I am thinking about purchasing the LeEco Le Max 2 to use with AT&T. I've been reading on XDA and it seems like the US variant is the x829 one. I'd love to have the 6GB RAM model but the x829 does not have 6GB RAM.
Is there anyone here using the 6GB RAM model without issues (especially getting LTE to work) on AT&T? or maybe T-Mobile? If yes, which hardware variant do you have? The x820/x821/x82x...etc? and from where did you buy your device? Please share the full link if you have it.
Also is there a guide that shows which bands each variant supports?
Thanks guys, really appreciate any feedback.
Google "le max 2 x829 128gb" you'll find many places to purchase a 6gb/128gb x829 for as low as $245. I have the 4/64 x829 running stock rom on T-mobile with full coverage on lte. To my understanding the only band that's problematic is band 20 which we dont use in the united states. I bought it for my wife who wanted a rose gold model which is not offered in the 829 but I forced the gold 829 variant on her because I wanted direct access to the 829 rom so I can do some deving on it. I'm ordering a rose gold 4/32 for her Thursday for $193. When it arrives I'm going to clone her rom directly to the 820 then take over the 829 and have some fun. As for the 829 we currently have she loves it, loves the screen loves the camera loves the new ui (I hate it but to each their own). Call quality is great, volte works and even wi-fi calling on tmo works. As a comparison my wifes last phone was a Moto X 2015 (xt1575)
@castuis Thank you for the information. Do you mind if I ask from which website/seller you brought the phone? also where are you seeing the 6gb/128gb for $245?
Got mine from tinydeal. Ali express for the 128gb but they bumped it up to $259 about an hour ago, plus you couldn't pay me to order from them, made that mistake a few years back.
I am awaiting a silver 6GB/128GB from coolicool.com.
My first order with them, but they have been conversing with me via email since I changed the shipping address.
I 'should' have it with the next week? I hope it arrives and has a good fingerprint scanner?
@fcreeves I'm thinking about ordering from coolicool as well. Did you order from the Hong Kong warehouse or the Europe warehouse? Can you please let me know the condition of the phone when you receive it and which variant is it? x820 or x821 or x822 or x829?
A friendly word of warning. Success with the phones on T-mobile is not an indicator of how well they will work on AT&T, even though they are both GSM networks. For example, if voLTE is important to you, you are very likely not going to get it on AT&T. It is not automatically provisioned on AT&T, unless they know your phone intimately (and they don't know the Max 2 from a tin can and a string.) The first line of tech support refuses to even enable it on "unlocked" phones. There's also no means for WiFi calling, via an app or otherwise, unless you count the microcell boxes.
I'm tempted to call "BS" on anyone who says they are using these features on AT&T with these phones, based on the time I have spent on the phone with tech support..
Under the right conditions (read: areas), the phones work great on the AT&T network. Fast LTE data, and decent call reliability. But if if you want the bells and whistles, and enhanced reliability, the Max 2 can't deliver what the more mainstream brands can on AT&T. Even when right next to a tower, with the Max 2 showing full bars, I am unable to make calls, while every major branded phone brought into that same area has no problems. So something isn't 100% with these phones.
@RandyT2 I really appreciate the feedback.
@fcreeves, I'll be waiting for a feedback from you on the phone condition & fingerprint scanner.
I do have X829 64GB in the Boston area and I just got the Straight Talk AT&T nano sim yesterday. Popped it in, transferred my #. Had to change my APN in order to get LTE working, but everything seems good now. I don't know about VoltLTE, but everything else seems OK (for the moment).
With Straight Talk you have the option to go either Sprint/AT&T/T-Mobile or Verizon. I was using AT&T on my Nexus 5 so I thought I'd stick with it. Not sure if Verizon would be a better choice, but I didn't want to wait for them to send me another sim to test it.
The main issue for me right now is getting the fingerprint sensor working and rooting/flashing my ROM which seems a daunting task.
@Wagmans thank you for your feedback, not sure why many have issues with the fingerprint scanner and some don't have issues at all with it. It would be good to know if it's a hardware or software thing.
castuis said:
Call quality is great, volte works and even wi-fi calling on tmo works.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you give me some idea as to the ROM and Baseband version of the X829 phones you have? I really need WiFi calling, if I wish to keep this phone (which I do), and the way I understand that the T-mobile Wifi calling works is that the ROM detects that its an option based on the connection with the carrier, and the option just appears on the phone.
I'm ready to ditch AT&T because I have a fairly unique situation which makes the phone virtually useless to me without WiFi calling. But I need to make sure that I'm not switching, just to have the same issues, or to find out that only the X829 version supports it.
Thank you!
memee4eva said:
@Wagmans thank you for your feedback, not sure why many have issues with the fingerprint scanner and some don't have issues at all with it. It would be good to know if it's a hardware or software thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's more of a software thing. We'll know once I root/flash it if that's the case. The root/flash process for this phone seems so involved. A little overwhelming- I hope I don't brick it.
Wagmans said:
I think it's more of a software thing. We'll know once I root/flash it if that's the case. The root/flash process for this phone seems so involved. A little overwhelming- I hope I don't brick it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's too easy to flash TWRP, flash a new ROM, root and do all the things you need with it. This phone is practically unbrickable as you have a guide that teaches you how to unbrick it. Still, it's as easy as it gets to play with it.
@Wagmans please keep us updated if you get the fingerprint scanner to work
Yeah keep us posted. I'm interested in this phone. I have a Samsung S5 which I love and still use with no issues, but I'd like to have dual sim and have redpocket 99$ per year plan and Freedompop free data on the other. This set up will end up saving me hundreds of $$ per year.
memee4eva said:
@Wagmans thank you for your feedback, not sure why many have issues with the fingerprint scanner and some don't have issues at all with it. It would be good to know if it's a hardware or software thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or a human thing. I got my wife the x820 in January. Immediately flashed TeamSpain's CM13 understanding the stock firmware had fingerprint scanner issues. All that, and only to learn she rarely gets the phone to accept her print, but when I pick it up it works every time. So there is obviously a human print component in the equasion that determines the FP scanner works, in addition to hardware & firmware.
I pulled the trigger on the TinyDeal 64 x829 today for $202 for myself. Leaving the Moto G4 xt1625 behind as a backup. I'm sorry, 2 GB RAM on my Moto G4 is insufficient. We expect our phones to be computers, and they are, but we'd never expect to run 2GB RAM on a modern day desktop. I'd really like to see a 32GB model with 6GB RAM.
valy_cta said:
It's too easy to flash TWRP, flash a new ROM, root and do all the things you need with it. This phone is practically unbrickable as you have a guide that teaches you how to unbrick it. Still, it's as easy as it gets to play with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll fool around with it. I'm still confused as to exactly which ROM I should flash and still have US Straight Talk/AT&T compatibility? Would the stock Indian ROM work? How about the Chinese? I don't know what the differences are (needs to have English, obviously). It would be nice to flash a stock ROM and be able to get the software updates from LeEco (as opposed to being locked out with my modified 16s now).
Oh, and as far as I can tell, VoLTE/MMS is working for me on AT&T in the Boston area.
So to sum up, everything is good for me on this phone except fingerprint and new/better ROM. I'll see if I can resolve that once I get some answers as to which ROM to flash.
Wagmans said:
I'll fool around with it. I'm still confused as to exactly which ROM I should flash and still have US Straight Talk/AT&T compatibility? Would the stock Indian ROM work? How about the Chinese? I don't know what the differences are (needs to have English, obviously). It would be nice to flash a stock ROM and be able to get the software updates from LeEco (as opposed to being locked out with my modified 16s now).
Oh, and as far as I can tell, VoLTE/MMS is working for me on AT&T in the Boston area.
So to sum up, everything is good for me on this phone except fingerprint and new/better ROM. I'll see if I can resolve that once I get some answers as to which ROM to flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd say if you want updates from LeEco, then don't flash. IMO security updates are really what's at stake.
Ideally:
(1) you want a stable rom with all the bells and whistles to make you happy, and
(2) the dev is updating the rom every MONTH with google's security patches.
But we don't live in an ideal world. TeamSpains CM13 rom may be the best google stock-like rom out there, but it appears not to be 'updated' anymore. It's very stable and everything just works. So from a performance standpoint, it's great. But from a security standpoint maybe not. But then again, branded carrier phones sometimes never get security updates
Wagmans said:
I'll fool around with it. I'm still confused as to exactly which ROM I should flash and still have US Straight Talk/AT&T compatibility? Would the stock Indian ROM work? How about the Chinese? I don't know what the differences are (needs to have English, obviously). It would be nice to flash a stock ROM and be able to get the software updates from LeEco (as opposed to being locked out with my modified 16s now).
Oh, and as far as I can tell, VoLTE/MMS is working for me on AT&T in the Boston area.
So to sum up, everything is good for me on this phone except fingerprint and new/better ROM. I'll see if I can resolve that once I get some answers as to which ROM to flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I remember, the Chinese one has no limitations such as SIM1 4G and SIM2 only 3G or less. I'm using the Chinese one for quite some time and I'm happy with it. The Indian ROM has Play store but will add an encryption to your phone. In case you want to flash something again using TWRP, you have to format internal memory. The US version that was leaked 3-4 months ago had a limit of 4G on SIM1 only and 3G on SIM2.
Once you will flash the ROM, don't root it, otherwise you will not receive updates and you have to flash the new official stock again when it comes out. Search "manual gapps" to install Play Store on it.
Any ROM has English on it, even the Chinese, and it's not "translated"
About the AT&T compatibility, I'm not so sure. Maybe somebody from US can help on that matter.
Wagmans said:
I'll fool around with it. I'm still confused as to exactly which ROM I should flash and still have US Straight Talk/AT&T compatibility? Would the stock Indian ROM work? How about the Chinese? I don't know what the differences are (needs to have English, obviously). It would be nice to flash a stock ROM and be able to get the software updates from LeEco (as opposed to being locked out with my modified 16s now).
Oh, and as far as I can tell, VoLTE/MMS is working for me on AT&T in the Boston area.
So to sum up, everything is good for me on this phone except fingerprint and new/better ROM. I'll see if I can resolve that once I get some answers as to which ROM to flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just flashed the 20s Chinese full package, fingerprint started working again. I live in Michigan, I get LTE on [email protected]/ straight talk. Everything works fine with that ROM
Related
So I am leaving Montana for south Korea soon and was pretty excited to learn that my Rezound is global capable. The only thing is I am unsure if it will work on a Korean SIM card, or how to do so. I am s-off running the first leaked ics ruu. Do I need to ruu to the global firmware? Or will any gsm capable roms work without a firmware update? Also, if there's any one out there who has been to south Korea and could give me some tips on providers to choose from it would be appreciated.
Sent from my ... Rezound
You need to install the official Global RUU, leaks can be problematic because they prevent you from getting OTAs on stock rom and may not be the latest, most stable software.
I think there have been like 2 official firmware upgrades and several leaks between what you are running and global.
You do need a GSM enabled ROM, and one that is based on the global firmware. Simplicity or Newts One XXX 5.08 may be good options for you if u want to stick with a Sense ROM.
You may still need to call Verizon re: international calling, although I wouldn't mention I was rooted.
Sent from my Rezound using Tapatalk 2
brenuga said:
You need to install the official Global RUU, leaks can be problematic because they prevent you from getting OTAs on stock rom and may not be the latest, most stable software.
I think there have been like 2 official firmware upgrades and several leaks between what you are running and global.
You do need a GSM enabled ROM, and one that is based on the global firmware. Simplicity or Newts One XXX 5.08 may be good options for you if u want to stick with a Sense ROM.
You may still need to call Verizon re: international calling, although I wouldn't mention I was rooted.
Sent from my Rezound using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for helping. I was a little unclear in my original post however; I actually am running Newts One XXX 5.1.0 currently (awesome by the way). What I am wondering though is this; will the fact that I am not on the global firmware mean that I will need to RUU update in order to get service with a South Korean provider. I do not plan on trying to remain with Verizon as I will be in South Korea for more than a year.
Sent from my Windows 8 PC
You will have to ruu to global firmware to obtain global radios to work with the global Rom
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2
rezound in rok
I'm also heading to the rok and hoping to use my rezound. I'm on stock ics ota. I'm going to see what I get on a stock rom before I do any unofficial releases, but I expect to drop SMS capabilities or maybe data like you see in the states with a T-Mobile sim in. I arrive in Korea on the 31st so I'll update sometime late next week and let you know. I've been to Korea before and I believe we will have to go with SK Telecom as our carrier because it is the only GSM network. The other networks are cdma to the best of my knowledge. Hopefully my next update will be from my phone on a Korean network!
Rezound in South Korea update
In Korea now. I just flashed my phone from a stock OTA ICS, unrooted, s-on over to the Global RUU found on Androidpolice.
I have tried to buy just a sim card from several stores, SK, KT Olleh etc, and the stores all say that I have to go to the headquarters stores located in Seoul, Yongsan Train Station on the top floor. Apparently this is the ONLY way to get a sim for a global phone, other than having a korean national get one for you and give it to you. This weekend I will be going to the headquarters stores and getting a sim, Other problems you may run into are related to being a foreigner in Korea. They will sometimes not want to sell you a phone on a contract because you as a foreigner could disappear at any time without paying the bill. So, they will try to get you to buy prepaid. I don't want to deal with prepaid anything, but that may be a viable option to get a SIM card easily. Just buy a reallllly cheap prepaid phone that has a sim in it, pull the sim and throw it in your global enabled device. Unless you speak Korean, navigating to the headquarters and getting what you want may prove a bit difficult. Fortunately, I do speak Korean, so I will let you know how it goes.
I will update again once I actually have a Sim in my phone!
Thanks for the valuable information so far. I will be arriving there at the end of November and am looking forward to hearing more about how It's going for you there.
Sent from my... Rezound
got a sim, no data!
Finally got a sim from KT Olleh today. The girl at the counter didn't believe me that the phone would work, but I got her to do it anyway. By the way, don't try to set up service for a phone anywhere in Korea on a weekend. They cannot activate a new phone unless its a weekday. So anyway, got it all setup and the girl sits there and plays with my phone for a while without saying anything to me. Then she tells me that the calling and texting is fine but the phone won't get a data signal. I asked her to set the APN, and she said she did. I checked it out and she had put in the KT APN as alwayson.ktfwing.com Looks right to me, and she seemed to know what she was doing for the most part. Then she started to go on about how Korea runs on CDMA for the most part and not GSM yadda yadda.
So, I have a Rezound, working for incoming and outgoing calls and text on KT Olleh, but no data signal at all. I might repost a similar message in another forum topic to see if any gurus have any advice on how to get it working. Also going to do some more research. I'm new to this but there is tons of information out there. I will post again once I have resolution or give up and buy a new phone!
PS Phones in korea can be REALLY expensive. Dropped 850 on my wifes LG phablet (optimus VU2)!!! Equivalent to the instinct in the states I think?
didn't flash twice
So, I am a phone noob, and did a lot of reading last night. Saw that most people flash rezounds twice anytime putting on new firmware etc. I think I will try that tonight and see if I pick up the data signal.
The ruu's generally need to be flashed twice. However I did not need to do so going to the global, the ruu automatically took care of everything.
Sent from my...rezound
website for kt olleh
Some helpful information that KT Olleh has to say about using a non-korean phone in Korea.
http://expatblog.kt.com/71
The rezound may not have the radio frequency that network uses. That would be the main problem as to why you aren't picking up data.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda premium
jonezj said:
Some helpful information that KT Olleh has to say about using a non-korean phone in Korea.
I am currently in Seoul and have rented an Evergreen Mobile Sim Card that works on KT Olleh's network. I am curious as to whether you were ever able to get your Rezound to work with their Data network, and if so, how? Mine works with Olleh Wifi for free but will not even recognize the 3G, despite my having changed the APN settings, and even going to the Evergreen Mobile office in Yeoksa-dong today (they said they couldn't get it to work after an hour of fiddling with it themselves).
Suggestions? Do I have to root?
Oh, and the link in your above post has expired. Could you summarize what KT said?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm probably jumping the gun by asking this question now, before the US998 is available, but I'm chomping at the bit to know...
I'd like to buy the unlocked version of the V30, but I understand from the other forums that I may be giving up:
- Verizon HD calling
- Verizon video calling
- wifi calling
- visual voice mail
In trade I'd be getting:
- potentially 128GB internal storage
- no VZW bloat or branding
- all of LG's backgrounds (a reviewer says big red disables many)
- maybe a working FM reciever (?)
Some of these are important to me, some not or can be replaced.
Can you think of any other differences I should be aware of?
Nay Tyzon said:
I'm probably jumping the gun by asking this question now, before the US998 is available, but I'm chomping at the bit to know...
I'd like to buy the unlocked version of the V30, but I understand from the other forums that I may be giving up:
- Verizon HD calling
- Verizon video calling
- wifi calling
- visual voice mail
In trade I'd be getting:
- potentially 128GB internal storage
- no VZW bloat or branding
- all of LG's backgrounds (a reviewer says big red disables many)
- maybe a working FM reciever (?)
Some of these are important to me, some not or can be replaced.
Can you think of any other differences I should be aware of?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll get Verizon VoLTE -- but not Wi-Fi nor video calling.
Yes, you can have Verizon voicemail.
Those answers are based on the carrier unlocked LG G6 US997 released earlier this year, from people who have it and use Verizon. You should go over there and ask some questions. That will be the best predictor of the LG V30 US998.
I pasted some of the answers from actual users below.
jiggyman said:
I received mine and activated it yesterday. VoLTE works perfectly. No Video/WiFi Calling though. I love this phone! No bloatware!
Sent from my LGUS997 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VOICEMAIL
gillim74 said:
How do you get verizon vm working on the us997 everytuing else works but vm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
htcnext said:
Getting unlocked phones working on Verizon is still more difficult than it should be. Hypothesis: reps at the local stores don't get a commission on unlocked activations and do get commissions on carrier phones. If you want to avoid technical stuff suggest calling Verizon and threatening to switch to T-Mobile if they can't get it to work, do not go to local stores.
Regarding voicemail, I went with youmail from the play store. You might also be able to get the Verizon voicemail app working, I did not try that since I do not want any lame carrier apps on the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gillim74 said:
Thanks for the response.got it working after calling verizon!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
duke69111 said:
What did you have to do to get the VVM working on VZW? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gillim74 said:
Had to call them and have them reset the network
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nay Tyzon said:
I'm probably jumping the gun by asking this question now, before the US998 is available, but I'm chomping at the bit to know...
I'd like to buy the unlocked version of the V30, but I understand from the other forums that I may be giving up:
- Verizon HD calling
- Verizon video calling
- wifi calling
- visual voice mail
In trade I'd be getting:
- potentially 128GB internal storage
- no VZW bloat or branding
- all of LG's backgrounds (a reviewer says big red disables many)
- maybe a working FM reciever (?)
Some of these are important to me, some not or can be replaced.
Can you think of any other differences I should be aware of?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Regarding the fm radio. My Verizon branded G6 has the fm radio enabled, you just need to plug in headphones. It works with NextRadio and the LG radio app that I know of. The Verizon version needed files pulled and edited from xda forums to get LG's app working as it does not come with it preinstalled. It wasn't hard to install. An install of NextRadio from the play store just worked. The unlocked version probably includes the LG fm app. NextRadio is pretty snazzy, while the LG App is pretty bland and basic.
I've worked my mind around most things rooted vs unrooted and the biggest problem I have right now is not being able to turn on hotspot on my unlimited VZ plan. this could cause me to return the VZ version if root is impossible which it appears to be. although rooting a phone and playing with it will wipe out the battery prematurely. I've noticed this over and over. not sure I can live without the hotspot option. will absolutely not pay more to VZ to use my own existing plan.
johnp357 said:
I've worked my mind around most things rooted vs unrooted and the biggest problem I have right now is not being able to turn on hotspot on my unlimited VZ plan. this could cause me to return the VZ version if root is impossible which it appears to be. although rooting a phone and playing with it will wipe out the battery prematurely. I've noticed this over and over. not sure I can live without the hotspot option. will absolutely not pay more to VZ to use my own existing plan.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting a phone has nothing to do with battery life. It's just becoming admin of your own phone. The owner of the phone.
Rooting a phone will let you use your hotspot without carrier's permission.
If you mean custom kernels might favor performance over conserving battery vs stock kernel, you have a point. Which might make you have to charge battery more frequently. Thus shorter battery life over a several years period..
However, that is changing! Newer CPU governors like Alucard do a very good job of balancing performance and battery.
One thing you could do is root and run stock firmware, with an xposed module or app that will let you have your hotspot. Again, root by itself does not affect battery life.
ChazzMatt said:
Rooting a phone has nothing to do with battery life. It's just becoming admin of your own phone. The owner of the phone.
Rooting a phone will let you use your hotspot without carrier's permission.
If you mean custom kernels might favor performance over conserving battery vs stock kernel, you have a point. Which might make you have to charge battery more frequently. Thus shorter battery life over a several years period..
However, that is changing! Newer CPU governors like Alucard do a very good job of balancing performance and battery.
One thing you could do is root and run stock firmware, with an xposed module or app that will let you have your hotspot. Again, root by itself does not affect battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL.... trust me. viper4android, hotspots, trying all sorts of mods, and yes messing with kernels, changing OS every other week... battery life will get shot... every time, so yes it will... just comes with the territory.
regardless of how you try to fine tune the kernel to conserve. but I'm ok with all of it. I will just be bummed not to get the $200 card and the VR thing. So I guess I have to decide in the next 6 days how important hotspot is vs $300 worth of stuff.
johnp357 said:
I've worked my mind around most things rooted vs unrooted and the biggest problem I have right now is not being able to turn on hotspot on my unlimited VZ plan. this could cause me to return the VZ version if root is impossible which it appears to be. although rooting a phone and playing with it will wipe out the battery prematurely. I've noticed this over and over. not sure I can live without the hotspot option. will absolutely not pay more to VZ to use my own existing plan.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you get this phone? Did hotspot work out of the box with unlimited grandfathered Verizon plan or will we have to get root?
wonderrx said:
Did you get this phone? Did hotspot work out of the box with unlimited grandfathered Verizon plan or will we have to get root?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no. it did not. I'm jimmy rigging it by using the wifi extender to trick the hotspot to working but it requires that you connect to a wifi first. data isn't needed on the connect. it's hokey but works almost all the time. so I am now content. LG disabler squashed everything else so the phone is pretty snappy.
Nay Tyzon said:
I'm probably jumping the gun by asking this question now, before the US998 is available, but I'm chomping at the bit to know...
I'd like to buy the unlocked version of the V30, but I understand from the other forums that I may be giving up:
- Verizon HD calling
- Verizon video calling
- wifi calling
- visual voice mail
In trade I'd be getting:
- potentially 128GB internal storage
- no VZW bloat or branding
- all of LG's backgrounds (a reviewer says big red disables many)
- maybe a working FM reciever (?)
Some of these are important to me, some not or can be replaced.
Can you think of any other differences I should be aware of?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Having only used rooted phones for the past 10 years or so, I had a similar quandary, although some of the particulars were different. The arguments in favor of the VZ branded phone were earlier release date, wifi calling, $200.00 discount, and EARLIER RELEASE DATE (I have a thing for immediate gratification). The arguments in favor of the US998 were choice of handset colors and the most important factor: ability to root.
I opted for the VZ LG V30 and have been very hapy so far. As far as the OP's concerns, I can say that the ability to insert a micro SD card eliminates that need for internal storage in excess of 64gb, which is plenty anyway. Also, the LG package disabler (https://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-v30/how-to/guide-make-v30-faster-smoother-t3693083) and the FM Radio apk (https://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-v30/themes/lg-fm-radio-app-download-verizon-v30-t3689294) resolve the bloatware issue and FM receiver issue respectively.
As far as my concerns, the LG package disabler also accomplishes some of the same goals that for which I would want to root my phone. One of the main reasons that I root my phones is too be able to block ads, and I have accomplished that by disabling Chrome and installing Samsung internet beta, as well as by supporting developers by purchasing ad free versions of the apps which I use frequently or finding ad free versions of apps when they are available.
I've mostly gotten over the fact that my phone is silver, especially since it's always in a case anyway.
al4d said:
Having only used rooted phones for the past 10 years or so, I had a similar quandary, although some of the particulars were different. The arguments in favor of the VZ branded phone were earlier release date, wifi calling, $200.00 discount, and EARLIER RELEASE DATE (I have a thing for immediate gratification). The arguments in favor of the US998 were choice of handset colors and the most important factor: ability to root.
I opted for the VZ LG V30 and have been very hapy so far. As far as the OP's concerns, I can say that the ability to insert a micro SD card eliminates that need for internal storage in excess of 64gb, which is plenty anyway. Also, the LG package disabler (https://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-v30/how-to/guide-make-v30-faster-smoother-t3693083) and the FM Radio apk (https://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-v30/themes/lg-fm-radio-app-download-verizon-v30-t3689294) resolve the bloatware issue and FM receiver issue respectively.
As far as my concerns, the LG package disabler also accomplishes some of the same goals that for which I would want to root my phone. One of the main reasons that I root my phones is too be able to block ads, and I have accomplished that by disabling Chrome and installing Samsung internet beta, as well as by supporting developers by purchasing ad free versions of the apps which I use frequently or finding ad free versions of apps when they are available.
I've mostly gotten over the fact that my phone is silver, especially since it's always in a case anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have friends who are required to have carrier-branded phones and who cannot root. That's a well written post I'll share with them.
As for color choice I'm hoping LG will sell us the "open market" US988 in black V30+ configuration (or V30+ at all), but I'm becoming skeptical.
Interesting counterpoint, al4d.
There's also the matter of OS update timeliness. And security updates -- do they ever come from the the manufacturer? It seems like only carrier-specific releases get the media buzz.
Lastly, I'm sort of holding out for the Oreo release, just to ensure LG put all their best efforts into it. It would be a shame if 8.0 lands and it's a half-baked mess full of bugs.
Hey @ChazzMatt
Recently I've noticed that I have petty crappy signal and trouble with getting a GPS lock. I remember from the turbo having to flash a modem.
I'm running Stock LG at the moment purely for the camera, is there anything you recommend doing? Ive noticed I cant even change the apn settings.
When I hacked from US998 to VS996, I saw there were more "bars" being shown. Note, however, that "bars" can be changed to reflect different signal levels, so it may not actually be getting more/less signal. If I were careful, I would have looked at the numeric signal, but I missed checking that.
I'm running VS996 on our phones now, partly because of the VoLTE support as well... and all of that is working, so that's good.
I don't think you can flash just a "modem"... but I am interested to hear if this can be done...
Diego1751 said:
Hey @ChazzMatt
Recently I've noticed that I have petty crappy signal and trouble with getting a GPS lock. I remember from the turbo having to flash a modem.
I'm running Stock LG at the moment purely for the camera, is there anything you recommend doing? Ive noticed I cant even change the apn settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oreo now locks you out of APN settings (it knows what best, supposedly) but you can use an app Shortcut Master or Shortcut Master Lite to manually edit APN settings. Here's how to edit APN using that app. Of course that is NOT the V30 -- but it's still the same technique, and you would want to populate with your own APN information, not what they are using for their carrier. Here are instructions for Verizon on LG V30, at least for MMS.
As for modems, I know there are AT&T and Sprint TWRP flashable modems posted, but not sure about Verizon. You can fire up LGUP and manually flash VS996 modem partitions via DL Partition method, if you want to try that modem. Just UNcheck all partitions except for modems.
So I learned the hard way that you can't have it all.
I travel for work quite a bit and I was in the Middle East working when my Verizon S7 Edge started to have problems. I looked for a replacement in Dubai and was happy to find the S9+ at a reasonable price and with the 256GB option (which I wasn't finding in the US). I popped in my Verizon sim and life was good.
Then I returned to the US and. nothing. worked. I had forgotten that Verizon was strictly CDMA in the US and this phone had no CDMA radio.
I also was noticing that the samsung pay app was locked to the UAE version which was annoying but not a huge issue...I couldn't add American Express credit card which may or may not have been due to that region setting.
So in order to actually get service I switched to T-Mobile and have had decent data rates. However the phone doesn't use volte or wifi calling which is very bad since where I am staying is somewhat of a dead spot for mobile coverage. I basically can't receive phone calls here and making a call requires me to wait about a minute for the phone to figure out what protocol to connect to (dowleveling to either a 3g or H to actually connect and dial).
My initial research tells me that I don't want to root the phone and lose all ability to use samsung pay, but I would love to do as much as I can to the phone to get it working as best as possible.
Can someone chime in here to let me know what's possible? I don't want to experiment too much, and it's been rare over the years for me to keep up with all the root/firmware/rom etc. that has become available. My last real era of rooting phones was many years ago with iPhone and even then it was a lot to keep up with.
thanks in advance!
bump.
Anyone?
I had the same issue. I ended up rooting to get TMobile volte/wifi-calling. Also, by rooting you can also use Verizon Wireless; however, only with LTE.
You could use Google Pay lol.
Furthermore, I suck at giving reasons, but that's what I did.
Don't quote me on this, but from what I understand, you can use the patched ODIN and flash the firmware's CSC outside of it's region and change it to XAA. There is also a guide to changing CSC without root that may work as well.
From what I understand, the G965F is unable to load the XAA csc without root since it is only for the Snapdragon version
I ended up using Tekhd's tmobile detonator after I bricked my G965F/DS atleast 3 times. It works great now.
The way to change csc without root is via a combination rom and using Realterm. Using TMB CSC on a global G965F/DS ROM will end up in a PUK code lock. I tried ALL the US CSC on my G965F to confirm this.
Hey everybody,
So recently i bought this international unlocked Galaxy S9+ (SM-965F/DS Exynos processor) off Amazon and it's great, everything is fine with the one major exception being that at home my signal is pretty poor and i get extremely delayed text messages coming in and calls taking forever to dial out or failing to connect. Not a problem, i'll turn on Wi-Fi calling, right? Wrong, option isn't available, some detail: I'm in the US on T-Mobile, updated to the latest Pie OS update, i'm very tech-capable and used to do tier 2 tech support for Verizon. Long story short, I've tried everything in the book including FDR and fresh setup as well as clearing system cache etc. and it's looking like the ONLY solution to get Wi-Fi calling (and subsequently VoLTE that i didn't realize wasn't enabled until researching and checking myself) enabled is to flash the ROM with a T-Mobile OS. Unfortunately i'm coming up negative trying to find the firmware for this phone. Plenty of resources out there for the SM-965U(Snapdragon), but none for the SM-965F(Exynos) as of yet as far as i can tell (and before any ignorance jumps in here as i've seen on other threads, NO the SM-965U software will NOT work on this model phone as it runs a different processor, non-Snapdragon Exynos chipset)
So, that all being said, is anyone out there working on a fix for this, is it likely i'll ever get a fix for this, and/or is the fix already available and I've just completely missed it? Any information or help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and consideration.
bahruuk said:
Hey everybody,
So recently i bought this international unlocked Galaxy S9+ (SM-965F/DS Exynos processor) off Amazon and it's great, everything is fine with the one major exception being that at home my signal is pretty poor and i get extremely delayed text messages coming in and calls taking forever to dial out or failing to connect. Not a problem, i'll turn on Wi-Fi calling, right? Wrong, option isn't available, some detail: I'm in the US on T-Mobile, updated to the latest Pie OS update, i'm very tech-capable and used to do tier 2 tech support for Verizon. Long story short, I've tried everything in the book including FDR and fresh setup as well as clearing system cache etc. and it's looking like the ONLY solution to get Wi-Fi calling (and subsequently VoLTE that i didn't realize wasn't enabled until researching and checking myself) enabled is to flash the ROM with a T-Mobile OS. Unfortunately i'm coming up negative trying to find the firmware for this phone. Plenty of resources out there for the SM-965U(Snapdragon), but none for the SM-965F(Exynos) as of yet as far as i can tell (and before any ignorance jumps in here as i've seen on other threads, NO the SM-965U software will NOT work on this model phone as it runs a different processor, non-Snapdragon Exynos chipset)
So, that all being said, is anyone out there working on a fix for this, is it likely i'll ever get a fix for this, and/or is the fix already available and I've just completely missed it? Any information or help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm currently researching the very same issue... So far i hypothesize , with no knowledge, that if it is rooted, you can then change the csc settings and configure it for TMO, thus enabling WiFi calling. If someone can confirm, that'd be great, otherwise i'm trudging slowly to verify.
Root and use tekhd detonator.
CynicalHeight00 said:
Root and use tekhd detonator.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well i looked at this and it looks like a non-stock rom i'm sure wrought with problems that unfortunately is not helpful. My goal here is to have my phone work and continue to get standard updates with original and licensed (more or less) software and have it actually work. I'm not interested in a full OS replacement pre-loaded with a bunch of adblockers and other crap the designer thought would be useful, just want my standard features enabled and nothing else to change if at all possible. Also, if you believe my statement here is in error please explain, your one line really isn't very helpful, and nowhere on their website is there any description as to what tekhd detonator does / is supposed to do / what it will break. I'm certainly not risking bricking my phone when their own website says under all of its S9+ related material that it's for Snapdragon which the variant i have again doesn't use Snapdragon.
bahruuk said:
Well i looked at this and it looks like a non-stock rom i'm sure wrought with problems that unfortunately is not helpful. My goal here is to have my phone work and continue to get standard updates with original and licensed (more or less) software and have it actually work. I'm not interested in a full OS replacement pre-loaded with a bunch of adblockers and other crap the designer thought would be useful, just want my standard features enabled and nothing else to change if at all possible. Also, if you believe my statement here is in error please explain, your one line really isn't very helpful, and nowhere on their website is there any description as to what tekhd detonator does / is supposed to do / what it will break. I'm certainly not risking bricking my phone when their own website says under all of its S9+ related material that it's for Snapdragon which the variant i have again doesn't use Snapdragon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is going to be a hassle trust me. even with the Snapdragon models from different CSCs VoLTE and Wifi Calling do not carry over. An ATT 965U would have to be reflashed with the TMobile CSC and USERDATA files to get access to TMobile features. U are trying to do this with an Exynos model. I think you would have to root and install a custom firmware that has the TMobile USERDATA embedded.
Good luck.
can the U1 be flashed to the verizon u firmware? i thought i read someone tried this, but suspected it didn't work because he had previously used the phone with verizon with the unlocked firmware...
methcat said:
can the U1 be flashed to the verizon u firmware? i thought i read someone tried this, but suspected it didn't work because he had previously used the phone with verizon with the unlocked firmware...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can flash the G965U onto the G965U1 and vice versa. It's been well documented that this will let us go from one carrier firmware to another as well as let us have the unbranded carrier firmware. The only catch to this is the bootloader version of the firmware your wanting to flash. The firmware one wishes to flash must have a bootloader version equal too (or greater then) what is currently on the phone.
If your trying to ask about flashing the U1 onto an exynos variant then the answer is definitely no. You can't flash firmware from a different model onto a different model.
Just got my Xperia 1 III (XQ-BC72) couple days ago, flashed SEA firmware with no problems so far. Except too bad it doesn't support Volte in Canada, which used to be fine on my previous Xperia 1 J9110 with SEA firmware as well.
I was wandering is that possible to flash it with US firmware to unlock that, plus features like more 5G bands support?
Anything helpful would be appreciated.
i7killpii said:
Just got my Xperia 1 III (XQ-BC72) couple days ago, flashed SEA firmware with no problems so far. Except too bad it doesn't support Volte in Canada, which used to be fine on my previous Xperia 1 J9110 with SEA firmware as well.
I was wandering is that possible to flash it with US firmware to unlock that, plus features like more 5G bands support?
Anything helpful would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, any updates on this? I have an XQ-BC72 coming, and if I can get USA firmware on it I am hoping it will work for me.
Question for you: how did you flash the SEA firmware? Official Sony tools / firmware upgrade?
i7killpii said:
Just got my Xperia 1 III (XQ-BC72) couple days ago, flashed SEA firmware with no problems so far. Except too bad it doesn't support Volte in Canada, which used to be fine on my previous Xperia 1 J9110 with SEA firmware as well.
I was wandering is that possible to flash it with US firmware to unlock that, plus features like more 5G bands support?
Anything helpful would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
charlatan01 said:
Hi, any updates on this? I have an XQ-BC72 coming, and if I can get USA firmware on it I am hoping it will work for me.
Question for you: how did you flash the SEA firmware? Official Sony tools / firmware upgrade?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I flashed US firmware yesterday but it appears that it still wont work with Verizon even though all the 4G bands are there. I could care less about 5G where I live. I have CMDA less feature activated too but still no go. Worked fine on the HK version of Xperia 5 II so I though I would be OK on this one as well.
@i7killpii you are unlikely to get VoLTE to work (aside from maybe on T-Mobile). Its possible that a Canadian provider may also allow it but I doubt it. You also wont get access to more bands just by switching firmware. Whatever bands came with the phone is all you have access too.
@charlatan01 you can follow the directions here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guide-flashing-xq-at51-firmware-on-xq-at52-device.4147027/
These are for the Xperia 1 II but its the same process for the 1 III as well. If you use Verizon and somehow figure out to make it work, let me know. Please note, flashing firmware will erase everything. Also I am not responsible for any bricking or issues you may get into. It worked for me on the first try.
I flashed my XQ-BC72 using XQ-BC62 rom before. I cannot afford 5G plan so I didn't try. About VoLTE, I am using Fido and the carrier services are not available (including VoWiFi, VoLTE, showing 4G instead of LTE, etc.). Also I got a lot of problems such as LTE connection disconnection about every 30 seconds. So I flashed it back to TW rom. Still all carrier services are not available but at least the LTE is functioning.
I've searched about the carrier services issues. It seems it's because the carrier isn't cooperating with Google so no carrier configuration is available (I'm not sure because fido has android phones on their website).
morphius88 said:
I flashed US firmware yesterday but it appears that it still wont work with Verizon even though all the 4G bands are there. I could care less about 5G where I live. I have CMDA less feature activated too but still no go. Worked fine on the HK version of Xperia 5 II so I though I would be OK on this one as well.
@i7killpii you are unlikely to get VoLTE to work (aside from maybe on T-Mobile). Its possible that a Canadian provider may also allow it but I doubt it. You also wont get access to more bands just by switching firmware. Whatever bands came with the phone is all you have access too.
@charlatan01 you can follow the directions here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guide-flashing-xq-at51-firmware-on-xq-at52-device.4147027/
These are for the Xperia 1 II but its the same process for the 1 III as well. If you use Verizon and somehow figure out to make it work, let me know. Please note, flashing firmware will erase everything. Also I am not responsible for any bricking or issues you may get into. It worked for me on the first try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the follow-up. I managed to cancel my order for the Asia version and am going to snag the NA version when I can.
try only flashing /OEM partition with the OEM files of the firmware from your area.
Usually that brings VoLTE functionality and stuff
charlatan01 said:
Thanks for the follow-up. I managed to cancel my order for the Asia version and am going to snag the NA version when I can.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I called Verizon and got them to add the IMEI to my phone line along with CMDA-less feature. It actually worked. I can make phone calls and send/receive texts so it appears its possible to get Verizon to work on Asian model. However, VoLTE is a different story. I dont think I will get that work.