Originally on 29C Postpaid.
Marked down again from $199 to $179. Outright cost is about $269.
Online store has stock, and delivery is about $6.
Specs:
Android 2.2 (LG have promised upgrade to Gingerbread)
3.2" TFT capacitive touchscreen, 320 x 480 resolution
600 MHz CPU
512 RAM
1500 mAh battery
free delivery for orders above $100.
Great find.
I think Virgin still do the free unlock once you've recharged with $85 too!
Love the optimus one. Good phone.
Would an Optus sim work in this or does it have to be unlocked?
I think so, usually only locked to the network provider since Virgin uses Optus one. But best to confirm.
If anyone could confirm that would be great - im with TPG = SOUL = OPTUS (= VIRIGIN)
Optus own Virgin (well most of), so although untried and untested personally, I would think that they should be compatible either way. (A post on Whirlpool confirmed this) All other companies, though they may use the Optus or Telstra network would presumably be a different scenario where you would need to get it unlocked.
Sorry mate, not always. Virgin has started to locked the phone down to the sub-network level. I have Virgin phones which only accept Virgin SIM (does not accept Optus SIM).
Just to confirm (I have learnt the hard way) this is locked to Virgin - an optus sim wont work in it.
Ordered Tuesday from DSE online and recieved today - it gives a "Phone is SIM Network Subset Locked" error when using a liveconnected (optus) sim.
Any reccomendations on the cheapest unlocking site?
Update if its of use to anyone.
Just bought an unlock code from this ebay seller: http://myworld.ebay.com/korter_gsm
cost $5.50 AUD recieved it within an hour and its worked great.
You're technically not using an Optus SIM anyway, you're using liveconnected. I imagine they are simply an MVNO and resell Optus services.
Virgin, on the other hand, is a 100% owned subsidiary of Optus.
liveconnected are indeed a MVNO - currently reselling via telcoinabox.
That being said, the cell display on the phone says "OPTUS Mobile" and the SIM card is an optus branded card.
I suspect if it was optus locked the SIM would have worked (given what the above) but it was locked to virgin specifically. If someone else can try an 'official' optus sim, then we will all learn something :)
which lock code did you specifically buy from the ebay seller webbj?
thanks for the tip :D how's the phone working? does it show flash stuff while web browsing?
Yep, this one: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250797…
Just provided the IMIE and advised it was Virgin Mobile Australia in the comments during payment.
Had the code within about 30mins. I was very impressed!
Phone seems to be working really well so far. Bought it for the wife, but she is so far impressed.
Much moreso than the huawei ideos which she used previously (until I managed to brick it when updating it to a custom ROM).
Web browsing seems fine, certainly use-able and the multi-touch is nice (for such a cheap phone).
Overall very happy so far for a sub $200 fully-featured smartphone.
thanks alot for the useful info webbj, could i bother you to check a few flash based website to see if they work? even simple flash based ads such as the ones on ozbargain would be enough. I just want to see if this thing supports flash in browser.
and if anyone can't wait for gingerbread to be released (or they just like having a rooted phone/custom roms), you have this option
Virgin Mobile just discounted the Nokia C3-01 and Huawei IDEOS U8150—$99 each—great prices!
http://www.virginmobile.com.au/shop/ProductChooser/GetProduc…
The Huawei IDEOS is cheap - and very well featured, but the battery is so crap that its not even worth the $99.
It barely lasts a day - even with all data services turned off.
Optimus one is a nice phone…i have one with Virgin Postpaid.
Better than a HTC Legend in speed i think.
My mistake - that's only for purchases over $250 - tried to delete post but don't see option.
If you're going to buy this outright/buy the $80 of credit since you don't want to be with virgin then I'd go with the Nexus S - http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/45426
Reason being that it's a much, much better phone with a year's worth of credit ready to go for roughly the same price if you factor in the cost of credit on this phone.
And be stuck with vodafail?
Haha serious? What do you have against vodafone?
Kinda depends where you are & how reliable you need them to be. In some parts of the country; I'm not talking the bush here either, even larger regional centres are patchy/inconsistent; they can be simply awful! ;)
Nothing much really, I'm actually on them (using prepaid, GSM)
For just calls and texts then there's nothing wrong with them. But with a smart phone you'd probably going to be using data and that's where it sucks, BIG TIME.
I've used 3G data on a phone and a wireless modem on Vodafone and the reception and speed is HORRENDOUS.
I've used Vodafone mobile broadband (USB modem) for the last 12 months in Brisbane (used around 50GB downloads) and have had no major problems. It must depend on where you are in Australia.
Any free unlock?
You can buy an unlock from eBay for around $5-$7.
How does this one compare to Optus Garmin Asus A50? $199 locked to Optus (unlock is available for free after 6 months). LG Optimus One has Android 2.2 so that's a plus. Hardware spec. probably the same (except the Asus A50 comes with car mounting kit, and has more built in memory space).
I don't own the LG Optimus One but when I was considering buying a phone I did heavy research into these things. I have to say, being an owner of the A50, I can't recommend it enough compared to similar cost phones. The GPS is essentially a dedicated one and it's amazing. Battery life, GPU, CPU all awesome. However the 3.15MP camera is kinda dodge but what do you expect from a phone camera, they can't hold a candle to real cameras (image quality and zoom but not speed, it seems to focus amazingly quickly for a phone camera).
However note that this was 6 months ago and now factoring in the credit+unlock cost again. I'd still just go with the Nexus S.
The GPS is great on the A50. It gets a fix within 5 or 10 seconds of launching the GPS navigation, and the user interface is also identical to that of any Garmin GPS.
As a smartphone it seems to do everything quite well, except for gaming. The touchscreen is responsive, as is performance (the phone does require a reboot once every few days).
The downsides however:
Lack of a dedicated 3.5 mm port for earphones.
The battery is only 1150 maH (could do with a little bit more battery life)
Crappy camera
No chance of a 2.2 Froyo update (Garmin ended their partnership with ASUS)
Low GPU performance
If these things bug you, you might want to try the Huawei X5 which is a little costlier, but has none of the above issues. It does not have a car mount kit or a dedicated GPS application though, only Google Nav.
Spot on. I would only buy the A50 if you are looking at HEAVY GPS use and don't want a dedicated unit.
I have to say you're underselling the A50. GPS fix is more like 1-3 seconds. Only condition is that it does seem to need to automatically download a locales.xml file every 1-4 weeks (about 100kb).
Never needed to reboot my phone (for non sim exchange purposes). My phone battery lasts for about 3 days of normal use or 6 hours of continuous gaming. I've yet to experience any lag from any game played yet. I've played angry birds, townsmen and a few GBA games on it.
The only delay I've noticed is that when you leave you phone on standby for a while, then you try to add a widget by long pressing on your "desktop" it takes up to 5 seconds to come up with then shortcut/widget/folder menu. After that everything's pretty much instant.
Not a bad phone for its price, get one for my missus for christmas and hasn't missed a beat!