What’s your worst experience with an Android phone

[TopherMan12]

I can't say I've had a "bad experience" with any of the phones I've owned. I've had various iPhones from the original to my current iPhone 12 Pro. I've owned Samsung Galaxy 7, Google Pixel 2, Note 10+, and Note 20 Ultra. No issues with any of them.

Although nothing like as bad as some of the experiences mentioned here, I bought an HTC years ago - looked cool and at the time they were considered higher end.
Within a couple of weeks it started switching off or cutting out when on the phone. Realised my ear was activating buttons on the screen - the proximity system had failed.
Took it back to HTC who examined it and proclaimed it wasn't a hardware problem, it was software (Android) so they wouldn't do anything about it. Sounded like a pile of lies to me but I ditched it (and lost money of course) after updating the OS didn't fix it.
There's something to be said for having the phone hardware and software provided by a single company.
I have switched again from iPhone to Huawei (for the camera) but really don't like the OS. Example, auto-update is switched off, but it does it anyway!
I'll be going back to iPhone when this one dies.

I'm back on iPhone but I would have no issue going back to Android as far as the phone is concerned, but I would definitely miss the tight device integration between Apple products. Android simply doesn't have that, but that is simply because Android isn't one company as you say. So there is a massive trade-off either way you go. So I've decided to have both. My iPhone 12 Pro is my main phone which integrates seamlessly with my Apple Watch and MacBook but I have a Google Pixel 2 (still a great phone) for freedom to do other things like use an app for xCloud since Apple won't let me or copy and paste music files directly to the music folder. Works well for me either way.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Worst experience was more like a worst era. Back when standby battery life on Android phones was extremely erratic.
But overall, I never had a complete terrible experience.

One time I bought a dirt cheap Blu phone, without realizing it didn't have gyroscope sensor. Using GPS navigation without a gyro sensor is complete chaos. I learned my lesson back then to make sure any cheap Android phone has all the sensors I need.

 

[Apple$]

Am an Android phone user for the past 9 years, though I had a short time with the iPhone 8 before I got my Pixel 3a. (My current phone) The worst Android phone I owned was a LG G3. It overheated all the time and the battery life wouldn't last even.a school day. And the software was buggy and laggy especially on the Android Lollipop update. The only good things is it received 2 major updates (KitKat - Lollipop - Marshmallow) and can be used as a hand warmer in the winter. (Canada)

 

[11235813]

I've had bad experiences with all Android phones I've owned, but Samsung Galaxy S10+ finally convinced me to never waste any more money on an Android device ever again. The fingerprint sensor was a joke. I felt lucky in rare times when it worked. Face recognition was a security tragedy, I could fool it easily with a picture of me. The screen was curved for no reason, so I could never find a decent tempered glass screen protector. All I could find were plastic ones which sucked, glass would not stick to the curved screen. The OS was terrible as well. MobileIron, which my company uses for secure access, kept getting hung up in the background draining battery. All throughout the OS animations were choppy. The UI was inconsistent. There were multiple apps by Google and Samsung doing the same thing. There was a new Android version out and it took 6 months for Samsung to update. I sold it and never looked back.

 

[Healer Flame]

Samsung F480 was the worst but i don't think it has Android. My first screen touch but was a nightmare

 

[SigEp265]

For me, it was the BlackBerry Keyone running Android. The screen would simply fall out/detach from the chassis (not kidding) on all of them, as well as having some very serious bugs! BlackBerry didn’t care.

Prior to that one I used a BlackBerry Passport (which I still have in my collection), and that phone was the best, and most productive, smartphone I’ve ever used (running BlackBerry OS10).

So, what’s your worst Android experience?

PS: This is not to diss Android, as I’ve had many that worked great for me, especially the Sony Xperia line.

I wish the passport ran Android! I always thought that phone was sweet looking.

 

[Barbareren]

I wish the passport ran Android! I always thought that phone was sweet looking.

Honestly, BlackBerry OS10 (the best mobile OS I’ve ever used, by far) and its tight integration with the excellent hardware was what made the Passport so special. When they tried it with Android (KeyOne) it was a huge disaster in comparison.

 

[SigEp265]

Honestly, BlackBerry OS10 (the best mobile OS I’ve ever used, by far) and its tight integration with the excellent hardware was what made the Passport so special. When they tried it with Android (KeyOne) it was a huge disaster in comparison.

What about the Blackberry Priv ?

 

[Barbareren]

What about the Blackberry Priv ?

Never tried it. Gave up BlackBerry after the horrible KeyOne experience.

 

[RedRage]

I’ve only owned one android. The S3. It wasn’t bad.
But I switched back to iPhones.

 

[Smellmet]

My first two smartphones were the S3 Mini and the S5. The S3 was trash, slow, poor battery life, and the S5, whilst the better phone on the surface was poorly built, and after a few months just started freezing, slowing down and eventually died after about 3 years, which I thought was poor. I replaced it with an S7 Edge, which was excellent and stayed as fast as it was out of the box the entire time I owned it, but that too just died out of the blue after 3 years, which again, I think is poor for how much they cost. I'm currently 18 months into owning a galaxy A71.

 

[Blue Quark]

The worst experience? Well, if we're gonna go back that far, I have to talk about three of them.

One which (sort of) doesn't count here was the webOS-based Palm Pre. That thing was so grossly under-powered for the features it sported that I had to trade it in. It was pretty much a victim of third-rate engineering, with the unit overheating all the time, or mechanically wearing out. There were a lot of complaints about it back in the day. Which, of course, then led me to...

The Samsung Moment. This, without a doubt, was the worst of the lot. It also would overheat if you seriously tried to make use of the GPS. However, that phone had a lot of hardware issues, all of which led to failures of various wireless components (BT, WiFi, Cellular) and then sometimes the thing would go so far as to nearly be bricked. Just awful. I had Sprint replace the thing three times after repairing it twice, and eventually they and I decided to go a different route. This took me to...

The HTC EVO 4G (also through Sprint). The phone was great but seemed to start developing issues. Eventually, when I was on the point of returning it for a replacement, I re-flashed the unit back to the stock ROM (and not for the first time either) and *poof!* it started working just fine. Anyhow, by then I was so tired of it that I switched to an iPhone 4S.

I don't seem to recall having any problems with the 4S, and I wound up selling it off to someone else and leaving Sprint because of their highway robbery rates. Everything had escalated all out of control, plus I was having other financial and life issues at the time. Now, of course, Sprint has done such an excellent job of running themselves into the ground and being greedy that they got bought up by T-Mobile. Also, it looks like CDMA is going to come to a practical (if not an absolute) end here in the U.S., about which all I can say is "Woohoo!" and do a little happy dance.

P.S.: Sprint (and the attitude of the era beyond just them) is the reason I remain to this day anti-CDMA and anti any kind of lock-in. I do not buy subsidized phones under any circumstances, and have tried to avoid lesser options out there as a means of having as much durability and software support as I can get. It's also the reason I've toyed, on and off, with going back to an iPhone in the future at some point.

 

[Berries-A-Million]

S7 Edge was my worst experience. It got so laggy after the first year that it wasn't usable any longer and battery life became pathetic. It made me go back to iPhone for several years. I have gone back and forth a bunch since then, and the S9 Ultra, Note 10, Note 20 Ultra all been great devices since then.

 

[Barbareren]

The worst experience? Well, if we're gonna go back that far, I have to talk about three of them.

One which (sort of) doesn't count here was the webOS-based Palm Pre. That thing was so grossly under-powered for the features it sported that I had to trade it in. It was pretty much a victim of third-rate engineering, with the unit overheating all the time, or mechanically wearing out. There were a lot of complaints about it back in the day. Which, of course, then led me to...

I remember the Palm Pre. Around that time I actually think I had the iPhone 3GS. It was my first and only iPhone until I got the iPhone X. Come to think of it, it was a weird, transitional smartphone-time, for me at least. I went from Symbian (Nokia E90 Communicator and Nokia N95) to the Apple iPhone 3GS to Android (Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini pro).

 

[hardyian]

Mine's bittersweet. It was the HTC One X.
The phone itself was, by far, one of my favorite android experiences ever. The design was awesome, Sense was a pleasure to use and extremely lightweight back then, and the phone performed quite well.

However, the phone had an issue where it would completely lose cell signal every few minutes (for about 20-30 seconds at a time). It took me months of troubleshooting and discussions between HTC and AT&T (and a lot of helping them out, and vice versa, with logs, testing, etc) to finally pinpoint the bug. That, coupled with five RMAs, sealed the deal for me and I jumped ship to Samsung.

 

[anviratechnology]

My worst experience with my mobile phone was in the charge running out during a crisis and when I most needed to use my cell phone. I had forgotten to charge it the previous night. I thought nothing of it and consoled myself with the thought that I had lived for decades without a cell phone and could manage without it for this one occasion. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

 

[hallux]

HTC Thunderbolt. Near the end of my 2 years with it I tried to make a call as I was leaving work, it took nearly 5 minutes for the phone to actually start connecting the call...

 

[lolOwO]

my wost experience was with the samsung note 7. i had to return it, cuz u know, the exploding battery thing

 

[iMelhado]

Galaxy Note 20 Ultra - Gorgeous body and design and display.

Phone would die on me 3 hours into the day. LOL

 

[boswald]

First phone I ever had was an HTC Aria. Small, compact, fast enough (when it worked). Android itself would crash often, and either caused a reboot or freeze the display. Sometimes the camera would be all black. Messages app was picky; sometimes it sent messages immediately, other times minutes later.

Some of this might be related to the carrier, faulty hardware, or whatever else, but I bought the phone brand new and don't recall dropping it.

 

[LFC2020]

Samsung galaxy S4, lag straight out of the box and switching off when it feels like it, note 10 plus, another lag fest, camera lag, shutter lag, disappointment.

Lesson learned, never again, stick with the best iOS.

 

[kaardowiq]

Galaxy Note 20 Ultra - Gorgeous body and design and display.

Phone would die on me 3 hours into the day. LOL

Why?

 

[iMelhado]

Why?

I'm not sure but according to my experience with Android devices. I suspect its because it's an Android device. Usage same like my iPhone usage. I turned off 120fps and kept it at 60. I kept resolution at 1080p as well.

 

[Mistborn15]

Think Android / Phones peaked with Moto X 2013. That phone with its form factor and features set my expectations so high that other Androids didn't live up to it, especially the LG G5 which I had next. Except for the camera, I had a problem with most things about the phone - updates, battery, screen

 

[Zaft]

This is going way back but I had the HTC Incredible S, it was terrible. It would crash multiple times a day. The most stable Android phone back then was my Droid X, I really liked that phone.