Hey guys,
I want to know potential ways to brick my phone so I will be more careful.
Which ones will brick my phone?
1. Flashing recovery for another phone
2. Flashing ROM for another phone
3. Flashing just the kernel for another phone
4. Flashing wrong ROM without the kernel
5. Flashing a mod for another phone
6. Pulling the battery when doing a NAND restore/backup
7. Pulling the battery when installing a mod or a ROM
Or any others you know about. Thanks!
And no, I don't want to brick my phone, this is for prevention
To be honest its seriously not recommended to do any of the things you listed, some of them you may be able to restore your NAND to fix others will kill your phone. Just make sure you follow the guides on here and you'll be fine. But seriously don't install mods or roms that are for another phone.
Sent From My Omega'd Galaxy S3 ...
Don't do any of those....its still a £500 phone and doing any of those things you mentioned will reduce your phone to a rather uncomfortable form of loo roll! If you catch my drift....
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
That depends on the definition of "bricking". For me, a bricked phone is one that can no longer be fixed no matter what you do: it has no use other than an expensive paperweight.
Flashing kernels (even if wrong ones) won't brick your phone. They will render your phone unuseable until a proper kernel is flashed, but it isn't a brick.
Also, wrong ROMs won't brick your phone UNLESS they also contain a bootloader and/or a Partition Information Table (PIT) file, which is quite rare.
So, bricking (by my definition), only happens when you mess with the bootloader and/or the PIT, because those are either impossible or extremely hard to fix.
No matter what you do, DO NOT mess with the bootloader: as long as the bootloader is ok, everything else (including the PIT) can be fixed with some effort.
Simonetti2011 said:
That depends on the definition of "bricking". For me, a bricked phone is one that can no longer be fixed no matter what you do: it has no use other than an expensive paperweight.
Flashing kernels (even if wrong ones) won't brick your phone. They will render your phone unuseable until a proper kernel is flashed, but it isn't a brick.
Also, wrong ROMs won't brick your phone UNLESS they also contain a bootloader and/or a Partition Information Table (PIT) file, which is quite rare.
So, bricking (by my definition), only happens when you mess with the bootloader and/or the PIT, because those are either impossible or extremely hard to fix.
No matter what you do, DO NOT mess with the bootloader: as long as the bootloader is ok, everything else (including the PIT) can be fixed with some effort.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, that's exactly the answer I was looking for. So it's impossible to hardbrick my SGS3 unless I flash the bootloader?
Glebun said:
Thank you, that's exactly the answer I was looking for. So it's impossible to hardbrick my SGS3 unless I flash the bootloader?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, or the PIT (Partition Information table).
Never, EVER, flash any of these, unless you know EXACTLY what and why you are doing it: PIT, Bootloader, Recovery.
Flashing kernels and simple ROMs (such as the stock ones) don't brick your phone.
Simonetti2011 said:
Flashing kernels and simple ROMs (such as the stock ones) don't brick your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What bout custom ROMs, like CM10?
Glebun said:
What bout custom ROMs, like CM10?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to know if they include a recovery and/or bootloader before flashing.
Usually they DON'T, but you have to check.
Besides, you don't need CMW ( = recovery) to use CM10 ( = ROM), although some badly informed people will tell you that you do.
Glebun said:
Hey guys,
I want to know potential ways to brick my phone so I will be more careful.
Which ones will brick my phone?
1. Flashing recovery for another phone
2. Flashing ROM for another phone
3. Flashing just the kernel for another phone
4. Flashing wrong ROM without the kernel
5. Flashing a mod for another phone
6. Pulling the battery when doing a NAND restore/backup
7. Pulling the battery when installing a mod or a ROM
Or any others you know about. Thanks!
And no, I don't want to brick my phone, this is for prevention
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, even though it's only for prevention;
this is the ultimate way of bricking a device:
Take a picture or download a picture of the desired device, make sure it fits onto a brick, then glue the picture onto a brick, voilà, you now have a bricked device.
Now to serious things:
All the things you wrote are correct.
Hope I could help!
LG familyguy59/Beatsleigher
familyguy59 said:
Now to serious things:
All the things you wrote are correct.
Hope I could help!
LG familyguy59/Beatsleigher
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean? I just asked a question. Are you saying that all of the actions I listed will hardbrick my device? So who should I believe then?
Glebun said:
What do you mean? I just asked a question. Are you saying that all of the actions I listed will hardbrick my device? So who should I believe then?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They can potentially brick your device, because they use different drivers, files, etc. ... and the partitions are stored in different parts of the memory, changing these partitions can confuse the device and therefore brick it.
I said "serious things" because the first thing I wrote, was a n00b joke, I saw on the forums a while back...
Believe what you wish, all I'm saying is this:
if you flash something to your device, that was intentioned for a different device, then it's your responsibility, because most devs/modders warn you, and I did here, now. Everything you do to your device voids your warranty, and potentially harms your device, what you do to your phone is your thing, all we can do is advise you not to do things, it's your responsibility..
Hope I could help!
LG familyguy59/Beatsleigher
---------- Post added at 11:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:11 PM ----------
Simonetti2011 said:
That depends on the definition of "bricking". For me, a bricked phone is one that can no longer be fixed no matter what you do: it has no use other than an expensive paperweight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can always repair a bricked device with a JTAG, it's just the cost and the time consumption, that scares people off
LG familyguy59/Beatsleigher
I'd just pull the battery while flashing a bootloader. Guaranteed brick with little chances of recovery. You need to be fast though, that bootloader is really small and flashes fast
familyguy59 said:
They can potentially brick your device, because they use different drivers, files, etc. ... and the partitions are stored in different parts of the memory, changing these partitions can confuse the device and therefore brick it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So Simonetti2011 is wrong?
familyguy59 said:
They can potentially brick your device, because they use different drivers, files, etc. ... and the partitions are stored in different parts of the memory, changing these partitions can confuse the device and therefore brick it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are incorrect.
Only a PIT file can change partitions.
Besides, the location of files are standardized across firmwares.
that is why I wrote (page 1 of this thread) that the ROM being flashed must inform if they contain PIT's or recoveries. Stock ROMs (and all ROMs based on Samsung stock ROMs) do not change the PIT, recovery or bootloader.
If the user is going to flash a ROM that is not stock-based AND the developer of the ROM won't tell what it does, then simply avoid that ROM.
I stand correct: as long as the PIT and bootloader are untouched, the phone can be revived with very little effort (matter of minutes).
A JTAG can certainly be used in most cases, but not only it will take a few days (to get the thing delivered), but it will also be quite expensive and demand a lot of technical knowledge. So, I usually consider a device that requires a JTAG to be revived as bricked since I'd rather send it to an authorized service center than try to do it myself and make things worse.
My (most of ours, I guess) S III has a 1 year warranty. I figure that I can mess with it pretty bad and if it gets FUBAR I'll simply send it a service center.
So far, I'm yet to brick my SII, my SIII or even a HTC Kaiser which came with Windows Mobile 6.0 and got an upgrade to Android 2.3.7! I've flashed more ROMs than I can remember, I've wiped, I've lost data, but I have never bricked a single phone.
the thing is that whatever I do I read a lot beforehand and if I think - no matter how little - a ROM can be insecure, I simply don't do it.
My experience has taught me that something others consider a "must-have", I consider a waste of time and unnecessary headache and trouble: one such example is CWM.
There are dozens of people here with USB and MHL problems and 99% of them have CWM. That is NOT a coincidence.
I loved overclocking my S II, using SiyahKernel for that, but the device driver support in it (specially for wifi) was so bad that it was a waste of time.
What most people don't get is the definition of BRICKING. Will an improper stock ROM render your phone unusable? YES. Can it be fixed in 5 minutes? YES. Is that bricking? NO.
UNUSABLE <> USELESS
I am on jellybean can I directly flash any ics custom rom from cwm and then wipe and this wont brick my s3 I am asking this question because I had a galaxy note which was on ics and I flashed cm10 on it I had made a backup of the stock rom I found it to be little unstable so I restored the nand backup of stock rom this hard bricked my device
Simonetti2011 said:
That depends on the definition of "bricking". For me, a bricked phone is one that can no longer be fixed no matter what you do: it has no use other than an expensive paperweight.
Flashing kernels (even if wrong ones) won't brick your phone. They will render your phone unuseable until a proper kernel is flashed, but it isn't a brick.
Also, wrong ROMs won't brick your phone UNLESS they also contain a bootloader and/or a Partition Information Table (PIT) file, which is quite rare.
So, bricking (by my definition), only happens when you mess with the bootloader and/or the PIT, because those are either impossible or extremely hard to fix.
No matter what you do, DO NOT mess with the bootloader: as long as the bootloader is ok, everything else (including the PIT) can be fixed with some effort.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did You Mean If I Flashed Custom ROM Made Specially For My Phone (Codec For i9300) My Phone Will Not Hard Brick?
THE.W!ZARD said:
Did You Mean If I Flashed Custom ROM Made Specially For My Phone (Codec For i9300) My Phone Will Not Hard Brick?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that means if you flash ANY custom ROM, you won't hard brick, because they don't touch the bootloader
Glebun said:
What bout custom ROMs, like CM10?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CM10 is safe. It does not include any of these information that can brick your phone.
---------- Post added at 09:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:27 AM ----------
Glebun said:
that means if you flash ANY custom ROM, you won't hard brick, because they don't touch the bootloader
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, typically but keep in mind that if you flash rom from different phone model then it might soft brick your phone or some core services might not work.
I kinda did it to myself a couple of weeks ago. I have international i9300 and I flashed a rom for att. everything went smooth but my phone reception was not working. I was like WTF. then I checked rom correctly and I find it was for ATT. I was terrified that I might have broke my phone's reception forever. But then I again flashed CM10 for i9300 international and I am back into game again.
So when you flash any rom, try to double check phone model and reviews in discussion thread.
Yeah, but a soft brick is not a problem at all. I'm sure all of us have had a couple of them
Glebun said:
Yeah, but a soft brick is not a problem at all. I'm sure all of us have had a couple of them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes
Hi! I'm a total cell newbie, so pardon.
I want to root my phone just so I can actually put apps on my SD card. There's a few bits I want to understand first:
I've read that I am not going to want to accept OTAs. I've also read that some phones automatically accept OTAs. Since I don't plan to change my ROM (and I am not entirely sure what ROM refers to... is my "TouchWiz" a ROM?), how can I be sure that my default software isn't going to go trying to install OTAs without asking me?
Is a bricked device actually completely worthless? There's no way to get it back into a working state at ALL, or just no way to get it working without help from your carrier? And what is a "soft brick"?
If I manage to root my phone with the CASUAL one-touch program, how do I unroot if I were interested in doing so?
Please either avoid or explain any jargon you may use in your reply. For instance, if you refer to opening an app.... please just do the courtesy of saying it's an app rather than just assuming I know. If you use an acronym, assume I have no idea what it stands for. It took me forever to figure out what an OTA was, and I still don't quite understand what a ROM is... and that's the extent of my acronyms.
Thanks.
Wow, a lot of demands. Why not start here, as it should answer many of your questions. Threads are stickied for a reason.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2024207
Mandolin Bee said:
Hi! I'm a total cell newbie, so pardon.
I want to root my phone just so I can actually put apps on my SD card. There's a few bits I want to understand first:
I've read that I am not going to want to accept OTAs. I've also read that some phones automatically accept OTAs. Since I don't plan to change my ROM (and I am not entirely sure what ROM refers to... is my "TouchWiz" a ROM?), how can I be sure that my default software isn't going to go trying to install OTAs without asking me?
Is a bricked device actually completely worthless? There's no way to get it back into a working state at ALL, or just no way to get it working without help from your carrier? And what is a "soft brick"?
If I manage to root my phone with the CASUAL one-touch program, how do I unroot if I were interested in doing so?
Please either avoid or explain any jargon you may use in your reply. For instance, if you refer to opening an app.... please just do the courtesy of saying it's an app rather than just assuming I know. If you use an acronym, assume I have no idea what it stands for. It took me forever to figure out what an OTA was, and I still don't quite understand what a ROM is... and that's the extent of my acronyms.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Touch wiz is a style of ROM if you will.
Touch wiz roms for Samsung.
Motor blur roms for Motorola.
Sense roms for HTC
Aosp roms for nexus phones.
When you have a "touch wiz ROM"
It builds from the stock base code basically. They add freatures and themes and basically ROMs are endless to what they can do.
My phone never tells me about OTAs.
I believe the only time they do this is when on a stock rooted ROM is when something bad could go wrong
Never had any problems on custom ROMs however.
Next,
Bricked devices are very rare and only happen out of stupidity or carelessness in most cases.
Google will tell you how to fix. But I wouldn't worry about it.
As a very frequent flasher of ROMs I have experienced many of times a soft brick. Or a phone in boot loop.
This is when the device powers on but will not boot up. ( stuck on boot animation or splash screen are most common.)
ALL OF THESE ARE FIXABLE.
You can always wipe in a recovery and normally that fixes it.
Soft bricks normally happen from not wiping or bad download.
Also remember you have Odin as a last resort.
Also you can read the sticky threads in android development to figure out how to unroot
They will give you a better explanation on how to do so.
All this is answered by xda and Google.
They are what taught me what I know
They will teach you as well over time.
PM me if you have any other questions
Hit the thanks button so I feel important!
Haha
God bless the American people.
TeamWin Recovery Version: 2.5.0.0
I encrypted my device about two weeks ago. Today I tried flashing a new rom, which was Android 4.1.2. When it prompted me for my encryption password, I entered it correctly but it wouldn't accept it. I tried flashing another rom, which was 4.3, it accepted the encryption password but got bootlooped. My old device was on 4.3 to my belief. When I tried wiping /data in recovery it says it cannot mount /data. Help please?
Flash back to stock and decide if you want encryption or a device you want to flash.
That Won't Help.
imnuts said:
Flash back to stock and decide if you want encryption or a device you want to flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried Google and that already. Sarcasm will not fix my problem so if you don't have a solution please move on and stop spamming.
...
Can anyone help?
So you used Odin and flashed your phone back to stock? No where in your post did you mention anything like that, or even allude to the fact that you flashed back to stock with Odin. If you want help, post better information, or figure it out yourself. Also, you can't have a device you want to be flash happy with on ROMs and an encrypted device. The two don't work, so you choose one or the other, not both.
Um...
imnuts said:
So you used Odin and flashed your phone back to stock? No where in your post did you mention anything like that, or even allude to the fact that you flashed back to stock with Odin. If you want help, post better information, or figure it out yourself. Also, you can't have a device you want to be flash happy with on ROMs and an encrypted device. The two don't work, so you choose one or the other, not both.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...How can I fix this. I flashed it using my recovery.
imnuts said:
So you used Odin and flashed your phone back to stock? No where in your post did you mention anything like that, or even allude to the fact that you flashed back to stock with Odin. If you want help, post better information, or figure it out yourself. Also, you can't have a device you want to be flash happy with on ROMs and an encrypted device. The two don't work, so you choose one or the other, not both.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know how to do this or is this something you can't fix?
Read droidstyles thread at the top of this section. It has all of the information you will need to flash back to stock.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2
*Sigh*
This is why XDA annoys me. The "Recognized Developers" waste their time and other forum members time about how what they typed wasn't good enough for them. They could save a lot more time just asking questions that would help them understand the situation rather that be a nanny and tell the user how they didn't type up to their expectations, what they can do to make them satisfied, and then not respond for another 30 minutes.
ninten7 said:
This is why XDA annoys me. The "Recognized Developers" waste their time and other forum members time about how what they typed wasn't good enough for them. They could save a lot more time just asking questions that would help them understand the situation rather that be a nanny and tell the user how they didn't type up to their expectations, what they can do to make them satisfied, and then not respond for another 30 minutes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You screwed yourself by saying I wasn't be helpful and to stop the sarcasm. You want help, don't bite the hand that feeds you. Flashing back to stock is a very simple process and well documented here and in other Samsung device forums. If you can't figure it out on your own, pay someone to do it for you, and then leave your phone stock. Rule 1 of modifying your phone should always be know how to recover, which you apparently do not. And posts like the two you've now made in this thread are not how you get help, and will most certainly turn everyone else that may have offered it away as well, since you're apparently too good to do any work on your own and criticize people when they aren't spoon feeding you.
Um
imnuts said:
You screwed yourself by saying I wasn't be helpful and to stop the sarcasm. You want help, don't bite the hand that feeds you. Flashing back to stock is a very simple process and well documented here and in other Samsung device forums. If you can't figure it out on your own, pay someone to do it for you, and then leave your phone stock. Rule 1 of modifying your phone should always be know how to recover, which you apparently do not. And posts like the two you've now made in this thread are not how you get help, and will most certainly turn everyone else that may have offered it away as well, since you're apparently too good to do any work on your own and criticize people when they aren't spoon feeding you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He/she didn't bite the hand that fed them because you didn't help at all lol. I agree with this users statement and the only other complaint I have is how you need to make 10 posts before being able to post links but that I understand.
Hello
I was a former owner of LG Nitro HD P930 and I was trying to unlock its ICS Bootloader (to install recovery) but ended up destroying the boot partition, getting it hard bricked. Luckily it was under warranty and technicians couldn't fix it, meaning they couldn't even find out what was wrong so I got free replacement...
Anyway, I am getting Galaxy S3 LTE soon and just wondering if the S3 's boot partition can also be destroyed by any chance. I would like to avoid making the same mistake.
Any other advice on strictly what NOT to do is also welcome.
I'm only going to install CM using the new CM Installer and that's pretty much it. No custom kernels. Nothing to do with bootloader...
ceoleaders said:
Hello
I was a former owner of LG Nitro HD P930 and I was trying to unlock its ICS Bootloader (to install recovery) but ended up destroying the boot partition, getting it hard bricked. Luckily it was under warranty and technicians couldn't fix it, meaning they couldn't even find out what was wrong so I got free replacement...
Anyway, I am getting Galaxy S3 LTE soon and just wondering if the S3 's boot partition can also be destroyed by any chance. I would like to avoid making the same mistake.
Any other advice on strictly what NOT to do is also welcome.
I'm only going to install CM using the new CM Installer and that's pretty much it. No custom kernels. Nothing to do with bootloader...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea you can, the possibility exists. Samsung does change bootloader from time to time on the i9300 (don't follow the i9305, im going to assume it's not much different). You're not required to mess with bootloader most of the times but people do have reasons to change/not change it. All you need to have a problem with a bootloader is to fail a bootloader flash. Suppose you can even overwrite it with something else or have physical problems in your internal memory.
Afaik, there were some shady ways to reflash it back booting from an sd but i believe it's general acceptance you're screwed and will have to send the phone to service.
That said, the bootloader is small so it's flashed quickly. It's kind of rare for people have problems. /efs problems are FAR more common.
i9300 bootloader is not 'locked' so you don't need to do anything to it. i9305 is similar but not exact, don't get confused.
Suggest you go read the basics in general forum, if you want to avoid bricking your new phone.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
Hi,
I just got my HDX und now i want to install custom recovery and root the device. I have just a few questions before i do so an got no exect answers by searching the forum:
1. If I do a backup with custom recovery can I go fully back to stock?
2. Is there some sort of Factory Image to download to override custom revocery?
3. Can I Undo and go back to stock recovery If i have to send the device back to Amazon?
I just want to know if I can totaly revert all changes bevore I change something.
thx
maroc84 said:
Hi,
I just got my HDX und now i want to install custom recovery and root the device. I have just a few questions before i do so an got no exect answers by searching the forum:
1. If I do a backup with custom recovery can I go fully back to stock?
2. Is there some sort of Factory Image to download to override custom revocery?
3. Can I Undo and go back to stock recovery If i have to send the device back to Amazon?
I just want to know if I can totaly revert all changes bevore I change something.
thx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are new to this device you probably should read the first post here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2786190.. And the answer to all your questions are technically yes. If you do not brick or break your tablet anywhere along the way and providing that you are willing to do all homework necessary and then some before attempting to do anything.. You probably need to read through all the threads about brick devices to know what things not to attempt that will cause you to break your device.. Remember all the information is here if you learn how to use this forum and remember each section of the forum has several pages of threads of information.. You have a whole lot of reading to do if you do not want to end up another of this devices victims lmao
Don't get me wrong. I own a nexus 5 and the nexus 7 (2013) (rooted, custom kernel, exposed etc.) but due to the open system and bootloader so as the asop makes it easier to handle it. I already read the warnings but the Windows supported root tool should be a easy way.... not?
Okay obviously
maroc84 said:
Don't get me wrong. I own a nexus 5 and the nexus 7 (2013) (rooted, custom kernel, exposed etc.) but due to the open system and bootloader so as the asop makes it easier to handle it. I already read the warnings but the Windows supported root tool should be a easy way.... not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is not a problem getting it rooted you may have read the warning but you're not understanding it.The problem is not rooting the device. The problem is what people are deciding to do with their root access . And it may be my imagination or may not but this seems to be a favorite tablet for mommy and daddy to buy the kiddies.. Then they come here not knowing how to do their own research and find the easy way to root their device , There n fine there again not a real problem it's what they are doing ...BRICKING! There again not really a problem for me but when they come to this forum acting like somebody owes them something or somebody better step up and hurry hurry come help them fix their device before mommy and daddy find out ... Burying perfectly good information that I like to access under redundant questions because they are too lazy to do their own homework .. Repeatedly asking the same questions over and over again that have already been answered over and over again they just refuse to read the information and expect others to first to come to their special lil thread and inform them like this is kindergarten again . And somebody should be holding their hand because mommy and daddy bought them a special kindle fire..THAT IS LOCKED DOWN.. With no fast boot capabilities currently working there is a lot of talk about it but no consistent.... Repeat there is not a one click fix for this device ....... unlike most other tablets like I said one of your questions asked if you can just flash and fix ... At this time NO. If you really know what you are doing and you are not afraid of or can afford to turn your tablet into a paperweight.. There are ways to get your system flashed too repair mistakes or goofy behavior (even return to stock) but not from BRICK STATE. Long story short your 1 Click Easy Way to root.. Through ignorance, laziness , and the comprehension level of a fruit fly .. For this device in the wrong hands might as well be a sledge hammer ... Repeat in no way is a Nexus 5 ,at the moment remotely similar other then android base, to this tablet... Is what you should have gotten from the thread that I posted a link to... flash and modify at your own risk and Responsibly.. Nobody here is responsible for anything you do to your tablet. Or responsible for coming to rescue you if or when you screw it up... Please read all the brick threads to save everybody lots of famed face palms and headaches... Us and yourself trust me.
Thanks. I know it can be depressing to tell people "you question or problem was answered just two days ago, just read and collect the right information you need" I don't want to change necessary files like build.prop or do things where there is an exact warning to do so because it's not really stable...
The warning pinned to this forum just got me unquestioning if there are serious problems in every usually customisation (root, custom recovery, gapps) so doing just that could probably brick the tab because maybe the closed system makes everything risky and unpredictable in contrast to a vanilla android device.
well
maroc84 said:
Thanks. I know it can be depressing to tell people "you question or problem was answered just two days ago, just read and collect the right information you need" I don't want to change necessary files like build.prop or do things where there is an exact warning to do so because it's not really stable...
The warning pinned to this forum just got me unquestioning if there are serious problems in every usually customisation (root, custom recovery, gapps) so doing just that could probably brick the tab because maybe the closed system makes everything risky and unpredictable in contrast to a vanilla android device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well for example I am only a mechanic I'm 42 years old I am not well-versed in computers but android have been a hobby of mine for about five years .. But I have very little problems following directions. And I have been able to accomplish anything I wanted to do with many many phones and tablets including this one... So if you're willing and have the understanding that this thing is very fickle and likes to actup
Where other devices would not be problems... It can be a very nice device for the right person and a very big headache for the wrong one. There are currently a lot a bugs with pretty much anything that you try to do with this thing if not done with absolute precision and patience. And perseverance. I currently own three different HDX tablets with several other Samsung.. And I switch frequently. I do have Google on my HDX but I do not depend on them for all of my Google needs. Remember at least for now while these things are locked up tight they are pretty much only an Amazon media device along with if you are willing to brave and yada yada yada you may get some Google services working like many of us have. Enjoy all of my HDX thoroughly but I also have a understanding of the current limitations.