Monday, August 18, 2014

MetroPCS LG L70 - cheap and superb

MetroPCS has been selling the LG L70 for only $49 for quite sometime. What a steal!

  • Unlock costs less than $2, then it can be used on T-Mobile and AT&T etc. I bought the unlock code from UnlockScout (delivered within 3 to 30 minutes), dialed 2945#*323# and only used the SP_LOCK code for the Service Provider Unlock.
  • No LTE, but H+ on both T-Mobile and AT&T. Much better reception compared to Samsung and Pantech. The LG F6 supports LTE for just $20 more, another steal!
  • 4.5" screen is 16:10, far better than 16:9. Its fonts are very bold, extremely easy on eyes (see above photo).
  • Build-in multiple languages: English, Espanol, Francais, Korean, Chinese (Taiwan) and Chinese (simplified, including Pinyin and voice input).
  • Chinese voice input works extremely well, the only voice input I actually love to use.
  • Battery life seems very good and phone stays cool, even when used as a WiFi hotspot and/or streaming/recording Internet radio. Never had a phone this cool (cold).
  • When play music, beautiful warm sound.
  • I use Tetherfy for WiFi hotspot, very good speed.
  • Double-tapping on the screen wakes up the phone, I really like this feature.
  • Root is extremely easy with Towel Root and I removed some blotware.
Don't make a mistake to relate performance, features and building quality with its low price tag. This phone has nothing to lose to so called hi-end phones that add lots of garbage to a clean Android. This is one of the few times you do get far more than what you pay!

My favorite browser Boat cannot do text wrapping on this phone (stupid Google removed it from KitKat) but UC browser does that well. Boat (not the mini version) is by far the only browser that does not consume CPU while idle. UC uses a small amount of CPU time now and then, still far better than others such as Opera Mobile on this regard. Other browsers are poor on text wrapping, they are useless, not worth of mentioning.

A tip: don't tear off the factory screen film, just cut off the tiny tab with an X-ACTO and you have a perfect screen protector!

Another tip: you may buy one from BestBuy and they will price match

[update] There is a hidden menu (3845#*323#, WCDMA-Only > Modem Settings > Network Mode) that lists all the WCDMA bands. I tried each of them, but only 850, AWS and 1900 are successful. So, no 2100 and 900 that are 3G bands used in other countries such as China.


[Blotware Removal]

16 comments:

  1. Can I use T-mobile's 200MB free plan in this device?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't know, I'm never interested in any limited plans.

      Delete
  2. TMO's 200MB is limited to a few devices. TMO has a list. No other devices are allowed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Can you use a tmobile hotspot sim in the phone and tether?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I believe so, hotspot function is a build-in feature. My plan does not have hotspot included, but I use Tetherfy etc. to achieve that.

      Delete
  4. 用什么方式付unlockscout 比较好?

    ReplyDelete
  5. 多谢! 拿到 code了, 但是给了好几个, 应该用哪个 - NCK, NSCK, SPCK, CPCK, CPCK, SIMCK.
    电话买的是 LG F6, MetroPCS 的.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. never mind. I tried one by one and had one worked. thanks.

      Delete
  6. Nice article. Just one question: have you ever concerned about safety when rooting it with Towelroot? Please refer to https://www.lacoon.com/tag/towelroot/. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Towelroot is safe. The same method can be used by hackers. It is an OS problem, nothing to do with Towelroot. After root, regardless what method used, you must never give SuperUser right to any app that you don't know about it. Even if you are unroot, never install unknown apps, because they may use the same method that Towelroot uses to break into your phone, even if you never installed Towelroot. Towelroot does not bring any security hole to Android, it shows hackers how to use the hole found in the OS. Google has patched the hole in later updates.

      Delete
    2. Got it. Thank you so much.

      Delete
    3. I tried the Towelroot today, but finally it says, "This phone isn't currently supported". I did that before unlocking the phone, and the SIM was not inserted, I'm not sure if those mattered. I'd like to know if you did that rooting after unlocking the phone. I don't think the SIM must/should be inserted in order to get the phone rooted. Many thanks.

      Delete
    4. Nothing to do with SIM unlock. Mostly you upgraded your phone? Or the Towelroot version is wrong?

      Delete
    5. No, I just received my phone this afternoon and haven't done anything upgrade yet. The software info shows:
      Android version: 4.4.2;
      Baseband version: M8610B-AAAANAZM-1.0.6038
      kernel version: 3.4.0+
      Build Number: KOT49l.MS32310c
      Software version: MS32310c

      And I don't think the Towelrood version is wrong, because I downloaded it directly off from www.towelroot.com, not www.towelroot.org or anywhere else.

      Delete
    6. OK, I've read from some website that the Towelroot doesn't work for MS32310c and up. I guess I'll have to downgrade to MS32310b in order to root it with Towelroot. Thanks for your help.

      Delete