trying to decide between optimus v and intercept

[jefflang09]

I asked the optimus fourm, but what do you think. Optimus V or Samsung Intercept. I'm switching from Metro PCS's Huawei Ascend and need some advice!

 

[biggpat86]

The only big difference between the two phones is gonna be the physical keyboard. They both have 2.2, which is a huge step-up from 2.1 on your old phone. Ask yourself if you NEED actual buttons...

 

[pastafarian]

I don't own either, but my mom has the Optimus and a close friend has an Intercept, I'm familiar with both but not as much as if either were my "daily driver". If the choice were mine and providing I didn't need a physical keyboard (which I don't), I would go with the Optimus in a heart beat. It's the better phone, smaller, faster, better screen, longer battery life and more reliable. After playing with the Optimus, the Intercept feels clunky and even a bit old. It's just my opinion and I mean no disrespect to Intercept owners. Still, the best advice is that you go to a store that has both on display, play with them and decide for yourself.

 

[jefflang09]

Thing is most stores have them in the package so I rely on you guys. I went on ahead and got intercept cause of the keyboard. Theascend has no physcial keyboard and it was messing me up. Is 2.2 really a big differance?

 

[robbie82]

I love the keyboard, so for me I went intercept. Not only that but Im loyal to the samsung brand. I love all the samsung phones I ever had and never to this day had an issue with one of them, so until I do I will always go samsung.

 

[stef7]

My 2 cents. I have the Intercept. Have been patient while 2.2.2 was brewing. Froyo has made it the phone it should have been at the time of it's introduction. Imagine the Optimus running Eclair. I bet that wouldn't have been all that great either.

I do not find myself using the slider keyboard on the Intercept much if at all. Now, almost exclusively, if in portrait or landscape orientations, I'm using the Swype Beta (Google Swype Beta).

I disagree with a previous post about battery time. The Intercept can easily get you through the day and much more now with 2.2.2. I've read reports from people with the Optimus very unhappy with battery time. In addition they are unhappy that when 3G is lost, it's not always easy to re-enable.

That said, the thing the Optimus has going for it, the only real thing now IMHO is a display with more pixels that is perhaps easier to read and physical keys for Menu, Home, Return and Search.

 

[bobbysweatpant]

Froyo has made it the phone it should have been at the time of it's introduction.

Amen

 

[jefflang09]

Thanks for the info.... really enjoy reading the posts on this site.

 

[EdAndInn]

It all depends on what you need in your smart phone.


If you are cost conscious - then pick up LG Optimus V (USD 150) vs Samsung Intercept (USD 200-250)


If you like physical keyboard and use phone for heavy e-mailing/text - then pick up Samsung Intercept (Slideout physcial keyboard) vs LG Optimus V (only on screen software keyboard)


If one wants more RAM - then pick up LG Optimus V 512 MB RAM vs Samsung Intercept 256 MB RAM


If you like better screen resolution, better colors - then pick up LG Optimus V ( 320 x 480 screen 16 Mln colors) vs Samsung Intercept ( 240 x 400 screen and 65 K colors)


If you like real glass touch screen - then pick up Samsung Intercept vs LG Optimus V (fibre glass touch screen)


If you like separate CPU, GPU, Data Processor - Then pick up LG Optimus V (Dual Core Processor MSM7627 - 600MHz Applications Processor and 400 MHz Modem Processor for data transfers, a floating point unit and a 320MHz application DSP, and a real dedicated GPU to perform 3D accelerations and video encoding/decoding) vs Samsung Intercept (800 Mhz CPU - Chipset: Samsung (S3C6410) + Qualcomm (QSC6075))

*** Qualcomm QSC6075 solution integrates baseband modem, multimedia engines, multi-band radio transceiver and power management into a single chip to eliminate the need for many discrete components.


Qualcomm News and Events - Press Releases - Qualcomm Expands Family of Single-Chip Solutions to Support CDMA2000 1xEV-DO



*** The S3C6410 processor features a built-in, state-of-the-art 3D, 4M triangles/sec hardware accelerator with OpenGL ES 1.1/ 2.0 and D3DM API support. Products incorporating this hardware accelerator in the S3C6410 enjoy the following advantages: 3D graphics performance unmatched by software-only implementations

Reduced board space, since no external 3D graphics hardware is required
Better load balancing by relieving the CPU from cycle intensive 3D graphics functions

Lower power consumption due to optimized and dedicated hardware, resulting in longer battery life
High-quality video playback
Built-in hardware and Multi-Format Codec to enhance the multimedia experience
Optimized interface for high memory bandwidth requirements
Software support to reduce application design time
Rich peripherals to reduce total system cost and enhance overall functionality
Memory stacking options for smaller footprints

SAMSUNG's Digital World



If you like better speaker phone - then pick up Samsung Intercept vs LG Optimus V


If you like better battery life - then pick up Samsung Intercept vs LG Optimus V


If you want Android 2.2 (FroYo) - then pick up LG Optimus V vs Samsung Intercept (though Samsung Intercept is scheduled to be upgraded from Android 2.1 Eclair to Android 2.2 in Sprint 2011)


If one wants a phone that heats less - then pick up Samsung Intercept vs LG Optimus V


If you like low SAR rating for health and safety reasons - then both are more or less same in SAR rating.


According to the FCC, Samsung Intercept has a digital SAR of 0.72 watt per kilogram and according to CNET review LG Optimus V has a digital SAR of 1.04 watts per kilogram.


CNET review is at:

Samsung Intercept Review - Watch CNET's Video Review

LG Optimus V Review - Watch CNET's Video Review


The LG User Guide and FCC Website have 0.70 SAR for LG Optimus V. So then LG Optimus V is better for SAR.


Also, search term - samsung intercept vs lg optimus v - in Youtube. There are many videos that can show you the actual live comparison.

 

[Mistiq]

I don't have either phone much less an actual android phone, but I've spent the past few days customising my friend's Intercept. After a lot of time with the phone, I'll be buying an Optimus this week (hopefully) Even with 2.2 on it, the phone seems slow and laggy at times. It was quite frustrating at times.

Once I installed the gingerbread keyboard on the phone, I found myself almost never using the slider keyboard. (I would have tried Swype, but I keep hearing that the Intercepts resolution (something like 240x?) wasn't fully supported by Swype and the like.)

Once I get the optimus, I can give you my comparison between the two phones, but if you do decide to get the intercept. Play with it for a week, and after u get frustrated with the lag and slowness, Here are the tweaks that I did. I'll give you the name so that you can google. (SDX developers) or if you're actually interested. I'll go back and find all the links that I used.

1. Root, one click root (rageinthebin exploit)
2. Remove Bloatware
3. Install Custom Recovery CM01 (I've heard there are other options but this is what I did
4. Install Ultimate Kernel V3 (Last crap Kernel or something like that)
5. Flash back into Custom Recovery and convert all filesystem's from RFS(?) to Ext4

Sounds like a lot, bu it's a lot simpler than it sounds. All it is, is basically downloading zip files to your sdcard and hiting the flash button. It's nowhere near as complicated as it looks, and the best thing is that it really doesn't change the look of the phone. It just makes it run so much smoother.

Actually before you do all that run Linpack (benchmarking utility from the Market) and compare the difference. I've heard stock Froyo gets you about 5. Mflops while after I finished my changes I was averaing around 9 Mflops and it actually shows. The friend I did it for actually noticed that the phone doesn't lag anymore.

I know I went off topic a lil bit, but when I first started working on the Intercept, I was so frustrated with it's performance that I said I was getting an Optimus no matter what, but once I finished those adjustments, if it wasn't for the Optimus's GPU I'd seriously consider purchasing my own Intercept.

 

[stef7]

FWIW: Swype runs quite well on the Intercept.

Stock Intercept:
Android Status: BogoMips: 199.47
Linpack for Android: MFLOPS 4.662, Time 17.98, Normal Res: 5.68, Precision: 2.22044E-16

 

[Mistiq]

FWIW: Swype runs quite well on the Intercept.

Really? I'll have to try that out then. Where did you get your Swype from? The beta or somewhere else?

 

[stef7]

..."Really? I'll have to try that out then. Where did you get your Swype from? The beta or somewhere else?"

Yes, the Beta. On the phone, Google Swype Beta.

Go to that web-site. Register and provide the email address that you can pick up on your Intercept phone. You'll be provided with a link to the download via email. Follow the link and instructions.

It's quite excellent. I use it all the time now.

Yes, you should try it.

If you find it forgets it's the input method, then simply long-press on the input box, select Android Keypad, repeat and select Swype. The beta is pretty stable. Only thing missing is the microphone.

 

[jefflang09]

I got the Intercept cause of the keyboard. Really happy with this phone/network moving from MetroPCS's Ascend. This phone plays Angry Birds better, doesn't lag as much as the ascend and love the 3G!! Havn't had sucess flashing ROM. Virus scanner keeps kicking back one of the files I try to download.

 

[jefflang09]

Just a follow-up to my orginal post incase someone finds this on google. I am still enjoying the Intercept. I use the slide out keyboard every chance I get and it the main advantage to this phone. I hate typeing on the touchscreen. Phone is pretty responsive and download speeds range from 0.3 - 0.4 mbps down. It's good for tethering and pulls webpages up pretty fast. Much happier I picked this over Optimus because of the keyboard.

 

[londonstylz]

trying to decide between the two. I hear the optimus has hotspot capability with quicksettings app, does intercept have this too? I see that alot of people are saying they are having problems after updating to 2.2 are these problems an easy fix.

 

[Darkseas]

trying to decide between the two. I hear the optimus has hotspot capability with quicksettings app, does intercept have this too? I see that alot of people are saying they are having problems after updating to 2.2 are these problems an easy fix.

Unless you need the phone yesterday, you are certainly better off waiting for the Motorola Triumph. See that topic down the list of topics.

To the best of my knowledge, VM does not permit the use as a hotspot of any of its phones. That's not to say it can't be done, at least for a while.

You don't know that "a lot of people are having problems." The people not having problems are just not posting to say so.

If you read carefully, many of the people reporting problems either rooted the phone, flashed the ROM or both. Despite the warnings, it came as a shock to them that the update to 2.2 would not work in either case. AFAIK, if you flashed the Intercept's ROM, there is currently no way to recover, while you can do a restore of the stock OS to a rooted phone.

In any case, if you're buying a new Intercept, it now comes with Froyo already loaded.

 

[londonstylz]

i dont see anything in the posts about the phone being rooted. Ive made my decision anyway and am going with the optimus. mainly because of the price.

 

[pastafarian]

Threads merged

 

[Mistiq]

Actually had a conversation on FB the other night that reminded me of this topic. Basically my friend was complaining about how much she hates Android and just wants to go back to a Feature phone, and once she revealed that she had an intercept, a few more people chimed in with their frustrations with the intercept.

I fixed another one of my friend's Intercept, (Rooted, Rommed, Davlik-cache mod, better kernel etc....) and even with all of that, her phone doesn't perform as smoothly as my Optimus V.

So for anyone that is contemplating between these two devices, the Optimus is the better option minus the keyboard (but I type just as quickly aka slowly on my Optimus with Swype as I do on the intercept) so I don't see any reason to choose an Intercept at this point in time.

Now with that being said, if you're looking to purchase a phone around now, I would wait until the Triumph comes out next month and you should be happier regardless.

 

[lpnalda]

Just a follow-up to my orginal post incase someone finds this on google. I am still enjoying the Intercept. I use the slide out keyboard every chance I get and it the main advantage to this phone. I hate typeing on the touchscreen. Phone is pretty responsive and download speeds range from 0.3 - 0.4 mbps down. It's good for tethering and pulls webpages up pretty fast. Much happier I picked this over Optimus because of the keyboard.

When you say tethering do you do that using the phone as a wifi hotspot? if so, how? I don't think anyone knows the WPA Password the app requires.

All said the intercept is really not a bad phone if you power it down every now and then to clear out some running apps and junk.

 

[AirCatHeavy]

Ok,
I have BOTH, an Intercept AND an Optimus.

I like the button layout on the Intercept FAR more than that on the Optimus.
I also like the glass screen
But's other than those two, I like the Optimus because it is definitely faster and smoother. You can feel it. However, the Intercept isn't necessarily slow, it's just not quite a s zippy as the Optimus.

The big clincher for me anyway, is that since I have BOTH phones, I can simultaneously run SpeedTest.net upload / download tests on both phones at the same time which should give some degree of fairness in the tests since both phones are at the same location, probably connecting to the same towers at the same time.

The Optimus CONSISTENTLY outshines the Intecept's UP / DOWN speeds by a considerable margin.

On average, the Optimus will pull 700-1000 kbps (.7 - 1.0 mbps) on Downloads and 200 - 300 kbps. Consistency is the key. I run quite a few speedtests from my home and this is where I base my results. The Optimus consistently can get close to 1.o mbps.

The Intercept on the other hand is all over the board and considerably slower. One moment I might get 300kbps at a really good moment, then run another test immediately and get 65kbps....or no connection at all. Let me point out that on the Intercept I get dismal speeds FAR too often. Like 80% of the time I can only muster 100kbps or LESS. To me this is unacceptable and makes the phone VERY frustrating to use. I am wondering if my Intercept has a bad radio or bad antenna?

I sure would like to hear from others about the Intercepts dismal UP / Down speeds because I think mine may have a problem. If this is normal for an Intercept, then I would have to say avoid them.

Other than that, the Intecept lower resolution is not a big deal for me. I have numerous smartphones with quite a range in resolution and even viewing video in the Intercept it is really hard (for me) to see the difference. Before I got the Intercept, I was expecting grainy screen images and video, but I was pleasantly surprised how good it looks. One thing is that when you view photos or video in LANDSCAPE mode, it seems to strech out and JUST SLIGHTLY deform images. But it isnt a real issue IMO.

I also have a G1 and a Samsung Caliber at the moment. The Caliber's camera hands down beats the camera on either the Intercept OR the Optimus. The GI is outdated and slooooow compared to the new phones.

One other thing about the Intercept's keyboard is that the top edge is so close to the body of the phone, it's almost a tad difficult to use the top row of keys on the keyboard. If you have small fingers this might not be an issue.

To wrap it up, I think if the Intercept was consistent with UPloads and DOWNloads and consistently got 400kbps or better at my home, I would prefer it because I definitely like the Intercepts button layout better. The Optimus is sleeker but I prefer functionality and utility over looks. The Optimus (to me) is just a dog in terms of the button layout. I cant see the darn buttons AT ALL in the dark. They are microscopic and VERY dimly lit. On the Optimus, the screen totally drowns out the dim light from the buttons. I'm not even really sure why LG even bothered to add the backlight to the buttons on the Optimus as it's practically useless.
Some folks say you get used to it and eventually you dont need to see the buttons, but that's them and I am not sure that will work for me in the long run.

The Intercept buttons are bigger and brightly lit. And the Power / Lock Screen button is at your finger tip whereas on the Optimus, it's at the top which makes it fumbly and inconvenient to reach.

 

[amk2795]

Which is overall better for someone who texts quite a lot but doesn't necessarily need an android due to having an iTouch; the Intercept or the LG Rumor Touch feature phone?

 

[kikkomom]

I have the intercept husband have optimus. I want to throw my intercept everytime i try to do something on it. I only got it because of the keyboard. Optimus is so much smoother then intercept. You have to get advanced task killer but on intercept you dont its task manager is built in. Intercept is constintly frezzing on me.

Also if you have wifi on you can not download mms messages, so when you get one you have to go into the settings disable it and then download if you dont and try to download it will never download. I had to actually ask samsung that because virgin mobile couldnt give me a answer. Samsung said it will either run wifi and turn off 3g or run 3 g with no wifi. Google it others had same problem.

i can touch my facebook app button and husband can touch his and before mine even responds his facebook has loaded. virgin mobile has offered to send me a optimus and has even said in the email that optimus is a much better phone with smoother operations. If you private message me i will send you the copy and paste from them so you can read my issues and there responses.

I would go optimus if you need keyboard get there other. Type in google intercept unresponsive or try intercept forums..battery life on intercept is pretty good but very slow response when you try to open cant play angry birds when you try to pull back it doesnt pull all the way and lets go before you do. I am actually testing my ability on husbands optimus this weekend to determine if i should and will take them up on thier offer. when i first got it i went to virgins mobile facebook with my problems the first week i had it everyone then said to return it and get optimus i wish i would have returned it but i need a keyboard so i am weighing just buying a new optimus with keyboard and giving intercept my 2 yr old a new toy that is how much it bothers me. I have even asked virgin mobile tonight actually did i get a dud or is it actually the phone. The wifi / 3 g mms thing is enough to get you mad if you dont know what is going on

 

[ajbuck68]

I know you're asking between the optimus v and intercept, bu honestly, the up to the Motorola Triumph is awesome. totally worth it. the 1Ghz processor makes it actually smooth and usable. I had the samsung intercept for a total of 6th months. problems galore. The extra money for the triumph is definitely worth it and pays of from lack of headaches