I just picked one of these up yesterday, the LG Tribute, the Sprint version which is model LS660P (same hardware with the Virgin Mobile version). It's a Snapdragon 400 SoC quad core powered smartphone - it's basically a mix of features between a 1st gen Moto G LTE (the SoC) and the Moto E (removable battery and microSD slot) - it's a CDMA/LTE device only so it's more akin to the Sprint/Boost/Cricket versions of the Moto G I suppose - it does have a SIM card slot but since there's no GSM radio I suppose that's a dead end. It has Sprint LTE support for LTE bands 25, 26, and 41 - it's Spark-enabled as well.
So far in using it I've been extremely pleased with the performance overall considering it's $39.99 right now at many retailers like Fry's and Best Buy (retail is $79.99).
The biggest downside is the 800x480 display resolution but honestly I could care less these days. I just owned an LG G2 and loved it but I had to sell it to cover some bills, and when I saw the Tribute specs and that low price I figured it couldn't hurt to mess around with it a bit.
But in terms of getting it up and running, the first time I powered it up I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this on the Apps screen:
Just that, and nothing else - this thing has zero Sprint bloatware on it, absolutely nothing, and nothing from LG either. Yes it just has 4GB of internal storage leaving about 1.45GB for the user but it's got the microSD slot for storage. I've done all the requisite Google stock apps updates and installed all the apps I've purchased and the free ones I regularly use and I still have 435MB left so I'm good to go. Put my 32GB microSD card in it with 6GB of Opus-encoded audio files, a couple of movies and TV shows, and so far it's been fantastic.
Current battery is showing 37% left from a 100% charge, 12 hours and 3 minutes on, 5 hours and 14 minutes of screen on time so far (and still going because I'm watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier on it and there's 1 hour and 45 mins left in the movie), Wi-Fi has been on the entire time (it's in Airplane mode, however), screen brightness using MX Player is set at 12 (of 15), volume at 15. I use Google Hangouts with Google Voice to make "phone calls" using Wi-Fi so it's in Airplane mode most of the time when I'm at home.
I expect to hit the 7 hours of SOT and this is the first full charge on the device so, consider me a very happy camper.
I know requests have been put into place for Stumproot support so a root could be possible on this device, and I know that LG has posted the 4.4.2 ROM and kernel source code (I grabbed that last night). So here's my question:
Is there anyone out there that might be interested in attempting to develop any recovery for this (assuming we get root at some point), and then perhaps developing some custom ROM for it - seems like it should be a relatively easy thing considering a) we have the full ROM and kernel source even though it's just 4.4.2 at the moment (I would guess LG has no intentions of boosting this to 5.0 so that'll most likely never happen) and b) it's so close to the architecture of the CMDA/LTE version of the Moto G LTE that some kind of port might be possible towards Lollipop if and when that happens...?
Long sentence, sorry about that, I get wordy at times.
But I just figured I'd ask if there's any interest at all. Yes, it's weak on the resolution, yes, it's not a powerhouse device, yes, it's fairly cheap but it's functional and could be an awesome little smartphone with a little "help" thrown its way like a potential for a custom kernel as well to get the quad core and the governor a bit more under control.
I fully suspect this device is easily capable of 7 hours of SOT with such "upgrades" if anyone is interested. I lack the technical know-how and skills to get buried in ROM development much less kernels, so I figured I would toss the question out considering it shares so much common with the Moto G LTE variant + the Moto E's microSD slot potential.
Just curious... any responses are welcome and appreciated, thanks.
Update:
It's even better than I'd hoped...
Almost 8 hours of screen on time - that was a full movie (2 hours 15 minutes long and I let it play the entire thing, first frame to final), 4 TV shows (about 42-45 minutes long each), music playback for almost 1 hour, a few Wi-Fi phone calls using Google Hangouts/Voice, and some web surfing using the stock browser.
$40... absolutely amazing.
I'm just concerned about the amount of CPU time the Android OS shows there - it apparently used as much battery as the screen being on for 7 hours and 38 minutes did so there's something amiss hiding inside. Will be using Wakelock Detector to see if I can detect anything I can disable on the next go considering this was the first full 100% charge and battery test. Just for the record, the Keep Awake time listed on the Android OS battery usage page is 11 hours so it's not idle, there's something going on in there that's using the battery, now I just have to find out what it is. The CPU total time was 4 hours 17 minutes for Android OS.
I'm pretty satisfied, now I wonder what this thing could really be capable of in terms of battery life with a proper custom kernel and ROM. I wonder...
I've been waiting for something to pop up for this phone. I've had it for 2 weeks now. Its great. I agree the battery life is awesome on this thing.
I have the VM version and would be willing to test if someone came up with something.
sigh
Coming from an iPhone so I'm totally new to the android platform but the storage in this thing is severely lacking. I got a micro sd for it, but barely can even get any apps to download due to lack of space. I'm assuming something like this would be helped by a root. It's driving me bananas and making me yearn for my Apple days
Tribute
I also just switched to a Tribute, with KitKat. Was incredibly pissed off to find that Android had crippled the external SD's role. I mean, WTF guys? So now I am on a mission. Every day I scour the interwebs looking for hope that someone has figured out a root exploit for this. I would even settle for being able to flash a custom ROM like Cyanogen. Just so long as I can get PodKicker to save 'casts to the friggin SD card. Is that too much to ask? Anyway, nothing i have attempted so far has worked at all.
Oh, and you got lucky with the no bloatware thing. I got mine through Boost Mobile, and they clotted this damned thing chock full of B.S. To the point that OUT OF THE BOX I couldn't install apps from Playstore without uninstalling previous updates to all the big Google apps. And without Root, I can't get rid of this BoostZone ****e.
I have my doubts as to whether or not this device will get any support here at all at this point (yes I know it's just been a day or so since I made this thread). I didn't even know about the LG L90 till earlier today and when I checked out the specs I realized that it's a better device overall than the Tribute, of course the price reflects the differences as well (larger higher resolution screen, just qHD 960x540 but still it's larger at 4.7" also), with NFC support (I actually make use of that myself), the removable battery/microSD slot, and it's got support here with its own subforum now with a lot of activity (well, a lot for it I suppose) and it even has an IR port for QuickRemote too which is pretty awesome: my Wife is deaf so anytime we go someplace like a Doctor's office or hospital with TVs on, if the captions aren't enabled I turn 'em on with the smartphone. Used to do that with my Galaxy S4 Active in the past, nice to see LG and some other companies are hopping on the "remote control" bandwagon now too.
There's root available and also a bootloader unlock apparently, source code is out and there's work being done so... I wish I had known that before yesterday basically. Fry's, where I got this Tribute, won't do a return on it because I opened the box (and obviously I've done more since I got it too) so that's a wash I suppose. It's still a damned fine little device for $40.
The L90 is "on sale" through T-Mobile's website for $100 with a coupon code right now, I would have grabbed that if I had known about it and the development in progress. Guess I'll have to keep my eyes out next time, might find one used on craigslist soon so we'll see what happens.
I'll keep the Tribute, of course, and keep hoping for a root at some point. I did ask in the Stumproot thread for someone to take a look at it and see what might be possible so, let's keep our fingers crossed.
As for the bloat, I had someone at HowardForums tell me if I activate the phone with Sprint (which I haven't done) that'll install all the Sprint bloatware so, fat chance of that happening I guess. I'll keep it as is and hope for the best.
Anyone working on this? I tried stump, and there are a ton of requests, but no one has said a word about it.
Thanks!
Still hoping but no progress has been reported. It's common knowledge these days that root on newer devices is going to continue to get more and more difficult with the potential that someday we're just not going to be able to do it on most anything. The low price of this one and lack of the high end specs makes most devs (at least in my opinion) not even give a crap about it so, if someone does and we benefit from it, that's awesome.
If nothing happens, it wasn't a complete waste, it's a fine little device with decent processing power and damned great battery life as noted so, $40 was nothing I guess.
Still looking
Still looking for root to the LG Tribute and nothing works. Has anyone heard anything new about it???
Just bumping this to revive interest.
sweetbsting said:
Coming from an iPhone so I'm totally new to the android platform but the storage in this thing is severely lacking. I got a micro sd for it, but barely can even get any apps to download due to lack of space. I'm assuming something like this would be helped by a root. It's driving me bananas and making me yearn for my Apple days
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Click to collapse
You so realize you bought a low to mid range prepaid phone right?
I realize that but there has been quite a bit of interest in the model on the internets so unless you have something helpful to add, kindly ignore my post. Thanks.
aburn95 said:
You so realize you bought a low to mid range prepaid phone right?
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Click to collapse
You do understand that your comment takes away from the actual thread content, right?
Here is more information about the phone for anyone interested in development:
LG LS660 (LG Tribute) Virgin Mobile.
http://www.lg.com/us/cell-phones/lg-LS660-Virgin-Mobile-tribute
Should I buy this phone and wait for a root?
Or are there other similar price and spec phones that are easier to root?
Do some phones never get rooted?
-snip-
br0adband said:
There's root available and also a bootloader unlock apparently, source code is out and there's work being done so... I wish I had known that before yesterday basically. Fry's, where I got this Tribute, won't do a return on it because I opened the box (and obviously I've done more since I got it too) so that's a wash I suppose. It's still a damned fine little device for $40.
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Click to collapse
Can you inform us where you found root & bootloader unlock? I've been on Android for years, but am relatively new to the root/mod side of things.
LiquidRabbit said:
Where did you download this? I am pretty curious.
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I don't own the LG Tribute any longer but the source code was at LG's open source repository for the LS660P (the Sprint variant, but it should be identical to the others I would guess):
https://www.lg.com/global/support/opensource/opensourceList?types=NAME&search=ls660p
emarkp said:
Can you inform us where you found root & bootloader unlock? I've been on Android for years, but am relatively new to the root/mod side of things.
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Click to collapse
Honestly I can't even remember now, I saw some post at one of the other forums (AndroidPolice maybe) that said someone had discovered a working bootloader unlock, I could be wrong in that but honestly I can't recall the specifics at the momemt. As stated, I no longer own a Tribute (nothing at the moment, my sig always reflects what I own at any given time, for the record).
Good luck... it's really a fantastic smartphone for the $40 I paid for it (and Fry's still sells it for that price). I wish there was a GSM model 'cause I'd be all over it in a second flat; can't do much of anything with the CDMA model in terms of getting service here in my area. I won't deal with Sprint for service, and Boost/Virgin Mobile/etc don't have plans that come anywhere near what the $30/month T-Mobile plan does so...
For $35 a month, you get unlimited everything on Virgin Mobile...
For $20, you get 300 minutes and unlimited everything. I stuck with the $20 plan at unlimited everything as I was grandfathered in many, many years ago.
Possible root method?
Hello! I have been using android for a while and just got this phone (LG Tribute, Virgin Mobile). I was researching rooting this, and I found this: youtube.com/watch?v=ZBdrVa_bo5o
It seems to be advertising legit software, etc, but I wonder if this successfully roots the Tribute. On their website (androidphonetransfer_DOTCOM) ,they have a free trial for the software.
I'd like to try it, but I'm not sure if it would mess up my device or not (I'm new to rooting). anyone want to give this a try?
It does not work.
I am also interested. I was looking for a android phone with at least 4.5 inch screen to act as a dedicated gps navigator. LG Tribute fit the bill perfectly. Quad core processor is fast, would be nice to get rid of Sprint activation and clean the device up with a root.
I'm surprised there is not more interest in this phone. The sale price of $40 happens pretty regularly, which IMO is a great deal for this phone.
Related
Well, it's lunch time so I thought I would take a minute to update everyone on my thread "I F'ed Up!' thread in Q&A. The Photon is back to purely stock, no root, no unlock, notta. I got most of my app's back (I will explain that later!).
Several months ago, I rooted and unlocked the Photon. Over that time, I have had several issues, off and on, that required reboots, battery removal, freezing, ect. that required me to come here for advice and help. After watching several of QBKINGS videos, I decided to go with CW7 and see what all the hype was about.
Things went terribley wrong!!!! (Thanks to all that helped me fix it, you will hear from me soon!) After 1.5 days without a phone, and knowing every which way exactly HOW to fix it, I was sitting down last night and give this one more go. Looking around, I noticed (as I did the first time?), some of the links don't work, some of the videos I had no clue WHAT page I was actually looking at, just said scroll down (Nice videos, I just did not get it?), some were re-directed to other sites. I work in IT, been doing it since 1983. I'm all for Development and embrace progress. Then it hit me? "Why do you want to root, unlock, flash anyway?" Really?
I started planning on this phone 2 months before it came out. It was, and still is, the best "Business" phone on the market just like it is. I use my phone for too much sh*t as it is (too long to list) and 30 minutes without it, expecially job wise, is a riks I cannot take again. So I choose to leave it stock and get back to the basics (Planning on getting a Samsung Galaxy Note anyway)
As I was putting all my app's back, a few things I noticed that may be of help to some of you. #1 and the biggest of all, some of the apps were no longer support on my phone, which likely caused most of my issues anyway. Putting my Apps back, 85% of that sh*t I used ONCE and forgot I had it. I got it because someone else thought it was cool for THEIR needs.
#2. (and I know I will hear an earfull on this), The phone is perfect just the way it is, functionally wise? You want your phone to look different, get another wallpaper! You want unlocked bootloader, Motorola never promised us one! Everyone wants ICS, They never promised you that either, we purchased it that way. We complain about the camera, 8MP is, more or less, Studio quality unless your a Pro and want to blow it up! If so, get a Digital SLR (hell, I was happy with my 3MP HTC Fuze!)I love the 2 threads where Sprint cancelled their contract over Data, then they admitted downloading Torrants. READ THE CONTRACT!!! 4G? I have used it twice in the 1.5 years its been out, 3G loads my web pages OK, every now and then YouTube sputters, so what, so does my laptop!
Personally, Photon is running better than it has in months! So, I'm going to leave it how it is, and better understand and work the functions it already has! He**, even my BT's are working better with Pandora not dropping and me able to answer calls. The only other money I'm spending (and I really don't need it!) is the SanDisk Mobile Ultra 64Gb Micro SDHC I!
I will still be here with jokes and to get knowledge, but not touching "Neo" until a month after Note comes out, then I will pack him up for good!
dsims7_2000 said:
Well, it's lunch time so I thought I would take a minute to update everyone on my thread "I F'ed Up!' thread in Q&A. The Photon is back to purely stock, no root, no unlock, notta. I got most of my app's back (I will explain that later!).
Several months ago, I rooted and unlocked the Photon. Over that time, I have had several issues, off and on, that required reboots, battery removal, freezing, ect. that required me to come here for advice and help. After watching several of QBKINGS videos, I decided to go with CW7 and see what all the hype was about.
Things went terribley wrong!!!! (Thanks to all that helped me fix it, you will hear from me soon!) After 1.5 days without a phone, and knowing every which way exactly HOW to fix it, I was sitting down last night and give this one more go. Looking around, I noticed (as I did the first time?), some of the links don't work, some of the videos I had no clue WHAT page I was actually looking at, just said scroll down (Nice videos, I just did not get it?), some were re-directed to other sites. I work in IT, been doing it since 1983. I'm all for Development and embrace progress. Then it hit me? "Why do you want to root, unlock, flash anyway?" Really?
I started planning on this phone 2 months before it came out. It was, and still is, the best "Business" phone on the market just like it is. I use my phone for too much sh*t as it is (too long to list) and 30 minutes without it, expecially job wise, is a riks I cannot take again. So I choose to leave it stock and get back to the basics (Planning on getting a Samsung Galaxy Note anyway)
As I was putting all my app's back, a few things I noticed that may be of help to some of you. #1 and the biggest of all, some of the apps were no longer support on my phone, which likely caused most of my issues anyway. Putting my Apps back, 85% of that sh*t I used ONCE and forgot I had it. I got it because someone else thought it was cool for THEIR needs.
#2. (and I know I will hear an earfull on this), The phone is perfect just the way it is, functionally wise? You want your phone to look different, get another wallpaper! You want unlocked bootloader, Motorola never promised us one! Everyone wants ICS, They never promised you that either, we purchased it that way. We complain about the camera, 8MP is, more or less, Studio quality unless your a Pro and want to blow it up! If so, get a Digital SLR (hell, I was happy with my 3MP HTC Fuze!)I love the 2 threads where Sprint cancelled their contract over Data, then they admitted downloading Torrants. READ THE CONTRACT!!! 4G? I have used it twice in the 1.5 years its been out, 3G loads my web pages OK, every now and then YouTube sputters, so what, so does my laptop!
Personally, Photon is running better than it has in months! So, I'm going to leave it how it is, and better understand and work the functions it already has! He**, even my BT's are working better with Pandora not dropping and me able to answer calls. The only other money I'm spending (and I really don't need it!) is the SanDisk Mobile Ultra 64Gb Micro SDHC I!
I will still be here with jokes and to get knowledge, but not touching "Neo" until a month after Note comes out, then I will pack him up for good!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Congrats?
My phone works great with 7.2 put it on the day i got it the next day i was skeptical and went back to stock was there for 2/3 of the day and went back to rocco then 7.2 after last update really havent had any problems except for zumocast for some reason.
grdead25 said:
My phone works great with 7.2 put it on the day i got it the next day i was skeptical and went back to stock was there for 2/3 of the day and went back to rocco then 7.2 after last update really havent had any problems except for zumocast for some reason.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny you mention ZumoCast, FIRST thing I went for when I got back. It was offline, went on computer, logged off/on, back to Photon, Online! All my music, movies, documents...........Nice! The only thing bad about ZumoCast, at this time, it only supports music playlist in iTunes (odd to me?) BUT...........Google Music, with its 20,000 limit, does support Playlist! Checked this AM and I had moved 12,000 of the 14,500 I requested. I have well over 130Gb of music and did not want to press my limit, so I picked my fav's and will shuffel them as time goes!.
dsims7_2000 said:
The only other money I'm spending (and I really don't need it!) is the SanDisk Mobile Ultra 64Gb Micro SDHC I!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't know what your buying SD card for, assuming a cell phone.. But the Photon(and most others i think) wont support anything over a 32gig. Just a FYI. Glad you got your phone up and running again!
I came from the Evo and the Photon is by far a superior phone. My Photon is rooted, themed, and backed up using bootstrap. I've removed some of the Motorola junk and I experience no force closes or random reboots. I also don't have alot of useless apps running in the background either.
What you do with, and to your phone is directly related to how it works.
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium
w0lf215 said:
Don't know what your buying SD card for, assuming a cell phone.. But the Photon(and most others i think) wont support anything over a 32gig. Just a FYI. Glad you got your phone up and running again!
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Click to collapse
I had my doubts also but link has pictures. You have to format to slower FAT32 (Or NTFS) which is 7Mb compared to exFAT claimed 30.........Check out second link, post #12!
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Mobil...UTF8&coliid=ILKNEJIM6E46D&colid=3EHUWCW36Z6IQ
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1473010&highlight=64gb&page=2
dsims7_2000 said:
I had my doubts also but link has pictures. You have to format to slower FAT32 (Or NTFS) which is 7Mb compared to exFAT claimed 30.........Check out second link, post #12!
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Mobil...UTF8&coliid=ILKNEJIM6E46D&colid=3EHUWCW36Z6IQ
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1473010&highlight=64gb&page=2
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Click to collapse
Well i stand corrected, learn new things everyday lol cool find!
w0lf215 said:
Well i stand corrected, learn new things everyday lol cool find!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You? Do you know how much reading I did only to come back here to get shot down? (Several times at that?)Trust me, I got a lesson!
I'll be looking for something to bridge the gap between my phone and desktop when I sell my laptop for about $550, and I see them going for that much brand new and unlocked on Amazon. Don't want to spend more than $300, otherwise I feel I might as well keep my laptop and save myself the hassle. The exception would be the upcoming Acer 8" Windows tablet because it'd be a full version of Windows that's very portable and with good battery life for about $400.
Anyway, hardware-wise it looks spectacular - rear camera that's actually worthwhile, great speakers (including a subwoofer), feels good to hold, has accurate pen input available, includes data capabilities (which I believe would also work on T-Mobile LTE), etc. Only thing that sucks is that it's stuck on Honeycomb, at least for now. Which, honestly, I don't really mind it being stuck on Honeycomb, if it works and is good hardware-wise - I'm kinda past the mentality of "needing" the newest version of Android on my device.
Is there anything wrong with it, or anything to consider when buying it? I know there's also the Asus Memo Pad 10" for only $30 more with newest Android and a faster processor, but I'm wondering specifically about the Jetstream for Sense, the build quality, and data capabilities.
its great for the first 5 minutes.
then the lag begins..honeycomb is slowing this thing alot.
if can wait, do so. there's a developer working on a better kernel, one that should put all those issues away. can't tell how long it'll take, because its already been around 3 months. wait a month more and see if something changed..
guru_shastri said:
its great for the first 5 minutes.
then the lag begins..honeycomb is slowing this thing alot.
if can wait, do so. there's a developer working on a better kernel, one that should put all those issues away. can't tell how long it'll take, because its already been around 3 months. wait a month more and see if something changed..
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Click to collapse
Do none of the current ROMs alleviate these lag issues? Just wondering.
Hardly.
Honeycomb isn't fit to work with dual core, only with a proper kernel the device will work properly
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Oh yeah !!!! worth every penny of it, my other friend is thinking hard how to get rid of his NEW Tab_2 10.1" to get this one, Sense is so much better Touchwiz.
I have given mine to my sis, without a Jetstream now, ohhhhh it's so hard without it now..... today went to another shop to buy it, but new stock was late arriving, I left. May be go again tomorrow or Friday.
So I bit the bullet and bought one last night...I don't know if I was extremely unlucky, but the one I bought labeled as new was clearly not:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009HNVPUK/
I bought it from Masterdeals with express shipping, got it today...right off the bat, the seal was clearly broken and covered with another smaller seal. I didn't get a startup/tutorial screen on boot, or even the default homescreen layout, and I'm 100% sure I've never seen an Android device that had the "Unknown Sources" checkbox ticked by default. And to make matters worse, it came preloaded with what I'm pretty sure are two adware/spam/etc. apps installed to system (AIRPUSH EULA and FREE APPS - the former of which doesn't even appear in the app drawer and starts itself in the background).
Thankfully I'm able to get a refund for the shipping too, but it looks like I'm going to have to restrict myself to buying a legitimately used one off eBay if I want one.
I see, take it easy, you'll get what you want next round.
I've been using my incredible 4g LTE ever since it came out and still love the form factor. It is starting to become a little slow and the camera could certainly be improved. Better battery life would be nice too.
I will probably keep using this phone until it completely breaks down on me or it just becomes too slow, but I'm wondering what phones former inc 4g lte users have moved on to. The main issue I have is that most phones are much larger. I like the 4" size, it fits comfortable in a shirt pock or my pants/jeans pocket. I know a 5" phone wouldnt fit very well and the whole point of a phone is that its portable.
I share your pain! I have had this phone since it released and it has hold up through every test of durability I could put it through. Today is the day that I move on to another my phone myself. Enricong, glad we could enjoy this awesome device even though it didn't have the biggest dev following it was still a great phone. I will continue to run this phone until the wheels fall of it.
Don't let this device fall. We just need to reach out to developers that have left this phone in the dust. This is the only good phone that I have owned that I have been able to have an unlocked bootloader. Let's revive this phone with new ROMs and more. Don't leave this phone in the dust.
enricong said:
I've been using my incredible 4g LTE ever since it came out and still love the form factor. It is starting to become a little slow and the camera could certainly be improved. Better battery life would be nice too.
I will probably keep using this phone until it completely breaks down on me or it just becomes too slow, but I'm wondering what phones former inc 4g lte users have moved on to. The main issue I have is that most phones are much larger. I like the 4" size, it fits comfortable in a shirt pock or my pants/jeans pocket. I know a 5" phone wouldnt fit very well and the whole point of a phone is that its portable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
droid mini--- its qa grate phone mostly google looking ( not much skin, what's there is useful) con no root for newer firmware, no removable battery, no sd slot
htc remix. it's the smallest newest phone ( my wife has one it's a bit bigger, but has an sd slot con bigger ( but not too bad ) no idea about the dev community
both of these phones are upgrades over the fireball
yea there's only 2 small phones even available.
i made hte jump a month ago to the s5. i'm getting used to the size - although still not 100% happy with dealing with a larger phone.
however, i do like the phone. but the s5 is older - so dev has already stopped on it. i can't even root it (phone came with a newer version that is unrootable). sorry, but devs just seem to play with the new stuff, which i can't blame them. there's just not enough people left on the older devices to make it worthwhile. the inc4g never had a strong dev base to begin with.
the s5 is a nice phone if you guys are ready to move on... although no root available for new software i really miss adblock and some customizing... but wifi tether works which is most important to me. s5 still has a sd card slot and removable battery. i may look for a rooted or older software version one on swappa that i can root.
j13smiley said:
yea there's only 2 small phones even available.
i made hte jump a month ago to the s5. i'm getting used to the size - although still not 100% happy with dealing with a larger phone.
however, i do like the phone. but the s5 is older - so dev has already stopped on it. i can't even root it (phone came with a newer version that is unrootable). sorry, but devs just seem to play with the new stuff, which i can't blame them. there's just not enough people left on the older devices to make it worthwhile. the inc4g never had a strong dev base to begin with.
the s5 is a nice phone if you guys are ready to move on... although no root available for new software i really miss adblock and some customizing... but wifi tether works which is most important to me. s5 still has a sd card slot and removable battery. i may look for a rooted or older software version one on swappa that i can root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not rootable? I do not want to imagine life without a rooted phone. I "need" WiFi Tether and the non-rooted options have historically never worked fully for me. That and TiB has been a lifesaver more than once... (Yes, I know we lived without a rooted Dinc4G for a long time until Unlimited was able to crack it open, and I *could* use a USB tether option if need be).
Sadly, I am now at the point with my Dinc4G (running ViperLTE) that I need to either upgrade to a newer phone or install a newer ROM because several apps simply won't update anymore on ICS (including the new expense system app for my work won't install on ICS, )
yep - verizon closed the root exploit with the last update. my phone arrived with the update already installed... should of ordered it a week earlier no dev is going to work on root for that phone now...
luckily foxfi does allow wifi tether without root and works on the s5! that was a must have for me so i'm at least ok with that. there's a bunch that i'd still love to have root for... but at least i'm functioning.
I get it; time moves forward and people adopt new devices. But some of us hang on as long as we can, or "inherit" old great devices for a variety of reasons.
Is there nobody left here to help z3V owners? Just say as much if that's the case. Hell, even be humane about it and shut down the section. Zero hope is a reality that forces people to move on, while wondering just plagues them with indecision that becomes a frustrating waste of time.
The reality of this forum and what it offers me as a consumer is that I simply don't purchase a phone if there's no support here. That's how grand and extensive the XDA community is.
If there's simply no more support for the z3V on XDA, then future problems with them render them obsolete. There's simply nowhere else on Earth to go for such information.
"Knowledge is power."
"With great power comes great responsibility."
AddictedToGlass said:
I get it; time moves forward and people adopt new devices. But some of us hang on as long as we can, or "inherit" old great devices for a variety of reasons.
Is there nobody left here to help z3V owners? Just say as much if that's the case. Hell, even be humane about it and shut down the section. Zero hope is a reality that forces people to move on, while wondering just plagues them with indecision that becomes a frustrating waste of time.
The reality of this forum and what it offers me as a consumer is that I simply don't purchase a phone if there's no support here. That's how grand and extensive the XDA community is.
If there's simply no more support for the z3V on XDA, then future problems with them render them obsolete. There's simply nowhere else on Earth to go for such information.
"Knowledge is power."
"With great power comes great responsibility."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When my Z3v screen went shot... I tried an LG G6? Whatever the current one is. Took it back a week later and bought an unopened Z3v off of Ebay. Nothing has what this phone has from Verizon. Stereo front facing sound. Camera button. IP68 water resistance. Expansion memory slot. If another phone ever had all that... I'd upgrade. Until then I will happily keep my Z3v.
kentompkins said:
When my Z3v screen went shot... I tried an LG G6? Whatever the current one is. Took it back a week later and bought an unopened Z3v off of Ebay. Nothing has what this phone has from Verizon. Stereo front facing sound. Camera button. IP68 water resistance. Expansion memory slot. If another phone ever had all that... I'd upgrade. Until then I will happily keep my Z3v.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the Moto X Pure checks most of those boxes. I still like the Z3V, but since the usb charge port "flap" is failing again, I'm thinking of switching back to my old Moto X 2014. There are not a lot of compelling upgrades out there, I tend to agree. Front facing stereo is a big plus for me, and most of the nice new phones have speakers near the usb charge port...not great.
Still using this and my pixel as o e of my daily devices
I use the z3v exclusively since i got it in 2014. It has enough features for me. Camera is good, the music player is great , i have 128gig card with 32gig internal , So enough storage for anything i ever do. I have rooted it, modified system to dark instead of white, so it doesnt hurt my eyes. Added viper ,dolby, and a few other mods and its been a great phone for me . If it breaks , i will replace it with another z3v off the net .
I still have the Z3v and occasionally use it for light duty work, but a couple months ago I moved on finally to the Note 8. It was literally falling apart with the battery expanding...I had to constantly Force the back glass panel back inside the frame. But I had the phone for 3 full years and never once had to do a factory reset... it never once even lagged.
The Z3v was the best phone that nobody knew about. If i could get another Sony on Verizon I would. But that's just not the case.
Sony z3v Haven
First of all, this phone is stable. The only problems I've ever had with this phone is when I was attempting to Root or upgrade to 5.1.1. I've used this phone rooted & exclusively since 2015 and have yet to find a replacement phone. I am on my 3rd z3v. I have a tendency to drop my phones and I don't like to use cases.
Most the time I have run this phone on T-Mobile from California to Florida & International networks in Mexico, Turkey, & Eastern Europe --it works perfect and once I activated it on the Verizon network and I fell in love :victory: with it all over again; it's like the phone became AliVE again! It's blazing fast on Verizon however Verizon is too expensive and their lack of affordable international options pushed me back to T-Mobile.
REASONS I LOVE THIS PHONE
High Quality Craftsmanship(aluminum&glass)
Dedicated Camera Button
IPX8 Water Resistant
Front Facing Stereo Speakers
QI Wireless Charging (which I almost always use as to avoid opening the flap & for convenience)
SD memory card slot
Beautiful full HD screen (which I never appreciated until forced to use an Apple 6s for my work)
Quality HD Music Player
Superior Auto 20+ MP Camera pictures & 4K Video (the Timeshift Video-High Frame Rate-is stunning!)
ONLY REASONS I AM LOOKING FOR A REPLACEMENT
VoLTE (I want access to T-Mobile's voice over LTE because it only works with Verizon)
Access to more of T-Mobile's 4G network. (Newer faster radios bands for T-Mobile and other companies)
Dual SIM phone.
If I cannot find another phone with these options I will be buying my 4th z3v. The Verizon representative tried to push their latest Motorola on me but I hated the feel. It felt cheap.
AddictedToGlass said:
I get it; time moves forward and people adopt new devices. But some of us hang on as long as we can, or "inherit" old great devices for a variety of reasons.
Is there nobody left here to help z3V owners? Just say as much if that's the case. Hell, even be humane about it and shut down the section. Zero hope is a reality that forces people to move on, while wondering just plagues them with indecision that becomes a frustrating waste of time.
The reality of this forum and what it offers me as a consumer is that I simply don't purchase a phone if there's no support here. That's how grand and extensive the XDA community is.
If there's simply no more support for the z3V on XDA, then future problems with them render them obsolete. There's simply nowhere else on Earth to go for such information.
"Knowledge is power."
"With great power comes great responsibility."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seen support on other sites. It caused me to hard brick my phone. haha
The real issue is that there are posts for the Z3 as well as Custom Roms for it. Sometimes they apply to the Z3V, but nobody comes flat out and says it. I for one am not willing to brick another phone just to perform a test. Of course, I don't think that is possible because the replacement phone I received has a locked bootloader... my old one definitely unlocked. I'm pretty sure it wasn't supposed to though.
I'll try to keep my story short.
My first smartphone was an LG Optimus G. Got it for free when I signed up with AT&T. Stuck with it for years. Finally had to give it up, because little by little, apps were being phased out and the phone could not go higher than Android 4.4.3.
Went shopping for new phone. Found out there are no "free" phones anymore. Friend gave me his LG G3. Fit my needs perfectly, and the price was right.
Had it about 6 months, and started having problems with MicroSD and SIM card slots. Found out it's a common problem in this phone. Being that I already have extra batteries, charger, case, etc, I purchased another refurbished G3 online.
Worked for 4 months, then problems with MicroSD again. SIM works though. A week later, screen starts acting up. I did surgery and put the good motherboard with the good screen, so that I have a working phone, albiet without a memory card.
I want a different phone, but have no experience with anything outside of LG. I don't need or want the latest and greatest, even though I never lost or smashed a phone. Perfectly willing to go with anything Android 6 or above.
WANT: RELIABILITY, good camera, capability of large SD card, removable battery, good speaker for music, good WIFI
Desperate for suggestions!
Thanks!
Just noticed this is in the Hacking section. Sorry. Feel free to move to a more appropriate area.
Suggestion
Motorola's Moto E6 Plus.
SIM-unlocking is easy to be done.
A dealer is only looking to sell you a new phone, otherwise they don't really want to help you.
I am looking for suggestions for older phones I may want to consider that people enjoyed over the years. I looked up G4, G5, G6, etc, but would like other suggestions so I know what to search for on "auction sites". Of course, if I can get a new phone that fits the bill for $20 more than a used phone, I'll consider that too.
I guess nobody else has any input.