Just bought an Optimus T... now what...?

[K1TTEN M1TTEN]

Hey community! As you can probably tell this is my first post (sorry if it is in the wrong spot!) but the description says it all! I am used to iPhones and finally converted over to Android. But I have no idea what to do. My Optimus T seems kinda sluggish right out of the box, and it is not nearly as pretty of an interface as my friend's HTC Inspire. So what do you all recommend I do to make it better, faster, etc? Thanks a million!

 

[sleedeane]

The T was my first phone. I don't remember it ever being sluggish (for an entry level phone).
The first thing I would do is install a custom launcher, like GoLauncherEx. You will immediately see the difference between the iphone and an Android when you see how customizable Android is in comparison to the I.
(at least I think so. Everybody's iphone homepages look alike, while no 2 Androids look alike).
You'll also notice that there are many more free apps in the Android market (goggle play, now) than the iphone store.
I don't think you'll have any regrets switching over, except to say that the iphone is much higher priced and has higher/faster capacities than your LG does, not being a more expensive high end phone.
Cheers!

 

[K1TTEN M1TTEN]

Alrighty, I will have to check that out. As far as rooting goes. I have no idea what that means or does. Is that a good idea? I have Android 2.2.2. And it is hard to explain, be there is some mid touch latency, like it knows I input something, it is starts to do it, then it decides to think about it for about half a second, then continues to finish.

 

[AndyOpie150]

That's typical of the Optimus T. The IPhone's processor runs at 1GHz I think. The T is only at 600MHz. Big difference in speed and feel.
With then Android operating system, gaining root access to your system files (something that you can't do with an IPhone) is called rooting. This is accomplished by running an exploit that installs the su binary to your /system/bin, and installing a Superuser app as well. After you install Busybox (a set of binaries that allow you to perform all rooted tasks) and a overclocking kernel you will be able to overclock to the mid 700MHz range. This will make the T fell faster and smother.
You will loose the latency, but the apps will still be slow to open compared to the IPhone. Most games will play just as well as on an IPhone.

I would suggest going into the Root section and read everything you can on rooting the T, and installing a recovery and custom ROM (these are usually a lot faster than the stock ROM and can be overclocked in the high 700MHz to low 800MHz range)

A kernel is like the engine in a car. You can take it out and replace it with a better one. The ROM is the Car with the engine in it. It has the paint and accessory's that set's it apart. By changing the boot animation and theme and front's and dropdown screen, you can make it look and act like nobody else's.

 

[K1TTEN M1TTEN]

Andy, thank you so much for the description of those! I was totally confused by the terminology! I am just used to Cydia terms etc, so all this Android stuff is all new to me. I will check out that side of the forums! Thanks!

Also... I noticed my phone had the program Superuser on it. Does that mean the phone was rooted? I bought it off craigslist and it was factory reset, but that program still remains. Will that effect the ability to upgrade it to 2.3.3? And will I want to upgrade to 2.3.3 or is 2.2.2 better?

 

[dralways]

Yes Kitten, your phone is or has been rooted at some point. For 2.2.2 you have to use Gingerbreak to root your phone. I just bought an Optimus T also and absolutely love the phone coming from an old school flip phone. Ill never be able to go back to one of those now. I do notice the slight latency but don't mind much coming from what I had. (Our phones are 600mhz like the iPhone 3/3s, 4/4s are 1ghz.) I wouldn't mind trying to make a custom recovery and loading up some rom like the CM mod but I managed to brick my phone after my first attempt which was just a couple days after I picked up the phone so that pretty much scared me straight. Anyone have a link to a guaranteed to work properly tutorial for flashing the Optimus T?

Oh and excellent analogies there, Andy.

 

[AndyOpie150]

Download a terminal emulator from the market. Type in su then hit the enter key. If you get a # your rooted already. Turn the power off. Then hold home+volume down,then power (all at the same time) until you see the recovery screen. If it has 8-9 options you have a custom recovery. If 4-5 you have the stock recovery. Best to have a custom recovery and make a backup of your system in the backup option(this is called a nandroid backup) in case you make a mistake. When mistakes are made all you need to do is use the restore option and your good as new(you still have to wipe and format everything necessary, same as a ROM install before selecting the restore option).

 

[K1TTEN M1TTEN]

Andy, I tried what you said (the volume down, home, and power) and all that came up was a picture of a box with the little droid guy jumping out, no menu, no nothing, AND it deleted all of my apps and stuff and basically factory reset my phone Is my phone messed up?

 

[AndyOpie150]

If you still can call, get on the market and stuff your ok. What did you see when you typed in su in a terminal emulator? Don't know why it reset your phone, it should have took you to your recovery menu. I'll do some research in the All Things Root Forum.?????