Why is my phone so slow? LG sucks.

[Shephard]

I didn't know anandtech had a phone forum.

I got an LG Optimus 3d 4G. I got it with a plan like 2 years ago, my plan expires in September this year.

It's my first smartphone and longest lasting since the last few cellphones I had got stolen...

I was really happy with it in the beginning but now It's just awful.

In the beginning it seemed very quick. Apps opened instantaneous, everything felt smooth, videos loaded quick, etc.

Now? Opening an app like text messages it sits there for 2-3 seconds before it opens. I can spam the app button but still have to wait. Not just messages either - pretty much everything 2-5 seconds or more. There are times when I continuously hit the home screen button and it takes 5 seconds to get back there.

I was using Go Launcher for a while but uninstalled hoping that would fix the problem. Nope.

I always kill app's in app manager to make sure nothing is bogging the phone down. Still doesn't help.

I don't even have that many apps on my phone.

I removed all widgets on the screens. It did not help.

What are the other gripes about this phone...

Camera sucks. 5 Megapixel with a flash. You take a normal photo and then look at it on your computer. It's so blurry when at native resolution.

It also has a 3D camera. Total gimmick. Nothing more to say here. Useless feature.

Battery Life is atrocious. I have it plugged in all the time at home because if I don't it will die fast. I use the phone as an alarm and here's an example of how long it lasts...

Fully Charged 100% - Sleep 6 hours - Wake up - 70%. No apps running.

There are times when the 4g network will just die. I don't think it's actually the network because if I restart the phone, it works again. So I think the phone is just messed up.

I am definitely not a smartphone person. I rarely use it. The most useful feature I have found is the GPS. I don't play dumb games on it like angrybirds, I don't twit, or take photos of myself for instagram.

I would like to make it faster again though because I will be using it as a media player when I decide on a micro sd card. Just opening the music app is slow.

 

[jacktesterson]

Well, it is dual core, but to be fair, It's a slow dual core and GPU. The Galaxy Nexus uses the same CPU/GPU combo but both are highly overclocked compared to your phone. That phone came out 1.5 years ago and then people were questioning why it's using the older CPU/GPU combo.

To be fair, The biggest issue is the Rom. LG's roms were slow and there UI sucked before this current Generation. They finally got it right with the Optimus G, as its the fastest skin on the market right now. (But still ICS!!)

There camera's have always been below the competition

LG has always struggled with updates - or been very slow - Take the Optimus G - It's the fastest phone on the market yet it runs Ice Cream Sandwich still.... But I will admit it's a great make of ICS.

There stock Kernels have always sucked with battery life.


I don't know much about the Dev community on this phone (LG also has a bad habit of locking bootloaders). If there is one, I'd highly recommend flashing a Custom Rom and Kernel. You can probably move to AOSP Jelly Bean, and fix most of these lag issues.


I had a LG Optimus LTE (Nitro HD in US) and it had the worst battery life of any smartphone I've ever owned.

My 2 cents - LG has potential - They've shown it with the Nexus 4 and Optimus G build quality - But they need to work on there SOFTWARE and CAMERA to compete.


I'd avoid any LG smartphone right now other than the Nexus 4. Even the Nexus 4 has a crappy camera though.

 

[Red Storm]

LG's first forays into the smartphone world had really poor software. I don't know what their recent phones are like.

 

[holden j caufield]

I really like my nexus 4, only had it a few days but so far it's blazing fast.

 

[bonkers325]

I didn't know anandtech had a phone forum.

I got an LG Optimus 3d 4G. I got it with a plan like 2 years ago, my plan expires in September this year.

It's my first smartphone and longest lasting since the last few cellphones I had got stolen...

I was really happy with it in the beginning but now It's just awful.

In the beginning it seemed very quick. Apps opened instantaneous, everything felt smooth, videos loaded quick, etc.

Now? Opening an app like text messages it sits there for 2-3 seconds before it opens. I can spam the app button but still have to wait. Not just messages either - pretty much everything 2-5 seconds or more. There are times when I continuously hit the home screen button and it takes 5 seconds to get back there.

I was using Go Launcher for a while but uninstalled hoping that would fix the problem. Nope.

I always kill app's in app manager to make sure nothing is bogging the phone down. Still doesn't help.

I don't even have that many apps on my phone.

I removed all widgets on the screens. It did not help.

What are the other gripes about this phone...

Camera sucks. 5 Megapixel with a flash. You take a normal photo and then look at it on your computer. It's so blurry when at native resolution.

It also has a 3D camera. Total gimmick. Nothing more to say here. Useless feature.

Battery Life is atrocious. I have it plugged in all the time at home because if I don't it will die fast. I use the phone as an alarm and here's an example of how long it lasts...

Fully Charged 100% - Sleep 6 hours - Wake up - 70%. No apps running.

There are times when the 4g network will just die. I don't think it's actually the network because if I restart the phone, it works again. So I think the phone is just messed up.

I am definitely not a smartphone person. I rarely use it. The most useful feature I have found is the GPS. I don't play dumb games on it like angrybirds, I don't twit, or take photos of myself for instagram.

I would like to make it faster again though because I will be using it as a media player when I decide on a micro sd card. Just opening the music app is slow.

1. the eMMC will lose read/write efficiency over time due to problems with the flash memory.
2. if you are rooted and on ice cream sandwich, you could potentially use fstrim to restore r/w efficiency. you can download an app called LagFix from the play store, it will trim your filesystem for you.
3. you can just do a factory reset and restore to original conditions. this will only provide a stopgap fix as your phone will eventually bog down again. it's a problem with your on-board flash memory.

 

[jacktesterson]

I really like my nexus 4, only had it a few days but so far it's blazing fast.

But its software is Pure Google with Google optimizing and updating it. (Its LG hardware only)

Any other LG phone is a Google Base with LG's skins and UI on top of it. LG has full control of the software, UI, kernel and updates. There UI was much slower in previous Generation phones compared to the competition.

The Optimus G is fast. They did a great job with the UI on that phone, but a flagship device with a Quad core and Adreno 320 running Ice Cream Sandwich, still? Crazy LG. Samsung is releasing Jelly Bean out of the box on there budget phones in 2013 (See Samsung Galaxy Ace 2)

My point : Avoid LG (other than Nexus 4) until they can turn around these negatives - It's been this way for a while.

 

[Anonemous]

Can you root it and install faster/smoother roms?

 

[Shephard]

I did have it rooted at one point but went back when they released the Gingerbread update... That was like a year ago.

I see what you mean about updates. All the new phones are on Jellybean or Icecream, this phone is still on Gingerbread.

I thought the dual core processor was fast. Good info, so it was one of the first and it sucks.

The UI is stupid which it why I put on Go Launcher on the first place.

The camera is really bad. I thought it was ok in the beginning until I blew up the photos. My fujifilm camera from 2004 is 5 megapixel and looks better. The shutter time is also awful. It takes like 4 seconds to do a photo, any movement and it goes blurry.

Maybe I can sell this when my plan expires? I think I will need an unlock code to get rid of the carrier apps.

So avoid LG. What is good? You only hear about Samsung this Samsung that.

Like I said I am not a smartphone person and don't follow the brands.

What about Motorola or HTC?

Thanks

 

[poofyhairguy]

Actually I would recommend Sony for you. Very hacker friendly and nice hardware.

 

[s44]

Samsung has the best hardware. Some people don't like the plain plastic casing however.

HTC is chasing the Apple crowd -- "premium" hardware "design" above all.

Sony is a step behind on both counts. I like their designs but all the reviews indicate that they're still getting the little things wrong. Moto... we'll see, they're the only player still holding cards this round.

There seem to be a fair number of ROMs for your current phone. I'd play around with JB first. And it really sounds like your NAND needs a trim.

 

[Anonemous]

Samsung has the best hardware. Some people don't like the plain plastic casing however.

HTC is chasing the Apple crowd -- "premium" hardware "design" above all.

Lol the irony is delicious. Guess Samsung wasn't chasing the Apple crowd by copying Apple designs and look where it got them.

 

[Shephard]

So Samsung and HTC are the best for Android. I don't know anything about the Windows phones other than watching a few videos. The OS looks nice though.

I just want a fast phone, with a decent camera, and expandable storage for music.

 

[Fire&Blood]

So Samsung and HTC are the best for Android. I don't know anything about the Windows phones other than watching a few videos. The OS looks nice though.

I just want a fast phone, with a decent camera, and expandable storage for music.

LG is not quite yet on par with Samsung and HTC but they closed most of the gap with latest phones. Maybe their next lineup will compete better. Fastest software updates won't happen with LG, probably Samsung is the fastest with updates at the moment.

With the latest processors hitting shelves very soon, you should wait, if I understood correctly you are stuck with your current phone til September anyway. Give next LG phone a chance but you will likely pick a HTC or Samsung over them.

 

[Yuriman]

I suggest you try here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1076

 

[Kenmitch]

To be fair, The biggest issue is the Rom. LG's roms were slow and there UI sucked before this current Generation. They finally got it right with the Optimus G, as its the fastest skin on the market right now. (But still ICS!!)

AT&T Optimus G is sporting Jelly Bean now....The update was pushed yesterday

 

[Shephard]

so the only real option to make it faster is to root it?

Once my plan expires I will probably sell the phone.

 

[Anonemous]

so the only real option to make it faster is to root it?

Once my plan expires I will probably sell the phone.

Yep, rooting => installing custom rom. It's the same feeling you get when you bought a laptop with all the bloatware and then you just reformat and reinstall windows.

 

[Shephard]

Yep, rooting => installing custom rom. It's the same feeling you get when you bought a laptop with all the bloatware and then you just reformat and reinstall windows.

I rooted before. It was to Cyanogen Mod. The phone still felt fast then so I can't really remember seeing a big difference.

I did it because some apps didn't work and I remember that Skype broke and I couldn't uninstall it.

 

[Yuriman]

Cyanogenmod is awesome and development has come a long way since you last used it, I recommend you try it again. They have nightly Jelly Bean builds for your phone and 4.1.x is highly mature at this point.

 

[Shephard]

Cyanogenmod is awesome and development has come a long way since you last used it, I recommend you try it again. They have nightly Jelly Bean builds for your phone and 4.1.x is highly mature at this point.

Is Cyanogenmod the best choice? I think it sucked a lot of battery life and this phone already has terrible battery life.

What benefits will I get rooting to this?

 

[Yuriman]

Root access allows you to modify system files/settings. Once rooted, you can replace your ROM (operating system) with one that's less bloated such as Cyanogenmod, or optionally just remove all of the junk you don't want from your current installation.

I have found the recent releases of CM10 to be excellent, though I suppose it's possible for there to be some phone-specific issues such as wifi-wakelocks. YMMV, and there may be other groups that make good ROMs, but any ROM you install will be from one of two sources: it's either AOSP-based (uses Cyanogenmod code with some personalizations), or it's a modified version of the stock firmware. Typically AOSP-based ROMs are much smaller and are running a more recent version of Android, but that really doesn't rule out something based on LG's code. My wife uses a Samsung-based ROM on her Galaxy S2 and I use an AOSP-based one, and they're both great, with different strengths and weaknesses.

Root also allows you to use programs such as BetterBatteryStats which will inform you just what exactly is eating up your battery.

Free here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809

 

[Shephard]

are you using an LG Optimus 3D?

Which one exactly should I download?

 

[Yuriman]

Go here: http://www.cyanogenmod.org/devices/lg-optimus-3d

Click on "nightly builds" and download the most recent one. You'll also need to download Google Apps (gapps) and install it at the same time. I recommend you do a bit of reading before you flash, but I'm sure you'll be glad you did.

 

[Shephard]

well I rooted again. No problems there. Made clockwork backup.

Go to install Cyanogen Mod, phone restarts and the screen goes all fuzzy like a TV that has is not set to a channel.

I restarted the phone and now it's stuck at the LG logo and there are blue/teal lines all the cross the screen like artifacts, but it's frozen.

 

[s44]

Did you look up install instructions for your *exact* model #?