Question about Verizon Galaxy S5 - General Questions and Answers

Question about Verizon Galaxy S5 - General Questions and Answers

This is really just a curiosity; it isn't causing me any problems, but I wonder about it, and the folks here are probably the most knowledgeable I am aware of. Maybe someone has run in to something similar in the past.
I bought an unlocked Verizon Galaxy S5 (Samsung SM G900V), and rooted it, after reading and studying a lot of information here. It appeared to be new as advertised, and it works just the way it should. I have only used it with one carrier, which is T-Mobile. It has never had any AT&T software on it that I can tell, but this is what it looks like:
h t t p://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad20/davekelsen/phone.jpg
Sorry I can't post the actual picture as yet.
Anyone ever seen this?
Thanks.
RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen
--
Fixing banks with less regulation is like fixing Lindsay Lohan with more cocaine.

Related

Should I, shouldn't I

Hi folks,
I'm thinking of picking up the galaxy s, the samsung vibrant from t-mobile to use on my carrier.
i had a few questions and hope you fellas can help me out.
1st, what would be involved in unlocking it? Would I have any problems getting it unlocked?
Also i'm a total noob to android but i've been reading up. What exactly is "rooting"? will rooting allow me to put a stock 2.2 on it? is that even possible and is it recomended on this phone?
and lastly from people who have been using this phone, do you recommend getting it?
thanks

oh snap! i posted this in the wrong board. it should have been in the "Galaxy S I9000 General"
sorry mods.

Rooting allows you to get access to parts of the phone you otherwise wouldn't have access to. Compare it to having administrator rights on windows, you can access more files, do more stuff. Programs can perform more actions when your phone is rooted.
Putting 2.2 on it is completely seperate from that and at this moment is not possible. However, Samsung already stated that the first 2.2 update will be somewhere in august (not for euro/usa regions though) so perhaps withing the month after that it will also be available for other regions. Samsung has officially announced that it WILL be updated though, so no need to worry about that.
Without the 2.2 update it's already pretty damn fast though (with some tweaks its faster then the Nexus one WITH 2.2) so I would certainly already recommend it.
This is my first android phone (after symbian, windows mobile and more) and it's really easy to get used to and works just great. The screen is beautiful (good colors, vibrant although reading text on it is a less great experience) and it's very fast. Also feels light, in a good way, great screen, etc. I can totally recommend it.
ps. No idea what the status on unlocking is, mine was unlocked already so never looked into it.

you might want to make sure the frequency bands of the one you acquire will work on the carrier you want to use it on
if not, it may not work at all, or may not give you 3G data svc

personally i didnt think any phones are locked down anymore, at least not in the UK?
you should buy the phone, its the best ive owned, not saying its the best on the market but id like to hear of an arguement for why it isnt.
rooting was done on this device even before release, and with already 300k sales in south korea alone it looks like its going to have some great support and updates in the future

Why I am not angry at Samsung or [email protected]

Maybe I am the only one, but flashing roms and learning how to screw up my captivate, and more importantly learn how to fix it afterwords, has made me not really care about when my phone will get 2.2 or 2.3. The developers here have made roms that I believe are just as good, if not better than the "official" versions. Sure Samsung promised 2.2 a long time ago, but what is the fun in just a boring update? Am I the only one who feels this way, or am I just addicted to flashing?

Here, here!

The only thing an official AT&T update would bring at this point in the game, would be better custom ROMs.
IMVHO of course.

I respect your right not to be upset. Still, I think there are a number of things to be legitimately upset about - none of which are addressed by the ROMS on xda.
The restart issue: this problem has been known for a long time. Neither AT&T nor Samsung have made it easy to get a working phone. They denied the issue for a while. They then recognized it, but never made the exchange process easy. Look at all the random shutdown threads and see the mixed experiences people have had. To make matters worse, broken phones are often replaced with other broken phones. AT&T has been either too lazy or too cheap to pull the affected IMEIs from circulation. People have gone through 2 or 3 phones before getting one that 'works.'
My GPS doesn't work at all. I can stand out in the middle of a field and my phone will see 1 satelite. I get a lock every once in a while, but it NEVER has tracked. I've tried just about every GPS fix out there and none of them work for me (and I shouldn't need to try a bunch of fixes off some internet forum anyhow). Has there been any help from AT&T or Samsung on this issue? - No. They seem to pretend it doesn't exist. To make matters worse, some phones seem to work as expected - BUT some of those have the shutdown issue. People are afraid to turn in their screwed up phone with a working GPS because they might end up with a 'normal' phone with a broken GPS. That's outrageous. Seriously, it shows the truly pathetic quality of the Captivate and the companies that manufacture/distribute it.
There are features that came on my phone that have still not been enabled. Media Hub, for example, was billed all over the place as a great new feature - to be enabled later. It's later...much later. When do I get Media Hub? I don't see it. I can't get it to work via any custom ROMs (unless I'm missing something).
The way that AT&T and Samsung have handled this situation reads as a case study in poor customer service. Is it the end of the world? No. Is it enough to get me to avoid another Samsung phone? Probably. I bet many others would say the same.

Custom ROMs saved me from hating this phone and made it a really great device in every way I can think of, but it doesn't excuse AT&T+Samsung's lack of support on this device.
All I can say is thank goodness for people on this forum who have the interest, know how and drive to do what those companies have not done: make the Captivate a great device.

delugeofspam said:
Here, here!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where? Where?

Wdustin1 said:
acctually there is a working media hub .apk in one of the forums and it works great
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where? 10 characters

I agree, I love this phone and I'm thankful for samsung and AT&T not doing their job, because it's made people on these forums come up with some amazing roms/kernels/what-have-you.

The rom leaks developers are working on are part of a conspiracy. Think about it.

rwj5279955 said:
The only thing an official AT&T update would bring at this point in the game, would be better custom ROMs.
IMVHO of course.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup! My Sentiments exactly.

fldude99 said:
Where? 10 characters
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was on the Epic forums.
I tried this a while ago on one of the early versions of cog and it worked fine, but I don't use it enough to keep it on my phone. But I can confirm that it did work for me.

sarcasmo said:
I respect your right not to be upset. Still, I think there are a number of things to be legitimately upset about - none of which are addressed by the ROMS on xda.
The restart issue: this problem has been known for a long time. Neither AT&T nor Samsung have made it easy to get a working phone. They denied the issue for a while. They then recognized it, but never made the exchange process easy. Look at all the random shutdown threads and see the mixed experiences people have had. To make matters worse, broken phones are often replaced with other broken phones. AT&T has been either too lazy or too cheap to pull the affected IMEIs from circulation. People have gone through 2 or 3 phones before getting one that 'works.'
My GPS doesn't work at all. I can stand out in the middle of a field and my phone will see 1 satelite. I get a lock every once in a while, but it NEVER has tracked. I've tried just about every GPS fix out there and none of them work for me (and I shouldn't need to try a bunch of fixes off some internet forum anyhow). Has there been any help from AT&T or Samsung on this issue? - No. They seem to pretend it doesn't exist. To make matters worse, some phones seem to work as expected - BUT some of those have the shutdown issue. People are afraid to turn in their screwed up phone with a working GPS because they might end up with a 'normal' phone with a broken GPS. That's outrageous. Seriously, it shows the truly pathetic quality of the Captivate and the companies that manufacture/distribute it.
There are features that came on my phone that have still not been enabled. Media Hub, for example, was billed all over the place as a great new feature - to be enabled later. It's later...much later. When do I get Media Hub? I don't see it. I can't get it to work via any custom ROMs (unless I'm missing something).
The way that AT&T and Samsung have handled this situation reads as a case study in poor customer service. Is it the end of the world? No. Is it enough to get me to avoid another Samsung phone? Probably. I bet many others would say the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very well said! Btw, LOVE the screen name, lol.
I don't even own this phone, my gf does and I've done limited research so I could flash Cog2.3b8. The phone is WAAAAY better with Cog, but the gps blatantly disappeared on us halfway to our destination last weekend. I sighed and pulled out my mt4g which caught a lock in about 1/10th of a second and guided us there with absolutely no errors.
This made ME feel pretty stupid considering I gave her the phone as a gift. Thank god I bought it used and can probably sell it for what I paid for it.
From my limited experience with AT&T and Samsung I am furious. This phone had tremendous potential but I will avoid Samsung and AT&T like the plague from now on.
Delaying updates is one thing but the GPS issue is ****ing ridiculous. It's a joke!! There's no other way to describe it. You should all be irate and demand your money back.
Yes, T-mobile has had QC issues with the MT4G but everyone in the thread who has returned their phones has praised T-mobile for the way they handle their customer service, including myself. How many have had that experience with AT&T?

You should still be mad at Samsung.
Instead of making good ROMs great, we're making crappy ROMs good.

vunuts said:
It was on the Epic forums.
I tried this a while ago on one of the early versions of cog and it worked fine, but I don't use it enough to keep it on my phone. But I can confirm that it did work for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It worked for me as well. I just didnt care for it. I would much rather have netflix. I have a different apk somewhere around here. If his doesnt work for you let me know via pm and I will send it... nm i just posted it

Phateless said:
You should all be irate and demand your money back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah. I don't really need GPS, and last time I tried it outside my work building it got lock in about 2 or 3 seconds. I've tried it a couple of times while driving with mixed results. It seems to depend a lot on the area. As expected (or maybe not), it seemed to worked the best in the "wealthy" part of the city. I live in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Other than that I don't know. I haven't had any single random restart that I know it wasn't caused by me, same with charging death, mainly caused by bad UV settings.
I only used the stock rom for about 2 days before I moved and lagfixed it. I killed it once in a bad kernel flashing attempt. The fact that I can revive it using a home made usb jig makes me love it even more.
Right now, I just wished people could experience that same phone I'm experiencing. I think I'm in love with it.

I'm mad at both. My Captivate is my work phone, provided by my employer - so I am less comfortable flashing it to overcome the shortcomings of the standard AT&T build - yet I did root the phone and install the MobileAP so I can actually work when my client doesn't let me connect to their network.
My beef is on smaller things like - disabling tethering, not having more robust support for Exchange, the inability to sideload, or even load Android Market apps that AT&T doesn't want me to see.
As a work tool, I want my phone to let me work, and these limits, largely self-imposed are galling.

I've learned so much over the last week. I must have flashed my phone at least 20 times and got a few good bricks out of it too. Samsung and At&t can do what they want. These roms works much better than anything they could ever do.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I'm not mad at Samsung or Rogers for the reasons stated above, I'm mad at them for broken promises as they relate to hardware - namely the USB-to-HDMI issue, which was a big reason for me to go with this phone over another. We were promised a software update to enable this and were even shown a cable on the official Sammy site, but nada.

Downsides to the Skyrocket/AT&T LTE?

Coming from a Nexus One, I just got a Skyrocket yesterday.
While having a dual core and LTE speed is indeed nice, the phone is a f****** brick in comparison to the Nexus One, so I am somewhat regretting my decision and might return it ...
It's easy to see the upsides of the phone (speed, large screen, better built quality than the N1), I also want to know what the downsides are, so I can make an informed decision.
As far as I can tell, I already see these - which I mostly pulled together based on my own experiences and what I read on this forum:
1. Throttling of LTE unlimited data plans (I never had that problem on my N1 - though I did not really use that much data (no video streaming))
2. Uncertain CM7/CM9 support - as far as I can tell there are some unofficial ports under way, but no dev from CM has joined the effort and non of the current devs have officially joined the CM team?
3. F'ing AT&T blocking websites (e.g. justin.tv (not that I ever want to go to this site but I am pissed about being blocked))
4. CIQ BS on the stock software (ok, can be fixed by using a custom ROM but still ...)
5. AT&T might watch LTE usage more closely for tethering? I frequently tethered and never had any issues with the N1 - though I did not really use that much data (no video streaming)
6. Reception issues on the stock software (I am in LA with little LTE, yet the phone ALWAYS connects to LTE and NEVER falls back to 3G giving me really sh** reception)
7. Size: it's a brick, not a phone.
8. Unlocking - my N1 was obviously unlocked and at&t never gave me any problems unlocking before, though I heard they might not unlock the Skyrocket PERIOD.
9. Uncertainty about specs (and whether it supports intl. 3G/UMTS2100)?
I am happy to have people convince me otherwise, but at the moment some of these con's outweigh the pro's (the size con even in a literal sense, hahaha)
Also let me know if you know of any other good (normal sized) phones (ideally with the same specs otherwise) that might come to AT&T (or might be available unlocked). I would probably love this phone if it had a 3.7" screen in the same form factor as the N1.

Who cares lol you came to the wrong placce to complain about the skyrocket. If u dont like it take it back. This thread is useless, and should be closed

silver03wrx said:
Who cares lol you came to the wrong placce to complain about the skyrocket. If u dont like it take it back. This thread is useless, and should be closed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your comment is useless. Thank you.

Its not really. We are here because we love the phone and for once its a group that sees a few short comings and we are working as a group to fix them.
You knew the dimensions of the phone when you bought it. For that statement alone...take it back.
Nearly every other complaint you have mentioned has been corrected with development by some very dedicated dev work new and experienced.
In the end only you can make the choice...but when you ask for an opinion be prepared for what you are going to receive good and bad
andTab said:
Your comment is useless. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using XDA App

andTab said:
Coming from a Nexus One, I just got a Skyrocket yesterday.
While having a dual core and LTE speed is indeed nice, the phone is a f****** brick in comparison to the Nexus One, so I am somewhat regretting my decision and might return it ...
It's easy to see the upsides of the phone (speed, large screen, better built quality than the N1), I also want to know what the downsides are, so I can make an informed decision.
As far as I can tell, I already see these - which I mostly pulled together based on my own experiences and what I read on this forum:
1. Throttling of LTE unlimited data plans (I never had that problem on my N1 - though I did not really use that much data (no video streaming))
Some have the issue some dont, dont abuse it and probably wont be throttled.2. Uncertain CM7/CM9 support - as far as I can tell there are some unofficial ports under way, but no dev from CM has joined the effort and non of the current devs have officially joined the CM team?
I think it will be ported, maybe not cm9 but we have started a thread over there and asked them to, but we will see. its just a ROM - if thats your looking for pick something else. 3. F'ing AT&T blocking websites (e.g. justin.tv (not that I ever want to go to this site but I am pissed about being blocked))
4. CIQ BS on the stock software (ok, can be fixed by using a custom ROM but still ...)
i think this was fixed with they dropped 2.3.6 - i have never tried nor found a site that i couldnt get to. if the fix is a Custom Rom and your answer is BUT STILL....then why are you on these forums. Roms are like clothes change them ****s and move on.
5. AT&T might watch LTE usage more closely for tethering? I frequently tethered and never had any issues with the N1 - though I did not really use that much data (no video streaming)
if you dont video stream, i DOUBT you will ever get throttled or sent the little AT&T teathering email.
6. Reception issues on the stock software (I am in LA with little LTE, yet the phone ALWAYS connects to LTE and NEVER falls back to 3G giving me really sh** reception)
i dont have an answer for this, im in a LTE area with NO PROBLEMS
7. Size: it's a brick, not a phone.
u know what they say about little hands
8. Unlocking - my N1 was obviously unlocked and at&t never gave me any problems unlocking before, though I heard they might not unlock the Skyrocket PERIOD.
9. Uncertainty about specs (and whether it supports intl. 3G/UMTS2100)?
I am happy to have people convince me otherwise, but at the moment some of these con's outweigh the pro's (the size con even in a literal sense, hahaha)
Also let me know if you know of any other good (normal sized) phones (ideally with the same specs otherwise) that might come to AT&T (or might be available unlocked). I would probably love this phone if it had a 3.7" screen in the same form factor as the N1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
those are the only ones i know of....
Good Luck

If you have questions about the device, it's no problem to ask them here. Although, there is a right way to do it. If you have searched and cannot find the answer, then ask. When you do ask, don't come of as a troll like you're bashing the phone and provoking users into defending it. You should know how that is going to end up. Lets keep this thread in the right direction......

andTab said:
Coming from a Nexus One, I just got a Skyrocket yesterday.
While having a dual core and LTE speed is indeed nice, the phone is a f****** brick in comparison to the Nexus One, so I am somewhat regretting my decision and might return it ...
It's easy to see the upsides of the phone (speed, large screen, better built quality than the N1), I also want to know what the downsides are, so I can make an informed decision.
As far as I can tell, I already see these - which I mostly pulled together based on my own experiences and what I read on this forum:
1. Throttling of LTE unlimited data plans (I never had that problem on my N1 - though I did not really use that much data (no video streaming))
2. Uncertain CM7/CM9 support - as far as I can tell there are some unofficial ports under way, but no dev from CM has joined the effort and non of the current devs have officially joined the CM team?
3. F'ing AT&T blocking websites (e.g. justin.tv (not that I ever want to go to this site but I am pissed about being blocked))
4. CIQ BS on the stock software (ok, can be fixed by using a custom ROM but still ...)
5. AT&T might watch LTE usage more closely for tethering? I frequently tethered and never had any issues with the N1 - though I did not really use that much data (no video streaming)
6. Reception issues on the stock software (I am in LA with little LTE, yet the phone ALWAYS connects to LTE and NEVER falls back to 3G giving me really sh** reception)
7. Size: it's a brick, not a phone.
8. Unlocking - my N1 was obviously unlocked and at&t never gave me any problems unlocking before, though I heard they might not unlock the Skyrocket PERIOD.
9. Uncertainty about specs (and whether it supports intl. 3G/UMTS2100)?
I am happy to have people convince me otherwise, but at the moment some of these con's outweigh the pro's (the size con even in a literal sense, hahaha)
Also let me know if you know of any other good (normal sized) phones (ideally with the same specs otherwise) that might come to AT&T (or might be available unlocked). I would probably love this phone if it had a 3.7" screen in the same form factor as the N1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds to us like you've already made your mind up. And the poeple above are right. This IS the skyrocket forum on xda. Were only going to tell you that we love our skyrocket. Which we do. There's not a single phone out there that does not have problems. My biggest problem with every other phone out there is a locked bootloader. Which means it will be even harder for any dev to fix any of the problems you have with any phone you choose. Good luck!
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using xda premium

the2rrell said:
those are the only ones i know of....
Good Luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you! That was very helpful.
There are lots of good things about this phone (eg call quality is a hundred times better than on the Nexus One which always sounded like a string/tin-can phone).
I want to know about all the bad things, and what is being done to address them.
Does anyone know whether any current CM devs are considering the phone?
Or whether any current Skyrocket devs might join CM/bring official CM support for this phone?
Not getting CM9 would be a dealbreaker for me.
I only found threads about at&t blocking websites on the new LTE APN - I did not find anything about other ROMs or the new stock software update fixing it. Can you point me to the thread?
Reception issues: do custom ROMs/radios fix this problem for anyone that has experienced this?
Does anyone know whether at&t will unlock the phone (or whether we are stuck having to pay these third party sites to unlock)
European 3G - lot's of sites claim that the phone should work with 3G internationally (2100 UMTS) but has anyone tried (even just roaming on at&t)?
Manufacturers and providers have lied before about phone specs ... need to get this confirmed.

andTab said:
Thank you! That was very helpful.
There are lots of good things about this phone (eg call quality is a hundred times better than on the Nexus One which always sounded like a string/tin-can phone).
I want to know about all the bad things, and what is being done to address them.
Does anyone know whether any current CM devs are considering the phone?
Or whether any current Skyrocket devs might join CM/bring official CM support for this phone?
Not getting CM9 would be a dealbreaker for me.
I only found threads about at&t blocking websites on the new LTE APN - I did not find anything about other ROMs or the new stock software update fixing it. Can you point me to the thread?
Reception issues: do custom ROMs/radios fix this problem for anyone that has experienced this?
Does anyone know whether at&t will unlock the phone (or whether we are stuck having to pay these third party sites to unlock)
European 3G - lot's of sites claim that the phone should work with 3G internationally (2100 UMTS) but has anyone tried (even just roaming on at&t)?
Manufacturers and providers have lied before about phone specs ... need to get this confirmed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Simple, google the Qualcomm radio this phone has, then look up the specs on Qualcomm's website.

Longcat14 said:
Simple, google the Qualcomm radio this phone has, then look up the specs on Qualcomm's website.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is no answer, since the carrier might have disabled the radio, eg the T-Mobile G2x has quad-band 3G but they disabled the ATT 3G radio when the phone was released.
Someone with the phone needs to test it - since the phone has been out for a while now, I would hope that someone has done so.
Otherwise, we will not know based on some BS specs on some BS website.

only thing I'm worried about is not getting ICS OTA update till late next year and thats really only because I 2nd guess myself over just about everything technology which is halting me from rooting

GeezyF.Ladies said:
only thing I'm worried about is not getting ICS OTA update till late next year and thats really only because I 2nd guess myself over just about everything technology which is halting me from rooting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as far as rooting Just DO IT!!
and as far as ICS, OTA or not....we WILL have ICS on the this phone due to the devs porting it over. im thinking by maybe Feb we will have something for our phone. or im hoping anyway.

I bet we get ICS even sooner. Also what's this about ATT blocking justin.tv? Plays fine over ATT LTE for me...

Yeah. this phone really sucks. Lets see..
I get 28+hours on my battery..
Large screen with beautiful display
LTE with 40down speeds my comcast cable has 18 down
Good Dev support so far..
I am so sick and tired of hearing this phone is " sub par" etc..
I think I will treat myself to a new Samsung led 1080p hdtv this week...lol
---------- Post added at 05:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:05 PM ----------
geezyf.ladies said:
only thing i'm worried about is not getting ics ota update till late next year and thats really only because i 2nd guess myself over just about everything technology which is halting me from rooting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
rooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:d

you might wanna try the regular galaxy s2. pretty much clears up most of the problems... still pretty big but not as big

[Q] Verizon version, what model is it?

I see SCH-i925 in some places and then I see reference to LTE versions with another designation called N802X, can someone please clarify this for me? Also, is there any real development happening for the SCH-i925 or should I just plan to run it stock for the foreseeable future? My tablet got the most recent OTA before I even left the store, so I never had a chance to root it and it would appear that there is nothing happening there, but just to stay on topic (since development talk is another sub-forum) I would love for someone to explain what the model designations mean. :good::good:

ssnapier said:
I see SCH-i925 in some places and then I see reference to LTE versions with another designation called N802X, can someone please clarify this for me? Also, is there any real development happening for the SCH-i925 or should I just plan to run it stock for the foreseeable future? My tablet got the most recent OTA before I even left the store, so I never had a chance to root it and it would appear that there is nothing happening there, but just to stay on topic (since development talk is another sub-forum) I would love for someone to explain what the model designations mean. :good::good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The SCH-i925 is the Verizon model of the 10.1. The N802X is the international version of the 10.1LTE. From what I've gathered they are identical without the Verizon bloat. Development for this little critter is virtually nonexistent, although This thing runs flawless for me with just the stock rom. I never received the new update because I've been rooted for a while, but really there isn't a ton of need to be rooted on this thing. You can kill off just about everything you dont want in the application manager. The only real caveat to not being rooted is you cant install rooted apps.

[Q] Galaxy SIII from MetroPCS

I have been finding it very difficult to find any specific info about rooting, updating and any problem solving period on my MetroPCS SGH-T999N. Now I was under the impression that T-Mobile bought out MetroPCS but there is no real info on that either. This phone as cool as it is will not(and this is really dumb) let me moves App to the SD card. No matter which program I install. I read somewhere that enough S4 users complained and Samsung had their people write an update to fix that. So they say, I can't be 100% sure on that one.

Database Info

welcome