lg ally feedback

[esn]

I am looking for some feedback from current owners of the ally need pros and cons thanks

 

[CBLJazz]

The ALLY is a good phone for a particular person.
If you're on verizon and want an android 2.1 phone with a keyboard you don't havew many options. The ALLY is the only option for people who want a really good physical keyboard (i use swype on my droid because i hate the physical keyboard). And 1/2 the price of the droid but not 1/2 the phone.

in the past that was my assessment of the eris... 1/2 the price and 1/2 the phone.
Not the ALLY. It's a beast. A subtle one though. Certainly not an INCREDIBLE but a comparable droid alternative with more flair.


*************************
Observations after 2 days of setting my wife's phone up:

STYLE
The ALLY seems small to me. i'm not a huge fan of it's smaller screen and smooth edges. A little soft but that is solved by a case. Wifey got a case to cover it up.

PERFORMANCE
There doesn't appear to be any difference in her phone compare to my droid although several apps i use don't work on her phone. I also use the task killer more on her phone.

UI
I understand that google wants to remain open by allowing manufacturers to alter their android look and add apps and widgets- but the lg ui sucks.
stock android is better- when she switched back to the android launcher we saw a speed/ functionality increase.

 

[POG322]

I am in the same situation as CBL, as I have an Incredible and just got my wife to be an ALLY. After helping her with it for a couple of hours I have come to the following conclusion.

The UI could be better, but there are several widgets and things to customize the layout so that isn't a "show stopper". I think I am going to let her use it with just the stock Android look and see what that does.

The phone seems to be plenty speedy out of the box, haven't had to "kill" anything yet, but did take the advise of another poster and got Advanced Task Killer running on it.

The hardware itself feels real solid (one of my worries, she is rough with her phones) and she has mentioned several times how good the keyboard is.

And overall, I couldn't agree with CBL more. The phone is solid and a great alternative to the Moto Droid.

 

[CBLJazz]

UPDATE- after several more days
We are by no means dissapointed in the ALLY but now that we've had it longer we notice more differences between it and the droid.

************************
PERFORMANCE/ MEMORY/ PROCESSOR
Although numerically they have the same speed the droid clearly has a faster processor. It appears clearly a little snapier opening the same programs. It was more difficult to see this the first few days.
SOLVING APPARENT PROCESSOR ISSUES- it seems like the ALLY requires more free internal memory to function well. For example, when I filled it with apps and there was only 12 mb left of internal memory, the phone was considerably slower. Once i deleted apps so that over 25mb were available- the phones performance improved.

30mb available seems to be ideal. My only comparison is the droid and because it has a more zippy processor it doesn't appear to need phone storage memory in normal os operations. On the droid- lower available memory doesn't appear to affect performance.
ADDITIONAL MEMORY INFO-
at the suggestion of a vzw tech we installed 2 task killers that have helped improve performance

1. Automatic Task killer-http://www.appbrain.com/app/biz.stachibana.TaskKiller
2. Advanced Task killer- http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.rechild.advancedtaskkiller


SCREEN/ RESOLUTION
I did a somewhat scientific youtube hi def video for this test. i view this video on both phones and the droid looks noticably better.

NIKE SOCCER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcWwTLMGttE&playnext_from=TL&videos=KMMWnvGAkX8

The viewing experience does by no means make the phone trashy.
It's still a great alternative. On the specs the screen on the droid vs. ally is different and you can tell side by side.

TOUCHSCREEN EXPERIENCE
It would be nice if you could increase the touch screen sensitivity by a slight margin. You don't have to press repeatedly to get a response but you do have to press a little harder than the droid- my only comparison.

UPDATE SUMMARY
After a few more days with the ally i see that the price reduction ($100 less than droid) gives you a slightly slower processor, lower resolution screen, a little less touch-screen sensitivity.


SO- if you're a verizon wireless customer on a budget that wants the android 2.1 experience get the ally- an excellent phone.

It you have the extra mula get the droid (if you need a keyboard/ albeit not a great one) or incredible (if you don't need a physical keyboard)

the INCREDIBLE might be the best android phone on the market right now.

 

[esn]

I played with one in a store for a while and it seamed more sturdy than the incredible. The only issue I have is the keyboard there is no compact qwerty on it so I downloaded handcent and the same thing, is there a compact qwerty keyboard for this phone. I also like the tempered glass screen very tough to break the incredible seems too fragile to me.

 

[CBLJazz]

I played with one in a store for a while and it seamed more sturdy than the incredible. The only issue I have is the keyboard there is no compact qwerty on it so I downloaded handcent and the same thing, is there a compact qwerty keyboard for this phone. I also like the tempered glass screen very tough to break the incredible seems too fragile to me.

i'm not into physical keyboards anymore. I use swype exclusively on my droid.

it's very interesting to hear that the incredible feels cheap. I love the metallic feel of the droid. It's also heavy. I was thinking about upgrading to an incredible but i don't want a plasticy phone.

 

[TPR300C]

I have the Incredible and I can say it doesn't feel plasticly. It definitely doesn't feel heavy and metallic like the Droid, I do like how the Droid feels. The thing about the Incredible is that it is much thinner than the Droid and feels lighter. I have several friends and relatives that have Droids and when they held my Incredible they wished theirs felt as light as mine. I also bought the Ally for my mom and its a great phone for her. All 3 phones are great.

 

[SerialSarpins]

Hey CBLJazz...

Thanks for all the input...with the info/user reviews being so scarce, your info is much appreciated...especially since you have both the Ally and your own Droid to compare it to at the same time..

I have been an LG user for 6 years (3 Phones) and want to like the Ally, since LG has been a solid phone maker for me, but I'm still torn between the Inc and the Ally...

Obviously I know that they're different phones, and that one is high-end, one is mid-range...and that you have a Droid and not an Inc...but in your opinion:

1) How is the call quality on the Ally? Both in what you hear, and how callers hear you. I have heard some "tin can" reviews, and wonder if you or your wife have that feeling.

2) Anything your wife has trouble running on her phone that you don't on your Droid?

3) How solid does the Ally feel? Think it can take more bumps and bruises than your typical phone?

4) How responsive is the touchscreen? Are you/your wife having to tap the screen multiple times to get stuff to register?

Also,

Thanks again for the info...I'm sorry to make it sound like I'm pestering, but like I said, people with your insight are few and far between on AF right now...

POG322-Thanks for your input as well! I missed your comments somehow...any answers you have to the above questions would be welcome also!

 

[CBLJazz]

1) How is the call quality on the Ally? Both in what you hear, and how callers hear you. I have heard some "tin can" reviews, and wonder if you or your wife have that feeling.

The call quality seems perfect for her speaking and the listener. No distortion of sound at high volumes either.

2) Anything your wife has trouble running on her phone that you don't on your Droid?

This is insignificant for most but not me. The only app i have not been able to rum on her phone or find a comparable equal is a led flashlight- i use an app on my phone which uses the camera's flash as a flashlight.
Can't find one for the ally.

3) How solid does the Ally feel? Think it can take more bumps and bruises than your typical phone?

The phone feels just like the envtouch. I just saw a youtube video that compared the two in size and they looked almost identical side-by-side.

4) How responsive is the touchscreen? Are you/your wife having to tap the screen multiple times to get stuff to register?

The touch screen is ok. You don't have to press repeatedly for a response but you do have to press harder in general than the droid.

**********
FINAL ASSESSMENT
One thing i want to research that i haven't tested is the 3.5 mm headphone jack music sound quality.

I'll be using a pair of BOSE headphones and evaluate/ compare the sound quality of PANDORA and mp3 files.

i'll campare to my droid and my ipod classic.

 

[Link23]

I got this phone today and I'm still not sure it is the phone for me. While I like some of the features of it, I have had gliches and difficulty with others.

I was frustrated at first with AIM and E-mail by not realizing to hit the menu button on the front of the phone to bring up a menu in the apps with additional options and to sign out of AIM.

Yahoo Droid messenger is impossible to use. When it finally will sign in, its alert tone wont quit beeping until I go to the other person sending a message and then it goes off again if another contact sends a message. The only way to finally stop it was to force the app to shut down. It is unacceptable to me not having a reliable Yahoo Messenger app since I frequently use AIM and Yahoo. I have Trillian on my ipod touch.

The web browser is great and I was easily able to bookmark my favorite sites. I find the physical keyboard a bit awkward but that could be because I was used to the Alias 2 keyboard.

The speech to text feature is great and I like the threaded text messaging organization.

I'm not sure I'm going to keep this phone. If instant messaging uses text messages and not data, I'm not sure I need a phone that requires a $30 data plan, with the $20 text plan that is $50 a month on top of the regular voice plan.

Maybe there are options to change this, but I don't like the fact I have to slide the phone to answer it and hit a button then slide it to get it to light up. I just would like a lock button when I need to put it in my pocket but not when its just sitting in the cup holder or on my desk.

 

[CBLJazz]

i'm getting an incredible instead. I bought this phone for my wife and thought that the features would be nice but she disappointed in it's speed.

try these apps

INSTANT MESSANGING
ebuddy-
eBuddy Messenger - Android app on AppBrain

DISABLE LOCK SCREEN
screen mode widget-
Screen Mode Widget Lite - Android app on AppBrain

PUSH TO ANSWER CALL
ted's droid tools-
http://www.appbrain.com/app/tss.droidtools.phone

 

[CBLJazz]

2) Anything your wife has trouble running on her phone that you don't on your Droid?

i forgot about this really cool home replacement that i use on my droid but couldn't get to work on the ally

LAUNCHER PRO
LauncherPro Beta - Android app on AppBrain

it is amazing- i think lg wants to force you to use their crappy home screen when this is better.
i think the only that beats launcher is HTC SENSE UI-which she'll have on her incredible in a few weeks.

 

[yellowfrizbee]

i forgot about this really cool home replacement that i use on my droid but couldn't get to work on the ally

LAUNCHER PRO
LauncherPro Beta - Android app on AppBrain

it is amazing- i think lg wants to force you to use their crappy home screen when this is better.
i think the only that beats launcher is HTC SENSE UI-which she'll have on her incredible in a few weeks.

Thats funny. I got it to work quite smoothly on my Ally. No force closes, no glitches, all works. Even the helicopter view works. Im not sure why yours didnt work.

I also didnt notice any stall lag. Certainly noticeably slower than the Nexus One, but it definitely was as fast as I expect a 600 Mhz processor on a mid range device to be. More importantly, though, was the fact that even though it might be slower, I did not see any lag. I can deal with a car that only goes 160 mph tops as long as it doesnt stall on me, you know what I mean?


Ill be posting a couple videos so you can see (itll have launchpro on in the video). Ill also be posting a video showing the ally running GBCoid and GameBoid. Pokemon Fire Red, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, and Dragon Warriors: Monster.

 

[SerialSarpins]

Ill be posting a couple videos so you can see (itll have launchpro on in the video). Ill also be posting a video showing the ally running GBCoid and GameBoid. Pokemon Fire Red, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, and Dragon Warriors: Monster.

Thanks for the info! Videos would be great...I have never been on the fence about a phone like this.

 

[heffe2001]

i forgot about this really cool home replacement that i use on my droid but couldn't get to work on the ally

LAUNCHER PRO
LauncherPro Beta - Android app on AppBrain

it is amazing- i think lg wants to force you to use their crappy home screen when this is better.
i think the only that beats launcher is HTC SENSE UI-which she'll have on her incredible in a few weeks.

If you're having issues with it installing (getting app not found), they posted links to the apk file to install from SD:

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/30367/LauncherPro_0.4.2.apk

Works fine for me installed that way...

 

[Gink]

Here are my thoughts on the Ally. I've only had it a couple of days and I'm directly comparing it to a rooted Eris so take it FWIW. I haven't decided if I'm going to keep the Ally over the Eris....I'm still testing and trying to decide what features I like the best.



Pros:
1)The phone on the Ally blows the phone on the Eris out of the water!!! There is no lag at all which is a HUGE issue for me with the Eris. My Eris is even rooted and overclocked and the dialer still sucks, IMO. This is the biggest PLUS over the Eris... This alone may be the reason I keep the Ally. (Running DialerOne on the Eris which is better than HTC stock but still not great, IMO.)

2) The phone feels very sturdy in my hand. I originally liked the smaller profile of the Eris but for some reason the Ally just "fits" better. With that said, I wouldn't want it to be any bigger. The Droid, Inc and future Shadow are just too big for my feminine hands I guess.

3) Hard keyboard is definitely nice when you need it. Works great for texts/emails especially.

4) I like the Live Wallpapers but this is just a luxury - definitely not a "must."

5) Ally will possibly get 2.2. This would be a huge plus if it were "for sure," but at this point it's just wait and see.

6) The Ally got mixed revies because of the hard buttons, it has 4 whereas the Eris has only 2. I actually like the hard buttons. Hubby has a Droid and I hate that it only has softkeys, same with the Inc.

7) Screen clarity/detail is AMAZING!


Cons:
1) The screen is much less sensitive on the Ally than it is on the Eris. You have to push much harder to get the screens to get them to change and to scroll thru the apps/menus. It's annoying coming from a quick Eris but I'm not sure yet if it's a deal breaker. Trying to decide on that one.

2) As an add-on to #1, the scrolling is much choppier on the Ally compared to the Eris. I have LauncherPro on both devices and when I put them side-by-side and scroll at the same time the Eris is the clear winner! Very annoying since the Ally is a newer device but is it a deal breaker? Not sure yet...

3) The virtual keyboard sucks. I'm quite used to the keyboard on the Eris, even in portrait mode (running Swype) but I can't type worth a crap on the Ally keyboard. Thankfully it has the hard keyboard but honestly, I wouldn't have to use it as often as I do if the virtual keyboard were a little better. I'm hoping a Swype version becomes available soon! Tried ShapeWriter, not a fan.

4) I actually miss the trackball on the Eris! Since I have trouble typing on the virtual keyboard it would be nice to scroll back and correct my typing. I can do it with the hardkeyboard directional pad, but it's just not as convenient as it is with the Eris.

5) The Ally does not sync directly with Outlook. For some this is not an issue but it is/was for me. I don't use Google contacts or calendar but if I wanna keep the Ally I'm going to have to learn to....at least until 2.2 comes out. Still not sure if the Ally will get 2.2.

6) There is very little info on the Interwebs about the Ally. Prolly cuz it's new and that's typical but I love being able to find out all kinds of stuff on the Eris. Maybe that's cuz it has a lot of issues and the Ally doesn't? Who knows, just seems like the Ally is the red-headed step-child in the Android world right now.


As you can prolly tell, I'm a little torn between the two devices. If I knew that there was a smaller device coming out in the near future I would return the Ally in a heartbeat and use the Eris for a few more months. It appears that all the newer devices are moving toward a bigger profile which just isn't good for me. The Shadow coming out will either have a 4.1 or 4.3 screen which means it'll be bigger than both the Droid and the Inc!! Good for some but not for me. So, with that in mind I'm still trying to decide whether or not to keep the Ally. I'm only a couple days in so I'll use it for awhile longer and see if I get used to it.

Sorry this is long but hopefully it will help someone else. I'm kindof a phone nerd but my needs/wants are different than most other phone nerds.

 

[RadYOacTiVe]

Gink,

Nice comparison to the Eris, I'm thinking of picking this up to replace my wife's Eris but her's is not rooted. She hates the dial lag as well but puts up with it. She doesn't hate it enough to try my Moto Droid tho!

I'm still going to try to pick one of these up to try, I've always been a fan of LG phones.

 

[Gink]

Gink,

Nice comparison to the Eris, I'm thinking of picking this up to replace my wife's Eris but her's is not rooted. She hates the dial lag as well but puts up with it. She doesn't hate it enough to try my Moto Droid tho!

I'm still going to try to pick one of these up to try, I've always been a fan of LG phones.

Post your thoughts here once you have a chance to play around with it!

 

[yellowfrizbee]

Thanks for the info! Videos would be great...I have never been on the fence about a phone like this.

Here it is running Launcher Pro. Sorry I havnt posted the vids yet. I had graduation ceremony this week (graduated from high school) so its been pretty busy for me.

Ill have the vids up pretty soon.

 

[Gink]

Congrats yellowfrizbee!

 

[SerialSarpins]

Here it is running Launcher Pro. Sorry I havnt posted the vids yet. I had graduation ceremony this week (graduated from high school) so its been pretty busy for me.

Ill have the vids up pretty soon.

Oh PLEASE....no need to apologize at all! I think I'll let the phone stuff slide for something as mildly important as that taking up your time! That's very cool! Congratulations!

And thanks for the new pics! Love the layout!

 

[jreed2560]

Gink,

Nice comparison to the Eris, I'm thinking of picking this up to replace my wife's Eris but her's is not rooted. She hates the dial lag as well but puts up with it. She doesn't hate it enough to try my Moto Droid tho!

I'm still going to try to pick one of these up to try, I've always been a fan of LG phones.

quick tip for dialer lag, delete call history and install call log trimmer from the market!

 

[yellowfrizbee]

Thanks Gink! Thanks SerialSarpins!

Oh PLEASE....no need to apologize at all! I think I'll let the phone stuff slide for something as mildly important as that taking up your time! That's very cool! Congratulations!

And thanks for the new pics! Love the layout!

Here is one of the vids as promised.

YouTube - LG Ally with LauncherPro preview


This one shows LauncherPro being used on the Ally. I go through the screens (I have 5), open the app drawer, pull down the curtain, show helicopter view etc. All that good stuff.

(The emulator vid will soon follow. I ran out of space recording.)

 

[SerialSarpins]

Thanks Gink! Thanks SerialSarpins!


Here is one of the vids as promised.

YouTube - LG Ally with LauncherPro preview


This one shows LauncherPro being used on the Ally. I go through the screens (I have 5), open the app drawer, pull down the curtain, show helicopter view etc. All that good stuff.

(The emulator vid will soon follow. I ran out of space recording.)

Very cool...Thanks for the video....it's nice to see someone flipping through stuff quickly like they would when they're actually using the phone in day to day use....too often, in reviews, people slowly tap everything so you can see what they're doing, and you have no idea how the phone is going to respond when your quickly tapping and shuffling between screens...that's a pretty snappy little phone! I laughed when I saw your graduation listed in your calendar...we now have appropriate photographic evidence of your graduation.

 

[flyinjoe13]

Hey, it's 3:40am in that video. Go to bed would ya.

Seriously though, nice video. I've been on the fence a bit about getting this phone, but after seeing that LauncherPro runs on it, I might go ahead and make the purchase. Just don't have the money or need for one of the $200 powerhouse phones so I thought the Ally might be a good alternative. Seems like a nice phone overall, just not a speedy phone.