The Best Worst Phone I've Ever Owned

[Octahedron]

Think about it, if rooting and upgrading to new version of Android on your own weren't possible, imagine how much we would hate this phone. But since we have done everything VM should have done, we love it. Where this phone lacks in specs and carrier support, it is made up for by fantastic dev support. This is the best phone I have ever owned, and the worst at the same time.


Thanks for helping me love this phone, everyone.


Edit: Is it unacceptable for Virgin to still be selling a phone on Android 2.2 in 2012 with no plans to update? Is it acceptable for them to even update to Gingerbread, when ICS is out and already runs great in unofficial ports?

 

[braxton355]

Those are some strong words but its very true! VM needs to step up it's game, they expect us not to root our phones, when that's what makes our phones so great. This honestly has been my best phone thanks to some wonderful developer's, I've had alot of phones to, iPhone 4 to razor (Haha) I've had it all! But this has been the best little loyal phone I've had.

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Android Central Forums

 

[notown]

the wife and i had "old" style t9 flip phones when we upgraded to the OV..and compared to anything at the time (for us) it was the best phone even compared to the vm samsung phone. I loved it, rooting wasnt really that much of a change for our needs. The only reason i rooted and ROMed was because i was bored . I didnt know you could do rooting before hand until a buddy of mine showed me his rooted and ROMed atrix. At the time it was only froyo ROMs and i think one GB was popping up..aosp for the OV. some former iphone and htc w/e users might think its lacking in many ways but to me its been the best phone ive ever owned


I know im missing out on other better phones by far, but this little phone is perfect for my needs and it does one thing well .. and thats a pretty darn good phone.

 

[LeslieAnn]

Is it okay to sell 2.2? Sure, they patched the big security bug.
A large portion of Android users are still on 2.2. and at least one company has said, it's easier make a new phone that update one (I somewhat call B.S. on that).

Part of why we don't get updates is because they want to sell you a new phone, plain and simple. That applies to VM and manufacturers as well. Why give you an update, when they can lure you into buying a new phone, you want it anyway. Unfortunately VM has been stubborn with new phones.

As for hating the OV...
You are comparing how you feel about stock NOW, as opposed to how you felt when you bought it. You only really hated it in stock form AFTER you rooted it. Before that, you probably thought it was pretty nice for the money. If you couldn't upgrade it, you would simply have lived with it.



Most people really don't care what their phone runs or what version it has. Look how many people are still running XP, 2000, and 98 (shudder). The new Honda Civic must be better than the old one right? Vista must be better than XP... Wait...

See, it's not what it is, it's what it represents.

Iphone users don't care if they have IOS 3, 4 or 5, they only want the latest Iphone because it's shiny. If Apple took an Iphone 3, added more memory, renamed it Iphone 5, and put it up for sale I GUARANTEEE you people would buy it. Those that didn't would still want it. Why? because 5 is better than 4. Doesn't matter what it is, it's new so it must be better.

SHINY! SHINY! SHINY!

Don't think I'm going to just trash Iphone users, you guys are every bit as guilty. How many here wanted GB as opposed to Froyo? Answer this... Why do/did you want it, can you honestly tell me the differences? Bear in mind, we still use a Froyo kernel and the drop down menu is CM, not GB. Now, other than the launcher, can you honestly tell me a difference? Guess what... Our ICS, is still using a Froyo kernel. How many grabbed the ICS themed GB thinking it was really ICS?

How many are running ICS, even though it's not working fully or even truly a full ICS rom? You guys are willing to put up with broken stuff, just to have the latest. Why? Because it's shiny. Doesn't matter what it is, if it's new it must be better, so while you complain about it, you don't really even know what you are complaining about.

Ask yourself this, beyond the theme, and a different launcher, what did you gain using ICS besides instability and less app storage? No new apps work on it that didn't work before, in fact LESS apps work with it. So why the rush?


Sorry, I know that is harsh, and I'm not trying to bash anyone (this comes up quit often, so it's not just those in this thread), but let's be a bit honest about it. It really has nothing to do with anything except shiny. Your phone worked fine when you bought it, and it would still work fine had you not messed with it, you just want something shiny and new to play with.

 

[asadullah]

Guilty

 

[LeslieAnn]

Guilty

Me too.

 

[rebel69ization]

I admit when I first rooted I flashed any and everything just to see what it would do to my ov. Now after 6 mos and a ton of flashing I'm finally at the point of sticking with one and seeing how far the development goes with it. Leslie ann you're right about "shiny" I was about to move on to a different phone until I read and did some checking on it, the "shiny" had me for a couple of days but now I'm back to my senses! This optimus v is a tough little reliable phone and I like reliability more than "shiny"

sent from my device using XPB ICS Tapatalk 2

 

[anthonycr]

You hit the nail Leslie.

 

[mjs2011]

I'd say the OV was a very good phone to own. Even though my new Galaxy S2 completely blows it out of the water in every aspect, I got a lot of use and durability out of my OV.

What's funny about the S2, especially since Sprint will be rolling out the ICS update this summer, is that I'm actually torn about whether or not I even want to root this thing. I have all the app space I need, it runs every app I need it to. I don't even know if it's worth the trouble. The thing I'd miss the most is the CM9 theming, but I can still theme it with different launchers. I guess we'll see how I feel in a week, but I just want to take really good care of this phone.

 

[dwappo]

I'd say the OV was a very good phone to own. Even though my new Galaxy S2 completely blows it out of the water in every aspect, I got a lot of use and durability out of my OV.

What's funny about the S2, especially since Sprint will be rolling out the ICS update this summer, is that I'm actually torn about whether or not I even want to root this thing. I have all the app space I need, it runs every app I need it to. I don't even know if it's worth the trouble. The thing I'd miss the most is the CM9 theming, but I can still theme it with different launchers. I guess we'll see how I feel in a week, but I just want to take really good care of this phone.

This is how I feel about getting the evo, but I really want to use MyBackupPro to have all my old apps back xD. Plus some of my fave apps have root access.

 

[drezliok]

This is the best phone I've ever had. I couldn't go back to stock but I could stick with froyo. I love CM7, tried 9 out today and it's too buggy and it's feature set hasn't matured yet. I only want ICS for the underline spell check. So I can turn off suggestions on the keyboard and have more space to type in.

But my CM7 is heavily ICS themed, cuz its purty.

Frankensteined Optimus V Running IHO Mirage. If I break & fix it again, I am renaming it to Mumm-Ra The Ever Living!

 

[lokito15]

I rooted for only two purposes, tethering and custom themes. I hate the stock look of any OS and just using a custom launcher does not cut it for me I want to theme every thing so I guess in a sense I rooted to add the shiny to my device myself lol.I wont use ICS though it is not as themeable(I know its not a real word lol) as CM7 or MIUI.

 

[Eollie]

This is kind of a loaded question. As far as stock phones, my Droid X was the best phone out of the box. The fact it was a Moto phone with a locked bootloader made it not dev friendly at first.

The shiny reference is a valid one. But many of us want to finally not have to use custom roms and tweaks for certain features. Each new os will offer the ability to cut out a app or a hack for something.

As for dev support the Optimus lineup has one of the best. The phone is very similar to its siblings that most of the development for them will port in pretty easy.

I will honestly say after owning a android phone for three years, unless it is straight aosp I will root it and remove the junk not necessary like allshare on samsung, where on virgin, and other apps.

 

[Sean OGorman]

I didn't mind the OV in stock form. I initially rooted it to get rid of Twidroyd because it was putting ads in the notification bar. After a year of messing around with all the different options, I've ended up back on a Froyo ROM.

 

[magus7091]

Me too.

Me too, beautifully put rant if ever I saw one. That being said, however, notification power widget, oc settings baked into the ROM, pretty shiny themes and a couple games (don't have or know them anymore) that weren't compatible with the phone as stock is why I ROMed. Link2sd and removal of crapware is why I rooted. I'm waiting impatiently at this point for ics to become fully working and then I'll update, why? SHINY!

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Android Central Forums

 

[curtis1973]

one from virgin mobile.. the rumor 2. complete piece of trash.

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Android Central Forums

 

[mjs2011]

A little off topic, but I just sold my wife's old Samsung Intercept for $40. I feel like I got the better end of that deal.

 

[Freedomrock]

Shiny is part of it. For me Rooting allowed me to get rid of the bloat and manage internal and external memory. Most of my favorite apps require root and you can better manage app permissions. I went to IHO because that was where the development was. Same reason I run Win7, newest Linux distros, and OS X all on my home network. New features are nice. With stock OV there has been nothing new in the year plus I have had my OV. My wife couldn't care less about OS but she ran out of room for her apps. I had to smile when she finally handed me her phone and said I could have my way with it. She loved the difference in storage and feature set. As long as the OS can keep up with hardware I don't change hardware. I having been buying technology for too long. My shinies need to last!

You know the CAI ICS Alpha is pretty sweet and actually runs great. I have a second broken OV (dead Mic) and I was surprised at the zippy performance. I think there are issues with video and camera but I almost never use my camera. You need 3rd party for wi-fi hot spots and Flash doesn't work. My own web site requires Flash (I know people hate it) but I use Subsonic Music Streamer and you need Flash to stream video. By the works this works great with Harmonia 2! It is not ready as daily but if Alpha is any indication this will be one heck of a ROM even in Beta.