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Root LG Optimus F3 Or Just A Repackaged Elite??

Walmart has the F3 in stores now for only $150. If you can somehow manage to sign up as a new customer with the 2 month free credit VM is offering that is a pretty great deal.
 
I have been watching the forums for both the Victory and the F3, as well as the price both online and at the stores. Right now the F3 is $150 and the Victory is $200 at Walmart.
I am concerned about a rumor I heard on the F3 forum though. What I heard is LG has locked the Bootloader on all of their newer phones. That just may push me to the Victory lol.
 
Sinner67 said:
I have been watching the forums for both the Victory and the F3, as well as the price both online and at the stores. Right now the F3 is $150 and the Victory is $200 at Walmart.
I am concerned about a rumor I heard on the F3 forum though. What I heard is LG has locked the Bootloader on all of their newer phones. That just may push me to the Victory lol.
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Yeah that is true. But you can root it. 4.1.2 is good enough its already on Jellybean. I'm sure we will have an update anyways eventually. But honestly the phone works PERFECT on stock better than ANY other phone I've ever seen. There would be no point to unlock the boot loader, use recovery, and install ROMs. You need developers to make ROMs anyways and they always have bugs as well and would probably make battery life worse. You won't be as happy with the victory as you would be with this phone. The battery life alone is worth it. I lasted 19 hours yesterday and had 40% left still. I have never once experienced lag and I've had the phone since last Friday. Not a single reboot. I haven't even had to turn off the phone. No force closes. Nothing. It works like a real android phone should work. Not even a single issue what so ever. I used to believe that custom ROMs were always better but now... no. They are not. Having extra features is gonna give you reboots, force closes, and other bad problems. It isn't worth it anymore honestly.

So I 100% guarantee recommend the F3 to you. Stock is actually pretty great on this phone. :) And that battery life ive been getting is with the phone being used constantly. It will last my entire 8 hour work shift in my pocket and only use 8% or so. Sorry I'm pushing you to it, but I hate to see someone buy another phone that barely works. If they have to make the boot loader unlockable then that means they did a shitty job with stock on the phone and are leaving it up to developers to fix it.
 
I've got to disagree, custom roms have been the saving grace of soooo many phones ... issues from roms can be device related and inexperienced rom cooks/developers...locked boot loaders are a douche move my manufacturers and carriers to keep you from messing with the proprietary software, or bricking and returning under fraudulent warranty claim.(which i can understand) I've ran AOKP, CM10, PA, Slimbean etc with no issues. (officially supported versions for N4 etc)
Your custom rom experience will always come down to the device and the developer. At least that's been my experience with it over the last 6 years with android. Just my 2
 
This phone does run great stock, so I'm not sure I care if any ROMs are ever made for it.

It does appear, I have not tried it, that there is a special program made that can run CWM on LG phones with the locked bootloader.
http://androidforums.com/spirit-4g-...2971-2nd-init-recovery-985hpakick-spirit.html

Working CWM Recovery!!!

Maybe that program would need to be tweaked to run on our phone, maybe not. I'm not brave enough to try, or currently care to try as the phone works perfect as is.

The phone is easily rooted, mine is, you just have to be extra careful what you do to it with not having CWM to get you out of any oops that may happen. Maybe the above program would fix that issue, I just don't know.
 
I agree that the phone can be rooted. But if the bootloader is locked, you cannot install a custom recovery. If you cannot install a custom recovery, you cannot do a nandroid backup. A rooted phone with no nandroid backup is a very dangerous thing. I have had 2 Kyocera phones in the past 9 months that were rooted with a locked bootloader, and both phones are now bricks. So my recommendation is if you root your phone to remove bloat from the stock rom, unroot it when you are done.
 
Sinner67 said:
I agree that the phone can be rooted. But if the bootloader is locked, you cannot install a custom recovery. If you cannot install a custom recovery, you cannot do a nandroid backup. A rooted phone with no nandroid backup is a very dangerous thing. I have had 2 Kyocera phones in the past 9 months that were rooted with a locked bootloader, and both phones are now bricks. So my recommendation is if you root your phone to remove bloat from the stock rom, unroot it when you are done.
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I'm sure someone will write a 2nd init/bootstrap at some point. :)
 
From what I was reading, it looks like you can make a nandroid backup, and flash ROMs with that program.
Just not sure what good a nandroid backup would do for you if you bricked the phone. Maybe that can somehow be installed from the stock bootloader????
 
sinkist77 said:
Well so far this phone is nice. Very speedy very good screen size. Im loving jelly bean. Not much bloat ware. Most the preloaded virgin crap can be uninstalled. Plenty of internal storage 1. 25 gb. After downloading my normal apps i still have 1 gb left on internal storage.The resolution is way better than the elite. Any questions then please ask I'll try to give good answers.
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I agree with everything except the memory...that's the BIG problem...at least the elite have 2gb of is & u can move apps to ur sd card...google chrome keeps taking up space & these nee games are @least 1gb...plus,u need to have 250mb free so it won't slow performance....o give 3.5 stars out of 5
 
Got my wife this phone and I must say it's pretty nice. Seems to run fairly well, no issues with data, calls or texting. Has a very vibrant display. I have rooted it but since I can't nandroid I froze the bloat instead of removing.

When you have a rooted phone without recovery you have to be very cautious about what you screw with. It's never suggested to change or remove anything in system partition unless you are willing to have an expensive paper weight
 
When I first rooted I tried rebooting into recovery thru Rom Toolbox and it did a factory reset but when I did the volume down + power button combo it didn't reset.
 
I decided to renew with my Elite for 1 more month while I decide what to do. After reading some reviews the F3 probably is the best bang for the buck by far now but I am just sick of VM/Sprint's network.
 
snorge said:
I decided to renew with my Elite for 1 more month while I decide what to do. After reading some reviews the F3 probably is the best bang for the buck by far now but I am just sick of VM/Sprint's network.
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Is this your first VM phone?
The OE does have network issues, it's the phone.
I had the OV before going to the OE and could tell right away the OE had issues. It was way slower then the OV. My wife still has the OV and it would run circles my OE on the network.
The F3 is running great on the network for me. It's so nice to have a phone work correctly again.
Now if your saying that you don't have many bars in your location....well that is a different issue.
 
elgecko said:
Is this your first VM phone?
The OE does have network issues, it's the phone.
I had the OV before going to the OE and could tell right away the OE had issues. It was way slower then the OV. My wife still has the OV and it would run circles my OE on the network.
The F3 is running great on the network for me. It's so nice to have a phone work correctly again.
Now if your saying that you don't have many bars in your location....well that is a different issue.
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Yes it is my first VM phone but I had a Sprint contract phone a couple years ago and it had network issues as well. Also there isn't 4G coverage here yet although all the other major carriers offer it.
 
Well when you use root to remove anything from system, you will not be able to update through OTA anymore so it isn't worth it. Use Titanium Backup to freeze things and when an update comes through just defrost them. :)
 
I had an Evo V 4G for a while. It used Wimax 4G which is CRAP and is available like nowhere... Now I have the F3 which has 4G LTE and I have it everywhere! :)
 
Curtis1973 said:
no your opinion is valued. it is why i posted the topic. and my comment on them being similar was in the cheesy plastic back and over all appearance being similar..i would still bet that on the circuit board level there is some similarities in the three devices and until i see some development on it that is real. i wouldnt have one. i know virgin mobile and they probably have that device so loaded down with garbage bloatware that even with the improved specs,it will run like crap.
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actually, no real VM bloatware, save for the ID pack thing... nothing like carriers used to do (and AT&T still does lol)
 
My brother just got the F3 and he loves it. It's awesome it runs games like dead trigger and riptide with no problem. It's smooth and is a huge step from the elite. I would get it if I were you.

However, the Virgin Mobile Supreme is $209.99 right now. I just got mine maybe 3 weeks ago and it is absolutely amazing no doubt. No complaints except for the camera sound but you can root it easily and delete the file. If you can spend a little more go with the Supreme.
 
I need help i just unlocked my optimus F3 yesterday and its doing great i just really want to get rid of the quick memo that program always messes me up !!!! Please please please help: (
 
I just bought an F3, the sale at Radioshack sucked me in. I'm really hoping that there will be some ROM dev. on it at some point!
 
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