I'm looking at upgrading from my Moto E4 and settled on the Galaxy S7 over the Pixel due to the MicroSD slot. I now have questions as to which version to get.
I understand that it's relatively simple to flash the unlocked firmware on any of the devices. Could I just simply find the cheapest, good shaped S7 and flash the unlocked firmware and be satisfied?
I'm currently on Sprint's 1-year free service promotion until September 2018. So Sprint compatibility is needed for a while. After that, I want the freedom to be able to hop back to AT&T or Verizon (or one of their MVNOs).
Should I just buy a Sprint S7 now, then when my service is up, flash the new firmware then? Or should I buy a T-Mobile version and flash the 930U firmware right away? The universal unlocked model is significantly more expensive, so I just want to make sure I'm covering all my bases.
Depends on your goals. Flashing via Odin is quite simple and easy for the S7, but the US models all have a locked bootloader. That means you can only flash stock firmware files, and nothing custom. No ROM's and no TWRP.
If you're happy with than then you're set, if not you'll need the international Exynos model, as it can be unlocked and flash custom.
Beanvee7 said:
Depends on your goals. Flashing via Odin is quite simple and easy for the S7, but the US models all have a locked bootloader. That means you can only flash stock firmware files, and nothing custom. No ROM's and no TWRP.
If you're happy with than then you're set, if not you'll need the international Exynos model, as it can be unlocked and flash custom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no ROMs is OK with me. the exynos version won't work on my current provider, so can't go that direction anyway.
Hi all
I just purchased the International S8+ dual Sim variant, the G955FD, from eBay.
I live in Canada and will be using both a Telus Sim and a Rogers Sim.
Is there anything I need to worry about regarding the CSC type?
I found this thread, https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...ility-flashable-csc-selection-v1-0-0-t3605264
So it seems easy enough - I just don't know if and when I need to change the type.
And should I even be changing it to Telus or Rogers, since they don't have this variant?
And yes this is my first Samsung phone
And input is appreciated!
Edit: if it matters, I don't use wifi calling for either Telus or Rogers. I also plan on simply rooting the phone with magisk to make some mods, and put on Android pay
Just curious. Where was your Duos sourced from?
chompx2 said:
Just curious. Where was your Duos sourced from?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great question.
As I did more reading on the device I checked the eBay listing and didn't see exactly where it's sourced from. I should have it in hand by Wednesday and I'll try to validate then. What should I be looking for?
Is there a specific source country that works better than others?
zoltrix said:
Hi all
I just purchased the International S8+ dual Sim variant, the G955FD, from eBay.
I live in Canada and will be using both a Telus Sim and a Rogers Sim.
Is there anything I need to worry about regarding the CSC type?
I found this thread, https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...ility-flashable-csc-selection-v1-0-0-t3605264
So it seems easy enough - I just don't know if and when I need to change the type.
And should I even be changing it to Telus or Rogers, since they don't have this variant?
And yes this is my first Samsung phone
And input is appreciated!
Edit: if it matters, I don't use wifi calling for either Telus or Rogers. I also plan on simply rooting the phone with magisk to make some mods, and put on Android pay
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly, congratulations on the new phone. I've got a 955FD as well.
It doesn't matter where the phone is sourced from, although if you want to check, you can go in to settings > about > software information > service provider information and see the CSCs listed there, in this format 'XXX/XXX/XXX'
The first one is the active CSC on the device at the time of you checking, the second one is the CSC for the SIM card currently being used, and the third CSC which can not be changed at ALL is the one from which country the device was sourced.
I'm in Pakistan so for me the CSC format is: PAK/PAK/MID
First two are PAK because that's the CSC for my SIM card and because it's the active CSC on my device, however the last one always remains as MID since that's where my device was imported from.
Canada has no CSCs available for the G955FD sicne it's the Exynos variant and the one sold in Canda is the G955W which is Single SIM and SD835, however the CSCs should work regardless of device variant. You can flash the CSC for whichever is your main SIM card, or whichever you use more often. Either Telus or Rogers, entirely up to you.
The benefits of flashing your carriers CSC is getting stuff like VoLTE and WiFi calling (and sometimes even 4G+/LTE+) to work. No harm in doing it since you're going to root anyway, so make sure to flash whichever one you prefer.
Magisk, rooting, mods, that's all fine, but do confirm properly about Android Pay before actually going ahead and rooting.
Samsung Pay will not work in Canada with the 955FD, and will definitely not work anywhere at all once you've rooted and tripped the KNOX warranty counter. Android Pay can be tricked into working by passing SafetyNet with Magisk, not sure if this still works or not though.
Other than that you should't have any issues.
If you've got any more questions, just tag me or quote this post and I'll be happy to help.
Regards,
murtaza02
murtaza02 said:
Firstly, congratulations on the new phone. I've got a 955FD as well.
It doesn't matter where the phone is sourced from, although if you want to check, you can go in to settings > about > software information > service provider information and see the CSCs listed there, in this format 'XXX/XXX/XXX'
The first one is the active CSC on the device at the time of you checking, the second one is the CSC for the SIM card currently being used, and the third CSC which can not be changed at ALL is the one from which country the device was sourced.
I'm in Pakistan so for me the CSC format is: PAK/PAK/MID
First two are PAK because that's the CSC for my SIM card and because it's the active CSC on my device, however the last one always remains as MID since that's where my device was imported from.
Canada has no CSCs available for the G955FD sicne it's the Exynos variant and the one sold in Canda is the G955W which is Single SIM and SD835, however the CSCs should work regardless of device variant. You can flash the CSC for whichever is your main SIM card, or whichever you use more often. Either Telus or Rogers, entirely up to you.
The benefits of flashing your carriers CSC is getting stuff like VoLTE and WiFi calling (and sometimes even 4G+/LTE+) to work. No harm in doing it since you're going to root anyway, so make sure to flash whichever one you prefer.
Magisk, rooting, mods, that's all fine, but do confirm properly about Android Pay before actually going ahead and rooting.
Samsung Pay will not work in Canada with the 955FD, and will definitely not work anywhere at all once you've rooted and tripped the KNOX warranty counter. Android Pay can be tricked into working by passing SafetyNet with Magisk, not sure if this still works or not though.
Other than that you should't have any issues.
If you've got any more questions, just tag me or quote this post and I'll be happy to help.
Regards,
murtaza02
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you!
The break down is very much appreciated.
Is there any issue with flashing (via TWRP or Odin?) random CSCs?
Since there is no G955FD in Canada, I don't want to break anything.
I'm very comfortable with flashing and modding the heck out of Android phones, but Samsung seems to be a totally different ball game lol
I obtained a Galaxy S8+ G955FD Dual Sim from e-Bay as well, sourced from UAE. I was able to register US issued MasterCard and Visa on Samsung Pay.
I am on T-Mobile, other than not having WIFI calling, the G955FD works great. Rooting the phone would most likely break the Samsung Pay. So that is a decision you need to make.
zoltrix said:
Thank you!
The break down is very much appreciated.
Is there any issue with flashing (via TWRP or Odin?) random CSCs?
Since there is no G955FD in Canada, I don't want to break anything.
I'm very comfortable with flashing and modding the heck out of Android phones, but Samsung seems to be a totally different ball game lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No issues at all. Plenty of people in the US using the Exynos variants and they've all flashed the necessary CSCs when required.
Flash TWRP using Odin and then use the flashable CSC selection mod to choose whatever CSC you'd like to flash.
Sent from my SM-G955F
chompx2 said:
I obtained a Galaxy S8+ G955FD Dual Sim from e-Bay as well, sourced from UAE. I was able to register US issued MasterCard and Visa on Samsung Pay.
I am on T-Mobile, other than not having WIFI calling, the G955FD works great. Rooting the phone would most likely break the Samsung Pay. So that is a decision you need to make.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
murtaza02 said:
No issues at all. Plenty of people in the US using the Exynos variants and they've all flashed the necessary CSCs when required.
Flash TWRP using Odin and then use the flashable CSC selection mod to choose whatever CSC you'd like to flash.
Sent from my SM-G955F
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks guys.
I'll assume that flashing TWRP is going to trip knox, right? therefore flashing a localized CSC is going to require me tripping knox.
Which hey, if Android Pay works fine then i don't need to use Samsung Pay i guess.
If i dont change my CSC, then will my phone receive OTAs when they're released in whatever country its sourced from?
Will changing my CSC to a Canadian one mean i'll start seeing Canadian OTAs?
What about manually flashing official images? Do i have to make sure that the file i'm using matches the CSC as well?
And lastly, are the S8 and S8+ images the same file? Or are ROMs for the S8 100% compatible with the S8+?
zoltrix said:
Thanks guys.
I'll assume that flashing TWRP is going to trip knox, right? therefore flashing a localized CSC is going to require me tripping knox.
Which hey, if Android Pay works fine then i don't need to use Samsung Pay i guess.
If i dont change my CSC, then will my phone receive OTAs when they're released in whatever country its sourced from?
Will changing my CSC to a Canadian one mean i'll start seeing Canadian OTAs?
What about manually flashing official images? Do i have to make sure that the file i'm using matches the CSC as well?
And lastly, are the S8 and S8+ images the same file? Or are ROMs for the S8 100% compatible with the S8+?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flashing anything other than a Samsung Stock ROM will trip KNOX. Including TWRP. The Canadian CSC using the flashable CSC selector will have no effect on KNOX since it'll already have been tripped because of TWRP.
If you don't change your CSC, and are rooted with Magisk and have mods, you won't get any OTAs since the phone is rooted.
And no, changing to a Canadian CSC will not get you Canadian OTAs since the Canadian variant has the Snapdragon 835 and the 955FD you're getting has an Exynos 8895, so OTAs and stock ROMs are most definitely not interchangeable.
Manually flashing stock ROMs is possible, I suggest you flash the newest one available when you get the phone, which is G955FXXU1AQK7. And honestly, because there's been a major overhaul in how CSCs work on the S8, you can just grab any firmware and flash it and it'll stay on the CSC your phone came from because it can't switch to a Canadian one without you manually doing it.
S8/S8+ images are not the same and you can't flash S8 images on an S8+ or S8+ images on an S8.
Only S8+ (G955F/G955FD) stock ROMs will work on your phone.
However, since you're going through all the effort to root, change CSC and flash Magisk Mods, might as well use a custom ROM?
They get updated regularly so you don't have to keep flashing the stock ROM, and you can still have root, CSC mods and everything but with a few extra features and possibly better performance.
zoltrix said:
Great question.
As I did more reading on the device I checked the eBay listing and didn't see exactly where it's sourced from. I should have it in hand by Wednesday and I'll try to validate then. What should I be looking for?
Is there a specific source country that works better than others?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
zoltrix said:
Thanks guys.
I'll assume that flashing TWRP is going to trip knox, right? therefore flashing a localized CSC is going to require me tripping knox.
Which hey, if Android Pay works fine then i don't need to use Samsung Pay i guess.
If i dont change my CSC, then will my phone receive OTAs when they're released in whatever country its sourced from?
Will changing my CSC to a Canadian one mean i'll start seeing Canadian OTAs?
What about manually flashing official images? Do i have to make sure that the file i'm using matches the CSC as well?
And lastly, are the S8 and S8+ images the same file? Or are ROMs for the S8 100% compatible with the S8+?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got my S8+ over Thanksgiving and have been using this for less than 2 weeks. I received an OTA update a few days ago. It was an Android security patch dated November 1, 2017. So, I am getting security patch updates.
murtaza02 said:
Flashing anything other than a Samsung Stock ROM will trip KNOX. Including TWRP. The Canadian CSC using the flashable CSC selector will have no effect on KNOX since it'll already have been tripped because of TWRP.
If you don't change your CSC, and are rooted with Magisk and have mods, you won't get any OTAs since the phone is rooted.
And no, changing to a Canadian CSC will not get you Canadian OTAs since the Canadian variant has the Snapdragon 835 and the 955FD you're getting has an Exynos 8895, so OTAs and stock ROMs are most definitely not interchangeable.
Manually flashing stock ROMs is possible, I suggest you flash the newest one available when you get the phone, which is G955FXXU1AQK7. And honestly, because there's been a major overhaul in how CSCs work on the S8, you can just grab any firmware and flash it and it'll stay on the CSC your phone came from because it can't switch to a Canadian one without you manually doing it.
S8/S8+ images are not the same and you can't flash S8 images on an S8+ or S8+ images on an S8.
Only S8+ (G955F/G955FD) stock ROMs will work on your phone.
However, since you're going through all the effort to root, change CSC and flash Magisk Mods, might as well use a custom ROM?
They get updated regularly so you don't have to keep flashing the stock ROM, and you can still have root, CSC mods and everything but with a few extra features and possibly better performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
chompx2 said:
I got my S8+ over Thanksgiving and have been using this for less than 2 weeks. I received an OTA update a few days ago. It was an Android security patch dated November 1, 2017. So, I am getting security patch updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you
So maybe the first think i do is try and see how long i can go without having to root it / put on TWRP.
If i dont touch anything, including the CSC, will i receive OTAs as the source country gets them ? or am i out of band and therefore am on my own?
zoltrix said:
Thank you
So maybe the first think i do is try and see how long i can go without having to root it / put on TWRP.
If i dont touch anything, including the CSC, will i receive OTAs as the source country gets them ? or am i out of band and therefore am on my own?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you don't change anything, you will get CSCs for wherever the phone was sourced from.
Sent from my SM-G955F
Just got the phone!
It's CSC is XSG/XSG/XSG which looks like "United Arab Emirates unbranded"
First thing im noticing is that it's not restoring my Google backups
Is this because it's a samsung phone and i need to use the Samsung backup feature instead?
zoltrix said:
Just got the phone!
It's CSC is XSG/XSG/XSG which looks like "United Arab Emirates unbranded"
First thing im noticing is that it's not restoring my Google backups
Is this because it's a samsung phone and i need to use the Samsung backup feature instead?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is indeed a UAE phone, good place to be sourced from since XSG gets updates fairly quickly compared to other CSCs.
What issue did you face when restoring the Google backup and how exactly did you try to restore it?
Some people have reported that the Samsung Pay app installed on XSG phones works well in other countries, so you can try that out if you want, otherwise Android Pay should work fine.
murtaza02 said:
It is indeed a UAE phone, good place to be sourced from since XSG gets updates fairly quickly compared to other CSCs.
What issue did you face when restoring the Google backup and how exactly did you try to restore it?
Some people have reported that the Samsung Pay app installed on XSG phones works well in other countries, so you can try that out if you want, otherwise Android Pay should work fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you!
Yes, i actually just got a notification for an OTA. I think the December security patches.
Which is aweosme, so i'm not going to flash a different CSC because i dont think i need to at this time!
Regarding the backups; I was expecting to log in to this phone and get all my apps that were installed on my last phone.
But then i realized that htis is a brand new phone and i dont have a backup to restore to!
So i just manually installed the apps i needed and was on my way.
Lastly, yes, i just installed Android Pay and it works perfectly fine.
Thanks for all the help!
zoltrix said:
Thank you!
Yes, i actually just got a notification for an OTA. I think the December security patches.
Which is aweosme, so i'm not going to flash a different CSC because i dont think i need to at this time!
Regarding the backups; I was expecting to log in to this phone and get all my apps that were installed on my last phone.
But then i realized that htis is a brand new phone and i dont have a backup to restore to!
So i just manually installed the apps i needed and was on my way.
Lastly, yes, i just installed Android Pay and it works perfectly fine.
Thanks for all the help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your previous phone is an android phone and you use Google ID on that phone, you should have no problem restoring your apps. The Play Store remembers your Google ID and all of your apps should be restored if you log in with you Google ID.
Im noticing now that of my 2 SIM cards, one is usually around 80% strength, while the other is around 50% strength.
is this possibly an issue with using the wrong CSC for my region?
Or maybe since only one SIM can use LTE at a time, the other SIM is stuck on 2g/3g and it just has crappy reception becuase those towers arnt really in use anymore in my area?
zoltrix said:
Im noticing now that of my 2 SIM cards, one is usually around 80% strength, while the other is around 50% strength.
is this possibly an issue with using the wrong CSC for my region?
Or maybe since only one SIM can use LTE at a time, the other SIM is stuck on 2g/3g and it just has crappy reception becuase those towers arnt really in use anymore in my area?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that is probably the case.
I had taken my 955FD to UAE earlier this year, used my local UAE SIM in slot 1 for LTE, and my Pakistani SIM card in slot 2 so I could still get texts on that number. Battery life did take a significant hit since the signal strength on one of the SIMs was quite low.
Changing CSCs may or may not have an effect on the signal strength. A good way to check is by using the SIM with poor signal strength in another phone with the same network mode, and see if you get the same results, if so, changing CSC will do nothing. If the difference is very large, then you could consider flashing the CSC although I wouldn't recommend rooting your phone just for a CSC change, especially if you aren't facing difficulties in making calls/sending texts/using data.
I have a 955FD XSG also. Using AT&T. I managed to enable VoLTE by quickly putting the sim on an att branded phone and returning the sim to my phone. I now have the VoLTE toggle and calls are placed over LTE but I can't seem to get the wifi calling toggle to appear.
Luish77 said:
I have a 955FD XSG also. Using AT&T. I managed to enable VoLTE by quickly putting the sim on an att branded phone and returning the sim to my phone. I now have the VoLTE toggle and calls are placed over LTE but I can't seem to get the wifi calling toggle to appear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WiFi calling won't appear without the AT&T CSC.
Sent from my SM-G955F