Vodafone Smart ultra 6 Owners Thread- apps, tips & tricks

zaphodbeeb

Anyone know if / how to turn on the torch / flashlight? I read somewhere about how the ZTE Blade S6 (I think this phone really) has it come on if you "shake" the phone, but tried that last night and it didn't work.

DopeTech

zaphodbeeb wrote: »

Anyone know if / how to turn on the torch / flashlight? I read somewhere about how the ZTE Blade S6 (I think this phone really) has it come on if you "shake" the phone, but tried that last night in bed and the missus thought I was up to no good :-)

[Yes, I'm kidding]

Pull down the notification bar twice.

Mantis Toboggan

Pepp1989 wrote: »

Has anyone solved the problem of pressing loads of buttons while taking a call? So annoying. And can anyone recommend a keyboard app?

SwiftKey is the best keyboard app.

zaphodbeeb

FrostyJim wrote: »

Pull down tbr notification bar twice.

I wonder can you make that a button on your home screen... trying it now will post if I succeed.

zaphodbeeb

Just a quick post on this phone and Chromecast - it works spectacularly well!

I downloaded (purely for testing reasons)

Grand Theft Auto III
Need for Speed Most Wanted

Both work flawlessly on the phone, so tried casting them (see the following for caveats).

If you use the pull down "Cast Screen" option the phone works ok but is stuck in portrait mode, so basically you see your phone display in the middle third of your screen - and turning it 90 degrees in any direction doesn't make it go full screen but rather rotates your portrait screen into the middle third you were already seeing, thereby making it sideways (if you follow me).

HOWEVER, if you use the Chromecast app, everything that on the phone properly supports landscape mode works perfectly on your telly in landscape (full screen) mode as well.

So Grand Theft Auto, NFS Most Wanted, YouTube, Gmail, Facebook, Camera etc all work really well with the Chromecast. Was watching Queen at Live Aid - all content shows on phone AND tv at the same time.

Most of us will probably just use for photos or video we're taken but very very impressed at how well this works / how good this "midrange" phone is :-)

Thought it might be of interest to some.

[Edit] I remember having a Nexus 7 a few years back - and using an OTG cable you could make a Playstation DS3 controller work with it I think if you had a bluetooth dongle connected. Might (when I get time) try and see if this is possible on this phone too.

biebiebie

For video, download Livecast from the Play store and use that to play videos on Chromecast instead (not for youtube or games). That way it won't be playing on your phone too, and your phone is free to be used also.

deadanonymau5

StereoSound wrote: »

I got an update and mine is unlocked. I'm using it on meteor. You can manually download it I believe from the ZTE website.

Thanks. Couldnt find it.

When did you get an update? Im on version 5.0.2, what are you on?

zaphodbeeb

Update regarding DS3 controller - doesn't work with:

Sixaxis Compatibility Checker
Sixasis Enabler (an app that doesn't require root).

unreg999

RainyDay wrote:

I do have one big complaint though - why is the camera icon not a camera? I mean really....

If you use a different launcher like Nova you can change that!

shanemkelly

crasy dash wrote: »

Anybody having trouble with data on the meteor emobile network on these mine is acting up the last two days.

Nope - all good on my eMobile/Meteor SIM...

jaqian

Hi lads,
Anyone using this on Tesco Mobile, how do you find it?

Thx

mgbgt1978

Have one on Tesco mobile for the past 2 weeks. No problems yet.

DopeTech

RainyDay wrote: »

I do have one big complaint though - why is the camera icon not a camera? I mean really.... :mad:

Download google camera from the play store and disable the other one.

Jimmyboy40

Hi Guys
I got one of these phones 3 weeks ago not routed, using Vodafone anyway, but it is unlocked, and have had nothingh but smooth running

But if you read the reviews, they have been mostly very positive, but i noticed one of the reviews mentioned lots of slowdown and a far from smooth android experience, where another review will say its performance is superb, perhaps its variable build quality? perhaps its Network related?

I come from a HTC One M8 had to change due to very very dubious battery, In day to day android lollipop use, the Smart ultra is definitely comparable, I'm using Google now launcher, removed the vodafone bloat and its pure android at its best, the display is gorgeous , every bit if not better than the M8, helped by the thinner perhaps less quality glass used.

Games , I'm running real racing 3 at a very acceptable frame rate as are most games i thrown at it, it can get warm during gaming but show me a phone that doesn't

The so called Google browsing experience is brilliant smooth scrolling in fact web performance is great, some sights have slow down on any phone, as its like the real world some pages are fast some now try bbc sport not a slow moment in sight

Battery, the reason why i swapped this , is a highlight go to bed with 100 wake up with 98 , awesome ,, Im not being a fan boy i have owned every single phoen from iphone5s , HTC one M8. all the previous HTC and Apple products and for £125 this phone is freeking awesome, I have fallen in love

Bravobabe

deadanonymau5 wrote: »

I never got an update and Im on Three.

Anyone else?

Did you get a VF payg sim when you got the phone?
If so, stick in the VF sim and look for a software update

(Settings/About/Software Updates - which you have already done if you know the version)

There probably is no need to do this - but it might work for ya

Galway K9

RainyDay wrote: »

I do have one big complaint though - why is the camera icon not a camera? I mean really.... :mad:

LOL. This niggled at me too.

Alanstrainor

I noticed that my camera seems to have a slight rattle. It's as if the lens rattles inside the casing. So if I shake the phone in my hand I can hear a tiny rattle inside. But the camera focuses okay, hmmmm, I wonder if I should take it back or not...

Mantis Toboggan

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I noticed that my camera seems to have a slight rattle. It's as if the lens rattles inside the casing. So if I shake the phone in my hand I can hear a tiny rattle inside. But the camera focuses okay, hmmmm, I wonder if I should take it back or not...

They're all the same

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I noticed that my camera seems to have a slight rattle. It's as if the lens rattles inside the casing. So if I shake the phone in my hand I can hear a tiny rattle inside. But the camera focuses okay, hmmmm, I wonder if I should take it back or not...

That's normal.

Vote 4 Pedro

I'm on Tesco mobile as well, no problems other than the data roaming symbol and the annoying banner thing, I know its not roaming but it's still annoying the ****e out if me. I suppose we'll have to live with that

Alanstrainor

Cheers lads!

EDIT

While I'm here, I'll give my week long impression, seeing that I have been using it for 7 days.

First of all, the size and feel of the device is fantastic. Not too big at all, and as is always the way with these things, picking up my 5" S4 makes it seem almost too small in comparison. It feels solid in the hand, and doesn't feel as cheap as it is. I have now put on a gel cover bought on ebay for a 5er. Even though this is a cheap phone I'd still hope to have it for at least a year!

The OS has been lightning fast and I haven't noticed much slowness at all. I will admit that I don't game or anything, but I browse a lot and generally switch between apps quite a bit. So I'm impressed! I was expecting it to be fast seeing the spec, 2GB of RAM and an octa-core processor are more than enough for 90% of users out there.

The camera is quite impressive really, I had read a lot of reviews which seemed to suggest that the camera was only so so, but I'd rate it better than that. Not iphone 6/S6 quality, but still more than good enough for a phone camera. I've gotten some fantastic shots in the last week with it, and haven't had much to complain about at all. And I'm a stickler for camera quality too.

Battery life: It's amazing. I'm a heavy user, and typically would have my screen-on time be at least 3 hours a day (yes I have a problem :P !), but I can easily make it through 1.5 days, if not more with that usage. I usually get from 8am to 12am with ~50% battery left. Incredibly impressive stuff.

corsav6

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I noticed that my camera seems to have a slight rattle. It's as if the lens rattles inside the casing. So if I shake the phone in my hand I can hear a tiny rattle inside. But the camera focuses okay, hmmmm, I wonder if I should take it back or not...

Damn you, I would have never noticed until you posted. I have the same problem, although its a very slight rattle compared to my nexus which sounds like a rattlesnake.

deadanonymau5

Is everyone here on Android v5.0.2? Or something else?

podgeandrodge

sugarman wrote: »

This is 3 related.

I have had 4 different handsets over 4yrs with them and it has always been an issue.

Whenever I used an o2 sim in the past it switched back no problems on same said handsets.

3 acknowledge this and won't bother doing anything about it. See the talk to three forum.

There's nothing you can do about it. You can switch roaming off and keep it on 4g, but when you go out of coverage you won't have any signal at all and won't receive calls/texts till you're back in coverage.

I have tried everything over the years but to no avail. Just gotten used to it at this stage.

Thanks. How do I switch off network roaming? I can switch off data roaming but it still moves to O2 just with no data!

Lenin Skynard

Any consensus on what the best cover is for this? I got one of the leather book type covers and it does the job but it's just too bulky for my liking. The phone is big enough already without adding to it. I'd love to find a very slim but durable one that covers the screen. Any suggestions?

Jimmyboy40

Just Noticed this as well, all i care about is the quality of the pics and for a phone cam they are very acceptable , there is one review that says low light forget it, but with a bit of adjustment its acceptable and can get some lovely shots , the selfie cam is very underrated

biebiebie

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I noticed that my camera seems to have a slight rattle. It's as if the lens rattles inside the casing. So if I shake the phone in my hand I can hear a tiny rattle inside. But the camera focuses okay, hmmmm, I wonder if I should take it back or not...

Should have put a spoiler on that

RainyDay

Any idea if these phones are sensitive to charger voltage? I have a Samsung charger with the same connection - is it safe to use this?

Zebbedee

jaqian wrote: »

Hi lads,
Anyone using this on Tesco Mobile, how do you find it?

Thx

I'm using it on tescomobile.
I couldn't get internet or mms working until I played around with APN settings.
Working fine now. Did anybody else have to adjust their APN settings?

Curb Your Enthusiasm

RainyDay wrote: »

Any idea if these phones are sensitive to charger voltage? I have a Samsung charger with the same connection - is it safe to use this?

You'll be fine.