LG Spectrum Specs

I have an LG Spectrum I purchased in June, 2012. Today is my upgrade date, and I cannot wait.

This phone has a few good qualities, but as a whole, it is the worst piece of junk smartphone I have ever owned, bar none. While the large display is nice, from day one, it's slow, sometimes unresponsive, takes forever to "think" when you launch an app, etc. The Bluetooth function has never worked right with my car's built-in Bluetooth (A Kia) OR with a portable Bluetooth. Half the time, it drops the call from bluetooth back to the handset mid-call. Other times, it just won't dial, then around the time I give up and forget about it, several minutes later, it just decides to make the call.

It restarts itself constantly. Every app I have will just randomly crash in the middle.

Recently, it has started losing it's signal. At first, it's fine (well, as "fine" as it ever was). Then, the 3G or 4G signal is replaced with a "regular" signal, only it also won't make calls - it just says "dialing" and hangs. If I simply reboot, it sticks on the "4G" startup screen. About the only way I've gotten it to work, temporarily, is to pull the battery, wait at least 30 minutes, and reinsert.

I even did a factory reset, and the piece of garbage is still doing this! NOBODY seems to have an answer as to why it does this, or how to fix it.

I've uttered the phrase "piece of s*** phone!" more times in a week while owning this phone than the entire time I've owned any other Android phone.

After work today, I can finally say "Good Riddance" to this piece of junk.

I'm never motivated to bother leaving feedback or reviews - I don't benefit from it, so why go through the trouble? But this phone really deserves a review.

First things first - I got a brand new LG Spectrum in September 2012. I formely owned the LG Ally, a QWERTY slider, and I'm a lover of QWERTY sliders. I made the switch because QWERTY sliders just aren't getting the hardware it needs to be useful these days. During my winter break, I was playing two otome games from GREE (not ashamed to admit it!), when suddenly, it shut down. I couldn't get it to boot, and neither could my Verizon guys. So that was a disappointment. I had heard that GREE apps can do that to your phone, but I still don't know what the cause was.

I got a refurbished LG Spectrum as a replacement at no cost to me (make sure you return your defective product in a timely fashion to avoid cost!). I was pretty annoyed about that, because I don't want a phone that someone's essentially used (I'm a bit spoiled). But this phone has done wonders. I have a cheap plastic (no silicone) case for it because I am too parsimonious to buy a decent case (I didn't even buy one for my Ally), but somehow, though I drop it on an almost daily basis, it has still not scratched a bit. My phone case always comes off when I drop it, too. I just dropped it from my desk and it sounded pretty bad. I was pretty sure this was the last straw. But I picked it up, and not a scratch still. I don't know, maybe this is magic. My Ally got pretty beat up over time.

Battery life is pretty good. My Ally lasted over two days, and my current Spectrum now lasts over a day. It used to last longer, but, of course, I have done some bad things to kill the overall battery life. I still charge it every night to make sure I start the day with a full charge. Also, please note, aside from constant fb and texting usage, I am a pretty hardcore Bejeweled Blitz and Candy Crush Saga player. In CCS I just finished episode 13, ~184 levels, that's how hardcore. I play them nonstop, so you can imagine my phone is sucking up a lot of power in a day.

On another note, I rarely turn off my phone - which isn't a good thing, because your phone's cache would have to be pretty huge for it to run well while on for 72+ hours straight. Yet, it still runs pretty well for me. No lag in my Bejeweled or my CCS :P The only issue I had was that my LG keyboard (touch) was lagging, but that's to be expected if you leave your phone on for 2 weeks straight. Also, after comparing with a 5th gen iPod touch, I have to admit that the iPod is faster than my Spectrum. But, it's plenty enough speed for me.

Sluggish and slow, cannot wait to dump it but have to wait until Feb or pay full retail for a new smartphone. I read multiple reviews before purchasing last May and should have paid more attention to the reviewer who stated the screen was not very responsive, often requiring two attempts to achieve input.