LGOptimus F3 Black (Virgin Mobile)

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!

Before I start my review let me list the previous phones I have used for reference:HTC One VLG Optimus EliteLG Optimus VThis phone blows all of them out of the water. I am 58 yrs old so this review is for the older crowd, less about how many apps you can use, more about how intuitive and easy this phone is to use. The well thought out home screen can hold all of your pertinent short cuts. A quick swipe from the top, gives you quick access to, sound, wifi, sync, and quick memo. Email setup is easy, with plenty of settings to increase or limit the number of emails stored on the phone. I sync my contacts with Google, fast and easy. Searching contacts is simplified by tapping one of the alphabet letters running down the screen on the right. No more flicking endlessly to get to contacts starting with "y"Placing and receiving calls is seamless. Battery life is excellent and the "%" of battery life remaining can be displayed next to the battery icon. I talked 5hrs on a Bluetooth head set yesterday and still had 38% remaining. last but not least, the screen is crisp and clear with touch inputs responding exactly as you intend, hard to "fat finger" a text. The voice to text option is the most accurate I have ever used. Words appear almost as fast as I speak. I highly recommend this phone for the "older" crowd, if you are looking for one that you don't need a computer science degree to operate.

A few months ago I upgraded to the LG Optimus F3 from Virgin Mobile's own Kyocera Event. This has proved to be a good decision on my part. It's an entry level phone for sure, but for the asking price (about a third of what you'd pay for the similarly-spec'd Samsung Galaxy S3, as of my writing this) you're unlikely to find a better 4G phone.The F3 boasts a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and 1 GB of RAM, as well as 4G network access. These specs, while not fantastic, have been more than enough to suit my (admittedly modest) needs. You'll be able to switch between various tasks and open widgets on the fly with barely any noticeable lag. The F3 also runs on Android 4.1.2, which includes a great deal of the advancements found in later iterations of the OS. These specs are all well and good, but this brings me to the phone's one major flaw, and the reason I didn't give it five stars: the on-board memory. Supposedly the F3 has 4 GB on on-board memory, but in practice most of that will be irreversibly occupied with pre-installed software before you even open the box. This leaves you with just under a 1.25 GB budget for installing your own desired apps. Note that this does not include apps that are automatically installed, such as the Google Play Apps and various on-board LG software. Normally I'd recommend moving apps to a Micro SD card, but this phone's OS has blocked that for some reason. You will have to budget memory very carefully to be able to fit your desired apps onto this phone; If gaming is a make-or-break aspect for you, I'd recommend skipping the F3 for that reason alone. However, if your needs are relatively minor, then the on-board memory should suffice, albeit barely. But it would have been nice to have a few extra gigs on there. Supposedly there is a workaround for this via rooting your phone, but I have yet to try that, so I can't verify if it actually works.The good news here is that the F3 has great battery life. During times when I've used my phone sparingly, I've been able to go for upwards of two full days without needing to charge it, and I have yet to have it die on me at an inopportune time. Even with heavy use, you're unlikely to run out of juice in the middle of the day. The OS also allows you to set up an automatic battery level at which to put the phone into power-saving mode, so even if your battery does run low you'll be able to stretch its life a bit longer.The F3's physical build is what you'd expect for the price - it feels light without feeling cheap or flimsy, with a grooved back plate that can be a bit tricky to pry off if you need to access the battery or replace the Micro SD card. It boasts a four-inch screen whose resolution, while not amazing, is more than bright and clear enough for navigating through menus, texting, playing the occasional game, and even watching the videos. The speaker on the back is of low quality, but that won't matter if you plug in some headphones or external speakers. Given that the build is so light, I'd recommend buying a case for it, as I don't think I'd trust it not to break if I dropped it on a hard surface. Connectivity will largely depend on where you are geographically, but my experience in that regard has been good; I haven't had any calls dropped thus far, and the call quality has been acceptable. The F3 is also good about switching back and forth between 3G and 4G, depending on where you are.If you're looking for a decent, reliable smartphone on a Virgin Mobile plan, look no further. It doesn't boast the specs of the Samsung Galaxy S line, or the physical build quality of HTC phones, but for the price you'd be hard pressed to find a better, more fully-featured smartphone.