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Need some advice

S

Smallzthedroid

Lurker
So I went in the other day to upgrade my Droid X which was actually pretty decent for me for 2 1/2 years. I had a quick desire to get an iphone 4s but came to, slapped myself and all was well. I wanted to upgrade before June 28 so I could keep my unlimited data plan. I went in after looking at a lot of stuff with my mind set on a Droid Razr maxx. The salesman convinced me to go with the LG spectrum.

So two days with it and I both like it and hate it. Love the screen but the lag on it sucks. And the battery is not really what I'm looking for (and yes I know that it'll get more accurate and better after a week). I took it back in to trade it for the maxx but they don't have it in stock till monday.

I currently have a verizon jetpack for home internet and it works pretty good for gaming in my area. My thought was to get rid of that and use my phone as a hotspot. I've used the LG with an app and have connected my laptop to it but it seems to run a lot slower than the jetpack. So I have a couple questions. Is it feasable to run off my phone with the same speed as my jetpack (which I'm happy with but its only 5 gigs a month and is $50 a month). I know I can use the phone for big downloads but it'd be nice to get rid of that extra $50 a month. That's question #1.

Question #2 is that I figured the maxx would be better for that type of use. But if the answer to question #1 is stick with the jetpack then really it's a "what phone should I go with that'll be good and get me through the next couple years with my unlimited data plan."

Sorry if that's as clear as mud. My personal thoughts on it are go with the maxx. I know that I can root the Spectrum and solve a lot of the battery drain. Unfortunately I've never done it and though I'm relatively tech minded I've not played around with that stuff very much. Any help would be appreciated even if it's a I'd do this in that situation and go with this other phone type thing. Thanks.
 
The Jetpack is going to be faster than ANY phone, because it's a hotspot product; it's like Verizon's cellular home phone and is specifically designed for better reception and faster speed than a phone. You can do large downloads on the Spectrum on LTE, but you'll drain the battery FAST. If you're downloading 100-300mb, no big deal, but once you try to get 1gb+, the battery pisses out.

Basically, phones aren't designed to do what you're trying to do. It's a clever approach, but they're designed for device-displayed/used content, not as download devices. That's why you'll see tether apps (I haven't used the VZ one, so I'm not referring to it here) don't get much better d/l speeds than 500k even on LTE... the phones just aren't designed for that purpose.
 
I used my droid charge to game online for months. and that was on 3g. I played CSS and F1 2011 alot online with my charge. Sure I had lag spikes here and there but if you have 4g your phone should work fine for online gaming. I personally would stick with the spectrum for the screen alone. My sister has a razr and my spectrums screen blows it away. As far as the lag, the stock lg rom is crap thats for sure. But those issues also have solutions.

And mrB. What kind of 4g area do you live in. I get 100-250Kb/s on 3g all the time and thats with -90 - -105db connection ie. 1-2 bars When I travel to 4g areas around me I often get 1-3MB/s download speeds. I ran a connection test one time when I was right next to a verizon tower and got 45Mb/s download and 13Mb upload which basically translates to 4.5MB/s download speed
 
I didn't know if going through Verizon's mobile hotspot program would be any faster Mr. B. Or if it's just the nature of the phone vs the jetpack where the jetpack is only doing one task. I did have some txt msg's coming in when I did my little unscientific "test".

IMUcarmen what rom do you suggest and how easy would it be to do it. I learn quick but I'm not familiar with how to do it.
 
Also I'm concerned about the top button for on and off. Feels to me like it could be a problem in the future as far as turning the screen on and off cause it seems cheap but that may be my imagination.
 
I used my droid charge to game online for months. and that was on 3g. I played CSS and F1 2011 alot online with my charge. Sure I had lag spikes here and there but if you have 4g your phone should work fine for online gaming. I personally would stick with the spectrum for the screen alone. My sister has a razr and my spectrums screen blows it away. As far as the lag, the stock lg rom is crap thats for sure. But those issues also have solutions. <br />
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And mrB. What kind of 4g area do you live in. I get 100-250Kb/s on 3g all the time and thats with -90 - -105db connection ie. 1-2 bars When I travel to 4g areas around me I often get 1-3MB/s download speeds. I ran a connection test one time when I was right next to a verizon tower and got 45Mb/s download and 13Mb upload which basically translates to 4.5MB/s download speed
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I live in Seattle and there's blazing speeds here, but you're talking burst speeds, which is all speed tests are. Load balancers keep you from using more than 1-2mb/sec and you can't keep those rates for more than a minute or two... It's how they designed networks.

Now, gaming takes less bandwidth than you'd expect so it's entirely possible to game through a solid cdma connection. So you can do it on LTE too, but like I said, the phones aren't designed for that purpose. Hotspot products like jetpack are designed to connect faster because they allow several connections... But that service isn't free, so verizon gives better bandwidth than to the phones running unlimited data.

For your button issue... There's a button on the top of the home phone receiver, but I've never accidentally turned it off. It's probably not an issue.
 
You maybe be right about the speeds mrB, I'm definitely familiar with what you are talking about. But The reference to the speed I get in a typical 4g area here wasn't referring to speed test I run, (except for the 45Mb test) I was talking about the consistent download speed I can get while downloading large files. I've downloaded 200+ MB files on quite a few occasions in 4g areas and it usually holds in-between 1-2MB. As far as the burst speeds go I get in between 3-5MB download speeds for a few seconds when updating apps. I've actually seen 3g go over 500KB/s a few times.
 
Smallzthedroid said:
IMUcarmen what rom do you suggest and how easy would it be to do it. I learn quick but I'm not familiar with how to do it.
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We only have 2 roms right now and both are pretty good. Rooting and installing custom roms is super easy and if you have any sense at all you can do it. It's just intimidating at first because you have no confidence and are afraid you will mess up. Erase that fear and just read over the forums and take your time. If you have any concerns or question just ask and you'll get a response. We are here to help!

You'll find links to both roms in the all things root section of this forum.

I don't think the power button is an issue at all. I have a droid charge which has the power button on the side and I also have the spec with the power button on the top and at first I thought I wasn't going to like the power button up top but now I actually like it more. I would accidently hit the power button on my charge sometimes and I never do on my spec.

Ultimately if I were you I would go in the verizon store and play with your spec and the razr at the same time and go through all the motions. Make sure you watch a couple HD videos on each =] The spectrums screen really shines then.
 
IMUcarmen said:
You maybe be right about the speeds mrB, I'm definitely familiar with what you are talking about. But The reference to the speed I get in a typical 4g area here wasn't referring to speed test I run, (except for the 45Mb test) I was talking about the consistent download speed I can get while downloading large files. I've downloaded 200+ MB files on quite a few occasions in 4g areas and it usually holds in-between 1-2MB. As far as the burst speeds go I get in between 3-5MB download speeds for a few seconds when updating apps. I've actually seen 3g go over 500KB/s a few times.
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Nice one. There are a few variables in consistent speeds, but downloading from your GDocs account or from Microsoft is a good litmus for network speed, because they have far more traffic and speed than other sources. My server, for example, is shared, so if there's low traffic, my users can take up the full 10mb connection and easily hit 3mb. The problem with speed tests is they're 'burst' tests and show a 5-10mb file download, which is great for seeing how fast you can get an mp3 from the test server, but it's not a good test for your true capabilities, because different servers and regions will have different speeds and traffic flow.

I think my LTE speeds are a bit slower because Seattle is mostly rented towers for Verizon (especially in the north part of the city) and all the towers near me are for T-Mobile, but rented by VZW... it doesn't help that I'm close to the Microsoft/tech center region of the city where the networks are clogged with iPads and iPhones.
 
Ok so some gaming and surfing (and dl big files on my unlimited plan) is good but using the phone for a sole source probably not realistic. Good to know that it's easy to do the Rom I'm feeling a lot better about the phone now. Still may switch but it's growing on me and I'd look at the new samsung if I do.

As far as the button I wasn't afraid of hitting it. I'm afraid of durability in it being the only way to activate the phone. I have to leave it on silent mostly at work so I'm constantly checkign it and worried about it wearing out. My droid x you could hit one of two buttons and the one I used most was wearing out badly.
 
i'm a heavy user and I'm constantly turning my screen on and off as I use the 30 minute screen off setting. I haven't noticed any wear on the button at all in the 3 months i've had the phone.

Also remember all these phones have a one year warranty from the manufacturer and if the power button broke it shouldnt be a problem to get it replaced as defective.
 
Yea, don't worry about the button... it's as solid as any other phone I've had. If you get the silicone case like I have from VZ, it's actually protected a bit, so that might put your mind at ease a little more. The phone is constructed well, I just have gripes with the LG version of Android on here. I'm sure an AOSP or CM9 will shut me up, though. lol
 
1). Install ADW Launcer EX and leave the lag, and odd U.I. behind.
2). Instead of using the button to put the phone to sleep, consider a download like "Turn off the Lights"
 
ADW ex is a good launcher and runs super smooth. Launcher pro, FTL, SPB shell, and TSF shell are also others that run super smooth and will improve your experience. Actually of all those, TSF shell is the smoothest. That is one amazingly smooth running launcher. I like to switch it up as far as what launcher I run so right now I'm using Holo launcher but, unfortunately it doesnt run as smooth as the others I listed.
 
stef7 said:
1). Install ADW Launcer EX and leave the lag, and odd U.I. behind.
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EXCEPT, be prepared for random crashes and reboots. ADW and our phone aren't getting along as well as with other phones (java errors having to do with phone in standby). I've sent a few crash reports to the dev, but haven't seen any improvement. FTL launcher is working well for me... no reboots.
 
MrB206 said:
EXCEPT, be prepared for random crashes and reboots. ADW and our phone aren't getting along as well as with other phones (java errors having to do with phone in standby). I've sent a few crash reports to the dev, but haven't seen any improvement. FTL launcher is working well for me... no reboots.
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ADW and your phone dont get along...lol. ADW and my phone play very nicely. Im almost thinking it had to ADW and an app combined causeing the issue.
 
MrB206 said:
EXCEPT, be prepared for random crashes and reboots. ADW and our phone aren't getting along as well as with other phones (java errors having to do with phone in standby). I've sent a few crash reports to the dev, but haven't seen any improvement. FTL launcher is working well for me... no reboots.
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ADW ex and my phone get along great. I've used it quite a bit and I havent seen it cause any reboots on my end. Hollywood may be right about it being a combo deal.
 
It *could* be the combo of Beautiful Widgets and adw, but I have BW set to update only on screen wake. It shouldn't be an issue and the crash report is always adw trying to call an engine, but thinking it's killed.
 
MrB206 said:
It *could* be the combo of Beautiful Widgets and adw, but I have BW set to update only on screen wake. It shouldn't be an issue and the crash report is always adw trying to call an engine, but thinking it's killed.
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do you ever have the issue with beautiful widgets randomly changing its layout? any of the 4x2 widgets i use will randomly shrink the clock part to the top left corner...
 
Yeah, I have that issue. All I have to do, though, is rotate the phone from portrait to landscape and back.

My informal observations of when the phone fails to rotate properly seem to indicate that widgets and pop-up windows (like from Handcent SMS) cause it the most.
 
I dont... But I generally use the 2x1 super clock and stretch it to 3x1,the battery 1x1 and 1x1 weather. The seperate widgets seem to function better for me.
 
Sticking with ZEAM launcher, it really has grown on me, no lag and it is advertised as the lightest launcher available. Extremely tiny file size
 
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