Switching to Sprint, possibly with Optimus S

[nsxdemon03]

My wife just signed a 2 year contract with the sprint galaxy s ii and I'm planning on switching over into her plan from Verizon. I currently have a Storm2 and I'm dealing with the slowness and quirks day-to-day. I know the Optimus S may not be the fastest phone in the world but I'm sure it's night and day compared to the Storm2!

I did some research and I like the used Optimus S pricing on craigslist so I'm thinking of going with this. I have a few questions for you pros on this before I pull the trigger.

- Do I need to sign a contract with Sprint if i just activate a used phone I bought on craigslist/ebay? I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but just wanted to double-check.
- How easy is it to tether this to an Android tablet? I'm using the Asus Transformer specifically.
- Kinda related to tethering, how easy is the Optimus S to root?
- How do you guys like this phone when compared to the current crop of Android phones? Again, coming from the Storm2 I'm sure this thing will be incredibly quick compared to what I've been used to, but your thoughts would be helpful too.

I've got some more searching to do about this phone, but I'd love to hear your opinions.

 

[saramon]

Um, I had an optimus s, but I quickly sold it to a friend and bought an epic. Screen was way to small for my tastes, and I couldn't use the keyboard very well. The Epic was about 125 when I got it, and I sold the optimus for 75. SO for 50 dollars I got a hell of a phone. Yes, you do need to sign a contract to activate a phone with sprint, I don't think they have a prepaid service...

Rooting and romming was painless...

 

[apinkel]

I like my optimus, it has been a solid little phone and there is a nice active developer community. One caveat is that the amount of app storage space is pretty limited on this phone. I've gotten around it by rooting and loading a ROM that gave me 50MB additional space but it is a bit annoying.

If you are going to buy a new phone, sign a 2 year contract, etc. then you can do better then the optimus S.

If buying used and want to keep it under $100, the optimus would be my pick. If you can jump to the 100-200 mark I think you could find a nexus S which would have a larger nicer screen, be quite a bit faster, have more storage, etc.. There is also the motorola admiral if you are partial to the blackberry front facing qwerty format... although they are hard to come by used. The evo shift or epic 4G are nice if you want a qwerty slider.

-You shouldn't need to sign a contract if you bring your own device but sprint should be able to fill you in on that for certian in pretty short order.
-As long as you root, it's typically fairly easy although most of the wifi tethering apps use adhoc mode and not all wifi chips support adhoc mode, so I'd recommend doing some research on the transformer.
-The root process can be a bit convoluted just depending on what version of the phone you get (if it's a refurb, what version of android it has, etc.). You'll just need to do a bit of research in the rooting and roms subforum to get up to speed. It's usually not difficult you just need to find out how to do it correctly for your device.
-A year after buying the phone I'm still very happy with it except for the limited storage. For the deal I got at the time I have no complaints. If I were buying now I would spend more for a larger, higher resolution screen, more speed and more storage.

 

[nsxdemon03]

Well kind of a moot point cuz as Saramon mentioned, you have to sign a 2yr contract. Back to square1 on this, but thanks for the replies.

 

[Connervt]

Pay As You Go for Sprint == Virgin Mobile.

 

[epidenimus]

+Rooting is easy if you read and follow the directions.
+Installing a custom recovery and ROM is easy if you read and follow the directions.
+Support for this device here is outstanding.
+A few ROMs include a tethering app; there are some available on the net if not.

It really depends on how you intend to use the device as to how satisfied you will be. The internal memory is limited and it isn't exactly a home entertainment center, but it is a great value in a very portable form factor. It certainly will meet most people's needs, even a year after release.

If you happen to find a used device through an alternate source and choose to activate with Sprint, you may want to find out if the perks for getting a new device through them disappear or are available anytime, since they wouldn't be extending you the device discount at signing time. The contract is to have service with Sprint, not for the device. The device is either included or discounted as a means to start the service contract.

If you happen to go with the Virgin Mobile counterpart, there is not as much support as on this forum, but much of the stuff is interchangeable and there are some nice ROMs for it. I rooted, recovery & ROM'd one just last week for a coworker and all was nice and easy, minus a black screen issue that was easily fixed by flashing a different kernel.

 

[Ez Duzit]

Well kind of a moot point cuz as Saramon mentioned, you have to sign a 2yr contract. Back to square1 on this, but thanks for the replies.

Actually you are not signing a 2 year contract by adding another phone to your wife's plan. However, her contract is extended by 2 years from the date the extra phone is added. Also right now the optimus S is free if you get it thru sprint online. But as much as I love my little Optimus, I'd still say if you can afford it, get a better phone. That way it will still be half way decent 18 months from now.

Ez

 

[On3wheels]

Im pretty sure sprint offers a one year contract as well....

 

[macmov]

I have 2 optimus s and am due for an upgrade and thinking of purchasing it again as a spare. It may not be the fasted boat on the water but it aint no anchor either! I enjoy my phone.

 

[formula355]

As someone else mentioned, I really got annoyed by the small amount of internal storage on the Optimus. I fixed that by rooting and flashing a ROM. I flashed Your Mom ROM on mine and it netted me about 50mb of internal storage, which will do fine for me. I don't use a whole lot of apps anyway. Rooting was actually really easy, just make sure you figure out what build yours is. I think there's only one way to root if you have the ZVH build, which is what mine was. I was running on the new Android Gingerbread 2.3.3 update. Flashing the ROM as extremely easy too as long as you read the instructions and do exactly as it says.

With that said, I just rooted mine 2 days ago and it feels like a new phone to me. I like it even more than I did when I first got it, which then, was my first smart phone. I got one for me and the wife at Best Buy and only paid $1 each when I signed up for a contract with Sprint. I think Sprint wanted $50 each at one of their stores. Screen quality really isn't that bad. I watched a couple videos on Netflix on it last night and it was little pixelated, but I was also on 3G, not on my WiFi. I'm going to try Netflix on my WiFi tonight and see what it looks like.

It's a nice phone, I think you'll enjoy it as long as you're not expecting to do anything crazy with it.

 

[Dark Penguin]

I'm happy with my Optimus S. Depending on how you plan to use it you may not even need to root it, but judging from my experience rooting will help greatly.

But even before you root it, get yourself a bigger SD card.

As for Sprint itself, I can't tell you about them directly because my carrier is a third-party "piggyback" entity that uses the Sprint infrastructure (Credo). I chose them partly because they are politically active for causes I support. And when I looked into Sprint itself, they too support pretty much the same things, which is interesting given that they are headquartered in one of the most conservative states in the country.