Following today’s official launch of the LG Optimus V, Virgin Mobile has cut pricing on the Samsung Intercept Android smartphone, down from $249.99 to $199.99. This puts the Intercept higher in the Beyond Talk lineup next to the BlackBerry Curve due to its hardware keyboard, despite the Optimus V launching with Android 2.2 and a $50 lower price tag.
The Samsung Intercept features a hardware QWERTY keyboard, 3.0 inch capacitive touch display at 400×240 resolution, 3.2 megapixel camera with video recorder and autofocus, microSDHC slot with support for 32GB cards, Bluetooth with stereo audio support and Android 2.1.
The Intercept’s own Froyo update is also scheduled for this Spring, though there are methods for flashing the current Sprint Intercept update on the device (which we strongly discourage, see comments for details). While many criticize the Intercepts sluggish performance, it is believed that the Froyo JIT, or just-in-time compiler will resolve those issues. Android 2.1, aka Eclair, which the Intercept ships with has a much slower compiler, which many apps no longer take into account.
Please note that flashing a Virgin Mobile Intercept with Sprint firmware is dangerous, as there is no current undo. Yes, Froyo does run on the device, and it will work… but there are serious issues that may cause the device to stop working.
The reason is that the Sprint upgrade re-flashes the modem with Sprint firmware. As such, there are issues with prepaid accounts renewing data sessions, as well as issues reprogramming the device (swapping phones, etc).
Even if you use one of the “safe” upgrades that has removed the modem/baseband firmware bits, (leaving you with a Sprint phone but Virgin baseband), there still is no simple downgrade process. Backup Virgin Mobile firmwares are not working properly.
To date, there has been no release/leak of a full Virgin Mobile firmware flash, and as such, there’s no way to go back at this time. Hopefully Samsung will be generous and leak a full flash, but don’t bet on it.