OFFICIAL: T-Mobile Exhibit II prepaid reviews/thoughts

[Grinner21]

Question about the memory on this T679. I'm new to smartphones (this is for my daughter who needed some apps for school), but I know my way around Linux a bit.

I added a 4GB SD card, and we installed a few apps, and took a few pictures, and I put a few text files on from the computer by mounting through USB, just to test (2 drives showed up on my Linux desktop - I was able to save files from the computer to either/both ). That took a little 'dancing' with plugging/unplugging to get it to mount.

At this point, the memory from Task Manager looks like:

RAM: 312MB/356MB

SYSTEM STORAGE: 148MB/1.07GB
USB STORAGE: 30.69MB/1.62GB
SD Card: 9.75MB/3.69GB

I thought this had 512MB RAM - but earlier in the thread someone mentioned this might be showing the 356MB that is not reserved by the system, that is probably the case. Since we have such little running on this phone now (Active Apps reports 0), that does not seem like much free RAM - is this typical?

I'm assuming the SYSTEM STORAGE: 148MB/1.07GB is where installed programs are going (if they are not installed to SD card), so I think that makes sense.

SD Card: 9.75MB/3.69GB also makes sense to me, since I stored a few things there. It just shows up as "4GB FileSystem".

USB STORAGE: 30.69MB/1.62GB - I was able to store files here, but it also has a bunch of system folders, so I guess non-ROM OS files are stored here? Maybe I should not save anything here?

Thanks - getting lots of great info from these forums! - kenc_zymurgy

OK:
Yes, 356MB RAM is what we have to play with after the system reserves what it wants.

Yes, the System storage is the internal /data memory for storing Apps, etc. unless you tell it otherwise.

The USB storage is quirky... in that the system is set up to think that it is the SD card, even though an SD card may or may not be in place. Default is that the O/S prefers to use this as the SD card (see link below).

When an SD card is in place, it knows about it, but from my experience, doesn't get used much.

Please read this here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki..._Exhibit_II_4G

[Yeswap]

Question about the memory on this T679. I'm new to smartphones (this is for my daughter who needed some apps for school), but I know my way around Linux a bit.

I added a 4GB SD card, and we installed a few apps, and took a few pictures, and I put a few text files on from the computer by mounting through USB, just to test (2 drives showed up on my Linux desktop - I was able to save files from the computer to either/both ). That took a little 'dancing' with plugging/unplugging to get it to mount.

At this point, the memory from Task Manager looks like:

RAM: 312MB/356MB

I thought this had 512MB RAM - but earlier in the thread someone mentioned this might be showing the 356MB that is not reserved by the system, that is probably the case. Since we have such little running on this phone now (Active Apps reports 0), that does not seem like much free RAM - is this typical?

Very typical and actually very good. As with any computer, the OS uses RAM, quite s bit of it in the case of Android. Then there are essential apps that run automatically at startup like messaging, the phone app, keyboard, voice recognition, etc., that all consume RAM.

312 MB free Ram is plenty. When RAM gets below about 40 MB, Android starts shutting down apps that are running in the background which means they have to reload when you switch to them. Both shutting down and restarting apps takes time and uses CPU, which makes the phone feel slow.

I don't start to worry about RAM with any Android device until it gets well below 100 MB.

As a point of reference, my Motorola Photon, which has 1 GB of RAM, has about 460 MB free at startup and between 120 - 300 MB free after I've been using it a while and it runs fine.

[kenc_zymurgy]

Thanks Grinner21 and Yeswap,

Now, this is what concerns me:

312 MB free Ram is plenty. When RAM gets below about 40 MB, Android starts shutting down apps that are running in the background which means they have to reload when you switch to them. ...

I don't start to worry about RAM with any Android device until it gets well below 100 MB.

But it looks like that 312MB/356MB is the USED/TOTAL memory. That is what the manual says, and the bar arrangement is consistent with other storage indicators. So that means I have only about 44MB free. It dropped down to 300MB after a re-boot, so no big difference, and no running apps that I can see (though obviously there are background tasks running).

Look at post #129 in this thread, I look like that, except with 312/356 rather than 215/356 and the bar goes further to the right (yes, using green for used memory seems confusing).

I just clicked the "Clear Memory" button a few times, and it dropped to 257/356MB, which is more reasonable. I looked through "Setting" and that gives a bit more detail on running apps, I stopped "Facebook" and media Hub", and after a few clears, it is at 249/356, better. After taking pic, a little web surfing and a talkatone wifi call, I get 315/356, so down to 41MB free.

Seems like a low amount of free space to me. And if I go into Settings/Applications/Running Services - it shows 169MB USED / 116MB FREE. Who to believe? Weird.


And that display timeout is driving me nuts, there must be a way to tell it to stay open longer? edit/update: Oooops, I'm embarrassed, don't know how I missed this - Settings/Display/Screen Time-out - 15S, 30S, 1M, 2M, 10M. 1 M will be OK for now.
-kenc

[Yeswap]

44 MB free RAM is a cause for concern. But I don't recognize that app in the screenshot in post 129. Settings/Applications/Running Services is what I use to check free RAM. It's part of Android and I trust it more than any 3rd party app.

[Grinner21]

Thanks Grinner21 and Yeswap,

Now, this is what concerns me:



But it looks like that 312MB/356MB is the USED/TOTAL memory. That is what the manual says, and the bar arrangement is consistent with other storage indicators. So that means I have only about 44MB free. It dropped down to 300MB after a re-boot, so no big difference, and no running apps that I can see (though obviously there are background tasks running).

Look at post #129 in this thread, I look like that, except with 312/356 rather than 215/356 and the bar goes further to the right (yes, using green for used memory seems confusing).

I just clicked the "Clear Memory" button a few times, and it dropped to 257/356MB, which is more reasonable. I looked through "Setting" and that gives a bit more detail on running apps, I stopped "Facebook" and media Hub", and after a few clears, it is at 249/356, better. After taking pic, a little web surfing and a talkatone wifi call, I get 315/356, so down to 41MB free.

Seems like a low amount of free space to me. And if I go into Settings/Applications/Running Services - it shows 169MB USED / 116MB FREE. Who to believe? Weird.


And that display timeout is driving me nuts, there must be a way to tell it to stay open longer?

-kenc

Display timeout is Menu>Settings>Display>Screen timeout

Android changed the way they do memory management in release 2.2 Froyo forward. It's much better now, and in fact you DON'T want a bunch of free memory because the way it uses it is now much more efficient. Task killers are in fact bad for your phone. Don't use them...

You can tweak some of the default Android memory settings for your phone, which is recommended as different phones have different amount of RAM. The Android settings you want to adjust are called the Minfree values and as the name suggests, are the minimum settings for available RAM in one of 6 different classes, before Android starts killing off applications and processes related to that class.

You can easily read up on it but the best way to change those is with a script called V6 Supercharger by Zeppelinrox over at XDA.

You do have to be rooted to change these values but it's easy to do. Just flash custom recovery (CWM) and then flash the rooted kernel.

[kenc_zymurgy]

44 MB free RAM is a cause for concern. But I don't recognize that app in the screenshot in post 129. Settings/Applications/Running Services is what I use to check free RAM. It's part of Android and I trust it more than any 3rd party app.

That screenshot from #129 was from the Task Manager, RAM tab. I have no idea of the source, but it was pre-installed on this phone. I'll pay more attention to Settings/Applications/Running Services then, and it continues to show ~ 110MB free.

Android changed the way they do memory management in release 2.2 Froyo forward. It's much better now, and in fact you DON'T want a bunch of free memory because the way it uses it is now much more efficient. Task killers are in fact bad for your phone. Don't use them...

....

You can easily read up on it but the best way to change those is with a script called V6 Supercharger by Zeppelinrox over at XDA.

You do have to be rooted to change these values but it's easy to do. Just flash custom recovery (CWM) and then flash the rooted kernel.

I'll probably just let it do it's thing unless I experience actual problems that seem to be related to memory. I just know from Linux and other OSs that you don't want to be running against RAM limits, and this seemed like a high % of use from the numbers I saw. Though since I used to work with industrial control computers with 32K of total RAM, I guess a phone should be happy with 100MB free RAM

Thanks to both - KenC

[blerd]

I have taken hi-def videos, tons of pics, thousands of texts, and loads of apps and I have had no trouble with memory. I would suggest you stop worrying about this until you get the low memory popup. Get a bigger external memory card and be done with it. Seriously.

[kenc_zymurgy]

I have taken hi-def videos, tons of pics, thousands of texts, and loads of apps and I have had no trouble with memory. I would suggest you stop worrying about this until you get the low memory popup. Get a bigger external memory card and be done with it. Seriously.

Please understand, I'm trying to be proactive. This is my first smartphone, and based on my previous experience with computing devices, those RAM stats looked questionable.

My daughter will be taking this phone to school, and she needs it to run a bunch of medical apps for her nursing program. I don't want her to get there and have problems that I might need to troubleshoot remotely. If there is anything I can do now to make sure that goes smoothly, I will. If she gets the low memory pop-up at school, that's gonna be a pain, She needs to study, not troubleshoot an OS.

I've put in a 4GB sd card, but I data storage isn't the biggest concern - I want to make sure those apps will run for her, and that could be a RAM issue. I won't know until we install the apps, and I'm not sure she can do that until she gets to school, but I'll check on that.

-kenc

[ja5219]

I've had the phone since November and it's still a good deal for $200.

As for the memory issues this phone is obviously lacking more RAM memory but what it has on it is not terrible. The main reason you see only 44MB remaining is due to tmobile packing in a bunch of their own bloatware that starts at boot. There are ways to root this phone and remove all that but I've personally haven't done it and don't really feel like I have to.

I have installed a ton of apps. I have SwiftKey keyboard always running in the background I also have 3G Watchdog app to watch my usage always running also network monitor mini app that let's me know at what rate I'm downloading stuff at. All this plus this Tapatalk app to currently write in this forum and yet my memory meter reads 310/356. I also have twitter/Gmail/opera mini open from time to time.

My point is this phone always finds the extra RAM to run all apps I need efficiently with little side effects. Unless you're playing games on this phone you probably won't have issues running any apps and multiple apps at the same time. Also apps you no longer are using close after a time to run new apps better.

This phone is pretty powerful

[kenc_zymurgy]

I've had the phone since November and it's still a good deal for $200.

As for the memory issues this phone is obviously lacking more RAM memory but what it has on it is not terrible. ...

I have installed a ton of apps. ... and yet my memory meter reads 310/356. ...

My point is this phone always finds the extra RAM to run all apps I need efficiently with little side effects. Unless you're playing games on this phone you probably won't have issues running any apps and multiple apps at the same time. Also apps you no longer are using close after a time to run new apps better.

This phone is pretty powerful

Thanks for that feedback - that is making me feel more confident.

The main reason you see only 44MB remaining is due to tmobile packing in a bunch of their own bloatware that starts at boot. There are ways to root this phone and remove all that but I've personally haven't done it and don't really feel like I have to.

I'm not too comfortable with rooting the phone, as I've never done that with an Android. I have done things like that back when I was working, and I know all too well what it means to 'brick' a device (but it was a company device and a normal part of development, not my personal device!). I might buy a cheap used android to play with to build up some experience, as I do like the option of clearing out the bloat. It's one of the reasons I'm typing this on a Linux machine (Xubuntu 12.04) - pretty low bloat on this.

-kenc

[blerd]

I would not recommend rooting the phone if she will be away and is not tech savvy herself.

What apps will she need? She should be able to find out in advance. You might want to look into a generic tablet computer for her.

If you don't want to splurge on a tablet, she can likely save whatever apps she needs to the external sd card. I think this phone takes up to a 32gb. All she will need to do once she downloads them is go to 'manage applications' and hit 'move to sd card'. The apps will not take up ram until they are needed and if they really take up a lot of resources, she can just get a taskiller app to force stop other apps that she doesn't need at the moment. Hope this helps.

And, just so you know, I have had 4 different root kernels on my phone that were all over 250MB and not a peep about low memory from the phone.

[blerd]

Ok, I looked at a couple of nursing apps. They are like 24MB a piece, she should be totally fine.

[kenc_zymurgy]

Thanks for those added responses - I checked, and she can get logged in and download these apps before she starts school, so I will do that when I get a chance and report back. I just want to triple check with her, since these aren't cheap, even through the school (a couple hundred $ for the set she says she needs). From their site:

As a Nursing Student, you are required to purchase the Standard version of Skyscape’s
Nursing Constellation Plus
Handbook of Nursing Diagnosis
Intravenous Medication Handbook.

Skyscape’s software is available for Palm OS 3.5 or higher, Windows Mobile/Pocket PC/Smartphone, Blackberry 4.1 or higher, iPhone/iPod touch/iPad 3.0 or higher, Android. Skyscape recommends the iPod touch.

Since they just say 'Android' w/o specifying a version, I'm guessing the apps are fairly lightweight. Yes, I'm probably over-thinking this, probably won't be a problem at all, but I like to be prepared and avoid problems that I might have to deal with from afar.

-kenc

[ja5219]

Nursing Constellation Plus (Requires Android: 1.5 and up)
Play Store link

Handbook of Nursing Diagnosis (Requires Android: 1.5 and up)
Play Store Link Here

Intravenous Medication Handbook (Requires Android: 1.5 and up)
Play Store Link here

Found them all in the play store, ouch on the prices! (Especially the first one!)
But as you can see.. the only requirement is Android 1.5 and up.. the Exhibit II comes with Android version 2.3.5 with a recent update released that brings it up to 2.3.6.

Nothing to worry about there.

Edit: Also, seeing as i am logged into my Google account, When i load those apps on the play store on my browser.. I get a message telling me
"This app is compatible with your T-Mobile Samsung SGH-T679."
which is my Exhibit II sitting next to me. Probably the best confirmation you can get without actually buying the app yet.

[blerd]

That was so helpful, Ja. I should have known you'd be from NC.

Ken, I read some the reviews and it says they are not available for tablets, so scratch that idea.

I cannot believe they would charge that much for an app and it has only had 10-50 downloads. Tell your daughter to ask a current student whether they actually use these apps for class. She might not need them, they are obviously not widely used unless they are downloading them through another source.

Get her at least an 8GB external sdcard just to be safe, those apps are surprisingly small and I wonder if there is something else to download after you install them.