Did I miss something in my research ?
Everything I read seemed to suggest that both SIMs in the Z7 Mini were 4G capable, in fact I am sure I saw some promotional material with screenshot of a UI display labelling both as 4G.....but is that only for TDD ?
I'm in the UK and independently my EE and Three SIMs can get a 4G signal on the phone in slot 1, but once I inserted both cards at the same time, activating the mSIM settings, the 2nd SIM is labelled as GSM only (1st SIM labelled 3G/4G).
Bought a pre-rooted model on ebay, not 100% what ROM version I have (phone advises there is a newer ROM available, but fails to install...possibly due to root status). Perhaps this works differently in a newer or custom (CM?) ROM. Anyone know ? When looking for cheap option for a dual SIM phone it was challenging to get clarity in the reviews and specs as to the parallel operation of 4G on such phones....thought I'd been through enough!
After a day of playing I can say it compares favourably (and gets a better AnTuTu score) with my Galaxy S5, fixing dual SIM would be great
Both SIM slots are 3G/4G capable but you can't use it on both at the same time, the other one will go on GSM.
Sent from my NX507J using Tapatalk
thanks - searching again today I've found numerous sites which confirm the same... I clearly misinterpreted whatever I found first time round!! Assume no significant changes with Mokee or other ROMs
No, it's hardware limit.
About the ROM the stock one is only English/Chinese and there is no playstore, online store usually sell it with a custom ROM based on stock to add multi language and play store.
That's why the OTA update fails.
Last stock ROM is 1.76 but they are also developing a ROM based on lollipop.
I am using CM11 and I'm quite happy with it.
Sent from my NX507J using Tapatalk
Well I have 2 unopened Samsung Alphas sitting in front of me.
1. SM-G850F (International from Germany)
2. SM-G850M (Unknown Origin)
I have Many sim cards that i am using. But the main one i want to use is the T-mobile USA.
What i have gathered reading is the F has the custom recovery where as the rest A,W(QuadCore) Y(Asia ?) do not.
All of them seem to have Root.
Version A is tuned for AT&T
Version W is tuned for T-Mobile USA LTE (But is a Quad)
etc etc
But the info on the M Bands is very vague, as in the Band listing on the website is always different listed for the M.
So what are my advantage of picking one over the other (M of F) for T-Mobile USA ?
As far as i know every other version than the A has exynos chipset with the octa core cpu and the A has qualcomm with quad core cpu and thats why almost every other version has root and the A dont.
Sent from my SM-G850F
Why the hell are they doing this ...
So how different is the M from F ?
I cant find any info regarding the M having custom recovery also.
Germanese said:
Why the hell are they doing this ...
So how different is the M from F ?
I cant find any info regarding the M having custom recovery also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Havent really looked into it.
Sent from my SM-G850F
Well i just took a bite xD
SM-G850M on Tmobile USA
I have 4G Stable aka LTE
Very happy with my outdated discontinued phone hahahahahah
I agree the Bands Info on 850 M is vague or conflicting .
But it seems that you should have the
1700/ 2100 LTE Bands for Tmobile 4G LTE and the 1900 band for 3G
needed with the M Version.
Are you getting full performance on 3G , 4 G and LTE on your Alpha ? ?
Yes i am getting all bands 2g 3g 4g H+ LTE depending where i am at sometimes E. Though during a call i only get lte or h if non of those my data doeent work during a call
SM-G850M (Vodafone) = Branded
SM-G850F (Europe) = Non Branded
cqdiep said:
I upgraded to 5.02, then did factory reset. That fixed it and I'm getting LTE on ATT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you tell me if the G850M is carrier-branded in any way? I know the G850F isn't, and I was wondering if the same is true for the G850M. Basically, I would like to receive Android updates directly from Samsung without carriers getting in the way, and I would like free use of the Portable WiFi Hotspot/Tethering feature (even without having it as part of your plan). I know Nexus phones allow you to do this.
Thanks!
unif said:
Can you tell me if the G850M is carrier-branded in any way? I know the G850F isn't, and I was wondering if the same is true for the G850M. Basically, I would like to receive Android updates directly from Samsung without carriers getting in the way, and I would like free use of the Portable WiFi Hotspot/Tethering feature (even without having it as part of your plan). I know Nexus phones allow you to do this.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
850M is not carrier-branded...it's unlocked and sold by Vodafone. I rooted mine, so can't get updates through Samsung anymore.
I did use it to create a Wi-Fi hotspot to tether my laptop. It works well, and I do not pay extra for this feature on ATT.
cqdiep said:
850M is not carrier-branded...it's unlocked and sold by Vodafone. I rooted mine, so can't get updates through Samsung anymore.
I did use it to create a Wi-Fi hotspot to tether my laptop. It works well, and I do not pay extra for this feature on ATT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks very much for your responses! I greatly appreciate it.
I found a 850M on eBay for $89.99 couldn't believe it, excellent condition like new. I rooted it, installed another XDA members 4.4.4 ROM but couldn't notice any difference from stock, works fine on Cricket (At&t) prepaid, 4G same speeds as my previous S5 Mini At&t version phone, around 8mbps down, 4mbps up, half that when on a call. I cannot find many 850M's on the market, it's amazing. I want to buy at least 1-2 more, these are one of the best phones Samsung produced, especially one of the last good phones with removable battery! There are more 850F's on eBay but may not have as fast data with At&t as they are EU version. After my experience with S5 mini on 5.1.1 ROM I noticed much faster battery drain and prefer 4.4.4 performance. Hope my post helps someone=) -Aje
ROM
newaje said:
I found a 850M on eBay for $89.99 couldn't believe it, excellent condition like new. I rooted it, installed another XDA members 4.4.4 ROM but couldn't notice any difference from stock, works fine on Cricket (At&t) prepaid, 4G same speeds as my previous S5 Mini At&t version phone, around 8mbps down, 4mbps up, half that when on a call. I cannot find many 850M's on the market, it's amazing. I want to buy at least 1-2 more, these are one of the best phones Samsung produced, especially one of the last good phones with removable battery! There are more 850F's on eBay but may not have as fast data with At&t as they are EU version. After my experience with S5 mini on 5.1.1 ROM I noticed much faster battery drain and prefer 4.4.4 performance. Hope my post helps someone=) -Aje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you provide a link to the ROM you installed and instructions? Thanks!
---------- Post added at 06:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:16 AM ----------
Can you provide a link to the ROM you installed and instructions? Thanks!
Here is the link to the ROM.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/gal...m-rom-lukrangelo-v1-brazil-zto-4-4-4-t3116098
However I didn't notice any difference from the stock ROM, was surprised to see the same original games included which I consider bloatware. Anyway the phone works great after rooting and uninstalling a lot of things, although it did suddenly crash and restart yesterday while on a phone call, first and only time in about a week I've had it. I love this phone and the size is perfect.
Really wanted to try this ROM but DL link is no longer working and no one is replying lately.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/gal...m-kf-rom-kk-v1-1-18-04-2015-sm-g850m-t3086594
CM for 850F works on other 850?
Probably not as they have different radio's and frequencies, I wouldn't try it. Still trying to get someone to share the slim rom for 850M.
newaje said:
Probably not as they have different radio's and frequencies, I wouldn't try it. Still trying to get someone to share the slim rom for 850M.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works! http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-alpha/general/unified-exynos-g850f-m-thread-t3515138
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