LG Optimus S / Optimus U / Optimus V
Phone Scoop Review
Oct 26, 2010 by Philip Berne
The LG Optimus S offers Sprint ID and Android 2.2 in a compact, inexpensive touchscreen phone. Does a newer Android OS help keep this phone up to speed? read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Pound for Pound Dollar for Dollar, the best
I loathe contracts. I liked Virgin's plan, unlimited msg and data for $25. But most pre-paid have junk phones. Not the case with the Optimus. $149 ($129 on sale) and no contract.
Good-
Ships with 2.2
Comes with 2gb micro SD
Not too much bloatware
Not a glossy case, I don't like leaving fingerprints, its a slick rubbery feel.
LG customer service was helpful, their chat and phone service was prompt and helpful.
Bad-
Can't listen to radio and play Angry Birds. Laggy, but 99% of other apps run great at the same time.
Battery out in 6-8 hours after mild use.
Summary-
The best phone through Virgin, don't regret it at all.
love it so far
I have had this phone 5 days now I love it .. its easy to use & battery life is okay could be better .. it has swype & I am not sure how I like it I am faster at just the plain old txt I have had the hero & intercept both way thumbs down this phone tops them both... I do not care for the sprint I.d. though but it comes with the phone .. in all its a great phone certainly not the evo or shift but I don't want to pay the extra nor do I need 4g .. I have not tryed the hotspot yet on this phone but if it works why pay the extra from evo?? I am using this phone now to write review its is fast on the net as well
Can't believe this was a free phone
This thing for being a free phone is an absolute champ... As long as you don't try to pretend its an EVO or Epic, and load all sotrts of things on there, you're fine.
Battery life is pretty decent, its very quick, and provides all the Froyo features and benefits in a FREE phone.
Signal is great, Web browsing works very well, and Telenav blows away anything you are going to find in this price range.
Wife has had it for a month, and comes up with more and more reasons she loves it. (has a BB Tour for work, and had a Flip-phone from Kyocera that this replaced)
THE PHONE IS GREAT
I think this phone is great...I have not put it down since I got the device...I love the sprint id that comes with the phone...I like to change it to fit my mood on a day to day bases..I also like when you which back and forth between the id's you do not have to re-do the home screen the apps that were downloaded...the (con) is not having the flashing light indicator to let you know if you have a missed calls, text, etc
GREAT PHONE
I am only giving this 4.5 because of the speaker. its to loud for the speaker and can cause distortion.
OTHERWISE... The phone is awesome!!!!
I have owned the Hero and this is 10x's better. I went to the Sprint store and several employees had the phone. They said they have seen no issues with the phone yet. SCREW 4G!!! Its not even in my area yet and they want you to pay an extra 10.00 a month for it. Thats why I didn't buy the Evo or The Epic.
I used to manage a Sprint store and I will tell you out of the phones I have tried this is great.
People complain about battery life? Its a smart phone! Download Task Killer! My lasted through the day with internet use.
BUY THIS PHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Update
This site does not allow you to edit previous reviews, so I am adding this instead. My "early impressions" were, unfortunately, way off base. This phone is a dog. The battery life in MISERABLE. Not even a full day with moderate use. If you are a media person, forget it. I previously owned a rooted Hero which was slow and laggy depending on the ROM that I was running, but this phone with a faster processor and memory is worse. As an example, I was playing Angry Birds. 5 minutes into the game it looked like a slide show. Apps that worked fine on my Hero do not work at all on this one. It is going back and I do believe my time with Sprint will be ending as well. Their lack of decent phones coupled with spotty coverage outside of any major hub makes it fairly unusable. Too bad because they are by far the cheapest out there.
Better than I expected.
In my opinion this is the best entry level android phone for anyone who needs the best android has to offer but don't want or can't afford a more expensive high end device. Even the EPIC had to wait a long time to get updated to froyo just a few days ago. This little phone has froyo out of the box. I personally I'm the happy owner of an EVO since it came out but after I had a chance to play with it and customize the optimus for some one in my family that I got this phone for, I honestly can say that if I coudn't have my EVO I would be quite happy with the optimus. The only reason I didn't rate this 5 stars is because it lacks a camera flash which for me is very important. But aside from that I didn't find anything wrong with it, the phone feels solid, easy to use with one hand, nice speaker sound, good call quality, responsive and it doesn't feel cheap. If you are new to smart phones and feel intimidated by high end devices, this is the perfect phone for you, you will be happy with it.
Cheep Phone
LG Optimus S on Sprint
Pros:
Small and light
Cons:
Poor battery life
Poor audio quality - people can't here me
Un-usable speaker phone tiny & high pitched
Touch screen is not accurate and does not respond
Overall I would not recommend this phone to anyone. A fully charged battery was down 25% after a 20 min call the phone was dead after less than 8 hours with less than 30 min of talk and no other usages. Swipe to type is completely in accurate. People have problems herring me and say that I sound high pitched.
I tried swapping the phone under warranty at Sprint and was told the phone had no problems and they refused to swap it. Unfortunately this is a work provided device so I can't get it swapped for a different model under the 30 day rule.
I do not believe it is a sprint issues, I have had HTC and RIM devices and have not had any network, battery or audio issues.
Simply its an LG cheep piece of junk!
Not What I Expected!!!
I have worked for Sprint and Verizon Wireless, so I know my phones and how to take care of them as far as updates and things not most people know.
I was so surprised when I got the this phone because I am usually not into the LG androids, turns out its a great little phone. Cute, Small,does what it says it does.
EXCEPT, This phone have service issues such as when someone is calling me they say my phone rings really fast like 16 rings when a typical phone only rings 5 times. Most people can not hear me when I talk on the phone, usually that means microphone issues, well my phones microphone is fine.(i have been a tech with the sprint company) I will receive a bunch of old texts at once. This usually means bad service area, I am in the middle of a city so thats not the case. In other terms that people can understand this phone has a very poor internal antenna, BOO! It makes me wish I got the Evo instead.
Deserving Of An Amazing Review
I would like to begin by saying that I've never provided a review before, and if I this phone wasn't every bit as worth it you wouldn't be reading this. In addition, keep in mind that reviews that have very specific problems i.e. reception or buggy software or what have you are specific to that individual. I find it foolish for somebody to give a negative review on a product based on an isolated incident. That being said, this phone is all sorts of amazing. Don't misunderstand. It is not the Evo, nor is it the Epic. If this phone was 4G capable I would give it 5 stars. What it is is an amazing free phone from a solid phone company in LG. I'm not a techy(ie?) so I don't have the knowledge to be technical, but from my experience the phone is blazing fast, user friendly, and an all around awesome value. If you absolutely NEED everything that the more expensive phones offer (which in this case is really only the 4g, and a better camera) go out and get one of them, but if you are ready to renew your contract and want an awesome phone without spending money, I say run, don't walk, and go get this phone. You have 30 days to return it if you don't like it anyway.
PROS:
-Free(Don't know for how much longer tho)
-Extremely Fast Interface
-Very User Friendly
-Decent Camera
-Exceptional Screen Quality (OLED)
CONS:
-No 4G
-In an era in which a phone can have an 8 megapixel camera I just think it's a little behind the curve at 3
-No flash
-Qwerty is a little on the small side due to it's smaller screen
