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Hello everyone,
I've been an android user for a year and a half now, but after getting a grip of a WP device I am surely making the switch, and the Titan has caught my eyes from the first sight!
I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice regarding where to get the phone from and what version should I get?
I live in the Middle-East and the phone is currently unavailable here but I want to get it from the internet, there are many versions of the Titan and I am not quite sure which one should I buy!
Here are the options I got and I don't know which one I should go with:
1- The AT&T version: I've read that the AT&T version had some problems regarding voice quality but its the cheapest among them all (around 500$ and I need to unlock it of course).
2- The international version -don't know what's it called really- factory unlocked on amazon for 675$.
3- The UK version on ebay for 600$, factory unlocked.
Considering the fact that I am kinda a noob regarding these stuff, I would like to hear your suggestions, what difference is there between all these three and what should I get for someone living on the other side of the world, also would like to know what the UK version differs from the others.
and is there a chance that the phone won't work with my carrier, what info should I ask them for and check before buying the device ?
thanks a lot for your time, any help is much appreciated
ATT is slow to release updates so I would recommend an international unlocked. You are gonna love the big screen and all the iPhones will be jealous saying it's too big. That's when I set my titan on top of theirs and say Iphone? I see no stinkin iPhone
Sent from my PI39100 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
ROCOAFZ said:
ATT is slow to release updates so I would recommend an international unlocked. You are gonna love the big screen and all the iPhones will be jealous saying it's too big. That's when I set my titan on top of theirs and say Iphone? I see no stinkin iPhone
Sent from my PI39100 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
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Click to collapse
I see, so that is a disadvantage for the AT&T version.
Umm, ok what about the UK version, what's wrong with it more like what is the difference between it and the international one?
ROCOAFZ said:
ATT is slow to release updates so I would recommend an international unlocked. You are gonna love the big screen and all the iPhones will be jealous saying it's too big. That's when I set my titan on top of theirs and say Iphone? I see no stinkin iPhone
Sent from my PI39100 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
had an iclone user pick mine up the other day and pretend it was a riot shield. "it's just sooooo big!" wait until the iclone 5 has a bigger screen, suddenly this form factor will become "magical." &^%$ers!
The AT&T one will *never* tether on any network other than AT&T. Not sure about the UK one.
You might want to investigate whether the int'l unlocked one can.
If it were me I'd get the int'l unlocked one, *unless* I specifically needed a UMTS band that that one does not offer.
tai4de2 said:
The AT&T one will *never* tether on any network other than AT&T. Not sure about the UK one.
You might want to investigate whether the int'l unlocked one can.
If it were me I'd get the int'l unlocked one, *unless* I specifically needed a UMTS band that that one does not offer.
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Click to collapse
UK unlocked here - tethers with everything!
drupad2drupad said:
UK unlocked here - tethers with everything!
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Click to collapse
since you own the UK version, may I ask you what differ is there between it and the international version ? (the UK version is cheaper by 75$) but I don't know if it'll work as I live in the middle-east and I don't know what to ask my carrier for to know?
thanks
I am not entirely sure about international version. But I think it probably not much difference hardware wise for sure. Since certain features of OS are limited to certain countries ir might be the case. E.g. Bing features, tell me services etc. It might be helpful if I say that even in UK version the radio is set to International.
Sent from my TITAN X310e using Board Express
drupad2drupad said:
I am not entirely sure about international version. But I think it probably not much difference hardware wise for sure. Since certain features of OS are limited to certain countries ir might be the case. E.g. Bing features, tell me services etc. It might be helpful if I say that even in UK version the radio is set to International.
Sent from my TITAN X310e using Board Express
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Click to collapse
ok that's great to know, features like Tell Me and others aren't that important to me and honestly it'll help me get a British accent, hehe
but the most important thing that there isn't any big changes, stuff like the market won't work or these kind of things, right?
thanks for your help
black_falcon90 said:
ok that's great to know, features like Tell Me and others aren't that important to me and honestly it'll help me get a British accent, hehe
but the most important thing that there isn't any big changes, stuff like the market won't work or these kind of things, right?
thanks for your help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a search though. In some countries Market won't have certain apps. The market ideally should work in all countries but some have lesser apps than others e.g. we don't have the Netflix app in the UK. Check out what Market looks like for your specific country. Unlikely you will have all the apps. It's more to do with MS sorting out the legalities etc for each country gradually..
iFan has their own bias, so i won't talk about it here.
AT&T Version always slow in the Update since AT&T have to test it and do whatever they want to the update before it can be published.
I have the X310e version from UK, unlocked and totally happy with it.
And with the international version, you have the "HTC" agent color, which is removed on the AT&T Titan.
Strike_Eagle said:
iFan has their own bias, so i won't talk about it here.
AT&T Version always slow in the Update since AT&T have to test it and do whatever they want to the update before it can be published.
I have the X310e version from UK, unlocked and totally happy with it.
And with the international version, you have the "HTC" agent color, which is removed on the AT&T Titan.
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Click to collapse
HTC agent colour is also present in the UK version. So does this mean only the ATT doesn't have it? or is UK and international one the same thing?
The Apps in the market will be dependent on the Country given in your Live-Account. This can't be changed afterwards, so if you use an US-Account and someday Microsoft extends their Market to your country you're either stuck with the US Account (don't know if it will accept a Non-US-Creditcard - it doesn't accept european cards for US-Accounts as far as I remember) or you lose the Apps which are bound onto your US-Account and create a new one.
So those things will most likely have to be sorted out firt. The HTC-Titan as far as I know supports the same 3G Bands in all it's variants which makes it usable on pretty much any UMTS Network worldwide with only a few exceptions. The exact supported bands can be seen on the HTC Titans product page on htc.com
The UK version as far as I know is hardwarewise exactly the same as the international one, only difference might be in what UI languages are available (all keyboard languages are present since the Mango Update anyway although Middle-Eastern-Language support is currently expected to arrive with the Tango-Update - meaning it's not available yet).
Hope this helps and provides you with a rough idea of what troubles can arise.
StevieBallz said:
The HTC-Titan as far as I know supports the same 3G Bands in all it's variants
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The USA version is 850/1900/2100.
The UK version is 850/900/2100. The international version is probably the same as that one, but not sure.
The OP probably only needs 2100, so any of them will probably be just fine.
Now if we could only get a variant with AWS...
drupad2drupad said:
HTC agent colour is also present in the UK version. So does this mean only the ATT doesn't have it? or is UK and international one the same thing?
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Click to collapse
AT&T has a choice what to do with the ROM for their Phone. and they choose to remove the Agent Color HTC. I have heard it from multiple sources.
All others versions has the HTC Agent color.
StevieBallz said:
The Apps in the market will be dependent on the Country given in your Live-Account. This can't be changed afterwards, so if you use an US-Account and someday Microsoft extends their Market to your country you're either stuck with the US Account (don't know if it will accept a Non-US-Creditcard - it doesn't accept european cards for US-Accounts as far as I remember) or you lose the Apps which are bound onto your US-Account and create a new one.
So those things will most likely have to be sorted out firt. The HTC-Titan as far as I know supports the same 3G Bands in all it's variants which makes it usable on pretty much any UMTS Network worldwide with only a few exceptions. The exact supported bands can be seen on the HTC Titans product page on htc.com
The UK version as far as I know is hardwarewise exactly the same as the international one, only difference might be in what UI languages are available (all keyboard languages are present since the Mango Update anyway although Middle-Eastern-Language support is currently expected to arrive with the Tango-Update - meaning it's not available yet).
Hope this helps and provides you with a rough idea of what troubles can arise.
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Click to collapse
okay , let's say I get the UK unlocked version and use it in my country "Jordan" , I don't know where I read it , but as it seems every phone is region locked , and if I get a UK phone for instance I won't be able to get an update to my language for example (which is Arabic) .. is that correct ?
I don't know, its safer to get the international version even tho it's a 100 bucks more expensive , but I thought about asking you guys cause I don't know a lot about these stuff.
Thanks
StevieBallz said:
This can't be changed afterwards, so if you use an US-Account and someday Microsoft extends their Market to your country you're either stuck with the US Account (don't know if it will accept a Non-US-Creditcard - it doesn't accept european cards for US-Accounts as far as I remember) or you lose the Apps which are bound onto your US-Account and create a new one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I changed the country my live account was associated with. It's a bit hard but you can do it. There is a how-to online if you search for it.
I'm trying to decide what model to buy. I'm not from US and I'll not use my cellphone there.
I've noticed that there are plenty of US variants. Since I'm not used to all of these, can somebody tell me what is the support for these variants out of US? I mean, OS Updates, Custom ROMs and even parts.
I'll take a GS2 to my country (Brazil) and I don't want to get there and find out that I'm stuck with a nice phone but that will not work properly, will not have updates and will not have parts for it, including nobody wanting to buy it as well.
Thanks for your advise.
gsmarena for differences
Ok, Atfish, let me add something to my first post: I ALREADY checked Gsmarena for all variants, even Wiki for that. I'm not asking about hardware specifics, I'm talking about personal experience, ROM update, parts, etc. As I said, I'm planning on buying one when I arrive in USA, but don't know what could be the problems faced after I leave the country with a US variant (band problem already checked as well).
I know that Cianogen supports AT&T, for example, but none of the others. So, accordingly to knowledge AT&T is the closest thing to the standard I9100, but it doesn't mean that I'll be able to have all the privileges of a I9100. I'm looking for the closest thing to the I9100 that I can buy, since all US variants are always 30-50% cheaper than the International version.
Thanks, though.
Get the I9100. Plenty of custom firmware. Most common variant. Should work with most networks in most parts of the world.
Parts ? What have parts got to do with anything ? Your phone breaks or doesn't work, you send it in to Samsung/an authorised repairer for warranty service or take it to a mobile repair shop if it's out of warranty.
Why would you even consider a US variant? The one for Sprint is designed for CDMA networks, and probably won't even work for any of the carriers in Brazil, and the ATT and T-mobile USA variants will both have a bunch of branding. And the T-mobile USA variant uses slightly different frequencies than the ATT one, so you would have to do your due diligence with researching which one would work with your carrier. An un-branded i9100 is your best bet.
MistahBungle said:
Get the I9100. Plenty of custom firmware. Most common variant. Should work with most networks in most parts of the world.
Parts ? What have parts got to do with anything ? Your phone breaks or doesn't work, you send it in to Samsung/an authorised repairer for warranty service or take it to a mobile repair shop if it's out of warranty.
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Click to collapse
Mistah, you think it's not worth pay a little bit less for any of the US variants? I prefer to get the I9100, but the other are always cheaper.
Parts. Remember, I'll be outside of US, so get support for a US variant out of US could be very tricky.
ctomgee, thanks. I'm start to think that paying less now could cost me a lot more in the future.
I can't comment on that, because I don't own one of the US variants. What I do know is the I9100 is the 'most common' variant & it's easy to get help with it on places like XDA & there is plenty of custom firmware & mods for it.
We have a number of Brazilian members here on XDA who have the I9100, which suggests it works well with the networks in that country, and I'd be surprised if you didn't have repairers in the major cities at least who couldn't easily repair an I9100.
Up to you whether you want to get a cheaper US variant. Maybe ask on the specific boards on XDA devoted to those phones to get an idea from people who actually own those phones ?
hknoener said:
Mistah, you think it's not worth pay a little bit less for any of the US variants? I prefer to get the I9100, but the other are always cheaper.
Parts. Remember, I'll be outside of US, so get support for a US variant out of US could be very tricky.
ctomgee, thanks. I'm start to think that paying less now could cost me a lot more in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MistahBungle said:
I can't comment on that, because I don't own one of the US variants. What I do know is the I9100 is the 'most common' variant & it's easy to get help with it on places like XDA & there is plenty of custom firmware & mods for it.
We have a number of Brazilian members here on XDA who have the I9100, which suggests it works well with the networks in that country, and I'd be surprised if you didn't have repairers in the major cities at least who couldn't easily repair an I9100.
Up to you whether you want to get a cheaper US variant. Maybe ask on the specific boards on XDA devoted to those phones to get an idea from people who actually own those phones ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came here just to check the general idea of I9100 owners. Sometimes there are things pretty obvious about some variants that I, as a totally new user to Android, have no idea.
I used a lot XDA during my Windows Mobile experience, tested several different ROMs and tools, but since 3-4 years ago I don't have any phone that actually requires my visit here (Blackberry, in that case). So I've dug up a bit to know more about the different versions in order to know where I was going into. But I couldn't decide without coming here and checking with the XDA community, since I'll use for sure the ROMs and Tools available here on this phone.
With the answers that I've got so far it's pretty clear that it would be a mistake to buy a variant, specially not being a US resident.
Thanks, again, for your help.
better to ask that in att forum as we are not using the variants.....
plus i dont know where you get that impression that us variants are cheaper....!
they are not see the full price not contract price
atifsh said:
better to ask that in att forum as we are not using the variants.....
plus i dont know where you get that impression that us variants are cheaper....!
they are not see the full price not contract price
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where? eBay, Craiglist, Amazon... I'm not talking about phone with contract here, just carrier branded. A lot of times they are unlocked, but still branded.
I think I already bothered too much here, don't know if I want to annoy people there asking silly questions.
hknoener said:
Where? eBay, Craiglist, Amazon... I'm not talking about phone with contract here, just carrier branded. A lot of times they are unlocked, but still branded.
I think I already bothered too much here, don't know if I want to annoy people there asking silly questions.
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This is not a silly question at all.
From what I know, the ATT 3G one is closest to i9100 international. These phones are lightweight and have better screen (better clarity and contrast, not much though) than the 4.5 inch variants like Tmobile.
Tmobile has 4G and there are still a decent selection of roms.
sieudaochich said:
This is not a silly question at all.
From what I know, the ATT 3G one is closest to i9100 international. These phones are lightweight and have better screen (better clarity and contrast, not much though) than the 4.5 inch variants like Tmobile.
Tmobile has 4G and there are still a decent selection of roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your info!
I've noticed, when looking for a Windows Phone for my wife, that the AT&T version could be normally used in Brazil. The frequencies are basically the same.
From what I have found out the AT&T version was the closest one, just wanted to have a confirmation. Thanks for that.
I'd like to get rid of the Huawei UI and get something clean like AOSP or CM.
Do we have any roms yet?
None so far. It seems Huawei hasn't released any sources yet.
As a workaround, just install any 3rd party launcher. Nova works fine.
Nova would probably be the first thing I put on there, I hear this phone doesn't come with the Google play store though?
What about root? Has that been done yet? Gotta uninstall all the junk
joytest said:
None so far. It seems Huawei hasn't released any sources yet.
As a workaround, just install any 3rd party launcher. Nova works fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is not even any custom recovery yet !! So flashing any zip roms not possible even if available..
Sent from my MediaPad X1 7.0 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Do we have a way to root yet?
Rooting just use n google for program root genius. It works fine n very fast to get phone rooted
Sent from my MediaPad X1 7.0 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
omniphil said:
Nova would probably be the first thing I put on there, I hear this phone doesn't come with the Google play store though?
What about root? Has that been done yet? Gotta uninstall all the junk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There isn't much junk on this phone, quite a clean ROM. The International models come with Play store. The China models have an installable Play store from the Huawei app store, so there is no problem.
To root, you need to first install HiSuite, then enable USB debugging, then run Root Genius.
I'm not sure which version I ordered. I got the FDD Dual LTE one from here..
http://www.huaweimobileshop.com/
Does HiSuite come with the phone or do I have to download it somewhere?
joytest said:
There isn't much junk on this phone, quite a clean ROM. The International models come with Play store. The China models have an installable Play store from the Huawei app store, so there is no problem.
To root, you need to first install HiSuite, then enable USB debugging, then run Root Genius.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
omniphil said:
I'm not sure which version I ordered. I got the FDD Dual LTE one from here..
http://www.huaweimobileshop.com/
Does HiSuite come with the phone or do I have to download it somewhere?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here
http://consumer.huawei.com/en/support/downloads/detail/index.htm?id=16205
or here which is the main site
http://consumer.huawei.com/minisite/HiSuite_en/index.html
Excellent! Thank you!
I guess the first thing to do once I get the phone is to update it to the latest firmware via HiSuite and then root it.
I wonder if I need to unlock the phone as well? I will be putting in a sim card from the US, but I suspect phones outside the US aren't carrier locked.
joytest said:
There isn't much junk on this phone, quite a clean ROM. The International models come with Play store. The China models have an installable Play store from the Huawei app store, so there is no problem.
To root, you need to first install HiSuite, then enable USB debugging, then run Root Genius.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
joytest said:
Here
http://consumer.huawei.com/en/support/downloads/detail/index.htm?id=16205
or here which is the main site
http://consumer.huawei.com/minisite/HiSuite_en/index.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
omniphil said:
I'm not sure which version I ordered. I got the FDD Dual LTE one from here..
http://www.huaweimobileshop.com/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which country do you live in and how long did it take to arrive?
DrHRH said:
Which country do you live in and how long did it take to arrive?
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United States, took 3 days to arrive.
omniphil said:
United States, took 3 days to arrive.
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Click to collapse
OK, thanks. Any import tax on charged on it?
I'm in the UK and a bit concerned that I'm going to get hit with another £30 or £40 in import duty, as it'll be coming from the Far East. It might not be the same in the US though I suppose.
Does anyone know how it works regarding import tax/duty to the UK?
DrHRH said:
OK, thanks. Any import tax on charged on it?
I'm in the UK and a bit concerned that I'm going to get hit with another £30 or £40 in import duty, as it'll be coming from the Far East. It might not be the same in the US though I suppose.
Does anyone know how it works regarding import tax/duty to the UK?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
USA doesn't charge tax/customs for these devices. Some China based vendors will offer to ship the item without the original retail packaging to avoid additional taxes for certain destinations.
acuratlsfan said:
USA doesn't charge tax/customs for these devices. Some China based vendors will offer to ship the item without the original retail packaging to avoid additional taxes for certain destinations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, no taxes for me. It was either $13 for regular shipping and $19 for expedited shipping, Expedited took 3 days, pretty nice...
That's all I paid over the cost of the phone.
DrHRH said:
OK, thanks. Any import tax on charged on it?
I'm in the UK and a bit concerned that I'm going to get hit with another £30 or £40 in import duty, as it'll be coming from the Far East. It might not be the same in the US though I suppose.
Does anyone know how it works regarding import tax/duty to the UK?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of my first replies here on XDA, even tho I visit these forums every day.
About customs taxes: I live in The Netherlands, rougly 10% of all incoming parcels gets manually checked and opened by the dutch customs. I always let the seller mark the customs value as 17$ OR BELOW IT. The rule in The Netherlands is that all parcels, coming from outside EU, gets a 21% TAX and €17,50 standard import/clearance costs. Writing now with my X1, imported without any additional costs. Try to let the seller mark 15$ on your parcel and I think you can import it without having to pay taxes. Also this works perfect for me with DHL and small airmail parcels, big parcels (i.e. 20pcs Beats by Dre Studio) shipped with Airmail or HK Speedpost always gets picked out, never with DHL.
Wish you good luck, and let me knpw if you order it and how it's done after importing regardings taxes.
Makzinations said:
One of my first replies here on XDA, even tho I visit these forums every day.
About customs taxes: I live in The Netherlands, rougly 10% of all incoming parcels gets manually checked and opened by the dutch customs. I always let the seller mark the customs value as 17$ OR BELOW IT. The rule in The Netherlands is that all parcels, coming from outside EU, gets a 21% TAX and €17,50 standard import/clearance costs. Writing now with my X1, imported without any additional costs. Try to let the seller mark 15$ on your parcel and I think you can import it without having to pay taxes. Also this works perfect for me with DHL and small airmail parcels, big parcels (i.e. 20pcs Beats by Dre Studio) shipped with Airmail or HK Speedpost always gets picked out, never with DHL.
Wish you good luck, and let me knpw if you order it and how it's done after importing regardings taxes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the post. I'm hoping a friend of mine can get one from Malaysia and bring it back to the UK for me.
I suppose the important question is actually this:
Is the phone actually worth it - is it any good?
DrHRH said:
Thanks for the post. I'm hoping a friend of mine can get one from Malaysia and bring it back to the UK for me.
I suppose the important question is actually this:
Is the phone actually worth it - is it any good?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great.
Phone is actually pretty good. Annoys me that the AOSP Android Development isn't going fast. Chinese forums already have CWM in Chinese language, but still nothing different than MIUI. I've installed the 4.4 Google Now launcher and removed the borders around the icons which MIUI implements by default. Really strange thing is that my Android is way faster now than it was when I got it in the beginning, didn't change anything.
Keyboard typing needs some practice at this big screen, using AOSP keyboard right now but I always type the letter 'M' instead of 'N' and the letter 'P' instead of 'o' lol. Trying to get used to it now for a couple of weeks, but still need to practice more haha.
Hopefully this phone gets dev's attention, so we can get a AOSP rom, but I think we'll need to wait on Huawei for releasing the kernel sources...
Clove.co.uk sells the 64GB and 128GB version of the SM-G965F, but they don't seem to sell the 256GB version.
Are there any *trusted* vendors who do?
Samsung UK it them direct, and Currys PCWorld sell it from what I can see.
Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
Incarniac said:
Samsung UK it them direct, and Currys PCWorld sell it from what I can see.
Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
As far as I can tell, even if I buy a prepaid UK SIM card, using it in the US wouldn't let me deactivate the region lock. So unless that's incorrect, or there's another good option, I have no choice but to use a dealer who will activate the phone before shipping it. I don't think either Samsung UK or PCWorld would do this.
In addition, I'd be surprised if Samsung UK would sell and ship to an international address, and the Delivery section on PCWorld's site doesn't list international as an option.
Didn't realise you were in the US and this was a requirement. I don't have any personal experience from working around the region lock in this manner, so can't offer any definite help on whether it needs to be in the region or whether a SIM from the region will do the trick.
Clove's option of pre-activating (and breaking seals in the process) is one that I don't know anyone else do, this to me sounds like a very specialised niche they have targeted and I wouldn't expect most, if any, other retailers would do this (technically, once opened, it can no longer be sold as 'new').
Incarniac said:
Didn't realise you were in the US and this was a requirement. I don't have any personal experience from working around the region lock in this manner, so can't offer any definite help on whether it needs to be in the region or whether a SIM from the region will do the trick.
Clove's option of pre-activating (and breaking seals in the process) is one that I don't know anyone else do, this to me sounds like a very specialised niche they have targeted and I wouldn't expect most, if any, other retailers would do this (technically, once opened, it can no longer be sold as 'new').
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish a SIM card by itself was a guarantee - I hate getting opened box goods. And I've seen *way* too many sales/tech reps be casually careless with cell phones. I hate the possibility that I'm going to be paying $1k to get a brand new(ish) scratched phone.
That being said, I found one other dealer that does the activation - KickMobiles.com. They do have the 256GB version (only in Titanium) - but the reviews are very mixed for them. Clove has a much better reputation, but they don't stock the 256GB at all.
Haphim said:
I wish a SIM card by itself was a guarantee - I hate getting opened box goods. And I've seen *way* too many sales/tech reps be casually careless with cell phones. I hate the possibility that I'm going to be paying $1k to get a brand new(ish) scratched phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed. I don't know how accurate this article from TechAdvisor is, but it implies you do need to be in the region to remove the region lock, or alternatively apparently a Samsung Support/Repair Centre can do so for you. The latter may be an avenue worth investigating if there is one near you, maybe call them and ask and see what they say.
Haphim said:
That being said, I found one other dealer that does the activation - KickMobiles.com. They do have the 256GB version (only in Titanium) - but the reviews are very mixed for them. Clove has a much better reputation, but they don't stock the 256GB at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never heard of or used KickMobiles myself. I have used Clove in the past (it is quite a few years ago now) and would use them again if opportunity arose (right pricing, etc).
Incarniac said:
Indeed. I don't know how accurate this article from TechAdvisor is, but it implies you do need to be in the region to remove the region lock, or alternatively apparently a Samsung Support/Repair Centre can do so for you. The latter may be an avenue worth investigating if there is one near you, maybe call them and ask and see what they say.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've looked into this. Apparently, local support centers won't do it - they refer you to the support centers in the phone's intended region. And I've seen numerous reports from people who say that when people call the support centers of the home region, they couldn't care less and while some of them have helped, others have told them that they have to get on a plane and fly back to make the local call that disables the region lock.
I can't risk having a $1000 brick.
There are websites that claim to sell you an unlock code for $50, although I don't know how trustworthy they are nor do I know how they're able to do this unless they're run by disgruntled Samsung techs. If xda had a keygen for the unlock codes, that would be sweet, but I haven't seen any sign of that.
Haphim said:
There are websites that claim to sell you an unlock code for $50, although I don't know how trustworthy they are nor do I know how they're able to do this unless they're run by disgruntled Samsung techs. If xda had a keygen for the unlock codes, that would be sweet, but I haven't seen any sign of that.
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I didn't think you could unlock the region lock via codes. Don't know for sure mind, but be wary.
Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
Incarniac said:
I didn't think you could unlock the region lock via codes. Don't know for sure mind, but be wary.
Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
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You can - that's how the Samsung support centers do it. But I appreciate the note of caution - will do.
I found a site that has a lot of good reviews, so I've got some hope on that front, at least.
Good luck If you're so inclined, updating your thread here with how it goes would be of interest even if it's not something I personally am looking to do. Sharing the information is good
Hello Pixel 6 users in HK
May you be so kind as to share your experience of using this device here ?
I'm going to get one as a cheap replacement to my S21U, which is close to failing and I want to sell while it retains value...
Does it work well on the local networks (I use 3HK) ? I understand I won't be able to use 5G but I don't care.
Also, I suppose it is still not possible to use NFC with Octopus for transport and such on non Samsung phones, right ? Might be the one thing I miss.
I am not in HK, but 5G should be working for you now. NFC with Octopus shouldnt work.
bush911 said:
I am not in HK, but 5G should be working for you now. NFC with Octopus shouldnt work.
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Thank you for your quick reply!
What you say is reassuring me, since I don't plan to unlock BL, root or anything to avoid the stress of it !
My days of doing this are gone haha
HK user here. I rooted my JP spec one to an international version, got google pay and nfc to work but I don't use octopus with phone so I can't confirm on that. I use 1010 so I can't comment on how well 3HK coverage would be but mine works well enough in 4G and 5G is working for some people already via rooted mods.
milkteawithoutbubbles said:
HK user here. I rooted my JP spec one to an international version, got google pay and nfc to work but I don't use octopus with phone so I can't confirm on that. I use 1010 so I can't comment on how well 3HK coverage would be but mine works well enough in 4G and 5G is working for some people already via rooted mods.
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Thanks for your input.
5G is not a must, 4G is enough really.
Any point to go to an international version from the JP version we find mostly here ?
kipue said:
Any point to go to an international version from the JP version we find mostly here ?
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Only if you don't want to root your phone