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Love Love Love this phone

After a few more days of ownership - can you be more specific as to why you love it? It's one of the models I'm considering. Thanks.
 
stef7 said:
After a few more days of ownership - can you be more specific as to why you love it? It's one of the models I'm considering. Thanks.
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After having mine for three weeks now, I have to agree with the OP. Very fast device with a BEAUTIFUL display. The only things I can knock on it are the standard battery and the LG interface. After getting an extended battery and swapping LauncherPro for the LG UI, it's a dream phone. Once you root it and get rid of the bloatware, it becomes that much better.
 
Was my first choice but got the nexus and I regret not have chosen the spectrum. Getting lots of data and call issues. As for battery life, all 4g phone have issues came from a thunderbolt. Best phone ever except for battery, just carry a USB cord and and get app to switch 4g on off.
 
fendee1 said:
Was my first choice but got the nexus and I regret not have chosen the spectrum. Getting lots of data and call issues. As for battery life, all 4g phone have issues came from a thunderbolt. Best phone ever except for battery, just carry a USB cord and and get app to switch 4g on off.
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With the extended battery and ROM I'm running, I can get almost two days of use between charges.
 
You can switch 4G(LTE) off and only use 3G(CDMA) with the stock firmware. It will use less battery, but not by too, too much.

Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks > System Select > CDMA Only

As for turning off data in its entirety, I suggest using the Data Enabler Widget. It DOES keep wifi connections open though, unless you shut off your wifi radio manually which, again, is in Settings > Wireless & Networks.

Yep -- juggling the battery and constantly closing the bloatware/pre-loaded apps are the only negatives. ICS can't come soon enough. That being said, I'm a big fan of the device and would recommend it to anybody and everybody. I'd even recommend it to my Grandmother. If you're a power user, you'll need to bring a charger everywhere.
 
Full Spectrum said:
You can switch 4G(LTE) off and only use 3G(CDMA) with the stock firmware. It will use less battery, but not by too, too much.

Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks > System Select > CDMA Only

As for turning off data in its entirety, I suggest using the Data Enabler Widget. It DOES keep wifi connections open though, unless you shut off your wifi radio manually which, again, is in Settings > Wireless & Networks.

Yep -- juggling the battery and constantly closing the bloatware/pre-loaded apps are the only negatives. ICS can't come soon enough. That being said, I'm a big fan of the device and would recommend it to anybody and everybody. I'd even recommend it to my Grandmother. If you're a power user, you'll need to bring a charger everywhere.
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the factory power option widget will also turn data on and off. The Go switch widget also has this feature for those running Go launcher
 
This is my 4th droid and I was determined that my new one was going to be under $100. Was waiting for the Rezound price to come down but got tired of waiting and kept missing the sales. Saw the Costco web price for Spectrum and couldn't resist - $50. Checked it out at VZ, salesman advised against it and wanted me to get new Moto since I could use my $30 loyalty discount (really?). Hmmm $50 versus $270? Not too hard to decide. When I pressed him he had nothing bad to say about Spectrum. So at VZ I checked out Rezound, Razr Maxx, GNex, and I thought the Spectrum was actually perfect for me.

Anyway, here's what I like best. Love that I can see it outside, display is beautiful, 4 g, dual core processor is sweet, weight and size are great for me, and I am fine with the back cover that others didn't like, SD and removable battery (yay), camera quality is better than DX, surprisingly happy with LG stock keyboard (best I've used) and stock apps, phone call quality is excellent, speakerphone is nice and loud. Phone actually came with a physical manual and has a manual/tutorial already installed. It will be great for any first time droid/smartphone users.

My only real dislike is the bloatware and battery but no different than my DX. I manage my connectivity and get a whole day. Spectrum is TOTALLY underrated. If you're reading this and thinking about it, get it. You don't have to be a Costco member to use their website. Just get the insurance after the warranty period expires.
 
FWIW. I noticed a number of phones including the LG Spectrum are $ .01 today on AmazonWireless.

Thank you claire. That is re-assuring comments. Glad you tried them all. I didn't have the luxury. But the specs looked really good to me, and I think there is a way to deal with the bloat.

Good to hear you are managing at least a days worth of battery runtime.
 
Properly tuned [read: rooted and bloatware frozen OR run BrokenOutSpecturm ROM], you can get well over a day out of the device. I have personally had it going for close to 52 hours with 6% remaining on the extended battery. That is with normal email, texting, Subsonic streaming over bluetooth, and 4G usage.

I would have let it go all the way to 0%, but I was going to be on the road for a few hours and needed it. *shrug*
 
Yes, this is an awesome phone. Running BrokenOut ROM now and it's gotten even better!!

I hadn't even heard of this phone when we went to the VZW store. We were both looking at the Galaxy Nexus, but it would have been almost $500 for both and that is WITH our upgrade discount!!

The Spectrum was BOGO for $199. When I pulled up the specs in the store, this one either matched or beat the Razr anad Galaxy in every one that matters.

Been very happy with it... hope to see more development on it soon to continue the improvement!
 
coderaz said:
Properly tuned [read: rooted and bloatware frozen OR run BrokenOutSpecturm ROM], you can get well over a day out of the device. I have personally had it going for close to 52 hours with 6% remaining on the extended battery. That is with normal email, texting, Subsonic streaming over bluetooth, and 4G usage.

I would have let it go all the way to 0%, but I was going to be on the road for a few hours and needed it. *shrug*
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Yup. I froze about 40 bloatware apps (never delete) and was easily able to get 36hrs on light use.
 
First impressions: after just having a few hours to use the device thus far... I am floored with the speed / responsiveness of the device. Downloading some of my apps and add-ons from the Market, on more than one occasion, the download completed immediately... like while I was pressing the back button.

And while I can't really say I hated the Optimus skin, placing the ADW Ex launcher on the phone, I feel right at home with the device, even coming from Froyo... Some persistence issues though w.r.t. the Wallpaper setting and the launcher.

Update: 4/3 - seems everytime I plug the phone into a charger or PC, I see this animated water/wave. Wasn't expecting that. The wallpaper is persistent. :)

The display is simply beautiful. Speaker volume more than adequate. Touch responsiveness (I haven't even removed the film on it yet) seems excellent.
 
I have Galaxy Nexus but I'm thinking of getting Spectrum on second line. I like LG's IPS/LCD screen. But my only concern is lags in UI. Most reviews of spectrum criticized lagginess of LG UI skin and the demo unit I played with at VZW store felt somewhat laggy too. But that might be due to demo video it's running in background.

So how do you feel about UI speed/smoothness in real world usage? Does it need other launchers for smooth UI? And I saw some posts here that clock speed of S3 snapdragon in Spectrum out of box is lower than 1.5Ghz. Is that true?
 
FWIW: I only played with the LG Optimus "Skin" that came with the phone for a few hours yesterday. It didn't really bother me too much as an additional layer. I found it fairly easy to use and ALMOST intuitive. Perhaps a little scrolling choppiness and transitions that weren't smooth, but I'd hardly call it laggy (not responsive). And I was using the Leaves live wallpaper. I've since changed to the Nexus Livewallpaper.

Honestly, I had been so used to using ADW EX on top of Froyo on another device, that I wanted to put that on this phone, and that was the plan from the get-go. ADW EX provides for a lot of customization. You can install ADW EX and probably other launchers without root, and I think they will make the skin "disappear".

Don't install another launcher if you find the skin appealing. That categorization of apps was a slick feature, but otherwise, it didn't make a lasting impression.

When I rooted it to put on governor control (No-Frills CPU Control), and freeze bloatware (I'm using App Quarantine)...both free, I have to admit, I don't know what is better over the next app, the phone reported "OnDemand" with 1.512GHz for Max Clock Freq. I switched it from "OnDemand" to "Conservative" and left the I/O scheduler alone. So - it is a 1.5 clocked device, not 1.2.

The phone is fast. So far, 6hrs of moderate use, checking email, sending IMs via Whatsapp, downloading and installing programs from the market, doing a little customization, I am still at 44%, and I suspect, this is only going to get better as I go through a few more charge / discharge cycles which should make the battery reporting more accurate.
 
Sandroidfan said:
So how do you feel about UI speed/smoothness in real world usage? Does it need other launchers for smooth UI? And I saw some posts here that clock speed of S3 snapdragon in Spectrum out of box is lower than 1.5Ghz. Is that true?
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Once you freeze the bloatware, it runs fairly well. However, I got random reboots with no rhyme or reason before I flashed the debated rom.

I've heard the cpu was ramped down to 1 instead of 1.5,but I've never experienced it. The phone is great, but it is going to be harder for devs to get into with no phone recovery. It's really easy to perm brick the phone.

Sent from my VS920 4G
 
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