Exchange new cell phone or keep?

[modern_muslimah]

Last Sunday, I went to my T-Mobile store and upgraded my phone. I had previously used a Comet and currently have the LG Optimus L9. Now, I really like my current phone. It's a lot faster than my previous phone, the call quality is great, the camera is pretty good, the video camera is surprisingly good considering the price, and most importantly, it works the way it's suppose to. The only issue is lack of internal storage. It only has 1GB and a good chunk of it is taken up by T-Mobile's bloatware that I will never use. Yesterday, I went to move some of my apps to my 32GB sd card. However, I saw that this was not an option. I was surprised because this was an option on my old Comet. My Comet ran Android Gingerbread. My LG Optimus runs a modified version of Ice Cream Sandwich. I still have time to exchange, so I'm wondering if I should. I'm thinking that maybe I should exchange and shell out a little extra money for the Samsung Galaxy SIII or at the very least, a phone with more memory. Still, besides the small amount of internal storage, I do like this phone.

[Nell411]

The bigger LG phones have an unpleasant habit of not working properly after about a year. I have the SIII and I really like it. The camera is really good quality, as is the call quality. And you can expand the storage with the microSD card. So even if you do fill the memory you can more than double it with the card. I can't for the life of me remember which OS it runs though. And I have that phone. The only real problem is the battery life. If you use it a lot it dies pretty quickly. If I'm using it a lot I find I have to charge it once a day. When I'm not using it a lot I can go every two or three days. You can buy battery cases as well or just buy an external battery. Mophie makes really good ones.

[Tesla]

The S3 has Jellybean.

[Quintuple]

Are you sure you have an LG Optimus L9? It has 4GB internal, with an SD slot that takes up to 32GB.

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/Phones/...=LG-Optimus-L9

If you paid $80 and are looking for a similar-ish price, running Android, I'd say get the Samsung Galaxy SIII 16GB at $99. It's going to be relevant and upgradable (OS wise) for a while. Everything else on T-Mobile won't, contract phone wise. Unless you want the Nexus 4, but that's more expensive.

[Karina1974]

The only real problem is the battery life. If you use it a lot it dies pretty quickly. If I'm using it a lot I find I have to charge it once a day. When I'm not using it a lot I can go every two or three days. You can buy battery cases as well or just buy an external battery. Mophie makes really good ones.

Simple solution for that - disable your data connection if you are not specifically using it. Otherwise your phone will waste a lot of battery power simply searching for a data signal. I have the Galaxy S2 phone, & my battery used to be almost completely drained by the end of my workday, and the last thing I do before walking out the door at 7:45 is take the phone off the charger and put it in my purse. Ran a search online for a solution, now my battery is usually still up around 70-80% by the time I leave work at 5:00.

[LilJen]

Gingerbread, ice cream sandwich, jellybean? I guess I need a smartphone!

[modern_muslimah]

Are you sure you have an LG Optimus L9? It has 4GB internal, with an SD slot that takes up to 32GB.

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/Phones/...=LG-Optimus-L9

I keep reading that on different sites too but when I check my phone it says that I have a total of 1.8GB of storage on the phone with 666MB available. My main issue is that I can't move my apps to the SD card. This wouldn't be an issue if I were still allowed to do that but since the apps all stay on the internal storage, I'm going to run out of space soon.

If you paid $80 and are looking for a similar-ish price, running Android, I'd say get the Samsung Galaxy SIII 16GB at $99. It's going to be relevant and upgradable (OS wise) for a while. Everything else on T-Mobile won't, contract phone wise. Unless you want the Nexus 4, but that's more expensive.

I'm considering this. Especially since it's only $20.00 more.

Gingerbread, ice cream sandwich, jellybean? I guess I need a smartphone!

The Android code names always give me a chuckle.

[Quintuple]

Ah, okay. That's exactly the issue. You have 4GB total internal memory, but most of it is committed to apps, and the 1.8 storage left is either committed to more apps or imported contacts, settings, photos, etc. And yes, all the major carriers have bloatware that, depending on how it's set up in the phone, cannot be moved, deleted, or even disabled. It's not like a regular file system. If you do want to stay with the same phone and really wanna get rid of those unused apps, you can flash a ROM to disable certain apps, or root to get to stock Android, but this voids the warranty and can brick the phone if you don't know what you're doing. Try looking your phone model up on a blog like AndroidPolice to see if there's an easy solution. If it's very technical, it's a bigger risk.

[Nell411]

Simple solution for that - disable your data connection if you are not specifically using it. Otherwise your phone will waste a lot of battery power simply searching for a data signal. I have the Galaxy S2 phone, & my battery used to be almost completely drained by the end of my workday, and the last thing I do before walking out the door at 7:45 is take the phone off the charger and put it in my purse. Ran a search online for a solution, now my battery is usually still up around 70-80% by the time I leave work at 5:00.

Oh I do. But even texting a lot can kill the battery quickly. It's best to disable data when you aren't using it anyways. Considering so many apps update in the background when you aren't using them it can cost extra if you aren't monitoring data. I try to connect to WiFi if I need to, just to save data. I had to go with a Telus phone (I'm in Canada,) and the Telus data plans suck.

[Karina1974]

It's best to disable data when you aren't using it anyways. Considering so many apps update in the background when you aren't using them it can cost extra if you aren't monitoring data.

I'm on Sprint, so I have unlimited data. That makes it nice for when I want to abuse Stitcher Radio or Pandora. :-)

[modern_muslimah]

Thanks for the advice. I decided to switch to the Samsung Galaxy SII. It was $50.00 less than the SIII and the specs were similar. Plus, it has plenty of internal storage and allows me to put apps on the SD card.

[Karina1974]

Thanks for the advice. I decided to switch to the Samsung Galaxy SII. It was $50.00 less than the SIII and the specs were similar. Plus, it has plenty of internal storage and allows me to put apps on the SD card.

I love my S2. Especially the huge screen. If you download the Zedge app you can get a ton of free wallpapers to use for lock- and home-screen.

I recommend getting a case for it, the Ballistic 2-piece case, with the rubber jacket and the plastic snap-on back. I dropped my phone once, before I got a case for it, and now it has a tiny crack in the screen, 'way up in the corner, which is covered by the wrap-around edge of the rubber case jacket. The case edge is raised so, assuming you don't drop your phone on the corner of something, will keep your phone from touching the floor or whatever surface it lands on if it lands face-down.

[milanessa]

Gingerbread, ice cream sandwich, jellybean? I guess I need a smartphone!

And a napkin.