Had to pull the Thor out of mothballs, put a charge in it and updated the watch with the new BT call firmware. Firmware install was successful and I reloaded my apps back on the watch.
For the first phase of the test I selected Eric’s launcher. I used the same version that was previously installed on the watch 2.3.2. (on this watch the Main Activity Icons are difficult to read especially in bright conditions). ( I had hoped maybe for an icon update but didn’t happen.) I set up apps up on the watch the same as my I4 with Hibernation Manager (HM) and Wii-Watch (WW). Then I paired BT with the phone.
*The first thing I noticed that with Eric’s launcher the BT call app did not automatically connect when the app is opened after resetting the BT but once connected held the connection. It manually connected fine. The Phone Book (PB) and Call Log (CL) both loaded up quickly compared to a bit of lag or repeated failure to load in my H2.
*Begin test: Erics Launcher, Sim installed, BT connected, WW on, Hibernation manager active.
0940 - 99% (334 mah charged to watch)
1210 - 76%
1530 - 43%
1710 - 33%
1915 - 17%
Approximately 10 hours of light use. At no time did the PB or CL uninstall, except if BT was turned completely off, even if the BT call app disconnected and had to be reconnected the PB and CL remained. This is the way I was expecting the app to perform but did not on my H2. (Refer to H2 test for differences.)
*1920 - I decided to leave watch powered on and recharge it to continue the test overnight without breaking the BT connection to see how it responded.
*2049 - 100% (confirmed by 355 mah charged to watch)
*Decided to switch to Main Activity Launcher to see if this would have any effects on the BT call feature. BT Call again active PB and CL loaded. WiiWatch Off over night.
- With the Main Activity launcher selected the first thing I noticed the BT Call app connected “automatically” when the app was opened, if not already connected. I did not have to manually connect it each time.
2320 - 98% (Begin test)
0700 - 88%
0745 - 83% (WW turned back on)
1000 - 70% (time on 10hr 40m)
1530 - 42%
1910 - 21%
1925 - 13% (Watch turned itself off, when I put it on charger it read 1%) (total time 20hr 5m) May still be having minor battery issues with Thor but 20 hr is respectable, with Sim installed, BT Call active for the entire time and WW on for 13hr. I received numerous WW notifications but no phone calls during this test so I could not observe the app in operation. If there are any issues I will update later.
I decided to run a second test to validate my other tests.
12/15:
2130 - 100% ( 364 mah charged to battery and I ran my Battery Calibration app to charge.)
2300 - 98%
12/16:
0800 - 85% (at no time did I observe that the BT Call app disconnect and the PB and CL were still active at this time.) WW turned back On. I will continue to monitor and report any updates effecting the BT Call app.
UPDATE: 12/17/2017 My Thor once again performed flawlessly since this second test was begun yesterday. BT Call app remained connected all day with the PB and CL remaining active the whole time. As of 0700 this morning I had 17% battery remaining and placed it back on the charger to work another day. Hopefully calibrating the battery has helped. If there are any other things of note I will update here.
UPDATE: 12/18/2017 My Thor BT Call function again performed flawlessly all day and thru the night. I installed Eric’s (version 2.4.6) launcher to give it another try. So far it has performed very well with no problems. It is a big improvement over the older version I uploaded for the first test. Battery holding at 51% at 0700 this morning.
Overall I was a bit surprised after my H2 experience and extremely satisfied with how well the BT Call app worked on the ZeBlaze Thor, compared to all the problems I documented with my H2. As long as I maintained a BT connection to the watch the PB and CL were always displayed in the app, even if the app itself disconnected momentarily and reconnected. Only a complete loss of the BT connection to the watch caused them to drop off. But they would always reload quickly. This is how you would expect it to work, not like the H2 where it would disconnect when the watch went to sleep and had to be repeatedly uploaded to use the app. I also understand that in the simplest of terms, both the phone and watch are basically computers and periodically need to be restarted to get everything back in the proper alignment.
Based on my “unscientific” tests I would think there are some real issues with the BT Call function of the H2 or I just got a defective watch for the BT Call function, since the other functions are ok. Curious to see if other H2 owners are experiencing similar problems? For now I will use the Thor as my second watch unless an update to the H2 can resolve these problems. I also read the AllCall posts that members are experiencing the same Watch Droid and PB & CL constant dropoffs. I suspect the manufacturers will not be to responsive to the WD issues since they want you to use WW with the watch.
For now the H2 is gathering dust. I will continue using the Main Activity launcher on the Thor, despite its icon display short comings because it works better with BT call and gives seemingly better battery life.
Comments?
UPDATE 1/12/2018: Now that I have had the opportunity to use my Thor with BT call it appears to have several issues other but not with the connection. When I receive a call it rings on the watch and phone. However if I take the call on the watch the sound plays though the phone even though BT option on the phone is selected and the Thor is the option for phone media. I have to turn off the BT and then back on again on the phone screen, to be able to hear the call on the watch. Defeats the purpose of using the watch to take calls from the phone. Since I mostly like to use this feature when driving my truck I am going back to using my KW18, which actually works for this purpose. Basically giving up on the BT Call app on these watches until the bugs can be worked out and it starts working properly.
