Advice needed re: which Xoom to get - Xoom Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I currently have a 4G Verizon xyboard that is going back to Motorola for the 2nd time in 2 weeks. Bought it the end of March. You guessed it - I'm not happy with the quality since this will be the second repair and it's not like I've thrown it around. On the other hand, I love the 8.2 size and when it works, it's a nice tablet. But that's the hitch "when it works", which is not a lot these days.
It started with charging and lockup issues which were repaired, and now it won't stay connected either to wifi or VZW on a consistent basis (as in, sit in one place, get connected with good signal, don't move, wait 2 minutes, lose signal). And since I bought it because of the VZW coverage, I'm paying for a data plan I can't even use.
So, I'm getting prepared here - if by some chance, mine fails a third time, I'm changing xooms. Given the love that the original Xoom still has on here and from Google, I'm going to try and get a model that will upgrade, which probably means ebay or craigslist even though mine should still be covered under warranty.
Which xoom do I want - I see version numbers all over the place and I'm confused. For example, I think there was a thread about the 'original' 3G xoom being upgraded to 4G through Motorola? So which model is/was that? If you have one of those models, does the 3G/4G service work well for you? Is there a different model I should look for?
Thanks in advance - any useful advice would be appreciated!

Related

[Q] 3g?

Anyone seen anything about eta on 3g enabled transformers?
Decided on getting one quite a while ago, but I need a enabled 3g tablet.
Initially it was supposed to come out around 1-3 months after wifi (April 6) and be everywhere around June/July.
Also, 3g will only be for the 64gb model and cost $699 in USA and 699 euros in Europe.
I hope they release it by late June at least , in India :S
Didn't know it was only the 64gb version getting 3g :/, that really sucks. I was hoping for a 32gb version.
But I don't see many alternatives to the transformer I want either. If another one came out that was both price competetive, comparable in hardware, and had honeycomb, I'd consider it. But right now the only 3g tablet being sold and easily accessable to me in norway is the xoom. And that seems far too expensive, for something not that spectacular. :/
Whats wrong with the wifi model and tethering to a smartphone when you want internet access, away from your home network?
I can use the same setup to my laptop, and it's an extra step. I've noticed it reduces the amount of times I check something on the laptop, because it's an extra thing to do.
"Just checking something" is a lot more work when I need to pull up the phone, go through 2-3 menu's. Pull up and refresh the wireless until the androidap shows up, connect. And then I'm ready to go.

On my second S3, and its also broken...

How many of you have had to return your S3 due to out of box defects? My first one would chronically overheat, had low signal, miserable 3g speeds (I know they're pretty miserable anyway), awful battery life, and would consistently drop my wifi signal at home.
Now, I'm on my second device. This one doesn't hold a much better signal, and worse yet, I have a very random screen glitch where it shows digital artifacts on some screens, and sometimes it actually flashes and randomly blinks at me, very much like a PC with a bad graphics card. Unfortunately it doesn't do I consistently either.
Am I just the luckiest person alive to get two of these that are bad straight out of the box?
I feel like a dbag taking this one back after I already took the first one back with issues. Especially since the graphics thing is so intermittent.
Sent from your mother's bed.
Sorry to hear that man. The only issue mine has is with very dark Grey screens it shows small black splotches on the screen, otherwise never there and I've looked closely
Otherwise 3G is slow (200kbps or so) but bearable. No other major issues, battery holds a 6.5hr charge with constant use and screen on basically non stop stock battery
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
On my second one, the first one had a Bluetooth issue. When connected to any BT device it would crackle randomly. The second one had issues out of the box. Same as you, connection was horrible. Even in the same locations and apps, the first one seemed to connect well. I ended up doing several factory resets and now it seems better. My local vzw store was convinced enough to give me a third, but after it settled down I figured that I'd just keep this one. There is something weird about these phones. The connection is worse than my thunderbolt. The battery is all over the place (due to the radio I'm sure). We'll see I guess
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
I have a blue 16gb and wife has a white 16gb, both arrived early on pre-order. No issues with either phone.
Yeah, it sucks for sure, he phone has so much potential if it worked properly.
I dumped att for Verizon at the same time, and my 14/days are up today. Ill likely port back to att, and wait to see what happens with LTE here.
3G alone is just unbearable on VZ.
Sent from your mother's bed.
ClubDownforce said:
Yeah, it sucks for sure, he phone has so much potential if it worked properly.
I dumped att for Verizon at the same time, and my 14/days are up today. Ill likely port back to att, and wait to see what happens with LTE here.
3G alone is just unbearable on VZ.
Sent from your mother's bed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is something to do with the phone, not verizon. I said in another thread they need to fix these cell issues asap. My old phone got 3 MBs down and up, this one gets less then 1 on both. 4G is fine but I don't live in 4G area, unless I literally walk a street away...:silly: Start calling and reporting this stuff to customer service. I've been doing this everyday.
Complaining on a forum does not fix the issues.
My first one had the USB port randomly go bad. Returned it in the first 14 days. This second unit is working ok though there seems to be a spec of dust or something under the screen that drives me slightly insane.
Radios have not been samsungs strong points. Wifi essentially does not work until I turn off power save which is a pita and resets after reboot. My rezound never had issues even with wifi on power save
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
tonictonic said:
Radios have not been samsungs strong points.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung radios have always sucked, Samsung is known for this.
My Rezound had a far better radio than either my current G3 or my Wifes Droid Charge (& the POS Nexus I had briefly was even worse).
Calling customer service doesn't fix "service" issues either, not to mention I don't have time to be on the phone with CS telling them how my service sucks every day. Not to mention that my gf can have full service, the Xoom has full service, and this phone has 3 bars if lucky, along with abysmal download speeds. Its as bad as Sprint with this phone. This doesn't seem to be Verizon isolated either, as local US Cellular customers have also been complaining of slow speeds and bad reception.
I don't even know what else Verizon has that I'd consider. Just sucks, because the phone is very nice.
Sent from your mother's bed.
i returned my gs3 suposedly due to factory defect but i knew it was my fault, and it had 3 dents on it from me dropping it lol... after flashing roms with k-exec so many times, i managed to change the network type to 3g only and the best buy rep couldn't figure out how to get it to connect to 4g. I know how i could of fixed it with phone info from android market but thats after the fact.... So he replaced with a brand new pebble blue 16g gs3 and it was updated to vrlg1 rather the older version. I was greatfull plus i added black tie protection and purchased buy back before they ended the program :fingers-crossed::good:
jmorton10 said:
Samsung radios have always sucked, Samsung is known for this.
My Rezound had a far better radio than either my current G3 or my Wifes Droid Charge (& the POS Nexus I had briefly was even worse).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am still not convinced this is the case. I also have a rezound. They report the signal differently and what I've noticed is that it seems like the Samsung phone because of the way it reports the signal assumes the signal is worse before the rezound does and kicks to 3G sooner.
I don't know if it can be changed so it holds 4G longer, but back when I had an evo 4G with wimax you could tell the phone to hold the signal longer than default and I'd get wimax in my house when default settings would kick me immediately to 3G when I walked through the front door.
So I don't think the phone has terrible radios just that if you rated the 4G signal on a scale of 1-20 with 20 being the worst reception, that the rezound will hold 4G until it hits 18-19 and switch to 3G and the GSIII cuts out at 12-13 and there for where I have signal with my rezound, I could have it with the GSIII, other than it decides to dump the signal.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
onpoint10101 said:
i returned my gs3 suposedly due to factory defect but i knew it was my fault, and it had 3 dents on it from me dropping it lol... after flashing roms with k-exec so many times, i managed to change the network type to 3g only and the best buy rep couldn't figure out how to get it to connect to 4g. I know how i could of fixed it with phone info from android market but thats after the fact.... So he replaced with a brand new pebble blue 16g gs3 and it was updated to vrlg1 rather the older version. I was greatfull plus i added black tie protection and purchased buy back before they ended the program :fingers-crossed::good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I work at best buy geek squad. It's not called black tie anymore it's called geek squad protection. Black tie was always the dumbest **** I ever heard. Also buy back is staying for mobile phones forever. The rest of the store got rid of it though cause it was a ripoff LOLOL
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
xsteven77x said:
I work at best buy geek squad. It's not called black tie anymore it's called geek squad protection. Black tie was always the dumbest **** I ever heard. Also buy back is staying for mobile phones forever. The rest of the store got rid of it though cause it was a ripoff LOLOL
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
was never called black tie, it was Geeksquad Black Tie protection, Which if you are part of the actual Geeksquad culture, made perfect sense. It just doesn't relate well to your average person.
Also, Buyback is still a plausable rip off. If you are lazy, then it makes sense to get it. I will use my rezound as an example though. Best Buy has the phone in the system for 650. In the first six months I would get back 325 back. If you held the phone like I did for 9 months, you'd get 40% of the phone back, so 260 dollars. Not counting that after 10 months it is 30%. If I sold my phone on swappa, ebay, what have you, including my extended battery, I could get about that much, or more, without having to pay an initial fee to get the ability to get that money back.
Also, people are stupid, and phones that are already s-off, and with a rooted rom sell for more money. Best buy doesn't trade in the extended battery, and it being s-off'd would kill its value, if the tech doing the trade in even knew how to check for that.
My S3 was working great until this week (right after the 14 days return window). Now WiFi is dropping, 4G is running at worse than 3G speeds, phone randomly shuts off, apps that worked fine previously now crash / lock the phone on a black screen. I hope I can just swap this back out for my Thunderbolt without any issues. Hopefully I can get a replacement on this. If the 2nd one has these issues, I'll go back to my Thunderbolt which has been rock-solid since I got it.
angie4u said:
thats weird. Me and two my friends recently switched to S3 and none of us have had issues with the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same here...no issues. whatsoever...
there are things that i dont like. .but they are tocuhwiz related.
heck i even dropped my S3 in a baby bath tub...(i have a thread about that with pics of it dissembled) & still works flawlessly...
however with all the verizon BS on there...my quadrant scores arent what i thought they would be/should be
enohand said:
same here...no issues. whatsoever...
there are things that i dont like. .but they are tocuhwiz related.
heck i even dropped my S3 in a baby bath tub...(i have a thread about that with pics of it dissembled) & still works flawlessly...
however with all the verizon BS on there...my quadrant scores arent what i thought they would be/should be
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People have been getting over 5000 scores on my 100% bloated stock deodexed ROM. They have all the Verizon garbage on them.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
I'm not complaining about build quality, the speed of the phone, touchwiz, etc. My complaint is simply with what seems to be a slight lapse in quality control, which has affected me twice now, haha.
No biggie. I guess I'll just see what Best Buy says when I take it in.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2
nosympathy said:
People have been getting over 5000 scores on my 100% bloated stock deodexed ROM. They have all the Verizon garbage on them.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im interested in what & how you got those scores.
i come in consistently around 4200-4600 but i also have the free version so i dont know if thats causing it
My first phone was a pre order phone. For the lifebof me and Samsung and Verizon. We could not get the flipping GPS to find the phone. Both Verizon and Samsung tried to tell me that the phone needs the celular network to use GPS. I had to tell them that that is either impossible or that the phone is falsely advertising stand alone GPS. And if Samsung and Verizon allowed that to be that some one is in for a legal ride. I told them that I would never purchase a phone or any mobile communicqtion device without that option. Long story short they sent me a new one. And everything works perfectly. Well, with the exception of it freezing on me at times. This could be due to an over heating issue or just bad designe in the software. Though it has not happened in a while since I have frozen some of the Verizon and Samsung crap bloat. Specifficly Verizon. They know how to screw a good thing up. Also, I have this thing underclocked at 918MHz-1.134GHz. This helps a great deal because of wifi teather and bluetooth on in my car all day long. Now to find a charger that will let it more than just charge at a snails pace.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using XDA App

Signal Issues with Stock S3 (No 4G, bad handoff, etc.)

Forgive my ignorance, but I seem to be having the problems of not having consistent 4G. And slow 4G/3G transitions, as well as poor battery as a result.
I have also gotten the No mobile network, no sim, and roaming network notifications.
It seems like many are having these problems, yet people who report them seem to say it occured after flashing some ROM/Kernel (idk).
My phone is stock. Im wondering if its happening to other users who have not done any funny business.
Ironically I was holding off on rooting and rom'ing to avoid these little initial bugs
verizontb said:
Forgive my ignorance, but I seem to be having the problems of not having consistent 4G. And slow 4G/3G transitions, as well as poor battery as a result.
I have also gotten the No mobile network, no sim, and roaming network notifications.
It seems like many are having these problems, yet people who report them seem to say it occured after flashing some ROM/Kernel (idk).
My phone is stock. Im wondering if its happening to other users who have not done any funny business.
Ironically I was holding off on rooting and rom'ing to avoid these little initial bugs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was in same boat as you. I was holding off rooting and flashing roms to make sure my device was functioning correctly in stock form. Unfortunately it was not, and I was experiencing all of the issues you are facing on my SECOND gs3. I had replaced the first one for a loose home button, and ended up receiving a new device with more issues than the previous one.
I called up tech support last night, and listed all of the issues you just listed and the tech said those are all hardware issues so I'll have to send you another. I obviously haven't received the third phone yet, but I can tell you I was not experiencing these issues on my first one.
Kreeker said:
I was in same boat as you. I was holding off rooting and flashing roms to make sure my device was functioning correctly in stock form. Unfortunately it was not, and I was experiencing all of the issues you are facing on my SECOND gs3. I had replaced the first one for a loose home button, and ended up receiving a new device with more issues than the previous one.
I called up tech support last night, and listed all of the issues you just listed and the tech said those are all hardware issues so I'll have to send you another. I obviously haven't received the third phone yet, but I can tell you I was not experiencing these issues on my first one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should probably further elaborate and say that I was in Florida for the first week I had my device and the reception there was very good, and I never lost 4G, and was getting almost 35hours of battery when I am lucky to get 10 here. No major app battery draw, just signal...
So that leads me to believe that it is the network, which is a little weaker where I am now, is causing the phone to jump unecessarily in and out of 4G and drawing too much battery.
It's either that, or my phone stopped working properly after a week, which seems less likely.
I don't think it's less likely as a few have reported after a couple of weeks of fantastic service, the phone's data connection has plummeted.
I'm on my second device. Both devices had the same problem. 3g dropped to 1x dropped to no signal. Finding the signal when in a known good signal area took foreverrrr. I haven't seen 4g yet with this phone so I cannot comment there.
I've struggled with VZW to replace my phone. They're now looking at the network for errors, or something. I've taken matters into my own hands- rooted and rom'd the phone with Synergy and it has helped immensely.
Waiting for VZW or Samsung to fix it, I don't think, is a great idea. If you wanted a device that worked correctly out of the box, your chances may be higher with a phone from a different manufacturer. I don't recommend Motorola because of their stance on locked bootloaders but the radio in those things is fantastic.
So you think my phone is defective?
I have my doubts... I see lots of people complaining about so many things and there first reaction is to exchange the phone... they then end up with other problems because they meticulously scrutinize every little detail.
I also don't want to return my phone because I got a bodyguardz carbon fiber kit and screen protector and its applied perfectly! =) No bubbles or haze!
I understand... Gotta weigh it out for yourself.
I personally don't think there's anything wrong with scrutinizing a device you paid any amount of money for. It's yours. If its flawed, get another.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
My phone is in stock and right now I'm not trying to root the phone because I know lte is not perfect right now so I don't wanna do anything that will mess up the phone.
Sent from my sprint galaxy s 3, finally have lte
Wut?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Weird signal problems GSM HTC One m7 on Simple Mobile (T-Mobile)

This http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemVersion&item=121805828785&view=all&tid=1659658376002 is the M7 I bought. My older phone is also an M7 but GP edition, has no problems with the same SIM and I get consistent H data signal. Now on that new phone, when i first got it, it would not hold signal at all. One moment I would have 4G with full bars, the next not only does the data drops but entire signal goes out and the phone becomes useless.
I went through android ROMs, Cyanogen mod, Viper, couple others. Always made sure I had the right version of ROM and firmware. This problem still persisted.
Now, after doing FULL wipe, system and everything. I once again installed Viper rom, latest version for m7 which is 5.0.2 I think. I also installed latest firmware that was released for 5.0.2 and now something else broke. No matter what settings or APN (tmobile OR simple mobile) I use I ONLY get Edge data signal. Not only that, but it shows that my signal is full, yet for some reason I can't make and probably cant receive calls either, 1-2 seconds go by I hear a beep and the call drops without ever reaching the normal consistent beeeeep beeeeeep when you wait for the person to pick up, but texting still works.
I contacted the seller and he assured me that the phone is brand new and asked me if I could take it to a repair shop and he would pay for the costs, I thought it was a bad idea for multiple obvious reasons. 2nd contact with the seller, he asked me if they could refund $20 and I could keep it, I said no. Last contact, he says that he could refund me $50 and I could keep it, but if I disagree he gave me return address, I guess he expects me to pay shipping.
I guess they would have to resell the phone as used if I return it, that's why they want to go as far as giving me $50 to keep it, that way I guess they still in profit. But that just makes me doubt even more, is the phone really not defective and I ****ed something up with flashing ROMs/Radios/Software? But how could I if I matched my roms and firmware with my phone's model (stuff like m7_ul and the 111111111 id). Seller listed this phone as GSM with bands that T-Mobile supports, so why do I have so many issues with it? Should I not waste anymore HOURS looking around forums and flashing **** and just send it back and get it over with?

Question New P7P and the cell signal is all over the place every few seconds.

Hi All,
Just received my new P7P and I absolutely love it except that the cell signal drops all over the place and the speeds go down with it. I SIM swapped over from an iPhone 13 mini on ATT. Did I get a bum phone and should I swap for another or do I need to call ATT and have them add the IMEI to their system? Right now it just shows up as an unknown phone on the account page. I thought maybe that would fix the issue but have no idea. My 13 mini and Galaxy S20 FE both have solid full bars as normal but not this P7P.
I purchased the P7P from Amazon, unlocked if that matters. Shipped and sold by Amazon, not renewed.
Thanks all for taking the time to add any input.
Rob
Did you take the day one update that's available? Mine was having issues out of the box but after that update it's been mostly fine.
They work fine on AT&T, the GE2AE model, so it's not that.
I am on the latest update. I did fully reset the phone today and the same is happening. I am going to request a replacement and try the new unit.
Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it.
I decided to just return it...too many things I didn't like.
Thanks for the replies though and use of the forum.

Categories

Resources