My HTC Radar & 7.8 experience

[Seaman71]

Hi all,

My first post (Hello world! :wink and I wanted to share my experience with the Radar and its after-update behaviour.

Got mine carrier unlocked brand new as a replacement for my Samsung Wave (Thanks Samsung for wasting Bada... p) and looking for a new user experience after an Android like one and a bit sick of Apple (looks more like mushrooms as everybody here is having an iPhone or a Samsung droid...).

Pretty happy with 7.5 and basic Radar experience (size, weight, screen, battery and basic system responsiveness). Although lacked several features (Bt sharing and similar) the apps available were fine for me (think on Samsung Apps for Bada and you'll realize what was the world for me...). But as WP8 was coming wanted to taste it so the very first chance I had I updated to 7.8. That's my mistake I guess. Never to be the first one to try something new but I just felt tempted to do so.

Now, the system is, basically, as fast as before. The Apps are, still, fine for me. But the start screen has lost most of its responsiveness and the live tiles are, almost all of them, dead tiles. Me tile seems to be the only one not affected, others like WPCentral, Gleek, XBox, Amazing Weather, Whatsapp (well... this one I'm not sure if it counts :grin::grin::grin, seem not to be updated anymore. In the other hand, battery life has shortened a lot (before I could work for 1 & 1/2 day and now barely the whole day) and seems not to be able to charge completely anymore. Can keep it plugged the whole night and in the morning it is still not full. Also, my free space has been reduced drastically although I sill have to find out if it is my fault or the system's (maybe I've bloated the memory with apps).

Anyone had same problem?

Cheers!

 

[Daffy daf]

exactly the same problem I had when I forced update my radar to 7.8.. Now its back to 7.5 Hope the battery drainage issue won't be a prob anymore.

 

[Seaman71]

Hmmm... Going back to 7.5?... Is it a settings and data safe procedure? How did you do it?

 

[Daffy daf]

I forced update using Zune software which automatically creates a restore point just in case u want to roll back from your previous OS.

Battery life is working quite well now with 7.5... =)

 

[Seaman71]

Hmmm... After checking a bit more the phone's battery life, seems that the problem itself is not the battery drainage (which is higher than under 7.5 BTW). Looks the system cannot evaluate/calculate anymore the battery's correct level. It seems now quickly calculates the level to reduce but, once reached a really low level, it stabilizes and remains low for a long period (longer than usually, at least). At least, I've been able to make it last for more than a full day w/out needing recharge.

Strange, it looks 7.8 has not only affected the live tiles and start screen responsiveness but also the ability of the system to calculate the battery level also.

Hey! The update has been a great step forward!... Well, at least towards WP8 or a droid... :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: (better laugh than crying, ain't it?).

Maybe I'll follow advice and go back to 7.5 (but I'll miss my, now, messy tile full start screen... muahahahahaha)

 

[pankaj981]

Update to 8862 and you wont regret the decision, it fixes the live tile issues. I have updated my Radar, so far so good!

 

[Seaman71]

Hi all!

Finally (and luckyly) I decided to keep observing the behavior of the phone. This gave time enough for the latest update to become available. Followed last advice and updated. Funny is that I checked WPCentral for the latest news and read the information about 8860 so I tried and found the terminal was updating through Zune. I letf it unatended till the thing ended and got the happy surprise it was updating again to 8862.

It is not only that I've updated, but also I decided to rearrange the tiles. Summarizing:

- Me tile never failed to me so it has continued working
- XBOX tile always kept working but stopped giving feedback about games. Now is, more or less, the same
- My Linkedin tile is now alive
- Kept my email tiles small but all give information on new emails
- Amazing weather tile is working fine (pitty there is no double size tile)
- Weathermaster is now updating more frequently (felt it was almost a zombie)
- Facebook tile is now alive and kicking (even now shows my timeline header picture and tilts for news). Poor app but does the job
- Pictures tile never failed and now remains the same
- Cellular live tile is working fine
- Whataspp works fine. At least informs about new messages
- Chronos calendar is alive (although is not a very active app)

Still have to find a nice Twitter app with a Live tile (got Gleek!, Medoh and Metweets but none seem to be live. Settings problem?). Still, my start screen is far from being finished. I've got a bizarre mix of small, mid and double size tiles but not happy with the final effect. I would like to maintain a few small ones for those apps like email ones that I'm not interested in the contents (that I'll read when entering) or the web browser, Shazam, Skype (pitty Skipe is sooooo left aside by MS)... Well, I guess I'll never be 100% happy with, but that will keep my screen alive longer (till I move to WP8 or WP9, depends if the Radar lasts longer...).

BRgds

 

[Seaman71]

Ooops! Forgot to mention WPCentral's tile... Zombie... Hahahahaha... Tried several configs but seems to update the information shown only when I open the app. The rest works fine (notifications and so).

Well, it may be a bug in the OS, or the App. Whatever it is it has to be solved.

Good luck all.

 

[Joy Mukherjee]

My phone looks fatty all of a sudden with the gutter at the bottom!! hehehe... but liked the update..
The home screen is fine but the apps are taking a tad bit of nanoseconds to launch.... confused why....
Battery drainage yess.... i can sense that.... N YEAH the accent colors are gooood..... havent finalized a permanent one for my home screen though...

 

[Perryking]

So, the battery drainage is solved in 8862 update or not? I want to update to 7.8, but I don't want the half battery.

 

[Seaman71]

Hi,

Well, after some deep testing I've found it is not that the OS is draining the battery but it is that it has lost completely its ability to calculate the charge condition.

I can use this phone for more than one day but the system will never show the right battery status. Even early in the morning, after spending full night plugged it will show is as half loaded.

What I do is just restart the phone and then I get a more precise reading, but not always the same.

Frankly speaking, this last update is frustrating because swapping reaponsiveness and solid behaviour of the whole system for this laggy thing it is now and the rest of minor faults it shows it wasn't worth the update.

At least if they had added missing features to the system like ringtones or fixed that wifi off feature when locked...

Never mind. I'll keep using it til it dies (the phone) and then I'll replace it with whatever system I like by that moment.