Hey fella's, and ladies. I just got my G955F, bought in the US off of the same person I usually go through. Turns out It's a UK model that came with Vodafone bloatware and shows 4G instead of LTE. Is there a US variant? And if so can I flash the software using odin?
Hi im not 100% sure you can flash any us versions as the US model runs on snapdragom different to UK my s8 was on Vodafone with there bloatware so i got them to unlock it using the website took a day or 2 then flashed xeu now I get my updates faster.
If you didn't know, LTE is usually displayed as 4G (H or H+ for 4G), in most countries outside N.A. So chances are if you are getting 4G signal, you are getting LTE in the U.S.
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Hey Guys,
I am from the auK but travelling in the USA for a couple months and then living in Canada for a year from July, I want to pick up a sim free S4 to use that will work in the USA, Canada and the UK... From what I understand the Walmart versions are the AT&T which is the same as the Canadian ones so should work, but will this model accept sims from UK carriers also?
In the USA ill be using a Walmart family t mobile sim (not worried about data speeds here as its just for emergencies/emails)
in Canada ill probably go with The cheapest sim only rolling contract and speed will be important
in the UK ill probably go with Vodafone or EE
So, if I go get a sim free version in Walmart will I have any issues and do those S4s have any physical/software branding on them?
Cheers
No you should not have sim issues with them.
Yes, walmart phones may have Software (bloatware) on them. You can flash a generic rom to remove the software issues
As to physical branding it depends on where walmart gets its supply from.
That's good news so the LTE version and bands will be fine for Canada... Phew
Now do I buy or not!
AT&T verson Canada capiable with LTE
Tmobile version not compatible with Rogers but will work on wind and some other providers.
Cool so long as its the AT&T version it's good for Canada and any provider?
Does anyone here have a UK G950F or G955F on T-Mobile in the USA?
I am curious as to the LTE speeds you are getting.
Currently if I take a N950F on T-Mobile and Speed Test it next to a N950U or a N920T also on T-Mobile, I get a fraction of the speeds.
For example right now Im getting 203mbps download on my N950U / N920T & on my N950F I am getting 50mbps.
During the day when there are more users on we could be getting 40mbps down on the N950U / N920T and be getting less then 10mbps on the N950F.
To make matters worse the connection seems not so stable.
Before you ask this not an iscolated issue. There are several people experiencing this issue.
Matter of fact if you go buy a N950F from Clove in the UK right now and use it on T-Mobile USA it will do this.
Also before you ask, Yes the APN settings are correct, yes we have tried a million and one things, yes CSC(s) are in place
I heard through the grape vine that that also happened on the Galaxy S8 line. So I figured I would stop by and ask.
Thanks in advance for any replies and feedback.
Carrier Aggregation/MIMO? The US unlocked models with qualcomm modems are designed to use mutilple US tower connections while exynos arent.
It's all very carrier specific. T-Mobile certified the Qualcomm S8/Note for their Network, not the exynos. Sure it works, but theyre no saying its 100%.
Varying modem version maybe? Or chipset bindings, Location, Towers, Network Congestion etc.
Right now I have a 950F on T-Mobile in San Diego. Last Modem I flashed was the one included with the Netherlands AQI7 update. I've seen 50-60Mbps and as low as 2Mbps while on LTE.
Hey everyone,
First of all I want to say that I am not very experienced with flashing. I have done it 2-3 times before on my other 2 phones, so I will not undestand everything you say but I'll try to do.
Yesterday I got a Sprint Samsung Galaxy S5 from a friend. As far as I know it is unlocked so I decided to put another ROM that doesn't have that much bloatware. I first tried LineageOS (the latest nightly build for SM_G900P), flashed TWRP before that with Odin, but then I noticed that I cannot connect to my carrier, so then I decided to flash this ROM:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/sp...ment/rom-g900ppca-6-0-1-stock-rooted-t3387717
I flashed the ROM from the recovery, then I flashed the bootloader and modem with Odin. After that success! The rom fired up after 15 minutes of loading and there it was. I was connected to a carrier and had mobile data and I went to bed. So today I noticed that I couldn't get LTE everywhere I go and I started browsing the forums, but I couldn't find anything that could help. The only thing I found was this https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/general/how-to-add-rf-lte-frequency-bands-to-t2886059 , but all the download links were down.
So I decided to directly ask you guys and gals if you have a solution on how to get LTE signal on my phone.
Thank you in advance and sorry if I misspelled or said something incredibly stupid.
From what I know, the best connection you can get with an S5 in most countries in Europe is 3G. Sprint has the necessary band (2100 MHz) that connects to 3G in most countries in Europe. However, when it comes to LTE, the sprint S5 only has bands 25 (1900MHz), 26 (850MHz), and 41 (2500MHz). This is fine in the US for the Sprint Network, but European countries rely mainly on bands 3 (1800MHz), 7 (2600MHz), or 20 (800) for LTE, which are not found in the sprint variant.
I actually spent lots of time myself trying to unlock more bands using the link you posted, but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't access some menus that were necessary for the unlock during the process.
Also, from what I know, the carrier/data connection can only be acquired by using a stock rom such as the one you found. Custom roms like LineageOS will not connect to a carrier.
So every time i travel to Europe with my Sprint S5, i just put stock rom, and have to stick to 3G. So, that's the current situation with Sprint and LTE in Europe. I would be happy to hear any success stories.
I can confirm Band 3 1800 Mhz LTE works on Galaxy S5 900P Sprint on a network in Europe.
I bought a S8 2 years ago in the US. I am basically using it in central Europe with a Austrian SIM. Until now I have never seen the phone connecting to a LTE network, even though its enabled in the settings.
When I put the same SIM in the S9 which I bought in Europe, it'll connect to LTE almost all the time.
Are there hardware differences between US and european phones? Is it only a firmware issue?
SuperMesna said:
I bought a S8 2 years ago in the US. I am basically using it in central Europe with a Austrian SIM. Until now I have never seen the phone connecting to a LTE network, even though its enabled in the settings.
When I put the same SIM in the S9 which I bought in Europe, it'll connect to LTE almost all the time.
Are there hardware differences between US and european phones? Is it only a firmware issue?
Click to expand...
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Um you have a European phone. A950f is not a us device. The 950u is and there are a lot of differences radios you need to make sure the phone supports your carriers lte bands. And you have your apn setup properly first
I've already posted on Reddit looking for advice, but realised I might be more likely to get some good answers here. I’ll start with the TL;DR… What stock firmware (preferably without bloatware) should I flash on a Verizon Galaxy S10+ SM-G975U that’s going to be used in France with a French SIM, to get the best network coverage?
Some more info: I bought a refurbished Galaxy S10+ which was said to be an unlocked model originated in Europe. Turns out it was shipped from the US, and is a Snapdragon-based Verizon phone.
To get rid of all traces of Verizon, I successfully flashed U1 XAA firmware downloaded with Frija (SM-G975U1, XAA, June 1 2021 Security Patch Level) which did get rid of the bloatware, and now doesn't have the Verizon startup screen. Success? Not quite...
On this firmware, 4G signal doesn't seem to get picked up as easily as when it was on the original Verizon firmware. It also shows LTE rather than 4G in the notification bar as it did before flashing the U1 firmware.
My S9+ (Exynos 'F' model, flashed with French non-carrier firmware) gets 4G signal (-115 dBm 25 asu) on a certain spot on my desk. In the exact same spot, the S10+ gets H (-101 dBm 19 asu), and I struggle to find a spot in the house where it gets LTE/4G. This makes me wonder if some required frequency bands aren't supported on this firmware?
I'm wondering whether the U1 firmware was not the best option after all? If U1 isn’t the way to go, what firmware version would you suggest? Should I go back to U firmware instead, or maybe go for the Canadian W XAC unbranded firmware? Not sure if there's even a version of U firmware that doesn't come with carrier branding + bloat...
Basically, I'm looking for stock firmware without carrier bloatware, that'll work well on the SFR network in France, and ideally show 4G in the notification bar. It's actually a surprise birthday gift for my wife too, so I'm trying to prepare it for her so she has the best experience with the phone as possible.
Cheers in advance for any advice! You might help me save this from being a bit of a disaster of a birthday gift
Quick update. I've flashed SM-G975W XAC (unbranded Canada) firmware, and now the phone picks up LTE signal in parts of the house where it would only get E signal whilst on SM-G975U1 XAA firmware. So I know that the Canadian firmware is at least a bit better in my situation.
However, the LTE speeds are still between 25%-50% of what I get on my S9+ Exynos on French unbranded firmware using the same SIM. And obviously the phone still shows LTE in the notification bar, rather than 4G.
I might try going back to Verizon firmware to see if the LTE/4G performs better, which might be the best route to go, even with the bloatware and Version branded annoyances.
Ok, I thought it might be best to post my last update to close this off, in case it helps anyone else who stumbles on it in future.
I was going to do back-to-back tests on U1 XAA, W XAC, U VZW and U CHA firmware, in that order, to see what would work best and give a good 4G signal.
I started with flashing the latest U1 XAA, which had the same poor signal and only showed LTE in the notification bar and not 4G, as before.
Next up, I flashed the same W XAC (Canadian non-carrier) firmware as before, but this time I left my SIM card in the phone. Out of paranoia I'd always removed it when flashing, but when the phone booted up it showed 4G in the notification bar, not LTE like before, and signal strength and speeds were good!
So I stopped there and have stuck with SM-G975W XAC firmware. It seems to have achieved what I want—decent performance on the French SFR network, without bloatware, and correctly displaying 4G—so I decided not to push my luck and stop flashing any more firmware versions, just in case I end up with an expensive paperweight.