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

New to VM and the Optimus V

I

Integraoligist

Well-Known Member
Hi all,
I have a few questions about the Optimus V and Virgin Mobile in general... seen a couple posts about VM but they are quite old and figured maybe something changed...

I'm about an hour south of Chicago, as far as Virgin Mobile is concern, how is the service as compared to Verizon? Both in Voice and Data? I do not know anyone that uses Virgin Mobile so it's hard for me to test it out.

Seeing as though Virgin Mobiles plans have Unlimited Data... it is truly "Unlimited"? Or do they slow it down at a certain GB?

I am looking to tether this Optimus on my Tablet and Laptop so that I can be online anywhere... (on my Droid X through VZ, I have to ROOT the phone in order to do this otherwise VZ will charge $$$ for doing this) Do you need to ROOT the Optimus or no?

Also, about the Optimus, I know the keyboard is small when vertical, but if you turn the phone horizontal, will the keyboard switch to a large horizontal view? I have not been able to find an answer to this.

Thanks all for the help, I appreciate it.
 
cannot tell you about reception in that area. unless you can get the first released optimus v you will need to root. after that version you could no longer just add the control switch. the cap on data is 2.5 gigs. hope this helped you
 
Very slow but still slightly faster than dial up from what I've read. Depends on your reception but the first 2.5 is pretty decent 3g
 
Ok, well that raises a couple more questions...

I'm looking to just get the 300min. plan for $35mo. and then use GrooVeIP to make calls over the data network (which for 2.5g of data, is 2083 minutes of voice, WOW). Because the 3g coverage is pretty good, there should be no issues of disconnect or static, correct?

Also, even though VM's website says i'm in a good reception area... are there any stores that you can buy the phone from, test out the phone and reception for a few days and return it if it's bad? I'm sure you'd still have to pay the monthly service charge of the $35 for that month, but it's better then $140 for the phone if you have to return it because of bad service.

Thanks again all!
 
I'm not sure if it can be returned once activated. Most places have a 30 day return policy but I think that's only for defects. I don't get great reception so I've never tried it over 3g.
 
wireless_average_speeds3-11348521.jpg


I am not sure what true 3g speeds are considered, but Sprint is at the bottom of the barrel for speeds (and therefor Virgin Mobile). We have a couple members who live in the area you ask, but asking about tethering isn't going to solicit much of a response from at least one of them as Virgin does not allow it without a Mifi and a Broadband2Go plan.
 
I dont think any cell company allows you to tether from your phone, do they? From what i've read you must Root and Tether in order to do it so that it looks like the phone is just accessing data like it normally would?
 
I'm assuming you live in the far south suburbs if you're an hour away south of the city? So you should have pretty decent speeds and reception since Kankakee was the first market in Illinois that was chosen to test LTE for Sprint, therefore, they received and were deployed Network Vision, which aimed at improving 3G speeds and reception as well as deploying LTE services.

I live in the northwest suburbs and lately I have been pushing somewhere between 1.5 mbps and on occasion gone up to 2.1 mbps...
 
since you are a newb to this phone, I would check out mistechify on youtube.

her walk throughs are awesome. Because it is a new Optimus V, it is probably NOT a 2.1.

SO I would watch her videos on optimus slider because they helped me to do some things I was scared to do myself. She makes it SOOO easy.
 
Root and Wifi hotspot.. look up MISTECHIFY on youtube.. watch the video for Optimus slider.. the ROOT video, then the Wifi hotspot video. The only correction I could make is chose the wifi hotspot program by the SAME creators in market but pick the one with the GREEN hotspot sign, NOT the Yellow one as she shows you. I couldnt get the Yellow one to work on my Op V but I could get the Green one to work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom