Virgin Mobile HTC One V $49 at Radio Shack

[Jim]

http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...ame=Prepaid+carrier&filterValue=Virgin+Mobile

Think I'll nab a coupla of these for gifts. I got one on Cyber Monday and still have not activated, makes an awesome ipod type device after you install Poweramp or your favorite music player (although Google Music is good enough).

I hear Radio shack comes on strong trying to make you activate it in store. Not sure why they would insist on this a couple days before Xmas gifting. Ad claims valid until 12/29, they won't last long at this price.

[edit] Doesnt come with a micro sd card, and it is a cdma phone so hacking to work on other providers is out unless they use cdma.

 

[wirednuts]

holy crap that is a hot deal. 1ghz, 512mb ram, wifi n, 720 camera and a nice size screen!

that is a steal. i think i might go try to get one! thanks! ebay they go for $85 at least. if one was ambitious enough they could make a little money there.

 

[SunnyD]

Don't forget to use your favorite cashback sites. I think FW is 6%.

 

[wirednuts]

not too worried about that. $3 isnt going to hurt me. i just wanted to upgrade my alarm clock, which right now is a sanyo zio that locks up every few days (not good for alarms!)

this moto phone would also make a killer gps device for someone! far better then any garmin!

off to the shack. will come back and try to root and jellybean this thing!

 

[wirednuts]

Got it!

the one girl at radio shack, wow. i mean, she was smokin hot. not the typical kind either, she had no makeup on and wasnt trying to look like anything, she was just naturally gorgeous. made me smile anyway

and the girl who helped me wasnt bad either. im not sure if she liked me or was just trying to push accessories.. i mean thats no joke- i stated right off the bat i just wanted the phone, and that turned into 20 questions. insurance? no. re-up minutes? no. warranty? no. beats audio, so you need headphones. no, i dont. i. just. want. the. phone. its a gift. oh, whos it for? my brother, thanks for asking.

but anyway... im home, $52.46 out the door. nice. i booted the phone accidentally into Hboot! yippe! maybe i should root this before even booting into the os seems like a really nice phone though, much much better then an og droid thats for sure! (og droids go for about $50 these days, so thats what im comparing it too).

edit- no removable battery? that sucks... a lot... but oh well. its just an alarm clock for me

 

[Tdavis5432]

Will this phone force the move to the $35 plan if you are on grandfathered onto the original $25 plan? I just purchased the Optimus Elite but this phone has a bigger screen and is slightly cheaper, if i could keep my $25 plan I would def make the switch... Thanks

 

[wirednuts]

i have no idea. i wanted nothing to do with a plan of any sort. i just bought this as a standalone device for an alarm clock and a gps unit in a pinch.

i am reading up on rooting though, and it appears you can S-off and CID unlock it, so it should work on uscc and verizon too... maybe even sprint. if it works on uscc im gettin one for my brother.

 

[Jim]

Will this phone force the move to the $35 plan if you are on grandfathered onto the original $25 plan?

Yes, it will. I'm sticking with my Optimus V until it dies and using this as a media player and backup phone for when it dies.

 

[wirednuts]

still looking for a good hour to root and flash this thing, but i did install skype and i can confirm it works great on wifi. this is a seriously good deal for $50 local pickup. i am damn tempted to buy another one for my bro (if i can find a way to make it work on uscc i will!)

 

[Jim]

still looking for a good hour to root and flash this thing, but i did install skype and i can confirm it works great on wifi. this is a seriously good deal for $50 local pickup. i am damn tempted to buy another one for my bro (if i can find a way to make it work on uscc i will!)

Never will if ussc is gsm.

Just googled it, they are cdma so there is a possibility.

Check here.

 

[wirednuts]

yep, and as of this summer uscc officially supports their own htc one v. which, in most cases is the same phone just locked to their own network. all i should have to do is root, s-off and cid unlock.

i think im going back to radio shack and getting another one for my bro.. he would love this and for the price its just too hard to ignore. ive been playing with it too, and its way better then i thought it would be. i really thought it would be like the tmo samsung exhibit II- which is a mediocre phone at best. specs are the same, but anyone in the phone world knows paper is paper and real world is different.

this htc one v is way better. much faster response, and the sound really is pretty good. that exhibit II cost 3x the money too! this is simply a hot deal, no other way to see it. oh, and the LED they used for the flash, WOW. blinding. its noticeably brighter then the dual flash on my sensation! very white light too. cant wait to root it and use it as a flashlight.

 

[Jim]

cant wait to root it and use it as a flashlight.

Unrooted here, works great as a flashlight. I use Widgetsoid to start it.

Also, I didn't know unrooted phones let you take screenshots - This one does by pressing POWER + HOME.

With Nova Launcher and the stock ROM I'm actually quite satisfied already. Only thing I really am missing is Wifi hotspot, but I seldom use it (damn handy when you need it though).

The one thing that reminds me that I NEED to root it eventually is the frikin' web page ads. I miss Adaway.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Amazon has matched the price:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0087T1S6G/

Edit: And it looks like it's sold out. This is the second time they've matched this price on this phone so be aware if it goes on sale somewhere again.

 

[D.SKiLL]

from eveything ive read you cant use this on Verizon, even though they are both CDMA, can anyone confirm that you can your you cant use it with verizon?

 

[Jim]

from eveything ive read you cant use this on Verizon, even though they are both CDMA, can anyone confirm that you can your you cant use it with verizon?

You'll get a better answer to that from the xda dev forum link I posted in post #10.

 

[Zap]

I bought one of these on Cyber Monday. Worked fine without activation. I just activated it two days ago, since with Virgin Mobile you lose any unused days/minutes. I was using a Samsung Intercept that was, frankly, a heap of trash. Slow, unresponsive, locks up, can't connect to PC reliably, acts funky at times requiring a reboot, try to do a couple things causes super lag (run navigation, then try running anything else). This phone just tooling around the UI is super responsive in comparison. Web browsing and watching Youtube over WiFi is responsive too, unlike the Intercept.

Yes, have to use a new plan that is more expensive. Nope, no WiFi hotspot by default (VM makes you pay $10/mo more on phones that "support" it to enable feature). No user replaceable battery. Micro SD (not included) is behind a compartment on bottom rear that is a PITA to remove. Hopefully this talks to the PC better.

 

[wirednuts]

i went back and bought a 2nd one as a gift. the same girl was still there 10 hours later. i felt bad for her!

i agree, i might not flash this phone. the stock rom is great! super smooth and battery life is top notch. and since i wont be activating it, i dont need wifi hotspot. the only thing i want is adfreeandroid, but that can be done with just a root.

really, this phone is way better then i expected. its nothing like the samsung exhibit II, which has very similar specs. htc really nailed it on this model!

CAUTION though, the screen is not gorilla glass. it actually scratches fairly easily, because i already have a small gouge in mine at the back button. its in a good spot to not notice it, its not in the screen area, but i am definitely not taking this anywhere before i get a film protector for the screen.

and a TIP, i just found out, since the battery cant be removed, htc says to hold the power button for 10 seconds, the capacitive buttons will flash and the phone will restart. it supposedly does the same thing as a battery pull.

 

[Jim]

CAUTION though, the screen is not gorilla glass.

Several reviews I read of this phone say it is Gorilla glass. I'm sure later revisions could have ditched it for cost purposes, where did you get your info?

[edit] Well, it seems nobody really knows except for HTC and customers who scratched their phone!

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1819730

 

[wirednuts]

Several reviews I read of this phone say it is Gorilla glass. I'm sure later revisions could have ditched it for cost purposes, where did you get your info?

[edit] Well, it seems nobody really knows except for HTC and customers who scratched their phone!

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1819730

two reasons i think mine isnt. 1st, ive seen gorilla glass. it is not mirror smooth. close, but you can see waves in the light. like little orange peel.


2nd, because like you said, mine is scratched already there is no way it would be if it was gg. i didnt even put it in my pocket yet, i dont see how i could have scratches. screen protector already bought, so i just have to be careful for a few days.

 

[SunnyD]

from eveything ive read you cant use this on Verizon, even though they are both CDMA, can anyone confirm that you can your you cant use it with verizon?

You CAN use it on Verizon. Just getting them to activate it will be the hardest part, since it won't show up in their database. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to activate it with PagePlus, which you most definitely CAN do.

 

[wiredspider]

Bought this last month and got it activated on Page Plus the other day. You won't be able to use it on Sprint or Verizon because they have a whitelist of ESNs...

GPS locks fast, I already returned a new GPS I had bought for geocaching and once I get my mount working properly in the car, this will replace my ancient card GPS.

Unfortunately the voice recognition is done by Google so you need data for it to work.

 

[SunnyD]

*sigh*

Verizon does not whitelist ESN's. Sprint does. Verizon doesn't. The only thing Verizon does is blacklist and filter. If Verizon whitelisted their phones, then you wouldn't be able to activate this or any other non-Verizon phone on PagePlus because PagePlus uses Verizon's databases for ESN verification. The only hurdle to getting a "non-recognized" ESN on Verizon is trying to get a CSR to activate it - if it doesn't come up as a "known phone type" in the system, the CSR's usually deny it - not the system.

Yeah, it's effectively whitelisting, but not.

 

[wiredspider]

*sigh*

Verizon does not whitelist ESN's. Sprint does. Verizon doesn't. The only thing Verizon does is blacklist and filter. If Verizon whitelisted their phones, then you wouldn't be able to activate this or any other non-Verizon phone on PagePlus because PagePlus uses Verizon's databases for ESN verification. The only hurdle to getting a "non-recognized" ESN on Verizon is trying to get a CSR to activate it - if it doesn't come up as a "known phone type" in the system, the CSR's usually deny it - not the system.

Yeah, it's effectively whitelisting, but not.

Interesting... So how would one get a CSR to activate this on Verizon? Or if it's just the CSR, could I just do it online? I would try it, but the phone is activated on pageplus at the moment. Got 3 months left on my Verizon contract, rather use this then my other dumb phone.

 

[13Gigatons]

I missed it. I really wanted a 4.0" or 4.3" phone though.

 

[RossMAN]

Can this be flashed to PagePlus?