Related
After much deliberation I finally returned my DNA today, but not for the reasons many of you might suspect. I have unlimited data, and I'm a power user and run off pure 4g all day. I didnt care about the sd card since I rely on google music/netflix/youtube/PlayOn for all my entertainment. Coming from the thunderbolt the DNA's battery life was a breath of fresh air. I would keep the DNA mounted in a tablet stand next to my desk all day running at full bright, surfing constantly. During lunch I'd watch a solid hour of netflix. I stream slacker to and from work. I always keep gps/bluetooth on and have multiple sync services running such as gmail, twitter, etc. By the time I get home my phone usually has 25% life, and thats without any charging. This is a huge win for me since the thunderbolt requires constant charging.
However the problems for me were the lack of kickstand (i dont like cellphone cases and keep mine naked at all times), and the lack of car docking ability. I kept forgetting to bring my tablet stand with me during lunch and I'd have to watch movies with the damn thing flat on the table. Without Qi car docks I have to stick my phone in the cupholder, where I can only see about half of the screen and have to let it bounce and bang around while I drive.
Finally there was the lack of openness. Verizon really boned us on the locked bootloader, and it seems like all the rooting material out there has about a 50% chance of bricking your device, not a risk I'm willing to take. So I fired my TB back up and felt right at home. Ad-blocking, wifi tether, customized quick settings, and a safe s-off method. I was at home again. The DNA was a great phone, but it wasnt enough of a TB killer to warrant the upgrade. The TB is still fine in my books and I plan to get some more good life out of it. I must say I got REALLY addicted to using the LG wireless charging pad, so I decided to buy a couple of OEM thunderbolt docks for my home/office desks so that I can quickly dock/undock in a similar fashion to the LG pad. Plus my phone will now charge in kickstand mode
......waiting for SGS4 now hehehe..
50% Chance? I'm wondering where in the world you came up with that info. Seems to me you are just uncomfortable with what is involved to unlock. And that's the reason you returned it.
Or we could go with the car/cup holder theory and docking..... but that's more of a simple fix......
If you know how to use adb and the sdk-tools, which you should if you plan to do any kind of modding, then you should have no problem unlocking the bootloader. That's the only concern that might have been worth returning it for. Otherwise its a great phone.
Understandable. U need to enjoy what u purchased. U don't like it, u return it. I wouldn't keep something I don't like either. I did the same thing with the Droid Eris and got the Google Nexus instead.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda app-developers app
If you skim through the unlocking threads there are numerous complaints about people bricking their devices. I dont know what their experience levels are, but this is far above the norm for any new device. Seems to me the dev's released their tools a little too prematurely. I'm sure it will get better in time, to the point of a one-click which is what everyone always wants. But I paid full retail for this device, and there's no way I was risking a brick because my computer hiccup'd during an adb push or because I hit a wrong button and rebooted twice or some other cardinal sin and be completely screwed. I'm all for flashing the hell out of my phones so long as there's a failsafe. But bricking? I dont think so. Like I said, it just needs time to mature.
The car dock stuff is very true however. I hate ugly gaudy clunky looking universal mounts, with their 3 or more brackets required to grip the phone. Plus the dna has that difficult to remove rubber cover on the port that I'm sure will fall off from repeated use. In the morning before going to work I dont have time to manhandle a car mount. I want to just pop the phone in and go, like I could with my TB mount. But with no sign of Qi car chargers on the horizon, and the actual written specs for the designs only released in october, it could be quite some time before we see them, if at all. I'm sure there's like 0 demand for Qi car chargers at the moment so it's a tough sell to bring to market.
I probably wont be looking at any phones at all for a very long time, even the SGS4 that I hinted at, because I'm sure they'll all suffer the same shortcomings. No OEM docks and no Qi car chargers.
RunNgun42 said:
If you skim through the unlocking threads there are numerous complaints about people bricking their devices. I dont know what their experience levels are, but this is far above the norm for any new device. Seems to me the dev's released their tools a little too prematurely. I'm sure it will get better in time, to the point of a one-click which is what everyone always wants. But I paid full retail for this device, and there's no way I was risking a brick because my computer hiccup'd during an adb push or because I hit a wrong button and rebooted twice or some other cardinal sin and be completely screwed. I'm all for flashing the hell out of my phones so long as there's a failsafe. But bricking? I dont think so. Like I said, it just needs time to mature.
The car dock stuff is very true however. I hate ugly gaudy clunky looking universal mounts, with their 3 or more brackets required to grip the phone. Plus the dna has that difficult to remove rubber cover on the port that I'm sure will fall off from repeated use. In the morning before going to work I dont have time to manhandle a car mount. I want to just pop the phone in and go, like I could with my TB mount. But with no sign of Qi car chargers on the horizon, and the actual written specs for the designs only released in october, it could be quite some time before we see them, if at all. I'm sure there's like 0 demand for Qi car chargers at the moment so it's a tough sell to bring to market.
I probably wont be looking at any phones at all for a very long time, even the SGS4 that I hinted at, because I'm sure they'll all suffer the same shortcomings. No OEM docks and no Qi car chargers.
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Click to collapse
I'm in no way trying to change your mind, as I just came from a Rezound with a dock at work, at home, and car mount/dock and I definitely enjoyed them.
However in the wireless charging thread in the accessories section, there was a post by a iBOLT guy stating that they were working on a Qi car mount/dock. Just a heads up. :thumbup:
Here's a link to his post:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=34620722
Sent from my HTC Droid DNA
I'm sorry, I can't help myself, but the DNA isn't a TB killer? Are you kidding?
LOL, EVERY high-end phone that has come out since the TB was a TB killer.
(....my $.02 and, of course YMMV)
rfarrah said:
I'm sorry, I can't help myself, but the DNA isn't a TB killer? Are you kidding?
LOL, EVERY high-end phone that has come out since the TB was a TB killer.
(....my $.02 and, of course YMMV)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely agree with the OP. I had a TB (with extended battery), and I preferred using it over the S3, MAXX HD, and DNA. None of those phones were worthy of an upgrade to the TB, IMO.
geoff5093 said:
I completely agree with the OP. I had a TB (with extended battery), and I preferred using it over the S3, MAXX HD, and DNA. None of those phones were worthy of an upgrade to the TB, IMO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uh... Why are you still here then?
Idk why these threads are made but hey why not okay the not worth the upgrade from the tb made me laugh so hard my gf hit me cause I woke her .. gpu ,cpu screen reactiveness I mean it blows most phones away wait no all phones next to the nexus 4 in most areas DNA was better or ties even rendering a much higher resolution . Unless you wait for the s4 by your standard why get a glass on glass device u need to handle with kid gloves .... But the rooting method isn't there a one click now , s off I'm sure will come but if u absolutely need to flash now u can get the 8 gig no expadable mem or wait the 6-8 weeks in the play store for the 16 gig :banghead:
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda premium
Bye!
RunNgun42 said:
After much deliberation I finally returned my DNA today, but not for the reasons many of you might suspect. I have unlimited data, and I'm a power user and run off pure 4g all day. I didnt care about the sd card since I rely on google music/netflix/youtube/PlayOn for all my entertainment. Coming from the thunderbolt the DNA's battery life was a breath of fresh air. I would keep the DNA mounted in a tablet stand next to my desk all day running at full bright, surfing constantly. During lunch I'd watch a solid hour of netflix. I stream slacker to and from work. I always keep gps/bluetooth on and have multiple sync services running such as gmail, twitter, etc. By the time I get home my phone usually has 25% life, and thats without any charging. This is a huge win for me since the thunderbolt requires constant charging.
However the problems for me were the lack of kickstand (i dont like cellphone cases and keep mine naked at all times), and the lack of car docking ability. I kept forgetting to bring my tablet stand with me during lunch and I'd have to watch movies with the damn thing flat on the table. Without Qi car docks I have to stick my phone in the cupholder, where I can only see about half of the screen and have to let it bounce and bang around while I drive.
Finally there was the lack of openness. Verizon really boned us on the locked bootloader, and it seems like all the rooting material out there has about a 50% chance of bricking your device, not a risk I'm willing to take. So I fired my TB back up and felt right at home. Ad-blocking, wifi tether, customized quick settings, and a safe s-off method. I was at home again. The DNA was a great phone, but it wasnt enough of a TB killer to warrant the upgrade. The TB is still fine in my books and I plan to get some more good life out of it. I must say I got REALLY addicted to using the LG wireless charging pad, so I decided to buy a couple of OEM thunderbolt docks for my home/office desks so that I can quickly dock/undock in a similar fashion to the LG pad. Plus my phone will now charge in kickstand mode
......waiting for SGS4 now hehehe..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're gonna do what you're gonna do, and it's important to be happy with your device. But seriously, these are really stupid reasons for returning a device. Lack of a kickstand? Seriously? Prop it up against a book like everyone else does. Or get a case with a kickstand. Or use a cassette tape box. Or just hold it up yourself. There are many exceedingly easy solutions to this problem that don't make you look like the laziest person on the planet. Car docks are coming; you can't expect a brand new device only offered on one carrier to have a plethora of third-party support right out of the gate.
There is most certainly not a 50% chance of bricking your device. There's an 100% chance of bricking it if you do something stupid. If you follow directions, your risk is very slim. And again, the device has been out for less than a month. Stop being so damn impatient and let the devs work. The fact that we already have some roms trickling out is quite impressive in my book. They'll have a foolproof method out before you know it.
Honestly, after seeing thread after thread about how "awful" the battery supposedly is and how the lack of an SD slot is "inexcusable" (despite the fact that Google and Apple have omitted this for years now), this thread is sort of refreshing - it's nice having new, even less legitimate complaints to pick apart.
anti09 said:
You're gonna do what you're gonna do, and it's important to be happy with your device. But seriously, these are really stupid reasons for returning a device. Lack of a kickstand? Seriously? Prop it up against a book like everyone else does. Or get a case with a kickstand. Or use a cassette tape box. Or just hold it up yourself. There are many exceedingly easy solutions to this problem that don't make you look like the laziest person on the planet. Car docks are coming; you can't expect a brand new device only offered on one carrier to have a plethora of third-party support right out of the gate.
There is most certainly not a 50% chance of bricking your device. There's an 100% chance of bricking it if you do something stupid. If you follow directions, your risk is very slim. And again, the device has been out for less than a month. Stop being so damn impatient and let the devs work. The fact that we already have some roms trickling out is quite impressive in my book. They'll have a foolproof method out before you know it.
Honestly, after seeing thread after thread about how "awful" the battery supposedly is and how the lack of an SD slot is "inexcusable" (despite the fact that Google and Apple have omitted this for years now), this thread is sort of refreshing - it's nice having new, even less legitimate complaints to pick apart.
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Click to collapse
angry much? Much rather have someone return a device that doesn't make them happy, than to sit on here everyday and complain about a device's perceived shortcomings.
And my wife still rocks the Tbolt and has no problems with it. It works for her (at least until spring when its upgrade time).
RunNgun42 said:
After much deliberation I finally returned my DNA today, but not for the reasons many of you might suspect. I have unlimited data, and I'm a power user and run off pure 4g all day. I didnt care about the sd card since I rely on google music/netflix/youtube/PlayOn for all my entertainment. Coming from the thunderbolt the DNA's battery life was a breath of fresh air. I would keep the DNA mounted in a tablet stand next to my desk all day running at full bright, surfing constantly. During lunch I'd watch a solid hour of netflix. I stream slacker to and from work. I always keep gps/bluetooth on and have multiple sync services running such as gmail, twitter, etc. By the time I get home my phone usually has 25% life, and thats without any charging. This is a huge win for me since the thunderbolt requires constant charging.
However the problems for me were the lack of kickstand (i dont like cellphone cases and keep mine naked at all times), and the lack of car docking ability. I kept forgetting to bring my tablet stand with me during lunch and I'd have to watch movies with the damn thing flat on the table. Without Qi car docks I have to stick my phone in the cupholder, where I can only see about half of the screen and have to let it bounce and bang around while I drive.
Finally there was the lack of openness. Verizon really boned us on the locked bootloader, and it seems like all the rooting material out there has about a 50% chance of bricking your device, not a risk I'm willing to take. So I fired my TB back up and felt right at home. Ad-blocking, wifi tether, customized quick settings, and a safe s-off method. I was at home again. The DNA was a great phone, but it wasnt enough of a TB killer to warrant the upgrade. The TB is still fine in my books and I plan to get some more good life out of it. I must say I got REALLY addicted to using the LG wireless charging pad, so I decided to buy a couple of OEM thunderbolt docks for my home/office desks so that I can quickly dock/undock in a similar fashion to the LG pad. Plus my phone will now charge in kickstand mode
......waiting for SGS4 now hehehe..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While everyone is entitled to their opinions I have to disagree. I came from a Thunderbolt as well. While I do miss the kickstand, the Thunderbolt is a single core battery hog that has no official support beyond Gingerbread. The Liquid ICS was great but had a lot of bugs that will never get fixed. Data drops, garbled text, blank webpages... I couldn't ever go back from this quad-core Jelly Bean beast.
I'll agree that the difficulty of getting s-off on this phone is a major bummer right now, but I can live with it. Rooting it isn't really risky or that difficult. In fact, it's easier to root the DNA that it was my Thunderbolt what I first did it. I'm confident the great devs on here will crack it in time.
Threads like these make me wish one click root/unlocks were never released. Having to actually understand what you are doing will weed out the real power users from the ones who think they need to root because they can't live in a locked down environment.
I don't know why we are all trying to point out things that the OP listed as flawed, it's his $$ and his decision.
drumz0rz said:
While everyone is entitled to their opinions I have to disagree. I came from a Thunderbolt as well. While I do miss the kickstand, the Thunderbolt is a single core battery hog that has no official support beyond Gingerbread. The Liquid ICS was great but had a lot of bugs that will never get fixed. Data drops, garbled text, blank webpages... I couldn't ever go back from this quad-core Jelly Bean beast.
I'll agree that the difficulty of getting s-off on this phone is a major bummer right now, but I can live with it. Rooting it isn't really risky or that difficult. In fact, it's easier to root the DNA that it was my Thunderbolt what I first did it. I'm confident the great devs on here will crack it in time.
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Click to collapse
I too came from the Thunderbolt and your right the DNA is a OMG upgrade. And yes I miss the kickstand.
The OP can return his/her phone for whatever reasons he or she deems reasonable. I hope your next phone is the phone of your dreams. Would I return my DNA for the same reasons? Not a chance in heaven or hades. My old phone was a Samsung Captivate on AT&T. My new DNA takes my old Captivate in the back beats it up beyond all repair. The DNA is a MAJOR upgrade. Its not a prefect phone, but man is it awesome.
this thread is about as useless as my nipples
RunNgun42 said:
If you skim through the unlocking threads there are numerous complaints about people bricking their devices. I dont know what their experience levels are, but this is far above the norm for any new device. Seems to me the dev's released their tools a little too prematurely. I'm sure it will get better in time, to the point of a one-click which is what everyone always wants. But I paid full retail for this device, and there's no way I was risking a brick because my computer hiccup'd during an adb push or because I hit a wrong button and rebooted twice or some other cardinal sin and be completely screwed. I'm all for flashing the hell out of my phones so long as there's a failsafe. But bricking? I dont think so. Like I said, it just needs time to mature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This part is not opion, and I think you're wayyy off the mark. If you think the DNA has more bricked device threads, you are very confused my friend. My S3 has full unlock capability, yet has many many many many many more brick threads than you guys do. Every device I have owned had more than the DNA.
All devices will have multitudes of brick threads, and many many more. People are lazy, want one-clicks, don't wanna understand what they're doing, and brick their devices. Its a fact of nature. Not "far from the norm" at all.
Its his personal opinion jeez, let him breath. We all spend money for retarded reasons on newer phones so we can break them in a sense. If the guy is specific on where hos money is being thrown he has every bit of entitlement to do so. Is the post necessary? No but if everyone had an issue with it they should just not post and bring it back to the top. If you have something to add then do so respectfully. Were all grown ups here, c'mon guys.
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda premium
I just picked one of these up yesterday, the LG Tribute, the Sprint version which is model LS660P (same hardware with the Virgin Mobile version). It's a Snapdragon 400 SoC quad core powered smartphone - it's basically a mix of features between a 1st gen Moto G LTE (the SoC) and the Moto E (removable battery and microSD slot) - it's a CDMA/LTE device only so it's more akin to the Sprint/Boost/Cricket versions of the Moto G I suppose - it does have a SIM card slot but since there's no GSM radio I suppose that's a dead end. It has Sprint LTE support for LTE bands 25, 26, and 41 - it's Spark-enabled as well.
So far in using it I've been extremely pleased with the performance overall considering it's $39.99 right now at many retailers like Fry's and Best Buy (retail is $79.99).
The biggest downside is the 800x480 display resolution but honestly I could care less these days. I just owned an LG G2 and loved it but I had to sell it to cover some bills, and when I saw the Tribute specs and that low price I figured it couldn't hurt to mess around with it a bit.
But in terms of getting it up and running, the first time I powered it up I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this on the Apps screen:
Just that, and nothing else - this thing has zero Sprint bloatware on it, absolutely nothing, and nothing from LG either. Yes it just has 4GB of internal storage leaving about 1.45GB for the user but it's got the microSD slot for storage. I've done all the requisite Google stock apps updates and installed all the apps I've purchased and the free ones I regularly use and I still have 435MB left so I'm good to go. Put my 32GB microSD card in it with 6GB of Opus-encoded audio files, a couple of movies and TV shows, and so far it's been fantastic.
Current battery is showing 37% left from a 100% charge, 12 hours and 3 minutes on, 5 hours and 14 minutes of screen on time so far (and still going because I'm watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier on it and there's 1 hour and 45 mins left in the movie), Wi-Fi has been on the entire time (it's in Airplane mode, however), screen brightness using MX Player is set at 12 (of 15), volume at 15. I use Google Hangouts with Google Voice to make "phone calls" using Wi-Fi so it's in Airplane mode most of the time when I'm at home.
I expect to hit the 7 hours of SOT and this is the first full charge on the device so, consider me a very happy camper.
I know requests have been put into place for Stumproot support so a root could be possible on this device, and I know that LG has posted the 4.4.2 ROM and kernel source code (I grabbed that last night). So here's my question:
Is there anyone out there that might be interested in attempting to develop any recovery for this (assuming we get root at some point), and then perhaps developing some custom ROM for it - seems like it should be a relatively easy thing considering a) we have the full ROM and kernel source even though it's just 4.4.2 at the moment (I would guess LG has no intentions of boosting this to 5.0 so that'll most likely never happen) and b) it's so close to the architecture of the CMDA/LTE version of the Moto G LTE that some kind of port might be possible towards Lollipop if and when that happens...?
Long sentence, sorry about that, I get wordy at times.
But I just figured I'd ask if there's any interest at all. Yes, it's weak on the resolution, yes, it's not a powerhouse device, yes, it's fairly cheap but it's functional and could be an awesome little smartphone with a little "help" thrown its way like a potential for a custom kernel as well to get the quad core and the governor a bit more under control.
I fully suspect this device is easily capable of 7 hours of SOT with such "upgrades" if anyone is interested. I lack the technical know-how and skills to get buried in ROM development much less kernels, so I figured I would toss the question out considering it shares so much common with the Moto G LTE variant + the Moto E's microSD slot potential.
Just curious... any responses are welcome and appreciated, thanks.
Update:
It's even better than I'd hoped...
Almost 8 hours of screen on time - that was a full movie (2 hours 15 minutes long and I let it play the entire thing, first frame to final), 4 TV shows (about 42-45 minutes long each), music playback for almost 1 hour, a few Wi-Fi phone calls using Google Hangouts/Voice, and some web surfing using the stock browser.
$40... absolutely amazing.
I'm just concerned about the amount of CPU time the Android OS shows there - it apparently used as much battery as the screen being on for 7 hours and 38 minutes did so there's something amiss hiding inside. Will be using Wakelock Detector to see if I can detect anything I can disable on the next go considering this was the first full 100% charge and battery test. Just for the record, the Keep Awake time listed on the Android OS battery usage page is 11 hours so it's not idle, there's something going on in there that's using the battery, now I just have to find out what it is. The CPU total time was 4 hours 17 minutes for Android OS.
I'm pretty satisfied, now I wonder what this thing could really be capable of in terms of battery life with a proper custom kernel and ROM. I wonder...
I've been waiting for something to pop up for this phone. I've had it for 2 weeks now. Its great. I agree the battery life is awesome on this thing.
I have the VM version and would be willing to test if someone came up with something.
sigh
Coming from an iPhone so I'm totally new to the android platform but the storage in this thing is severely lacking. I got a micro sd for it, but barely can even get any apps to download due to lack of space. I'm assuming something like this would be helped by a root. It's driving me bananas and making me yearn for my Apple days
Tribute
I also just switched to a Tribute, with KitKat. Was incredibly pissed off to find that Android had crippled the external SD's role. I mean, WTF guys? So now I am on a mission. Every day I scour the interwebs looking for hope that someone has figured out a root exploit for this. I would even settle for being able to flash a custom ROM like Cyanogen. Just so long as I can get PodKicker to save 'casts to the friggin SD card. Is that too much to ask? Anyway, nothing i have attempted so far has worked at all.
Oh, and you got lucky with the no bloatware thing. I got mine through Boost Mobile, and they clotted this damned thing chock full of B.S. To the point that OUT OF THE BOX I couldn't install apps from Playstore without uninstalling previous updates to all the big Google apps. And without Root, I can't get rid of this BoostZone ****e.
I have my doubts as to whether or not this device will get any support here at all at this point (yes I know it's just been a day or so since I made this thread). I didn't even know about the LG L90 till earlier today and when I checked out the specs I realized that it's a better device overall than the Tribute, of course the price reflects the differences as well (larger higher resolution screen, just qHD 960x540 but still it's larger at 4.7" also), with NFC support (I actually make use of that myself), the removable battery/microSD slot, and it's got support here with its own subforum now with a lot of activity (well, a lot for it I suppose) and it even has an IR port for QuickRemote too which is pretty awesome: my Wife is deaf so anytime we go someplace like a Doctor's office or hospital with TVs on, if the captions aren't enabled I turn 'em on with the smartphone. Used to do that with my Galaxy S4 Active in the past, nice to see LG and some other companies are hopping on the "remote control" bandwagon now too.
There's root available and also a bootloader unlock apparently, source code is out and there's work being done so... I wish I had known that before yesterday basically. Fry's, where I got this Tribute, won't do a return on it because I opened the box (and obviously I've done more since I got it too) so that's a wash I suppose. It's still a damned fine little device for $40.
The L90 is "on sale" through T-Mobile's website for $100 with a coupon code right now, I would have grabbed that if I had known about it and the development in progress. Guess I'll have to keep my eyes out next time, might find one used on craigslist soon so we'll see what happens.
I'll keep the Tribute, of course, and keep hoping for a root at some point. I did ask in the Stumproot thread for someone to take a look at it and see what might be possible so, let's keep our fingers crossed.
As for the bloat, I had someone at HowardForums tell me if I activate the phone with Sprint (which I haven't done) that'll install all the Sprint bloatware so, fat chance of that happening I guess. I'll keep it as is and hope for the best.
Anyone working on this? I tried stump, and there are a ton of requests, but no one has said a word about it.
Thanks!
Still hoping but no progress has been reported. It's common knowledge these days that root on newer devices is going to continue to get more and more difficult with the potential that someday we're just not going to be able to do it on most anything. The low price of this one and lack of the high end specs makes most devs (at least in my opinion) not even give a crap about it so, if someone does and we benefit from it, that's awesome.
If nothing happens, it wasn't a complete waste, it's a fine little device with decent processing power and damned great battery life as noted so, $40 was nothing I guess.
Still looking
Still looking for root to the LG Tribute and nothing works. Has anyone heard anything new about it???
Just bumping this to revive interest.
sweetbsting said:
Coming from an iPhone so I'm totally new to the android platform but the storage in this thing is severely lacking. I got a micro sd for it, but barely can even get any apps to download due to lack of space. I'm assuming something like this would be helped by a root. It's driving me bananas and making me yearn for my Apple days
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You so realize you bought a low to mid range prepaid phone right?
I realize that but there has been quite a bit of interest in the model on the internets so unless you have something helpful to add, kindly ignore my post. Thanks.
aburn95 said:
You so realize you bought a low to mid range prepaid phone right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do understand that your comment takes away from the actual thread content, right?
Here is more information about the phone for anyone interested in development:
LG LS660 (LG Tribute) Virgin Mobile.
http://www.lg.com/us/cell-phones/lg-LS660-Virgin-Mobile-tribute
Should I buy this phone and wait for a root?
Or are there other similar price and spec phones that are easier to root?
Do some phones never get rooted?
-snip-
br0adband said:
There's root available and also a bootloader unlock apparently, source code is out and there's work being done so... I wish I had known that before yesterday basically. Fry's, where I got this Tribute, won't do a return on it because I opened the box (and obviously I've done more since I got it too) so that's a wash I suppose. It's still a damned fine little device for $40.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you inform us where you found root & bootloader unlock? I've been on Android for years, but am relatively new to the root/mod side of things.
LiquidRabbit said:
Where did you download this? I am pretty curious.
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Click to collapse
I don't own the LG Tribute any longer but the source code was at LG's open source repository for the LS660P (the Sprint variant, but it should be identical to the others I would guess):
https://www.lg.com/global/support/opensource/opensourceList?types=NAME&search=ls660p
emarkp said:
Can you inform us where you found root & bootloader unlock? I've been on Android for years, but am relatively new to the root/mod side of things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly I can't even remember now, I saw some post at one of the other forums (AndroidPolice maybe) that said someone had discovered a working bootloader unlock, I could be wrong in that but honestly I can't recall the specifics at the momemt. As stated, I no longer own a Tribute (nothing at the moment, my sig always reflects what I own at any given time, for the record).
Good luck... it's really a fantastic smartphone for the $40 I paid for it (and Fry's still sells it for that price). I wish there was a GSM model 'cause I'd be all over it in a second flat; can't do much of anything with the CDMA model in terms of getting service here in my area. I won't deal with Sprint for service, and Boost/Virgin Mobile/etc don't have plans that come anywhere near what the $30/month T-Mobile plan does so...
For $35 a month, you get unlimited everything on Virgin Mobile...
For $20, you get 300 minutes and unlimited everything. I stuck with the $20 plan at unlimited everything as I was grandfathered in many, many years ago.
Possible root method?
Hello! I have been using android for a while and just got this phone (LG Tribute, Virgin Mobile). I was researching rooting this, and I found this: youtube.com/watch?v=ZBdrVa_bo5o
It seems to be advertising legit software, etc, but I wonder if this successfully roots the Tribute. On their website (androidphonetransfer_DOTCOM) ,they have a free trial for the software.
I'd like to try it, but I'm not sure if it would mess up my device or not (I'm new to rooting). anyone want to give this a try?
It does not work.
I am also interested. I was looking for a android phone with at least 4.5 inch screen to act as a dedicated gps navigator. LG Tribute fit the bill perfectly. Quad core processor is fast, would be nice to get rid of Sprint activation and clean the device up with a root.
I'm surprised there is not more interest in this phone. The sale price of $40 happens pretty regularly, which IMO is a great deal for this phone.
So far I love it. One of the first things I did was download Google Now launcher, as I was coming from a Nexus 6 and had the Nexus 5 before that, and the Nexus 4 before that. So yeah, I was really used to stock(ish) Android. I can deal with most of the software changes I'm dealt with, it's no big deal to change the way I used to do things. Sometimes I think purist Android users can be over the top, but that's like anything else in life.
It's fast as hell once I turned off animations like I always do. WIFI reception seems average, and so does the network. I love the thinness of it. (remember I came from a Nexus 6 which is wide as %$#@) It feels like it was made for my hand.
I'm obviously not going in order here, but even the unboxing experience was very nice. Very neatly packaged in a slick white box that screamed quality. And they included all of the necessary accessories to have a nice first impression. They included a USB-C to Micro USB converter for those that need it, a plastic screen protector, a clear case, a quick charge wall unit, and an over-the-top sim ejection tool that can be attached to your keychain. Nice. Sometimes it's the little things that really matter, and you can tell a company actually cares about its customers. Anker is one of the best when it comes to customer relations. Keep that in mind when buying cables or chargers.
After watching some of the Youtube reviews of this phone, (after I bought it) I was a little worried if I had made a mistake. After getting it and using it for a while, all of those concerns are negated. It's just fine, and a hell of a deal (I got it for $329 from Newegg). Even me being a long time Rommer and rooter, I don't feel the need to Rom. (that may change) Google Launcher works great, so I'm happy.
There's a bunch of tweaks I have to do yet, but so far it's been nice. I have no issues whatsoever. It's just a good solid phone for what you pay. $329 is actually a good price at this point. And even cheaper if you don't mind gently used. Thumbs up on this phone.
Thank you for your review. In particular I did not realize that in the box there is "an over-the-top sim ejection tool that can be attached to your keychain" until reading your review! . I would miss this practical tool, thinking that it was an useless piece of rubber.
dnlilas said:
Thank you for your review. In particular I did not realize that in the box there is "an over-the-top sim ejection tool that can be attached to your keychain" until reading your review! . I would miss this practical tool, thinking that it was an useless piece of rubber.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was trying to be semi-sarcastic.
I had much the same experience with mine, loving it at first, and also coming from a Nexus 6. I'm planning on selling mine now though as I've been unable to unlock the bootloader to get root and custom recovery. The stock software isn't bad compared to some, but compared to the freedom you have with the Nexus 6, being stuck on stock unrooted kinda sucks.
It's been kind of a pain trying to sell it again not at a significant loss though, so I'm thinking about trying to give it another go and unlock the bootloader. I was running into the problem of not being able to mount the SD Card in recovery to flash the B20 firmare.
It really is a great phone hardware wise. I absolutely love the bright, vibrant screen and the speakers are great. Plus I like the look of the phone overall. If I could just get the software I wanted on it I could live happily ever after, lol.
wolfen69 said:
So far I love it. One of the first things I did was download Google Now launcher, as I was coming from a Nexus 6 and had the Nexus 5 before that, and the Nexus 4 before that. So yeah, I was really used to stock(ish) Android. I can deal with most of the software changes I'm dealt with, it's no big deal to change the way I used to do things. Sometimes I think purist Android users can be over the top, but that's like anything else in life.
It's fast as hell once I turned off animations like I always do. WIFI reception seems average, and so does the network. I love the thinness of it. (remember I came from a Nexus 6 which is wide as %$#@) It feels like it was made for my hand.
I'm obviously not going in order here, but even the unboxing experience was very nice. Very neatly packaged in a slick white box that screamed quality. And they included all of the necessary accessories to have a nice first impression. They included a USB-C to Micro USB converter for those that need it, a plastic screen protector, a clear case, a quick charge wall unit, and an over-the-top sim ejection tool that can be attached to your keychain. Nice. Sometimes it's the little things that really matter, and you can tell a company actually cares about its customers. Anker is one of the best when it comes to customer relations. Keep that in mind when buying cables or chargers.
After watching some of the Youtube reviews of this phone, (after I bought it) I was a little worried if I had made a mistake. After getting it and using it for a while, all of those concerns are negated. It's just fine, and a hell of a deal (I got it for $329 from Newegg). Even me being a long time Rommer and rooter, I don't feel the need to Rom. (that may change) Google Launcher works great, so I'm happy.
There's a bunch of tweaks I have to do yet, but so far it's been nice. I have no issues whatsoever. It's just a good solid phone for what you pay. $329 is actually a good price at this point. And even cheaper if you don't mind gently used. Thumbs up on this phone.
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Click to collapse
Good to go on the write up here. I went with a used one via Swappa, waiting for it to come in and I checked around with some XDA knowledge before hand. And they said it was a good device. I look forward to getting, although these days I dont have much time in "mod'ing / flashing" but I also had a N6P, which sold that via Swappa.
Thanks again for your thoughts here. :good:
Prozart said:
I was running into the problem of not being able to mount the SD Card in recovery to flash the B20 firmare.
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Click to collapse
Sorry for totally off-topic, but I have no idea what you mean with flashing the B20 firmware. If it's the same process as the A2017G just using axon7tool (axon7toolkit might do it too, and probably easier) works. After you have TWRP you can spam the SD card option under Mount and it'll mount itself eventually. Or use the USB cable via MTP on TWRP. but again, what B20 firmware?
I don't know if I'll be able to help you, I just read most guides for the A2017G. Try axon7toolkit since it supposedly works for all 3 versions and can unlock your BL.
And the review, I honestly don't know what kind of mind control ZTE uses on the stock ROM, but I'm constantly going back to it after trying other ROMs. It works nicely if you don't count the things they break on every update, but hey, it gives a little of thrill to the whole situation (Will they fix Google Play? Will they even bother to fix exFAT? What about mobile data?)
What about the SIM tool? It is pretty awesome xd
Exfat is fixed in the new update b04 now u can use SD card upto 256gb.
I get it; time moves forward and people adopt new devices. But some of us hang on as long as we can, or "inherit" old great devices for a variety of reasons.
Is there nobody left here to help z3V owners? Just say as much if that's the case. Hell, even be humane about it and shut down the section. Zero hope is a reality that forces people to move on, while wondering just plagues them with indecision that becomes a frustrating waste of time.
The reality of this forum and what it offers me as a consumer is that I simply don't purchase a phone if there's no support here. That's how grand and extensive the XDA community is.
If there's simply no more support for the z3V on XDA, then future problems with them render them obsolete. There's simply nowhere else on Earth to go for such information.
"Knowledge is power."
"With great power comes great responsibility."
AddictedToGlass said:
I get it; time moves forward and people adopt new devices. But some of us hang on as long as we can, or "inherit" old great devices for a variety of reasons.
Is there nobody left here to help z3V owners? Just say as much if that's the case. Hell, even be humane about it and shut down the section. Zero hope is a reality that forces people to move on, while wondering just plagues them with indecision that becomes a frustrating waste of time.
The reality of this forum and what it offers me as a consumer is that I simply don't purchase a phone if there's no support here. That's how grand and extensive the XDA community is.
If there's simply no more support for the z3V on XDA, then future problems with them render them obsolete. There's simply nowhere else on Earth to go for such information.
"Knowledge is power."
"With great power comes great responsibility."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When my Z3v screen went shot... I tried an LG G6? Whatever the current one is. Took it back a week later and bought an unopened Z3v off of Ebay. Nothing has what this phone has from Verizon. Stereo front facing sound. Camera button. IP68 water resistance. Expansion memory slot. If another phone ever had all that... I'd upgrade. Until then I will happily keep my Z3v.
kentompkins said:
When my Z3v screen went shot... I tried an LG G6? Whatever the current one is. Took it back a week later and bought an unopened Z3v off of Ebay. Nothing has what this phone has from Verizon. Stereo front facing sound. Camera button. IP68 water resistance. Expansion memory slot. If another phone ever had all that... I'd upgrade. Until then I will happily keep my Z3v.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the Moto X Pure checks most of those boxes. I still like the Z3V, but since the usb charge port "flap" is failing again, I'm thinking of switching back to my old Moto X 2014. There are not a lot of compelling upgrades out there, I tend to agree. Front facing stereo is a big plus for me, and most of the nice new phones have speakers near the usb charge port...not great.
Still using this and my pixel as o e of my daily devices
I use the z3v exclusively since i got it in 2014. It has enough features for me. Camera is good, the music player is great , i have 128gig card with 32gig internal , So enough storage for anything i ever do. I have rooted it, modified system to dark instead of white, so it doesnt hurt my eyes. Added viper ,dolby, and a few other mods and its been a great phone for me . If it breaks , i will replace it with another z3v off the net .
I still have the Z3v and occasionally use it for light duty work, but a couple months ago I moved on finally to the Note 8. It was literally falling apart with the battery expanding...I had to constantly Force the back glass panel back inside the frame. But I had the phone for 3 full years and never once had to do a factory reset... it never once even lagged.
The Z3v was the best phone that nobody knew about. If i could get another Sony on Verizon I would. But that's just not the case.
Sony z3v Haven
First of all, this phone is stable. The only problems I've ever had with this phone is when I was attempting to Root or upgrade to 5.1.1. I've used this phone rooted & exclusively since 2015 and have yet to find a replacement phone. I am on my 3rd z3v. I have a tendency to drop my phones and I don't like to use cases.
Most the time I have run this phone on T-Mobile from California to Florida & International networks in Mexico, Turkey, & Eastern Europe --it works perfect and once I activated it on the Verizon network and I fell in love :victory: with it all over again; it's like the phone became AliVE again! It's blazing fast on Verizon however Verizon is too expensive and their lack of affordable international options pushed me back to T-Mobile.
REASONS I LOVE THIS PHONE
High Quality Craftsmanship(aluminum&glass)
Dedicated Camera Button
IPX8 Water Resistant
Front Facing Stereo Speakers
QI Wireless Charging (which I almost always use as to avoid opening the flap & for convenience)
SD memory card slot
Beautiful full HD screen (which I never appreciated until forced to use an Apple 6s for my work)
Quality HD Music Player
Superior Auto 20+ MP Camera pictures & 4K Video (the Timeshift Video-High Frame Rate-is stunning!)
ONLY REASONS I AM LOOKING FOR A REPLACEMENT
VoLTE (I want access to T-Mobile's voice over LTE because it only works with Verizon)
Access to more of T-Mobile's 4G network. (Newer faster radios bands for T-Mobile and other companies)
Dual SIM phone.
If I cannot find another phone with these options I will be buying my 4th z3v. The Verizon representative tried to push their latest Motorola on me but I hated the feel. It felt cheap.
AddictedToGlass said:
I get it; time moves forward and people adopt new devices. But some of us hang on as long as we can, or "inherit" old great devices for a variety of reasons.
Is there nobody left here to help z3V owners? Just say as much if that's the case. Hell, even be humane about it and shut down the section. Zero hope is a reality that forces people to move on, while wondering just plagues them with indecision that becomes a frustrating waste of time.
The reality of this forum and what it offers me as a consumer is that I simply don't purchase a phone if there's no support here. That's how grand and extensive the XDA community is.
If there's simply no more support for the z3V on XDA, then future problems with them render them obsolete. There's simply nowhere else on Earth to go for such information.
"Knowledge is power."
"With great power comes great responsibility."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seen support on other sites. It caused me to hard brick my phone. haha
The real issue is that there are posts for the Z3 as well as Custom Roms for it. Sometimes they apply to the Z3V, but nobody comes flat out and says it. I for one am not willing to brick another phone just to perform a test. Of course, I don't think that is possible because the replacement phone I received has a locked bootloader... my old one definitely unlocked. I'm pretty sure it wasn't supposed to though.
looking at phones has come down to a couple brands.
1. Google
2. Motorola
3. OnePlus--
4. Samsung
I don't need the latest and Verizon is my carrier. Being able to root and make it mine is very important, especially when the updates stop. It would be nice to hear from people who own a phone from the above list. thanks.
Im a poor mf, so I dont buy expensive phones or top of the line stuff, my budget doesnt get above 100 USD and thats just if the phone is particularly better than the rest of options under 80 USD, so consider Im tlking about this budget zone.
Samsung is the most reliable one, they simply know what theyre doing, most of them are amoled wich is always nice, and they are fast for their price, dont have too much bloatware (your carrier might add it on his own tho, so be careful of that), all the ones I had could be rooted but none of them had Custom roms, so what you can do with them is very limited, but rooting at least is almost certain.
OnePlus, Ive only ever had two on my hands, they are kinda slow to my taste, I dont like them very much, both of the ones I had had zero options for anything, not even rooting IIRC wich sucks.
Motorola, I remember a time when everyone had a motorola and had them rooted, they loked very similar but where different modelss, I was poorer than I am now back then and I had a phone with buttons at this point, nowadays they seem to have fallen out of fashion but I dont know how they are rn.
Google, havent used them, but Some custom ROMS ae entirely based around the Pixel, so bloatware must be at minimum, Im guessing heyre good.
I would go for Samsung, theyre sturdy, will almost certainly be rootable and probably have custom roms, but I would also recomend xiaomi phones, I have a redmi 9a, and let me tell you, it has lots of custom roms that improve the performance of the phone a lot, and once you unlock bootloader, they become """""easy""""" to unbrick, (if you dont unlock bootloader is almost imposible)
I've had Motos in the past, and liked them, but they have not been as reliable recently. My last company phone was a Z-something, and it started to bow the battery and screen in an awful way, after about 2 years. That's just terrible.
I've had Samsungs in the past, and currently have an S10+. I also don't want to buy the latest, and bought these (two S10+ - one for me, one for my wife) last year. I've been happy with the Sammys. We're also VZ users (via MVNO).
However, the S10+ are the first phones that we have not rooted (Snapdragons are not rootable and updatable). I agree that rooting is one way to make the phone your own, but honestly I have gotten tired of the ROM situation. In the V30, for example, you lose VOLTE, which makes it useless IMO, particularly on VZ. But the problem I had with ROMs was that you had to keep tinkering and stuff to keep things working... and I didn't see much of an "improvement" with the ROMs. I installed Nova Launcher, and get enough customizability from there.
As for debloating, I don't see the point... it's not an obsession I have, and too much of that can break things. IMO, if you leave those apps alone, they don't take up performance, so why bother? Sure, they take up some space on the system partition, but you can't access that anyway, so I don't see the obsession, but to each their own. That said, you can still remove things via ADB very easily, and that's enough for me. In my case, I disabled auto-updates (I can still update manually). I did that because I don't always like newer updates when they break things... for example, I'm still on 11 because I've heard that 12 breaks the ability to record phone calls, which I really want to keep.
Anyway, that's my take - we're very happy with our S10+ phones. We chose the + because we wanted the bigger battery, and we chose the S10 because we wanted to keep the headphone jack (not available after this model). And, it's not an expensive phone these days (we paid like $300). If they last 3 years, that's $100/yr which is a reasonable place for our needs...
I like OnePlus, but I've also read it has Chinese spyware? Idk?
Goodbye LG..
No need to "goodbye" LG... they already said goodbye as they don't make phones anymore.