Your problem isn't the phone. It's that you gave it to an ingrate.
So, they all gave them back? Good grief. BTW, I'm still waiting for the list of apps for a typical user of an entry level Android that exceeds 600MB, making it unusable. I'm using mine and I have maybe 1/3 that on there. I used it for a few weeks without putting anything else on it at all and I was happy with it. I think the problem here is that for some unknown reason the Tmobile load is a lot larger than it needs to be and you're expecting too much out of an entry level Android phone. Seems like buying a $300 PC and then complaining that it won't adequately support the latest high-end games.
I think we're getting closer to the source of the problem. Is that what you think a typical entry level Android user does and expects from an entry level phone?
Good grief. I didn't say an entry level Android phone was usable for someone who wants to load 20 map apps. I said 600MB doesn't seem unusable to me for a *typical entry level Android user*. There is a difference between a $150 phone and a $600 phone.
I'll bet you there are plenty of people out there who are satisfied. If not, you should be able to direct us to some reviewers, say CNET for example, that say a 4GB Android is an unusable piece of junk, because a typical entry level user won't be able to load enough apps.
Apparently not, because you keep claiming the Tmobile phone is unusable right out of the box and that they lied to you. I'd say whether it's unusable and unfit for sale is dependent on what the target market consumer is going to use it for.
My "assumption" is that 600MB would not cut it
It's quite possible that it just wasn't cool enough and the person is an ingrate. But it does show why I prefer to give Ebay gift certificates, iTunes gift certificates, VISA card gift certificates, etc. Then you avoid this kind of problem.
The gifts were to relatives who were being honest with me, which I appreciate and encourage.
In fact, they *thought* I would quickly *fix* the problem, so they had assumed it would be an hour or two turnaround time.
In the case of the LG Optimus F3, the "fix" is that T-Mobile gave us the full value of the phone in trade for me paying the full value for a 16 GB LG Nexus 5 (which has not arrived yet).
In the case of the LG Optimus L9, the "fix" is to root the phone, since T-Mobile won't give me the full value for the phone (even though it's in perfect condition) since it wasn't bought through them directly (even though it's locked and branded by them).
Luckily, the Moto G phones that I had bought for upcoming gifts are coming in handy as borrowed phones.
Meanwhile, I'm doing my homework to learn how to root the otherwise useless LG Optimus L9 to see if I can get some of the missing ROM back:
Danny D. posted Sun, 6 Apr 2014 22:16:30 +0000 (UTC)
Flash internal storage is not ROM. ROM stands for Read Only Memory. It is memory chip where its content is predefined by chip vendor and cannot be changed.
I do fault the reviewers who don't mention the *usable* memory.
Almost all the reviewers didn't recognize the fact you can't easily move apps to the SD card, as described in this wiki:
formatting link
Typing "Review lg optimus l9 p769" into google, I read this CNET review first to see what they said about the memory:
formatting link
Oddly, there isn't a single mention of the word "memory", or GB or gigabyte, etc. This CNET review is a mere shill, more useless than even the phone itself.
Moving on to the next review found by google, we find the phonearena description at:
formatting link
All it talks about is the 4GB "built in storage" and the 32GB "storage expansion" capability, but there is a link to a review:
formatting link
That review ominously (and erroneously) states: "4GB of internal storage. Over half of that is used for the system, but the user can easily increase storage capability with a microSD card"
Of course, we now know that to be a lie, because apps can't be moved to that microSD card. So, the review fails the user. The next so-called "review" is even worse. It's here:
formatting link
And, it says, just as idiotically, about the two LG Optimus L9s: "Both smartphones have same internal memory, 4 GB ... Also, both smartphones support external memory cards up to 32 GB. Both smartphones have enough memory to store data and enough memory to process data. These facilities are available in most of the smartphones"
Notwidthstanding the uselessness of that last sentence, the entire section on memory was not only incomplete, but highly misleading.
Moving on, we find the next review is a "PC Magazine" review:
formatting link
Interestingly, the PC Magazine review was the first to seem to actually *use* the phone, in real life, since they said: "The Optimus L9 has 1.69GB of free internal storage, along with an empty microSD card slot ... My 32 and 64GB SanDisk cards worked fine."
Unfortunately, they never tried to load any apps onto the phone, so, this, the best review, still failed the user. They also didn't explain that half that 1.69GB of available storage was already used up with apps that couldn't be moved or deleted, so, they didn't test what is important.
Phonescoop came much closer, with a byline of:
formatting link
"Great phone ... limited memory" where the user comments admit to the problem: "I have one main concern ...the lack of memory. There is 4GB internal with only 1.8 available to the user. The problem is, LG doesnt allow you to move apps to external memory. Ive only had the phone for a week, and only have 400MB left to add additional apps. And the stock apps I know I wont use (ie Google Books) cant be deleted ..."
So, in summary, most (almost all) of the reviews were simply shills for the phone, and didn't even bother to test the phone properly. Only the users who had been burned noticed.
According to T-Mobile's web site, the LG phones in question (L9 and F3) comes with 4GB of ROM.
Memory
1GB RAM, 4GB ROM
I don't see where they've lied.
The site claims 1GB of memory, not four.
They didn't lie. No claims regarding the usable storage space are listed. What I find of greater interest are the comments from people going back several months. The most common complaint I saw was how they could only load three apps before the one GB was used up. Even if we presume T-Mobile lied on the site, which you've failed to show they did, all the comments would make a reasonably prudent person pause before buying.
trader_4 wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:
You're wasting your time on this guy. He's a troll that is more interested in starting long contentious threads than solving problems or listening to reason. Take a look at his posting history.
I have all the calls documented, with the later ones having a known-to-T-Mobile witness (my wife) and I took down their employee IDs, all very visibly to them.
Only *after* I told them the FCC & FTC complaints, did they ever tell me the truth, which was that the phone is a 600MB phone.
It's all documented in the complaints (although limited to
I readily admit it was stupid of me to buy these phones since they are nearly unusable, out of the box due to the severe lack of storage space for apps.
And, I admit, I would *never* have bought these phones, had I known the truth, they they had only 600MB of ROM that could
*not* be augmented by the 32GB microSD card for app storage.
However, as noted, none of the reviews that I listed prior even *mentioned* this fact inside the review. It's only in the user comments that it comes to light that the sdcard is essentially useless and that the phone is filled to the brim of its memory with non-removable apps.
But I'm not the only one who subsequently found these phones to be almost unusable, due to the misleading advertising, which intimates the sdcard is, somehow, usable, to augment the internal memory for app storage.
All I ask is for T-Mobile to tell the truth; but, I do agree with everyone that, if the truth were told, then nobody would buy these phones except the idiots like me, who fell for the misleading advertising.
The way they spec these things is confusing. I'm not sure what exactly the 4GB of "ROM" means. I would guess that it's actually 4GB of flash memory which is used for storage of everything, ie OS, apps, user data/pics, etc. That is how Danny is interpreting it and I would too. But then they should say Flash, not call it ROM. Similar phones, like mine, are spec'd with "4GB of internal storage". Even that is misleading, because I assume a lot of that is taken up by the OS, the typical included apps that you can't remove, etc.
I agree it could be misleading for some people. They should probably add a note that says something like "4GB is the total physical memory, a substantial portion of which is used by the OS, included apps, etc."
The issue I have is where he's claiming it makes the phone "unusable". Assuming his numbers are correct, that you only have 600MB free for additional apps, it's not unusable, at least not for a typical entry level smartphone buyer. It's not a $600 phone.
And I don't know of any company that does what he wants, which is to state the amount of memory that is free, eg 622MB. That would be a marketing, advertising, nightmare because they would constantly have to track any changes made by LG, Android, Apps, etc. Change anything and the memory total can easily change and you have to update product specs, lit, websites, etc. And then, they could have a case where they got it wrong, eg they say it has 700MB and it turns out it only has 650MB and then you have people pissed off with something that in fact they have a provable case about.
What I find of greater interest are the comments from people
I'd like to know what those apps are. The apps I added are typically
5MB to 20MB. I could put a lot of those in 600MB. All the ones I've added are probably 100 - 200MB total.
Even if
I'm curious what all this software is that Tmobile loads. I have a similar Android, ZTE AWE with 4GB of internal flash. It has Android OS, plus all the Google stuff, eg Chrome, Hangouts, Search, etc. All the apps that came with it, plus what I've installed, it shows as totalling ~650MB and it shows 1.3GB free.
One other beef he has that may very well be very legitimate is why did Google take away the ability to put apps in external storage? They may have some legitimate technical reason for doing that. Or it could be some kind of possible unfair trade practice to force people into buying higher-end phones.
I'd buy it. I just bought a similar phone for $100. That included
4 months of free service with no contract. I've put maybe 100 - 200MB of total apps on it and don't need anything more, at least at the moment. The fact Tmobile and other carriers have plenty of customers buying similar entry level Android phones, says that the above is not even close to true. You expect high-end features out of an entry level phone? You've taken a point that has some merit and gone totally off the rails.
Now "everybody" agrees that nobody would buy these entry level Android phones if they knew they couldn't load them up with more than 600MB of additional apps? Good grief. I'd buy one. I have a 4 month old similar Android and I'm very happy with it. It has twice that in free memory, but even if it only had 600MB left, I'm nowhere near that. What exactly is on those Tmobiles that take up so much more than the load on my phone is a good question.
And once again, despite all the bitching, we've yet to hear the list of apps that one expects to put on an entry level Android that total more than 600MB. I've put about a dozen on mine. Typical size is 5MB - 20MB. The only thing we heard so far was where you put 20 mapping apps on your personal phone, not the phone in question. You think that's a reasonable expectation for an entry level Android phone?
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.