LG Optimus One P500

Finally, my first Android phone! :D It's the LG Optimus One P500, an entry-level Android phone. After some research over the internet, I picked this one because of its quite superior hardware specification in its price bracket. I got mine from Global Teleshop, Balikpapan for Rp1.999.000.

Definitely not perfect, but I think it's generally a nice phone to experience Android. Here are 3 things I have in mind after having it for a few days.

Battery Life

I've been reading that Android phones drain their batteries pretty quickly. Of course it depends on the usage, but thanks to the 1500 mAh battery packed with the Optimus One, I think I can get up to around 24 hours battery life just by occasionally turning off the data communication when not in use and setting the screen brightness to minimum. This is actually good.

Touchscreen Bug

I guess this was something I overlooked when doing a research on the phone. I can say that it's true Optimus One has a touchscreen bug: it lags when I hold my touch on the screen (observable while playing Angry Birds). :P Some say that it's an Android problem, and not specific to this phone only. However, higher end phones should handle this better compared to the Optimus One. Workarounds for this issue involves flashing a custom ROM or just a custom kernel developed by mik_os on the XDA-Developers forum. Once I finish familiarizing myself with this phone, I might try that.

Dust Problem

It's unfortunate that I just knew this problem after I bought the phone. Users of the Optimus One reported having dust getting in the screen of their phones. ideaguy shares his research results regarding this problem on the TechEnclave forum. Guess that I'll just have to see what happens with mine. :-|

ROM, Firmware and Flashing

I've been interested in the Android operating system, and recently been digging more information about it. One thing I just found out is that Android phones are highly customizable you can even overclock the processor! Suddenly, a lot of technical terms are encountered. I like to know the actual meaning of jargons in order to have a good understanding and be able to use them correctly. There are 3 terms I’d like to discuss here: ROM, firmware and flashing. We find these terms regularly when reading about customizing the Android, and I found myself in a hard time since I didn’t have the exact knowledge of what they mean and how they relate to each other. The information below is extracted from an article on AddictiveTips I found after some googling. I simply rewrite it here in a more concise manner as a summary for quick reference.

OK, let’s start. So Android is the operating system. ROM stands for Read-Only Memory, the internal storage of the device containing the operating system instructions that need not be modified at all during normal operation. That’s why it’s read-only. The read-only operating system is also called a firmware as they stay “firmly” in the ROM without modification access to the users of the device. The ROM used in smartphones and tablets etc. is a kind of flash memory. Installing or modifying the firmware on a device’s protected flash memory (the ROM) requires a special procedure called flashing. There you go! :)

As a note, when it comes to smartphones and tablets, the term ROM is used to refer to the firmware. So now you know precisely what it means to flash your phone with a custom ROM, right? :D