Varg Phone is Garbage

[motocrossmann]

Anyone else find that the Varg phone is crap at being a real phone? I installed a pre-paid sim. Mine constantly disconnects from Wifi, drains its own battery fast when not in the dock, and I get strange app issues for anything non-Varg related. The settings app says the last android update was April 5, 2023.

 

[UKLee]

Not tried it as a normal phone just geting it to work as it should with the bike would be good.
Got the Stark out early sunday morning to put it on charge but the phone would not connect to the bike, refused to do anything after many hours serching the internet with no chance of any help from stark we decided the only thing we could do was totally wipe the phone and start again. Eventully got it working, Seems one thing after another with this stark each time we get it out we are far from sure we will get any use out of it, now we always take a spare ICE bike with us so no one is left standing with a non working stark, To think one of the reasons for buying this was no pistons, valves, FI etc to go wrong but the ICE bikes are much more reliable.

 

[Philip]

I love the Stark's phone. Yeah, a Samsung with a better camera would have been better, but a functioning phone with a free data SIM card is hard to complain about.

 

[Chaconne]

Generally Blackview phones and electronics are pretty good. I have had no problems with mine on the Stark and it has taken some hard hits. Blackview makes hardened phones for this kind of application. A Samsung or iPhone are typically not good at all for the bumping, jarring, and crashing that we do on dirtbikes. I have a Blackview watch and the thing has taken a pounding and still works good.

I was thinking of getting a Blackview phone and getting rid of my regular use Pixel 7 which has not been good at all --and I have owned Google phones since they were Nexus. My Pixel 2 is still in use around my house and its performance is certainly no 5 models behind the 7. Google's own chip (Tensor) is nothing to write home about either unless you like poor performance and battery sucking inefficiency. I don't need all the AI shit just get the damn phone to not need a reboot like it is Microsoft product.

 

[Chaconne]

Not tried it as a normal phone just geting it to work as it should with the bike would be good.
Got the Stark out early sunday morning to put it on charge but the phone would not connect to the bike, refused to do anything after many hours serching the internet with no chance of any help from stark we decided the only thing we could do was totally wipe the phone and start again. Eventully got it working, Seems one thing after another with this stark each time we get it out we are far from sure we will get any use out of it, now we always take a spare ICE bike with us so no one is left standing with a non working stark, To think one of the reasons for buying this was no pistons, valves, FI etc to go wrong but the ICE bikes are much more reliable.

You must have gotten a lemon. My Stark and the phone have been rock solid reliable. The only things I have had to change were the tire tubes and I have gone through some grips due to crashes in the gnarl.

When I first got my bike I was careless with the phone holder and the phone flew out a couple of times and took some hard rock hits and also hit the pavement at about 20mph and still works good. I shipped my ICE 300 2T and 450 4T out to my brother out West I wasn't using them any longer.

 

[AL_V]

Got my bike at the beginning of May and I have had absolutely ZERO problems with it (except very minor phone connection issues usually solved by blanking and unblanking the screen).
I know this has not been everyone's experience, but I am super happy with mine, and I have not ridden my 300 since getting the Stark.

 

[LTJ]

I'm finding my Stark and phone are like my work laptop. If shit doesn't work, reboot it.

 

[Chaconne]

The flakiest thing on the Stark for me has been the power switch. They do not like mud and dirt at all and can fail when they jam. My WR450 has beautiful sealed power buttons that have never failed in 10 years of hard gnarl. The boot is part of the switch and they are incredibly reliable. I am hoping the Enduro version of the Stark has some of this kind of stuff and it would be really great if it was swapable to the previous versions.

BTW even though that switch is a little flakey I am loving the usage with the software update creeping/reverse modes. Nothing like it on a steep rocky ledge with no where to go but down...

 

[FYR]

I love the Stark's phone. Yeah, a Samsung with a better camera would have been better, but a functioning phone with a free data SIM card is hard to complain about.

A "free data SIM card"? Oh wow, I thought the phone just connected to the bike via Bluetooth. I didn't realize that they now ship with cellular activity enabled. Do you get some random phone number? Now I'm even more excited to get my bike. I bought directly through Stark and they've issued me a VIN number, but haven't marked it as shipped yet.

 

[Philip]

A "free data SIM card"? Oh wow, I thought the phone just connected to the bike via Bluetooth. I didn't realize that they now ship with cellular activity enabled. Do you get some random phone number?

No phone number, but the data-only SIM card works well.

 

[Jocke_D]

A "free data SIM card"? Oh wow, I thought the phone just connected to the bike via Bluetooth. I didn't realize that they now ship with cellular activity enabled. Do you get some random phone number? Now I'm even more excited to get my bike. I bought directly through Stark and they've issued me a VIN number, but haven't marked it as shipped yet.

Imagine how surprised you'll be when you learn that the bike has it's own SIM card (data) and is always connected to Stark servers