LG p500h Optimus One smartphone, circa 2010, unlocked from Koodo for use on the Bell network, Canada.
Somehow I have an LG p500h smartphone, which was locked to Koodo. As Canadian law has changed, forcing mobile service providers to unlock phones free of charge, I went on Koodo’s Facebook page and requested an unlock code. They gave it to me and I was able to unlock the phone. I put my Bell sim card in and it worked! Yay, I have a 2011 phone, but it works!
My LG Optimus Net P690 is a small 3.2" 500 mb ram smartphone, which runs much better without bloatware, Google Play Store and the Google suite.
Sometimes certain things “outgrow” their welcome. This was true for the Google Play Store. When the Google Play Store automatically updates itself and take up precious internal memory, uncontrollably loading updates is also a waste of bandwidth and battery power, even when you’ve told it many times to stop, you wonder who is in charge of your phone. That answer, is decidedly Google. Yes, Google is in full command of your phone, and for the average non-tech person there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. I’m going to even the score here, for all the tech people out there.
Buy a smartphone, you did, but do you really own it? You use your phone when new, but after a while the phone slows down. Is it the phone or are you just getting irritable and impatient with yourself. Relax and wait a bit, right? Maybe not, because your phone may actually be slowing down. It is at this point, around the 1.5 year mark, that you consider buying a new phone. Has your spanky new phone really degraded that much? Smartphones are at least a couple of hundred dollars, so buying a new one every 1.5 years can get very expensive. But do you really need a new one? Remove the bloatware from your phone first, then decide. Bloatware can account for 1/3d of all apps running on your phone, so removing them can make a significant positive difference to the smooth operation of your phone.
Slowing down was Big Weed’s smartphone, a 2 year old LG Optimus L9 P769, V21D, from Wind Mobile in Canada. Bought for $200CAD unlocked, it only works with Wind, not Bell or Bully Red. Texts were being dropped and were glitchy. The phone obviously had some software issues. Big Weed was very hesitant to touch her phone, lest we damaged it in any way. When we did do something we did soft brick it, so there was valid cause for concern. Anyway it is now rooted, has the ClockWork Mod recovery manager, a T-Mobile V20D rom, and has been debloated. The phone runs better and faster than new.
Old phone I do have. All extra cash goes into the kids, and I scrounge whatever is left for myself. While a new Android phone is ~$200CAD, a neighbour gave me a 3 year old LG P690B smartphone, 2011, 512mb, AKA LG Optimus Net P699, LG Optimus Link P690. It was new, and low powered. I rooted it, installed Clockwork Mod, installed the Cyanogenmod 7.2.0 rom, then reverted back to stock and started deleting off bloatware. Here are some hints and tips.
