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Don't Buy The Optimus V (yet at least)

V

VeloMichael

Newbie
There's a serious problem with this phone in at least many service areas. It randomly drops 3G and will not reconnect without taking manual action (like rebooting the phone). The 3G indicator stays on, but any attempt to do something as simple as a Google search takes forever and eventually times out with an error.

And this same problem is seriously shortening battery life to where many can't even get 8 hours without even touching their phone. So the phone randomly kills its own battery even with no apps running and it randomly drops and never regains the data connection.

And this happens even on a brand new phone out of the box with no apps installed. So this isn't about user error, or some sketchy app, etc. Many think they find a fix for it only to have it happen again and again. It's not clear if it's a network problem, firmware bug, or both.

Virgin has admitted there's a problem but almost 2 months after releasing the phone still hasn't fixed it.

For more, see this thread:

http://androidforums.com/lg-optimus-v/293583-3g-drops-standby-battery-drain-solutions.html
 
Ive had this phone for a day and I've not had any 3g drop s. The only problem I have is the speed. I'm using juice defender and I haven't charged my battery y yet.
Stock froyo
 
VeloMichael said:
There's a serious problem with this phone in at least many service areas. It randomly drops 3G and will not reconnect without taking manual action (like rebooting the phone). The 3G indicator stays on, but any attempt to do something as simple as a Google search takes forever and eventually times out with an error.

And this same problem is seriously shortening battery life to where many can't even get 8 hours without even touching their phone. So the phone randomly kills its own battery even with no apps running and it randomly drops and never regains the data connection.

And this happens even on a brand new phone out of the box with no apps installed. So this isn't about user error, or some sketchy app, etc. Many think they find a fix for it only to have it happen again and again. It's not clear if it's a network problem, firmware bug, or both.

Virgin has admitted there's a problem but almost 2 months after releasing the phone still hasn't fixed it.

For more, see this thread:

http://androidforums.com/lg-optimus-v/293583-3g-drops-standby-battery-drain-solutions.html
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Thanks for the input,but for now i will ride it out as for the simple reason the phone and texts work flawless at least for me,i am Alwyn calling and texting my phone from my ipod touch 4 gen.i still think it's worth it even for only calling and texts,nobody can match this plan.eventually i most likely will grow tired of the data issues,and seek out another pre paid provider,as i refuse to pay 100 or more a month for 2 years under a contract.
 
Pisfister said:
Ive had this phone for a day and I've not had any 3g drop s. The only problem I have is the speed. I'm using juice defender and I haven't charged my battery y yet.
Stock froyo
Click to expand...

Just wait. Hehe. You will, it is slowly getting better but there is a definite problem specifically with virgin mobile's droids.
 
AQAA said:
"Virgin has admitted there's a problem"

Link please?
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It's in the thread I linked in the original post (#35 on page 1), but here's the specific bit. I have also confirmed a similar story from Virgin:

http://androidforums.com/lg-optimus...ndby-battery-drain-solutions.html#post2434185

And, as I said, it seems to be somewhat location specific as it's related to network loading. The more people in your area have Optimus V phones on Sprint/VM, the more likely it seems you'll have this extremely annoying problem.

So as they sell more phones it's only going to get worse until they (hopefully) fix it. But that same thread has some folks talking about previous phones, and previous similar problems that never were properly fixed.

Some think Sprint's in no hurry to fix this for $25/month Virgin customers as they would rather allocate their resources to much more profitable Sprint customers on more expensive phones sharing the same network. And if their 3G network really is overloaded in some areas, it's even more likely they would prioritize the limited resources towards Sprint customers who are paying a lot more.
 
Works great in Minneapolis, MN, I occasionally drop 3g for afew minutes between 5-10pm rush but works great a vast majority of the time at good speeds, for me at least.
 
dsohn1015 said:
Rome wasn't built in a day; moreover, I have had my Op V for a month with very minimal issues.
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I agree. I have had mine since the day it came out and I've had my share of problems but nothing to make me wish I never bought it. Because for what I pay monthly and what I bought the phone for....nobody can beat that.
 
Last night there was no 5PM 3G drop in Chicago, but it was slow. For the prior two days I lost 3G and it would not come back on without running the activate app followed by cycling airplane mode. I think the problem is with VM's servers and not the handset.

Sprint rolled out an update for the Optimus S that kills hotspot with Quick Settings. Expect the same for the V. That might improve things by cutting congestion.
 
I activated my Optimus on Friday night, haven't had 3G data since. Just got off the phone with VM, tried the activate/off-on/battery pull stuff that I've already done, and was asked to call back in 1-2 hours if no improvement. Blah. Only difference was that it took perhaps a minute (of no page loading) to get the Data connectivity problem popup in the browser after battery pull compared to near immediately prior. Maybe that's a tiny bit of hope...
 
The 3g problems seem to be region specific. I've had mine for about a month and a half (since 3/8) in Philadelphia and have only observed one 3G outage (when the whole VM data network was down for basically one night about a week or so ago).

That's not to say the 3G hasn't gone out at times when I wasn't using the phone and I didn't notice, but it really hasn't been a problem.

Every once in a while a rogue app like Gallery or the Market will run out of control and kill my battery, but that's about the only problem I am running into. (I have gotten in the habit of just killing all the tasks with ATK when I am not doing anything, but I occasionally forget.)
 
I love my OptV...I've had a couple minor issues, but easily got it running the way I want with good app choices! I have very little trouble with it now and no regrets!
 
I was reading through the comments on the virgin mobile facebook page and they said it may take till the end of may till they resolve the 3G data issue that is plaguing so many users. I live in northwest indiana about 20 minutes from chicago and my data has been working fine for the past 2 days. my voice and texting have never been affected.
 
I had a drop about once or twice a day but not every day, usually early morning and/or late afternoon. But for some reason I have not had a drop in 3G in 3 days. I don't think I had excessive battery drain along with it.
 
graxler said:
I was reading through the comments on the virgin mobile facebook page and they said it may take till the end of may till they resolve the 3G data issue that is plaguing so many users. I live in northwest indiana about 20 minutes from chicago and my data has been working fine for the past 2 days. my voice and texting have never been affected.
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That's because Chicago is amazing. :D
 
I've had mine for 1.5 months and I love it. Works great here in San Diego (N County). I would recommend it to anyone. :)
 
graxler said:
I was reading through the comments on the virgin mobile facebook page and they said it may take till the end of may till they resolve the 3G data issue that is plaguing so many users. I live in northwest indiana about 20 minutes from chicago and my data has been working fine for the past 2 days. my voice and texting have never been affected.
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The Facebook info is interesting. As for voice and text, they're not affected by this problem.

Voice and text continue to work even when the phone has permanently lost 3G. Even the 3G indicator stays on. But try something like a Google search and the phone falls on its face, sits there forever trying, and finally gives you a network (or some other) error. You can keep trying all day long and it will never connect until you toggle airplane mode, re-boot the phone, or otherwise turn the radio off and back on. But you can still make and receive calls and texts.

And while the phone is "stuck" it seems to keep constantly retrying the 3G connection until you manually reset and restore 3G. And that's what rapidly drains the battery. If you have Background Data enabled (and it is by default so all the Google cloud stuff can work) sooner or later the phone will, all by itself, try to contact the web, hit the 3G bug, get stuck, and the next time you pull your phone out, the battery is nearly dead because its been re-trying the same broken 3G connection for the last however many hours. Not good!

So we might have to wait until the "end of May"? Ouch.
 
My wife and I have both had the Optimus V for about a month. On Saturday, I lost all data, but my wife's phone worked fine. I did a factory reset and that solved the data problem on my phone--but then I had to spend two hours reloading apps and messing around with the settings on my phone.

On the whole, I am pretty happy with VM and the Optimus. It's not perfect, but it's better than I expected for the money. I live in Long Island, NY and I am averaging download speeds between 600kbps and 1200kbps and upload speeds between 350kbps and 6kbps. This isn't going to compare to my fios broadband at home, but it's not terrible. The data service does drop out from time to time, but (except for saturday) I haven't been knocked out for more than a few minutes at a time. Verizon service is definitely better, but I wouldn't spend an extra $80 a month for it.
 
i've definitely been having problems with my 3g dropping every now and then... in the mornings or mid day and i havent gone a a day without some kind of 3g problem but it has never affected my phone or texting. i can fix it a most of time by just turning off the data enabled feature or airplane mode, sometimes it has worked itself out. its really random and at times can be annoying. i was doing errands earlier for work and couldnt get any 3g service to work (even when the 3g sign is on) despite trying those easy "fixes", however as soon as i stepped into work, it is working perfectly. hopefully they fix it soon, cuz it would be nice if i could rely on my 3g everytime i want to use the browser or fb!!!!
 
I just got off the phone again with Virgin and they admitted the "network problems" may not be fixed "until May". They also admitted they've been getting LOTS of calls (it was 20 minutes of hold time).

Others have posted Virgin essentially gets "leftover 3G" bandwidth from Sprint. And, at times in some areas, there might not be any leftovers to get--the plate is empty. It seems likely what Virgin is calling "network outages" is really excessive "network congestion" and that's why it's something they can't fix anytime soon and are being so vague about it.

The networks already have the means to prioritize traffic, and it's trivial to make Virgin data traffic a lower priority than Sprint data traffic. So it's very easy to see how this might be the main source of the problems. Virgin has never had a really popular smartphone until now and the $25/month unlimited data plan is relatively new as well. So this could be a bad sign.
 
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