[ Galaxy Victory] Sprint version of this phone worth it?

[dishe]

I've been scouring ebay for relatively inexpensive replacements for my 3+ year old LG Marquee, and I came across the Galaxy Victory.

I like the 4" screen size (I'm not into the mammoth superphones like the s4) and the feature set of the Victory seems like a perfect fit. I also like that it isn't so prohibitively expensive that I can't afford to replace it if something happens.

But I'm noticing that the development community for this device is rather small, especially the Sprint version (you virgin mobile peeps are at least getting some love apparently). Then I come across threads like this one http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-victory-4g-lte/809770-goodbye-victory.html where it appears some of the few devs that tinkered with this phone have jumped ship.

This seems like a really great device with a lot of potential, but at the end of the day perhaps it failed to launch? Would it be a silly choice for me to jump in at this point? And if so, I'm wondering if there are any similar devices I'm not aware of?

 

[Naemien]

A number of us are experiencing trouble adjusting in-call volume when using analog audio - it's stuck on full. Our carriers and Samsung aren't doing nearly enough to address the issue. I'd love to run a working Cyanogenmod that doesn't have this symptom.

 

[kwknott]

I had good luck with the Victory. Ran very well for me. I do wish it would have had more development. I switched over to the Desire and I wish I would have stuck with the Victory

 

[dishe]

A number of us are experiencing trouble adjusting in-call volume when using analog audio - it's stuck on full. Our carriers and Samsung aren't doing nearly enough to address the issue. I'd love to run a working Cyanogenmod that doesn't have this symptom.

Is that a problem with any ROM (stock included) or just Cyanogen?

I had good luck with the Victory. Ran very well for me. I do wish it would have had more development. I switched over to the Desire and I wish I would have stuck with the Victory

Interesting. The lack of development is really concerning to me- the Marquee was a terrible phone out of the box, it took the development community to "fix" it and make it usable IMO. I'm also reading something about people complaining with the available storage, however to be honest I think it has the same amount as my Marquee and I've never really had a problem with that.

Part of me is leaning towards the GS3 (or even the GS2) because it has a solid following with most (if not all) of the kinks worked out. The GS3 is about 3x the price on ebay, and I'm not so excited about the giant size of it. The GS2 is more in my budget, but then I'd lose LTE and NFC. The victory seems like a good compromise, but I can't shake the feeling that I'll regret my decision!

 

[Madbat]

The gs2 is a quirky piece of junk. The victory is kind of a mini s3. I've loved it since I've had it. The lack of development is because it doesn't need it. If you root and remove the bloat its a great device. If you want to change something get xposed framework and pick the modules that suit your needs. I've never had any in call volume issues. In my opinion you won't regret it. Unless you're a teenage flash a holic and need to flash ROM after ROM just to show ppl " hey my phone looks different than it did yesterday". This phone isn't missing much, and the few Roms we have pretty much cover it. There are a couple overclock kernels. Well rounded device.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[dishe]

The gs2 is a quirky piece of junk. The victory is kind of a mini s3. I've loved it since I've had it. The lack of development is because it doesn't need it. If you root and remove the bloat its a great device. If you want to change something get xposed framework and pick the modules that suit your needs. I've never had any in call volume issues. In my opinion you won't regret it. Unless you're a teenage flash a holic and need to flash ROM after ROM just to show ppl " hey my phone looks different than it did yesterday". This phone isn't missing much, and the few Roms we have pretty much cover it. There are a couple overclock kernels. Well rounded device.
Just my 2 cents.

LOL- no, I'm not a teenage flash-a-holic (actually I'm a father of 4). But I do like making the most out of my devices and want to get the best bang for my buck. Once everything works perfectly, I tend to leave it alone. But does the sprint version even have any stable debloated roms? The all things root sticky doesn't list any. I've seen threads discussing some WIP that suddenly stop short.

Another thing I'm noticing is that the EVO 4G LTE (which is the Sprint branded ONE X apparently) goes for around $30-40 more than this one used (and still half of what a S3 goes for). Decisions, decisions...

 

[Madbat]

Lmao , ya know, I forgot you said sprint. I'm on virgin. There is sprintorious ROM for sprint. And cyanogen jb 4.1.2 but I think camera doesn't work. I think there is cm 10.2 as well but I'm not sure how complete it is.
Here are some links http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?p=20
http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?p=6145154
http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?p=5894863
http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?p=6145852

 

[dishe]

Lmao , ya know, I forgot you said sprint. I'm on virgin. There is sprintorious ROM for sprint. And cyanogen jb 4.1.2 but I think camera doesn't work. I think there is cm 10.2 as well but I'm not sure how complete it is.

ROFL- that's why I put it in the title!

If you read my first post, you'll see I admit that the Virgin version of this phone gets a lot of love, and if I were on that carrier I'd grab it up. But the Sprint one, from what I'm reading, has slightly different hardware and therefore the software isn't 100% compatible. Since there aren't so many Sprint users on this phone, its taking what is already a small community and dividing it further, to the point that it seems like everything is sort of half-baked. The Virgin stuff coming over sort of works, but not entirely, someone starts to "fix it", then jumps ship to another handset. It feels like something I'm just going to regret getting myself into!

That's why I'm currently leaning in other directions.

 

[dishe]

Update: It appears that I've come around full circle. I tried out some of the flagship devices in a Sprint store (LTE EVO, S3, etc) and just don't see the advantage of giant display phones. I like them pocketable.

That being said, I did see the Optimus F3 and nearly fall in love with it for size and battery life alone, but it turns out that device is really difficult to find outside of paying full retail price ($250). There appear to be only Virgin Mobile versions of it on ebay, with pretty much nothing for the Sprint network there or on Swappa or even Craigslist. So, I've sort of come back to the Victory as the lesser of all evils in my available choices (same size display as the F3, but a bit bulkier and less battery). Just picked one up on ebay, hoping it will arrive next week.

So, that being said, I have some questions:

1) How's the battery life? The rated talk time is lower than any of the other devices I've been looking at. Obviously I'm not going to get close to the 16 hours of talk time from the F3's 2,450mah battery, but with a 2,100mah one of its own, should it really be so far off? Wondering if they just rate it lower to make it a lower tier device (like they governed the CPU from the S3, right?).

2) Speaking of CPU governor, I read some stuff mentioning that. How does that work? A simple Kernel update removes the governer and makes the CPU full speed? Or something like that? I'm not talking about overclocking, just using the CPU for the speed it was originally intended to run- and does this have a noticeable effect on battery?

3) Roms. A good CM rom would have sold me on the device right away, but they all seem to be WIP's with critical functions missing (camera, wifi, etc). Are there any Sprint roms that are stable? Sprintorious sounds interesting, but there is barely one page worth of posts on the subject. Or, is the stock rom good enough to use with a bit of rooting?

4) Whats the story regarding the memory complaints? My current device (LG Marquee) has only 4GB storage. I forget how much is user available at stock (perhaps more because Gingerbread uses less storage?), but I've never really run out of memory for installing apps. Just trying to get a handle on this situation.