Database Users

How to get hold of the S4 Octa?

This week I'm upgrading and will go for the S4. I live in the UK and will go onto Vodafone, however I will be open to switch carriers. I understand there are 3 variants of the S4 the Korean, International and UK/US. And the latter being the Gt-i9505, with the Snapdragon 600 and Adreno 320, while the International is the Gt-i9500, which has the Octa chip and PowerVR SGX 544MP3, yeah I know people will tell me there is virtually no difference, however I'm interested in buying the i9500 as I'd like to see what such a chipset can do, and more so to the point, I dont want to spend so much money and not even be the best (me being me). So my question is, where can I buy on contract an S4 i9500, the 3g version? As after searching all the carriers websites I cannot find one anywhere, and the area I live anyway will never see 4g, so whats the point? If its impossible to get one through a carrier, is there anyway to find one without a £550 upfront cost? As buying the 505 would be pointless, as I wont buy the 4g deal, so I'll have a 4g capable phone which I cant use, in an area it wont appear, with a worse processor and GPU. If it is totally impossible I'll accept that however I like choices and as a buyer spending this much I would like a choice..
Thanks in advance for any answers!

I'm intersted in this too . .specially now that the AT&T S4 has the bootloader locked.
Does international (Octa) have LTE?

keplenk said:
I'm intersted in this too . .specially now that the AT&T S4 has the bootloader locked.
Does international (Octa) have LTE?
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No the international (Octa) (aka i9500) does not support LTE
You can find the international octa @ Expansys & Negri

If u in L.a u can buy from this guy http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/mob/3768900703.html
jeffs99 said:
No the international (Octa) (aka i9500) does not support LTE
You can find the international octa @ Expansys & Negri
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jeffs99 said:
No the international (Octa) (aka i9500) does not support LTE
You can find the international octa @ Expansys & Negri
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Click to collapse
I dont even need LTE, so theres no point in getting the S4 with LTE which is worse .. will it be released in time? Or will i need to pay full price?

JesseBeckett said:
I dont even need LTE, so theres no point in getting the S4 with LTE which is worse .. will it be released in time? Or will i need to pay full price?
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No one can say for sure, but you'll likely need to get the 9500 from an online retailer or another carrier. Samsung has yet to put the LTE radio in its Exynos SoC (system on a chip - what powers the 9500) so that's not going to happen mid-release for the Galaxy S4. And its highly unlikely they are going to release an LTE-enabled one and non-LTE one onto the same carrier in the same market. That just creates buyer confusion.

Only thing is for you "best of the best" types, the octa will run on the arm 7 chip most of the time. So in reality the snapdragon version is better, unless of course you just get off on running benchmarks all day. The arm 15 is the best but what's the point if it never gets used? Just my opinion, I have no right to tell anyone what they need. I WANT LTE, but all I really need is a big screen, email and a decent talker.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

Questions go in Q&A
Thread moved
Thanks
FNM

hansonator said:
Only thing is for you "best of the best" types, the octa will run on the arm 7 chip most of the time. So in reality the snapdragon version is better, unless of course you just get off on running benchmarks all day. The arm 15 is the best but what's the point if it never gets used? Just my opinion, I have no right to tell anyone what they need. I WANT LTE, but all I really need is a big screen, email and a decent talker.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
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I see what you mean, and I've been checking performance numbers of both the sxg 544mp3 and Adreno 320, and it's pretty similar.. so I feel pretty happy to get the 9505. It seemed great in the shop, far smoother than my S3, thanks for everyones help:good:

[Q] i9500 vs i9505 vs The 'Google Edition' S4

I'm going to buy the S4 in a few weeks, and I can't decide which one to choose, especially after google released the one running vanilla android.
The international, i9500 exynos variant is the best one, I think, as its the international version and it might get more dev support.
on the other hand, the i9505 snapdragon variant is more reliable when it comes to dev support, as qualcomm does release the source code for its SD600 processor.
The google edition, as its going to support LTE, i think will be based on the i9505, as our dear Samsung very conveniently disable the LTE radios on its exynos processors.
So I am confused which one to buy.
If i get the i9505 (snapdragon), would i be able to flash an AOSP/AOKP rom perfectly, without any issues? Like will I be able to switch between AOSP and touchwiz without any hassle? and as the google edition will have the same chipset, would i be able to run rock solid and bug free aosp roms on it? (i honestly am more inclined towards touchwiz than aosp/aokp, but i dont mind switching for some time)
Also, I heard that i9500 has a better camera sensor, and has slightly better battery life than i9505. Is that true?
And qualcomm is going to release the snapdragon 800 within a couple of months, and i dont want to buy a phone for about $800 (nearly 50k in rupees here in India) only to realize that my latest gadget is now obsolete. I have already experienced that with my iPad 3 .
I'll be moving to USA in august for college, and honestly, i dont think LTE would be much use to me as 3G is more than enough for my needs. Plus LTE is a huge battery hog.
Also, as our dear Samsung does not release source code for exynos, more CM/AOKP/PA devs will move towards the i9505, and with that logic, the i9500 should get more support from devs working on TW based roms, like salesale and :indie: (I love neatrom on my S2).
So which one should I get?
P.S. Only the i9500 version is available in India, I'll have to get the i9505 from amazon if I end up buying that.

Just be careful what bands the phone supports. I think if you in the States it would be wise to get your carrier branded version
Sent from my GT-I9505 using XDA Premium HD app

Obagleyfreer said:
Just be careful what bands the phone supports. I think if you in the States it would be wise to get your carrier branded version
Sent from my GT-I9505 using XDA Premium HD app
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as both the i9500 and i9505 are unlocked and unbranded, I think I'll go for either of them, as they will be compatible with all bands worldwide, not only US and India. Also, I prefer not to be tied to a network with a contract. (I'm more of a free bird )
But the question that remians in, which one should I go for? The i9500, the i9505, or the stock google edition?
The google edition will be based on i9505, so on one hand i'll recieve updates as soon as they are released, but would i be able to switch between AOSP roms and TW-based roms?

diwakarchopra said:
as both the i9500 and i9505 are unlocked and unbranded, I think I'll go for either of them, as they will be compatible with all bands worldwide, not only US and India. Also, I prefer not to be tied to a network with a contract. (I'm more of a free bird )
But the question that remians in, which one should I go for? The i9500, the i9505, or the stock google edition?
The google edition will be based on i9505, so on one hand i'll recieve updates as soon as they are released, but would i be able to switch between AOSP roms and TW-based roms?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just received my i9500 a week ago and I am lovin it! The phone is one heckuva beast and I have yet to run into any problems with it. Also a heads up, I've heard TouchWiz runs smoother on the i9500 than the i9505 as it is optimized for it better. The camera is definitely one of this phone's highlights and I can say for myself that I see the differences in camera sensors/image quality between the two.

Sorry for the late reply, I was busy with my high school finals!
And thank you all for your opinions, but im still pretty much confused on which one to go for. the i9500 or thr i9505?
As I said before, the variant needs to be GSM, and only two networks in the US offer GSM: AT&T and T-Mobile.
I'll be moving to West-Lafayette, Indiana in a couple of months, therefore, I need to know which one of the two (AT&T and TMobile) would support the GS4 properly. I dont care about 4G LTE as HSDPA+ is fast enough for me, but I've heard that some frequencies don't work properly on those networks, resulting in poor reception and slow data transfer speeds.
So, it would be really helpful is someone could point me in the right direction, should I go for i9500 or i9505? I'm a bit more inclined towards i9500.
Thanks in advance!

Go for the one with Samsung's modified version of Android. Don't wait for the Google Edition. The advantage with this one is as soon the Google Edition drops, there will be AOSP ROMs for the Samsung edition S4 but the vice-versa won't be true.

echenze said:
Go for the one with Samsung's modified version of Android. Don't wait for the Google Edition. The advantage with this one is as soon the Google Edition drops, there will be AOSP ROMs for the Samsung edition S4 but the vice-versa won't be true.
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That's all fine, but now I'm asking which one should I go for? the i9500 (Exynos) or the i9505 (snapdragon)? I'm not sure which one would work better in Lafayette Indiana on AT&T or T-Mobile (in terms of network coverage, 3G download/upload speeds etc)

[Q] Is Galaxy S4 Dual Sim I9502 getting an international release?

Does anyone know if this dual sim version of the phone will be getting an international release?
I know the S4 Mini dual sim is already out, but I'd rather get an S4 with actual S4 advertised functions.
I'm very tempted to buy this from China and root it, but I hear that it's pretty unstable. I'd much rather wait for an international release, but I also dont want to be waiting around for nothing...
If anyone has heard anything or any opinions on whether markets outside of China will ever see this phone, please share your news here.
Thanks!

No one has any info/opinions?

m0928 said:
No one has any info/opinions?
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I doubt it, I own i9502 dual sim, it's stable using SVA ROM, it's just the battery life that worries me (I Think it might be just the ROM).
If you want international release, get the S4 Mini Duos (i9192).

dumb4ever said:
I doubt it, I own i9502 dual sim, it's stable using SVA ROM, it's just the battery life that worries me (I Think it might be just the ROM).
If you want international release, get the S4 Mini Duos (i9192).
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Yeah, I was thinking exactly this, I was about to buy the Mini Duos but realised that I was basically getting the same phone as I have now (S3) with dual sim and paying the price of a new phone for it. As the S4 Mini has almost none of the features that the S4 is advertising.
The retailer told me to wait for the S4 Duos to be released internationally, but when I asked him if it was even planned, he had no idea.
I would be interested to know about the stability of the SVA rom, I read the whole thread (the one starts with "Wonted") and it seems people are having issues with caller ID and battery life. I'm also not very experienced with rooting and all that so I'm really torn about whether or not it's worth buying.

[Req] compare Wifi / 3g / Lte

wanna get note 2014 edition , just not sure witch one to get , i've check specs that lte is the best of all , what in real life use ??
Is it really the best ?
Worth the price ?
or should i just get wifi ?
Notice difference than wifi ?
and which one will get more support ? my old tab 2 p5100 (3g) had more support than p5105 (wifi only)
thanks in advance

I got the LTE version because I had a spare SIM card with a free 1 Gb/month data on it and thought "what the heck", but turns out I'm loving the ability to take the tablet everywhere and never having to think of getting Wifi.
Sure, I could use my phone Wifi tethering mode, or use the many public Wifi access points around here (but half of them have issues), but having it "just works" all the time is pretty great.

I just bought the lte version today after some consideration. So far I'm loving it!
After removing Samsung shortcuts from the desktop screens, this thing feels really quick and nice to use. It is not as smooth as my girlfriend's iPad, but it is not bad at all and I have to say I like the Note a lot more than Apple's latest tablet. Web browsing is also smooth especially with Chrome and the display is really good. Sketching is better than the old Note 10.

mjrshark said:
wanna get note 2014 edition , just not sure witch one to get , i've check specs that lte is the best of all , what in real life use ??
Is it really the best ?
Worth the price ?
or should i just get wifi ?
Notice difference than wifi ?
and which one will get more support ? my old tab 2 p5100 (3g) had more support than p5105 (wifi only)
thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most support is difficult to guesstimate. Usually wifi models sell the best but in this case the 4G S800 p605 model is using a more common Snapdragon SoC. It is considerably more expensive though.
If you like power, good screen, multi window and S pen stuff you won't go wrong. You might check up on the future nexus 10 which should be out soon.
Sent from my SM-P605 using XDA Premium HD app

I ended up settling on the Wi-Fi only model. B/c I have the free hoptspot on my T-Mobile phone. And I really don't utilize it enough.
Another huge reason why I got this version was because I previously got the original T-Mobile Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 version, and it ticked me off to no end when I kept reading that the WiFi version was getting updates and I was left waiting almost 5 months before T-Mobile "certified" and "allowed" me to update the tablet. And when I did, it was still a version behind.
I was so anxious that I tried flashing the Singapore WiFi ROM on it and came close a many of times bricking it.
So I said never again, and I'm happy with just tethering whenever I need to.
Save the money and go WiFi.
Hope it helps.
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk 4

S800 p605 LTE is the only way to go imho. Anything else is just uncivilized.

Apache0c said:
S800 p605 LTE is the only way to go imho. Anything else is just uncivilized.
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Apache0c, torn on whether to buy the P605 or an ounce of palladium since prices are similar (fellow ZH'er joke, gathered from your sig).
Anyway, ordered the P605 from negri (is that where you got yours?) and should probably be here next week. Do you happen to know what region your P605 is from? Did you do all of the automatic OTA updates and then do the de la vega rooting method on your device? Thanks!

I still don't get the big differents between LTE and the other versions except the processor.
Can someone please explain pros and cons regarding the versions available and which version is best for what use upon the other?
Also, can someone please confirm that theyre equipped with Dolby Surround?

Should I buy i9500 or i9505 or others

My Galaxy s3 just died this morning So I'm thinking of buying a new phone. But I don't have too much budget on my hands. My needs are:
1) Good community support: I want to buy phone which has Stable CM12.1 release. Please let me know are there any major bugs on cm12.1 roms for i9500 ?
2) Good Camera: I believe s4 has one
3) Expandable Memory
4) Good battery backup
5) Good Display
Also the US cousin of i9500 i.e. i9505 is also available for little more, but if I go for that I would lose warranty and will also spend little more. So is it worth to go for i9505 ? I know it has 4g which i9500 doesn't have. But how good are the lollipop ROM stability on i9505, is it more stable ? Any other things which I'm missing out ?
Also I have option to go for oneplus one, but I don't know how good is the quality of phone when compared with Samsung ? I want to use it for atleast next 2-3 years

Avoid US models of S4 unless from T-Mobile (M919). The AT&T (I337) and Verizon (I545) models come with locked bootloaders which make customization difficult. The Verizon and Sprint (L720) models use CDMA instead of the global standard GSM, making them difficult to use outside of the US.
Canadian devices don't have the bootloader or CDMA issues, but if you live anywhere in Europe you will want the I9505. The LTE bands of US and Canadian devices are different, and you may get slow LTE, if any LTE at all. Whether Android 5.x.x runs well on it is a matter of opinion. Some will swear by it while others curse it. You'll have to try it out for yourself.
The I9500 has no LTE but also has little custom ROM support. I don't recommend it.

oh, I thought i9500 had good ROM support
Anyway will look for others then..thanks

Will go for LG G2 d800 then..

That's a good choice, but you were contemplating the OnePlus One as well. What made you select the G2 over the One?

G2 camera got ois ..only thing I miss in s4.. one plus one and yuphoria got official cm os .. greatly customizable
Mafioso said:
Will go for LG G2 d800 then..
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Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
That's a good choice, but you were contemplating the OnePlus One as well. What made you select the G2 over the One?
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One plus one is only 16gb, 64gb is expensive
I'm getting g2 32gb for lot less, even cheaper than one plus 16gb..hardware/ram pretty much same between them two..