• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

How good is this phone?

Yeah, I thought about that and wondered about that. So I paid the $25 on the 3rd of this month (autopayment). So will they just bill be just another $10 this month and start the $35 next?

You going to have to add another $10 for the $35 plan when you jump into the mid-end devices and up. Because it wont work without the $35. But you might have to restart your plan if your going to switch your plan.
 
I've had it for 3 days, came from an HTC One V. I really enjoyed the aluminum build of my One V, but this is leaps and bounds ahead in every other way. If you can deal with the plastic (I can, but its a little slippery), then it's the best $180 you can spend with a no contract carrier.
 
I've had it for 3 days, came from an HTC One V. I really enjoyed the aluminum build of my One V, but this is leaps and bounds ahead in every other way. If you can deal with the plastic (I can, but its a little slippery), then it's the best $180 you can spend with a no contract carrier.

Yeah the plastic body of this phone is definitely its weakest point. I definitely recommend getting a case for it. Otherwise, loving the phone so far.
 
Just got mine. I've been looking for a 4" phone (or smaller) with decent specs for quite some time. I tried out the Samsung Galaxy Blaze 4G, but the horrible shutter lag was a dealbreaker for me. Over the past year I have been switching between the Motorola Droid Pro and iPhone 4.

Some initial impressions:

- It feels nice in the hand. The phone is just about the same size as an iPhone 4, much lighter, perhaps a little wider. The rounded back helps it fit in your palm. The back has a very slippery matte plastic type of feel to it -- I am probably going to slap on an InvisiShield so that the back is a bit more grippy.

- I like that there is a physical 'home' button. The home button lights up for notifications.

- The speaker is fine for playing music and videos. For some reason phone calls sounded a bit too soft on speakerphone.

- Very snappy. Google Search works very smoothly and accurately. With QSlide you can put your movie in a small window and then multitask. Loading apps, switching apps, browser, etc. all work well with minimal stutter. No problems playing my AVI or MP4 files.

- Switching between portrait and landscape keyboard takes about 1-2 seconds (just a tad slower than the iPhone 4) -- wish that would be a bit snappier.

- Camera is quick. Boots up quickly, minimal shutter lag. The usual LG gimmicks are here, e.g., cheese shutter, time catch shot.

Overall I'm very pleased with this phone.
 
FYI
I swapped my service from my LG Optimus Elite ($25 plan) to my F3 today. During the swap it says $25 not available and makes me pick a new plan. I picked the $35 plan. Apparently they will let me slide the rest of this month. They did not charge me $10. It just says on my next auto payment period it will be $35 and I get to keep my same payment date.
 
FYI
I swapped my service from my LG Optimus Elite ($25 plan) to my F3 today. During the swap it says $25 not available and makes me pick a new plan. I picked the $35 plan. Apparently they will let me slide the rest of this month. They did not charge me $10. It just says on my next auto payment period it will be $35 and I get to keep my same payment date.

Same here.. I however went ahead and moved to the $45 plan, as I'm seeing my talk time move up... I was bumping the 300 mins per month for the last 3 months...

As for the F3... The speed is awesome for this phone... Power up, and all. its just blazing fast..
On the downside... It has a issue connecting with my Western Digital Router.. It finds it, connects, and works... Then, the signal drops for no reason, and it can't re-connect...
3g/4g in this area is great too.. However, I've noticed that the phone can't make up its mind, which it wants to connect to.. Sometimes, I'll get a 'unable to connect' or 'connection timed out' message while on the Play Store.
Then, I've had the fun of trying to update some pre-installed software on the phone, and get 'invalid file package' or something like that.

I do not like being forced to store all my apps on the internal memory of the phone either... I know with it being rooted, I can move stuff... But, why do they do this now? My OV on OE allowed this, even without being rooted.

Battery: Much bigger, longer lasting than any phone I've owned... Heavy use, and I still get almost a full 8 hours of use.. (thats mostly txting, a few phone calls here and there, and some gaming)

I've had the phone for 2 days now.. And, again, besides the little quarks, I really like this phone... I hope someone can help me solve why I can't re-connect to my router... For the time being, I've connected a 2nd router up (using a totally different name) and it connects, and reconnects correctly..
 
Just got my F3 activated yesterday. Fantastic device. I can't believe how much better it is than my old Optimus V!
 
Just got my activated yesterday. Fantastic device. I can't believe how much better it is than my old Optimus V!

I have an Optimus V, and am looking to upgrade. I love my V, but the internal memory is terrible. How is the F3 for internal memory, or did you ever have any problems with the V's memory?
One reason I am thinking of the F3 is to be compatible with the Toyota Entune Navigation in the Highlander. The Optimus V isn't, so if we want to use more of the car, I would have to get a new phone. That would be forking out money for a phone, then also increasing me monthly Virgin Mobile payment from $25 to $30. My wife can be a real penny pincher...
 
I have an Optimus V, and am looking to upgrade. I love my V, but the internal memory is terrible. How is the F3 for internal memory, or did you ever have any problems with the V's memory?
One reason I am thinking of the F3 is to be compatible with the Toyota Entune Navigation in the Highlander. The Optimus V isn't, so if we want to use more of the car, I would have to get a new phone. That would be forking out money for a phone, then also increasing me monthly Virgin Mobile payment from $25 to $30. My wife can be a real penny pincher...

The lack of internal memory is a real problem. And I'm not even someone who plays games. You pretty much have room for only the basics.
 
The optimus f3 has about 1gb for user apps, the optimus v had what, about 100mb. But the OV has the ability to move most apps to the SD, the F3 can only move a few to the internal SD.

My wife has about 20 apps on hers, and has about 650mb left. The largest being Facebook or dragonplay. Some apps can save data/cache to the internal SD or external. Also check all apps to see if not used ones can be disabled or moved to internal SD card. So its not unusable by any means to the average user.
 
I have an Optimus V, and am looking to upgrade. I love my V, but the internal memory is terrible. How is the F3 for internal memory, or did you ever have any problems with the V's memory?
The Optimus V's internal memory is pathetic. It would constantly give me "package file invalid" on updates. Especially Google Maps. After flashing CM7 it got a lot better. But it didn't last. Eventually, (after about a year) I started getting the "package file invalid" again. It got to the point where I'd need to delete practically EVERY app on the phone just in order to update a single app. (And moving apps to the SD card never solved this problem.) In addition, the WiFi stopped working, and the power/lock button stopped working. I found some good widgets to work around the power/lock button issue, but other problems were making the device unusable.

The F3 does have limited internal memory, though MUCH more is available than on the V. The fact that you can't just move apps to the SD card makes matters worse. I'm hoping that F3 lasts at least as long as my V did because I really like the F3.
One reason I am thinking of the F3 is to be compatible with the Toyota Entune Navigation in the Highlander. The Optimus V isn't, so if we want to use more of the car, I would have to get a new phone. That would be forking out money for a phone, then also increasing me monthly Virgin Mobile payment from $25 to $30. My wife can be a real penny pincher...
Your monthly payment will be $35 minimum, not $30. But if you want to use all the gadgets in your car, that's probably the cheapest way to do it. Are you sure the F3 is compatible with Entune? I'd be willing to give up the grandfathered plan to upgrade from a V to a F3, but I know that can be a tough choice. It was an easier choice for me since I had been on a $35 plan from day 1 with my Optimus V.
 
I have a question, I am new to the site and new to android phones so I kinda need simple terms.

I had an lg motion and just recently got an f3 my problem is a couple things. First I want to say I have sandisk app installed to organize? my stuff (pics,apps etc.). The problem I have is that every ad that comes up when I play a game (words, wtp) gets saved to my internal memory, pictures video other people user id?? Is this normal? Also althoughthey deny tthisis in the free app there is an option to make pics pprivateand to uunlockyou hhaveto create a ppasswor, it ddoesn'twork and iI'velost my pics I have to go in and clean this a couple times a day.

Also when playing games, mostly WTP, but others I have to click play twice, spin the wheel and I can't choose a letter I have to back out of the game click play again and the letter board will come up again and I'm good rest of game.

Other apps problems with screen blinking on off really quickly? ?

I'd appreciate any info thanks
 
this phone is completely awesome after a few minor simple alterations to the memory . search the forums for link2sdHow to Partition SD Card and Use Link2SD in any Android Phone with Screenshots and http://androidforums.com/lg-optimus-f3/801368-mod-app2external_sd-fixed-duplicate-files.html this will solve alll of your storage problems for the most part. This is all of course after you root using this method! http://androidforums.com/virgin-mobile-optimus-f3-all-things-root/744082-rooting-f3-motochopper.html Now I am on virgin mobile and all of these methods worked for me flawlessly. I didnt create any of the methods here so props go to all the original devs for the work that they put into all of them!
 
It's a great phone for the price, after some modifications. A lot of crapware that LG put on it is annoying, but you can remove/replace it after it's rooted.

chucksaysblah is right though that you need to mod some stuff with the memory though if you're any kind of power user.
 
I would love to hear some opinions as to whether the F3 or the iPhone 4s is a better choice. I'm after a smallish phone with decent performance and no contract. I can get the F3 new for the same price as a used (but great condition) iPhone 4s. Just looking at the specs, it looks like the F3 is a winner but most of the reviews I've read seem negative - especially relative to the build and screen quality. I've also read that the speaker and microphone are poor - not being able to talk on the phone comfortably would be a downer for me. Anyway, I'd love to hear any of your thoughts. Thanks!
 
Im a huge fan of this phone among close people who use iPhone 4S/5S. It does everything their devices do and part of the more open Android eco-system. Build is plastic, but it is lighter and easier to replace if lost/broken/stolen. Screen is plenty bright and clear. Speaker and mic are fine and I havent noticed anything bad about it. It is a great little phone with way better battery life than most other Androids.
 
Thanks for the response Whyzor. It's not so much the brightness or clarity of the screen that I'm concerned with as the resolution - some reviews indicate that images and text get pixelated on the F3 screen. It sounds like this isn't a concern from your point of view?

I wonder why this phone has been thrashed in the media? CNET, PCMag, Laptopmag, etc. all have largely negative reviews on their websites.
 
Thanks for the response Whyzor. It's not so much the brightness or clarity of the screen that I'm concerned with as the resolution - some reviews indicate that images and text get pixelated on the F3 screen. It sounds like this isn't a concern from your point of view?

I wonder why this phone has been thrashed in the media? CNET, PCMag, Laptopmag, etc. all have largely negative reviews on their websites.

I'd guess it gets trashed because they expect it to be a high end phone like the s4 or nexus
 
The pixel density is high enough, I dont see pixels unless I hold it really close and at that point there is eye strain anyway.

As others have said the 'pro' reviewers are usually sampling the latest & greatest, so they tend to be a bit snobbish about anything less.

If there is one major flaw with this phone, it is the limited internal storage, but not a problem w workarounds after rooting or if you dont install a lot of big apps/games.
 
Back
Top Bottom