Phone Tag

UPDATE: I just downloaded the Gingerbread 2.3.5 update that Sprint is rolling out this week, and one of the notes in the changelog is improved media streaming and call quality. I've only used it a little while, but so far I'm cautiously optimistic that this will fix the crackling. If you're interested, I used the manual install instructions here. Otherwise, Sprint has promised a full rollout over the next 10 days.

Two weeks ago I became fed up with the string of poor software keyboards I tried on Android and decided to downgrade my phone from an Epic Touch to an Epic 4G. The main feature of the older phone is the presence of a physical QWERTY keyboard.

I immediately saw my accuracy and speed for text messages and Tweets go up, as well as my overall comfort with the device. For all the advantages Android offers over iOS, I still haven't found a keyboard that responds as accurately as the one for the iPhone. Having a physical keyboard helps, a lot.

Sadly, when I tried to listen to music or field calls with the Epic 4G I got a horrible random crackle/pop noise from both the internal speaker and the headphone jack. I looked around online and some people's theory is a faulty sound driver, but no one has a fix for it yet. I took the phone back to Sprint and they're going to swap it out for another Epic 4G.


For those of you keeping score, that's SIX phones I've shuffled through since about May of this year. I offer for your own personal amusement the list in its entireity, with my issues in italics.

1. LG Optimus V (Virgin) - Good phone, just didn't care for Virgin's plans
2. Motorola Triumph (Virgin) - Poor reception, random reboots
3. Motorola Photon (Sprint) - High-pitched squeal from headphone jack
4. Motorola Photon (Sprint) - Same as previous
5. Samsung Epic Touch (Sprint) - Random reboots, touchscreen not responsive
6. Samsung Epic (Sprint) - Crackling/Popping noise from any audio source

I'm a demanding user. I'm fully aware of this. I expect my gadgets to perform perfectly most of the time. I know there are going to be glitches here and there and I have no problem rebooting my phone every couple of days if need be. At this point however, I'd just like to have a phone that performs all of its advertised functions without, you know, breaking.

It's worth a note that the staff at the Atascocita Sprint store (Total Communications) have been very patient and willing to help me out with all these problems. They might groan when I walk in the door for yet another hardware problem, but they've never tried to accuse me of doing anything untoward (which I've had AT&T do before), so I keep coming back. Donna and Al in particular are quite helpful and have pulled strings to ensure that I walk out the door happy. Props to them.

My replacement Epic 4G is on backorder, and I'm calling the Sprint store every day to check on it. In the meantime, my current Epic 4G has started having strange battery drain issues and refusing to wake up its data connection or connect to wifi at random intervals. Joy.

Where do I go from here? Provided the second Epic doesn't have the same problem as the first, I'll probably hold on to it until my contract is up in 2013. Then I'm going back to an iPhone, more than likely. This product return shuffle is for the birds.