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Virgin Mobile - Will phone upgrade solve web browsing issues?

dvlucke

Newbie
I'm on Virgin Mobile and am currently using a Samsung Intercept my dad gave me when he upgraded. The phone is terribly sluggish, and web browsing is completely intolerable on 3G, and only occasionally useable over Wifi. Web browsing is more or less the only reason I want a smartphone, so I'm hoping the phone is the chief culprit when it comes to my horrible speeds.

However, I've read that Sprint's 3G network (which is what VM uses) is the slowest of all the carriers, so I'd rather not spend the money on the new phone if it will only marginally increase web browsing speed.

I've got my eye on the HTC Evo V 4G because it is on sale for $150 right now. My area doesn't have 4G yet though, so if Sprint 3G is really that bad, maybe it's not worth it.

Any advice?
 
Welcome to Android Forums, dvlucke!:)

I know a lot of folks love Sprint and have had no problem with the download speeds, but where I live, the dl speeds are so slow that most often, it will time out, so I cancelled my Sprint contract and paid the ETF. It really depends on where you are located, and also your phone can affect your service too, sometimes.
I would recommend that you find some friends in your area that have Sprint, and see if they are having trouble with downloads/web browsing on their Sprint/VM phones.

Thread moved to VM for further discussion.
 
Samsung Intercept was one of the worst smart phone ever created. Upgrading would help a little or a lot depending on your data speed. Some places are slow others are super slow. If you have slow data speeds then upgrading would definitely be worth it. Even if you did have super slow I would still think about it because for 150 the Evo is an amazing deal for the specs of it. Also I think the Intercept lags no matter what when you are trying to browse.


My advice is to upgrade while it's still this cheap :)
 
To help find out if it is the phone or data connection, try using Speedtest from the play store. It will let you know what your download and upload speeds are. But if you see low speeds on both 3g and wifi, it is most likely the phone. The Intercept has always a slow laggy phone to start with.
 
try using your phone around the late night hours (2am, 3am) see if its a little better. i have boost mobile and my speeds are fairly slow with 3g, but they are still faster than what i used to have t-mobile edge.
 
Internet browsing on 3g shouldn't be too bad on a Sprint 3g network. I think the Intercept is the main culprit. The browser on that phone was horrible and even 3rd party browsers didn't perform any better. This is based on my cousin having the Intercept.

I think the Evo V will be fine on 3g and even better on wifi.
 
You sir need to throw that phone out the window and never use it EVER again. That was my first androind phone and I had the worst experience with it, it made me think all androids were lagy and I was swinging to Iphone but then the V gave me hope :) Now I got my V 4G which made me fall in love.
 
ive had all ther phones except the intercept and the slider. but ive noticed that the samsung galkaxy reverb hAS THE MOST DESCENT SPEED IN 3g and the so if u want good 3g speed. i recomend u getting the evo v 4g or the samsung galaxy reverb.
 
Thank you everyone for the replies. With only a few days left on the sale, I'm having second thoughts about buying the evo V. The $100 discount is what made me start to consider pulling the trigger on the upgrade now rather than later. But all the researching has me wondering whether or not I even want to stay with Virgin Mobile. I've opened my consideration back up to contract plans, which makes many better phones available for about the same or slightly more money. If I can hold out another 3 months or more to make a solid decision about carriers, I figure my dollar will go further even if there aren't any great sales.

With that in mind, I'm wondering if buying something in the $50 range would allow me to wait perhaps 6 months instead of 3 before making a more permanent decision.
If so, I'd likely go with the LG optimus slider ($40 thru 1/3). The optimus elite looks okay, but at $80 I'd need a big jump in useable features for a phone I plan on replacing in 3-6 months.
 
Internet browsing on 3g shouldn't be too bad on a Sprint 3g network. I think the Intercept is the main culprit. The browser on that phone was horrible and even 3rd party browsers didn't perform any better. This is based on my cousin having the Intercept.

I think the Evo V will be fine on 3g and even better on wifi.

Actually, in many areas Sprint is that bad, if not worse. This article shows just how bad Sprint can be in many areas, especially if you look at the percentage of time that download speeds are faster than 144 Kbps (essentially dial up speeds). For example, in Houston the speeds are only faster than 144 Kbps 45% of the time.

Worse, Sprint users have priority, which means that Virgin Mobile speeds are even slower than the speeds listed in that article. While Network Vision improvements are helping a little, things aren't improving very quickly.

This is the reason I left Virgin Mobile for T-Mobile. I've gone from having 3G speeds that, during the day, were never above 500 Kbps and were typically under 100 Kbps, to speeds that are as fast as I had using 4G on Virgin Mobile.
 
try using your phone around the late night hours (2am, 3am) see if its a little better. i have boost mobile and my speeds are fairly slow with 3g, but they are still faster than what i used to have t-mobile edge.

Why were you getting Edge on T-Mobile? Did you have a phone that didn't work with T-Mobile's 3G frequencies? Though this does point out one of the nice advantage of T-Mobile (and most GSM networks), that you can use any compatible phone on their network, you aren't limited to the phones they offer. T-Mobile's $30/month prepaid plan is a nice option.
 
Why were you getting Edge on T-Mobile? Did you have a phone that didn't work with T-Mobile's 3G frequencies? Though this does point out one of the nice advantage of T-Mobile (and most GSM networks), that you can use any compatible phone on their network, you aren't limited to the phones they offer. T-Mobile's $30/month prepaid plan is a nice option.

no I had a gs 3 but T-Mobile doesnt offer 3g in my area for some reason.
 
Samsung Intercept was my very first Android phone on Virgin Mobile (my old roommate has the Intercept with Sprint). While I used the phone I had no problems with it whatsoever. I had very very few apps on it, didn't really text with it much, and kept temp files and the like cleaned constantly. I didn't have any browsing issues.

However, when I upgraded to the OpV and gave my Intercept to my chatty teenager, that's when the issues reared their ugly heads. This told me the Intercept isn't meant for heavy use. It'd be ok for grandma or mom/dad that doesn't really use a cell phone for anything other than calls and the occasional text.

Check out the Carrier Coverage app and run it for a few weeks. It should give you a fairly good indication of what carrier would be best for your area. Then you can perhaps go from there and decide on a phone you want.
 
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