After much thought and experience with HTC phones, I bought my Asus P565 a few days back. Here are the issues I am facing with the phone :
1. Battery drain - When the CPU "Turbo" mode is selected, the battery drain is quite fast (about 12 hours to discharge from 90+% to 20+% with the phone in standby). Results are somewhat better (though not good) with "Automatic" and "Standard" Modes.
2. Heating problem - When any mode other than "Power Saving" Mode is selected, the handset heats up when not in standby, temperature being maximum for "Turbo" mode. However, usage of "Power Saving" Mode makes my phone as fast ( rather slow) as my HTC Touch.
3. Poor signal quality -I say so, as the phone goes out of coverage at some locations in my house, where my HTC Touch and NOKIA are pretty comfortable.
4. Poor earphone quality - The earphone diaphragm has unwanted vibrations even when the talk volume is low. This is not expected on a PDA phone of premium segment.
I have tried the Malaysian ROM from their FTP site, but it wasn't of any help.
Is there anyone else facing similar issues, or is it just the issue with my phone ?
ya man i am also facing similar problems i was buying tytn ii but because of ASUS cpu and benchmark results i bought asus .
But feeling cheated i am having htc p3300 its performence is much far better then asus the main problem is signal quality. its of no use
P565 and P552w
Your'll are scaring me. Even I plan to buy P565. Now the signal and battery drain are big issue's. Also P552w is giving equally good results on benchmark. Any suggestions?
Hi people, I googled "Asus P565 Heating Problems" and found this forum!
I bought my unit from the PC Fair last month (April).. I was hunting for a Winmo device and was choosing between HTC Touch Diamond and Asus P565, and wanting to be different (coz I have plenty of friends and relatives with the Diamond already), i chose the P565 instead. Mistake...
Firstly when I got the unit home, the unit had a faulty screen.. kept going green and yellow. Brought it back to the PC Fair the next day and they exchanged it 1-to-1 with a new unit. So no complains, except for my time, trouble and outrageous parking charges @ KLCC.
Less than a month into using the unit, the battery suddenly heats up. Even in standby mode!! It was discharging from 90% to 20% in a matter of 4-5 hours without any usage!! Went back to the dealer and they directed me to the service centre. Was told that there maybe some software I installed that's not compatible to the system and could be causing the battery to drain. I was like "What?? Even when no programs are running?". Anyways, they were nice enough to replace me with a brand new battery but asked me to try hard resetting the phone the next time its occuring...
Well, last night, it happened again.. the battery drained from approx 70% to 0% overnight in standby mode - with no usage...
Is there something terribly wrong with Asus handhelds?
i think asus handset are on teseting face all are having problems. friend u can try to put ur CPU MODE TO POWER SAVING MODE . and i think u should also check out for new ROM upgrade from asus site . i update my handset just 10 days back everthing was fine but still the signal quality was very poor . then i upgraded with this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=3767081 rom the signal quality is good but battry as u said sucks.
u can try following
- cpu mode Standard
- in 2g/3g select gsm
- try 6.5 rom or lite rom
don't hate me. cause i know i'm going off topic a little bit
you see, i learned a new lesson today. turns out i don't know how to read Chinese and this 500 dollar asus p565 have just become usless to me. anyways does anybody know how to change from chinese to english. I started to google. i'm not that lazy, i just got way to many different answers. so what i have
step 1: its illegal or something and voids the warrenty (i hope not)
step 2: download the new english rom from some site
step 3: save it on your storage card (storage card must be less than 4gb)
step 4. connect to computer active sync show hidden folder and locate file on card and run the .exe
step 5: get some kind of error message locate something and rename it something
step 6: yadda yadda something happens or something then you get like a reboot screen and you use the nav keys to tap on something else
step 7: cool things happen but don't touch nothing untill its done
step 8: ... what?!? where did i mess up try it again?
also i heard you could do regional settings > something> language change> english. but i heard that doesn't work and i can't even read what says what. i even tried typing the words in google translator and looking for similiar symbols but no luck.
now i know alot of people are reading this and thinking this kid is dumb and ignorant, but please understand i do know nothing but i'm willing and trying to learn all this fancy lingo and how to do cool mods and hacking without totally frying my phone (R.I.P. more beloved sprint mogul ) So if somebody would kindly fill in the gaps for my steps. i would even be flattered if somebody just took the time to read this and laugh behind my back.
its been only 26 days I purchased this phone. I was very happy to buy this phone, but it didn't lasted long. I have to take this phone to Samsung Service Centre after a week due to OTA 5.1.1 update failed. Samsung Service Centre personnel had flashed 5.1.1 using ODIN and I thought everything will be fine but I am experiencing the below problems frequently
Multiple times screen freezes and no option other than soft reset (volume down + power button).
in gallery, pictures taken through camera, the picture becomes green and all its pixels gets disturbed. happened for at least 5 pictures.
in idle / standby mode, phone will not wake up only led light flashes & screen remains black. Only option for me is to soft reset.
sometimes fingerprint unlock doesn't work (there is a message that says the same) and I have to enter the backup password manually.
Phone restarts by itself at-least couple of times (2-3 times) in a day in home network, while roaming it is pathetic.
Phone restarts while using camera, opening Google play, opening Google maps, any software application.
Phone restarts while in safe mode also (suggested by one of customer support executive to monitor my phone in safe mode)
Phone restarts during a call, this happened twice
Model #: SM-G920I
Android Version: 5.1.1
Baseband version G920IDVU2COF8
Kernel Version: 3.10.61-5228538 [email protected] #1 Thu Jun 25 17:43:05 2015
Build Number: LMY47X.G920IDVU2COF8
kishore927 said:
its been only 26 days I purchased this phone. I was very happy to buy this phone, but it didn't lasted long. I have to take this phone to Samsung Service Centre after a week due to OTA 5.1.1 update failed. Samsung Service Centre personnel had flashed 5.1.1 using ODIN and I thought everything will be fine but I am experiencing the below problems frequently
Multiple times screen freezes and no option other than soft reset (volume down + power button).
in gallery, pictures taken through camera, the picture becomes green and all its pixels gets disturbed. happened for at least 5 pictures.
in idle / standby mode, phone will not wake up only led light flashes & screen remains black. Only option for me is to soft reset.
sometimes fingerprint unlock doesn't work (there is a message that says the same) and I have to enter the backup password manually.
Phone restarts by itself at-least couple of times (2-3 times) in a day in home network, while roaming it is pathetic.
Phone restarts while using camera, opening Google play, opening Google maps, any software application.
Phone restarts while in safe mode also (suggested by one of customer support executive to monitor my phone in safe mode)
Phone restarts during a call, this happened twice
Model #: SM-G920I
Android Version: 5.1.1
Baseband version G920IDVU2COF8
Kernel Version: 3.10.61-5228538 [email protected] #1 Thu Jun 25 17:43:05 2015
Build Number: LMY47X.G920IDVU2COF8
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like a broken update install. Go to the service center again and list them all the problems thats been happening with valid proof. They will again flash the OS and give it back to you. It might possibly go but most probable that it won't, so repeat the same thing until they take it seriously so that they give you either a refund or replacement or a proper repair! The problem is, Samsung India never does replacements!
Reflash is needed otherwise have Samsung replaced your S6.
update on 30-July-2015
I am just got my S6 checked with Samsung Service Centre. The personnel has understood my problem clearly and told me that he will reflash the IMEI that will make the phone to Factory OS and then he do some random hardware test and then flash the Adroid ROM.
But unfortunately, IMEI flash failed giving errors. he says there is a problem with PBA and it has to be replaced, in other words he says it is a Mother Board issue.
[What is PBA issue? if IMEI flashing fails will imply a hardware problem?]
So, at-last it is figured out that there is a hardware problem. They asked me to go for a Service Warranty and get the Mother Board replaced. But I didn't agree to the Service Warranty. I asked for a replacement. They say, they can't help me out on phone replacement, I need to check with Direct Customer Centre team.
Thanks for your suggestions.
kishore927 said:
I am just got my S6 checked with Samsung Service Centre. The personnel has understood my problem clearly and told me that he will reflash the IMEI that will make the phone to Factory OS and then he do some random hardware test and then flash the Adroid ROM.
But unfortunately, IMEI flash failed giving errors. he says there is a problem with PBA and it has to be replaced, in other words he says it is a Mother Board issue.
[What is PBA issue? if IMEI flashing fails will imply a hardware problem?]
So, at-last it is figured out that there is a hardware problem. They asked me to go for a Service Warranty and get the Mother Board replaced. But I didn't agree to the Service Warranty. I asked for a replacement. They say, they can't help me out on phone replacement, I need to check with Direct Customer Centre team.
Thanks for your suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any updates after this? Samsung India will never give in a replacement! NEVER EVER. I've tried arms and legs for my previous samsungs even within just 28 days but still they never did. They keep on insisting that the quality of repair will be excellent and i don't need to worry etc etc. Also, once you lose your 7 day window, you aren't eligible for a DOA. But, with increasing complexities in smartphone hardware, its difficult to replicate an issue within 7 freaking days! Please let us know what happened with your phone now! And yea, PBA is nothing but "printed board assembly" which is that green electrical board with all circuits and capacitors and other ICs.
ultraquantum said:
Any updates after this? Samsung India will never give in a replacement! NEVER EVER. I've tried arms and legs for my previous samsungs even within just 28 days but still they never did. They keep on insisting that the quality of repair will be excellent and i don't need to worry etc etc. Also, once you lose your 7 day window, you aren't eligible for a DOA. But, with increasing complexities in smartphone hardware, its difficult to replicate an issue within 7 freaking days! Please let us know what happened with your phone now! And yea, PBA is nothing but "printed board assembly" which is that green electrical board with all circuits and capacitors and other ICs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the follow up & sorry for the late response.
Yes, after this, I had to go through a difficult time. First they insisted me to go through repair, which i denied. After justifying the problems and pain that I was going through, they offered me a new handset as a replacement. When went to see this new replaced handset, the box is of dirt and a pen mark. It was looking like a potential tampered set. When questioned about this, they responded that they are giving a new handset and the dirt on the box is of mishandling by office boy & delivery person. When Opened the box, i was shocked to see the dirt hand print on the warrant card box also, & more disturbing is that there was dirt on the screen of the phone.
It was hard to believe myself, this was happening to me and for a one month old phone. When I rejected the new handset and demanded my money back. Again they took several days for process and finally did a refund. After nearly 2 months, a happy ending.
As I was in love with S6, did 2500 rupees insurance valid for 2 year, bought tough Armor case from Sipgen & Spigen Screen Gaurd, both together I spend around 3500 rupees. Tough Armor and screen guard are not used at all, now got wasted. Need to find someone who can use the same.
Now, I am back to my SII, which is still a reliable phone for me. SII is loaded with 5.1.1 which is being developed by Lysergic Acid. Thanks for his contribution and support.
S6 & services in India made me to think of moving to iOS. New Samsung devices with New Android features are being developed, but the core OS is not stable. Now, it is time for Android developers to concentrate on OS Stability, battery consumption so that people like me should feel secured when using new phones with new Android versions.
Hi Everyone. I've read a lot of posts here and elsewhere on this issue, but have been unable to solve it, and Sony phone support suggested I post a question. So here goes...
I have a Z3 (D6653) on Android 6.0.1. A month out of contract with my telcom (Telstra), I started having trouble pulling down the notification drawer. Originally it was just slow, then only possible from the home screen and within a day altogether impossible.
I reset the device to factory, but this didn't help.
I used the native diagnostic tool to test the touchscreen and it showed a narrow, very uniform unresponsive band at the top of the screen. About 2-3mm. The uniformity of the band, which suggested to me (right or wrong) that it may be a software issue, not a hardware issue.
So I tried to flash a custom ROM, but although I was able to unlock the bootloader, I was unable to access recovery mode. (I've flashed custom ROMs before, but it's not something I've ever found trouble-free.) After about 8 hours trying all the usual methods, and all the unusual ones, I gave up and started looking at recovery apps.
But recovery apps all require root, so I decided to pursue that course. But without recovery, I couldn't root the device the normal way, so I decided to try Kingroot. After a few false starts, it eventually said it had successfully rooted the device, and Root Checker said it had too. But I was still unable to install a custom recovery with an app. Which left me with nowhere to go.
And now Root Checker is saying the device is NOT properly rooted, Kingroot basically spins, and I haven't been able to unroot with SU or anything else I've tried (not many attempts).
And now at least one app (Pokemon Go) won't work because it thinks the device is rooted.
So I'm now using a floating app to pull down the notification drawer, and I've got all the apps that most often give me notifications sitting directly on my home screen, rather than in folders. I know none of this is the end of the world, but it interrupts my workflow and, thus, my overall productivity. Also plays havoc with my OCD!
Sony support said it's no longer covered by warranty because I rooted it, and although they can probably fix it, it'll take up to a month, and will cost somewhere between $50-$250. I could buy a replacement phone for not much more!
Any ideas on where to go from here? Should I just get a local mobile repair shop to replace the touchscreen? Or is my suspicion right and it's more likely to be the OS? And if the OS, how do I get to recovery?
Thanks heaps, in advance.
Cheers
Glenn
divinewrite said:
I used the native diagnostic tool to test the touchscreen and it showed a narrow, very uniform unresponsive band at the top of the screen. About 2-3mm. The uniformity of the band, which suggested to me (right or wrong) that it may be a software issue, not a hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just about guarantee you that it's a hardware problem, this has happened to me twice on 2 different display panels, through some research this problem happens only on sony phones.
Normally cracking the screen will trigger this problem (Even the smallest of cracks will) but in some cases it will do it on it's own. I think (correct me if I am wrong) sony purposely made this happen possibly to make money on the unfortunate ones who have cracked the screen and caused the digitiser to become slightly unresponsive or not work at all (Thus needed repair and most will go to sony to do so).
I ended up blowing up the phone (Not kidding, I put it in a old microwave and the battery exploded) because it was a pain to run AOSP/CM roms on there and it was gonna cost me quite a bit to fix again so I said fk it and happily destroyed it with a couple of mates (I don't suggest doing this I was just sharing my experience/feelings with this problem {and more}).
I'd suggest selling it (If possible) and getting a new phone, even a phone with the same specs will be better due to sony being... well... sony.
I'm quite happy with my new Moto G4 Plus that runs considerably better than my old Z3 (And the battery lasts longer too ).
What's the deal with the Samsung Galaxy A41?
For reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_A41
https://www.samsung.com/A41
There is no XDA-Forum for this smartphone
There also seems to be no community for this phone.
Searching the internet for A41 compatible Custom ROMs ends in less than nothingness even in the darkest corners.
What's going on? The phone is on the market since March 2020. The phone is pretty good in specs (middle-class).
AND it is the ONLY phone under 200 bucks today that is NOT larger than 150mm in length and therefor usable in pockets.
I don't get it why it doesn't get the same attention as the other competitors in the same price class.
Can anybody enlighten me what's happening?
Please XDA mods and admins, if this is just a mistake, please open a samsung forum for the A41!
yepp - I have such an 'outbreak of hell' product - still struggling to root this beast. 90% of the references in the i-net are fake/copied from other Axx or just bla-bla.
Up to now odin (different versions) seems only to be able to flash Samsung CRAPROM (needed it several times after ended bricked)
- magisk patched boot img not working/ending up in boot-loop,
- magisk patching AP dies before finishing (img is 3.5GB instead 4GB)
Samsung - not a success story
avalanche1609 said:
Up to now odin (different versions) seems only to be able to flash Samsung CRAPROM (needed it several times after ended bricked)
- magisk patched boot img not working/ending up in boot-loop,
- magisk patching AP dies before finishing (img is 3.5GB instead 4GB)
Samsung - not a success story
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
omg.. I was hoping to be able to root the phone at least with magisk.. but what you say doesn't sound well. I saw all those copy-paste tutorials for A41 on the internet too.. thought at least something gotta work.
I still don't get it. this should be a popular phone by its smaller size, low price and good super amoled display.
unbelievable there is no community, roots, custom roms, or at least discussion threads.
friends are getting a few A41 phones.. now that'll be a funny mess to root and handle. :/
@avalanche1609 just curious, you said you let magisk patch AP and it dies before finishing (3.5gb/4gb).. why did you let it patch the 4gb AP file? isn't the way to root the phone with magisk like:
-> get the same original firmware that is currently installed on the phone and extract the boot.img.tar from it.
-> copy that to you phone, let magisk patch the boot.img.tar (about 20mb in size)
-> copy patched_boot.img.tar to you pc
-> flash patched_boot.img.tar from pc with odin back to your phone in download mode (using AP(!) not BL in odin) and that file is about 20mb, not more!
shouldn't that be it?
why did you let magisk patch a 4GB AP?
also: which odin3 version did you use? 99% floating around are fake and malicious, all these 3.14.4 verisons are fake.
If you can unlock the bootloader you're already half way there. Then boot into a TWRP using fastboot boot recovery.img and flash Magisk from there. You might also have to disable DM verity somehow.
Good luck
lebigmac said:
If you can unlock the bootloader you're already half way there. Then boot into a TWRP using fastboot boot recovery.img and flash Magisk from there. You might also have to disable DM verity somehow.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
unlocking the bootloader should be no problem as far as I heard. but I also heard there is no TWRP version that actually really supports the device (and encryption afterwards). installing twrp with fastboot could be possible, also booting TWRP with fastboot could be possible, but for what? just for installing magisk that way? Isn't the other way easier? -> installing magisk manager, patch the boot image, and flash it back? especially when there is no fitting TWRP version anyway?
Zirila said:
unlocking the bootloader should be no problem as far as I heard. but I also heard there is no TWRP version that actually really supports the device (and encryption afterwards). installing twrp with fastboot could be possible, also booting TWRP with fastboot could be possible, but for what? just for installing magisk that way? Isn't the other way easier? -> installing magisk manager, patch the boot image, and flash it back? especially when there is no fitting TWRP version anyway?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The samsung brick is rooted now - one successful act of self defense !
- the newest magisk from github (21410) is able to do the job of patching.
(feeding magisk only with an extracted boot.img doesn't work! six different odin versions (<3.14.4) are not able to flash the created boot-image tar file)
- Magisk definitely needs the complete extracted 4GB AP file from the stock firmware - and the canary/github version of magisk is able to patch it (without crashing) and created 4GB patch.tar-file which odin accepts.
fastboot isn't an option - the device is detected but nothing else works/is implemented by samsung
If there is a suitable TWRP around - let me know.
avalanche1609 said:
The samsung brick is rooted now - one successful act of self defense !
Spoiler
- the newest magisk from github (21410) is able to do the job of patching.
(feeding magisk only with an extracted boot.img doesn't work! six different odin versions (<3.14.4) are not able to flash the created boot-image tar file)
- Magisk definitely needs the complete extracted 4GB AP file from the stock firmware - and the canary/github version of magisk is able to patch it (without crashing) and created 4GB patch.tar-file which odin accepts.
fastboot isn't an option - the device is detected but nothing else works/is implemented by samsung
If there is a suitable TWRP around - let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's great news! So there actually is a way to get root on A41 and I'm glad it worked out fine for you so far.
I'm eager looking forward to root one of them for myself, I guess in a few days I'll have the chance to do so (I'll report then).
I'll take your advice and look for the latest magisk build from github.
It still looks very strange to me that magisk requires more than the boot image to patch. maybe it has something to do with dynamic partitions/ram disk the phone might use or the like. idk. maybe it then needs these files also. or probably the firmware is a little bit different from the one installed on the phone. I'm just guessing, not knowing. At least it works and when it takes to patch a 4gb file, well, then let it take that much.
That's the point where it'd be fine to have a XDA A41 forum with community and already people with experience, since it's a phone almost 1 year old now..
regarding the suppported TWRP version.. idk.. I would just trial and error things out. maybe it works with the latest version already. But better check it out before you plan to use the phone regularly..
I also don't know much about the fastboot options, I thought it works like usual as long as the bootloader is unlocked.. but flashing TWRP with odin or the twrp app itself could work too.
oh and the original question from the opening thread still remains open:
where is the community? where are the custom roms?
avalanche1609 said:
[...]
fastboot isn't an option - the device is detected but nothing else works/is implemented by samsung
If there is a suitable TWRP around - let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh right. I forgot that Samsung intentionally cripples the fastboot for its users... How awesome.
Hi all!
I have one of these since a couple of days and I have to say it is a really nice phone with a really bad issue: the jpg compression is super aggressive and photos that should look great given the lens and sensor look bland and smudgy. As far as I understand, there is no camera api2 exposed at all by default. All camera apps that I have tried produce worse images and gcam does not work (I have tried about 20 different ones, for Mediatek and otherwise). If Samsung could just let me bump up JPEG quality to 95% I would be completely satisfied with this phone, but I guess that would never happen.
I therefore wonder, is there any chance that your success rooting the phone could lead to bumping up the JPEG quality of the stock camera app, eventually expose camera api2 or somehow allow us to install a version of gcam down the line?
Cheers!
I bought a new Galaxy A41 for 180€ and I'm just setting it up.
I want to share my thoughts so far about:
the hardware, the software, things like rooting.
The Installation and Software:
The phone starts and already wants to trick you into signing data collection agreements (Terms of Service (not optional), marketing, analytics, 3rd party shares (3 optional)).
If you select by common sense and only check ToS you'll get fooled when you check the last radio button which says "I've read all of the above and agree (..)" which enabled all optional radio buttons again right before you click next. What a dirty play.
Also it is not possible to skip the WiFi selection screen ("skip" is greyed out) making it impossible to setup the phone without internet access. This has nothing to do with FRP, this is before anything google related is setup. Samsung clearly states it requires internet to setup the phone and install necessary provider software. Once it gets internet it gets activated and the "skip" option becomes clickable after the next factory reset. This practice makes me really angry. It's obviously the price you pay when you buy a low- to mid-range class phone - you'll pay the rest with your personal data.
I setup the phone without creating google and samsung accounts (I never got one of these anyways) and got to the home screen. If you havent enabled WiFi yet, there aren't many apps at all pre-installed, just a few useful and a few bloatware apps (like Facebook, MS Office, etc).
If you give it WiFi however, it kinda explodes with leeching, loading and updating Apps you never asked for. Only some of these can be "disabled" and only some of them can be "uninstalled" the normal way. Some of the unwanted you can't uninstall nor disable. (This is where you wish you had root access)
The phone had Security Patch Level installed from August 2020. Making OTA firmware updates 3x (about 1-3gb) will get you to Sec.Patch Level November 2020 which is the latest available OTA (we have February 2021 now). That's not a good sign IMO.. so it's already a few month behind the patch cycle..
So, software wise there aren't many useful apps for me installed, really just the utter basics and much more 3rd party bloatware and Samsung nonsense apps. It's not as much as with the Poco X3, but still much...
The Hardware:
The super amoled display is the biggest feature of the phone. and it's really great, the colors, the viewing angle, the brightness.. all top notch.
Battery is with only 3500mA/h not that big, but it's astonishing strong and it holds up the uptime it promises so far. I can only hope it stays like that even after a few years.
The size of the phone is what actually made me buy this phone. its the only phone under 6.5" under 200€ and not older than a year. all newer phones are bigger. The size is great, it's slim, but long. (6,1" ~15cm long)
I didn't expect it to be that heavy, though. well, the weight is not really heavy, but compared to older phones it is a good bit heavier.
The Camera is just Mediocre, I already knew this from reviews before but playing around with it and seeing the results underscores it. The final pics alltogether look always a bit washen out if you zoom in. There aren't enough professional advanced settings in the camera settings compared to open camera or mx camera. you have to stick with what you get. The Sensor of the camera is despite 48mpixels only mediocre. the widescreen lens is a nice feature but quality wise not that good either. Selfie cam is subjectively good enough though.
HDR setting and results are a joke compared to mx camera.
Rooting:
I actually planned to root the phone with magisk and installing TWRP. However, I ended up not rooting or installing TWRP at all. The reasons are various.
First, It's possible to unlock the bootloader in developer settings (after the phone called home..). You'll get a nagscreen every time you boot the phone up after it's unlocked. From this point on you might be able to root the phone with Magisk (following the advices a few posts above), but it'll probably trigger and brick KNOX status.
I decided to NOT do that and relocked the bootloader, because there seems to be no lively community for this phone, there are no Custom ROMs available nor any custom bootloaders. And I might want to sell the phone again if it doesn't fit my likings and that'll be more difficult with broken KNOX status. Also that way I can get OTA stock updates as long as the phone is supported.
There is also no supported version of TWRP for the A41. And TWRP on phones like this is tricky as you can read at the A40 TWRP page: TWRP A40 read chapter "This device uses system-as-root in an A-only partition configuration." Also the device is using File Based Encryption and not Full Disc Encryption. I don't know if TWRP works with that environment at all yet.
So currently the only benefits of getting root would be to be able to completely uninstall some bloatware. The rest (firewall, adblocker, backups, etc) is pretty much possible without root access.
I really hope this phone is able to get custom ROMs and community in the future, though.
korpenkraxar said:
Hi all!
I have one of these since a couple of days and I have to say it is a really nice phone with a really bad issue: the jpg compression is super aggressive
Spoiler
and photos that should look great given the lens and sensor look bland and smudgy. As far as I understand, there is no camera api2 exposed at all by default. All camera apps that I have tried produce worse images and gcam does not work (I have tried about 20 different ones, for Mediatek and otherwise). If Samsung could just let me bump up JPEG quality to 95% I would be completely satisfied with this phone, but I guess that would never happen.
I therefore wonder, is there any chance that your success rooting the phone could lead to bumping up the JPEG quality of the stock camera app, eventually expose camera api2 or somehow allow us to install a version of gcam down the line?
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I exactly know what you mean as I watch the pics I just made with the same phone. I don't know if you could change anything in this regard after rooting but it actually looks to me like it's rather the built in camera sensor that makes the quality not that good and not so much the jpeg compression. It doesn't really look like jpeg artifacts, it's more like a washen out painting. I doubt you'll get anything better by rooting the phone, but thats just guessing. Also: did you check out the Image format options? "4:3" vs "4:3 48mpixels"?
Hi!
I checked out all the various formats and played around with the ISO settings grabbing some indoor pics in a relatively poorly lit environment.
First, it is a shame that the HDR is inactivated when using the "4:3 48mpixels" mode or PRO mode because I kind of like that HDR effect otherwise. It seems to me like the aggressive compression automatically kicks in on ISO levels 400 and above, while levels 100 and 200 look alright to me: edges with high contrast look more natural and I find the "natural" pixel noise more tolerable than the washed out smudge effect from the compression.
A "4:3 48mpixels" photo with ISO 200 looks acceptable IMHO and with a little bit of tweaking in Snapseed, I was quite pleased with the result. More grain and a bit darker than what I get from a Zenfone 5 with GCam, but tolerable for a modern phone.
With "4:3 48mpixels" ISO 200 we get quite large file sizes and there is no pixel binning or HDR, but for those random pics that I would like to share with friends in social media, this mode is ok.
Overall, the screen and form factor of the phone is great and it is a fun and comfortable one to use, aside from the camera snafu. I suspect there are some artificial configuration restraints here put in by Samsung. I stand by my original remark that a higher JPEG compression ratio would be great. No idea if it can be configured via root.
As a side note, coming from a Pixel 1 and then a Zenfone 5, it is amazing how well GCam captures photos...
Has anyone rooted successfully?
Reading elsewhere, it's hinted people managed to do it.
Zirila said:
the ONLY phone under 200 bucks today that is NOT larger than 150mm in length
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Click to collapse
The A40 is even better in this regard, but is sadly underspeced.
Zirila said:
currently the only benefits of getting root would be to be able to completely uninstall some bloatware.
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Click to collapse
And call recording, I believe?
Got the phone yesterday (about 120$) and got it rooted with Odin and Magisk took a little back and forward.. been a while sines I have been on Samsung phone.
I like this small cheap compact phone, tired of the big bricks.
Was installing from a new phone with latest update from Samsung.
So wrote a small guide to help out..
Everything on phone will get wiped/factory reset , so take backup , you have been warned.
Take no responsibility of brick etc. (or typos!)
!PLEASE CHECK WHAT VERSION PHONE YOU HAVE MINE IS SM-A415F AND THE GUIDE WAS WRITTEN FOR THAT PHONE!
Quick guide:
1* On PC or phone download you stock firmware for you region: https://samfw.com/firmware/SM-A415F
My was NEE witch is Nordic Europe.
Unpack or Transfer the AP_* file to you phone, i used microsd so didn't unpack on phone.
(sd card need to be exFAT , you can format to that in Windows, so it cant handle big files over ~4GB)
2* Install lates Magisk manager from https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/releases/latest (Used v22.0) on phone.
Install Magisk patch the AP_* file from before
Transfer it back to PC, we will use this later!
3* Start phone, (if new phone don't bother sign in google/samsung etc.. it will all be wiped/factory reset!)
Enable Developer mode:
Setting, about device tag 7 times on Build..
(If its not shown connect to the internet and wait ~5min..)
Check "OEM unlocking" , "USB debugging".
4* Turn off the phone, press volume +/- while you connect PC to Phone with USB-C.
When screen "WARNING...Custom OS can cause problems.." press and hold Volume +, and press Volume + to confirm what you are doing!
Let it reboot.
5* Enable Developer mode:
Setting, about device tag 7 times on Build..
(If its not shown connect to the internet and wait ~5min..)
Check to see if "OEM unlocking" is greyed out enabled , check enable"USB debugging".
6* Turn off the phone, press volume +/- while you connect PC to Phone with USB-C.
Press Volume +(don't hold like last time.)
7* On PC open latest Odin (used v3.14.4) from https://odindownloader.com/ (no sure it that the official site but what i used, please let me know if there is a better one.)
Unpack the folder to your PC hard drive and start Odin3*.exe, uncheck "Auto reboot" make sure "F.Reset Time" is checked.
Use the original firmware files from (1*) "BL, CP, CSC" BUT the AP_* that you transferred from Phone.
Press start and hopefully you will get a "<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 1 / failed 0)" when it's done!
Restart phone.
I had to download magisk and install it again but everything seems to be working..
Cheers
Minuz said:
Got the phone yesterday (about 120$)
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Click to collapse
Only $120 ?!
hkjo said:
Only $120 ?!
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Click to collapse
128$ to be exact.
Samsung - Køb nyeste Galaxy telefoner her - CBB Mobil
Samsung har nogle af de mest populære mobiler. Find bl.a. Samsung Galaxy i stort udvalg, og få en ny mobil til Små Priser her.
www.cbb.dk
Don't think you can order from out side of Denmark. you can always move
@Minuz
Half the price? The ad there might actually be truthful: 800 DKK instead of the normal 1800. Not bad, unless you have to commit to the operator. Are they clearing the stock to make room for the disappointing A42?
Is Samsung's call recording enabled on the NEE firmware? Any idea if one can flash stock firmware from other regions?
@hkjoThey have similar deals every month, getting customers, cleaning storage for "older/cheap" phones witch are flooding the market atm.
No binding of to the cellphone company, but i'm pretty sure you have to be a danish citizen.
Can see any record options in call settings or phone options, but with root it should be possible to find a app.
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Regarding of the experience so fare on the phone is great.. coming from a Xiaomi Note 9 Pro , Samsung S10+.
I really like this compact phone, it does everything i need.
The sound is not the best and the plastic back tend to vibrate with the sound from the speaker, but a case will help that.
Update : Had some problems with a danish authentication app Nemid but got it working!
Having some ustabile crashes witch is all on me trying to get a authentication app to work on root phone.. doing some less stable solution.
Got the authentication app working on previous rooted phones, but something is triggered on this phone/software.. With may be the reason for me not using this phone in the future.
(App Nemid)
Hopefully there will come some custom roms or workaround.
Well hello you all!
Actually I'm lucky to now finally find some other people with the same phone...
So about my little story in the Android universe:
--- Skip if not interested ---
Spoiler: Little story
Coming from a Samsung S3 to an OnePlus 3T. I rooted the OP3T and installed Lineage OS some years ago.. I traded it in for an iPhone 6S from my mom and giving the OP3T to my sister.. I just had enough of this Android because you often get stuck with something, the apps are less mature and it just all feals like you always need to be enthusiastic about the phone.. So I had a lucky year with the iPhone but somewhat I wanted to get an Android device again. Then I found a refurbished Google Pixel - 1st Gen, 2 years ago and bought it for 200€. The battery seemed to be pretty ripped since the phone had to be in the package for months or even years.. Since I didn't want to have the reseller sent me a new phone with maybe similar problems I decided to repair it on my own..
I then damaged the display in the process, needed to replace it as well with the battery and in the end spent about 350€ for the Pixel... I was kind of pissed but it was a nice phone.. Until I dropped it and the display was completly dead but wasn't shattered last year.. So then I just thought I had enough of smartphones and went with a rework of the Nokia 8810 (the 4G edition) and my iPad until I then decided in September 2020 that I needed a new phone. I somehow could still get the Pixel to work but didn't want to spend 150€ again for replacement parts. For the same phone which wasn't better since then.. But the chip the Snapdragon 820 is pretty neat, 4GB RAM enough and the camera great. Just the Display isn't that nice and modern looking... Maybe I should have gone that way..
--- End of my story what was before my A41 ---
So then I did some research - which phone looks nice for less than 300€, isn't big - since big screen phones are just bulky and you need two hands and I don't like that..
I found the A41 and thought since I don't do gaming and stuff on the phone, just a bit Twitter and messaging, it should be fast enough. Turns out after now several months of use since September 2020 it feels often slow.. I as well didn't like many Samsung Bloatware stuff but somehow got it configured that I don't bother that much now.. But I always wanted to have a custom ROM and it's just frustrating to do research on the device and just finding crappy articles as someone before mentioned.. You just get redirected etc... or find websites with auto generated content.
So to my experience so far:
Coming from the Pixel (and the iPhone 6S) I just have to say the camera is crap. I just don't like it and I think they shouldn't have gone with the trend and go for dual or even triple cameras. But with one lens and doing that one great. I share the criticism that the 48MP mode is somehow the one you want since the images look blurry when not using this mode. But then you don't have HDR as said, cant zoom in (software design isn't great here - you could switch to not 48MP here but now...) and images need to be taken with a calm hand because they often are blurred otherwise. And even then: The images are just in every point then those from the 12MP pixel. (In general this is easy to be explained bc each pixel has less light and is smaller resulting in less quality of the information per pixel. And if this is just really bad you need great software and often bigger sensors to don't just shrink the pixel size on the sensor..)
The chipset as mentioned: Ok, but somewhat sluggish... It feels pretty slow and everything in the UI seems to be a bit delayed on the screen.. But you just get used to this.. (Which still doesn't make this a good point)
I then had issues for months with my GPS module which often seemed to not work but then suddendly worked and I don't know why... Since then everything seems to be working fine regarding to locations.. It did work sometimes before and was pretty accurate but it just didn't work in 90% of the situations I tried it..
I actually like the display and battery. Both are great, I get maybe 60-70% usage per day and this is great. The display is also pleasing and I like the size although it could be a bit smaller..
The reason why I found this thread now is my latest problem though..
Since 2 months or so I tried to install an update but it just doesn't work. I somewhere found a OTA file (I think sammobile and I hate it that I needed to register there and Samsung isn't providing the files on their own).. And after booting into recovery and starting to sideload it... It just keeps stuck there as well with just 0%... I just hate this phone now and don't want to use it anymore since it just has no community, it feels sluggish sometimes, the camera isn't great and it's a Samsung phone with no possibility for a custom ROM...
What are your thoughts? Where do you agree - should I maybe try to just wipe it, sell it for 100€ on ebay and repair my old pixel? I just thought I might be luckier with that one ... Or maybe get an iPhone again but then.. those are even used that expensive, but just are so good usable in everyday use.. I am a pretty technical competent person, used Linux for like 3 years on the Desktop with no windows on dual boot don't have any problems solving most problems with software what so ever.. But I just don't want to run into problems with the devices I use daily and need to be reliable. If I want projects to waste my time I find them. I install software on servers and configure them.. But this phone and android in general... I sometimes like it, but then I feel like I need a brake and use something that has less bugs.. (up to the point that I like it again.. I'm pretty ambivalent on that topic)
@atriom
If it's working now, why waste time on trying to update?
Minuz said:
Can see any record options in call settings or phone options, but with root it should be possible to find a app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought it'd be easier to use semi-official means to enable recording, rather than root.
Found a thread listing Samsung country codes where recording is enabled, but the list is pretty slim. Intersecting it with the list of countries in which this phone is available (based on one of the firmware sites), I think there's actually no official version with recording enabled.
I'm not sure if that rules out official recording. Maybe CSC selection is generic and not per phone, so all countries would be available.