Can i please get some advice? (sorry a bit long but thought i need to provide the background info).
I have been given a Samsung Note 7 as a compensation-related gift by my network operator Vodafone and to cut a very long story short i have almost exhausted all possibilities with Vodafone and Samsung to get it exchanged for a different model or a credit.
I am currently looking at the possibilities of keeping my Note 7 if i feel i can assess (and possibly repair) it privately to confirm the safety implications and any other issues that may come up.
My questions are as follows:
1. Has anyone had success changing the Imei and model number? The reason is to protect myself from network barring and to retain app support. I have a previous Note and can use the imei. My plan was to change the model to G935F that of an S7 Edge. (There are some sites i came across but I wasn’t sure the guides were tested)
2. Can i root it and will i be able to update it regularly from core android?
3. Will the Wifi-calling feature work? Sounds like a small thing but its quite important. I have this feature on my Note 7 already and activated on my account and its very useful to me.
I live in the UK and I am an Engineer by trade. I worked for a cellular phone repair centre a number of years ago that specialised with Samsung and Nokia phones.
Whilst i have some experience and contacts in the industry, my knowledge of the current software/ firmware platforms on the market is limited so i would greatly appreciate any advice you can give.
Thanks in advance
Related
Hello everyone,
I've been searching sometime for an answer but I seem to keep getting conflicting information. Here's the gist: I'm moving to South Korea long term and I have a Samsung Nexus S that was purchased through Koodoo. Works like a sweet machine and I'm loath to give it up. I'm just wondering if it will work when I bring it over instead of forking out money again for another smartphone.
Reasons I think it will work: Nexus S seems to have a wide range of frequencies that it is compatible with, designed to be a world phone, etc.
Reasons I think it might not work: I keep hearing different information on South Korean frequencies from CDMA only to god-knows-what.
Can anyone out here help? It's quite confusing to me. If it won't work then I'll likely try to resell it (still in pristine condition) before leaving instead of bringing it all the way over and it being unusable. However if it does work, again, it would save me buying a new smartphone over there which will probably cost me more in the long run.
Any advice is MUCH appreciated. Thanks!
I'd like to say that it should work fine in S.Korea givin that the i9020 is basically the m200(Korean nexus s). I'm not completely sure though, I can be wrong so don't count me in on it 100%. If it's possible I would contact a Korean GSM telco through email and ask, they'll know if your nexus s is compatible with their bands. I would do that JUST to make sure
What model of Nexus do you have? Do you what bands/frequencies South Korea service providers use?
Hello
I'm looking at replacing my S4 with an S7. My carrier in the US is AT&T and that won't be changing. I've been looking at different unlocked versions and can't find a solid representation of what the real world differences are. I know they have different processors. Some say a band is missing, but does that matter. I don't use android or samsung pay, but i know there is a difference here too. I found one comment about some kind of samsung 'coverage' plan, but what is that?
Best Buy has US unlocked phones for about $700. B&H Photo has an International phone for about $640. Its a lot of money either way. Is one phone really better or different than that other?
I am planning a trip through Canada and maybe to Europe. I assume either would take a SIM from those areas and I could avoid getting raped by international fees.
Here is a summary of question I can think of:
Does the US unlocked phone from BestBuy have a warranty or insurance or anything like that?
Can the US phone be rooted. I only do this to remove apps I don't use.
Is the hardware one vs the other really better or just different?
Does a dual SIM do anything useful?
Does a band being missing make a real world difference?
Is there a good comparison somewhere to that can decide on a phone to purchase?
It comes with a limited warranty as stated on their site:
"This device is not warrantied through the manufacturer. This device has a limited 1 year warranty provided by CCR Warranty. To obtain technical or warranty assistance, please contact CCR Warranty at 866-579-8436."
What I don't know is how useful/limited that warranty is. I'd like the HTC 10 but the unlocked S7 is my runner up, and the warranty issue is one of the major factors in my hesitation.
I do believe it can be rooted.
As far as I know, through research, the only major difference between the two is battery life.
Hello, I'll just go straight to the answers.
1. I'm going to assume that if you go through a carrier (att, t-mobile etc etc.) they will offer an insurance plan. You will have to go to third party insurance for the international version
2. As far I know, the US version does not have a root option yet. Because of the locked bootloader.
3. Hardware will depend on which version you choose. Both are very good.
4. Dual sim is as the name implies, you'll be able to use 2 separate sim cards with their respective #s. that's the only benefit really.
5. Missing radio bands is something you may have to do some research on depending your location.
6. I'm sure YouTube or some online site will have some reviews/comparison of both.
I just looked at the best buy website again and something is different. The S7 listed for $690 is definitely the international version and not the US version. When I looked last month I was positive that the phone was listed as a US phone ... huh
A little late
a little late to the thread but just wanted to share what I learned while researching the matter.
There is an US unlocked version of the S7 (g930u) and available through a few places (Best Buy, B&H, Ebay). It goes for $679.99 retail and I have not been able to find one that goes for less. Probably because it just came out end of June. The biggest benefit of it is that it has a bunch of bands and CDMA-compatible. Thus, you can get full connection with AT&T and TMobile. Downside is no wifi calling or VOLTE (as those seem to be locked by the carriers to their own phones).
The international versions (930f/930fd) are both available on Ebay/Swappa for about $500. Upside are that they have the Exnyos chip and no bloatware. You can also root and flash them with new ROM. Another thing is that you get updates earlier. I got Marshmallow on my s6 a month or so before AT&T released its update. Downsides are no Samsung Pay or WiFi Calling/VOLTE and the biggie...missing bands. I had a g920i and it was missing support for bands 29 and 30 on AT&T...this led to poor LTE and indoor reception at times. I would have to turn on/off the mobile data switch sometimes to get good connection.
Finally, we have carrier based versions, which loads you down with bloatware and has the Snapdragon chip. But, it does support all features of your carrier. Slower updates also an issue and lack of support of all bands internationally are additional drawbacks. Cost is also about $500.
Personally, I am going with an unlocked 930a. Bloatware sucks but I can delete or disable almost all of them. Snapdragon seems pretty powerful to me. Samsung Pay, Wifi Calling, and Band support are just too important for me. Note, make sure you ask the seller on Ebay/Swappa about whether the phone is unlocked.
Hope that helps.
I did a lot of research into this before buying my S7 but was kind of screwed since I'm on Verizon (CDMA)...
Since you're on AT&T you have more options.
There are two different processors in the two different models, Snapdragon 820 in the US CDMA capable and an Eyxnos in the International GSM ONLY phone.
After doing my research, I personally recommend the Eyxnos, which I couldn't get :/
If for nothing else, better battery life, by far. Do some research into the comparison between the two.
However! When buying from Best Buy be careful!
Last I checked, on their website, the black/onyx S7 was an unlocked US Snapdragon 820 phone.... while strangely enough the other two, gold and silver? were both unlocked US (actually international) Eyxnos phones.
Also, last I checked Samsung themselves only sell the CDMA snapdragon processor model to the US.
Unless Best Buy made a mistake listing the Eyxnos processor, it is the only way to get that model without buying an "internationally sourced" phone on ebay.
Just a few notes:
1) The G930u is fully compatible with all the US Carriers
2) VoLTE works on both T-Mobile and Verizon
3) Wi-Fi Calling works on T-Mobile and potentially Verizon (but I am not positive about Verizon).
The big downside to the G930u is that for whatever reason it is not receiving updates from Samsung when its branded siblings are.
I thought perhaps this was an obvious question, but after hours of searching I'm unable to confirm if I can use an new cellular tablet as wifi-only? Specifically the older Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE Verizon (SM-P605-VZKE with Verizon branding). There's lots of cheap refurbs on the market, and the specs are still solid, even by today's standards.
I've seen countless activation bypasses on youtube, but none for this particular device (press four corners then volume-down to skip cellular activation screen).
I'm not a cell-phone person, don't even own one, but I'm android proficient, comortable rooting/flashing tablets, plus a computer science degree and decades of experience with Linux.. just no phone knowledge. My wife has an active Verizon sim card fwiw, and I'd like to update it to Lollipop (which appears to be an OTA update).
thanks for any hints.. I really did search around first for this answer,
--edfardos
edfardos said:
I thought perhaps this was an obvious question, but after hours of searching I'm unable to confirm if I can use an new cellular tablet as wifi-only? Specifically the older Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE Verizon (SM-P605-VZKE with Verizon branding). There's lots of cheap refurbs on the market, and the specs are still solid, even by today's standards.
I've seen countless activation bypasses on youtube, but none for this particular device (press four corners then volume-down to skip cellular activation screen).
I'm not a cell-phone person, don't even own one, but I'm android proficient, comortable rooting/flashing tablets, plus a computer science degree and decades of experience with Linux.. just no phone knowledge. My wife has an active Verizon sim card fwiw, and I'd like to update it to Lollipop (which appears to be an OTA update).
thanks for any hints.. I really did search around first for this answer,
--edfardos
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Greetings and welcome to assist. It should be possible to use it as a wifi only tablet yes, some roms require a sim card inserted (it doesn't need to be an active one so any would do) but this is easily fixes with a csc edit
Good Luck
Sawdoctor
I've owned a few phones, notably my long-time companion Note 4 (TMobile). Recently my office announced they're flipping our TMobile account to Sprint. We get a "new" phone but not quite cutting edge... though a Note 5 seems a nice move forward despite the loss of removable battery and extra sd-card slot. But can someone explain to me the strangely unpopulated page here compared to the Note 4's page (or even the One Plus 2 page, where actual Oreo roms are popping up like weeds)? Is it all about the Exynos chip, or Sprint, or what? There's a dearth of new development going on here compared to my other two phones and I'm baffled. Thanks....
The 920P it is not very compatible. Being just a USA phone, It doesn't get enough attention from developers*. All Note5 and S6 phones are Exynos, but the Sprint models just have poor support. And they are also 3 years old.
*The Sprint model doesn't work very well outside the Americas (continent)
cachanilla86 said:
The 920P it is not very compatible. Being just a USA phone, It doesn't get enough attention from developers*. All Note5 and S6 phones are Exynos, but the Sprint models just have poor support. And they are also 3 years old.
*The Sprint model doesn't work very well outside the Americas (continent)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's not what I want to hear. Tell me something comforting! HAHAHAHA.
If at some stage I want to unlock the phone (say in 8 months or less when TMobile and Sprint merge) will it have all the hardware inside it to function as a TMobile or other provider's phone? Incl. LTE, wifi calling, and the rest?
shonkin said:
If at some stage I want to unlock the phone (say in 8 months or less when TMobile and Sprint merge) will it have all the hardware inside it to function as a TMobile or other provider's phone? Incl. LTE, wifi calling, and the rest?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think so, this being a carrier specific model it is very limited so you can't use it elsewhere. In Mexico I get LTE with the most popular carrier and some other people in Vietnam and India. You can wait to see if it works for you.
I did find this thread on sprint that discusses unlocking (domestically) the Sprint Note 5 for use as a GSM phone (TMobile, AT&T and the like). At some point it may be of use to me or someone else...
https://community.sprint.com/t5/Sam...ng-Note-5-for-Domestic-use-on-GSM/td-p/960238
I did finally get the Sprint Note 5, by the way.... first thing I noticed is that compared to my old Note 4 its battery life *sucks*. But such a nice phone otherwise, despite no switchable battery or microsd slot. (I solved the latter to a degree by getting a 64gb version of the phone).
I unlocked my Note5 via a paid service...
Hello to Everyone:
This is my first post so please don't hold it against me. Thank you in advance.
I used the unlock service of idoneapps.com. it ran $35. Opted for the debranding option as well but skipped the MetroPCS option.
My phone is no longer Sprint branded and got rid of their bloatware. TWRP with SuperSu installed and I can pull out my T-Mobile SIM out and put in an AT&T SIM in and it works seamlessly.
Get access to the hidden menu and hotspot is unlocked while I get to manually select, (if desired), WDCMA, GSM, etc... Connects at LTE and the wireless switching works great. WiFi hotspot also works great.
Couldn't be more pleased as I also can turn off anything as the package comes with an app manager. It is great not to have Facebook, Snapchat, or the Sprint crud running. No more stupid Sprint boot animation.
I am currently running a Samsung branded Nougat 920P that I had my own IMEI number generated TWRP let's me access the recovery mode and let's me flash perfectly.
XPosed is installed with, AdAway 3.3, ViperFX 6.5.0.5, YouTube ad blocker, rootcloak. Upgraded to SuperSu pro however I still haven't managed to go systemless.
I play Crash Fever so I am stupid and actually spend money that game so my Google Play code redeeming works fine. Samsung Pay won't ever work because of rooting but oh well... ACMarket, MS office mobile, the Samsung Suite of apps, and all the S-Pen features work seemlessly.
Anyways, I hope I didn't violate any rules by my posting as I love XDA as this community is phenomenal.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me as I would be glad to field any questions or facilitate details as may be needed.
Eagerly awaiting an Oreo update.
Gellybean777
Hi all, I'm asking here because there is no dedicated subforum for XCover 6.
So, I'm planning on buying Galaxy XCover 6Pro but I'm getting confused if there are different version of it out on the market? I've noticed that shops in my country (Poland) mark phones they are selling using these three different product numbers:
sm-g736bzkdeeb,
sm-g736bzkdeee,
sm-g736bzkd
with the first one (EEB) being called "Enterprise Edition" appearing in most of stores while the offical samsung.com store lists XCover 6Pro with "EEE" product number. Neverthless google shows up a samsung page for the "EEB" model too.
https://www.samsung.com/uk/business/smartphones/xcover/galaxy-xcover6-pro-sm-g736bzkdeeb/
https://www.samsung.com/levant/business/smartphones/xcover/galaxy-xcover6-pro-sm-g736bzkdeee/
So i checked the specs, in stores and on these samsung pages and they all appear to be the same XCover 6 Pro, 6GB 5G phones with Dual Sim in black colour.
So here is my question. Are they really the same phone or there is some difference that's my eye is missing?
The difference between the two devices you have named, is that one is made for the German market (EEB) and one is made for the eastern European and Swiss/Austrian markets (EEE).
There may be some issues with things such as samsung pay if you are using a device outside of its region but overall the device should work fine either way.
With the previous model (G715FN), I was able to flash to my local firmware without issue and all bands worked flawlessly as well as all localised features such as samsung pay. Unfortunately once this is done, you will not receive OTA updates any longer as it recognises your device has been modified. This may be because I tripped knox doing all this.
The only other thing to look out for is that you aren't buying a device that has been locked to a given carrier, or requires a sim from that carrier for activation.
Again, there's usually ways around this but you don't need to complicate your life like that.
If you are able to buy locally, surely they can give you some assurances that the device will work with your local providers?
There is no difference in specs, bands etc, it's just localisation support and operator specific configurations to worry about.
Samsung generally include all international MBN files in their modem config files so it's not such a huge deal these days as long as you can successfully register the device for use.
bandario said:
The difference between the two devices you have named, is that one is made for the German market (EEB) and one is made for the eastern European and Swiss/Austrian markets (EEE).
There may be some issues with things such as samsung pay if you are using a device outside of its region but overall the device should work fine either way.
With the previous model (G715FN), I was able to flash to my local firmware without issue and all bands worked flawlessly as well as all localised features such as samsung pay. Unfortunately once this is done, you will not receive OTA updates any longer as it recognises your device has been modified. This may be because I tripped knox doing all this.
The only other thing to look out for is that you aren't buying a device that has been locked to a given carrier, or requires a sim from that carrier for activation.
Again, there's usually ways around this but you don't need to complicate your life like that.
If you are able to buy locally, surely they can give you some assurances that the device will work with your local providers?
There is no difference in specs, bands etc, it's just localisation support and operator specific configurations to worry about.
Samsung generally include all international MBN files in their modem config files so it's not such a huge deal these days as long as you can successfully register the device for use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for detailed explanation!
Anyone tried root with Magisk?
bandario said:
Anyone tried root with Magisk?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have one I got recently, but have not used Magisk. Doesn't one have to access bootloader to do that? Which is my question: Anyone have an unlock for the bootloader?
Yes. There's instructions Here