LG Optimus Elite for Virgin Mobile - $129.99 shipped (plus tax) plus free $25 Google Wallet Credit

Thanks OP. Went to local BB today to pick up my k400 keyboard. I decided to check if there were any Elites in stock.. Usually there aren't any of the optimus models there.
I managed to grab the last one.
My OV has been a pretty good phone, but it developed some weird charging circuit problem.

My wife will eventually get this, I plan on getting an Evo.

Quote from jbonez21 : Same here, I checked on the BB website and it's in-stock and ready for me to pickup today should I pull the trigger. If they don't ship it by tomorrow I will cancel and pick it up at BB tomorrow night. If that happens I'm never stepping foot into a Radioshack or ordering online from them again.

item finally shipped from the shack via fed ex. estimated delivery of may 24. saves me a trip to best buy.

I like the fact that both radioshck and best buy have 30 day price protection because I expect this phone to drop in price as soon as the 4g phones come out on may 31.

Quote from rbs123 : item finally shipped from the shack via fed ex. estimated delivery of may 24. saves me a trip to best buy. I like the fact that both radioshck and best buy have 30 day price protection because I expect this phone to drop in price as soon as the 4g phones come out on may 31.

wow lucky you, mine still says processing, did you order it and pay extra for 2 day shipping?

i ordered it at a local best buy in case my radioshack phone doesn't ship, i need the phone by the end of this weekend

Quote from jbonez21 : wow lucky you, mine still says processing, did you order it and pay extra for 2 day shipping? i ordered it at a local best buy in case my radioshack phone doesn't ship, i need the phone by the end of this weekend

ordered regular free-ship way. For some reason, free shoprunner 2-day shipping was not available on the phone. in any event, a one week time between order and receipt is terrible compared to Amazon.

hope you get yours shipped today.

Quote from rbs123 : ordered regular free-ship way. For some reason, free shoprunner 2-day shipping was not available on the phone. in any event, a one week time between order and receipt is terrible compared to Amazon. hope you get yours shipped today.

Yeah I really find it unacceptable, I ordered the phone at 3:30pm Thursday afternoon and here it is Tuesday with no update on the order and the item hasn't shipped.

I ordered an item on Amazon yesterday which shipped within 30 minutes. Even Best Butt had the phone ready for pickup within 30 minutes....

Glad everything went well for you though

Quote from rbs123 : ordered regular free-ship way. For some reason, free shoprunner 2-day shipping was not available on the phone. in any event, a one week time between order and receipt is terrible compared to Amazon. hope you get yours shipped today.

Just called and spoke to Keisha, she told me that Radioshack may take up to 3 business days to ship any online orders, LOL - and this is why they're going out of business

So is it confirmed that Virgin Mobile will allow you to switch to the Optimus Elite with the grandfathered plan as long as you activate the service on the phone before May 27th? I believe what Virgin Mobile meant was that if you switch to a phone released after May 1st, they will switch your service automatically on May 27th, therefore making the Optimus Elite ineligible for the grandfathered plan regardless of activation dates...

I need to call Virgin Mobile tomorrow to confirm but it's a huge risk to put that plan on the line for a slightly faster phone. It'd be a better idea to keep the Optimus V and root it on CM7. I just picked up the Elite today at BestBuy and it does seem to be sleeker, however, the screen size really isn't that much different nor is it that much faster. At least we can run the hotspot on the Optimus V without bricking the phone unlike the Optimus Elite. Plus, the Optimus V tends to be able to handle an overclock to 864mhz which comes close enough. With the Optimus Elite, people have reported that their signal strength slightly dropped in comparison to the V as well as a lower top brightness level.

The Optimus V barely has any memory though. I can't fit very many apps on the internal storage at all, even with everything that can be stored on an SD stored on the SD. To me that is the biggest upgrade.

Have you rooted your Optimus V to CM7? I found that after rooting the OV, I was able to move every app to the sd card. Before rooting, most of these apps are locked on the phone's internal storage. Texting lag was reduced significantly as they are sent out with at most a 1-2 second lag compared to a 7+ second lag prior to rooting.

Quote from NE0tekk : It'd be a better idea to keep the Optimus V and root it on CM7. I just picked up the Elite today at BestBuy and it does seem to be sleeker, however, the screen size really isn't that much different nor is it that much faster. At least we can run the hotspot on the Optimus V without bricking the phone unlike the Optimus Elite. Plus, the Optimus V tends to be able to handle an overclock to 864mhz which comes close enough. With the Optimus Elite, people have reported that their signal strength slightly dropped in comparison to the V as well as a lower top brightness level.

I am pretty much with you on that. Wifi Hotspot is a huge feature to have for free - worth at least $15 a month.

I don't know what to do with the Elite that is arriving today. The only thing really worth switching for is the HTC Evo V 3D, and even that is debatable, because of lack of hotspot feature. But I do live in a 4G area, and would enjoy the bigger screen and better app support, as well as the 3D. Also I can tell the audio quality of the video recorded is much higher quality. The Optimus V is pretty dismal in that regard.

My hunch is that the Elite will never have free hotspot. Why would VM allow people to bypass the $15/mo that they now charge for that feature with the new phones?

And having said that, I have almost never used the hotspot, because I don't travel. I could therefore rationalize the HTC, if I can opt to have the hotspot turned on for a trip, for $15, and then turn it off the next month. Then I might switch from the Optimus V. Does anyone know if this is possible?

One thought I have is to active the Elite and sell it as a grandfathered phone, and then just start new with the HTC. Or should I sell the Elite unopened and Sell the Optimus V as a grandfatherd phone, and then Start new with the HTC? Or switch the Optimus V to my daughters phone, replacing her Intercept and then have the OV for hotspot if we go on a trip, and get the HTC?

My month just ended and a I topped up the $25 as usual while still on the V. Two days later I upgraded to the Elite by swapping phones. My billing stayed the same after the swap. My account shows $25 due next month, as it usually does. No extra charges anywhere. Swap went smoothly. Looks like all is well there. So it appears I have been grandfathered in with the Elite.

The Elite is lighter and not as thick as the V. I like it better already although it feels more fragile. One thing I like about the V are the 4 physical launch buttons. These are touchscreen-only on the Elite, and pressing them does not power up the phone like on the V. Another gripe about the Elite is the mobile ID launch buttons. I wish I could find a way to remove it and replace it with Notifications. It looks like this Mobile ID garbage is the brain-child of Sprint.

Hopefully one day some geeks out there will figure out a way for the hotspot to work on the Elite. If not, no big deal to me as the 3g where I am is so lame that setting it up as a hot spot is basically hit and miss. I have tried the hotspot other places as well and it performs very inconsistently in my experiences.

My question is now that I have the Elite working on my account, can I swap the Elite phone with the V back and forth at will? I thought I heard something about a change in the swap terms too. I know before I could swap phones every day if I wanted. That was nice when I wanted to take a cheap phone on the boat or to the beach. Is this still possible? If so I will keep the V as my "beach phone" and the Elite as my everyday phone.

anyone want to sell their grandfathered plan?

Quote from toneii : One thought I have is to active the Elite and sell it as a grandfathered phone, and then just start new with the HTC. Or should I sell the Elite unopened and Sell the Optimus V as a grandfatherd phone, and then Start new with the HTC? Or switch the Optimus V to my daughters phone, replacing her Intercept and then have the OV for hotspot if we go on a trip, and get the HTC?

I'd say if you were to sell the grandfathered plan, you should switch to T-mobile's $30 4g service instead. Their line up of phones goes beyond what Virgin Mobile will ever offer, plus their service is MUCH faster. That's my plan anyways once I use up the rest of my Virgin Mobile prepaid cards that I purchased with 12% off from BestBuy last year.

Quote from xtrabad : My month just ended and a I topped up the $25 as usual while still on the V. Two days later I upgraded to the Elite by swapping phones. My billing stayed the same after the swap. My account shows $25 due next month, as it usually does. No extra charges anywhere. Swap went smoothly. Looks like all is well there. So it appears I have been grandfathered in with the Elite. ... My question is now that I have the Elite working on my account, can I swap the Elite phone with the V back and forth at will? I thought I heard something about a change in the swap terms too. I know before I could swap phones every day if I wanted. That was nice when I wanted to take a cheap phone on the boat or to the beach. Is this still possible? If so I will keep the V as my "beach phone" and the Elite as my everyday phone.

Please be careful with switching over to the Elite. I have a feeling most people are in for a rude awakening. Virgin Mobile is likely to switch your plans on May 27th since the Optimus Elite technically came out after May 1st. I believe activation dates are therefore irrelevant. Plus, you won't be able to swap back to the Elite down the road once you switch over to the V again. I purchased the Elite thinking it was capable of handling the grandfathered plan but realized most of these Virgin Mobile customer service reps tend to give different answers. The Elite doesn't seem like a big enough upgrade to risk losing the grandfathered plan over...

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how do you "sell" a grandfathered plan? Do you sell the phone and the phone number goes with it?