LG Optimus F3 Black Virgin Mobile

Product description ok but came with a different sim card which does not work up here. I put in Vigin Mobile simcard but was told cellphone doesn't accept Virgin Mobile. I never use it now cause it doesn't accept any sim cards.

I've had this phone about 3 weeks now. It is absolutely amazing for the price. It has tremendous features, that I had not seen in a phone anywhere close to this price range. The most important feature to me is the 4G LTE access. It's now available even out in the country where I live (about 3 miles from a major US highway) in the middle of rural northTexas 60 miles from a major city. It works great and is very fast. The phone has a very sharp 4" screen with brilliant colors. It also includes a fast dual core (or is it quad, I forget) processor. It seems well built, and generally does everything I ask of it (even including phone calls!). Some have criticized the phone because it has relatively less memory than other phones with similar features. That is true, but those other phones will cost 3 or 4 times as much as the LG F3. Also, it seems to have plenty of memory to do what I need. I have apps for keeping up with the news, weather, & stock market, plus some like Wikipedia, Pandora, Youtube, IMDB, office software, some card games and an assortment of others, plus the phone came with quite a few apps preinstalled. Some of the preinstalled apps are quite useful, others not so much. The only games I use are card games, which may help in keeping from exceeding the phone's memory.My previous phone was an LG Optimus Elite, which I was satisfied with, but it pales in comparison to the F3.In summary, the F3 meets all my expectations and exceeds in some. I think the most surprising was the visual quality of the screen, which also is Gorilla glass btw.However, if you want to get something quickly, I would advise you to avoid Amazon's free shipping. It was very slow. But yes, it was free!

It's my first smart phone, and now I don't know why I resisted for so long. I love how I can talk my texts and answer emails by talking. Phone has very limited storage for apps, but I am not an app guy, and it's great for email, texts, pictures, phone calls. I only talk on cell about 300 minutes a month, so the cheaper Virgin plan works for me. I don't hear so well so the volume of voice on phone call seems a little low, but it is ok, and speaker phone is great. I keep phone on, and battery lasts about 4 days, not the 9 day standby advertised, also supposed to be good 16 hours talk time, don't think it would do that, but I don't talk much to say. Virgin says the fact that i text and read emails means its not just in standby and they say battery is ok, although they are sending me a free battery so i can compare if this new one will work the same. I bought it because Sprint is Virgin carrier and they are only lower priced plan company that has a strong signal at my vacation home. ATT is the other carrier there but could not find a cheap service through them. At my city house I knew from the service map I also had 4g, although I am on edge of top service and my workplace 3 miles away has weak 4g but 3g is fine for what I need there, checking emails and texts.

This will be my 4th Android smartphone & 3rd from LG. After 2 years with the LG Optimus V on Virgin Mobile (VM), I get T-Mobile prepaid a try when I found their LG Optimus L9 at a good price earlier this year. Too bad T-Mobile's prepaid plans aren't as good as VM's, neither is their mobile data network in this part of NW Ohio. So after a month of limping along with a serious Android device, I went back to VM with their Samsung Galaxy S II 4G (as in WiMax). The build quality of the Samsung is quite good, but I never got used to holding the thing, it's a little to large for my liking (see my review elsewhere on Amazon). I did get to like the size of the display (very little squinting needed), and the speakerphone in the car was good enough I didn't need my Bluetooth speakerphone (much). And of course, WiMax is doomed, so the 4G on that device was useless. So when I saw that VM was offering the LG Optimus F3 with 4G LTE, I got one, although Sprint doesn't have much 4G in OH yet.My first impression of the hardware was favorable: I like the physical Home button, and the build quality is acceptable (I don't think it's as cheap as other reviewers). The size is about right for me, especially the thickness (same as the Samsung).Other reviewers' complaints/concerns about the internal memory (1.2 GB) are unfounded, in my opinion. I installed all the apps I was using on the Samsung, and still have 600+ MB remaining (that's way more than the ancient Optimus V had to begin with). Worried about space for music, ringtones, photos, etc. ? Get a fast microSD card and put those things there. And VM/LG didn't add too much bloat to the phone; at least they give ways to remove much of it.Swapping from the Samsung to the LG was smooth enough, though VM's instructions could be a little clearer (how often do they think the average VM customer swaps their phones, anyway?).The 4.0in, 800x480 display is small compared to the 4.7in display on the Samsung, but the resolution is the same, so we're not missing anything (it's just smaller). For this resolution, the 4.0in screen is just fine. Screen brightness in outdoor ambient light is OK, too. I like the Screen Brightness control in the Notification bar Quick Settings: tap for low, half, full, & a custom setting - who needs more than that ?This phone comes with Android 4.1.2 without too much LG modification. I like that LG didn't mess with the stock Call Reject feature; Samsung either hid or disabled it, so a 3rd party app was needed to have the phone reject calls from a black list, also on 4.1.2.Connectivity is decent enough on 3G & good on WiFi - I get a 19Mbps connection from my home office on the 3rd floor of our late 20s frame house with the router in the basement. And while 4G LTE continues to roll-out (none in NW Ohio yet), throughput is impressive when I can find a 4G signal in SE Michigan (around Detroit Metro Airport) - 350kbps vs 17,000kbps. The GPS receiver seems to perform well, too (look out Garmin).The 5MP camera is fine for a smartphone camera -- remember, it's (mostly) a phone, not a camera. It's very fast, and has decent resolution.The speakerphone is on the anemic side, so unless you're driving an Audi S8 with an active sound isolation system, best to pair the F3 with a Bluetooth device. And while I'm on the topic, voice calls to both land-line & mobile phones sound fine (on both ends).And I shouldn't forget to mention the battery life with the stock 2,460 mAh battery -- it is astounding. The Samsung Galaxy S II needed to be charged constantly as soon as any data connectivity was involved (WiFi or G3). As other reviewers have suggested, I fully expect that the F3 could go days between charges if one only used the phone or SMS text messages. But what would be the point of that ?I don't mind that the phone doesn't have a mobile WiFi Hotspot. For as little use as that would get, I don't plan on paying extra for that, anyway.Bottom line: the LG Optimus F3 is a great 4G value if you can take advantage of it.

PROS:-Great 4G reception (when available); 3G is actually usable, thanks to the efficient dual core processor. Fast WiFi performance.-Solid graphics performance with the Adreno 305. It performs well with 1080p videos (despite 800x480 res, esp. on WiFi), and 3D games.-Well controlled audio from the headphone jack, suitable for playing high quality FLAC files @ 24bit/96-128k (great for an inexpensive phone).-Heat is not much of an issue with this phone, unless you root and use an overclock kernel (more on that later).-Physical home button with color changing LED that changes based on notifications.-Front facing camera for selfies (a.k.a. self portraits :) ).-1080p HD video.-2,460 mA battery for all day use.-Can use micro SD cards larger than 32 GB. Simply format the file system as FAT32, and your phone can have tons more storage than the typical phone that has no room for memory expansion. Note the 4 GB size limit for files on FAT32 partitions.-Some apps can be removed or disabled, which can free up memory and speed up the phone a bit more.-Along with many other current LG devices running on JellyBean, it is set to update to KitKat in the next few months!-Active community on androidforums.com that can help you out if you want to take the leap and root your F3 for added functionality.CONS:-Short on memory; only 1.2 GB available out of the box.-Rooting required to expand memory.-Extra case needed for protection, as F3's backside is slippery.-Some large apps may not run on the phone, even with the capable CPU and GPU on board.-Gorilla Glass is great for light falls, but a bunch of videos on YouTube show that they aren't indestructible. Unless your device has version 3, which probably isn't on the F3.-Screen protector and extra outer case still required for max protection.I bought this phone to replace a Kyocera Event. While that phone still works relatively well, it had begun to look slow to me, even when doing some basic tasks like reading web pages and e-mails. I've had that one for about six months, but if it's combined with the Kyocera Rise I boot looped, that's about 1 1/2 years on the same basic hardware. The Rise has the tiny rubberized keyboard, which was kind of sticky to work with.The first thing I noticed from the Event was that the layout of the side buttons are identical, along with the headphone jack. The one difference was the micro USB port. It's at the bottom, under three keys for back, home and menu. Having a physical home key, with a colorful LED to frame it, is a nice touch for this phone.The body itself is a slim design, with a metallic frame outlining the screen. The textured back is pretty to look at, but doesn't have much grip to it. As great as the design is, all of that takes a back seat once it's got a case on it.At first, I ran the phone without activating it. This gave me an idea on how well it connects to WiFi, and allowed me to evaluate the audio and video quality. Coming from an Event, I was pleased with the speed of the interface. I didn't experience any lag, and the games I ran on it were as fast as I'd ever seen on a budget phone. I was glad to see that at least some apps could be disabled (if not removed).Though I knew I'd eventually root the phone, I could see myself being satisfied decently even if I didn't. The fact that I could effectively use a card larger than 32 GB was awesome to behold. A great thing, as it's not too expensive to get a 64 GB card these days. The Transcend Class 10 I chose was $35 at B&H Photo in New York City (plus a few bucks for one day USPS Priority Mail).Once activated, a few of the Virgin Mobile apps downloaded onto my phone. Thankfully, only three apps were loaded. Two of them can be disabled, so you can avoid having them run in the background.About four days into running the phone unrooted (and two weeks of research on rooting), I finally did the deed. I rooted the phone, divided the external SD card to expand the small bit of internal memory, and used a couple of linking apps to also help with expanding memory. I loaded a bunch of apps I was using with my Kyocera Event onto the phone. Based on a short list that I found on vmroms.com, I removed a few apps from the phone. I now have something that really does feel like a tiny PC with a phone attached to it. All for around $130! It's not exactly a Samsung S3 or S4, but whatever. I'm still not sure I'll use the overclock kernel that one user created on androidforums (for now). No serious problems have been reported with using it. The overclock kernel raises the speed of both the main CPU, and the graphics processor beyond stock speeds.I can say I would recommend this phone for anyone that wants a powerhouse on a small budget, if you don't mind the rooting process. I've rooted every Android device I've owned since 2011 (four in total), but only after at least a few weeks of asking questions, researching the issues, and making up my own mind about it.Even if you don't root it, you can still do well with this phone. There are several good alternatives to the official apps of most social sites that won't take your RAM out for a late, fattening dinner. If you don't care for large, possibly addictive games, you'll do fine. Anyway, if you don't root, I'd bet you can enjoy this phone for the amount of video and music that can be stored on it. The dual core CPU and fast graphics are just fine for entertaining. Plus, now you can video chat with your pals on Skype... a lot can be done without rooting. Not to mention the upcoming update to KitKat! I'd say that alone is worth getting this phone now.If you made it this far, awesome! I'm done for now. Will update if I come across any issues.UPDATE, Nov. 13, 2014: I NO LONGER OWN THIS PHONE! My F3 overheated badly a few weeks ago. I tried to correct the problem by removing CPU hungry apps like facebook and twitter. I also attempted to simply let the phone cool by turning it off for long periods. None of it worked for me. I may have had a bad unit, so... I guess I'd still recommend this phone (with reservations) to anyone interested in getting a low cost unit for Virgin Mobile USA that can be rooted. I've also updated my rating... I still have an older LG Optimus V, and a Kyocera Event. Neither of those phones have failed like the F3. I've moved on to the LG Tribute, which is truly a bang-for-the-buck device IMHO.