[andrewjb]

There is a way to improve this for sure. I thought I found it on this site. Here is what I saved, I didn't write these instructions.

1) Open up the phone app and dial ##778# (PST).
2) You will be asked to enter your MSL. Enter it, and you will be brought into the provisioning of your phone.
3) From the top left, select Modem Settings. On this page, your Slot Cycle Index (SCI) is how often your phone polls the tower for incoming calls, etc. This value is 1.28 seconds multiplied by 2^value (i.e 0=1.28 secs, 1=2.56secs) with 0 fastest, 7 slowest. The default is 2, but lowering it to 1 hasn't noticeably affected my battery life, and roughly 2.5 second (SCI 1) response time is far more reasonable than roughly 5 seconds (SCI 2)