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Hi. I'm new to these devices and have a question regarding the 2 phone options. I come from the iphone. I have a factory unlocked iphone that I use a tmobile sim in. I ordered the nexus one with the plan today. My question is are these phones like iphones where the one through tmobile is locked to tmobile. In my situation att sucks. I would never use them and do not plan on switching carriers. And these phones won't work on any other carriers until the spring. So, I like tmobile and went that route. My iphone takes any sim so I can hopefully swap the tmobile one out. If I am wrong please let me know. Anyway, are the tmobile ones locked to them so popping in a att sim won't work or is the phone not locked and they just want the contract?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock
If you bought the phone at $180 with the Tmobile plan then it is locked, meaning you can only use it with Tmobile. After a certain period of time though, you can call tmobile and ask to unlock your phone and they will walk you through it.
A locked phone means you can only use it on the carrier's service you bought the phone from. An unlocked phone is a phone you can use on any carrier.
Locked and unlocked phones have to do with GSM phones or phones that take SIM cards like Tmobile and ATT. Verizon and Sprint use CDMA phones, which do not have SIM cards.
When buying an unlocked phone, you need to make sure the phone will be compatible with your wireless service's 3G band or you will be stuck using their slower data offerings.
I found this out the hard way back when I bought an unlocked Nokia n95 with my Tmobile service. The Nokia n95 operates on ATT's 3G frequency and not Tmobiles...I had super slow internet on tmo's EDGE network. Fail.
If you do buy a phone from a carrier and it is locked, you can unlock it by calling the phone carrier and telling them you want to unlock your phone. Most carriers allow you to do that after you've had your phone for a certain period of time.
Thanks for the reply. Looks to be locked to tmobile which is fine for my situation. Sorry to be such a bother, but do you think it will work in my unlocked iphone then. I just want to be able to switch the sim between my N1 and iphone. Thanks again.
fdxgnd said:
Thanks for the reply. Looks to be locked to tmobile which is fine for my situation. Sorry to be such a bother, but do you think it will work in my unlocked iphone then. I just want to be able to switch the sim between my N1 and iphone. Thanks again.
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Click to collapse
Yes. You WILL be able to switch between GSM phones
That makes more sense to me. Also, my question is answered now. I don't mind tmobile as they are the premiere carrier here. Att doesn't even have 3g here and tmobile does. So, I made the right choice then. I wouldn't ever use an unlocked N1 on att for that reason. Now if it will work in my iphone life will be grand. Just to put this out there. I have no favorite software or phone. I usually get what works for what I need. I have far too many apps on my iphone to give it up. Probably upwards of $500 worth. I literally run my business on it. I am just sick of the fact that this phone was $1000 and I can't even do anything to it. I am making my way the android for that reason. Once the apps I do need come available bye bye iphone. Thanks for the great forum everyone and all willing to help out with answers. Much appreciated.
BTW. Ever try getting and iphone unlocked from apple or att. It would be easier to root the droid eris. Wife has one and I'm waiting. LOL
no if you get it for 180$ its STILL UNLOCKED!
see here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=6864cbe91ce938f6&hl=en
Never realized how controlling apple was until that comment melterX12. I'm getting a phone that is not locked on a plan I do want.
very true... hence the subsidized pricing and what not. the phone is unlocked which is why you have to pay more for it if you want to break your contract before the *so many days...
i'm pretty sure thats a good hint as to it coming unlocked through the t-mobile offer
All my past ppc's have been unlocked. It the best way, and it going to now (thanks to google) be the wave of the future in the States!
Hey guys, I'm thinking about ditching the AT&T and switching to Verizon when Bionic comes out.
have some questions, maybe you guys can help me get answers to them =)
How locked is the Verizon's Droid? Have you tried unlocking it to use with other providers in another country?
When phone is bootloader unlocked/rooted, can it be reverted back for warranty purposes?
$1000000 question: can you tether with regular unlimited plan? With/without dev hacks?
Thank you!
The original Droid is fair game. I'm assuming you mean the newer ones, though. They all have locked bootloaders and can't get new kernels without MOTO. Any world phone can connect to gsm towers, foreign and domestic. It's a matter of software determining which technology to use. If the phone isn't "global" it's cdma only.
You can perform a stock reset by loading a file called SBF. It's basically an image of a phone from the factory.
You can tether without voiding your warranty, but you will violate your Verizon ToS. You can wirelessly tether by rooting your phone or hacking the stock tether app. Read around and you'll find this is all very simple.I
zehkaiser said:
The original Droid is fair game. I'm assuming you mean the newer ones, though. They all have locked bootloaders and can't get new kernels without MOTO. Any world phone can connect to gsm towers, foreign and domestic. It's a matter of software determining which technology to use. If the phone isn't "global" it's cdma only.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
To rephrase the question, can I unlock my Droid to run on a different LTE/CDMA provider? I know verizon doesn't give the unlock codes like ATT does, but I'm pretty sure there must be a way to make it run with different providers, obviously without roaming.
If we are talking about Droid 1, yes you can "unlock" it, by rooting, flashing recovey, SPL and bootloader. There are guides on how to do this very easily.
Afterwards, you can go ahead and program it with whatever carrier values you want to be with and asking them to allow the ESN/MEID on their network; some will do it for a small fee others not.
But if we are talking about the Droid 2 and Droid X, the bootloaders haven't been able to be cracked, therefore operating them in different carriers has proven to be a very difficult task.
You are able to program them, to make the phone work, and most probably the 1X internet service which is like EDGE on GSM.
I have heard there are ways you can flash it to Cricket and it can work at 100%, but take me for example, I have stored Droid X I can't use because I cannot make the 3G to work as long as the bootloader is locked.
Hope it helps!
Nope. The only other CDMA carrier is Sprint, and it doesn't work. LTE we will probably have to wail and see, but I dont think any other carriers have a LTE network as of now
DarkWolfx said:
If we are talking about Droid 1, yes you can "unlock" it, by rooting, flashing recovey, SPL and bootloader. There are guides on how to do this very easily.
Afterwards, you can go ahead and program it with whatever carrier values you want to be with and asking them to allow the ESN/MEID on their network; some will do it for a small fee others not.
...
Hope it helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info!
I'm used to unlocking/flashing phones with tools provided by xda community, and although not a phone hacker myself, never had problems with unlocking them.
I'm just trying to forsee what are the chances that Droid Bionic (which is my reason for switching to VZW) will be unlockable/flashable.
It surprises me that, as you say, latest Droids' bootloader is locked. I can't believe xda talents didn't find a way to unlock/root/reflash it
blockhead42 said:
The only other CDMA carrier is Sprint
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There are other countries in the world, you know
DarkDvr said:
There are other countries in the world, you know
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Click to collapse
This is true! I have seen people flash the X to Cricket, but haven't heard of anyone bringing it to sprint....
To answer your other questions:
1.How locked is the Verizon's Droid? Have you tried unlocking it to use with other providers in another country?
ANSWER: While the X cannot be unlocked (not a global phone...) the Droid 2 Global, and the Droid Pro have both been unlocked to be used on other networks (GSM only I believe). This is a recent development from Team Black Hat (+10000 to them).
2.When phone is bootloader unlocked/rooted, can it be reverted back for warranty purposes?
ANSWER: as stated above... the only Motorola phone with an unlocked bootloader is the original Droid. Phones such as the HTC Droid Incredible have an unlocked bootloader, and can run custom kernals and the like.
3.$1000000 question: can you tether with regular unlimited plan? With/without dev hacks?
Answer: Yes, you can tether with the regular unlimited plan. This requires rooting the phone, if you wish to use such tether modes such as Wireless Tether for root (which now runs in infrastructure mode...). Team Black Hat has also released an update.zip that allows you to run Verizon's Wireless Hotspot app without incurring the $20 a month fee that goes along with it.
So there are some hacks required to get tethering... but if you want free tethering....its definitely worth it.
DarkDvr said:
It surprises me that, as you say, latest Droids' bootloader is locked. I can't believe xda talents didn't find a way to unlock/root/reflash it
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Click to collapse
XDA's great minds are currently working on it! The obstacle is that Motorola is using a hefty 2048 bit encryption key, which to my knowledge, I do not believe that a 2048 bit encryption key has been broken for any use so far...
To continue.. Aliasxerog over on twitter is currently working with kexec (or was a little while ago) which allowed to pass a 2nd init process on to the boot process for linux operating systems. I believe for now, he may have moved away from kexec, and is just working on a different init for the X.
I suggest following him on twitter for any progress on this. Also check out P3Droid, and CellZealot for development.
If you are looking for themes, check out Bignadad on Twitter... as he is the king in my opinion... Does the best work I have seen.
Thanks for great replies guys.
I don't own X, nor do I really plan to, I'm just using it as a reference to predict what kind of unlocking/flashing (if any) will be available for Droid Bionic, which I do want to get.
I never owned motorola (only Samsung and HTC) PDAs, so trying to test the waters before I jump in..
Leaving ATT because of their crappy network? Don't blame you.
If you're leaving just for the Bionic, the Atrix (ATT Only) appears to be the same phone, except the Atrix can dock into a "laptop" ("laptop" because the device is useless without the phone). Depending on how much the "laptop" dock costs, and depending on how often you travel away from home, it could be a pretty sweet combo.
With the bionic only having 512 MB of RAM, I'm definitely jealous of the Atrix. I probably wouldn't ever leave VZW though.
Looking at the specs the Bionic appears to be a BIG let down!!! With VZW supposedly having the"best" Motorola products in the droid line up the Atrix is a much better device than the Bionic & HTC's ThunderBolt seems to be in a league of it's own!!!
Now that VZW has changed the game getting the iPhone let's see what Apple & VZW come up with for the 4G LTE iPhone (better be more impressive than Motorola & the Bionic)
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
The only difference between the Bionic and the Atrix 4g is the ram. The Bionic has a larger screen and is using toned down blur vs. full on blur. So I wouldn't call the Bionic a let down. I also wouldn't be surprised if [email protected] blocked the Atrix from sideloading apps.
Sent from my DROIDX
EtherBoo said:
Leaving ATT because of their crappy network? Don't blame you.
If you're leaving just for the Bionic, the Atrix (ATT Only) appears to be the same phone, except the Atrix can dock into a "laptop" ("laptop" because the device is useless without the phone). Depending on how much the "laptop" dock costs, and depending on how often you travel away from home, it could be a pretty sweet combo.
With the bionic only having 512 MB of RAM, I'm definitely jealous of the Atrix. I probably wouldn't ever leave VZW though.
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Click to collapse
Yeah I'm aware of the Atrix.. and it's still a good option for me.
However, it has 5MP camera VS Bionic's 8MP, and 4" screen vs Bionic's 4.3".
Two things that I actually like and use =(
DVS69 said:
Looking at the specs the Bionic appears to be a BIG let down!!! With VZW supposedly having the"best" Motorola products in the droid line up the Atrix is a much better device than the Bionic & HTC's ThunderBolt seems to be in a league of it's own!!!
Now that VZW has changed the game getting the iPhone let's see what Apple & VZW come up with for the 4G LTE iPhone (better be more impressive than Motorola & the Bionic)
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Sorry, but I completely disagree. Bionic is, imo, the best among the three, closely followed by Atrix. Thunderbolt is kinda bad.
Look here for full comparison: http://www.phonearena.com/phones/co...-BIONIC,HTC-ThunderBolt/phones/4982,5122,4985
Notice the now crappy and underwhelming 480x800 screen res, a ****ty 1400MAH battery and a standard 1GHzz Snapdragon. Thunderbold is a whole generation below Atrix and Bionic. Also much-lower 8GB storage, NO HDMI port... The only thing it has going for it is 1.3MP front camera.
Bionic, imo, is the best here. Imo, there isn't really much difference between half-gig ram and gig ram, from user's perspective. Can't imagine filling that up on a cell phone.
On the other hand, Bionic provides 8MP camera and 4.3" screen. The only thing that scares me is the "SGPS", which is a non-Assisted GPS, as I understand it. Unless info is wrong.
Just my thoughts, don't mean to start a spec war here.
As the owner of the International model, I found this encouraging. I don't know if anyone saw this article, but it says that T-Mobile is going to revamp their network to make it compatible with iPhones and other smartphones.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-23-13-18-26
I know there had been some hinting about this effort, but I heard last month that they had abandoned plans to reconfigure their network. This article seems to say full speed ahead.
Finally an amerikan carrier with some sense! That's sorely lacking...
Sent from my sprout GT-N7000 using Tapatalk
i hope this comes to fruition very quickly.
i like buying phones off contract and most (if not all) off contract international phones only support ATT bands.
being able to purchase pretty much ANY GSM phone and have it work on tmobile would be a godsend and that will pretty much have people jumping ship from att to tmobile.
Ever since my Samsung Rugby Smart... broke (don't ask how)... I have been on the hunt for a different rugged Android that comes with a relatively low price tag that supports T-Mobile either natively or through carrier unlocking. Recently the Kyocera Torque caught my eye at a Sprint store. The specifications of the phone were pleasing to me, and I saw listed on sites like eBay that a used condition Torque would be going for around 70-80 bucks. While talking to a Spint representative, pretending I was actually going to buy the phone and/or a Sprint plan, I asked him if the Torque had a SIM card slot and if it was compatible with GSM networks, such as T-Mobile (my actual carrier). He confidently gave a YES to both of my questions (he also said that in order for the phone to become unlocked, I'd need to use Sprint for 2 years and then cancel the plan and request phone unlock-age through them. No way I am getting Sprint for 2 years just for a Torque to be unlocked. Besides, there are unlocking websites which claim they will unlock this phone. Also, he probably assumed I was going to buy the phone from Sprint themselves. No way I'd ever do that! XD )
Here's where the confusion comes in. When I look online at phone specification websites like GSMArena, it states that the phone is NOT COMPATIBLE with GSM networks, and has a NON-REMOVABLE SIM card.
I am getting two different answers and I don't know which one to believe. If anyone knows the TRUE answer to this SIM card slot and GSM network compatibility conundrum, I would appreciate that they share the answer. I am excited about this phone, and if it really does support USA domestic GSM networks and all that, then I'd be buying this phone very soon.
Oh, and one more thing. Besides compatibility with GSM Networks, if this phone does support GSM, I'd also like to know if it supports high-speed data such as GPRS, HSPA, or anything like that. I have an HTC Rezound right now, and while it does support GSM Networks, it only gets 2G (EDGE) through T-Mobile. So support of 3G, and possibly beyond that, is another main factor that I would like to know about the Kyocera Torque, as it is actually one of the main reasons why I'm looking for an upgrade.
interesting
I talked to the Sprint guy again, and he took the phone apart and showed me the SIM slot. It was a Micro SIM I believe (the size right below Mini). The guy said it would work on international GSM networks, but if it was fitted with a SIM card for a United States GSM network, it would just say the phone is network-locked.
I guess the question is now this: is there a hack to "allow" or "force" the Torque to work with US GSM networks, similar to the hack for the Motorola Photon 4G (another phone I am looking into buying) that allows it to do just that?
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using XDA Free mobile app
jasonmerc said:
I guess the question is now this: is there a hack to "allow" or "force" the Torque to work with US GSM networks, similar to the hack for the Motorola Photon 4G (another phone I am looking into buying) that allows it to do just that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope. and best to just avoid kyocera phones completely. kyocera is a turd of a company. they lock down the bootloader and never issue major updates. for example, the torque won't ever see kitkat. and since they lock the bootloader, you can't install a custom recovery, or a 3rd party rom.
[Duplicate post. Sorry about that...]
x000x said:
nope. and best to just avoid kyocera phones completely. kyocera is a turd of a company. they lock down the bootloader and never issue major updates. for example, the torque won't ever see kitkat. and since they lock the bootloader, you can't install a custom recovery, or a 3rd party rom.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the heads up about Kyocera being a locked bootloader turd of a company XD. Now I'll be sure to avoid them in the future. No longer interested in the Hydro Life anyway, got an LG L90 for $48 and have CM11 on it already
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA Free mobile app
Interesting thing about the torque, it is one of sprints few water resistant phones, and also has the loudest speaker phone they make in my opinion. I just bought one as a spare phone for $50. Great to keep by the pool.
cfclay said:
Interesting thing about the torque, it is one of sprints few water resistant phones, and also has the loudest speaker phone they make in my opinion. I just bought one as a spare phone for $50. Great to keep by the pool.
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Click to collapse
yeah, it is a nice phone... except for their stubbornness about completely locking the device down. if they would actually make an effort to keep their phones updated i would not complain about it too much. but the fact that they lock it down AND never keep the phone updated beyond minor things is inexcusable.
CDMA - Verizon (not), Sprint?, U.S. Cellular?
GSM - AT&T?, T-Mobile?
As with a lot of other people on this site, I'm wondering which carrier will be best to pre-order from? I use Verizon but HATE the fact that most of the times it's one of the last carriers to be able to root the phone. I would also hate for this to turn into another Verizon Samsung Note 4 issue. Too bad the rumors where Samsung was going to start making phones that were both CDMA & GSM/UTMS were not true (as far as I am aware of).
This way since I'm now paying outright for my phones (roughly $800 bucks for 7 Edge), I could use it if I moved between carriers. After reading some other posts, now I'm wondering If I'm paying full price (paid in full), Will it be unlocked? I can't be the only one that feels RIPPED OFF when I pay $800 for a device and can't have root = have my own admin access. Can you imagine buying a laptop and not being able to install/change your own OS? not having admin rights/root?
I feel it's a MAJOR excuse for a carrier to even say - if we give you root & you change the ROM, then it makes it more difficult to help you. Guess what?!? I have not ever asked for help and nor would I... Besides, why couldn't they ask for the ROM version your using... if it matches theirs, they assist... if it doesn't, they tell you before they can assist you, you must put their ROM back on? Yes - there will always be that one person... but hey - if they were able to gain root and swap the ROM, they should be able to swap it back or pay to have it swapped back. OR at least pay for insurance and "accidentally drop it" and have it replaced.
It really bites that I (along with so many other people) want to pre-order the phone for several reasons (the free VR and games along with getting the phone first) but don't want to be SCREWED by one specific carrier and not be able to unlock the phone, root and replace the ROM.
So after all that - which carrier (historically) is the best to purchase from?
CDMA - Verizon (not), Sprint?, U.S. Cellular?
GSM - AT&T?, T-Mobile?
Additional INFO - I'm also about to call Verizon to confirm - But I read 2-3 months ago that Verizon will now allow another carrier's phone on their network (if it is CDMA). If that's true, then why not purchase the phone thru Sprint or US Cellular if historically those phones have been rooted easier than Verizon? I've been on Verizon for so long, that I'm really not sure...
Comments? suggestions?
What I'm going to do is pre-order from eBay.
The phones have a hell of a mark-up (+$200/$300), but there are unlocked Qualcomms that are usually rooted much more quickly with better support for AOSP.
I hate paying that much, but I'm going to have this phone for years, and the hassle from carrier-branded phones just isn't worth it.
Edit: You should still be able to add insurance and such through your carrier too, depending on their policies.
Didn't have an issue insuring previous phones with AT&T even though they were bought off-plan through other retailers.
It is slightly cheaper when buying it from Best Buy, $779 vs $792. I saw the T-mobile version supports band 13 LTE, but I didn't see anything about CDMA support.
I also did follow up with Verizon about placing a phone on their network that was not purchased from Verizon. They said it is currently limited to 2 phones - I don't have the names because I didn't care much......they couldn't tell me the S7 would be added to the list. So does that mean people on Verizon are STUCK purchasing from Verizon?
For my s6 edge I much preferred the unlocked UK version over the US AT&T version. (Which is why I asked in another thread when we can expect to see unlocked international versions).
AT&T not only added crazy bloat but removed really cool features from the phone. Just took em right out. They also removed Samsung deals/bundles from the phone (there was a MS suite and a free TB of storage or something removed). And in exchange for screwing with the phone they had crazy delays on updates (because they had to re-remove and re-screw the phone).
Coming from iPhone I just can't deal with carrier customizations. Unlocked for life. (crazy that Apple is unlocked now and Android isn't -- bizarro world).
JustWannaRom said:
I also did follow up with Verizon about placing a phone on their network that was not purchased from Verizon. They said it is currently limited to 2 phones - I don't have the names because I didn't care much......they couldn't tell me the S7 would be added to the list. So does that mean people on Verizon are STUCK purchasing from Verizon?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nexus devices are the exception (6, 5X and 6P). The problem with VZW and Sprint is that they use proprietary CDMA technology for voice communication. You can bring just about any device to their networks and have data but you won't be able to make voice calls in most cases.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
JustWannaRom said:
CDMA - Verizon (not), Sprint?, U.S. Cellular?
GSM - AT&T?, T-Mobile?
As with a lot of other people on this site, I'm wondering which carrier will be best to pre-order from? I use Verizon but HATE the fact that most of the times it's one of the last carriers to be able to root the phone. I would also hate for this to turn into another Verizon Samsung Note 4 issue. Too bad the rumors where Samsung was going to start making phones that were both CDMA & GSM/UTMS were not true (as far as I am aware of).
This way since I'm now paying outright for my phones (roughly $800 bucks for 7 Edge), I could use it if I moved between carriers. After reading some other posts, now I'm wondering If I'm paying full price (paid in full), Will it be unlocked? I can't be the only one that feels RIPPED OFF when I pay $800 for a device and can't have root = have my own admin access. Can you imagine buying a laptop and not being able to install/change your own OS? not having admin rights/root?
I feel it's a MAJOR excuse for a carrier to even say - if we give you root & you change the ROM, then it makes it more difficult to help you. Guess what?!? I have not ever asked for help and nor would I... Besides, why couldn't they ask for the ROM version your using... if it matches theirs, they assist... if it doesn't, they tell you before they can assist you, you must put their ROM back on? Yes - there will always be that one person... but hey - if they were able to gain root and swap the ROM, they should be able to swap it back or pay to have it swapped back. OR at least pay for insurance and "accidentally drop it" and have it replaced.
It really bites that I (along with so many other people) want to pre-order the phone for several reasons (the free VR and games along with getting the phone first) but don't want to be SCREWED by one specific carrier and not be able to unlock the phone, root and replace the ROM.
So after all that - which carrier (historically) is the best to purchase from?
CDMA - Verizon (not), Sprint?, U.S. Cellular?
GSM - AT&T?, T-Mobile?
Additional INFO - I'm also about to call Verizon to confirm - But I read 2-3 months ago that Verizon will now allow another carrier's phone on their network (if it is CDMA). If that's true, then why not purchase the phone thru Sprint or US Cellular if historically those phones have been rooted easier than Verizon? I've been on Verizon for so long, that I'm really not sure...
Comments? suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tmobile period, not going to lock the boot loader you'll be able to root (provided the community finds a way, but it's a snap dragon and unlocked bootloader so they will most likely before it even releases. ) second if you don't want tmo service you can still root it and use am at&t sim so there's that.