HELP!! Samsung Galaxy Ace GTS5830i on Tesco

onesixfive

I swapped a couple of Blackberry's from Virgin & O2 earlier this year onto a "family" package at half the price with Tesco which also included a couple of Samsung Galaxy Ace GTS5830i phones.

It seemed like a great deal as they offered more minutes, more texts & as much internet (on what appeared to be O2 via Tesco in disguise).

I'm beginning to wish I'd never bothered.....


Amongst the problems I have on a daily basis are.....

• We struggle to pick up internet/Facebook wherever we go - internet just "freezes" - are we doing something wrong ?? (our old blackberrys just "tuned in" automatically?)
• Photo's taken on the Galaxy are stored on a little SD card (which had to be bought seperately), which then has to be extracted & loaded into the computer to download them - doesn't it ?? I then find my pictures are all duplicated, one huge sized (MB), one smaller sized (kb) - is this right ? I dont think so ?
• I'm forever "losing" the Ebay app (which I loaded onto the Galaxy Ace to keep check of items buying & selling on the move). The app simply disappears periodically !
• Leaving my Messages/threads on my phone seems to block up the memory so I have to regularly clear down my messages received/sent. (I have no music or games downloaded & other than Ebay I dont think I've downloaded any apps, so its not like I've blocked up the phone).

There appears to be no detailed instructions anywhere - I'm no stranger to IT, but I'm no teccy either.

I'm also concerned about the cost of taking these phones abroad shortly in case I inadvertently run up a large bill. On O2 i had a Pay-per-day package, but on Tesco I'm told there's no such deal (despite it appearing to be an O2-type set up)

I'd appreciate any advice guys .....!

JJ_Egan

samsung.co.uk
support your model software user manual may tell you more .

jje

Littlestars_2

You can cap the contract meaning you cannot spend more that what your contract has, and if you want to you top it up like a payg phone.

Techhead_2

Points 2 and 3 Are related, you shouldn't be taking the card out to transfer photos. You just connect the handset to your PC (by cable or Bluetooth) or email them.

If you do take the card out, then any apps stored on the card (like eBay) will disappear for a while.

flashg67

I'd add also that the Ace is a fairly 'basic' smartphone in that it doesn't have much internal storage, so you will have to be selective about what you keep on it. Have a look around in the settings menu to see what room you have left on the phone, and move some apps to the SD card (some apps will allow this, some won't)
I think the 2 pictures you are seeing are thumbnails of the original that the phone keeps for quick viewing at smaller sizes.

If you connect the phone to the pc with the usb cable, it should 'see' the phone as a drive in 'my computer' and you can just drag files to/from it as needed.
Can't comment on the poor internet except that, again, a fairly low spec phone will struggle with complex web pages and video etc

terrylamps

If you don't want to connect your phone to your computer to transfer photo's etc or the computer doesn't recognise the phone you can download a programme from the android apps store called AirDroid. You just turn the programme on on your phone and then log in to the website on your computer and it will connect over wifi. You can then transfer your photo's (and more) to your computer (or from your computer to your phone) over your wifi connection. It's really easy to use.

albionrovers

Above mainly seem to be phone problems rather than provider?

Get an 02 PAYG Sim, switch on 02 travel and use that abroad. I did the same for my daughter's Tesco phone after asking the same Q on here. She's now been there 2 days and the usage/balance is just fine. For the sake of a week's holiday, she can get by using a different phone number when away.