It's barely been a few weeks since Samsung's 2015 flagship Galaxy S6 made its way to consumers but the smartphone has already run into troubled waters.
Users are reporting several issues with the Galaxy S6 pertaining to the smartphone's RAM, camera and battery life.
Other issues involve Bluetooth, booting, signal, and notifications, but the problems seem also to extend beyond these.
Dropped Calls
"I am so frustrated after getting this phone. I travel the same route every day and this state of the art, top of the line phone does not perform as well as prior phones with regard to its connectivity. My callers tell me my voice fades away while speaking to them, and then sometimes the call gets disconnected," wrote an irate user on the Verizon community forum.
Messaging
Users of the smartphone are even battling problems with the messaging system.
"I purchased a Galaxy S6 on April 11th. On Friday April 17th I noticed that text messages that I receive would be viewable momentarily and then delete themselves. In the first week multiple updates occured. The problem is intermittent. I powered off the phone and restarted it. The same issue has been happening every day since. I went to the AT&T store on Saturday and they told me this is a known issue and had me turn off the "Delete old messages" function. This did not improve the issue," complained a user on the AT&T forum.
RAM and App Killing
That's not all. The XDA forum is flooded with irate users voicing concern over the Galaxy S6 killing apps when in use, as well as using up available RAM. Apparently, only 200MB to 400MB RAM is left in the smartphone as apps get randomly killed midway.
"I'm finding app refreshes really quite abundant. Yes they refresh quickly in most cases but they are refreshes nether the less. Worst are apps that dump you out of what you are doing like Tapatalk. System manager tells me I gave 400mb free and yet app refreshes are a common occurrence," posted a Galaxy S6 user on the XDA forum.
No stop-gap solution for the issue is currently available. Users are hoping Samsung pushes out a patch to fix it soon.
Camera
The Galaxy S6's camera is also causing concern: the device's flash remains lit even when one is not using the smartphone. In some instances, the flash remains on even when the smartphone is switched off. Some users are also encountering issues with the camera's focus.
"I am having a problem getting the S6 camera to focus consistently. I can tap, tap, tap and it won't focus and the moment is now gone. Had this problem from day 1. I just realized is I gently shake the camera it will focus for a while. However, the moment is still gone sometimes," ranted one user.
The smartphone's battery is non-removable, so the only solution available to get rid of the flash problem is a factory reset. To do this, navigate to Settings > Backup and reset. Next, select Factory Data Reset > Reset Device.
Here are some more temporary solutions for those encountering the following issues with their Galaxy S6 while waiting for Samsung to roll out an update to address the issues.
Bluetooth Fix
1. Switch the Bluetooth on and off. Head to Settings > Connections > Bluetooth.
2. If the toggling does not work, then go to Bluetooth > Connections > Forget the problem device / devices.
3. Reconnect.
Sluggish Performance
Clearing the cache partition of the smartphone will improve the Galaxy S6's performance.
1. Switch off the Galaxy S6.
2. Press and hold the Power, Home and Volume buttons together until the smartphone vibrates.
3. When the Samsung logo appears, release the buttons.
4. Tap the Volume Down button and navigate to Wipe Cache Partition.
5. Select the same using the Power button. Next, select Yes.
6. Wait until the process is finished. Once the cache is cleared, reboot your Galaxy S6.
Battery Issue
Those encountering a battery drainage issue with their Galaxy S6 should use the Battery Saver mode (found in Settings) as a temporary solution. This mode automatically monitors the screen's brightness, switches off soft key lights and the vibration alerts, and also regulates the CPU power.
