[Q] Should I get the Galaxy S2 Tmobile now or wait for the ICS version? - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Greetings:
I have a good deal on Tmobile plan (family plan, 3 lines, 1 line with unlimited data, all for $85/month for the 1st 20 month, $70 thereafter). Should I get the Galaxy S2 Tmobile now or wait for the ICS version one? I am not a techy therefore I don't think I am be able to root the device later to get the ICS update. More over, I am afraid that rooting can either brick my phone or easily get infected or both.
Your comment and advice is greatly apreciated.

pwanghk said:
Greetings:
I have a good deal on Tmobile plan (family plan, 3 lines, 1 line with unlimited data, all for $85/month for the 1st 20 month, $70 thereafter). Should I get the Galaxy S2 Tmobile now or wait for the ICS version one? I am not a techy therefore I don't think I am be able to root the device later to get the ICS update. More over, I am afraid that rooting can either brick my phone or easily get infected or both.
Your comment and advice is greatly apreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ICS version? Galaxy S II should get official update anyway... it is the fastest phone on the market atm...

Correct me if im wrong but i think ICS will be a new firmware update for S2 when it comes out..so dont think it matters

ICS version?
Are you talking about the galaxy prime? if so id wait till we get a proper look at that beast.
Samsung really are on form atm.

Thank you all for your comments and helps. Due to an unusual circumstances (it's a very long story), I have to go to locale Tmobile store to sign up a 2 years contract with the SGSII.
Do you have any antivirus install on your device? If so which one (free or paid) is good or best ? How secure is Android app market in comparison to iTunes market? Recently I have a credit card fraud. It is the first time since I start using CC (1982), so I am extremely cautious and paranoid now.
Never mind for the Antivirus. I've found and tried Lookout free version.

Related

[Q] Questions for USA buyers

What CSCs are you generally getting from resellers? Latest European?
Anyone buy from NewEgg? (30 day exchange for issue laden device)
What are the pitfalls if any with using International Versions on ATT. I can see the advantages.
Flashing methods seem to be the same from what I am reading. Even A TiBu restore may work from a saved folder from the Captivate. Have not read of any differences there in apps or TiBu.
VPN settings work?
Been looking to get this handset but not sure about about a few processes. I am guessing MobileTech can unbrick one of these should I have an issue as they did one of my Captivates. I have not read of any US repair support expected.
USA Buyer
I have a SGII here in US, bought from onthegosolutions.com, works well on AT&T sim card. No setup issues, nothing to complain about but the problems with the native email app and activesync exchange server, that is supposed to be fixed in KE7 if I can ever get it.
The phone is the standard EU version XWKE2
I got mine from Amazon and the CSC was from Chile. Flashed the generic European ROM soon after to update the build to KE7. Everything has been working fine before and after flashing and rooting.
THanks for the replies. Being a "noob" to non branded Android Galaxy (always bought Nokia before and had to set up VPN was the only difference.
The two branded Captivates which were complete turds initially have been very nicely polished by developers. (hence my support of donations to them and this site.) I believe in supporting the helpful developers with my wallet for ROMS and paid Apps.
I don't use either Exchange or the stock Email app. I like Gmail and K9. I will root for TiBi and root Explorer. Probably run Cog at first since DG was a force on the SGS I and still is. When I get comfortable with the flashing processes I will try other ROMs
I guess most processes are similar to the S1. I did notice two rooting methods. I even read somewhere SuperOneclick may work.
OF hundreds of flashes I bricked once (recently) but $50 late MobileTech and the JTAG had me like new. Small price to pay to save a few hundred dollar phone. IM guessing Josh cna do the same with the SGS II.
Does anyone know when it will be available for AT&T?
I bought mine from New Egg and received it Thursday and I must say it is a great phone. Mine came with KE2. I just flashed Cognition on it a couple of hours ago and its even smoother and faster.
I read on Android Central the other day that Samsung was having issues with the carriers in the US on getting them to pick up this phone. I don't know why since its an awesome phone and they already have phones on all the major carriers. I'm glad I bought it outright instead of waiting for ATT to officially carry it.
astarling10 said:
I read on Android Central the other day that Samsung was having issues with the carriers in the US on getting them to pick up this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The source of all those stories was a Korean writer with no facts talking out of his ass. A dev just found AT&T LTE code in the 2.3.4 leak along with PNG logos unique to their network.
Here's a link to the story that started it all. You judge if its credible.
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/...070701109.html
astarling10 said:
I bought mine from New Egg and received it Thursday and I must say it is a great phone. Mine came with KE2. I just flashed Cognition on it a couple of hours ago and its even smoother and faster.
I read on Android Central the other day that Samsung was having issues with the carriers in the US on getting them to pick up this phone. I don't know why since its an awesome phone and they already have phones on all the major carriers. I'm glad I bought it outright instead of waiting for ATT to officially carry it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah IM over Carrier branded handsets. I was glad ATT never carried the N82/N95/N97 Nokias...... I could not care if ATT never gets the SGS 2. Probably get an SGS 3 instead to compete with ifad 5
Bought one here from the Market place with KE7....Hasn't arrived yet.
tbong777 said:
Yeah IM over Carrier branded handsets. I was glad ATT never carried the N82/N95/N97 Nokias...... I could not care if ATT never gets the SGS 2. Probably get an SGS 3 instead to compete with ifad 5
Bought one here from the Market place with KE7....Hasn't arrived yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me too..no att crap ware..
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[Q] wait for Note on T-mobile

Hoping to get a Note and can't decide to wait for T-Mobile to get it (? months) or buy ATT now and do the steps to use T-mobile including 4G. How tricky and risky are these steps? I managed to root a Samsung ~year ago but the Note is worth 5x that phone. Also, if I use Gingerbread now, will ICS upgrade while maintaining 4G ablity be easy enough? Appreciate the advice.
I am on atta so I dont have exp on tmobile but if you go to rootgalaxynote.com you will see step by step guide and it looks easy just like flashing custom roms. just follow the instructions and you should be fine. I have flashed so many custom roms since jan of this year and never had any problem and my note is better than ever.
for official ics update, you will have to revert back to stock rom before you can upgrade. you will find this process also in develop section. you will probably have to flash tmobile again but it will be easy for you by then. very easy I must say.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
xdafangirl said:
Hoping to get a Note and can't decide to wait for T-Mobile to get it (? months) or buy ATT now and do the steps to use T-mobile including 4G. How tricky and risky are these steps? I managed to root a Samsung ~year ago but the Note is worth 5x that phone. Also, if I use Gingerbread now, will ICS upgrade while maintaining 4G ablity be easy enough? Appreciate the advice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I am on t mobile.
Here is the thing. The T-Mobile modem is easy to flash, true. However its reliability is less than you would see on T-Mobile phone (meaning some complain of weaker signal and data connection gets dropped very often with the only work around disconnecting data and reconnecting).
I personally never had dropped calls by the way but some people complain.
If you choose to stay on att modem then you get reliable 100 kbps which is pretty slow for most tasks but works fine for emails and light web browsing.
There are some tweaks that purportedly make it more stable but those can only be done on stock rooms and not on cm9 or aokp which are the most popular.
To make a long story short - it is kind of a pain on both gb and ics. They say T-Mobile is switching to 1900 band in a few months and then connection on stock att modem should improve- but there is a risk there too. So if you can wait I think T-Mobile one should be better.
It is a great phone and those of us who had it from day one are happy campers for most part. But if you can wait why not get the right one?
And then again what is the right one? With new processors already announced and galaxy siii coming soon many will say that you should just get a newer phone. But I am perfectly happy with the note and if you get the one with perfect connection that would be quite great (in my opinion). T-Mobile always takes longer to get new phones so on T-Mobile side the note will be quite big news for some time.
By the way I just posted some related questions in a neighboring thread - hoping to get some questions answered myself
Wow just read in general section that galaxy siii is coming in June and note on July 11th. This is for T-Mobile - so if this is true then you have quite a few excellent choices.
very helpful...
Thanks, I appreciate the info in all of the replies. I'm afraid I already caved and bought a used one on ebay today! I have been "suffering" with a quite tiny screen on an old Symbian phone!! I also saw the July 11 date for the Note arriving to T-mobile but I'm very anti-contract -- can't stomach the way the providers soak so much $$ from contract customers. It just seemed that the price on T-Mobile Notes would be elevated for a while and might take a few more weeks beyond July 11 before there would be plenty of used ones to pick from on ebay. . So I will hope for the best with flashing the T-mobile modem on ATT version.
xdafangirl said:
Thanks, I appreciate the info in all of the replies. I'm afraid I already caved and bought a used one on ebay today! I have been "suffering" with a quite tiny screen on an old Symbian phone!! I also saw the July 11 date for the Note arriving to T-mobile but I'm very anti-contract -- can't stomach the way the providers soak so much $$ from contract customers. It just seemed that the price on T-Mobile Notes would be elevated for a while and might take a few more weeks beyond July 11 before there would be plenty of used ones to pick from on ebay. . So I will hope for the best with flashing the T-mobile modem on ATT version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good choice. I was trying to be overly critical, but I guess my (perhaps somewhat hidden) point was that it's a great phone - with a lot of enthusiasm driving higher than usual software development for such a "niche" device.
I've read somewhere today that t-mobile versions of any phones are generally more buggy, so may not be worth it. And I'm sure that as soon as t-mobile phone reaches the hands of our developers the modem will be available for our use as well. Not only that, but also it is likely that by then official Ice Cream Sandwich will be available and kernel modifications will result in even greater roms.
Here is the link to Carrier Unlock discussion - I paid $25 myself, though some people used cheaper services I guess. You need to do that before your SIM will work.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1530863
While loading modems is easy once everything is set up, you need to root the phone and load cwm recovery which you then use to load the modem.
This helpful thread is for rooting a device and loading CWM without increasing flash counter -
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1518962

help AT&T 10 unlimited plan got changed?

ok so i bought the UK version of the Galaxy S3...i was told by many since AT&T can't recognize the uk version of the phone, i can sign up for the 10/month unlimited data plan...so i called them yesterday and gave them my dummy phones ime number...everything was good all day phone worked great..but i just got home and i got an email saying that my "iphone" doesn't have the proper data package and changed it to the 30 month/3 gig plan...so i'm confused...did they know i was using a smart phone??
maybe i screwed up not giving them the galaxy s3's ime number?
Doesn't matter what country it's from they can still enter your ImeI and know what you using.
Lets hope AT&T doesn't do as they did with the N1 and go after the medianet users.
You are SOL, it appears in this case your phone IMEI algorithm is in the ATT IMEI sweeps. They have the UK SGS III flagged as an iPhone just as they had the white Galaxy Note flagged as a blackberry.
this is a hit or miss thing. Best thing to do is give them an imei of a dumb phone from AT&T. Been running with that on my GNote.
tg9413 said:
this is a hit or miss thing. Best thing to do is give them an imei of a dumb phone from AT&T. Been running with that on my GNote.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah that's what I did do. I never gave them the s3's imei number. Gave them the imie of and old Samsung I had.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA
IMEI ranges are openly available and AT&T has the capability to scan for devices that fall within and then compare those to the data plan. The only thing that has stopped them from doing this wholesale is that it requires a great deal of resources and they have chosen to stick with the money. Otherwise there would not be anyone doing the medianet gambit without an IMEI spoof. The situation with the N1 was different in that they publicly stated they were going after Google and did so, it was a shot across their bow saying do not screw with our subbed phone system by getting into the business of selling unlocked phones to our customers. If they have decided to take this course with the sgs3 you will know soon enough as there will be many reporting that they were kicked to smartphone data but it would not be business as usual up to this time.
The other way that people get caught is that they are flagged at the time of making the switch by the csr and it sounds like this might be what happened here since this is the only report of it so far.
lunercrab said:
ok so i bought the UK version of the Galaxy S3...i was told by many since AT&T can't recognize the uk version of the phone, i can sign up for the 10/month unlimited data plan...so i called them yesterday and gave them my dummy phones ime number...everything was good all day phone worked great..but i just got home and i got an email saying that my "iphone" doesn't have the proper data package and changed it to the 30 month/3 gig plan...so i'm confused...did they know i was using a smart phone??
maybe i screwed up not giving them the galaxy s3's ime number?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very strange, you are the first person I've heard who has this issue.
Sent from Rooted debloated stock Galaxy S3 OG I9300
Yeah its all good now. I called and even they were stumped why. I re-added it and so far it hasn't changed back again
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA

safe to buy a new s4?

Hey guys, I want to buy a Verizon s4 from Costco, do you guys think new phones come with the original/unlockable rom?
Out are they updated out of the box?
Most likely already updated , it says on the box what version it is , you can always ask them
Sent from my SCH-I545 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Damn, I've got a galaxy nexus, I love the unlocked bootloader and running cyanogen. I didnt want to leave vzw, but I really hate the bloat and locked down phones.
Are there any decent new phones on vzw that we can flash without much trouble?
Verizon S3, but since the most recent update to 4.3 I don't know anymore.
S3 is abit out dated, I have my daughter's s3 on CM...but it's definitely am option I suppose.
I was thinking about the Google s4 for vzw, I would go this route if Verizon would give me a discounted monthly bill since they aren't subsidizing the phone. I should just drop Verizon and move the family to Sprint or Tmo
Probably best this discussion goes to the sticky ...http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2406733

I want to learn to root. What's the easiest phone to start with?

I want to learn to root. I bought an unlocked Nexus One to try it on. But thought I'd ask if there's an easier phone to start with? Or is that one good? It's never been used. It's Android version 2.3.6. GSM... I have two phone numbers, Verizon unlimited grandfathered plan with a Samsung s5 & an AT&T Go Phone with a broken HTC One. I don't care which carrier I use & no problem to get another one if that's better. Any ideas? Bill
32blownhemi said:
I want to learn to root. I bought an unlocked Nexus One to try it on. But thought I'd ask if there's an easier phone to start with? Or is that one good? It's never been used. It's Android version 2.3.6. GSM... I have to phone numbers, Verizon unlimited grandfathered plan with a Samsung s5 & an AT&T Go Phone with a broken HTC One. I don't care which carrier I use & no problem to get another one if that's better. Any ideas? Bill
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UP-DATE; I see there's a thread here titled 'What Phone Should I Get'... Would a moderator please move this to there? Thanks! Bill

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