Just wondering what the state of root access and custom roms on verizon's LTE phones is. I'm close to an upgrade, but I can't seem to find a good list of what devices are locked or un-locked and which have decent custom roms.
You can't go wrong with the Nexus. Although it's not out yet, root is pretty much guaranteed, and all nexus devices have a great dev community.
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Hello xda, I was Judy wondering if any of you could help me out with a problem I'm having. I might be getting an android phone, the only problem is that I'm on us cellular and there doesn't appear to be top many options. My phone options are the htc hero s, Motorola electrify, Samsung repp, htc wildfire s, htc merge and huaweii ascend ii ( sorry if I spelled that wrong).
IM looking for a phone with some support of development community behind it, whether it be on xda or some other forum/ website.
Thank you and IM sorry if this its in the wrong forum.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
They are CDMA so if may be possible to activate an unlocked Verizon or maybe Sprint phone but you wouldn't get carrier subsidized pricing so it would be more expensive and may be harder to activate.
Motorola doesn't want to unlock bootloaders while HTC has recently made it possible to unlock bootloaders on recent models. Unfortunately the US Cellular versions of any android phone are going to have less dev support because US Cell is a smaller carrier meaning less device owners.
spunker88 said:
They are CDMA so if may be possible to activate an unlocked Verizon or maybe Sprint phone but you wouldn't get carrier subsidized pricing so it would be more expensive and may be harder to activate.
Motorola doesn't want to unlock bootloaders while HTC has recently made it possible to unlock bootloaders on recent models. Unfortunately the US Cellular versions of any android phone are going to have less dev support because US Cell is a smaller carrier meaning less device owners.
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I didn't know that, (sorry I'm a noob at phones). I remember when my dad broke his phone (some cheap thing), my brother's old phone was the same model, os he went into the store and they made it his phone without a problem. Do you think they would be willing to do that if I brought in an unlocked verizon phone?
Thanks for replying.
I'm not for sure if a Verizon phone will work, technology wise it has the hardware to communicate with US Cellular since its CDMA, but it may require some software changes to work on their network. Also it depends if they will activate non carrier devices.
spunker88 said:
I'm not for sure if a Verizon phone will work, technology wise it has the hardware to communicate with US Cellular since its CDMA, but it may require some software changes to work on their network. Also it depends if they will activate non carrier devices.
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Yeah they probably wouldn't allow it.
Hopefully at least one of these phones has some rom development somewhere on the internet, or I can get the wildfire and just remove sense from it without a problem.
So I looked around the threads on both Verizon, and Sprints side of the fences for an answer to this question and couldn't find any thing.
I have a Verizon Galaxy S3, and my contract with Verizon recently came to a close. I want to switch to sprint due to pricing and other options, but I don't have the money to drop on a new phone at the time, so I have been looking into unlocking the phone to work with Sprint, however I haven't much of luck...
That's when I came to XDA. While I was looking around the forum, I got to thinking.
Is there any possible way that I could take the Sprint version of the Samsung Galaxy S3's ROM, and load it onto my Verizon Galaxy? And has anyone tried this yet?
It's essentially the same hardware, right? To the best of my understanding, the only difference in the phones would be software related according to the carrier.
I am really struggling with this one, and I have witnessed the vast knowledge and great work by this forum before, so I am hoping I'll be able to find the help I need.
-Mortem Obrie
Verizon and Sprint do use the same cdma networks but will not activate each others devices on their network so the answer is no I do not think this is going to be possible for you.
alekurkudi said:
Verizon and Sprint do use the same cdma networks but will not activate each others devices on their network so the answer is no I do not think this is going to be possible for you.
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Well I did talk to Sprint, and Sprint said they would be willing to activate an unlocked Galaxy. It's just the unlocking process that I am unsure of.
I am just wondering why none of the current Verizon Pre-Paid phones are on here? Can you not get CM12 on any of these phones? What is the reason?
HTC Desire 612 (Doesn't even show up on XDA Forum as a valid phone????)
LG Transpyre (Doesn't even show up on XDA Forum as a valid phone????)
Motorola RAZR M (I know this is an old phone and Motorola pached it making it un-hackable)
What gives? Has development just come to a halt?
For a device to receive its own forum on XDA, it has to have significant development, or at least the likelihood/potential for it. Verizon is undoubtedly the worst company when it comes to freedom for development. Unrootable devices, locked bootloaders, and the fact that only devices sold by Verizon will work on their network. AT&T is pretty bad too when it comes to this sort of thing, but at least they allow unlocked devices on their network. A custom ROM requires an unlocked bootloader. Or root, with Safestrap (including Safestrap developed for the phone). Verizon does their best to disallow both.
If you want freedom, go with T-Mobile or AT&T. T-Moible is definitely the "freest" of the carriers, but AT&T has the more expansive network. Or go with one of their MVNOs/subsidiaries like Cricket, MetroPCS, StraightTalk, etc,
Feel free to request a device forum in the thread below, if you haven't already done so.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1660354
Planterz said:
For a device to receive its own forum on XDA, it has to have significant development, or at least the likelihood/potential for it. Verizon is undoubtedly the worst company when it comes to freedom for development. Unrootable devices, locked bootloaders, and the fact that only devices sold by Verizon will work on their network. AT&T is pretty bad too when it comes to this sort of thing, but at least they allow unlocked devices on their network. A custom ROM requires an unlocked bootloader. Or root, with Safestrap (including Safestrap developed for the phone). Verizon does their best to disallow both.
If you want freedom, go with T-Mobile or AT&T. T-Moible is definitely the "freest" of the carriers, but AT&T has the more expansive network. Or go with one of their MVNOs/subsidiaries like Cricket, MetroPCS, StraightTalk, etc,
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So Verizon is the worst because they lock down there devices the best... That stinks because where I live, they have the BEST network .... I ended up with the LG Transpyre and was able to unlock the bootloader without any problems... However there are no ROMs for this phone... I got CM12 to work on it using LG Optimus F60 with only miner issues (camera doesn't work, and WiFi turns off without a problem, but takes FOREVER to turn back on)..... SO, I guess me being able to do this with ease... I am shocked know one else has done this!
meluvalli said:
So Verizon is the worst because they lock down there devices the best... That stinks because where I live, they have the BEST network .... I ended up with the LG Transpyre and was able to unlock the bootloader without any problems... However there are no ROMs for this phone... I got CM12 to work on it using LG Optimus F60 with only miner issues (camera doesn't work, and WiFi turns off without a problem, but takes FOREVER to turn back on)..... SO, I guess me being able to do this with ease... I am shocked know one else has done this!
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How did you unlock the bootloader???
Is this possible to root the Verizon Tablet to something like 4.4.4?
I'm not seeing any threads on it..just some random bits of people claiming they rooted it just having issues.
I have a LTE version BUT NO services. Is it possible to install WI-FI only versions of ROMS if rooting is indeed possible?
Bump. Is there a root for the Verizon Tab?
Hey everyone, i've been out out the rooting/customization game for a few years now since I had a company phone, but i'm changing jobs and will be buying a galaxy S9+ soon and I plan on activating it on Verizon. I have a couple questions though.
If I buy the unlocked version (SM-G965UZKAXAA) through Samsung is there any way to activate the HD calling features, most importantly Wifi calling as service near my house is bad? I've heard of apps like shortcut master and the like being able to do it but I have no confirmation.
I've also heard about people flashing the official VZW fw through Odin to get these features back, but won't that lock the bootloader and make full root with a custom recovery impossible or can we flash everything but the bootloader?
I don't understand how a carrier can lock these features if they are specific to the phone and not the carrier??
My end goal is to have a a phone that I can still root/use custom ROMs if I want but still have WiFi calling working. Is this a pipe dream? Should I just suck it up and get the locked down VZW version? The Wifi calling trumps unlocked bootloader for me right now but I am hopeful for both.
TIA
So after doing a little more research it seems that the unlocked version we can buy from Samsung/BestBuy have the Snapdragon processors and does not have an unlocked bootloader?
Is this true?
If so I guess there is no reason for me to not get the Verizon variant. Just have to disable all the bloatware.
Tallica21 said:
Hey everyone, i've been out out the rooting/customization game for a few years now since I had a company phone, but i'm changing jobs and will be buying a galaxy S9+ soon and I plan on activating it on Verizon. I have a couple questions though.
If I buy the unlocked version (SM-G965UZKAXAA) through Samsung is there any way to activate the HD calling features, most importantly Wifi calling as service near my house is bad? I've heard of apps like shortcut master and the like being able to do it but I have no confirmation.
I've also heard about people flashing the official VZW fw through Odin to get these features back, but won't that lock the bootloader and make full root with a custom recovery impossible or can we flash everything but the bootloader?
I don't understand how a carrier can lock these features if they are specific to the phone and not the carrier??
My end goal is to have a a phone that I can still root/use custom ROMs if I want but still have WiFi calling working. Is this a pipe dream? Should I just suck it up and get the locked down VZW version? The Wifi calling trumps unlocked bootloader for me right now but I am hopeful for both.
TIA
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Tallica21 said:
So after doing a little more research it seems that the unlocked version we can buy from Samsung/BestBuy have the Snapdragon processors and does not have an unlocked bootloader?
Is this true?
If so I guess there is no reason for me to not get the Verizon variant. Just have to disable all the bloatware.
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Currently, all Snapdragon variants come with locked bootloader.
If you want development right now, you should get the Exynos version or you can wait a couple of months until someone finds a way to unlock the bootloader for Snapdragon variant.
Thanks for the response. So it looks like i'll get the verizon variant and hope someone eventually figures out how to unlock the bootloader. Although i'm not hopeful as the Note 5, S7, and S8 have yet to be unlocked
Galaxo60 said:
Currently, all Snapdragon variants come with locked bootloader.
If you want development right now, you should get the Exynos version or you can wait a couple of months until someone finds a way to unlock the bootloader for Snapdragon variant.
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Not so, SM-G9600 and SM-G9650 have unlocked bootloaders with Snapdragon chipset.