New Virgin phone, Motorola Triumph | JULY19 | $300

For 300 dollars you're lucky the screen is even a capacitive touch screen. Look at similarly spec'd phones on post paid carriers. Those are in the 600 dollar area. You aren't a big bad spender with only 300 dollars.

Which is a good point, if that screen only comes on more expensive phones, where is the savings?
Yes, I have seen reviews and they are generally positive, which leads me to wonder even more. It almost seems too good.

The money comes from somewhere. Rebadging the same phone over and over again helps (reduced R&D) as does bundling apps, but it won't cut a phone price in half.

Same for the new Cricket phone.

Either Huawei has a sneaky trick or they are buying some pretty crappy internals for these. With the turnover rate for cell phones though, it probably won't matter. Especially pre-paid "Oh your phone died? go buy another." Imagine if an Iphone lasted only 6 months to a year before conking out. You can bet there would be some irate people, not to mention broke companies due to insurance.



I'm not saying these phones will be crap, nor am I saying Huawei is terrible (just don't drop it! ;)), it just makes me wonder where the savings are being made and why the major carriers aren't picking these up. I would almost think Huawei is looking to make a name for itself by doing low end first, but that isn't the case if Motorola is rebadging it. It does nothing for Huawei's name if Moto's name is on it and not theirs. Which is another problem, Motorola may just be rebadging it, but this raises the cost of manufacturing, and means another middleman who wants their cut, adding more cost, which needs to be dealt with. Why didn't Virgin go straight to them?

You say Virgin did it for name recognition?
That hasn't stopped them before, and it isn' stopping Cricket. At the same time you think we take whatever they give us, so there is no reason this phone wouldn't go over just fine.


Who knows, maybe it will be all it's cracked up to be though.


I'm not angry at Moto or VM, or anyone. Meh, it is what it is. This happens all the time.
I'm just trying to understand the decisions and the price and if it will all be worth it.
 
Which is a good point, if that screen only comes on more expensive phones, where is the savings?
Yes, I have seen reviews and they are generally positive, which leads me to wonder even more. It almost seems too good.

The money comes from somewhere. Rebadging the same phone over and over again helps (reduced R&D) as does bundling apps, but it won't cut a phone price in half.

Same for the new Cricket phone.

Either Huawei has a sneaky trick or they are buying some pretty crappy internals for these. With the turnover rate for cell phones though, it probably won't matter. Especially pre-paid "Oh your phone died? go buy another." Imagine if an Iphone lasted only 6 months to a year before conking out. You can bet there would be some irate people, not to mention broke companies due to insurance.



I'm not saying these phones will be crap, nor am I saying Huawei is terrible (just don't drop it! ;)), it just makes me wonder where the savings are being made and why the major carriers aren't picking these up. I would almost think Huawei is looking to make a name for itself by doing low end first, but that isn't the case if Motorola is rebadging it. It does nothing for Huawei's name if Moto's name is on it and not theirs. Which is another problem, Motorola may just be rebadging it, but this raises the cost of manufacturing, and means another middleman who wants their cut, adding more cost, which needs to be dealt with. Why didn't Virgin go straight to them?

You say Virgin did it for name recognition?
That hasn't stopped them before, and it isn' stopping Cricket. At the same time you think we take whatever they give us, so there is no reason this phone wouldn't go over just fine.


Who knows, maybe it will be all it's cracked up to be though.


I'm not angry at Moto or VM, or anyone. Meh, it is what it is. This happens all the time.
I'm just trying to understand the decisions and the price and if it will all be worth it.

Well if I had to take a guess, I would say that manufacturers crank up the retail cost to maximize profit. This may or not be correct though. I read somewhere (I'm too lazy to find the site right now, maybe later) that the manufacturing cost for the iPhone 4, with all of its glass and metal and internals, is about $190. They sell it for $700. I'm not entirely sure how profit works in the cell phone business, but I would guess Apple is making an extremely large profit per iPhone.

Now where the Triumph cut costs for sure is in the physical design. They just gave us some soft touch plastic to make it feel more expensive than it really is, so we have a ton of cheap plastic surrounding the phone (but then again, this is the same as our Optimus). I also remember hearing that the screen was plastic as well. I'm not sure what the plastic to metal and glass ratio is, but I'm sure this must have put a decent dent in costs. I also heard that yes, the Ideos X6 uses cheap capacitive sensors, so it has that multitouch (more like doubletouch) bug where if you cross the two touch points horizontally or vertically, they screw up. But once again, those are the same sensors as our Optimus has. I'm sure the camera isn't going to be too impressive, seeing as how on the list of features, I doubt that one is the most important. We know that the processor is made by Qualcomm, so I think we can breathe a sigh of relief there. I somehow doubt that of all things, they would screw up the antenna, and the GPS...well...you may just have to hope for that one.

I'm not a manufacturer so this isn't going to be accurate, but I would say the Triumph probably builds for around maybe $110 or so with the cuts it makes, and it does help subsidize our cost with the bloatware, which, if we try hard enough, can be removed. But I could be entirely wrong on all of this. This is just my guess.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by Virgin Mobile has done it before (Kyocera? Helio?), but even if they have, this time would be different. Look at this through the eyes of an uneducated buyer who previously had the Intercept. They've been crapped (I just had to use that word) once already for an expensive device. If they couldn't trust Samsung, a well known name, how would they trust some other whothehellisthis company? At least with Motorola, the phone appears to have a fresh manufacturer that most people on Virgin Mobile hasn't experienced. Also, Virgin is a LOT more well known than Cricket. I don't have Cricket coverage in my area either. I didn't even know they existed until I saw the Glory. If Huawei I'd successful with the Glory, "Yay, success!" If they screw up, "Well thank God we went with Cricket." I believe Huawei is just using Cricket as a stepping stone, and because Cricket doesn't have many other better options, it doesn't care.

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I do know the cost to manufacturer over there, and odds are, your price is actually high. But each middle man adds 20-100% markup on it.

Also, you are thinking bigger than you need to.
There are lots of little ways to trim costs here and there that can lead to stability problems later.
I still remember the bursting capacitor issues on computers a few years ago, and the solder problems Nvidia had not to long ago.

Like I said, in cell phones, longevity isn't a big deal, but I still wonder how bad this could turn out to be. It could turn into another Intercept. Everyone was hyped on that when it came out as well. And no, I don't trust reviews, I worked for a company who paid for good reviews and watched cars get awards for car of the year, only two years later be considered the worst buy of that year.
 
Actually I think many people would rather know it a rebranded phone myself included. I understand nobody like Motorola, Samsung, or HTC currently isnt making phones for the VM brand. Doesn't mean they arent interested. I kinda take offense because when I was shopping around for a android device on prepaid I looked at some of the Huawei phones. But Cricket doesnt have coverage in my area. Im not opposed to Huawei phones. Im opposed to buying a rebranded phone. I just dont think calling it a high end phone based off whats released via public relations for Moto and VM is correct right now.

Truthfully if the Huawei phones were so great and cheap to make and sell one of the big three would have jumped them already. Sell a phone at the price they are selling the others for...cash in the pocket.
I think most of us using VM should be offended that Moto and VM are trying to pull this off.

Ive said it a couple times is the phone releases and does good I would eat my words.

Dunno, it doesn't seem like such a big deal. Rebranding is very common practice. You probably own many items in your house that are rebranded from "lesser" companies and also "higher" ones. Many Best Buy Dynex displays are just rebadged LG, so you save money. You've probably fallen for something like the Moto Triumph, getting a lesser company's product with a better name. Just take the device for what it's worth after it's released. :)
 
Dunno, it doesn't seem like such a big deal. Rebranding is very common practice. You probably own many items in your house that are rebranded from "lesser" companies and also "higher" ones. Many Best Buy Dynex displays are just rebadged LG, so you save money. You've probably fallen for something like the Moto Triumph, getting a lesser company's product with a better name. Just take the device for what it's worth after it's released. :)

I agree with you there. I could care less whether its rebranded or not. A good phone is a good phone, regardless of who's factory its made in. Although, while dynex may be rebranded LG, its LG's lowest end stuff they could make. Nothing to complain about though, I own an Emerson LCD TV, and it works perfectly fine. Maybe not a 3d led razor thin, but works like I expect. Branding has little to do with quality, IMO. Huawei could release the best phone ever next year if they wanted, but there's no logical reason for them to do that right now while they make their way into our markets.

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Dunno, it doesn't seem like such a big deal. Rebranding is very common practice. You probably own many items in your house that are rebranded from "lesser" companies and also "higher" ones. Many Best Buy Dynex displays are just rebadged LG, so you save money. You've probably fallen for something like the Moto Triumph, getting a lesser company's product with a better name. Just take the device for what it's worth after it's released. :)

There is only about 5 companies making computer and TV LCD's so almost all of them are rebranded.
Most cheaper ones are either LG or Samsung. Same for DVD drives, there is only a couple manufacturers for those, and they even re-brand each others. Buy an old Phillips cd burner and it could be made by anyone, including them. Same with laptops, there is only a half dozen makers, yet there are dozens of brands.

Globalization has made this much more prevalent.
While in most cases this has actually improved the quality of parts, there have been exceptions (and when it goes bad, it goes really bad), and while it lowers cost through R&D and mass production, it also has lowered your options.

Until I get a better feel for Huawei, I will hold off, especially with the LG Black coming. We know what to expect from LG.
 
To be honest I want the LG Black as well. But I bought my V in february and under my own rules I'm not allowed to get another phone until I've had this one for a year :(
 
When considering the price of producing a smart phone, manufacturing costs alone are not sufficient. You have to consider the software on the phone as well. Microsoft gets a piece of every dollar spent on an Android phone, as do several other companies. I'm sure the same is true about the iPhone. With the recent patent auction not going Google's way, you can bet the costs of all Android phones is going to rise in the near future.

And as for the LG Black, the reviews say the system can't keep up with the hardware. Perhaps custom ROMs will be able to help, but I wouldn't buy one without seeing a non-lagging interface working on it.
 
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When considering the price of producing a smart phone, manufacturing costs alone are not sufficient. You have to consider the software on the phone as well. Microsoft gets a piece of every dollar spent on an Android phone, as do several other companies. I'm sure the same is true about the iPhone. With the recent patent auction not going Google's way, you can bet the costs of all Android phones is going to rise in the near future.

And as for the LG Black, the reviews say the system can't keep up with the hardware. Perhaps custom ROMs will be able to help, but I wouldn't buy one without seeing a non-lagging interface working on it.
It's basic Froyo strapped to a 1gig processor.
We have basic Froyo strapped to a 600mhz processor.

They are comparing it to newer faster phones, which granted, the Triumph will probably beat it in speed, but take the Black, custom rom it and overclock it another 200-400 (should be easy to hit 400) and I bet it will be perfectly fine. Look at what custom roms did for the OV.

A few owners are saying it performed better than HTC devices and it may have been improved since the review.
 
It's basic Froyo strapped to a 1gig processor.
We have basic Froyo strapped to a 600mhz processor.

They are comparing it to newer faster phones, which granted, the Triumph will probably beat it in speed, but take the Black, custom rom it and overclock it another 200-400 (should be easy to hit 400) and I bet it will be perfectly fine. Look at what custom roms did for the OV.

A few owners are saying it performed better than HTC devices and it may have been improved since the review.

This is a bold statement seeing no one here can back that up and if this phone starts at 300 i wonder how many will purchase it,once again this like the V by the time it hits the pepaid market is years behind in every aspect,but yet people question the quality of the triumph,why should some be forced to have to install a custom ROM to make the phone usable,as the reviews have stated this phone stock is not worth it, unless it is in the V's price range. which i doubt,way to many speculations,but because lg makes it it has to be good.the V was great for the price per quality and age of hardware,.my opinion,i know some will try and call me a fanboy.i think a lot of people purchasing a phone in the 300 and up range,will not want to void the warranty,and this phone stock is not very good.not saying the truimph will be any good as there has been no reviews as of yet.
 
This is a bold statement seeing no one here can back that up and if this phone starts at 300 i wonder how many will purchase it,once again this like the V by the time it hits the pepaid market is years behind in every aspect,but yet people question the quality of the triumph,why should some be forced to have to install a custom ROM to make the phone usable,as the reviews have stated this phone stock is not worth it, unless it is in the V's price range. which i doubt,way to many speculations,but because lg makes it it has to be good.the V was great for the price per quality and age of hardware,.my opinion,i know some will try and call me a fanboy.i think a lot of people purchasing a phone in the 300 and up range,will not want to void the warranty,and this phone stock is not very good.not saying the truimph will be any good as there has been no reviews as of yet.

Phones decrease in price over time. If the Triumph ends up being $249, then I think we can make a safe bet in saying that the Black will be the same. We obviously aren't going to see the Black for a few months or so, and it IS made of plastic aside from the screen. I'm sure Virgin is going to wait for the Black to drop into pie price range before it releases it.

And years? Do we had these 1 GHz phones running around in the summer if 2008 and 2009? You might want to check your timeline. In terms of speed and power, the Black is pretty much equal to the Droid X, which was a pretty powerful phone back in 2010. Also, we are on a PREPAID carrier. If you've cone to a prepaid carrier looking for the latest and greatest, you may want to drop the "androd" in Android phone and get something that suits your need a little better. On a postpaid carrier.

And I believe you COMPLETELY misunderstood the point she made when saying we could install a custom ROM. The Optimus Black isn't going to be AS fast as the Triumph if both are built right because the Triumph has a superior processor. The Optimus Black will run perfectly with stock FroYo. How can I say that? Because this phone is actually out already. It's been reviewed. People own it. And with LG's skin, this thing is nice and smooth with VERY minimal lag. It only makes sense that reducing the load on the phone would make the phone faster. You shouldn't need to back up common sense. The whole point of installing a custom ROM is to make a phone better. Just because we want to make a phone better, doesn't mean it sucks or is unusable. We just like to get the maximum performance out of our phones.

And people don't just blindly put faith into any company. LG is known to make quality products, and that is the experience we have had. So why would we suddenly expect anything less? Personally, I've used the LG Rumor 2, LG Rumor Touch, and now the LG Optimus V. I have been completely satisfied with every one of them. Back when the Rumor Touch came out I TRIED to mess up the Rumor 2 so I could use the warranty at Best Buy to upgrade to the Touch faster and cheaper. I couldn't break it no matter how hard I tried (obviously without bashing it with a hammer, which would void the warranty). I gave my sister the Rumor 2 so she could switch from ST to VM and it lasted her all the way until March when she "dropped" it (she has a tendency to throw her phones). I offered to let her have my old Intercept since I figured it would be okay for just texting, but she wouldn't take it. All she wants for her birthday is her Rumor 2 back. I also gave the Rumor Touch to my dad because he wanted a better phone. He switched from unlimited everything on Straight Talk to the 45 dollar plan on VM just to have the Touch. And it's still alive today, in the same shape it was when I bought it. Even my Optimus still doesn't have a single scratch on it, and I drop it a lot (not on purpose, I'm just really clumsy).

And as for the warranties, how useful are these warranties exactly? If there is any physical damage or your phone is stolen, your warranty is useless. The only way the warranty can be used is if the phone becomes defected on its own, and very few phones are capable of doing that (let's pretend the Intercept doesn't exist for a second). If a high quality phone breaks, it is most likely the user's fault, which makes the warranty useless anyways. And even if you do root it and screw up the phone somehow, if you got the phone at somewhere like Best Buy, it is extremely easy to fool the employees there into giving you a new phone. If you can hide the root access and make it seem like you didn't do anything, its not that hard, and there's no harm if it doesn't work.

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This is a bold statement seeing no one here can back that up and if this phone starts at 300 i wonder how many will purchase it,once again this like the V by the time it hits the pepaid market is years behind in every aspect,but yet people question the quality of the triumph,why should some be forced to have to install a custom ROM to make the phone usable,as the reviews have stated this phone stock is not worth it, unless it is in the V's price range. which i doubt,way to many speculations,but because lg makes it it has to be good.the V was great for the price per quality and age of hardware,.my opinion,i know some will try and call me a fanboy.i think a lot of people purchasing a phone in the 300 and up range,will not want to void the warranty,and this phone stock is not very good.not saying the truimph will be any good as there has been no reviews as of yet.
What is bold?

Anyhow, you need to go back and look at the Optimus V reviews.
It was praised as a mid level phone for a low level price. It was considered quite a deal.

We question the Triumph because of the manufacturer. You seem to have this idea that Motorola won't sell their soul for a buck. Almost every corporation will, which seems to be exactly what they are doing in this case.

And there are people with Blacks in hand, they say they are nice. Where do you think I heard about it beating the HTC, it was someone who owns it claiming that.
 
I had the hots for this device, even sold my Samsung Captivate (Galaxy S on AT&T) for this in anticipation of getting one to use on a Virgin Mobile account I had my wife using in case of emergencies (I'd then get her a "dummy phone" with refill cards etc).

Then things "cooled off" yesterday once I got an LG Optimus V just yesterday for all of $75, with an otter-box thrown in. At that low of a price, I can wait awhile for the dust to settle on the Triumph. It does look nice, though, I have to admit. I just hope when it floods the market we don't have data outages like happened 4-odd months ago with the Optimus V (hence the reason I still had my Captivate & just put a "dummy phone" on the VM account for my wife to use--until yesterday).

LRH
 
anyone think the bootloader will be signed?

That depends on if Motorola actually made any changes to the phone or not. If they did, we may be getting better quality than the other rebranded versions of the phone. But that means we will also be getting a locked bootloader. If they didn't make any changes then we can probably expect lower quality, but we will also have an unlocked bootloader. It's a win-win and a lose-lose at the same time.

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The only way i will purchase this phone is if it has a LED notification blinker thing like i had on my old D1. I miss it :(
 
There is no reason the bootloader would be locked. Moto has said that it would unlock their phones, and proved it with the latest Atrix update.
 
That depends on if Motorola actually made any changes to the phone or not. If they did, we may be getting better quality than the other rebranded versions of the phone. But that means we will also be getting a locked bootloader. If they didn't make any changes then we can probably expect lower quality, but we will also have an unlocked bootloader. It's a win-win and a lose-lose at the same time.

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Don't you mean win-lose? lol I'm just glad were getting something up at 1G that's almost double the CPU clocking of the OV.
 
Unless Virgin tells them not to unlock it.

Well Virgin Mobile DID say they weren't too fond of the idea of people rooting their phones. On second thought, it seems fairly likely that the bootloader might be locked to help prevent people from enabling the wireless hotspot on the Triumph. Especially after what happened with the Optimus.

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