How do you have it setup?

[Kcarpenter]

Ok guys, this is my wifes phone, I hate it. She hates it. We all hate it.
It really is junk, we are on number 4 and they refuse to give us a different model (guy at the sprint store said he may be able to sneak us a Kyocera Zinio, but I don't want that crap either).

It's slow, clunky, and always out of storage space. 3 -4 apps max installed. And the battery last for all of 4.5 hours no matter if its a fresh factory image or not.

Now: I am a die hard Android fanboy.
I have been rooting, flashing, and even bulilding my own kernels and roms since I had a Hero.
I am not a n0ob or light weight at this stuff.

I realize that the battery life can be hardware - I mean this batter is now a year old and been in 4 different devices, so lets skip that.

When she opens Google Voice, it takes at least 15 seconds to pull up her text message list. I make her keep it clean, and only relevant conversations in the view. So its not like there is a 15000 thread list of messages. When she types, she has to press keys and wait after each one.

The phone goes to sleep sometimes and will not come back on.

When the battery does die, it gets hung on "shutting down" until the phone finally either dies or we pull the battery (have seen it on this screen for 15 minutes).

The camera is garbage, you couldn't take a clear picture of a statue with a tripod under it.


Now, I GET IT - This isn't a $299.99 phone, it's a $129 phone(when i got it new December 2010). It's not going to be a beast, but I feel the device should be at least "comfortable" to use, right now I feel that you should take a Valium before making a phone call or text with it. And I really hope she never has her life depending on this thing to make a phone call.

/RANT

Now that that is over - what the hell do I need to do to this thing to make it work?
I would make a rom for it, but honestly I don't have the time right now.
I really like CM, but you all have 3 or 4 and I have no clue which ones are fully functioning or not.
I realize that I could go through and read all the threads, but again, not my phone
Also, do you all have any kind of Apps2SD script, or ability to adjust partition sizes? She has a 16Gb SD card.

Thanks in advanced for your help. I really appreciate it, you know when the wife is happy, everyone is happy.

 

[epidenimus]

If you are not exaggerating, something is definitely wrong. The Stock ZVD ROM was clunky and my battery life was shorter, but it was never nearly that bad. I could always get through the work day with fairly extensive use, so more like 12-14 hours before needing a charge.

Internal storage is a definite limitation with this device. 3-4 apps max though? That seems like an underestimate. I try to avoid apps that are 10MB or more and would recommend the same on this one. Most of the custom ROMs here do employ a mod that moves the dalvik cache partition around, so from a fresh install, you would have about 150MB internal available. There is a data2ext option that some use, but I have found it to be more hassle than it is worth if you are going to tinker and there is no support from our primary dev team.

The ZVH "update" was a delayed, botched mess from Sprint/LG. They have retracted it and suggested a downgrade to ZVD. Some people have no issues with ZVH; some have nightmares with charging and connectivity. Our wonderful devs have been working hard to bugfix what they can and have really made a shiny object out of the turd we were handed.

In terms of your ROM questions, here is a simplification:
You don't need to roll your own, we have some great devs who have put the time in for us.

Recoveries:
Use Xionia.

ROMs:

For ZVD SW/Baseband:

• Reborn ROM (Rock solid, polished, lots of device-specific tweaks, great performance.)
• sROM (Rock solid, mild polish, cleaned up stock with some tweaks, improved perfomance)
• thekraven's CM7 port

For ZVH SW/Baseband:

• Your Mom ROM (Lots of tweaks and enhancements, great support)
• gROM (first ROM for ZVH, includes flash)
• OptiROM (tweaks, includes DarkTremors mod for more app space)

If your wife isn't a big SprintNASCAR fan, you might as well root, recovery and ROM this thing. It can only make it better.

Also, is she turning the GPS and Bluetooth off when not using? Those tend to murder my battery life.

 

[blackops1125]

With Xionia recovery and reborn rom using the data2ext scipt. My battery lasts all day with moderate use. I have a 1 Gb partition on SD card for internal storage, (right now i still have 823Mb internal storage free) with like 50 apps installed. Been running this way for about a year ( year next month).

sent from my CM7/Reborn w/ 1 Gb internal storage Optimus S

Always happy to help, hit that thanks button if I did

 

[apinkel]

I'm rooted and running ThundeRom 1.8.3 with the ZVD radio and launcherPro.

For battery life... I run green power free to auto-turnon/off data sync (it turns off wireless data for 30 mintues, then turns it on for 2 minutes as well as any time I turn the display on). For my typical day I take the phone off the charger at 6am and put it back on at 10pm and I'm usually at 60%... I occasionally check email, calendar, play about 20 minutes of bubble blaster, make about 10 minutes worth of calls, etc.. On light usage I can go two days.

For apps... I have a work app that takes up 28MB, a navigation app that takes up 25MB, and 4 others that are around 10MB plus a few smaller ones. I have around 15MB storage left.

I've been happy with the camera... it never takes an amazing picture but it always takes a usable picture for me.

I had been really happy with my phone but in the last couple of days it suddenly has started lagging really bad. I think it's due to an app update that is causing me issues... I just need to figure out which app it is.

 

[jmrwbilly]

Yea, the stock setup really does suck, if your willing, explore custom roms and rooting, can turn into a pretty decent phone

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk

 

[Kcarpenter]

Thanks guys, I am getting a 5th refurb in the mail tomorrow and going to say screw it and root/rom it.

It seems like each one is a little worse than the last.
The one I am sending back has a horrible display, it is very very yellow tinted.

If this one fails me, I'll just pony up some cash to buy a photon or sgs2. Which I know she really won't like because of the size. I really wish there was something besides the Evo Shift that was similar in size <4" that had a decent setup. Not even anything mind blowing, just enough to play angry birds without stutter.

 

[hlxanthus]

I would look into the nexus s if you want something different. But rooted and rommed, the opti s is a great little phone (dispite your bad experiences). Good luck.

 

[epidenimus]

I really wish there was something besides the Evo Shift that was similar in size <4" that had a decent setup. Not even anything mind blowing, just enough to play angry birds without stutter.

Have you checked out the Evo Design? The size on that one seemed really decent and it would be an upgrade in several way without the $200 price tag.

 

[aaronrw]

If you are not exaggerating, something is definitely wrong. The Stock ZVD ROM was clunky and my battery life was shorter, but it was never nearly that bad. I could always get through the work day with fairly extensive use, so more like 12-14 hours before needing a charge.

Internal storage is a definite limitation with this device. 3-4 apps max though? That seems like an underestimate. I try to avoid apps that are 10MB or more and would recommend the same on this one. Most of the custom ROMs here do employ a mod that moves the dalvik cache partition around, so from a fresh install, you would have about 150MB internal available. There is a data2ext option that some use, but I have found it to be more hassle than it is worth if you are going to tinker and there is no support from our primary dev team.

The ZVH "update" was a delayed, botched mess from Sprint/LG. They have retracted it and suggested a downgrade to ZVD. Some people have no issues with ZVH; some have nightmares with charging and connectivity. Our wonderful devs have been working hard to bugfix what they can and have really made a shiny object out of the turd we were handed.

In terms of your ROM questions, here is a simplification:
You don't need to roll your own, we have some great devs who have put the time in for us.

Recoveries:
Use Xionia.

ROMs:

For ZVD SW/Baseband:

• Reborn ROM (Rock solid, polished, lots of device-specific tweaks, great performance.)
• sROM (Rock solid, mild polish, cleaned up stock with some tweaks, improved perfomance)
• thekraven's CM7 port

For ZVH SW/Baseband:

• Your Mom ROM (Lots of tweaks and enhancements, great support)
• gROM (first ROM for ZVH, includes flash)
• OptiROM (tweaks, includes DarkTremors mod for more app space)

If your wife isn't a big SprintNASCAR fan, you might as well root, recovery and ROM this thing. It can only make it better.

Also, is she turning the GPS and Bluetooth off when not using? Those tend to murder my battery life.

I thanked you just for the effort bro.....

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk