I've been browsing the forum for quite a while. Been trying to decide between this and other phones. I'm about ready to go with the V20, moving from Note 4.
I am currently on AT&T, although I'm considering a move to Verizon. The data where I"m at (St. Augustine, FL) is horrible from AT&T. So this is why I'm considering the US996.
I'm planning to purchase from a vendor that has a 30 day return policy, as I've been a Samsung user for years.
Does anyone have any info I should consider before going this route?
From what I've read, I am of the understanding that if I want to root, I could do so, and even put on a ROM, and ultimately move back to stock if I decide to return, or need to warranty it later. Is that accurate? (I have read of a number of people having issues...but I'm of the impression that is not the norm).
Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.
Related
Hi everybody
I’m super excited about T-mobile's HD2 (US version), this thing is awesome in real, the display is just gorgeous.
I went yesterday to my local T-mobile store to get the device, but it was sold out, and the next batch won’t come until next Wednesday, so I asked the rep some questions, but I’m not really sure about her answers, she might be new…I was hoping you can help me with some of them:
1. I want to the get the device alone, without any plan, and rep said that is possible, even if I don’t get the “Even More Plus” plan…just the phone… all I have to do is pay $449
Was she right?
2. If I bought the device alone, can I still get an unlocking code from them? I read in several places that people can usually do that after 14 days, but the rep said 60 days, and she’s not sure if I can ask for unlocking code if I buy the device without any plan
I’ll continuing my education here in the states, but in the same time, I need something that will work when I go home (Dubai), and we have GSM back there, and since AT&T suck , I guess I have to go with T-mobile..
I really appreciate you help
Here you go!
http://cleanimport.xda/index.php?posts/5991790/
Click Me Click Me Please Click Me
Hello folks! I've been rooting Android devices since the OEM Droid, but I feel out of my depth with my new endeavor
I just scooped up a brand new Sprint S4 on the cheap via craigslist(literally 30 mins ago).... but here's the plan:
I plan on taking this new S4 over to Straight Talk to see how I like it. But, I've NEVER transferred a device between carriers before, and don't know what the crap I'm doing. I'm assuming I need to unlock the phone before activating with Straight Talk(not a problem, I'm sure I can get 'er done. I've only ever unlocked AND rooted both together, but assuming I can figure it out).
But after I activate with Straight Talk am I up a creek as far as flashing new ROMS on the device? Can I still root and flash (whatever) via this same device thread?
I'm coming from a Verizon Galaxy Nexus. I'm actually out of contract for the first time in 17 years, and almost can't believe it. The stock S4 is light years better than my rooted and overclocked Nexus, so worst case scenario, I'm plenty happy with staying stock if I'm SOL. But I'd LOVE to tinker with this puppy if I'm able to.
A good shove in the right direction would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks for taking to read this post!
it would appear I didn't do enough homework Looks like I've got my work cut out for me just to get the dang phone to work with Straight Talk.
Your best bet to get your CDMA phone working with them is to call customer service to check out the ESN. Or if you get good t-mobile or att reception in your area, you could always unlock it and pick up an att or tmo sim card to use.
There is this thread that shows how to unlock a Sprint S4 for domestic GSM carriers if you're interested...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2530610
Dlnp22 said:
Hello folks! I've been rooting Android devices since the OEM Droid, but I feel out of my depth with my new endeavor
I just scooped up a brand new Sprint S4 on the cheap via craigslist(literally 30 mins ago).... but here's the plan:
I plan on taking this new S4 over to Straight Talk to see how I like it. But, I've NEVER transferred a device between carriers before, and don't know what the crap I'm doing. I'm assuming I need to unlock the phone before activating with Straight Talk(not a problem, I'm sure I can get 'er done. I've only ever unlocked AND rooted both together, but assuming I can figure it out).
But after I activate with Straight Talk am I up a creek as far as flashing new ROMS on the device? Can I still root and flash (whatever) via this same device thread?
I'm coming from a Verizon Galaxy Nexus. I'm actually out of contract for the first time in 17 years, and almost can't believe it. The stock S4 is light years better than my rooted and overclocked Nexus, so worst case scenario, I'm plenty happy with staying stock if I'm SOL. But I'd LOVE to tinker with this puppy if I'm able to.
A good shove in the right direction would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks for taking to read this post!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, on top of our private messages... I'm on straight talk and so far very happy. Only thing I can complain about is not having 4g...which I never had, so I've never experienced it. The flash service through ebay, the guy will take control of your PC and you can have it done when the flasher scheduled you a time. I bought my s4 on ebay with a bad ESN for like $389 a month after release. Also, the native hotspot doesnt work, but works once you flash the hotspot hack and use a widget from the playstore to turn it on/off it works perfectly. I personally use exlir 2 as my widget. I'm on a Sprint phone and it's flashed to Verizon's towers too, which is better in most areas. Other then that, for rooting/ROM purposes, I have zero issues. Signal/GPS is perfect. It even takes the OTA updates as long as your pure stock.:good: Using Odin .tar files is okay.
On second thought, the ebay service is illegal...your cloning a phone. Straight Talk thinks I have a Blackberry
KStyles69 said:
Again, on top of our private messages... I'm on straight talk and so far very happy. Only thing I can complain about is not having 4g...which I never had, so I've never experienced it. The flash service through ebay, the guy will take control of your PC and you can have it done when the flasher scheduled you a time. I bought my s4 on ebay with a bad ESN for like $389 a month after release. Also, the native hotspot doesnt work, but works once you flash the hotspot hack and use a widget from the playstore to turn it on/off it works perfectly. I personally use exlir 2 as my widget. I'm on a Sprint phone and it's flashed to Verizon's towers too, which is better in most areas. Other then that, for rooting/ROM purposes, I have zero issues. Signal/GPS is perfect. It even takes the OTA updates as long as your pure stock.:good: Using Odin .tar files is okay.
On second thought, the ebay service is illegal...your cloning a phone. Straight Talk thinks I have a Blackberry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know I'm late in responding, but you made a point I found out after the fact. No 4G when taking the CDMA phone over to Straight Talk. This was a deal killer for me. I've since turned the phone on craigslist, and am looking for an AT&T version now
My only question is- How do you flash for specific towers?
congrats
Dlnp22 said:
Hello folks! I've been rooting Android devices since the OEM Droid, but I feel out of my depth with my new endeavor
I just scooped up a brand new Sprint S4 on the cheap via craigslist(literally 30 mins ago).... but here's the plan:
I plan on taking this new S4 over to Straight Talk to see how I like it. But, I've NEVER transferred a device between carriers before, and don't know what the crap I'm doing. I'm assuming I need to unlock the phone before activating with Straight Talk(not a problem, I'm sure I can get 'er done. I've only ever unlocked AND rooted both together, but assuming I can figure it out).
But after I activate with Straight Talk am I up a creek as far as flashing new ROMS on the device? Can I still root and flash (whatever) via this same device thread?
I'm coming from a Verizon Galaxy Nexus. I'm actually out of contract for the first time in 17 years, and almost can't believe it. The stock S4 is light years better than my rooted and overclocked Nexus, so worst case scenario, I'm plenty happy with staying stock if I'm SOL. But I'd LOVE to tinker with this puppy if I'm able to.
A good shove in the right direction would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks for taking to read this post!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
congrats on being out of contract...I love straighttalk, paid a whole year off at once......use hotspot often...last month got 90 gb of data usage....I used my tmo note 2....but I have 2 sprint s4's that I would love to take to ST....if it works out well for you please let me know
oclark1011 said:
congrats on being out of contract...I love straighttalk, paid a whole year off at once......use hotspot often...last month got 90 gb of data usage....I used my tmo note 2....but I have 2 sprint s4's that I would love to take to ST....if it works out well for you please let me know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 week in and LOVING it. So long VZW.
My lame 4 year old Android finally died (well, actually more like the touch screen went epileptic), and I'm going to pick up a Note 3 from a VZW store in a couple hours.
(Even more insane, I'm going to drop my month-to-month unlimited data plan for the carrier subsidy and re-up with BigRed for 2 years - but that's a topic for another time)
Anyway, what I wanted to ask was this: is there any reason that I should insist that the VZW rep just leave the phone in the box rather than activating it in the store (and risking an OTA update)?
I'm comfortable doing the activation later if there is a credible reason to take the phone home and check it's bootloader version info before I boot it normally for the first time. (I suspect that the Note 3 inventories are moving at a good clip, so a unit bought from a VZW store might have recent firmware anyway).
Apologies for the lame question; I had 4 candidate phones in mind (Sammy S4, LG G2, HTC One) and didn't have much time to become an expert in the current state of affairs about rooting all of them... other than to note that Samsung has recently become much more restrictive in the past couple of months (e.g. with the S4/Knox stuff).
tia
The most current version is MJE. Which you can root with Kingo app. MI9 was what the phone had when it first came out. Which was rooted by designgears with de la vega. Then mJ7 was released and we had to use Kingo. So since the second update everyone has had to use kingo.
So if you want to root that's what your going to have to use.
bftb0 said:
My lame 4 year old Android finally died (well, actually more like the touch screen went epileptic), and I'm going to pick up a Note 3 from a VZW store in a couple hours.
(Even more insane, I'm going to drop my month-to-month unlimited data plan for the carrier subsidy and re-up with BigRed for 2 years - but that's a topic for another time)
Anyway, what I wanted to ask was this: is there any reason that I should insist that the VZW rep just leave the phone in the box rather than activating it in the store (and risking an OTA update)?
I'm comfortable doing the activation later if there is a credible reason to take the phone home and check it's bootloader version info before I boot it normally for the first time. (I suspect that the Note 3 inventories are moving at a good clip, so a unit bought from a VZW store might have recent firmware anyway).
Apologies for the lame question; I had 4 candidate phones in mind (Sammy S4, LG G2, HTC One) and didn't have much time to become an expert in the current state of affairs about rooting all of them... other than to note that Samsung has recently become much more restrictive in the past couple of months (e.g. with the S4/Knox stuff).
tia
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My reccomendation is this 1. Stay far away from the Smartwatch they will try and sell you 2. Ignore their offered Insurion Warantee, and go with Square Trade (Just Google it)
No issues with rooting and custom ROM's are doable. Gopher it man!
If it's not too late, get the 6 GB plan for $30 instead of the 2 GB for $30 they will try to out you on. If you do not do it at the time you buy the phone there is no other way to get it. If you already have the 2 GB plan it is impossible to get onto the 6 GB one.
The only way you can get it is when you are upgrading and loosing unlimited. The system will not let you get the plan if you are not about to loose unlimited.
Here's a more detailed thread on Howard forums: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1816163-6-GB-for-30
@jack584
Thanks. I gave it a bit of thought; the other alternative to the Max 6GB plan is a 2 GB "loyalty" data plan for $60/mo. Someone coming off of a month-to-month unlimited plan has 14 days to waffle about their decision.
Phone is rooted. (Kingo + safestrap + SuperSU replace)
For grins (post-rooting), I started the OTA and let it download (phone came out if the box with MJ7). When the download finished, I pulled the OTA file out of /cache/fota/ and then "took" the OTA. Naturally it failed I guess I'll see if I get nags now...
I am the first and only owner of my S5 and until tomorrow I am on T-Mobile. I have unlocked the phone successfully today, and just made a call on my roommates AT&T sim to verify. Since I have not paid the remainder of my phone off it will be blocked in the near future, and I have spent too much money with T-Mobile and their strange charges to pick up another phone with another carrier. I will wait until I get an explanation on that and see what happens with the big FTC thing going on now but until then I have read I can go AT&T MNVO in the mean time? Ideally I'd like to be one & done with my purchase and have my number ported over. The less money I have to spend the better, but I have read mixed reviews about the possibility of using a blocked phone and having network problems when switching, where the phone would work temporarily then nothing. Since all of these were threads on craigslist scams, I wondered if this applied to me? Some people have said that only goes for phones reported stolen, ie: blacklisted phones. Is there a difference between that and my blocked phone? Is there anyone that has done this or can point me in the right direction? I have read three recent threads in my research where two confirmed they were using strait talk, and one AT&T's month to month MNVO. I am looking to make a move by the end of this month and am fielding job offers as it may be out of state if I get a better one, so I'd like to not have any chance of losing my number or having my phone off for any amount of time. I don't really use a ton of a minutes, and I don't go over 2.5gb so I am pretty open to whatever works.
Any help?
Messaged VZW On FB. Asked about my "upgrade" since we are almost forced to change phones. Was told if I downgrade aka upgrade to a s7 edge I would waste my upgrade. And be locked into the device agreement on that phone. Then asked about the yearly Galaxy upgrade she send me the link and after reading into it we are no longer eligible. As of 9/10/16 we cannot be apart of this. Took a screenshot of it. So I expressed my feelings to vzw. They didn't have much to say about wasting a downgrade and if we would be eligible for early upgrade due to our situation. Might go to BB For that TV. And the $100 for swapping to another Samsung.
I never knew this was a thing. And now I'm sad. They're really going to have to re-think our ineligibility now that we're being forced to switch devices. They should really honor the original purchase date on the first round of Note 7s so that people who pre-ordered or received a Note 7 before the 9/10/16 date would be included if they ended up switching to an S7 or S7E because of the recall.
Exactly why I'm not giving up my note 7. We essentially get screwed over. It's bullish!t
Use the carrier switching technology..
Switch to Tmobile or ATT and then switch back.. Yes a bit of hassle but you get a new phone of your choice..
This does not apply to people on the older (read unavailable/legacy) plans..
Yes there's always that option lol!
I ordered the S7 Edge thinking I was good to upgrade in a year. When I saw this I called to cancel and the Verizon rep said even if I took the S7 as my upgrade I'd still be eligible to upgrade later at any time because they haulted/ saved all upgrades due to the recall. I asked if he could email that to me, he said he can't email out but would save the notes and give me his user Id. I went ahead and canceled anyway, screw the useless credits, I want my Note and the ability to upgrade later.
I just left a store, I went to inquire about swapping out to a s7 edge or possibly a note 5. My question was if say in 3 months a phone came out that I actually wanted, would I be able to upgrade without penalty.
So after chatting for about 5 minutes with the manager, I don't get an answer to my actual question, but am told that I can call customer service and I "SHOULD" be able to upgrade to a s7e with no penalty for this swap. However if i wanted to (upgrade in store) I would have to pay the balance of my note 7 up to half of the total value.
WHAT!
So for a DOWNGRADE I don't want, that I'm basically being forced to take I would have to pay off half the phone you say I must return to you?
Wth
shizumie said:
I just left a store, I went to inquire about swapping out to a s7 edge or possibly a note 5. My question was if say in 3 months a phone came out that I actually wanted, would I be able to upgrade without penalty.
So after chatting for about 5 minutes with the manager, I don't get an answer to my actual question, but am told that I can call customer service and I "SHOULD" be able to upgrade to a s7e with no penalty for this swap. However if i wanted to (upgrade in store) I would have to pay the balance of my note 7 up to half of the total value.
WHAT!
So for a DOWNGRADE I don't want, that I'm basically being forced to take I would have to pay off half the phone you say I must return to you?
Wth
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That person was mistaken. Amazing how wrong they continue to get it.
Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk
dottat said:
That person was mistaken. Amazing how wrong they continue to get it.
Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya, I have read to many accounts of people walking in, getting a 2nd phone and leaving with both (to wait on a fireproof shipping container for n7) only paying an upgrade fee or taxes, to be returned upon receipt of n7.
I truly hate vzw, but where I live / work there is no other viable option.
Yeah there is no right answer at this point. They're just blowing smoke up our azz's until something gets figured out. The tech I talked to basically agreed with everything I said, first saying he too had a note 7 and also cancelled the order, then later said he might cancel the order. I find it hard to believe that after accepting an upgrade I'll still magically have another upgrade available to use anytime I want. If that were the case I could just keep upgrading over and over. What's the upgrade limit, will we be able to keep our original upgrade eligibility date from when we bought and activated our Note 7, what actually happens if we decide not to upgrade right now... These are the golden questions.