Anyone here go from an Optimus Slider to the new Optimus Elite?

**bcm00re** · 05-18-2012, 04:33 PM

I am looking to upgrade from the Intercept I've had the past 18 months, and I am considering the Slider (which I am positive will keep my $25 plan) and the Elite (which may keep me on the grandfathered on the $25 plan). I already purchased both phones for $130, but the Elite isn't due to arrive until next week.

Ignoring the grandfathering issue, I was looking for feedback and comparisons on the Slider vs. the Elite. The Optimus V seems to have a big following so I've heard a lot about it (and how the Elite compares) but the Slider isn't talked about so much. On paper the Slider looks better than the V -- so the lack of following is a bit puzzling to me.

**dcheesi** · 05-21-2012, 09:20 AM

On the V vs. Slider: the V is cheaper and it came out first. The Slider is still a very good phone, and better for those of us who hate autocorrect

But the V is really an amazing value (especially with some of the sales that have happened), and it was the first decent VM smartphone, so it gets all the 'love'.

**Churner** · 05-21-2012, 11:01 AM

The Slider has a physical keyboard and the Elite does not. That's a big reason why I'm sticking with the Slider.

I haven't looked up the specs of the two to determine whether the Elite has an advantage in speed or app capacity.

**IsLand_BoY** · 05-23-2012, 08:44 PM

I did, and I think I'm going to end up staying on the Slider instead and returning the Elite. The main reason being is that the Elite screen @ 3.5" is still a little too small to type on. The Slider only has a 3.2" screen but when you pull out the keyboard, you have the full screen available (half of it is taken up by the virtual keyboard on the Elite) and the keyboard works very well. My Nokia Lumia 710 has a 3.7" screen and that's about the mininum screen size I'd go if you'll be doing any amount of text entry or web browsing.

Of course.. Keep in mind that my Virgin Mobile phone isn't my main phone so the insanely limited ~110mb available on the Slider for apps is not a deal breaker for me. I don't even have that many apps on my main phones either, but I know for a lot of people they want tons of apps and games. The Elite had upwards of 800mb available for apps. Also - the Elite definitely feels snappier and it also does Adobe Flash.

Overall, I really like the Slider. I'd buy another if something happened to the one I'm using. But let me say this -- I've been a diehard BlackBerry fan for ages so I REALLY like the QWERTY keyboards. For those who don't care, I guess it's not as big a deal..

**primetechv2** · 05-29-2012, 02:45 PM

I switched to a soft-keyboard after installing the latest beta of Swype. If you can get over Nuance knowing everything you type (likely; they haven't allowed an OFF switch on their "improvement program"), Swype is the best on-screen keyboard toy available. And it's usually what I use to enter text.

Seriously, though, a physical keyboard is my big #2. There's a whole lot of fancy symbols I don't want to type on-screen, and even Swype can't fix everything. An extra .3" isn't worth it (at least not on my PHONE) so I'm not paying another hundred dollars to get a teensy big bigger.

Oh, and I won't be able to tether any more. I can do it without rooting on my Slider, and suddenly the Elite gets broken if you try. Aww...

**bcm00re** · 05-30-2012, 10:14 AM

Thanks for all the inputs. In the end I went with the Elite, and it seems to appear I am still grandfathered in the $25 BT plan.

With the Elite and Slider being the same price for me, I elected for newer (and faster) processor and larger screen on the Elite. Swype does make the soft-keyboard much more acceptable -- in fact I can see it being better/faster once I get more used to it.