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Magnets in Cases? O2 XDA s Case

hello all! I'm new to the site, so I thought seen as this is my first thread I would say hello etc.. *waves*.. I got my XDA mini s last week and with some help from this place have it working nicely (on the stock rom might I add, as it appears to be the latest from O2..).
However, I noticed that after leaving it under my PC moniter it had effected the colouring of the screen (as a magnet would), it took me about 5mins to realise that the case that comes with the XDA from O2 has two magnets in it to hold the flap down when the case is closed. The only thing I am not sure off is how this will effect my XDA? I was never one to trust companies to think before they act so producing a case that would damage the product it is designed for does not stretch my belief, but I'm honestly unsure of how it would effect things... Thoughts on the subject?
On a slightly related note (and something I asked in another thread, but figured I would put it here also due to it being related)..
What kind of screen protector do people recommend? What about a link to a decent case too? Do you guys keep your wizards in a case or just keep it hanging around in your pockets? Worried about damaging the thing but getting it out of the case to answer a call is a tad annoying..
Thanks for any help and advice
*waves more*

I decided to just buy a new case ! This one will make it easier to use too, so all is well once more..

So which one did you decide on? Interested for my own XDA Mini S. Cheers.

I went with the PDAir book type leather case (review: http://www.onppc.com/forum/article_read.asp?id=12) which are on sale on ebay for £14.49 with free shipping.. it is however coming from hongkong which could mean a fake :\.. we shall see ! To buy them new from PDAir.com is around the same price but you have to pay for shipping, which I thought would probably fairly high, so I decided to chance it with ebay..
The review plus some feedback of another forum member in another thread (http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=29227) sold the case for me.. Ill post a review when i get it in a week or so.
For me the issue with the case I had (the O2 default case) was the hugely powerful magnets in it and the fact that it was a slip out (and one that was not easy to slip the phone out off) which would take me 5mins to get the damn thing out to answer a call..

I also have a PDAir case (flip style rather than book), which I bought direct from PDAir. Shipping from Hong Kong was quite fast; IIRC, it took only 3 days to get to the US. Total cost including shipping was $28.

Is the Universal worth $200 ?

Like a lot of people I've broken the mini-usb port in my Uni, thank goodness for Blue tooth,. I called the HTC service number to see if I could get them to re solder the port back on they said I need a new motherboard. My Uni works fine except that the batteries are slowly dying, but luckily I have a stand alone battery charger. In a nut shell the mother board is $200 is it worth it? There are so many new phones coming out that it really doesn't make sense to spend the money on it, but on the other hand rumors that TMO 3G network may support it give me a good reason to keep it. I truly like this phone and really don't want to give it up quite yet, so I ask you what would you do?
Oh yeah when I asked the service rep if was a G3/G4 board he had no clue the good part about it is that the US service center is in my town so I could drop it off and pick it up almost the same day.

Harry Tuttle said:
Like a lot of people I've broken the mini-usb port in my Uni, thank goodness for Blue tooth,. I called the HTC service number to see if I could get them to re solder the port back on they said I need a new motherboard. My Uni works fine except that the batteries are slowly dying, but luckily I have a stand alone battery charger. In a nut shell the mother board is $200 is it worth it? There are so many new phones coming out that it really doesn't make sense to spend the money on it, but on the other hand rumors that TMO 3G network may support it give me a good reason to keep it. I truly like this phone and really don't want to give it up quite yet, so I ask you what would you do?
Oh yeah when I asked the service rep if was a G3/G4 board he had no clue the good part about it is that the US service center is in my town so I could drop it off and pick it up almost the same day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course it worth!!!
Go for it!

how bad is it? and where do you live? send me a pm if you want to keep it private. the reason i ask is if the pads on the board are ok, resoldering the connector is easy. for an experienced tech takes 5 minutes with a coffee break in the middle. lol. if you'd rather, i'll fix it for a lot less. let me know. i'll need to see pictures to confirm too.

Yes,
Soldering is quite easy. If you don't know how to do it, show it to someone with soldering experience.
The other choice is eBay: I bought my second unit for 142 Euro, which is about 200 US$. That was the price for a full functioning phone!
You might try to buy one with a broken screen for much less and exchange the board yourself.
I think 200 US$ for a new board is too expensive.
Cheers,
vma

If its working it surely worth it..

Yeah, I'll keep it...
When I talked to the HTC rep he said it was $200 to replace the mother board; but another rep called me back and said that HTC no longer supports it. The North American repair center is in my area, so they said take it over there and see, i haven't had time but i will just to see what the quote will be. as for the device itself, it still works I need a new battery barely holds a charge for the entire day, but it still an awesome device. But there are some new ones coming out ie. SonyX1 Eten's dual sim phone the Omnia and a host of others
I've had it for about 2 years and very little problems. Thanks for everyone support and will definitely keep it.

You're with T-Mo US, personally, I'd get a G1. $180, and it has Android... It's sickkkk.

"Not all the shiny things are gold"
At least now
Quote (in a year or two that Android OS gets mature & grows, and better devices made for it...)

Black93300ZX said:
You're with T-Mo US, personally, I'd get a G1. $180, and it has Android... It's sickkkk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, Android looks good but I've learned a long time ago wait for all the bugs to go away before diving in. When Android has a form factor like the Uni I'll be all over it, I'm not a slider fan.

Me neither - either a candybar or a mini-laptop for me. Repair enough slides and flips not to ever want to touch one. As far as Universals are concerned, it's all in the definition. Once you will stop thinking of it as a cellphone and instead think of it as a mini-laptop and introduce it as such to your friends - you'll feel the advantages. You won't believe how many comments along the lines of "Wow, that's a tiny laptop you have there" and "How cool is that" I get every time I get my JasJar out. And then, of course, I go on and on about how it's so much better than a laptop, how I have everything I need not to use my computer, how I chat to my friends overseas on SKYPE, and on and on... haha
No doubt it is worth every bloody cent.

HTC customer service sux...
So this will be my last rant on this subject. I call customer service to get an RA# I explained to the rep what the problem is (note I have an O2 Exec in North America), she said that they didn't support that model, So I explained that its the same thing as the Tmobile MDA Pro at which point she says they support that model and gives me the RA#, but explains that they may not have the parts for it? I go to the repair center give them the RA# and wait after about 20mins. this lady comes out and says that we don't work on that phone but will have somebody else talk to me. The Product manager comes out and tells me that my phone is European and they don't work on it , at this point I tell him that its a MDA Pro with just a different housing he still disagrees that its a different phone that its not an MDA Pro(I'm in disbelief) so I asked if he had a motherboard for an Imate Jasjar or a Qtek or Vodaphone, basically every derivative of the Universal. He still argues that those are all different phones and they won't work,well since I was on my lunch break and did want to get pissed off i explained to him that he needs to understand the previous product line and that when I come back I want to talk to someone who knows what they are talking about.

I too can repair the USB connector for you, I'm UK based.
If you want it fixing let me know.

Replacment LCD screen

Okay, just purchased my first Snap (s521 - purchased off eBay, quite sure it's an Asian version) a couple of weeks ago and been thoroughly happy with it. Haven't taken the plunge to HardSPL it and put on a cooked ROM (just concerned I suppose - shouldn't be though, I know). Yesterday with all the excitement of boxing day, managed to crack the LCD screen, and now can only see half the screen (the other half is white with a couple of really nice ink marks - would probably look like a butterfly if I looked hard enough.....lol ).
Been searching real hard on the internet, and can't seem to find a replacement for it any where. I'm from Australia, and only 1 carrier has the right's to the Snap here at the moment, therefore general repair shops don't seem to want to know about it.
Can anyone recommend a place to purchase a new screen? Any and all help greatly appreciated.
Cheers, Chris.

Hi
Im still looking for a replacement screen for one of ours as well. The only place in AU i can find is www.fonebiz.com.au
They quoted me $135 to install a replacement screen. They won't sell the screens seperatley though.
Hopefully it helps.
Matt

Thanx for that Matt.
I sent an email off to them this weekend, and I was waiting for a reply. They are supposedly the only authorised HTC repair centre in Australia, but I've read many bad reports about them in other forums. But I suppose $135 is far better then several $100's to get a new one. Fonebiz pretty much has the market to themselves in Australia until HTC allows other businesses to sell the Snap (once the contract with Telstra ends). If I come up with anything, I'll let you know as well.
I'm just surprised that I can't seem to find any for sale any where in the world. Not on eBay, through various stores in other countries - it's almost like we have a very specialised phone, with very little after sales / parts need.

Yep i would have thought it would have been easier to get a screen from the US or HK but no luck.
Ive had nothing but issues with fonebiz in trying to get phones replaced that are dropping reception and freezing. Hopefully you get through ok, they were quick to reply to my emails during business hours so you may need to wait till tomorrow for a response.

go to http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=405566
and
http://cnn.cn

Another reff
http://www.mikechannon.net/page4.html
http://www.jetcitydevices.com/htc-snap/screen-repair

Thanx Harunjo,
After many calls and email to the Australian HTC help line, and then later to the SEA help line, I find out that my phone's serial number shows that the phone was destined for sale in Indonesia. No repair shop in Australia can source the screen except for the official repair centre, which refuses to touch the phone as it was purchased from overseas. Therefore I had 2 choices;
1. Send it to Indonesia to get fixed - Couldn't do as the phone number is not connected.
2. Go through one of the Global Repair Centres.
After contacting Honk Kong, UK, and trying to contact US (really bad time difference with Australia), I decided to follow through with the email contacts with SEA help, and just sent the phone off to Singapore today. Hopefully I will get it back within a few weeks.
One thing I'll say is that every person I spoke to at HTC were more then willing to do everything they could to help me, I just suppose it has everything to do with the whole repair / exclusivity / contract deal with Telstra in Australia - plus a fairly arrogant phone repair company that thinks they are so extremely fantastic that they decide how things work - wish I had a business that was so profitable that I could turn fully paying customers away on a whim (just ranting, couldn't believe how hard it was to try and get this phone fixed - seam to get a lot of bad press through forums does this repair business).
Anyways, as much as the whole experience may have turned me off HTC phones (as this is my first), I like them so much already, that I'll stick with them, just make sure the next phone I get is from Australia or has been out in Australia for a while and has full repair support.

different model replacement for hero through insurance?

hi ppl,
I am now on my fourth hero through orange UK, having had the previous ones replaced due to.faults with the phone's earpiece.
I am aware that orange's policy to offer a different model replcement after the third replacement, so I am thinking, if my phone breaks again(which I could just make up that it has), what model are they likely to allow me to choose from?
Will it be from the same price range as the hero or will they allow me to choose from something like the desire since its the only other phone that orange offer that runs on HTC sense? (which is why I chose this phone anyway). obviously I wouldn't settle for a tattoo.
any advice from people who have been offered a different model through orange care is much appreciated. also any ideas on what I should say to tie them down to giving me the desire?
thanks a lot
mcall_r
Sent from my Hero using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk

<rant>
Aaah, Orange, who are replacing my Toshiba TG01 for the 3rd time tomorrow. When I called in I got disconnected loads of times, and eventually got through to sales (who were the only people to pick up inside 10 mins), who then put me straight through to a CSR. The CSR was absolutely useless, barely understood English and was trying to follow a script ("my phone doesn't turn on" - 'ok, can you go into the menu and reset it' - "..."), and eventually decided that I didn't own my own account and refused to help me any more. After repeatedly asking for a manager I got put through to a supervisor and got into an argument with him because although my charger and handset were faulty, Orange would only replace one at a time, would only provide refurbished kit (the failed unit was a damaged refurb device) and I would have to call back for the charger replacement. Eventually I gave in, and the replacement was dutifully shipped to the wrong address.
</rant>
So I wrote in an angry email, and a few hours later one of the email support team called me back. She then agreed to provide a brand new handset, charger, case and battery, and mentioned that if you had more than 3 replacements inside the first 6 months of owning the original device then Orange would offer you a replacement model of a different type and equivalent to what you were replacing. However the models they offered were really nowhere near the TG01, so I am taking a new one and selling it.
As for your case, I would suggest you write the email support team a very detailed explanation of the problems, including dates and so forth, mention the sales of goods act, and at the very least get a factory new Hero you can then sell towards the cost of a Desire. It is very unlikely that Orange will replace your 10 month old Hero with its latest shiny new super-phone at no cost. This is like asking BMW to replace a problematic 1 series with a brand new 7 series.

@mcall_r: If you manage to get a Desire out of Orange do let us know, but I don't rate your chances.
My wife had a similar situation with Orange & a Blackberry, replaced at least 3 times. In her case, on possibly the fourth replacement, they couldn't even offer the same model due to lack of stock. She got bounced round between various people & the only thing that came across consistently was that all they'd offer her was inferior old junk. Some of the staff were exceptionally rude, particularly when she got upset at one point. There was more chance of Santa dropping off a replacement phone (& no it wasn't Xmas), than of these people offering her a replacement that was at least as good as her faulty phone.
She wasn't being unreasonable. She'd have even taken an inferior phone but they couldn't offer her one with gps (though a couple did claim certain models had gps - only when I checked & pressed them they changed that to 'well it has gprs...' Can you believe it? I mean, wtf?)
The last person insisted there was nothing they could do if they had no stock; they could only offer her what the system offered & there was no way for them to know when they'd have more stock in of her existing model.
The next day she called into a local Orange shop to complain before calling trading standards. The guy in the shop was very helpful (& she hadn't needed to mention trading standards; think he was just a nice guy). He told her they'd got stock in that morning & essentially that the woman she'd spoken to the previous evening had lied to her, as she would have known stock was due in.
I know some of the employees are decent human beings & others who might be borderline will be under a lot of pressure, but as a whole, I'd not piss on Orange if they were on fire.

Oh dear,
Im sad to hear your stories about orange's poor customer service (in some departments).
Funnily enough I actually work for orange, in an orange shop, and we in retail have little to no contact with what goes on in the call centres which is why i decided to ask on here to see if anyone else has had similar experiences. Also the fact that I do not have the hero on my employee contract, only on the personal one I took out to get it.
I find that through 150 if you go through to the correct options (for instance handset replacement the options are 1,3,1,1) you get through to the nice helpful people in Darlington, North Tyneside or Newcastle, who actually most of the time know what you are talking about.
I cannot say the same about the call centres in India. Their main job is to provide support for accounts, for example adding bundles and changing service plans. They mainly read off a script and have little experience with the mobile phones themselves so do not know the ins and outs of them. Ergo them thinking that GPS and GPRS are the same thing.
So what is the email address for the email support team that I can try and complain to?

Out of curiosity, i am on orange with a 3 month old hero and the earpiece is broken.Is it a common thing? Can i get it replaced for free? Finally i cancelled my insurance and a day later the earpiece failed,did you go via phone insurance? sorry for the questions but i am raging quite a biit that it happened after i cancelled lol

The email is a page on the site, you have to go through the pages and enter some details to it to the right team. Mark it for the attention of Misha, I found her very helpful.
Insurance or not, you are covered by the sales of goods act, so a 3 month old phone should be fit for purpose. Under that you should be able to get a replacement under that.

Both orange and the company i have got the phone from have said they do not provide a replacement without insurance? I have to send the phone to HTC which i have done with my magic many times,this means no phione for me fora few weeks total BS Tbh

SGBest buying experience

Hi guys,
I want to share with you my experience with the post-selling service of this web, as is quite famous sending overseas and they have really good prices & stuff. But when you have a problem after buying, the scenario changes...
I wanted the 32GB LTE version, and this was the only place to buy the tablet two weeks ago (I´m living in Hong Kong and it was not released yet here). So after checking everywhere, this was a good option as they´re from Singapore.
I called before placing the order to be sure about the stock, and everything looked fine. Just a couple of days of delay but nothing serious. So I went ahead and I placed the order and paid.
As they told me by phone, instead of 2 days from my payment, the shipping was going to take a little bit more than what they said in the web, but just 2 or 3 days more. Not a big deal, at the end I wanted that model so I agreed.
After near one week without news, I contact them asking for my tablet, as they told me that I would receive in less than one week, but was not the case. Stock problems and these things and they could not be sure when the tablet would be shipped... Then I explained them that I already called to confirm just that scenario, to avoid this kind of problems. So I asked my money back if the tablet would delay more than one week more. Surprisingly, they received more in that moment and they were going to send it me to me. Great I thought!
Then, when I open the packet, the first thing I saw was that the seal was broken... Ok I thought, if everything is fine no problem...But Just I opened the box and I found some dust inside and some signs that the tablet was already used. (Again, no problem if everything is fine). But was not. The tablet had a damage in the top side of the frame (see attached pic).
So I contacted them, explaining the problem and that I was disposed to pay the shipping costs back, but that I wanted my money back, as the tablet was already released in HK. But for my surprise, they reply me that was not possible and they were going to send the tablet to the Samsung service to check, and then they would decide
Is my fault to be impatient and not wait for the release in the place I´m living, but come on! Is a new product and very expensive!I have to wait the samsung´s survey? what they are going to send me back? who knows....
Just I wanted to share my experience for those buyers that want to get this version (difficult to find in USA & Europe) to consider the problems that can occur. In my case, I live in HK, so quite close and cheap to send back (but from Europe would be quite pricey and slow). The funny think I told them is why you send this item (already opened) with the damage! is clear that the costumer will claim!. But no reply ...
Good luck, and sorry for my english.

Yup I had one that had a bulge in the top left corner..seems that Samsung still has lingering manufacturing defects..the only one I had a problem with was the one I ordered from Samsung.com. my local shops and amazon.com were great...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium