Very slow running Nokia 5.1 Phone

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outdoorsnz

674 posts

Ultimate Geek

#279802 10-Nov-2020 11:30

Purchased a new Nokia 5.1 Back in March this year.

From the get go, has not been a great experience! Device seems very slow at times, lagging often has micro pauses.

Had it repaired under warranty for a dead pixel spot top right of screen.

From time to time screen rotation, gyro and fitness step tracker stop working. Reboot fixes. Which is quite annoying as you end up taking photos in portrait mode!

And makes a odd speaker noise a few seconds or so after sound is played. Like a static hiss as sound module is turned off.

When I returned phone for repair, I did factory reset which seemed to make the device run nice and normal again.

But after awhile, device has returned to a very unusable state. Very slow to open apps and screen touch interface seems to lockup for 10 seconds or so. Sometimes can't answer calls.

I could do a full factory reset again, and spend ages going through all the security patch updates. I'm just running typical apps, nothing out of the ordinary.

Suspect it could be faulty given the touch interface lockups, rotation / gyro issues and sound pops.

How have others got on with this device? Nice and fast, or does it run like crap? Think I will try for a repair or refund. Thanks.

Linux

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#2600928 10-Nov-2020 11:50

Where was the handset purchased from?

outdoorsnz

674 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2600931 10-Nov-2020 11:55

Linux: Where was the handset purchased from?

Harvey Norman Dunedin...

Linux

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#2600984 10-Nov-2020 12:15

Take it back and give them the reason why you want a refund

outdoorsnz

674 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2600997 10-Nov-2020 12:34

Linux:

Take it back and give them the reason why you want a refund

I might try that. I purchased a Alatel 1S for $32 on clearance at warehouse and much better phone in terms of how it runs etc. But average screen and camera.

tripper1000

1617 posts

Uber Geek

#2601078 10-Nov-2020 15:23

Sounds like some of my ancient and retired androids: They run smoothly for 15 minutes after a factory reset, but then the unstoppable Google services updates start, and the phones run out of memory and become unusable.

qwerty123

147 posts

Master Geek

#2601362 10-Nov-2020 21:53

Nokia 5.1 has just 2GB RAM and 16GB storage. It's just not enough to run fully-fledged Android 9 or 10, it takes more than half of the available storage. Also Google apps and framework just hog all available space with data they caching. Android 8 was somewhat ok on Nokia 5.1 when it was released.

outdoorsnz

674 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2601605 11-Nov-2020 10:58

Well they've sent phone again off for repair, and hopefully they find a fault and replace it. But suspect they will just reset and flash latest OS on to it.

Possibly should have fought a bit harder with CGA etc.

I hear what people are saying re the 2gb ram and low storage, but this phone was actually running very good up to a few months ago with latest updates. And it running about 60% ram usage.

Using the Alatel 1S as a temp phone and it is so so much better. Granted it has more ram, but everything else is lower specs. I can now answer calls!

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outdoorsnz

674 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2604593 16-Nov-2020 10:46

Update on this.

Got my phone back and no surprise they said no faults found. Reading the notes, looks like they just re-flashed phone ran a few tests, checked sound on calls and said phone all good. Looks like they ignored my complaints in regards to the gyro not working with photos and fitness tracking, plus misunderstood sound issue was with external speaker phone.

Lucky I was able to jump straight to android 10 without having to install 12 months of patches!

Putting slowness issue to one side.

Haven't confirmed this yet, but gyro will still be an issue. At some point, it will stop working, and will stuff up photo orientation and fitness tracking. A few reboots will be required to fix.

The question is, is this enough to get a refund / replace under the CGA? I think it is, as you buy a phone for it's feature's, and a gyro is certainly a feature that you'd expect to work.

Funny the tech guy said you have to return a phone for repair 3 times before you get a replacement!

Oblivian

7297 posts

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#2604601 16-Nov-2020 11:01

There was a Feb Security patch that nerfed most manufacturers GPS accuracy.

My Huawei P20 is still having issues. Open maps and it takes a good 8 seconds or so to work out you aren't where you were 3 days ago and are travelling north not south on the road you are on.

Not alone, OnePlus, Samsung, Pixels.. all complaints on forums after A10 updates from A9

outdoorsnz

674 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2604604 16-Nov-2020 11:10

Oblivian:

There was a Feb Security patch that nerfed most manufacturers GPS accuracy.

My Huawei P20 is still having issues. Open maps and it takes a good 8 seconds or so to work out you aren't where you were 3 days ago and are travelling north not south on the road you are on.

Not alone, OnePlus, Samsung, Pixels.. all complaints on forums after A10 updates from A9

GPS seemed ok when I tracked my walk recently after upgrading to 10. The gyro fault is not A10 issue.

Interesting, now that I factory reset and jumped from factory stock to 10, I won't have that feb patch.

openmedia

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#2604632 16-Nov-2020 11:52

Next time it happens see how much App storage you have left. I've seen this on several phones, including my Wife's Nokia 5.1, where if you're below 1GB of space the phone gets progressively slower.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

Oblivian

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#2604637 16-Nov-2020 12:00

Gyro and GPS work together to fill each others gaps.

And A10 introduced a heap of changes to use them to do stuff. Like directional microphone audio adjustment etc etc. But for most, it made em worse.

Basically in maps or anything that tracks distance, mine ends up spinning around and around while standing still when first attempting to use it. And keeps going into 'needing calibration' a lot more regularly than it did which throws off realtime VR apps like star ones.

You'll likely still get that patch. Like windows updates they are cumulative. I got an Oct one last Fr night. But not yet tested to see if it bug-fixed.

outdoorsnz

674 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2605257 17-Nov-2020 10:33

openmedia:

Next time it happens see how much App storage you have left. I've seen this on several phones, including my Wife's Nokia 5.1, where if you're below 1GB of space the phone gets progressively slower.

Just using it as a browsing device at the moment. So far it is very fast. But you might be right on that.

Quite amazing how many bloatware apps that you can't uninstall have slipped in since A9 to A10!

outdoorsnz

674 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2605267 17-Nov-2020 10:40

Oblivian:

Gyro and GPS work together to fill each others gaps.

And A10 introduced a heap of changes to use them to do stuff. Like directional microphone audio adjustment etc etc. But for most, it made em worse.

Basically in maps or anything that tracks distance, mine ends up spinning around and around while standing still when first attempting to use it. And keeps going into 'needing calibration' a lot more regularly than it did which throws off realtime VR apps like star ones.

You'll likely still get that patch. Like windows updates they are cumulative. I got an Oct one last Fr night. But not yet tested to see if it bug-fixed.

Is the Gyro and GPS the same chip? As I know when I was tracking using google fit in the past, when gyro died GPS wouldn't work either.

It was interesting going from stock factory A9 straight to A10 update without all the updates in-between. Things looked quite different to what I remember when I upgraded to A10 before. And additional apps turned up.