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Hey I have an opportunity to grab a Korean S4 (SHV-E300K/S). I am wondering if there will be any issues to using this phone in HK? The LTE bands appear to be compatible. I was wondering if the phone will be locked or if there is something that just won't work? I've never been to Korea so I don't know how phones are sold there so any insight will be appreciated.
Thanks in Advance!
Did some digging around and apparently KT telecom, (1 of the 2 large operators in South Korea) did not lock the previous release of the S3.
Also including the article which mentions the LTE bands just in case anyone's interested.
http://www.sammobile.com/2013/04/02/galaxy-s4s-korean-variant-shv-e300sk-to-feature-exynos-5-octa-clocked-at-1-8ghz-confirmed-by-fcc/
Still hoping to get some input before pulling the trigger. Thanks
I'm very interested in this, and I've been trying to do some research. I have a best friend who's brother lives in Korea and works at Samsung, and she told me that if I wanted the Korean version, he'd do his best to ship one to my specifications.
Long story short, I want the Exynos + LTE, but the information online is few and in between.
Sent from my Xperia ion LT28i using xda premium
Well if you can find out anything from that person who works for Samsung that would be much appreciated. I'm willing to pull the trigger if:
a) they sell phones outright off contract in Korea,
b) the phone is carrier unlocked, and
c) I can set English menus.
I am willing to Gamble with the LTE bands and the software compatibility quirks that I may experience.
Perhaps someone from Korea can shed some light?
Thanks.
pygo said:
Well if you can find out anything from that person who works for Samsung that would be much appreciated. I'm willing to pull the trigger if:
a) they sell phones outright off contract in Korea,
b) the phone is carrier unlocked, and
c) I can set English menus.
I am willing to Gamble with the LTE bands and the software compatibility quirks that I may experience.
Perhaps someone from Korea can shed some light?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To answer your questions,
Phones are available in English menu and you only need to worry about the LTE bands as they are not carrier locked in Korea. You might need to set some settings to work in your country and chances should be high as I heard the Octa supports 20 bands of LTE.
I'm not sure what you meant by outright but you can walk into any shop and buy it if that's what you meant. Alternatively, if you know anyone in Korea they should be able to get it for you but not in the next few days because right now it seems that it's all on contract until stock are more abundant.
Sent from my IM-A860K using xda premium
It would be really cool if the Korean GS4 could work with USA LTE. But the price~! Right now, it's being sold for around $1,100 USD~!
What's special about Korean models? Don't other countries have octa too?
tuxonhtc said:
What's special about Korean models? Don't other countries have octa too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They have octa + LTE.
Sent from my IM-A860K using xda premium
Okay, so I'm very confused. I too have the opportunity to grab a Korean version, but instead of the OP, I reside in the US, would I run into ANY problems if I got this version? LTE I understand might possibly work/might not, but is there anything else to be concerned with?
All galaxy korean version has following problems.
1. All operator too many customizing ==> it will cause unstable, because all known that they request too many modify frameworks also.
2. Too many have bloat apps.(operator apps, avg 10 + apps exist, some apps are not support uninstall, yeah rooting will delete that apps, but it make an another error)
3. UMTS band are only 1900/2100 (official), previous galaxy have only UMTS 2100 (SKT/KT model only, LGU+ model using CDMA 1800(that frequncy only exist in korea over the world)
4. LTE band are only 850/1800. (SKT 850/1800 , KT 1800 / LG U+ 850)
5. Maybe Firmare not compatible with Global version (I930X / N710X )
6. you may not use USSD code (korean all operator doesn't support USSD code, so korean localizing version remove USSD function)
I lived in korea, but i don't use our korean galaxy models. This time I also ordered galaxy s4 on UK. Because UK model is always Europe open model and it has nearly Samsung reference model. (Doesn't have or 1~2 bloat app exist)
i'm very hate too many localizing. it will always phone make unstable.
Pulverizer, thank you for the info! I think I'll be going for the i9500 now.
Thank You to all who took the time to reply!
I'm likely going to get a local machine now to reduce the need to tinker.
This is also a very informative link from an shv-e300 user for any of those who are still fence sitters! Very good information is given at the bottom of page 3!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2253148&page=3
I to was tempted for Korean
This information will keep me to in the US/UK LTE version.
Hello!
Dose anybody know if there's a different specs between the US & European version of the Nexus 7 LTE?
I mean that in fact the frequencies between the versions are different, but that's require that the LTE chip should be also different or it's all matter of baseband & software?
Thanks
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4
dudi.arviv said:
Hello!
Dose anybody know if there's a different specs between the US & European version of the Nexus 7 LTE?
I mean that in fact the frequencies between the versions are different, but that's require that the LTE chip should be also different or it's all matter of baseband & software?
Thanks
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You *do* realize the irony in the fact that you could have Googled this fact about a Google tablet in less time than it took to type in that request, right?
Anyway...
Network
North America:
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
HSPA+: 850/900/1900/2100/AWS (1700/2100) MHz (Bands: 1/2/4/5/8)
LTE: 700/850/1700/1800/1900/2100 MHZ (Bands: 1/2/3/4/5/13/17)
Europe:
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
HSPA+: 850/900/1900/2100/AWS (1700/2100) MHz (Bands: 1/2/4/5/8)
LTE: 800/850/1700/1800/1900/2100/2600 MHz (Bands: 1/2/3/4/5/7/20)
And that's about it for differences.
TheWerewolf said:
You *do* realize the irony in the fact that you could have Googled this fact about a Google tablet in less time than it took to type in that request, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, you missed that the OP is aware of that.
He is pondering about a more interesting question - if that needs a different hardware or just flashing a different radio rom.
ptau said:
Well, you missed that the OP is aware of that.
He is pondering about a more interesting question - if that needs a different hardware or just flashing a different radio rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly what I meant.
Thank you dude!
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4
ptau said:
Well, you missed that the OP is aware of that.
He is pondering about a more interesting question - if that needs a different hardware or just flashing a different radio rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dudi.arviv said:
That's exactly what I meant.
Thank you dude!
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Point taken - sorry, but I've seen the frequency question come up so many times that I'm answering on reflex.
Apparently the WWAN chip is the Qualcomm WRT1605L which supports 7 LTE bands. It's capable of handling almost any kind of cell protocol and band - but they have to choose the seven LTE bands they'll support. I don't know (and can't find) and spec for the chip or the Gobi chipset (Snapdragon) that it's a part of. Typically, the OEM requests the chips with the bands they want selected - but looking though the OEMs for the chip, they don't seem to have a process to define it at purchase time. Mind you, this could simply mean they expect to walk the OEM through the process after purchase before delivery.
To the best of my knowledge, the Euro and NA models both use the same chip and there's no differentiation on the model number cited anywhere (but that could easily be because no one's opened both of them up and looked).
So - is it possible that you could reconfigure the WRT1605L to make it see a set of LTE bands you want? It's possible. Unfortunately, without specs or a tech document from Qualcomm, it'll be difficult to tell - and I don't think Google actually posts the source for the radio ROM code, so no way to just read the code and see if they have band switching code in there.
If you want to dig, though - here's a starting point:
https://developer.qualcomm.com/mobi...es/3g4g-connectivity-gobi/tools-and-resources
The WRT1605L is part of the Gobi platform AFAIK.
As for flashing the Euro radio ROM turning on those freqs on the NA model? Welllll.. that's easy enough to test, no?
Versions are different
I think there are six versions that one could order from ASUS:
Google Nexus 7 FHD LTE NA 2013 ME571KL 16GB (Asus Razor)
Google Nexus 7 FHD LTE EU 2013 ME571KL 32GB (Asus Razor)
Google Nexus 7 FHD LTE NA 2013 ME571KL 16GB (Asus Razor)
Google Nexus 7 FHD LTE EU 2013 ME571KL 32GB (Asus Razor)
Google Nexus 7 FHD 2013 ME571K 32GB (Asus Razor)
Google Nexus 7 FHD 2013 ME571K 16GB (Asus Razor)
So Memory 16/32
LTE 13+17 (US VZ-ATT) or 7/20 (EverUwhere else)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_7_(2013_version)#Model_variants
http://pdadb.net/ makes a abit of listing these things.
Ok, looks like it may be a software thing, though possibly it may have different antennae/circuits. You can forget looking for any official information, it was always confidential. But I doubt the Qualcomm engineers are idiots and allow anybody to change the radio frequencies The system will only accept a signed image, check some efuse or something like that. Theoretically, both radio images may have same signatures, that would be the first thing to check. That brings another bunch of questions:
How does actually the nexus7-2 boot process work?
I'm still a bloody fresh n7-II owner, is there anything known about it? I couldn't found so far anything useful (I guess it should be similar to Nexus4).
Would it hard-brick the device if you erase the radio partition / the boot-loader partition?
I know exactly how it worked in ADP1 - the answer was yes / no, but that's a long time ago.
The boot-loader image seems to have a linux kernel inside and interestingly enough, some driver is sending like a mad (after every suspend) the radio firmware over to the radio chip. Let's dig deeper ...
TheWerewolf said:
Point taken - sorry, but I've seen the frequency question come up so many times that I'm answering on reflex.
Apparently the WWAN chip is the Qualcomm WRT1605L which supports 7 LTE bands. It's capable of handling almost any kind of cell protocol and band - but they have to choose the seven LTE bands they'll support. I don't know (and can't find) and spec for the chip or the Gobi chipset (Snapdragon) that it's a part of. Typically, the OEM requests the chips with the bands they want selected - but looking though the OEMs for the chip, they don't seem to have a process to define it at purchase time. Mind you, this could simply mean they expect to walk the OEM through the process after purchase before delivery.
To the best of my knowledge, the Euro and NA models both use the same chip and there's no differentiation on the model number cited anywhere (but that could easily be because no one's opened both of them up and looked).
So - is it possible that you could reconfigure the WRT1605L to make it see a set of LTE bands you want? It's possible. Unfortunately, without specs or a tech document from Qualcomm, it'll be difficult to tell - and I don't think Google actually posts the source for the radio ROM code, so no way to just read the code and see if they have band switching code in there.
If you want to dig, though - here's a starting point:
https://developer.qualcomm.com/mobi...es/3g4g-connectivity-gobi/tools-and-resources
The WRT1605L is part of the Gobi platform AFAIK.
As for flashing the Euro radio ROM turning on those freqs on the NA model? Welllll.. that's easy enough to test, no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think that Qualcomm will provide any answers for that.. but technically your theory seems possible..
Anyway, I'll wait for somebody else to try flash it for me
The LTE version is still new, I don't think that long time will past till someone will check it deeply
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4
The RF filters are probably what's different, meaning you wouldn't be able to tune in to unsupported frequencies even if the baseband allowed it.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
dudi.arviv said:
I don't think that Qualcomm will provide any answers for that.. but technically your theory seems possible..
Anyway, I'll wait for somebody else to try flash it for me
The LTE version is still new, I don't think that long time will past till someone will check it deeply
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, Qualcomm is very protective of their technotes and data sheets. Usually their resellers will hand them out - but even they don't make them available. BTW, Ironically - your Nexus 4 has the same chip in it.
mathieulh said:
The RF filters are probably what's different, meaning you wouldn't be able to tune in to unsupported frequencies even if the baseband allowed it.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very likely. I didn't see different RF filter chips mentioned in the stuff I was reading, but building a generic tunable filter over that wide a range would be difficult.
---------- Post added at 02:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:18 PM ----------
PhoneGeek said:
I think there are six versions that one could order from ASUS:
Google Nexus 7 FHD LTE NA 2013 ME571KL 16GB (Asus Razor)
Google Nexus 7 FHD LTE EU 2013 ME571KL 32GB (Asus Razor)
Google Nexus 7 FHD LTE NA 2013 ME571KL 16GB (Asus Razor)
Google Nexus 7 FHD LTE EU 2013 ME571KL 32GB (Asus Razor)
Google Nexus 7 FHD 2013 ME571K 32GB (Asus Razor)
Google Nexus 7 FHD 2013 ME571K 16GB (Asus Razor)
So Memory 16/32
LTE 13+17 (US VZ-ATT) or 7/20 (EverUwhere else)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_7_(2013_version)#Model_variants
http://pdadb.net/ makes a abit of listing these things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well two of those are the WiFi only models which may not even have the LTE chip in it (it's a relatively expensive chip, so it wouldn't surprise me that they don't populate the board for the non-LTE models).
The other four are most likely all the same LTE chipset with (as you note) different bands selected.
ptau said:
Ok, looks like it may be a software thing, though possibly it may have different antennae/circuits. You can forget looking for any official information, it was always confidential. But I doubt the Qualcomm engineers are idiots and allow anybody to change the radio frequencies The system will only accept a signed image, check some efuse or something like that. Theoretically, both radio images may have same signatures, that would be the first thing to check. That brings another bunch of questions:
How does actually the nexus7-2 boot process work?
I'm still a bloody fresh n7-II owner, is there anything known about it? I couldn't found so far anything useful (I guess it should be similar to Nexus4).
Would it hard-brick the device if you erase the radio partition / the boot-loader partition?
I know exactly how it worked in ADP1 - the answer was yes / no, but that's a long time ago.
The boot-loader image seems to have a linux kernel inside and interestingly enough, some driver is sending like a mad (after every suspend) the radio firmware over to the radio chip. Let's dig deeper ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Nexus devices are supposed to be completely resettable to factory state. I had assumed that included the radio partition... Same with the boot-loader? There isn't an inerasable diagnostic boot?
(I may be assuming too much here in that to me 'bricked' means 'dead and cannot be revived')
Bit more info. The QMI API documentation from Qualcomm in the DMS document includes a call to get a bit list of the LTE bands supported on the chip, but no way to set them. Also, there's a chip authentication/unlock that has to be done before most feature setting can be done. There is a service code feature that might let it happen.
So a vague 'no obvious way' result.
38 frequencies
7 frequencies may not cut it;
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...-must-be-addressed-135719748.html#prettyPhoto
Pity as I would buy a 7 2 4g from the US in the morning if I thought it could work in europe in the future.
o.maille said:
7 frequencies may not cut it;
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...-must-be-addressed-135719748.html#prettyPhoto
Pity as I would buy a 7 2 4g from the US in the morning if I thought it could work in europe in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For Europe you need bands 20 (800Mhz), 3 (1800Mhz), 7 (2600Mhz) and starting from 2016 the 700Mhz band that will be allocated to carriers (should be either band 17 or 28 )
If you want true worldwide LTE roaming you at least need bands 1, 3, 7 and 17. No commercialized LTE device officially supports all these frequencies at once. Though the closest thing would be the International Nexus 7 which supports all these bands except band 17, so it could roam anywhere except in the USA
The U.S. Nexus 7 would feature the best USA coverage to date as it supports band 17 along with AWS.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Is it possible to tell apart a Nexus 7 LTE US unit and an EU unit?
As in, I'd like if there is any indication on tablet itself?
(either when it's powered on, by an info page or some sort; or off - a label, SKU number, or by serial number)?
Also, is there any indication on outside of the box, if the unit is sealed?
Thanks.
That's an interesting question...When you buy it through the play store...can you choose which version do you want? Because I am from Spain and I am sudying for a year in the USA and the model I would like to choose has to be able to work with european LTE bands...
Thank you!
LoRd_LyKoS said:
That's an interesting question...When you buy it through the play store...can you choose which version do you want? Because I am from Spain and I am sudying for a year in the USA and the model I would like to choose has to be able to work with european LTE bands...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't choose when buying from the Play Store. If you buy it from the US Play Store, you will receive a US model; and if you buy it from the Spain Play Store, you will receive an EU version.
Needing to be able to tell them apart probably only matters if you're buying it used, or through a parallel importer if isn't officially offered for sale in your country yet.
drean said:
You can't choose when buying from the Play Store. If you buy it from the US Play Store, you will receive a US model; and if you buy it from the Spain Play Store, you will receive an EU version.
Needing to be able to tell them apart probably only matters if you're buying it used, or through a parallel importer if isn't officially offered for sale in your country yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ohh....****..and thank you...I will have some trouble in there...Is there any way t solve the LTE bands issue even though it is an American one?
LoRd_LyKoS said:
Ohh....****..and thank you...I will have some trouble in there...Is there any way t solve the LTE bands issue even though it is an American one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no 'issue'. There are 2 SKUs. If you buy from the US, you will receive a US version. If you want an EU version, you need to buy it from the EU (or actually, anywhere else in the world, except US and Japan).
Sorry.
By issue I meant that if it's a hardware or software thing...There's no way to change it?
I have read this thread a few times and still confused on it. Im not familair with the nexus 7 at all. But Im just wandering if I was to buy a NA 32gb LTE version Nexus 7. WIll it work in Europe area. Mainly Italy.
Hi guys, i have an S5 bought unlocked in belgium, europe. I had 4G in europe but in the United States it only receives H+. I checked the supported bandwidths with tmobile usa, two of the bands tmobile uses are in fact also supported by my phone (1800 & 1900) yet still it doesnt work. APN setting are already checked and confirmed correct. Sim card is brand new.
Since it still doesn't work, is there a way to flash a USA rom or upgrade something technical so i can get 4G? I would hate to have to buy a new phone again, i just bought this 4weeks ago thinking it would work globally
Thanks again for recommending the best possible option for me at this point...
Most of your questions here were posed and answered in your other thread.
Your 900F model phone is intended for use in a different country. TMobile uses a 900T model. The main difference between the two is that they support a different set of frequency bands. So just like roaming you could use your 900F phone on TMB, but there will be gaps in coverage. You will be subject to more congestion and dropped calls. And in smaller centers where a limited number of frequencies are in use, you may have no coverage at all.
If you never get LTE in a major center on your unlocked 900F, the first thing to check is that you have a LTE capable SIM and that your carrier i.e. TMB has provisioned your account for LTE. And try installing the latest version of firmware for your phone.
No, you cannot simply flash a 900T firmware onto a 900F and have it transform into the other model. By design, Samsung doesn't allow this (to sell more phones and deter carrier churn). There is a hack to add the AWS band to some models. And several threads endeavoring to expand upon that. However they are nascent and would be best described as experimental, dangerous (a good chance of damaging your phone) and with uncertain results as of this date.
Unless you want to put your phone at risk to be a guinea pig, your options are to live with the imperfect coverage or buy a 900T model.
If you want to take a risk, then have a look at this thread. And here. Basically you could use QPST or mzTools 1.21.a to format an edit NV_RF_BC_CONFIG_l to enable additional LTE bands. Enable the parameters with QXDM, then do the actual write with QPST. And /or try writing a raw image of an LTE enabled variant e.g. 900T baseband to your 900F modem partition with the dd utility. This is experimental. It may do what you want or it may brick your phone.
.
ignore - double post
4G 900F in USA
Oké so turns out i am getting 4G just not LTE because of the state i am in. Thanks for trying but what i initially said was correct all S5s are global capable of 4G, just state dependant on the LTE band...
fffft said:
There is a hack to add the AWS band to some models. And several threads endeavoring to expand upon that. However they are nascent and would be best described as experimental, dangerous (a good chance of damaging your phone) and with uncertain results as of this date..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not quite true. The chance of damaging the phone is extremely small if you follow the instructions.
The thread to unlock all GSM and LTE bands is here.
..
fffft said:
It is true when I'm not quoted out of context. And especially funny that you link to that particular thread to .. prove me wrong?
You didn't realize that the thread you linked to was also authored by me. Funny stuff.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How exactly is that out of context? What important piece of information did I leave out to distort your words? Call bs on that. But yeah I didn't notice that it was your thread I linked to , good job on that thread. :good:
Hey guys I've had my Axon 7 for almost 2 years now, I am planning a trip to Tokyo for just over 2 weeks at the end of August and want to be able to get a sim in Japan and use my phone as normal. Now our Axon 7 u supports 3/4 of SoftBank lte bands and 2/3 of the other bands it needs. So this option doesn't seem too bad.
Now getting closer to my question.
International or us versions of the a7 all have the snapdragon 820 which contains the modem. This same chip is available around the world including Japan. So
Does the snapdragon 820 have different versions with different modems? Or is the software the reason only certain bands are available in different versions of the phone.
If the software decides which bands are available is it possible to edit it to unlock any bands I may want when I am in Tokyo this summer?
I am on unlocked bootloader twrp etc. and have used lineage os and other ROMs right now on a stock based room rooted
Any help and knowledge is appreciated. I googled around a bit and didn't find much on the subject
Simply having a chip that supports a band is not enough, it needs antennas that are properly modulated and shielded for that frequency.
Even if you were to patch the modem to enable a certain band, you would most likely not get reception at all or cause interference on other channels
masong397 said:
Hey guys I've had my Axon 7 for almost 2 years now, I am planning a trip to Tokyo for just over 2 weeks at the end of August and want to be able to get a sim in Japan and use my phone as normal. Now our Axon 7 u supports 3/4 of SoftBank lte bands and 2/3 of the other bands it needs. So this option doesn't seem too bad.
Now getting closer to my question.
International or us versions of the a7 all have the snapdragon 820 which contains the modem. This same chip is available around the world including Japan. So
Does the snapdragon 820 have different versions with different modems? Or is the software the reason only certain bands are available in different versions of the phone.
If the software decides which bands are available is it possible to edit it to unlock any bands I may want when I am in Tokyo this summer?
I am on unlocked bootloader twrp etc. and have used lineage os and other ROMs right now on a stock based room rooted
Any help and knowledge is appreciated. I googled around a bit and didn't find much on the subject
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm guessing you aren't too aquaintanced with custom ROMs and that kinda stuff for the axon 7. lemme explain.
There are 3 versions: A2017 (china), A2017G (Int'l, the one used in Japan i think), and A2017U (US). All of them have different modems.
The updates for each device all come with different NHLOS.bin files, which are the modem files. If you flash the U file on a G you won't have any signal. Sometimes you can even wipe out your IMEIs.
But why do you need LTE for a 2 week trip though? You'll get phone signal and data anyways...
Choose an username... said:
I'm guessing you aren't too aquaintanced with custom ROMs and that kinda stuff for the axon 7. lemme explain.
There are 3 versions: A2017 (china), A2017G (Int'l, the one used in Japan i think), and A2017U (US). All of them have different modems.
The updates for each device all come with different NHLOS.bin files, which are the modem files. If you flash the U file on a G you won't have any signal. Sometimes you can even wipe out your IMEIs.
But why do you need LTE for a 2 week trip though? You'll get phone signal and data anyways...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know all about the different versions of the phone, I've been around here for a while. My first question was simply if the 820 has different versions with different banded modems. After reading your reply I'm still not sure. Like I said I know about the different versions of the phone and the fact that they have different modem firmware. My question was hardware related, based on another guys reply it seems not likely it's there antenna that is the deciding factor in what bands can work as far as hardware is concerned which obviously means there is no possibility of unlocking any bands
masong397 said:
I know all about the different versions of the phone, I've been around here for a while. My first question was simply if the 820 has different versions with different banded modems. After reading your reply I'm still not sure. Like I said I know about the different versions of the phone and the fact that they have different modem firmware. My question was hardware related, based on another guys reply it seems not likely it's there antenna that is the deciding factor in what bands can work as far as hardware is concerned which obviously means there is no possibility of unlocking any bands
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I mean is that installing different modem firmware basically makes the modem inoperable. hence, there are key differences between the models
I'm in Tokyo right now and get LTE on Docomo via band 3, which doesn't seem to be advertised anywhere. I was quite surprised! Speeds have been great!
Technically, it can work in Japan. It will get LTE in urban areas and a mix of LTE and HSPA+ elsewhere. From a practical point of view, the garbage radios in the Axon 7 are a serious problem if you're roaming. Hopping around on different bands and carriers causes the radio to constantly die, lose data, or lock onto the wrong cell tower. You'll have to cycle airplane mode frequently and you can't count on incoming calls/texts working.
I haven't had time to try LineageOS in Japan yet. It seems to have fewer radio problems so it might do OK.
Axon in Japan
Hey, I use a American Axon 7 in Japan with no issues, if you use any MVNO sim that uses NTT Docomo Network you should be fine, for example BicSim, IIJMio Travel sim etc.
Hi there. I live in Canada and use A2017G. How to switch it to USA bands and is it safe to do? Or should I wait for Oreo (seems like November)?
Thanks
I think you are stuck with whatever bands that are hardcoded into the G. Probably has something to do with the baseband/radio/modem. I did find an article on XDA awhile back that claims you can add bands to your phone, but it seemed mostly suited toward Samsung. In any case, it doesn't really matter, a G model should still receive a minimum of 4G with most US carriers, but maybe not LTE. I'd imagine Canadian carriers are similar. But I do have to wonder, you live in North America, so why buy a G. The U is the variant that is designed for this region. And U has better support, ROMs, etc.
Maybe you can just flash the A2017U modem
ttkian said:
Maybe you can just flash the A2017U modem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you can avoid suggesting things you clearly have no idea about.
While you're at it, why don't you flash a modem from another phone?
---------- Post added at 05:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:51 AM ----------
evilKabab said:
Hi there. I live in Canada and use A2017G. How to switch it to USA bands and is it safe to do? Or should I wait for Oreo (seems like November)?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't add bands that the phone doesn't have. By changing the daughterboard of an A2017U to an A2017's, a guy simply lost all connectivity, plain and simple. Antenna stuff is hardware stuff.
Oreo won't really add bands either
@Choose an username...: I have read other topics on XDA that say you can use QPST/QFIL to add basebands, on almost any device that has a Qualcomm CPU. But I havent tried this myself. It may just be a matter of placebo, or people wanting to believe that it works, when really nothing may be changing. You could also brick your phone during the attempt, which is part of the reason I havent tried yet.
I think that all A7s have nearly the same hardware, including the same (hardware) modem/radio, but with different basebands enabled/disabled depending on which model you have. But I have no proof of this. I will leave this to people that are willing to deeply dissect the hardware.
And then there are the modem files you can flash, which vary according to your model. I am not sure what would happen if you attempt to flash a A2017G/A2017 modem on a A2017U (or any other combo). I think the worst you will face is a loss of Internet/text/phone calls.
When I first bought my A7 I was going to get the Chinese version from AliExpress, because it has more RAM, storage, and ForceTouch. But then I realized that it doesn't have most of the basebands that my carrier (T-Mobile) supports. And you never know where most of the AE sellers get the hardware, they could be stolen, preowned, whatever. I have bought numerous 'new' items there before, but they ranged in quality, ranging from brand new to fair condition. So I thought better of it and bought a new A2017U from NewEgg, complete with ZTE's Passport warranty and 3 years SquareTrade insurance. And I'm glad I did, since a few months ago I had to make use of that warranty to get my A7 unbricked from DFU, before the tool was available.
I think only differences between A7 models are in processor i.e. bands. There are variants in SD 820.
AnonVendetta said:
... But then I realized that it doesn't have most of the basebands that my carrier (T-Mobile) supports.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We're in the same boat... My carrier using AWS bands just like T-MO. A2017G was working perfectly fine maybe missing just one band on LTE. And recently new band was introduced - LTE band 13 (700mhz), which supposed to improve indoor reception - big issue for Axon 7 and AWS. They call it 'Extended Rabge LTE.
So A2017U has that band, but A2017G doesnt. My assumption was that both phones are sharing the same hardware and bands available are controlled by software.
I clicked some numbers and got into some engineering menu where I see choices: USA Bands, Cellular 800. So I picked USA and restarted.
EPIC FAIL!
I lost 3g AWS on SIM1! Only 4G present, which is actually working fine. Just imagine phone with perfect 4G connectivity internet is flying, but you cannot place a phone call... (My carrier - Freedom Mobile doesnt have 2G GSM). I tried to switch it back - no luck
Solution - I use SIM2.
Oreo
Just installed it no OTA had to use sd card. That actually fixed SIM1 band problem. It doesnt seem I have band 13 (that is what I wanted), but connectivity seems better and switching between 3g and 4g is very fast...