simple as it should be, either.  I'll admit, though...it was simpler than when I got the first watch...this one wasn't glitching like the first one.

I also upgraded my phone (Samsung Galaxy Note Edge) from v5.0.1 to v6.0.1 (Marshmallow).

The phone had issues from the onset when trying to install the new firmware.  I kept getting error code 404.  I must've tried like 4 times before clearing the cache (each time I tried, I had to redownload the damned firmware...it was a PITA).  Clearing the cache worked and Marshmallow finally installed.

v6.0 consumes a lot of power.  I've been finding myself having to recharge during the day.  I used to get by without having to charge the phone after letting it charge overnight.  Fast Charge doesn't seem as fast as it was when I was using v5.0 (yes, Fast Charge is enabled).

Yesterday, I was taking a picture of my dog and the phone locked up.  It would freeze at the Verizon screen during boot-up.  It did this 4 times (each time, I had to remove the battery to unfreeze it).  I couldn't get past the freeze.  I ended up doing a factory reset.  This was a PITA.  Yes, I had a recent backup (I did a full backup the night before, using the Verizon Cloud app), but restoring it was very slow (did it over a wifi connection).  I believe my initial upgrade attempt worked but something crucial became corrupt in the process (it took like 24 hours to manifest).

I'm still trying to get the phone back to normal.  I've not yet played with much of the features.  The interface is a bit different in some places.  I don't know of any of the major enhancements.  I suppose I could research them but all I really care about is that I've a functional phone.  If I could find out if there's a fix for the abnormal power consumption, I'd be happy.

UPDATE (6/24/16) - I've experienced no freezing or rebooting or reboot loops since the upgrade to v6.0.1.  This is good news, as my daughter was also experiencing freezing and reboots (I ended up having Asurion replace the unit).  My daughter is still using v5.0.1, though, so I'm wondering if she will eventually experience those issues again -- I'll ask her how her phone is doing...last I asked, I thought she said that the issue was still occurring but was less frequent.

Samsung Gear S

Over the last ten months, I've enjoyed my Gear S.  Here's my user experience thus far:

The watch's voice command feature is very sensitive.  It activates when it thinks it hears a command, usually when I'm talking to someone else.  It's annoying.

The latch features on the charger cradle broke.  The fittings are plastic and snap into the watch.  The latches broke after 6-7 months of ownership.  This usually means you can no longer charge the watch (because the two of them won't stay attached).  This is why I hate proprietary cabling.  It means you have to either coerce Samsung into replacing the cradle or you've to put on your MacGyver hat and somehow latch the cradle to the watch.  If you get a replacement cradle, it will more than likely develop the same issue eventually (some people report their replacements breaking within a week of receiving them).  I usually wrap the band around a pill bottle that has a similar size to my wrist...that keeps the cradle to the watch during the charging period but do I really have to do this for a $400 watch???

What I like is that if I'm driving and don't want to take my eyes off the road, but I get a text or an e-mail arrives, I can usually look down at my watch for 1 sec to get a summary of the text or e-mail.

I can use the watch as a standalone device (in case my phone breaks, if I forget it while going to work, or if it runs out of power).  While I can't use it to browse the internet, I can receive reminders, texts, and calls.  I can even respond to texts.

My watch stopped working maybe three weeks ago while I was on a cruise.  It just died.  It wouldn't charge, it wouldn't turn on, and the indicators wouldn't blink...nothing.  Luckily, this happened before the 1-year manufacturer's warranty ended...I was at the 10 month mark when it died.  I went to the Samsung website and created a case for them to fix it.  They paid for the shipping to their facility and for the shipping back to me.  It turns out that they couldn't repair whatever it was that was damaged/faulty, so they sent me a new one.  It should be delivered to me today.

I get to see how long the replacement will last.  I'm getting tired of buying technology that almost seems like they're designed to self-destruct.  I think most manufacturers purposely build merchandise that doesn't last long, so that they can get a second chance at a customer's money, in the hopes that maybe the item breaks after the maker's warranty.  I'd insure the watch if I could, but I also don't want to end up feeding more money into the system ($12 a month for Asurion insurance coverage where, if the item breaks, it'll cost $200 for a replacement/repair...screw that).  Home owners' insurance may cover it, but there's a steep deductible to worry about.

While I love wearable tech, I'm not going to be spending huge sums of money for shit that's not going to have the legs to last 2-3 years.  No.