Several A14 issues

[Ed Ra]

Hi, just bought an A14 4G last week. Everything is updated fully but I keep finding more software issues. Hoping someone can offer advice, fixes or workarounds for some of the below issues:

Aeroplane mode & Network mode

After activating aeroplane mode for any substantial amount of time (let's say more than 1 hour) the network mode selection is ignored. I.E. 3G mode selected, but phone insists attempting to connect to 4G.

Audio quality on video recordings

The audio is horrendous, barely intelligible and totally garbled. It sounds like the bitrate is reduced severely, my Moto G5 was bad but this is next level.

Font size

Changing the font size has no effect on the notification bar. I have perfect vision but find the notification text and icons hard to see at a glance or in sunlight.

Proximity sensor and volume control

When moving the phone to my ear while a voice note is playing back, the speaker output switches but the volume control doesn't work.

Full screen help dialog

When an app enters full screen mode, I get a helpful system dialog explaining how it all works. It's telling me to swipe up but it won't go away. I can get back to my home screen but the dialog stays overlayed on screen. So far the only solution is restart the device. Happens on YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook etc.

Low output from 3.5mm connector

Comparing to my past few Motorola G phones and iPhone 7 / 8, the headphone output is really low. Listening to podcasts in the car isn't really possibly anymore and I can forget about plugging in proper headphones.

Boot time

Boot time is almost 2 minutes which seems exceptionally long, are other people finding the same?

Incorrect service provider

In settings the device lists the wrong service provider, I wouldn't mind but every day the device asks me to download the Tesco Mobile app. Decided I'd download it and then turn off notifications or disable it, but it's not listed in the app settings which I guess is a bug.

Overall it feels like the device isn't ready for market, hopefully some of these are easy fixes or settings I'm missing?

Thanks in advance for the help!

[kitt1]

I noticed this about notification text it's obviously not linked it's same on my galaxy a14 k

[Ed Ra]

Ok I've found a way to somewhat improve the audio quality for recorded video - Switch on "Reduce File Size" in camera settings. It's still not great but atleast the weird digital noise is reduced.

[kitt1]

I'm going back to my infinix smart 7 hd I like it better and it charges much faster and it has better themes probably sell galaxy k

[DrWage]

I would suggest reporting the bugs/suggestions for improvement directly to Samsung. Samsung doesn't seem to be reading/reacting adequately on the forum, which tends to be the always case with large companies.

You can report errors via the Samsung Members App and you will probably got a response from support.

I also encourage you to write directly to other Samsung channels afterwards to get an answer.

At the next reeboot I will measure the time and let you know

[DrWage]

I disagree first with the boot time.

I tested my A14 2x with a stopwatch.

The phone takes about 45 seconds between pressing the "Restart" button and the disappearance of the white "Samsung Galaxy" logo. Then I can enter PIN and Co. Shortly thereafter, the cell phone is there again.

The initialiae reboot is over after ~45 seconds. After that it takes a little while, but after 60 seconds the device should be ready. The question is at what point does the device take a long time for you?

I So tests a Gigaset GS110 > also 40 to 45 seconds
my old Motorola Moto E4 > ~80 seconds

[Ed Ra]

Thanks, I've contacted Samsung and sent videos of the issues. They said their experts will look into it.

[Ed Ra]

Just timed mine after powering off.

2:05 to get from "Samsung Galaxy" logo to "Enter Pin". Then 0:15 from pin entered to home screen. So I don't know why mine is so slow 🤷🏼‍♂️ It's been like that from new.

I appreciate you timing it to compare!

[DrWage]

Great, would be nice if you report what the "experts" say...

From my point of view, the boot time should be the same or identical for all devices. Depending on the version, it takes a little longer or shorter, but it shouldn't matter. I have never experienced any device where such deviations occur and something like that doesn't make any sense to me either. Anything else should indicate some sort of hardware/software problem, which Samsung support should also recognize.

But I'm also not 100% sure what the device does when rebooting, at which point mobile communications and co. is initialized. Would be nice if other people reported here. Personally, I've also uninstalled all the apps I don't need, disable everything that is not necessary. Maybe that's a factor too.

There are also at least 2 models of the A14, but that shouldn't have such an effect either.

[Ed Ra]

Hey all, just giving an update here.

The response from Samsung is generally along the lines of: "Our engineers have checked your logs, We will need for you to send in another error log, as there is not enough information for our engineers to look into for further analysis." Come on I already sent 3! 😂

They also ask for videos which I send where possible.

Boot time is up to 4 minutes now.

It seems like the proximity sensor issue is due to bad alignment, if I place the phone below my ear it works which obviously means I can't hear the speaker well but at least my face doesn't hang up the call.

Also having an issue of media volume suddenly increasing after pausing video & audio files, pause again and it goes back to normal. It's intermittent, anyone else experiencing this?

Maybe I just have a bad unit 🤷🏼‍♂️