Database Info

[Q] Advie taking my HTC HD2 Windows outside the UK to Europe,USA,S.E.Asia and OZ.

Hi all, I am a newbie *waves*
Got a question I can't seem to find on the internet, so I thought I would joing this forum to see if anyone can help.
I have an HTC HD2 using "Windows Mobile 6.5", on a contract, which I am going to cancel as I am well outwith my contractual agreement on the T-Mobile network in the United Kingdom.
My girlfriend and I are going travelling for a year, to numerous countries, including most of Europe, USA, Nepal, India, most of South East Asia and Australia. I am wondering if it is possible to use my HTC HD2 abroad, by unlocking from the T-Mobile network (not sure if that is the right terminology, sorry) so I can buy pay as you go Sim Cards from different networks in the countries above to keep costs down.
I was also informed that some phones do not work in certain countries because of tri-band, quad-band issues, again I am not clued up if the HTC HD2 will work in other countries, so any help on the matter would be very much appreciated.
Many thanks in advance.
Norman.

importing a Qualcomm version to the Netherlands

Hi there,
Does any of you know a safe way ( online seller ) to import a Note 20 Ultra 5G ( snapdragon ) to the Netherlands. And if there's a "safe way" to do this would I run into trouble on the Dutch cellular network bands?

I'm from Belgium. I ordered the Note20 snapdragon from t-dimension. Received it 9days later without any additional import taxes. Phone works well on the Belgian bands.
So I guess NL is gonna be fine as well.

I'm in the UK and also bought from T-Dimension. This was my first purchase with them and everything went to plan, but it took nine calendar days from order on Monday to receipt on Wednesday the following week. Two days of delay were due to security checks, for me to provide proof of ID and address. Good price, even better now, and everything sealed and correct.
In the UK we have four primary network providers. Two of the networks make use of Band 32, which the N9860 does not include. It's a supplementary band and its omission is not critical, especially as the band does not appear to be deployed anywhere near me, rather in central London while I'm on the outskirts and don't venture into town.
Mostly everything works including Google Pay, VoLTE and VoWiFi. Garmin Pay expects a Hong Kong payment card to be registered, so that's effectively useless in Europe, but no consequence since Google Pay works and that's what I've used in the past.
Firmware updates are a bit behind schedule. Even late in November the phone only has October security updates. Not a showstopper, but perhaps a hint of limited priority for this model.
The big concern, if it matters to you, might be 5G support. At face value, judging from the band's in the spec, you would imagine 5G to be no problem. Many have found the Three network to be well supported by the phone in the UK, including me. Vodafone 5G looks a bit sketchy in my limited testing. I've seen the 5G symbol appear on the phone, but nPerf did not identify a 5G service from Vodafone, whereas it did for Three. Regarding 5G on EE I have only ever seen remarks that it does not work. I have seen no comments about 5G on O2 (well, maybe one, and it was a "No" I think).
You'll have to do your own research on bands for the Netherlands and see if the match is good enough for you.

destz0r said:
I'm from Belgium. I bought the Note20 snapdragon from t-dimension. Received it a week later without any additional import taxes. Phone works well on the Belgian bands.
So I guess NL is gonna be fine as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One quick question, does the SM-N986O support Dutch language?

patensas said:
One quick question, does the SM-N986O support Dutch language?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, dutch language works perfectly, even google assistant in dutch. havent had any issues

destz0r said:
Yup, dutch language works perfectly, even google assistant in dutch. havent had any issues
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply, highly appreciated.
Did you but the SM-N986O?

patensas said:
Thanks for your reply, highly appreciated.
Did you but the SM-N986O?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought the N9810 (Note20 5G), not the Ultra

destz0r said:
I bought the N9810 (Note20 5G), not the Ultra
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again, so the O variant should be the way to go. Time to take the dive and order it.

How long did it take to arrive to Europe? The price is excellent it's actually 200 eur cheaper than exynos version here

jirka607 said:
How long did it take to arrive to Europe? The price is excellent it's actually 200 eur cheaper than exynos version here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I received it like 9 days after ordering

destz0r said:
I received it like 9 days after ordering
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you order from AU or DE store it's cheaper on AU store

jirka607 said:
Did you order from AU or DE store it's cheaper on AU store
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
from their DE website

OK ordering Bronze 256GB 9860 model today...the price is unbeatable

Active2 SM-R825U , Must I change region for Argentina ? [Solved]

Hi Friends !
Excuse me for my English but I speak very little (which makes my understanding more difficult). I speak spanish.
Short version: I´m in Argentina with an Active 2 SM-R825U (Tizen 5.5.0.2 / Build Number: R825USQU1CUD1 ) that cannot see the movil network.
Company says I should have bought SM-R825 ( without U , my fault ) but confused me saying american models. After my bought said Mexico and Canada models )
My Questions:
1- What must I specific do ? Can I fix that only changing the CSC code to ARO , MXO or XAC ?
I not finding or not knowing what combination files I must use.
Don´t match last 4 characters: https://easy-firmware.com/index.php?a=downloads&b=folder&id=47818
2- I´d be interested to know if I can use SM-R820 or SM-R825 combination files or would that kill the watch ?
3- Are there any method to backup and save combination files of my watch ?
I´ve reached to establish communication between the watch and NetOdin but I´ve stopped there for not knowing the above.
From already, thank you very much ! Sincerely.... Eduardo.

Hi,
First of all, here is a list of officially supported careers: https://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/galaxy-watch-active2/carrier/
From this list you can clearly see there is no such thing as SM-R825. It's either SM-R825U (I guess this is for USA), and SM-R825F (for everything else).
Also, from here you can see there is no official support for Argentina as of now.
Now to your questions:
You can change the CSC yes. Will it work? Depends on how your career has implemented their service. Best way to find someone who did the same as you want to do. My bet: as no careers are supported officially in Argentina, you can simply use my recommended trick with the QR code, and you are good to go. No need to change the CSC. CSC change is only viable in case you can change it to that code which is officially supported. Let's say you bought a watch in Europe, and want to use it USA. It won't be able to activate, but if you change the CSC to the one USA is using, it will work.
You should NEVER use anything else then what your watch precisely is. In case you have SM-R825, you MUST use files for SM-R825. (Also: SM-R820 is Bluetooth-only version)
I have no idea.
So, basically: changing CSC won't solve your problem. People here usually change their CSC to have Blood-pressure monitoring or Samsung Pay in a country where these are not officially supported.
After changing the CSC to a supported country, these people can have the SPay working, and also the BP.
For LTE Activation, CSC change is usually overkill, especially if your target country is not officially supported.
Go with the QR code method, that's the easiest and quickest way. With that method you can activate your watch with those careers which are not officially supported.

danergo said:
Hi,
First of all, here is a list of officially supported careers: https://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/galaxy-watch-active2/carrier/
From this list you can clearly see there is no such thing as SM-R825. It's either SM-R825U (I guess this is for USA), and SM-R825F (for everything else).
....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Danergo!
First of all, thank you very much for taking the time to help me.
I hope you can understand me, given my poor English (google translate helps me) ...
I saw that list looking for CSC codes but I think it is out of date. I have spoken with Samsung Argentina and they never told me that the service was not supported. I didn´t receive any information from them to help me and neither from Samsung USA. Only "you made a mistake in the purchase, so I'm sorry for you."
The only company that provides the service in Argentina is CLARO, a company owned by the mexican and one of the richest men in the world, Carlos Slim (I don't know why I haven't seen it in Mexico, but it's in several countries). I use its service in Argentina and use it in the past months for data in the USA with very good performance (associated with the T-Mobile network). I´m attaching a translated screenshot of its terms, which caused my wrong purchase). As I said, now, many days later, its technical service tells me that I should have been bought models from Mexico or Canada.
If the above was correct, you still think the same about "For LTE Activation, CSC change is usually overkill, especially if your target country is not officially supported." Because if I can't have LTE, I´d like to have BP and ECG. I don't know if I could have SPay because it isn´t implemented in Argentina. Maybe with an American card (in USA I used very well).
About "no such thing as SM-R825", I saw SM-R825 combination files in Easy Firmware https://easy-firmware.com/index.php?a=downloads&b=folder&id=18298 (I don't know how that is interpreted, sorry)
Finally, I´ll tell you something so you can see how CLARO's customer service is. Yesterday, in a first call they answered me that they do not implement the activation through QR code, and after seeing the opposite in forums, in my second call, the interlocutor acknowledges that if there are any, that she leaves my request scheduled and that she will call me In the future, call that I bet will never be made.
I´ve read that only in big service centers (Rosario city, 70 km away, is the closest) do the activation by QR. I read that they don't print the code, that they take our cell phones and scan it from their pc screen. Argentina is a banana republic (but some of its people are very good). I was in Rosario in authorized Samsung service (without any improvement) but I didn´t go to the provider because I did not know that information at that time.
I´m reading https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/sm-r825f-csc-change-tutorial.4061905/page-22 to learn a little more. Last post is similar to mine. I think I should and would like to make the switch to the SM-R825F, even if it's just for fun.
Well, here we are and we'll see how the story ends. I'm optimistic. Thank you again for your help to my understanding.
Have a very good weekend.

danergo said:
... People here usually change their CSC to have Blood-pressure monitoring or Samsung Pay in a country where these are not officially supported.
After changing the CSC to a supported country, these people can have the SPay working, and also the BP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi @danergo !
I want to tell you that I could install BP and ECG with the @Dante63 method , without region change !
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...triction-removed-27th-september-2021.4202685/

danergo said:
Hi,
...Go with the QR code method, that's the easiest and quickest way. With that method you can activate your watch with those careers which are not officially supported.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi @danergo !
Fortunately I just arrived from an assistance center of my mobile network provider (city 70 km from mine) where I loaded the data through QR code (they didn´t send me by email) and the watch picked up the network and it is working very well.
I'm still not sure what combination of files I´d have needed to flash it, and if they should contain inside the CSC code that I want to change, I think so but I'm not sure.
I don´t need anything else but it would be a great help if we could backup, save or upgrade (or whatever it is called) the firmwares that we have on our watches in order to share it.
Since now, I´ll working to find the movil network profile file (xml file ?).
I don´t know where are you from @danergo, but if you are in USA, it will be a pleasure to me to invite you a pair of beers ( I don´t have more budget ! ).
Thank you very much for your advice. They avoided the risk of flashing. At your service from Argentina.

Perfect, I'm happy you succeed
I would up for a beer, but I'm more a wine person, and I'm very far from the US
I don't know any methods to backup/share your firmware unfortunately.

danergo said:
I would up for a beer, but I'm more a wine person, and I'm very far from the US
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Argentina has very good wines. This Argentine winery has just won for the third consecutive year the award for the best winery in the world. https://familiazuccardi.com/
La bodega argentina Zuccardi fue elegida como el mejor viñedo del mundo 2021
Por tercer año consecutivo, quedó primera en el ranking World's Best Vineyards, entre 1.500 establecimientos de 15 países.
www.clarin.com

HK vs UK CSC

Hi, I just bought a Fold2 and so far it's been amazing, however, I noticed that it is a TGY csc, according to DevCheck.
Will this affect me in any way as I live in the UK? I've read of mixed experiences on the internet.
Thanks.

It's like this.
Huawei is BANNED in the uk, since beginning of this year, Yet EE, BT, TALKTALK still insist on selling routers that are rebranded huawei devices. This is now illegal in the UK. Pass any shop, see any router in above shops, huawei spies haha.
This will NOT affect you. Money talks here, and if you dont have your particular fone, thay cant triangulate your position, or hear what your saying, so they are more than happy for you to use their big bro device.
Here's the real reason Huawei was banned:
There was an ever increasing demand for super computers. Yankee land claimed there were none for us to buy, and that they simply did not exist. So Huawei made the first supercomputing fone, proving america was lying to us. SO huawei released the fone, and the woman got locked up in retaliation.
Meanwhile the uk claim 5g does not exist (at that time) and tried to prevent huawei being the leader, so made them illegal.
But 5g exists. Made by huawei.
The uk r cheesin you got that lovely new thingy

Pachacouti said:
It's like this.
Huawei is BANNED in the uk, since beginning of this year, Yet EE, BT, TALKTALK still insist on selling routers that are rebranded huawei devices. This is now illegal in the UK. Pass any shop, see any router in above shops, huawei spies haha.
This will NOT affect you. Money talks here, and if you dont have your particular fone, thay cant triangulate your position, or hear what your saying, so they are more than happy for you to use their big bro device.
Here's the real reason Huawei was banned:
There was an ever increasing demand for super computers. Yankee land claimed there were none for us to buy, and that they simply did not exist. So Huawei made the first supercomputing fone, proving america was lying to us. SO huawei released the fone, and the woman got locked up in retaliation.
Meanwhile the uk claim 5g does not exist (at that time) and tried to prevent huawei being the leader, so made them illegal.
But 5g exists. Made by huawei.
The uk r cheesin you got that lovely new thingy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your response, very nice explanation and I am a huawei fan myself too.

I only stopped using them when they stopped the bootloader unlocking.

Question HK import in the UK

Hi guys,
I want to get the HK version of this phone (because general consensus seems to be the Snapdragon is better than Samsung's processor that comes in all the EU models) and I want to have a solid idea of what potential ramifications there are from doing this.
From what I gather, the HK model is SM-S9080.
I'm pretty clear on the ramifications from the actual importing of the device, such as loss of Samsung's warranty and things like that. What I'm struggling with is the technical aspects of it.
I've done some Google-fu to the best of my ability, but I must admit I'm a little overwhelmed by all the technical jargon, numbers, codes, etc that seem to be involved. Hopefully you can help me understand better...
I know that both Samsung Pay and Samsung Member Benefits will not work in the UK, however this does not bother me as I have no intentions of using those anyway.
The network provider I use in the UK is EE and, from what I can tell, the HK model supports all the necessary bands including 5G (source here: https://www.kimovil.com/en/frequency-checker/GB/samsung-galaxy-s22-ultra ). However, I have heard that 5G could be arbitrarily deactivated in the UK by the software or hardware in the phone or something like that due to the model differences. Is this true?
Will there be any weird branding issues that can't be easily removed? By this I mean is it going to have weird chinese branding that can't be removed without flashing/rooting/etc (I'd personally prefer not to do any of that stuff). Could I just change the language to English and have it be visually indistinguishable from a 'native' UK model?
Will Google Play be affected? I don't know if there are any china-related politics that would impact my ability to use Google's services. Sorry if that is a stupid question.
What is a CsC and will it matter regarding the function of the phone? I've seen this term being used a lot while googling but I have no idea what it means or how exactly it affects the use of the phone.
How would updates work? Would there be any issues on that front?
Is there anything else I need to consider from a technical point of view that I have missed?
Hopefully these aren't stupid questions. Thank you in advance.

arstulex said:
Hi guys,
I want to get the HK version of this phone (because general consensus seems to be the Snapdragon is better than Samsung's processor that comes in all the EU models) and I want to have a solid idea of what potential ramifications there are from doing this.
From what I gather, the HK model is SM-S9080.
I'm pretty clear on the ramifications from the actual importing of the device, such as loss of Samsung's warranty and things like that. What I'm struggling with is the technical aspects of it.
I've done some Google-fu to the best of my ability, but I must admit I'm a little overwhelmed by all the technical jargon, numbers, codes, etc that seem to be involved. Hopefully you can help me understand better...
I know that both Samsung Pay and Samsung Member Benefits will not work in the UK, however this does not bother me as I have no intentions of using those anyway.
The network provider I use in the UK is EE and, from what I can tell, the HK model supports all the necessary bands including 5G (source here: https://www.kimovil.com/en/frequency-checker/GB/samsung-galaxy-s22-ultra ). However, I have heard that 5G could be arbitrarily deactivated in the UK by the software or hardware in the phone or something like that due to the model differences. Is this true?
Will there be any weird branding issues that can't be easily removed? By this I mean is it going to have weird chinese branding that can't be removed without flashing/rooting/etc (I'd personally prefer not to do any of that stuff). Could I just change the language to English and have it be visually indistinguishable from a 'native' UK model?
Will Google Play be affected? I don't know if there are any china-related politics that would impact my ability to use Google's services. Sorry if that is a stupid question.
What is a CsC and will it matter regarding the function of the phone? I've seen this term being used a lot while googling but I have no idea what it means or how exactly it affects the use of the phone.
How would updates work? Would there be any issues on that front?
Is there anything else I need to consider from a technical point of view that I have missed?
Hopefully these aren't stupid questions. Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the csc is the carrier aspect of the phone , ie what bands of each type of network connections are used,and country specific bloatware , the csc is also what carrires the software restrictions based on the laws of the country it is coded for. you would get hongkong specific updates with a csc from that region as far as i can sumise, you may even need to use a hongkong routed vpn to receive them, but again thats a guess

Hi, I've got a 12GB/512GB S9080 on the TGY CSC here in the UK. I'm on O2UK but my 5G works fine. I have no weird carrier branding and I don't get any Chinese characters anywhere. I use Google Pay just fine (never used Samsung Pay on any of my devices)
No issues on updates, in fact I got the latest May update on the 28th of April.
I got this phone through techinthebasket and paid over £300 less than the equivalent Exynos version direct from Samsung.
If you have any questions regarding the device just ask

p.dixon0 said:
Hi, I've got a 12GB/512GB S9080 on the TGY CSC here in the UK. I'm on O2UK but my 5G works fine. I have no weird carrier branding and I don't get any Chinese characters anywhere. I use Google Pay just fine (never used Samsung Pay on any of my devices)
No issues on updates, in fact I got the latest May update on the 28th of April.
I got this phone through techinthebasket and paid over £300 less than the equivalent Exynos version direct from Samsung.
If you have any questions regarding the device just ask
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly what I was hoping for. Thanks mate.
Funnily enough that's the website I was looking at getting mine from too. I did email them to ask where they source their models from because I've read elsewhere that TGY is ideal for UK use but they haven't got back to me yet (weekend of course). Glad to hear they are selling TGY.
Only question I have would be about techinthebasket themselves. Roughly how long did it take to arrive and did it arrive sealed?

Hi mate, yeah I've used techinthebasket a few times now (I've bought a Note8 and a Surface Pro 4 from them previously) and it does take a little while for the items to arrive, even paying for expedited it still took 5 working days. All items were factory sealed too.
If it helps, I traded the Note8 for the Note9 directly to Samsung when the Note9 came out and I got the full £400 at the time. The SP4 developed the prolific screen shake fault after about a year and Microsoft replaced it free of charge.

p.dixon0 said:
All items were factory sealed too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this possible? I thought Samsung region-locks their phones until a call is made with a SIM from the 'home' region.
Don't these importers have to open up the box to do this so that you can actually use a UK SIM in it when it gets to you?

p.dixon0 said:
Hi, I've got a 12GB/512GB S9080 on the TGY CSC here in the UK. I'm on O2UK but my 5G works fine. I have no weird carrier branding and I don't get any Chinese characters anywhere. I use Google Pay just fine (never used Samsung Pay on any of my devices)
No issues on updates, in fact I got the latest May update on the 28th of April.
I got this phone through techinthebasket and paid over £300 less than the equivalent Exynos version direct from Samsung.
If you have any questions regarding the device just ask
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're my savior. Thank you a lot!
Buying it today

arstulex said:
Is this possible? I thought Samsung region-locks their phones until a call is made with a SIM from the 'home' region.
Don't these importers have to open up the box to do this so that you can actually use a UK SIM in it when it gets to you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure to be totally honest. Both my Note8 and S22U came sealed with what looked like the same seals my Note9 came with directly from Samsung. Maybe techinthebasket open and reseal? Whatever they do or don't do the phone works as expected and didn't show any signs of being opened.
When I first started both phones (without a SIM) they were both in Chinese. When I put my UK SIM in they behave as expected.
The good thing with techinthebasket is that you can only pay with PayPal - as such, if you have any issues you're covered.

p.dixon0 said:
I'm not sure to be totally honest. Both my Note8 and S22U came sealed with what looked like the same seals my Note9 came with directly from Samsung. Maybe techinthebasket open and reseal? Whatever they do or don't do the phone works as expected and didn't show any signs of being opened.
When I first started both phones (without a SIM) they were both in Chinese. When I put my UK SIM in they behave as expected.
The good thing with techinthebasket is that you can only pay with PayPal - as such, if you have any issues you're covered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They gotta do what they gotta do, and if that means I get a Snapdragon phone for significantly less than a local Exynos then who am I to complain? Lol.
I just didn't know if they had found some way to circumvent region-locking without opening the box.

Exactly, as I say it's over £300 less for what is technically a better device

p.dixon0 said:
Exactly, as I say it's over £300 less for what is technically a better device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Too bad that they deliver only in France,UK, Germany and not the rest of Europe...I would instantly sell my S22 Ultra if I have the occasion to buy a Snap S22 Ultra. Also, a big minus: you can't use eSIM which it's a really nice feature.

robi101012981 said:
Too bad that they deliver only in France,UK, Germany and not the rest of Europe...I would instantly sell my S22 Ultra if I have the occasion to buy a Snap S22 Ultra. Also, a big minus: you can't use eSIM which it's a really nice feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are plenty of websites out there that deal in grey imports. Unless I'm missing something there are probably sites that do deliver to your country.
I don't know if I'd call lack of eSIM a big minus though. Once I put my SIM card in a phone I pretty much just forget it exists until I buy a new phone. Do people really swap out their SIMs that often that an eSIM really matters?

arstulex said:
There are plenty of websites out there that deal in grey imports. Unless I'm missing something there are probably sites that do deliver to your country.
I don't know if I'd call lack of eSIM a big minus though. Once I put my SIM card in a phone I pretty much just forget it exists until I buy a new phone. Do people really swap out their SIMs that often that an eSIM really matters?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're travelling in a country that doesn't support Roaming, then yeah, it's a good feature

The S9080 is dual SIM so you can still use a local SIM as well if you're traveling...

p.dixon0 said:
The S9080 is dual SIM so you can still use a local SIM as well if you're traveling...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's easy to say this, but I do prefer esims since I can purchase them online and I don't need to lose time in stores to purchase it.

I'm sure a saving of over £300 would offset the minor inconvenience. Personally, I have a tariff that gives me free roaming in Europe and the USA amongst others so it's a non-issue for me

p.dixon0 said:
Hi, I've got a 12GB/512GB S9080 on the TGY CSC here in the UK. I'm on O2UK but my 5G works fine. I have no weird carrier branding and I don't get any Chinese characters anywhere. I use Google Pay just fine (never used Samsung Pay on any of my devices)
No issues on updates, in fact I got the latest May update on the 28th of April.
I got this phone through techinthebasket and paid over £300 less than the equivalent Exynos version direct from Samsung.
If you have any questions regarding the device just ask
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First time reading 5G working on the SM-9080 outside of Hong Kong. What speeds are you registering?

p.dixon0 said:
I'm sure a saving of over £300 would offset the minor inconvenience. Personally, I have a tariff that gives me free roaming in Europe and the USA amongst others so it's a non-issue for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I would save, but I would also throw money since no warranty it's provided to me
Also Widevine L3, so yeah, a big trade-in for some of us...I'll wait for the Honor Magic 4 Pro and get that device since it's superior.

About the same download speed as 4G+ for me, the upload speed is double though.
As a side note. This it's on O2UK in the North East of England in my house, where O2UK say there is poor 5G coverage.

robi101012981 said:
Yeah, I would save, but I would also throw money since no warranty it's provided to me
Also Widevine L3, so yeah, a big trade-in for some of us...I'll wait for the Honor Magic 4 Pro and get that device since it's superior.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a year warranty provided by techinthebasket.
All my streaming services work as expected so not bothered about Widevine.
I'll continue to enjoy my phone while you think of another put down and wait for your superior device.