PSA ? Don?t install Windows Phone 8.1 on the Samsung ATIV SE on Verizon

[Fred Wilson2]

I don't think that those last two problems are specific to W8 or8.1
I have learned (from the XDA forums) that it appears Verizon locks (via firmware) the MMS and Internet sharing functions on
all of their LTE phones.

Fred

Battery definitely drains fast, I don't know why. Over all the phone is MUCH more stable.

I'm not using the phone with Verizon. For the most part everything works as it should on T-Mobile but I for MMS messages I can send them but not receive them. A message just pops up that says "OPPS! the message your trying to download has been deleted from the server"

And internet sharing. There is an app called Tether-X that's a work around but it's still really annoying. Wish SamSung would hurry up and release their WP8.1 already.

 

[Scottdd]

Update #2 Friday 10/3
Had 2 issues one lock up and one random reboot while at a trade show with very bad reception. Both happened while the calendar reminder popped up and I was trying to make a call at the same time. Other than that the phone has been stable and working fine. Cortana is working fine, I used it 30 or 40 times while in Chicago. No issues at all the past 2 days. Also to clear the lockup I pressed the volume down and the power on button at the same time, 20 seconds later I was up and running.

 

[ET2014]

I've decided to brave the update on my Samsung ATIV SE. I installed it on my previous phone, the 8x, and had minor issues, but nothing I couldn't cope with. The issues on that device sound similar to what people are describing here. I'll post my experiences over the next few weeks for others that are considering the leap.

***********************************************
* Update 1: Installation and initial status *
***********************************************
Installed the preview and accepted all the agreements. Three updates were run. The first was really fast, about 2 minutes. The remaining two took at least 20 minutes each. After all was said and done, no error messages, no data loss, so all good there. I've been texting and made a few calls this evening without a problem. Camera seems to work normally. No issues with anything I've found or any of the reported problems. But, it's only been 6 hours or so since I installed. Will update again in a day or two, or if problems are seen.

Loving having my features back, though. The notifications screen, ability to adjust volume for games/ringer independently, and of course, Cortana, were all worth it in my opinion.

 

[Scottdd]

Update #3
No problems all weekend. Not sure how long the battery should last but I can easily go an entire day and sometimes 2 depending on how much internet or GPS I use. Does anyone know if there will be another windows phone update this year, what is their release schedule?

 

[jasqid]

Update #3
No problems all weekend. Not sure how long the battery should last but I can easily go an entire day and sometimes 2 depending on how much internet or GPS I use. Does anyone know if there will be another windows phone update this year, what is their release schedule?

So whats the deal right now? Seems like the last update worked out some things? My daughter really wanted this phone and I wasn't willing to do it. Free makes it better right now, but this thread didn't.

 

[ocdtrekkie]

ET2014, Scottdd, how's it going on each of yours?

Both of you make it sound like it might finally be promising. Though my work phone, the Android, is mostly out of commission right now, so I can't really experiment on my Windows Phone until that's replaced.

 

[Scottdd]

I have had no problems all week, unless the phone is restarting when I am not using it, it is working fine. Now I do not have a ton of apps on the phone, maybe 30 total, mostly Samsung, Verizon and the usual Facebook, Twitter and so on. At this point I am not sorry I did it and even if I had to restart once a day I still like the features in 8.1. If I have any issues I will post an update, for now just waiting on the next update to see what new things Microsoft brings to the Windows Phone. Also, I did do a clean install after I did the upgrade because I wanted to start fresh. I did not use the phone's backup to restore. I entered all my info again and downloaded all my favorite applications.

 

[jmthomas1987]

Simple question. How is your battery holding up? About the same as 8.0 or less? Just curious as I just got my SE a couple days ago and am debating jumping on the DP.

 

[jasqid]

So I ordered the Ativ SE for my daughter. She really wanted this one and since it was free thought Id pull the trigger. It arrived yesterday and last night we did the PFD update. It took 3 updates and reboots to get the latest. The version matches my 928 now. Upon first use of the camera after update it crashed the phone and rebooted automatically. Since that one time, it has been running fine. Today is a full test day. I'll know more about the battery condition when she gets home from school tonight.

 

[Scottdd]

Battery life for me is fine, depending on what I am doing it will last almost 2 days. I donot have a bunch of applications running on my phone, but I do use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth all the time.

 

[JM_Thomas]

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on 8.1 . After 36 hours, not one issue or lockup. I have been off charger now for 6 hours with both LTE radio and Wifi on in concrete and steel building and I am at 90% battery. My Sammy Note 2 would be around 70% by now.

This phone is ROCKING!

 

[Scottdd]

Who is next, share your experience. Also, for those of you that experienced issues early on, did the upgrade solve them? Wonder when Samsung/Verizon will release the official update.

 

[JM_Thomas]

Update #1: Still at work and after 13 hours off the charger, I am at 81% battery with no issues. FB and e-mail updating regularly in the background, plus some texts and a couple quick calls. Rock on.

 

[jasqid]

While it doesn't crash anymore, she does get random lockups. Usually when trying to wake the device it just doesn't respond. Good thing is it boots really fast when doing a soft reset.

Sent from my Surface with Windows RT using Tapatalk

 

[ToryWho]

I'm still getting at least one lock up or reboot every day or two. Battery is okay, but not as good as it has been with previous versions of the DP. Just had it crash about 20 minutes ago when I tried to take a quick picture. Just launching the camera app caused it to crash.

Another issue I've had is that the WiFi doesn't always connect automatically. I'm frequently finding I've been using my data when I thought I was connected to WiFi. Have to go in and disable WiFi and re-enable and it will finally connect back up.

 

[jmthomas1987]

Maybe this has been asked and answered.

Before you upgraded, did you start with a clean, reset to stock phone, or did you do it with some apps installed.

Reason I ask is because I reset my phone back to just the stock loading of apps from the factory before I did the upgrade.

I know this doesn't help you now, but might be of use to someone down the road.

 

[Scottdd]

I did the upgrade both ways, first time just upgraded the phone as is with all my junk on it. Then 2 days later reset the phone to factory default and did the upgrade. In a previous post I said for some reason Cortana started working better. So if you can do the total reset, then I would do it before you upgrade.

 

[Scottdd]

I actually have the WiFi issue, but only at work and it is a hidden network. Others also have problems with the WiFi at work so I did not think it was my phone. At home or other places I do not have a problem, but I will watch for it now.

 

[ET2014]

Well, now that it's been installed for a while, I can say the only issue I've had is with the touch screen becoming unresponsive. This seems to happen when the screen is off during a call and then taken away from my face, it should come back on to use it. It does, but doesn't respond. It's mostly been an issue when using voicemail, but for me personally, I just don't put the phone to my head before entering my password. When I'm done with my call, I do a reset using the power /volume down combination, and in under a minute, I'm back up and running. All in all, it was worth it, in my opinion. I think I'm seeing this issue happen less than 1 time per day, most days. And, it seems to be a problem more so when the battery is low, so i'm wondering if there is some type of battery saver action that might be contributing. I've not seen the issue at all with the battery above 60%.

 

[-dunn]

I bought this phone a month ago when it first became free on Verizon.
I went a week with Windows 8 before I put on the preview. Prior to going upgrading, I installed basic apps (Facebook, Twitter, ESPN), nothing major.
The upgrade was similar to everyone else's. A short update, reboot, followed by 2 longer updates with reboots.
In the 3 weeks I've had 8.1 the only issue I have is the reboot issue, however doesn't happen to often and has never rebooted more than once in 1 day.
Cortana is a bit wonky but overall I am very happy with the phone and the OS.