Optimus S Review??

[hotpinkberry]

hello. i have been lurking around the forums again looking for a good user review of the optimus s. if you have a optimus s can you please tell me all the pro's and con's to this phone? what you like, hate, love, quality, etc.

im going to be a new android user so i dont know all the technical aspects and such.

and pics would be awesome! q ^_^ p

 

[sonicbluemustang]

so far so good. me likey much. I do worry about not having much internal memory but i still have 36 mgs to go.
Serious improvemnt to the ui is download ADW Launcher lets you have control over all the customizing and lock down stuff and more. fun lil toy.

 

[apinkel]

I'll give you my 2 cents...

First a little background, my prior phone was a droid X on cricket, and before that a touch diamond and touch pro on sprint. I'm not much of a media guy, phone, email, calendar, navigation, occasional photo, some puzzle type simple game play... that's my typical usage.

From a phone standpoint... I've been happy with the reception, the earpiece call quality, the mic quality (although I haven't tested it in a noisy place to see how it does with noise cancellation). The speakerphone is OK... pretty much middle of the road. I don't do bluetooth so nothing I can add there.

The device... it is a really nice sized, pocketable phone with a subtle textured rubber coating. All the buttons have a nice quality feel to them and I like the arrangement of the buttons on the bottom (with the home button on the far left). It's nice having a dedicated camera button as well (it also has a voice command button although I rarely use it). The micro-sd slot is externally accessible... not a big deal to me since I put the card in and leave it but some people like to be able to easily swap it out.

The screen... IMHO this is the only day-to-day downside to this phone for me. It's passable but I got spoiled by my touch diamond/touch pro and droid X which all had far higher DPI screens. My eye sight isn't what it used to be so sometimes reading text isn't as sharp as it could be. It is plenty bright however... the phone doesn't have a light sensor to auto-adjust the screen brightness but I can't think of one time when I've missed that feature. Also note that the screen is not glass, so I would recommend a screen protector (they can be found cheap on ebay).

Battery life... the droid x is considered to have very good battery life for a high end smartphone but the optimus S has been at least as good and so far, I would say better (on light usage days on the X after 16 hours I would be at 50%, on the optimus I'm at 65%). If you are coming from almost any other smartphone I think you'll be happy, if you are coming from a flipphone or feature phone it won't be as good... that's just the state of smartphone battery life (it is getting better though).

Performance... coming from the droid X I expected the optimus S to be a far slower device. It's not. Navigating around the device the optimus actually feels faster and smoother... however in graphics intensive games and surfing the web it is slower then the X was but it is still very usable. I've been happily surprised, I have no complaints in this regard.

Camera/Camcorder... I've been pleasantly surprised with the quality of the camera and the camcorder. I wish there was a decent flash (like the X had) but the photo quality is actually better in my experience then the 8mp Droid X. The camcorder is decent but I did get spoiled by the 720p camcorder on the X.

Software... I really, really like the fact that this phone comes with little to no pre-loaded crapware. Sprint has it setup to step you thru downloading a sprintid pack on first boot, but you can skip the install and have an almost stock android experience. Unheard of and just excellent. It's running froyo and LG is saying that they will be releasing a gingerbread update for it. The phone has been rooted and there are a couple ROM's available, and of course you can also load up alternate launchers (I'm running launcher pro plus, highly recommended).

Value... I got the phone free (and I think if you look around you will typically be able to find it free) and this phone doesn't have the premium data upcharge so this phone will save most people roughly $400-$500 over a 2 year contract over something like the Evo or Epic.

Other... The GPS has been quick to lock and accurate. There is a free widget available that gives you free wifi tethering without the need to root your phone (unbelievable that sprint left this hole open).

Issues...
Some folks have reported problems with their SD card un-mounting. I have not had this problem and I think buying a different SD card is the usual recommended fix... check the dedicated thread in the forum for more info.
Some people have also reported issues with lockups... although this often seems to happen to those folks who are also having the sd card issue. I've had an app that has caused lockups... but it's a known issue with that app.

I can't think of anything else to add at this time. If you have specific questions go ahead and ask. Also, I believe phonescoop and pcmag both reviewed the optimus S and gave it high marks.

 

[hotpinkberry]

wow that was very detailed!! thanks for the info! =]

 

[disposed#AC]

Great phone absolutely unrivaled at its price point. Day to day use this phone is just as fast and even sometimes faster than my wifes epic. In gaming it can bog down a bit but still blows every other android phone in its class out of the water. It easily handles games that the transform/intercept could not dream of running.

This phone is the best deal for an android phone that you can get. Considering its free and offers performance that rivals the big expensive 1ghz phones its really hard to find anything to say about it thats not good.

I have not experienced the SD card unmounting issue and the only real issue i have had is that the 4 keys wake the phone and a few times i put my phone on vibrate in my pocket. All i did was add a lock pattern to my phone and problem solved.

he build quality on this phone is very solid and reminds me a bit of the hero. It feels well built and good in your hand with enough texturing to get a good grip.

On the root side of things after coming from the moment the development for this phone seems to be moving really fast. IIRC the moment didnt even have a custom rom until long after it was released. Plenty of kernels but no real roms.

This is the most impressive phone i have ever owned. I expected a bunch of shortcomings at this price point and have found none. I dont know how they packed such quality in such a cheap phone but i hope the trend continues and other manufacturers take note.

 

[hotpinkberry]

thanks disposed. i want to know, how is it on size? im a girl and my hands arent that big, but how big is it compared to the samsung instinct? or a ipod touch? (i thought the instinct was really small for a droid...)

 

[cmags]

thanks disposed. i want to know, how is it on size? im a girl and my hands arent that big, but how big is it compared to the samsung instinct? or a ipod touch? (i thought the instinct was really small for a droid...)

The Optimus is just smaller than an Iphone 3G. It fits very nicely in my small hands as well as my wife's. It's one of the smaller/smallest Android phones available I think, with its 3.2" screen. Check out the following site for a visual comparison of any phone with any other or some common objects. LG Optimus S Visual Size Comparison - Phone Arena

 

[simon.ponder]

thanks disposed. i want to know, how is it on size? im a girl and my hands arent that big, but how big is it compared to the samsung instinct? or an ipod touch?

It is similar in size to an ipod touch, maybe slightly thicker, but overall shape is similar.

 

[hotpinkberry]

The Optimus is just smaller than an Iphone 3G. It fits very nicely in my small hands as well as my wife's. It's one of the smaller/smallest Android phones available I think, with its 3.2" screen. Check out the following site for a visual comparison of any phone with any other or some common objects. LG Optimus S Visual Size Comparison - Phone Arena

thank you. i have been trying to figure this out because i have a ipod touch and wanted a phone around the same size.

 

[hamagc]

I'll give you my 2 cents...

First a little background, my prior phone was a droid X on cricket, and before that a touch diamond and touch pro on sprint. I'm not much of a media guy, phone, email, calendar, navigation, occasional photo, some puzzle type simple game play... that's my typical usage.

From a phone standpoint... I've been happy with the reception, the earpiece call quality, the mic quality (although I haven't tested it in a noisy place to see how it does with noise cancellation). The speakerphone is OK... pretty much middle of the road. I don't do bluetooth so nothing I can add there.

The device... it is a really nice sized, pocketable phone with a subtle textured rubber coating. All the buttons have a nice quality feel to them and I like the arrangement of the buttons on the bottom (with the home button on the far left). It's nice having a dedicated camera button as well (it also has a voice command button although I rarely use it). The micro-sd slot is externally accessible... not a big deal to me since I put the card in and leave it but some people like to be able to easily swap it out.

The screen... IMHO this is the only day-to-day downside to this phone for me. It's passable but I got spoiled by my touch diamond/touch pro and droid X which all had far higher DPI screens. My eye sight isn't what it used to be so sometimes reading text isn't as sharp as it could be. It is plenty bright however... the phone doesn't have a light sensor to auto-adjust the screen brightness but I can't think of one time when I've missed that feature. Also note that the screen is not glass, so I would recommend a screen protector (they can be found cheap on ebay).

Battery life... the droid x is considered to have very good battery life for a high end smartphone but the optimus S has been at least as good and so far, I would say better (on light usage days on the X after 16 hours I would be at 50%, on the optimus I'm at 65%). If you are coming from almost any other smartphone I think you'll be happy, if you are coming from a flipphone or feature phone it won't be as good... that's just the state of smartphone battery life (it is getting better though).

Performance... coming from the droid X I expected the optimus S to be a far slower device. It's not. Navigating around the device the optimus actually feels faster and smoother... however in graphics intensive games and surfing the web it is slower then the X was but it is still very usable. I've been happily surprised, I have no complaints in this regard.

Camera/Camcorder... I've been pleasantly surprised with the quality of the camera and the camcorder. I wish there was a decent flash (like the X had) but the photo quality is actually better in my experience then the 8mp Droid X. The camcorder is decent but I did get spoiled by the 720p camcorder on the X.

Software... I really, really like the fact that this phone comes with little to no pre-loaded crapware. Sprint has it setup to step you thru downloading a sprintid pack on first boot, but you can skip the install and have an almost stock android experience. Unheard of and just excellent. It's running froyo and LG is saying that they will be releasing a gingerbread update for it. The phone has been rooted and there are a couple ROM's available, and of course you can also load up alternate launchers (I'm running launcher pro plus, highly recommended).

Value... I got the phone free (and I think if you look around you will typically be able to find it free) and this phone doesn't have the premium data upcharge so this phone will save most people roughly $400-$500 over a 2 year contract over something like the Evo or Epic.

Other... The GPS has been quick to lock and accurate. There is a free widget available that gives you free wifi tethering without the need to root your phone (unbelievable that sprint left this hole open).

Issues...
Some folks have reported problems with their SD card un-mounting. I have not had this problem and I think buying a different SD card is the usual recommended fix... check the dedicated thread in the forum for more info.
Some people have also reported issues with lockups... although this often seems to happen to those folks who are also having the sd card issue. I've had an app that has caused lockups... but it's a known issue with that app.

I can't think of anything else to add at this time. If you have specific questions go ahead and ask. Also, I believe phonescoop and pcmag both reviewed the optimus S and gave it high marks.

agree 100%, have been very pleased with this phone which was somewhat of a surprise to me. development is somewhat slow but we have only a handful of people working on stuff for it. as more people get it more will work with it so things are just starting out for this phone. combined with the fact that the phone can be had for free?! amazing phone. i don't think anyone will really be disappointed with this phone.

 

[digitallove]

De-lurking because my previous phone was an (original) instinct Both disposed and apinkel's posts were excellent; I'd just like to add that I've had this phone for two days now and love it so so SO much. I'm a new android user too, and so far it's blowing the instinct out of the water. Texting on this is way easier (swype is amazing!) and THERE ARE ACTUALLY APPS (granted, that's an android thing in general, but the instinct was touted as an iphone killer and yet it was dead app-wise). I don't use the speech-to-text or any of the other features that use the mic, but my mom does and loves it.

I think the only things I kind of dislike about it are the lack of LCD notifications (flashnotify and other apps take care of that easily, though) and the lack of a case. I would keep my instinct in my purse with my keys and tons of other stuff and it would be fine because it had a leather case that covered the entire phone until I took it out. I have the sprint silicone case and I've ordered a screen protector, but I have a 2-year contract and I'm afraid that it'll look like a hot mess in half that time. The battery doesn't last as long as the instinct, but I've been exploring apps like crazy so that's to be expected. I must hold the phone a little weird because it likes to flip to landscape mode when I'm holding it in portrait sometimes and vise versa. I just shake it a little and it goes back.

Oh, and it's a tad bit bigger than my instinct but not a whole lot. I don't know which instinct you have, but I know that the first one was bigger than the others.

Overall, it's a fantastic upgrade and I highly recommend it

I don't have a picture of the actual phone, but here's a screenshot my main homepage:

I'm using beautiful widgets for the clock and launcherpro for the dock. Even being able to have a background picture of my choice is more customization than I ever had on the instinct, let alone changing the docks and clocks and having multiple homepages.

I hope this helps you make your decision!

 

[kcmookie]

I agree with what everyone else is saying. I had the SD Card issue, but worked thru it. I know someone who took their phone back and got an Evo because of the SD card issue, but to me that would be like returning a brand new car you LOVE because you didn't like the tires. It isn't the phones fault that LG decided to pair it with a crappy SD Card. I have had mine for a little over a month now and still love it. Low light photography isn't so hot, but natural light photog is awesome. Battery life is ok, considering I use it so much more then I did my last phone (which was just a phone). I have found that having chargers everywhere really comes in handy. The phone doesn't perform well in the cold (went to a football game), but again--who cares? I love it, and thought I desperately wanted the Evo, but the size of this phone is perfect for my personal use. I simply can't say enough good things about it.

 

[apinkel]

wow that was very detailed!! thanks for the info! =]

Yeah, hopefully it didn't put you to sleep .

Couple other things that others have brought up...
If you haven't already I do recommend giving swype a chance. It really does make text entry and text selection/editing so much easier. I didn't like it at first but I get it now. I highly recommend the swype tips and tricks videos on the swype website.

There's a sticky thread for suggested work-arounds for the lack of an led indicator light. I had this on my droid X and I don't miss it at all personally, but this is a got-to-have item for some folks.

 

[hotpinkberry]

De-lurking because my previous phone was an (original) instinct Both disposed and apinkel's posts were excellent; I'd just like to add that I've had this phone for two days now and love it so so SO much. I'm a new android user too, and so far it's blowing the instinct out of the water. Texting on this is way easier (swype is amazing!) and THERE ARE ACTUALLY APPS (granted, that's an android thing in general, but the instinct was touted as an iphone killer and yet it was dead app-wise). I don't use the speech-to-text or any of the other features that use the mic, but my mom does and loves it.

I think the only things I kind of dislike about it are the lack of LCD notifications (flashnotify and other apps take care of that easily, though) and the lack of a case. I would keep my instinct in my purse with my keys and tons of other stuff and it would be fine because it had a leather case that covered the entire phone until I took it out. I have the sprint silicone case and I've ordered a screen protector, but I have a 2-year contract and I'm afraid that it'll look like a hot mess in half that time. The battery doesn't last as long as the instinct, but I've been exploring apps like crazy so that's to be expected. I must hold the phone a little weird because it likes to flip to landscape mode when I'm holding it in portrait sometimes and vise versa. I just shake it a little and it goes back.

Oh, and it's a tad bit bigger than my instinct but not a whole lot. I don't know which instinct you have, but I know that the first one was bigger than the others.

Overall, it's a fantastic upgrade and I highly recommend it

I don't have a picture of the actual phone, but here's a screenshot my main homepage:

I'm using beautiful widgets for the clock and launcherpro for the dock. Even being able to have a background picture of my choice is more customization than I ever had on the instinct, let alone changing the docks and clocks and having multiple homepages.

I hope this helps you make your decision!

wooohoo! another "girldroid" lol. im happy that you love this phone and it makes me confident that i will go out and get this phone. i love your homescreen pic btw. =]

 

[hotpinkberry]

Yeah, hopefully it didn't put you to sleep .

Couple other things that others have brought up...
If you haven't already I do recommend giving swype a chance. It really does make text entry and text selection/editing so much easier. I didn't like it at first but I get it now. I highly recommend the swype tips and tricks videos on the swype website.

There's a sticky thread for suggested work-arounds for the lack of an led indicator light. I had this on my droid X and I don't miss it at all personally, but this is a got-to-have item for some folks.

i will definitely check out that led thing, i always miss stuff because i never see or hear it. thanks alot.

 

[Droid Warrior]

Pros: Great size. Love the swipe screen. Good Buttons.

Cons: EVERYTHING Else.
First one froze in 1st 24 hrs. and even the Sprint techs couldnt fix it.
Then 2nd one froze in 12 hrs., but I googled the prob., found this site, and was able to fix.
Having constant SD card probs., so advice has been to get a new one & re format, which I will do.
Constantly tells me my phone memory is full, even though its not, and I havent added anything new to make that mess appear.
Constantly unable to text/rec texts for days because it says "text mem is full" even thought its totally empty.
It constantly reboots and turns off for no reason.
I have to remove battery to reset almost daily. This started happening 2 days after the 30 day Sprint warranty. Their reply was that I should have purchased the replacement insurance, so would not help me.

I wish you luck, as it seems some here think its the greatest thing since the wheel. To me, 2 diff phones in a week that have same problems, means its trash!

I wish I kept my old Palm Centro. It didnt do anything fancy or have Android, but the call/phone was Excellent.

 

[zmann]

I got this for my daughter last week, her first smartphone, finally got her to put down the ipod. She loves it.I had a pre and I think it is better then the pre ever was. Good solid phone.

Evo-lution

 

[zmann]

Man if you think swype is good, you will love slide it keyboard.1000 times better.

Evo-lution

 

[trekkie1701c]

@OP: Cases are available from third party people. Heck, you can even get them at mall kiosks. The one I have ran me $10 and it's doing great at absorbing the damage (it's scratched all to hell, but the phone looks brand new when I remove it). I use the Zagg screen protector, and it's held up fine under the same conditions - it actually took a box cutter to scratch it (no, I didn't try it intentionally)

@kcmookie - It works fine for me in the cold I work in a butcher shop, and the phone is routinely exposed to temperatures between 30-40 degrees, with spikes down to -15 if I have to go in our freezer. In fact, I've gotten better performance with the phone in cold temperatures.

@Droid Warrior - Wipe the phone and the card, and/or replace the card completely. This might fix it for you. Also might be an app issue, I do have it lock up from time to time on reboot but I think it's more due to how much I modified the phone (didn't have the issue until I started messing around with custom resolutions).

If you're really that unhappy with it, I have a heavily used Palm Centro (scratched up with some screen issues, but otherwise working) that I'd be willing to sell cheap

However will note that this phone's the most stable one I've used so far, and really am enjoying it. It's already taken a few falls and whacks with no serious issues and it's been pushed far past what it was intended to go through originally Some people do get lemons though, and your distributor could have gotten a bad batch (I've had it happen to me more than once). But in my experience it's a very solid phone.

 

[scifan]

Something that's interesting (and most seem to overlook or don't know) this phone has a dual core proc... 600mhz for applications and 400mhz for radio/phone use... that's a big bonus...

It has 512mb of ram as well as 512mb of flash storage... (The Hero, Moment, Intercept and I think transform all have somewhere in the 256-270mb range of ram)... more ram == better experience... with a Hero I routinely found that I had ~ 34mb of ram free... (without running altered memory management)...

With this phone tends to have 180mb of free memory... that will help ALOT.

The one thing I've had a grumble about is that bluetooth doesn't seem to re-connect like I'd expect it to... though with the hero I couldn't get it to pair with my car... and I didn't really use bluetooth with either the Instinct or Moment that I'd had...)

Btw, the above review is good and I'd say accurate.

Oh, and if you load the last.fm app, it seems to cause havoc with the default music player...