LG Spectrum comparison thread

[Mr. Ed]

Rather than have multiple threads of this device vs that, post your comparisons here.

Really looking forward to seeing how this device stacks up against others!

 

[mlg2919]

Looking at both Rezound and Spectrum, like them both, leaning to Spectrum, but concerned about signal strength, call quaility, lag, battery life. Any and all comments appreciated.

 

[jkmasi]

Looking at both Rezound and Spectrum, like them both, leaning to Spectrum, but concerned about signal strength, call quaility, lag, battery life. Any and all comments appreciated.

Yes - I would love to hear about signal strength, call quality, lag, battery life, and comments on photo quality. I want a phone with a powerful cell radio, so that I can at least text in " extended network" areas, with weak signal.

 

[jreed2560]

I've tested this phone out for almost a day. Its a solid device. Signal seems stronger than my rezound, but nowhere close to the razr. That's not really a surprise. The display is great and I love the size. The rezound even though a 4.3 in. screen always felt smaller. I still think the razr has brighter colors. Battery life seems good as well. But the razr maxx lasts me almost two days. The worst part about the spectrum is the software. LG is completely useless. Menus seem cartoonish. The app drawer is horrible. Camera and gallery are dated. Even with third party apps the menus look like garbage. And with Zero developer support, that's likely to never change. My overall opinion comparing the razr,rezound, and spectrum is this: in performance it stands up there with the best of them, but the lack of functionality provided by the software, and the lack of developer support to fix it, I would stay away from this phone. The rezound is better or equal in every category, and the razr beats it hands down

 

[Ciggy]

I've tested this phone out for almost a day. Its a solid device. Signal seems stronger than my rezound, but nowhere close to the razr. That's not really a surprise. The display is great and I love the size. The rezound even though a 4.3 in. screen always felt smaller. I still think the razr has brighter colors. Battery life seems good as well. But the razr maxx lasts me almost two days. The worst part about the spectrum is the software. LG is completely useless. Menus seem cartoonish. The app drawer is horrible. Camera and gallery are dated. Even with third party apps the menus look like garbage. And with Zero developer support, that's likely to never change. My overall opinion comparing the razr,rezound, and spectrum is this: in performance it stands up there with the best of them, but the lack of functionality provided by the software, and the lack of developer support to fix it, I would stay away from this phone. The rezound is better or equal in every category, and the razr beats it hands down

Not sure why you don't think there will be any developer support. The phone hasn't been out long, once one dev gets the phone and decides he wants ICS then the spectrum can be up there with the other phones. I am curious about the 5mp camera, and battery life.

BTW: LG Spectrum has been Rooted. – Droid Life

 

[jreed2560]

Experience tells me there will be minimal dev support. lg is bottom of the totem pole. add to that its a cdma phone with a very small consumer base. and the fact that ita up against the likes of very popular phones like the razr, nexus, and rezound. and btw root exploita are one thing. getting a dev to come out with a good rom and support it with updates is quite another.

 

[hollywoods14]

As a fairly basic user, i love the phone. Its only my second smart phone, the 1st being an Ally. So i do have a lack of experience. My biggest complaint would be the battery life, but really its that bad IMO. The phone moves quickly, much much quicker than the ally. The display is awesome, and the UI doesnt bug me. After all this is a phone, it is meant for making phone calls, all other funtions are luxury. It makes phone and it makes them really well, i have not had any signal issues. Im happy that i picked the Spectrum over the iphone, razr, and rezound.

 

[jreed2560]

You are the perfect user for this phone! Enjoy it!

 

[finndo77]

And from what I've seem so far, I am starting to worry that I made a bad decision... I traded my HTC Evo for it. I am not at home right now and do not have LTE here, but have good LTE signal at home. So far I have not gotten the phone to charge past 40% BT is off, GPS is off, it is set to 3G/2G only not LTE, I even charged it for about 2 hours while powered off. If it doesn't charge tonight, i'm headed to Verizon for a battery replacement. It is (obviously) much faster than my Evo was; although there is a delay when using Swype that the Evo did not have.
Also hard to judge, as I was using a custom ROM and kernel on my Evo. Will update ifI notice anything else.

 

[Neph81]

What are you using to charge your phone? USB off a laptop or a cheap adapter will only pull .5 amps and take forever to charge. This phone needs at least 1amp and ideally you should have a 1.5 to 2 amp adapter if you want a quicker charge. It's a shame they didn't include a good on in the box.

 

[finndo77]

I was charging on a generic iPhone 3gs USB/wall charger and a same brand iPhone 3GA car charger using the LG cable on both. Both are 1amp, I have two 2.1 amp wall warts I'll give them a try.

Fyi that phone was returned and replaced, and I have not had that problem with the replacement handset, yet. It even charged in 4 hours, from 22% with about 3 hours of that in use, in the car.

 

[MrB206]

Let me put it this way: I've been a Droid user since the D1 came out (I had it 2 weeks before it was released) and I bought a Spectrum. It's a beast and has romming potential.

 

[finndo77]

I love the activity levels of you and neph, it is just that outside of you two there has been little. I have no time to get into creating roms, I would be happy to provide a mirrored download location for any LG spectrum files on my website, average DL speed is around 385kbps, even for 10 or 20 concurrent users, max is around 800kbps that I have received, and I have more than enough storage space.

Personally, I customize the contents of Roms for my own use, to trim the overall size normally. I remove all but the default wallpaper images, all but one or two sound files (I use my own), add a blocking hosts file that stops most ads, and known malicious websites (securemecca.org), I also remove apps that I don't use, and (if the ROM is not de-odexed) I've been known to put my daily used apps into the data folder from time to time, because I am too lazy to reinstall them each time I flash.

What I like from using roms, are the graphical changes people do, added additional features that were not part of the manufacturers ROM, and performance enhancements. A great example would be MikG from over at themikmik.com, I cut out about 75mb from the 3.0 ROM (mostly the images and sound files) for my personal use and it runs fantastic on my old Evo (well, it did until I traded it for the spectrum). I don't post my edits to others roms, nor provide them to others. I do from time to time suggest to others how to trim it themselves.

 

[MrB206]

I have a pretty solid primary host, but if you'd like to offer a mirror, that's cool.

The issue Nitro and I are coming across is the device and vendor repos for this device. There are no LG 4g phones, so we have to use lg repos (that are hspa) and nexus repos for the lte settings and it's quite a task to sort through all the configuration of the folders. Unlike Motorolas, these LGs all seem to have different file names for the same damn file and varying folder structures. CM and Koush haven't set up a repo for the p930 (Nitro) or our vs920, so it's uncharted territory. So.... it's taking longer than I'd like to get a working rom. I can deodex stock and ported the Domination Rom (Brian is testing), but an original AOSP or CM will take work and time. I want to post alphas, but not until I get one that will install; so far, they're all erroring out.

 

[coderaz]

I have a pretty solid primary host, but if you'd like to offer a mirror, that's cool.

The issue Nitro and I are coming across is the device and vendor repos for this device. There are no LG 4g phones, so we have to use lg repos (that are hspa) and nexus repos for the lte settings and it's quite a task to sort through all the configuration of the folders. Unlike Motorolas, these LGs all seem to have different file names for the same damn file and varying folder structures. CM and Koush haven't set up a repo for the p930 (Nitro) or our vs920, so it's uncharted territory. So.... it's taking longer than I'd like to get a working rom. I can deodex stock and ported the Domination Rom (Brian is testing), but an original AOSP or CM will take work and time. I want to post alphas, but not until I get one that will install; so far, they're all erroring out.

Duh... forgot to post this the other day... I can host a mirror if needed.

 

[MrB206]

I think I have it sorted... I've been fixing things while compiling and it's going along well, so hopefully, if I got it right, we'll have a build this weekend.

 

[coderaz]

I think I have it sorted... I've been fixing things while compiling and it's going along well, so hopefully, if I got it right, we'll have a build this weekend.

This is your CM7 build, right?

 

[MrB206]

Yup. I hit a snag about 1/2 way through but I think I can get it sorted. It's been tedious to say the least.