Last Tuesday I finally bought a smartphone. Prior to last week, I had nothing more than a mere LG Rumor Touch. While it wasn’t terrible, it wasn’t anything like my iPod touch. So my review compares the Optimus very closely with the iPod touch.
The Plan
The LG Optimus V. The V isn’t a roman numeral five, instead it stands for Virgin Mobile, my carrier. My plan is the $25/month beyond talk plan which includes 300-minutes and unlimited data and texting. I never use more than 100 minutes in any 30 day period so I have no worries there. I tend to text a moderate amount so that’s not a problem. I use data more now than on my old Rumor Touch because it can actually reach 3G speeds. While the plan marks data as being unlimited, I doubt it really is. I’ve heard there is a cap somewhere around 5GB or 8GB, I’m guessing the lower amount.
I bought the Optimus V from Radio Shack for $149.99. The Virgin Mobile website as of this posting also has it set at $149.99. Oddly, the Sprint version, the Optimus S is set at $299 but marked down in a series of ridiculous ways to only $49.
Update (May 2011)
At RadioShack, the LG Optimus V is now $199.99. Even on the Virgin Mobile USA website, the price is set at $199.99. It’s sad that such a great phone gone up in price instead of going down. The price of popularity, I guess?
The Hardware
It’s almost identical to the Spring model, except the buttons on the bottom of the phone are switched around for some absurd reason. No big deal.
When I wrote my review on this year’s iPod touch, I mentioned its weight compared to the iPhone 4 I held back in July. “Impossibly heavy for being so small” was my impression of the iPhone. The Optimus unfortunately does not get the same distinction. The weight feels as if it were just right for the appearance and overall size. It’s 4.69 oz. while the iPhone is 4.8 oz. That’s a minuscule difference but in reality you would feel it.
Moving along, it’s a good size. The screen is 3.2 inches diagonal, which is only a little smaller than my iPod touch. If you have been using a larger screen before this phone, you probably will notice the reduced space. Typing isn’t cramped but it isn’t the same.
I don’t really want to describe the entire set of physical dimensions when the website will take of care it so just check that out there.
A lot of people are asking for comparisons to the Samsung Intercept. When I held one briefly, I noted that it was much lighter than my old Rumor Touch. Now I think the Optimus and Intercept are close in weight with the Intercept being slightly heavier due to the keyboard. The physical differences between the two are the lack of a keyboard for the Optimus and the lack of a good placing for the sleep button on the Intercept. On the Intercept, you have to orient your hand to push a very low button but on the Optimus it’s on top which makes it like the iPod touch placement.
The biggest difference is the screen resolution. I had some figures to compare between Intercept and Optimus but I lost them. It is safe to say though that if you’re comparing a iPod touch 4G, you’ll seriously notice. If you’re using an older iPod touch, probably not so much. The iPod touch screen may or may not have been glass, but the Optimus is not glass. The Intercept is and while it is smooth and probably remain quite flawless in the long haul, plastic is lighter.
The Software
After living with iOS for nearly seven months, I’ve gotten used to it.
Let’s start with the keyboard. By default, swipe is enabled. After months of typing on the iPod touch, and years of typing with fingers pressing keys, swiping to type isn’t exactly first nature. I switched to the Android keyboard. While better for me than swipe, it’s not exactly perfect. Accuracy doesn’t seem very high, I make many more mistakes than I ever did before. Auto-completing text isn’t very good either. Someone mentioned, “I’d rather have the (android) keyboard take a while to figure some good suggestions rather than instantly giving me twenty worthless ones.” I feel the pain there certainly. The smiley face button is annoying also. Why is that there? I hit it when I mean to hit delete and I end up with five extra things to delete.
How about the Apps? I use only a few apps. Gmail (email), Facebook, Twitter for Android, LastPass, Pandora, SpringPad and Google Voice. Those are the downloaded apps with the exception of Gmail. On my iPod touch, sure, I downloaded more apps but they were games that I didn’t really need or want.
Let’s talk about email. I wanted a phone that could give me email without needing Wifi. I can do that now. The Mail app on iOS is lovely but doesn’t take advantage of labels. The Gmail app certainly does. I do have a few problems with it though. It’s not quite as simple as the Mail app. For example, the frame for typing is a box that takes the whole screen instead of just being a continuous white space. Functionality isn’t complicated, but just not as simple as an interface.
The Facebook app isn’t as fancy as the iOS version. It works great but I can’t do somethings. For example, making an shortcut icon to a friend’s profile doesn’t work. The app feels slower, just a bit. Twitter for Android is not Twitterrific. That’s the only thing I can say about that – quality is the big difference.
Pandora works great, just as well as it does on the iPod touch. Not a big deal. Oddly, LastPass for Android works a lot better on Android than iOS. On the iPod touch, it would often crash on me for no real reason. My only gripe here is not having an easier way to retrieve passwords; e.g. not making me enter my full password twice, just a pin-code afterwards. SpringPad works just fine – like it always does.
Like the iPhone and BlackBerry, text messages are stored in a conversation style view. Instead of the Rumor Touch style view, where each message is on its own screen, messages between you and your contact are shown together, with the most recent on the bottom. I remember fondly the old days; I’d write a text on my Rumor and forget part of what my friend said and then hit the back button, causing my message to saved as a draft first. Annoying. Texts are so much easier to work with now. If your contact has a picture stored in Contacts, it’ll display there as well. I wonder – the Google Voice app takes over the Phone app when calling, but it doesn’t take over when texting. Missing some integration there, maybe.
Finally
The LG Optimus V is seriously an excellent phone. It’s only my second cell phone ever. From a Rumor Touch to a decent Android smart phone. Moving up the ladder, certainly, without paying the iPhone price.
If you have questions about the phone, ask here or ask the good people over at Virgin Mobile’s Ask & Answer.
Update (March 2011)
I’ve noticed dust under the screen of my three week old LG Optimus V. Read the full story.
Update (May 2011)
On May 8th I brought my Virgin Mobile LG Optimus V into a RadioShack. At first they weren’t sure if I was talking about there being dust under the screen protector, but after explaining and showing them, they thought it was pretty strange too. They said they hadn’t seen it before, ever. Thanks to my $30 replacement plan, I am being credited $160.68 to cover the price of the phone plus tax. Unforntuately, when I bought the phone in Feburary, the national price was only $150 but has since has increased to $199. So I’m still loosing out $75 (extra $30 to buy it again, another $30 for another replacement plan and $15 on tax) on another phone when it wasn’t my fault. I’ll update everyone on the results soon!
Update (June 2011)
If you were thinking about buying this phone, you might want to wait a bit. There is a new Virgin Mobile phone waiting in the wings with better specs: the Motorola Triumph. Not much is known about it other than a few hardware specs and there are certainly not hands on consumer reviews. Just something to think about.
Hey Ryan. I was wondering about Virgin Mobile service actually. Do you receive free nights and weekend minutes? I have always been iffy about getting Virgin Mobile. Oh btw do you know the speed of the processor of this smart phone?
Hi Aung. According to the Beyond Talk plan I have, no. Essentially for $25/month you get 300 anytime minutes along with unlimited data and texting. There is a data cap of course which lies around 5gb to 8gb per month, I think. Virgin’s support isn’t spectacular but when you get an actual human being whom speaks English, it’s pretty good. The processor on the LG Optimus V is some generic no name running at 600Mghz, making it slower than the Intercept. However, the Optimus apparently has a GPU somewhere as a bonus, which makes everything much smoother.
Actually it’s not a no name processor. It’s a Qualcomm msm7627 which is actually a dual core cpu which for some reason is never mentioned on most spec sheets. It’s the same company that makes the 1Ghz snapdragons in higher end phones.
(merged)
Forgot to add, it’s quite a bit faster than the intercept because of the dual ARM cores despite the lower frequency. On top of that the intercept only has EVDO rev 0 whereas the optimus line has EVDO rev 1 which gets faster data speeds(like 30% faster download and up to 800% faster uploading along with lower latency.)
That’s great to know. I hadn’t known it was dual core but that explains the performance. Does it also have a separate GPU? I remember reading about the EVDO rev 0 / 1 differences. Thanks for mentioning that!
Is the touch screen a pressure like the LG Rumor Touch or a thermal like an ipod Touch?
It’s a capacitive screen, not resistive like the Rumor Touch. It’s like iPod touch, yes.
Alright awesome, Thank you :)
The second core is the graphics core. So I suppose dual core isn’t quite the proper word for it. It still is a big advantage over the intercept and other true entry level smartphones since it is able to offload all the graphics processing onto the graphics core rather than have it all done on the single higher clocked cpu.
How does it compare with Metro PCS that has an LG on for 49.00 and 40.00 per month with taxes. How much is this 25.00 plan with taxes, etc.?
I can’t say how comparable since MetroPCS has no service in my area in Minnesota. MetroPCS has however an LG Optimus M that’s also $149. Tax will problem be similar over all states, so just add in 10% to whatever price it is.
Bert, just to clarify – the only tax on the $25 plan is sales tax – there are none of those neverending list of fees.
I heard Virgin uses Sprint’s network. I’ve heard bad things about Sprint’s reception, when compared to AT&T or Verizon. What’s your impression of signal quality?
In my location in the Twin Cities the quality is pretty good. If I go too far out of the metro area it does get slower. I have noticed too that I will get full bars sometimes but have no 3G at all.
But it’s good enough for the price and my needs.
I recently bought the Optimus V and in the process of looking at reviews came across two complaints. 1.) the phone will not do flash video and 2.) there is no tethering. How big a deal is this and if a big deal which phones and networks circumvent these problems?
Regarding the quality of the Sprint network, the impression that most people have of the network may be a bad one, but in practice I’ve found that it’s no worse off than any other network. I switched from Verizon to Virgin Mobile back in December, and I’ve actually had better signal quality just about everywhere, not just in my home in densely-populated San Francisco, but also at my sister’s house deep in the woods of New Hampshire where Verizon barely reached at all.
I do have significant trouble with data speeds at work, but co-workers on Verizon/AT&T with iPhones, Android phones or other miscellaneous smartphones have the same complaints I do, since the office is kinda off the beaten track with no nearby towers. I still get calls and texts and e-mails with no difficulty, though, and although I can’t really use Pandora or get radio stations at work, streaming audio works flawlessly just about everywhere else.
A friend in the industry recently told me that Sprint has been quietly improving and investing in their network for years in response to the initial accusations of crappy quality. They’ve also invested heavily in companies like Virgin Mobile USA, MetroPCS, and a number of others that don’t carry the Sprint name and therefore manage to avoid the stigma on Sprint’s network, thus bringing in more money for Sprint to use to fix flaws with their network.
Can u pease help me , i have this phone and i was texting and pushed a wrong button and a really imprortant message got sent to my drafts and i cant seem to figure out how to see my drafts can u please tell me ?
If your message was in fact saved as a draft, on the main screen in the Text app, you should see the message’s subject/summary and draft in red next to it. I suggest, instead, that you retype your message or find a computer for mission critical messages.
Hi I was wondering if the LG Optimus was worth $150.00. I have tmobile and their serveice is HORRIBLE. it constantly says “searching” and I cant do anything. THe price to virgin mobile is right and the phone is exactly what I am looking for thanks.
It is definitely worth $150. It’s an quick phone and it will surely be on par with any phone you could get on contract that’s under $100. I don’t know your location but you should look at the Virgin Mobile coverage area before buying – you wouldn’t want to spend on this phone if there is no service after all.
Thanks :)
hi Ryan, I just want to know after using this LG optimus V for a while and then if i want to switch to (e.g ) T-mobile, can i still use this LG optimus V with t-mobile plan or do i need to buy LG optimus T for t-mobile? is there any physical and software difference bet those 2 phones? thanks
Unfortunately, Virgin Mobile uses the same type of network as Sprint, CDMA. T-mobile uses a different type of network, GSM. These two types of network are incompatible. The Optimus V will not function on the T-mobile network.
I teather with mine. In the market you can search “quick settings”. Download it and turn on wifi hotspot. I have also used PDAnet found in the market.
I’ve heard that it takes a really long time to charge this phone. Is that true? And, if so, what sort of things can I do to speed up the charging time or save battery life?
I wouldn’t say so. Recently I was down to 8% battery, plugged in for half an hour and was back up to 35%. I wouldn’t call that slow, but I don’t have another smart phone to compare it to.
On the other hand, compared to my old LG Rumor Touch, I would only charge it once every two days over night for about 6 hours. Taking the Optimus in the morning and using it on and off all day to about 7pm, I’m down to 20% or so.
Hi, I was wondering how i could download pandora to this phone.. and do they charge if you do download it?
Pandora is free to some limit. You can download it from the Market.
I bought this phone in Aug and it has been great for me I was looking thought black friday ads and it is going to be on sale at Target for $50 which is a great deal so if anyone is looking for a quality phone at a great price jump on this deal while you can
* also it is extreamly durable I am not know for being easy on phones and this one is holding up great
Great find. Thanks for sharing!
Glad I searched this, since a T-Mobile rep just told me I could use my Optimus V with their service…