Help Can't seem to make a decision...help?

[n00dz]

I don't know whether to buy the Optimus V from Virgin Mobile, the Optimus M from Metro Pcs, or the Samsung Galaxy Prevail from Boost Mobile.

The Optimus V seems like a great phone for its price and the price of the phone plans(I'm looking into the $40/mo plan). But I don't know how reliable the phone, or Virgin Mobile is.

The Optimus M seems like a really awesome phone, except for Metro's crappy customer service and the fact that they force you to go into the $50/mo plan with this phone. And they charge you $6+ in random fees every time you pay your bill.

I was actually set on buying the Samsung Galaxy Prevail because of Boost's shrinkage plan, but I've been hearing that Boost requested that the Android Market block access to certain popular apps for this phone. Which WTF, that defeats the whole purpose of having an Android device.

I was just looking for a little insight/opinions from anyone. Help me make the right decision? Thanks.

 

[UKCatFan]

I love my Optimus M
I personally don't care that it is not able to do 3G or LTE since I don't use that much data. (I hardly ever even watch videos on my pc, so why would I on my phone???)
I HATE MetroPCS with a passion!!!! They have done me wrong many times
I am staying with MetroPCS because I have four phones on my plan and really cannot get a better deal considering the usage my kids and wife do

 

[UKCatFan]

The Optimus V seems like a great phone for its price and the price of the phone plans(I'm looking into the $40/mo plan). But I don't know how reliable the phone, or Virgin Mobile is.

It is basically the same phone as the Optimus M. Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint network, so is probably pretty reliable.

 

[jabbawest]

I have 2 LG Optimus M phones and one Huawei Acsend with MetroPCS and love it, except for the O so slow data. Initially, I hated the fact that our phones were kinda not ours as we were being constantly reminded of that by the Metro bloat but rooting took care of that problem and now I love them because they are under my control, except for the signal. Haven't had any billing or customer service issues and won't because I know how to approach service providers since I've been serving people all my life, in my career and my business.

The Optimus M's are awesome phones, again, once you get control of them and make them yours. The Huawei Ascend was ordinary, slow and buggy. That too changed after I took control of it.

I think your decision is going to be carrier/cost/service based because the V & M are pretty much the same phone.
LG Optimus One - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now compare the Optimus vs the Prevail.
Compare Mobile Phones LG Optimus One P500 vs Samsung Galaxy Prevail
The Optimus wins hands down in my opinion.

The rest will be up to you.

 

[Insanecrane]

The only drawback to the M for me is data speeds, but I'm always on Wifi so it doesn't affect me. I love my M and once the phone is rooted it's even better.

If you are not crazy about Metro, then I would recommend the V. Several people here have them and from all accounts love them as much as the M.

It all comes down to price for plan foe you it seems. Either way I think you will be happy.

 

[UKCatFan]

Haven't had any billing or customer service issues and won't because I know how to approach service providers since I've been serving people all my life, in my career and my business.

I certainly hope you do not have any problems, but with my experience with Metro, you are being a little over confident. Most of my problems came from their reps messing things up on simple activities like adding a line. We were on a special promotional family plan with three lines. When we went in to add a 4th line, we were told that we could not add it to the existing plan and it would be an independent line to get our best price. Fine, since it was a promotion from six months before. While "trying" to figure out a way to "save us money" she accidentally kicked the whole family off the deal and had no way to add it back. Not even her calling corporate could get it done. So, in the end her mistake ended up costing us an extra $30 a month and nobody could do a darn thing to fix it. All for doing something that we did not even ask her to do. Luckily a few months after this they introduced the flat rate deal and we were able to get back to almost the deal we had before. We are still paying about $10 a month more than we would have if she had not messed us up. This is only one of my numerous Metro stories of poor customer service.

Basically, don't count on your personal experience and skills to keep everything perfect with them. They are a pretty messed up company. Again, I am only with them because most other carriers would cost me more per month. I am planning our entire family phone upgrade to happen together next time so I have the option to switch.

 

[cuttingedge110]

I certainly hope you do not have any problems, but with my experience with Metro, you are being a little over confident. Most of my problems came from their reps messing things up on simple activities like adding a line. We were on a special promotional family plan with three lines. When we went in to add a 4th line, we were told that we could not add it to the existing plan and it would be an independent line to get our best price. Fine, since it was a promotion from six months before. While "trying" to figure out a way to "save us money" she accidentally kicked the whole family off the deal and had no way to add it back. Not even her calling corporate could get it done. So, in the end her mistake ended up costing us an extra $30 a month and nobody could do a darn thing to fix it. All for doing something that we did not even ask her to do. Luckily a few months after this they introduced the flat rate deal and we were able to get back to almost the deal we had before. We are still paying about $10 a month more than we would have if she had not messed us up. This is only one of my numerous Metro stories of poor customer service.

Basically, don't count on your personal experience and skills to keep everything perfect with them. They are a pretty messed up company. Again, I am only with them because most other carriers would cost me more per month. I am planning our entire family phone upgrade to happen together next time so I have the option to switch.

I can say that I've not had any issues with Metro. Billing is straighforward. I pay online $50 straight up that's it. Customer Service has been fine for me, but I've not really had much of a reason to deal with them. The worst I've had is waiting a short bit at the store because I needed an ESN change to my new phone. The phone itself is good, but I'm a reasonably technical person. I'm a computer tech for a living, so I rarely need any help outside of basic admin stuff. The choice is really up to you though. You should make your decision on your technical expertise, budget and needs.

 

[n00dz]

Thank you all. I'm going with the V. $40/mo just seems better than what Metro offers. I do think the optimus M is better looking, but Virgin Mobile is the cheapest.

 

[new optimus]

Thank you all. I'm going with the V. $40/mo just seems better than what Metro offers. I do think the optimus M is better looking, but Virgin Mobile is the cheapest.

Several things here, I currently have metro, well sorta I bought the optimus m, I love this phone but I can not stand the 1x. when I got the phone I also got my wife a phone, the $40 unlimited everything was (I thought) and awesome deal, and then getting the $5 per phone discount for the family plan perfect. I found out I could not get the android phone on the $40, only the $50 and seriously what is the point of unlimited data if your using a feature phone, or in this case the lg imprint that doesnt have a full browser and no wifi. Then because my wife isnt the technie I am the imprint with its $40 month was fine for her so I canceled my account and im looking to go to boost, I just ordered the prevail. As far as them blocking apps, there are ways around that im sure I hope to install the apps I use because I already pulled the .apk so I will put them on the sdcard and hopefully walla.
I thought about going with virgin first but I kept hearing how the data network was always down and they throttle data, then they raised the price of the phone just wasnt worth it and on top of that the $40 plan with them is only 1200 mins of talk, I dont generally go over that but I have and the unlimited is $60 so no longer as good of a deal. IMO