Robert Dempster

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*** Welcome to my PMB blog, the seventieth! ***
Hau, Huawei P10 weighs too much
LG G4 runs Sports Tracker without a SIM card
20 November 2017

This blog continues to follow up on my attempts to deal with the problems I was experiencing with the Huawei P10 and the Sports Tracker application.

I started the week by visiting one of the large Vodacom outlets situated in the Liberty Midlands Mall on the Monday. Neither of the two attendants I spoke to there were much help. As I left the store I passed a Vodacom kiosk in the walkway, so I stopped. The gentleman manning the kiosk was more helpful and besides being quite adamant that the problem lay with the Sports Tracker application suggested that it was probably due to me using a 4G data signal. He suggested that I switch to 3G. When I countered that by saying that the Sports Tracker application did not need data to be available, and that it would probably work without a SIM card, he was adamant that it would not. Well I tested the LG G4 on the Tuesday and it did run Sports Tracker without a SIM card, let alone data. I also tested the Huawei P10 using G3 data and it worked fine on the short ride I did and repeated on the Thursday in Pietermaritzburg. This was of course not surprising as the failures occur during longer rides Unfortunately that is exactly what happened during a longer ride in the Karkloof area on the Sunday despite using 3G data.

From my own side I thought I had located the problem, namely that I had set the Cell Phone to use the cell phone signal and the wireless signal to improve the determination of my location as determined by the cell phone's GPS functionality. So for today's ride I disabled that such that my location would be solely based on that determined by the cell phone's GPS functionality. Unfortunately none of this helped. The application ceased to track my ride after I had been riding for one hour and forty three minutes. At that stage I was already returning along the route that I had ridden out on. My wife of course experienced no problems with her recording on her iPhone 6S. I am now at a loss as to what else I can do to fix the problem. The only solution seems to be to ditch the phone and acquire something else. I am of course still trying to present a case to Vodacom, but have yet to succeed in speaking to someone at Vodacom other than a call center assistant.

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Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a bicycle.

Conclusion: Basically I need a phone of my choosing that runs Sports Tracker, and so as I see it the options are:

  • I finally get somewhere with Vodacom and they offer me a deal that allows me to exchange the Huawei P10 for a phone that that works. Obviously it would also have to be a phone that I would have either considered when I renewed my contract earlier this year, or one that I have considered since the problem with the P10 started.
  • Vodacom allows me to return the phone and cancels the contract. I buy a new phone, retain my number, and finally switch to, \"Pay as you go\". Unfortunately I no longer have the Huawei P8 that came with the P10. In fact I never wanted it, and left it with the individual that renewed my contract for me on the understanding that he would sell it for me. After many SMSes this individual having sold the phone finally paid me what amounted to less than half the value of a new P8. I would be happy to hand that amount over to Vodacom.
  • I stop my contarct payments to Vodacom in the hope that by doing so, I finally get to have a rational discussion regarding my problem with the Huawei P10 with someone who both understands what I am talking about, and is able to do something about it.