Database Users

[Q] Verizon Developer Edition

Ok, so I hope in my searching I didn't miss the answer to my question.
I'm looking at getting the S5 Verizon Developer Edition. I contacted Samsung (no, I don't know why I bothered). I wanted to know if download booster was blocked like on the regular version, what their return policy was, if the electric blue would be an option, what unlocking/rooting would require, etc.
My main question was about the rooting/unlocking and the download booster. Does anyone know what it takes to root/unlock the developer edition? I know it's not locked down like the normal version...but I don't know if it's an option you can just select or if I'd have to find a root/unlock here on XDA.
Any/all info on what the developer edition differences really are would be greatly appreciated!

I contacted them again today to ask. They are now telling me they do believe that Download booster is enabled. BUT...they're telling me I can only return the device if it's new and unopened. I am worried what if I have any issues with activation (which would require me to open the box...duh). They have transferred my call to 4 departments, and no one is sure if they would allow a return under those circumstances. I really don't want to spend $600 on a phone that I can't do anything with.
Does anyone here have any experience with the S5 developer edition??

Not sure if anyone reading this thread is interested as I've gotten no posts, but I did get an official reply directly from Samsung's offices (from the President's office to be exact).
Hello Mr. ____,
Thank you for your inquiry. Please see below responses to the concerns you have inquired about:
“does Download Booster work on this device as Verizon disabled it on their version?” -> The software on the device behaves the same as the consumer version of the Verizon GS5.
“does unlocking the device void the warrantee?” -> The device comes with an unlocked bootloader, the warranty is a 30 day hardware warranty or until the device has been modified beyond factory specifications. If the device requires service we will be able to provide a service estimate on repairs requires outside of the 30 day warranty period.
“My question is if I get the device and Verizon is unable to activate it on their network (which would require me to open the box to test this), can I return it?” ->For this reason the restocking fee can be waived on a case by case basis.
Best Regards,
Office of the President
Samsung Telecommunications America

smokeydriver said:
Not sure if anyone reading this thread is interested as I've gotten no posts, but I did get an official reply directly from Samsung's offices (from the President's office to be exact).
Hello Mr. ____,
Thank you for your inquiry. Please see below responses to the concerns you have inquired about:
“does Download Booster work on this device as Verizon disabled it on their version?” -> The software on the device behaves the same as the consumer version of the Verizon GS5.
“does unlocking the device void the warrantee?” -> The device comes with an unlocked bootloader, the warranty is a 30 day hardware warranty or until the device has been modified beyond factory specifications. If the device requires service we will be able to provide a service estimate on repairs requires outside of the 30 day warranty period.
“My question is if I get the device and Verizon is unable to activate it on their network (which would require me to open the box to test this), can I return it?” ->For this reason the restocking fee can be waived on a case by case basis.
Best Regards,
Office of the President
Samsung Telecommunications America
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Thanks for going through the trouble of contacting Samsung on this. I am generally concerned with the ability to root, and of course activate on Verizon network (???). I never thought activation would even be a question. Do you have anything that instigated that concern or are you just being thorough?

EnigmaRaptor said:
Thanks for going through the trouble of contacting Samsung on this. I am generally concerned with the ability to root, and of course activate on Verizon network (???). I never thought activation would even be a question. Do you have anything that instigated that concern or are you just being thorough?
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No, I didn't have a reason to think the activation wouldn't work other than being cautious.
I just know that when you buy an item and there are no returns once opened, I get worried that when some other company gets involved, it'll become a blame game and Verizon would say "We didn't sell it".
The more I play with other peoples S5's, the less I see a need to upgrade personally though. I'm running a great ROM right now on my Galaxy Nexus. I just want a phone that as everything, and his (and all phones) seem to be lacking in a few areas. I really wish I could just call them (Samsung, HTC, etc.) to tell them what I want in my phone!

smokeydriver said:
No, I didn't have a reason to think the activation wouldn't work other than being cautious.
I just know that when you buy an item and there are no returns once opened, I get worried that when some other company gets involved, it'll become a blame game and Verizon would say "We didn't sell it".
The more I play with other peoples S5's, the less I see a need to upgrade personally though. I'm running a great ROM right now on my Galaxy Nexus. I just want a phone that as everything, and his (and all phones) seem to be lacking in a few areas. I really wish I could just call them (Samsung, HTC, etc.) to tell them what I want in my phone!
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I am surprised that you can live with the Galaxy Nexus. I have one as well (with Verizon's extended battery), and the battery life is completely abysmal. the GS5 is a new world of long battery life and I can actually turn on ALL of the features I wan't without being chained to a charging cord. I had a retail S5 for about 3 weeks before selling it to pay for my Dev version. It was a monumental upgrade over my GNex in every regard, except I missed rooting too much to keep it.

Yeah, I hate the battery life. I have 2 of the extended batteries, and I keep one in my pocket at all times. The batter life is a joke...between waking up and leaving the house an hour later, I can be down to 70% battery life fairly often.
I do want the battery life of the newer high end devices (S5, M8), but I'm hoping the S5 active has everything I really want (3 GB RAM, image stabilization, Snapdragon 805, replaceable battery, memory card slot, etc. etc. etc).

Unlocking T-Mobile locked phones, bought directly from Samsung

Hello,
I recently saw the (samsung.com) Buy One Get One (/us/mobile/phones/t-mobile-free-galaxy-s8-promotion) deal on the Samsung S8. I am really interested. The deal applies on buying the T-Mobile variants directly from samsung.com. (Not through T-Mobile)
However, I am from India, and am currently travelling to the US. I would like to buy both the phones and get them unlocked later so that I can use them back in India. I do not mind buying/activating a new T-Mobile line on one of the phones as long as I can SIM unlock the phone later for use with other SIMs. From what I read, T-Mobile does not have these phones registered in their database and it is difficult to get them to unlock the phone for me. What usually ends up happening is that Samsung people redirect to T-Mobile, who in turn redirect back to Samsung. Has anybody had any success?
Here are a couple of reddit threads dealing with the same matter (can't post links yet, sorry) :
/r/tmobile/comments/68w6ow/samsungcom_tmobile_s8_sim_unlock/
/r/tmobile/comments/6crs6v/unlocking_samsung_galaxy_purchased_from_samsungcom/
/r/GalaxyS8/comments/67a942/how_to_get_sim_unlock_code_for_phones_purchased/
Please let me know if this is possible, and how it can be done.

I have T-mo phone bought and paid in full direct from Samsung and I can confirm this nonsense, which should be totally illegal: T-mo has no record of my phone's IMEI and Samsung can't unlock the phone without T-mo. You could try paid services, but I have no idea how well and if they even work. You could also wait for root and probably unlock then, but it's risky. So far I have not been able to resolve this issue.

pete4k said:
I have T-mo phone bought and paid in full direct from Samsung and I can confirm this nonsense, which should be totally illegal: T-mo has no record of my phone's IMEI and Samsung can't unlock the phone without T-mo. You could try paid services, but I have no idea how well and if they even work. You could also wait for root and probably unlock then, but it's risky. So far I have not been able to resolve this issue.
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That's sad to hear. I would have loved to get the phone using this offer. From what I gathered from the reddit threads, you basically have to grind down on customer support (either Samsung or T-Mobile) to get it unlocked from their side.

Which G6 is Amazon Prime offering? Missing any features?

I'm sure by now anyone with an Amazon Prime account has seen the advertisements for the $399.99 LG G6 and G6+ which is a great deal, and it's enough of one that I'm getting ready to retire my iPhone SE and make the switch over...especially since I can lengthen the warranty to two years total. What I cannot find out is which version Amazon is selling when it's released November 9th, 2017 and if T-Mobile and/or AT&T users will still have the normal functions like WiFi calling (which I rely upon) and VoLTE on each respective carrier. I'd rather not buy a Prime device only to discover that it doesn't have the same features as a carrier-specific device has and this has me worried. Buying a brand new unlocked G6 would give me the two years of full warranty on the device and hopefully all of the T-Mobile features offered on the carrier-specific model even if the bootloader isn't unlocked. Heck, I'd attempt a FlashFire to get new firmware onto the phone if it were made possible just to regain WiFi Calling/VoLTE but wanted input from others before I decide to go this route. I'm also not opposed to grabbing something like the LG V20 from BHPhotoVideo as well since this is the route I want to go. If you guys have any knowledge that I haven't been able to figure out in the last week of research I'd appreciate it very much. Cheers.

They go in depth with this story,not sure if it helps at all.

That's one of the articles I managed to find, and it did help out in figuring out which phone I wanted to invest in but I didn't get much more info on the device itself. Because it's an Amazon device we already know that it's not going to be able to have an unlocked bootloader which really stinks but that's the cost of buying a subsidized phone through Amazon. I considered just buying the LG V20 through BHPhotoVideo for cheaper so there are no integrated Amazon advertisements and it has a better internal camera (as far as specs go) but having 12MP+12MP vs 16MP is a little too close of a call to make any kind of speculation, although having 64GB of storage with the V20 would be nicer than the included 32GB in the LG G6. At least we have a micro-SD slot to have more storage in both models, which means that if we can get the phone rooted then App2SD won't be a problem.
I just know I'm ready to retire and sell this crappy iPhone SE and move away from the insane Apple prices to get a better device with a less restrictive environment. My only hope is that the LG G6 has the same characteristics as my iPhone SE, such as WiFi calling and VoLTE. I know it has all of the right LTE bands so that won't be an issue, and later on I'll probably just give Amazon more money to ditch the advertisements. I just wish that I could find a $450 LG G6 brand new that I could unlock the bootloader on, and that's my conundrum. It seems that if you want the subsized Prime version it's only $399 but if you want an subside-free G6 you still have to shell out $200 more.
P.S. Thanks for the quick response.

im already planning on getting this but i wont be able till at least black friday at the earliest. it fills all my needs now that the U11+ wont be available in the US. the model number for the 6+ is LGUS997U so im hoping that rooting will be possible along with custom ROMs. l hope someone else takes the plunge first.

droidbot1337 said:
im already planning on getting this but i wont be able till at least black friday at the earliest. it fills all my needs now that the U11+ wont be available in the US. the model number for the 6+ is LGUS997U so im hoping that rooting will be possible along with custom ROMs. l hope someone else takes the plunge first.
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I'm taking the plunge and it'll be here the day of release. Knowing Amazon's history with locking bootloaders it's already pretty apparent that unlocking it will not be a possibility but will still check irregardless in hopes that I'm wrong. At least I hope it can be rooted some how and figure out how to ditch all of the bogus Amazon advertisements without paying them another $50 to remove them from my device, and will report all of that information that I can find out on my own as well. The LG V20 directly from T-Mobile was my original go-to replacement but for the same amount of money I'd rather have the slightly faster LG G6 even if it is hampered by Amazon's crap. Considering I'm moving up from an iPhone SE this thing is going to be a massive upgrade.
EDIT: I've independently confirmed it will indeed have T-Mobile WiFi calling and VoLTE built into the firmware because Amazon did the same thing with the Moto G5s firmware that they molested. They might have injected it with Amazon bloatware but they did also include WiFi calling and VoLTE from each of the providers so there's a very strong chance anyone who uses this device on their home network will still have those features included with the LG line of phones.

bmurphr1 said:
I'm taking the plunge and it'll be here the day of release...........
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YES!!!! im so envious of you!! i hope that they can be unlocked as the price is just far too tempting. im going to try and contact LG USA and see what i can get from them. good luck and please keep us informed, cheers!!

I'm looking at the LG G6 also. I've been a Nexus user and am still using the N5X. Now that Google has went overboard with their pricing and are no longer making any devices that are good values, I'm looking elsewhere. I've always been an LG fan. I'm looking at the LG G6 as the price on it is excellent. There are a good number of carrier unlocked devices available for just over $400 and I think we will see some good sales between Black Friday and New Year's.
I was also considering the Amazon version but I'm not sure how difficult it will be to get rid of them afterwards.

gorilla p said:
....I was also considering the Amazon version but I'm not sure how difficult it will be to get rid of them afterwards.
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?? all it has is a few bloat apps but all you would need to do is flash another ROM. thats considering it can be rooted. im still debating on the 6+ or waiting for the HTC U12 which should be better than the U11+ or at least i hope.

Phone has arrived, is model US966, and even though is the international model still has VoLTE and WiFi Calling baked into the ROM. I've verified that it does indeed work as it should for T-Mobile as I have the Hanset + WiFi logo in my top left notification tray. So far it seems Amazon really did make this device into the most universal of all of the LG G6 devices that exist (aside from being unable to unlock the bootloader.
Amazon really put this firmware through the ringer..it does have mountains of bloatware that we can work around, but it works with T-Mobile WiFi Calling, VoLTE, and HD Voice (all confirmed by moving a dead zone in my house where I received full WiFI but could not obtain any indoor signal of any kind. I had several conversations that all sounded like I was standing right next to the person, and I had no cellular service at the time the call was made. Just as I suspected, they molested the G6 just like they did the Moto G5s into forcing it to support T-Mobile's feature sets and most likely the same for the other three providers as well.

bmurphr1 said:
Phone has arrived, is model US966, and even though is the international model still has VoLTE and WiFi Calling baked into the ROM. I've verified that it does indeed work as it should for T-Mobile as I have the Hanset + WiFi logo in my top left notification tray. So far it seems Amazon really did make this device into the most universal of all of the LG G6 devices that exist (aside from being unable to unlock the bootloader.
Amazon really put this firmware through the ringer..it does have mountains of bloatware that we can work around, but it works with T-Mobile WiFi Calling, VoLTE, and HD Voice (all confirmed by moving a dead zone in my house where I received full WiFI but could not obtain any indoor signal of any kind. I had several conversations that all sounded like I was standing right next to the person, and I had no cellular service at the time the call was made. Just as I suspected, they molested the G6 just like they did the Moto G5s into forcing it to support T-Mobile's feature sets and most likely the same for the other three providers as well.
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Do you know if it's possible to pay to remove the lockscreen ads? Also, are the ads just on the lockscreen or do they show up in other places?
I know you can pay to remove Kindle ads at https://www.amazon.com/mn/dcw/myx.html

Joe USer said:
Do you know if it's possible to pay to remove the lockscreen ads? Also, are the ads just on the lockscreen or do they show up in other places?
I know you can pay to remove Kindle ads at https://www.amazon.com/mn/dcw/myx.html
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Click to collapse
Ads are on lockscreen and on the desktop, but the desktop widget no problem. When you unlock the device using your fingerprint though you never see the advertisements so it's not bothering me that much. I have yet to figure out if we can purchase the removal of advertisements though as I've only had these few short hours with the device, but every T-Mo function that you'd find on a carrier-branded device works on the Amazon Prime variant. If I can pay an extra $50 or so to get rid of the advertisements I probably will do just that.
In the mean time I tried to sign up for the second year of the LG G6 free warranty program, and since the phone is a US996 model device you can't complete the registration page. I e-mailed the help desk to see if we'll be able to register for the free second year of service as an Amazon agent said that there should be no reason that it shouldn't work. I will respond back once I get word from the LG team regarding the additional free year of warranty coverage.
EDIT: You can legitimately remove ads from the phone through Amazon but they want an extra $100 to just remove them. I'll wait on someone else to figure out how to hack the ads away from the firmware. I dig the LG interface though as it's similar to the iPhone layout and makes it easier for me to understand rather than having an app drawer like my Fire tablet does. The phone is definitely worth $399...not $499 though once you buy the removal of advertisements.

congrats @bmurphr1!! im happy it works well since like you i too am a tmo user. also, the model number is listed as 997U but you said its US996, is that right? anyway, i hope the bootloader can soon be unlocked because that would make this phone an amazing device.

droidbot1337 said:
congrats @bmurphr1!! im happy it works well since like you i too am a tmo user. also, the model number is listed as 997U but you said its US996, is that right? anyway, i hope the bootloader can soon be unlocked because that would make this phone an amazing device.
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I did, but it's actually US997 according to what I'm looking at right now on the Hardware info screen. My initial statement was a typo because I was in a rush to get this phone up and running since I'm moving over from the iOS world. Model number is confirmed US997 and the bootloader from what I've been able to ascertain so far is that LG is not unlocking the bootloader for the phone because they were strong-armed by Amazon to lock it down so that it couldn't be altered in any way - thus making people pay the $100 just to have advertisements removed from the device.

bmurphr1 said:
I did, but it's actually US997 according to what I'm looking at right now on the Hardware info screen. My initial statement was a typo because I was in a rush to get this phone up and running since I'm moving over from the iOS world. Model number is confirmed US997 and the bootloader from what I've been able to ascertain so far is that LG is not unlocking the bootloader for the phone because they were strong-armed by Amazon to lock it down so that it couldn't be altered in any way - thus making people pay the $100 just to have advertisements removed from the device.
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ugh!!... so its useless for those of us that want custom ROMs then? that sucks! i really hope someone finds a way to unlock it. i might just wait to see what the HTC u12 looks like. thanks for the info.

Just figured out how Amazon neutered this phone from being tampered with by individuals like us...they went and jacked around with the bootloader so that it freezes as soon as you boot into it. I'm very experienced when it comes to using fastboot on Android devices and I can tell you this bootloader has been tampered with. What happens is when you run "adb reboot bootloader" it reboots into the neutered bootloader and just freezes so that no commands can be sent or received from the device. If we could get the device-id then we could put it through the LG database, but Amazon found a way to mess with it just enough so that it crashes every single time you try to boot into it using the Android debugging bridge. That's how they crippled this phone so that no one would be able to flash new firmwares to the device or jack with it and remove their new found glory in LG devices. I'd love to be able to flash a non-Amazon bootloader only over to this phone to see if I could unlock it and catch on to something new but I'm too afraid to jeopardize my only working cell phone at the moment so I'd be worried about doing that. If the bootloader would unfreeze though and give us the code for a full bootloader unlock we could say byebye to the entire firmware OS and switch over to something like Lineage or better...assuming somebody has a kitchen that would work on an Amazon-molested US997 LG G6.

droidbot1337 said:
ugh!!... so its useless for those of us that want custom ROMs then? that sucks! i really hope someone finds a way to unlock it. i might just wait to see what the HTC u12 looks like. thanks for the info.
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I saw this on the latest Amazon Fire tablet and that's why I returned it. Now you see why I was hesitant.
I'm having a hard time deciding now, but I'm going there will be some solid $399 deals between Black Friday and Christmas. Otherwise, I might just get a OnePlus 3T.

gorilla p said:
I saw this on the latest Amazon Fire tablet and that's why I returned it. Now you see why I was hesitant.
I'm having a hard time deciding now, but I'm going there will be some solid $399 deals between Black Friday and Christmas. Otherwise, I might just get a OnePlus 3T.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Amazon got smart and neutered all of their Prime-branded devices so that they can't be bootloader unlocked any longer. The only hope we have of actually achieving custom firmware on this device is by using something like FlashFire to perform a hot-flash on the device to move it to a non-Amazon firmware, which is what I did on my Fire 2015 (Ford) tablet that I still use occasionally at the gym to watch Netflix and YouTube when I steal their WiFi. If you wanted to buy the phone just to unlock the bootloader unfortunately you're SOL, but there's still a chance something could be in the works for this device.
Honestly, I'd rather see either a complete removal of the advertisements from the stock US997 Amazon Prime G6 or someone who was able to successfully flash a ZIP file using FlashFire to the G6 without completely killing it along with WiFi Calling/VoLTE/HD Voice. The first one isn't out of the realm of possibility, but the second one is just a pipe dream since I essentially require WiFi calling and VoLTE. We're gonna need to find a way to root this firmware and I haven't found a way to do so as of yet, though it is running Nougat 7.0 with the September security update.

gorilla p said:
I saw this on the latest Amazon Fire tablet and that's why I returned it. Now you see why I was hesitant.
I'm having a hard time deciding now, but I'm going there will be some solid $399 deals between Black Friday and Christmas. Otherwise, I might just get a OnePlus 3T.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why the 3T and not the 5T? my brother has the 5 and loves it. i refuse to buy a device without expandable storage so that leaves me with few options....... well, few good options. im just gonna wait till leaks of the HTC U12 start to circulate. if that sucks ill just buy the regular G6.

droidbot1337 said:
why the 3T and not the 5T? my brother has the 5 and loves it. i refuse to buy a device without expandable storage so that leaves me with few options....... well, few good options. im just gonna wait till leaks of the HTC U12 start to circulate. if that sucks ill just buy the regular G6.
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Just the cost. OnePlus is upping the price with every release and I don't think the OP5 is that much better than the OP3T. Especially since I don't use my phone for anything crazy. My N5X still performs more than good enough for me. I have the GPU underclock and touchboost disabled to improve battery and still no lag at all. I really wish there was another affordable Nexus device. They should've come out with an Android One premium line featuring The 820 or 822 chipset.

I also received my Amazon us997 G6 yesterday. As mentioned earlier, the lock screen ads aren't very intrusive unless there are no other notifications at the time. If there are personal notifications like email, text message, missed phone call, etc. then the Amazon ad takes up about 15% of the lock screen. If no notifications are present, the entire lock screen is an ad. However, also as mentioned before, the double press of the finger print button makes the ads visible for the amount of time it takes to double press.
I run nova launcher and have not been bothered with any ads either.
Coming from big red on their lg g4 and having that special old plan, I did a SIM card chop with some cutlery scissors and made it a nano. Without getting too involved, an app like Foxfi is not needed on this phone. I will be keeping this phone primarily because of this. The price point, limited intrusive ads, 2 year warranty and not needing a special app previously mentioned have made this my newest phone.
Now i just hope lg has rid themselves of the nightmare Bootloop plague that has hit every lg phone that my family has owned.

A few questions for the TMobile Variant

I'm pretty much sold on the thing, since I can unload my 3T at the same time--but a few questions first.
1: Can anyone test Samsung gear watches with the phone? I've read Samsung pay only works if you sideload the gear app, but would prefer it working 100% since I plan on staying unrooted.
2: VPNs have caused some issues on past carrier phones, basically using hotspot data rather than regular data. Can anyone just run a quick test to make sure this isn't the case? Mostly for use of Blokada.
3: Does RCS work? I know TMobile was rolling it out by device, but it seems this would be the perfect time to add it with the 6T.
Thanks!

GiSS88 said:
I'm pretty much sold on the thing, since I can unload my 3T at the same time--but a few questions first.
1: Can anyone test Samsung gear watches with the phone? I've read Samsung pay only works if you sideload the gear app, but would prefer it working 100% since I plan on staying unrooted.
2: VPNs have caused some issues on past carrier phones, basically using hotspot data rather than regular data. Can anyone just run a quick test to make sure this isn't the case? Mostly for use of Blokada.
3: Does RCS work? I know TMobile was rolling it out by device, but it seems this would be the perfect time to add it with the 6T.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Setup my gear s3 and it works perfectly. Everything is sideloaded as you install from the galaxy Wearable app.
2. This device already seems to have a private VPN set up as default, didn't touch it but it gives you the option to add.
3. RCS I'm assuming does not work and depends on tmobile actually activating them over an OTA update.

Addiso said:
1. Setup my gear s3 and it works perfectly. Everything is sideloaded as you install from the galaxy Wearable app.
2. This device already seems to have a private VPN set up as default, didn't touch it but it gives you the option to add.
3. RCS I'm assuming does not work and depends on tmobile actually activating them over an OTA update.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the quick reply. For the gear stuff, I know it sideload through wear but I had read with the OP6 you had to get S-Pay from an apk mirror. Have you tested pay and it all works?

GiSS88 said:
Thanks for the quick reply. For the gear stuff, I know it sideload through wear but I had read with the OP6 you had to get S-Pay from an apk mirror. Have you tested pay and it all works?
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Haven't tried it, rocking it right now and it seems fine just when I had my v30. I can verify later on when I go put gas. I'll keep you updated if anything.

Addiso said:
Haven't tried it, rocking it right now and it seems fine just when I had my v30. I can verify later on when I go put gas. I'll keep you updated if anything.
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Awesome, appreciate it!

I'm pretty disappointed that RCS nor the Samsung/LG version work. It is super important to me, believe it or not. I'm hoping they release an update for this to work sometime soon.

cd85233 said:
I'm pretty disappointed that RCS nor the Samsung/LG version work. It is super important to me, believe it or not. I'm hoping they release an update for this to work sometime soon.
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It's silly, I agree. Since it's a carrier backed phone it should be available from the get go.

GiSS88 said:
It's silly, I agree. Since it's a carrier backed phone it should be available from the get go.
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Yea I got a feeling they maybe rushed this release a bit? They've never released with tmobile. Well see.

cd85233 said:
Yea I got a feeling they maybe rushed this release a bit? They've never released with tmobile. Well see.
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It's a TMobile issue not OP, sadly. No idea why they're doing it in stages and by phone.

My TMobile version does not have the hold power button down to activate Google Assistant feature. Is everyone else missing this?

I got some tmobile variant questions aswell?
Im from México but my brother is on vacation in USS.. in thinking on buying the oneplus but im a little confused about unlocking the phone... Some people say i have to use it with tmobile for 40 days to be able to unlock it even if i make the full pay for it.. othe people say you can unlock it the same day you full pay for it with the tmobile app..
So, can someone confirm who is correct with this because i wont like my brother to buy me the phone and then cant use it because of locked sim..
Also another question.. do you know if later we could install the international firmware on the tmobile version and get the updates directly from oneplus??
Enviado desde mi ONEPLUS A5010 mediante Tapatalk

renehd2 said:
I got some tmobile variant questions aswell?
Im from México but my brother is on vacation in USS.. in thinking on buying the oneplus but im a little confused about unlocking the phone... Some people say i have to use it with tmobile for 40 days to be able to unlock it even if i make the full pay for it.. othe people say you can unlock it the same day you full pay for it with the tmobile app..
So, can someone confirm who is correct with this because i wont like my brother to buy me the phone and then cant use it because of locked sim..
Also another question.. do you know if later we could install the international firmware on the tmobile version and get the updates directly from oneplus??
Enviado desde mi ONEPLUS A5010 mediante Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
1) SIM Unlocking:
YMMV,only way you'll know for certain is trying it yourself. My recent experiences w/Customer Care lead me to believe they'll accommodate you.
2) Int'l ROM flashing onto a T-Mobile variant.
No,that is not possible. Perhaps some aftermarket ROM will be available later,but,no ,not at this time,official,or,otherwise.
Updates will come from T-Mobile.
If you're gonna buy it outright,why bother w/T-Mobile anyway,just skip the hassles & go for the unlocked version.....................

KOLIOSIS said:
1) SIM Unlocking:
YMMV,only way you'll know for certain is trying it yourself. My recent experiences w/Customer Care lead me to believe they'll accommodate you.
2) Int'l ROM flashing onto a T-Mobile variant.
No,that is not possible. Perhaps some aftermarket ROM will be available later,but,no ,not at this time,official,or,otherwise.
Updates will come from T-Mobile.
If you're gonna buy it outright,why bother w/T-Mobile anyway,just skip the hassles & go for the unlocked version.....................
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Click to collapse
Because TMobile will allow you to buy the phone for 280 out the door with an approved trade-in device.
This is my current situation....I like to tinker and flash ROMs/mods. Hopefully if I end up with the Tmo version, I'll still be able to flash custom ROMs once development gets going for the device.

Pain-N-Panic said:
Because TMobile will allow you to buy the phone for 280 out the door with an approved trade-in device.
This is my current situation....I like to tinker and flash ROMs/mods. Hopefully if I end up with the Tmo version, I'll still be able to flash custom ROMs once development gets going for the device.
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Click to collapse
Yeah,I get it regarding $$$ incentives,but,the person I was responding to it seemed that time/urgency was an equally,if not more,a pressing issue.

KOLIOSIS said:
Yeah,I get it regarding $$$ incentives,but,the person I was responding to it seemed that time/urgency was an equally,if not more,a pressing issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, I gotcha.

KOLIOSIS said:
Yeah,I get it regarding $$$ incentives,but,the person I was responding to it seemed that time/urgency was an equally,if not more,a pressing issue.
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Yeah the problem is that my brother. Cannot wait to receive the international model via mail because he is coming back to mexico tuesday
Enviado desde mi ONEPLUS A5010 mediante Tapatalk

Well it looks like I'll be ordering from OP directly. It seems if I pay 280 and get the device I'll still pay 12 dollars and change a month until I hit the 570 mark to have the device "paid in full." I guess the 300 dollars goes towards savings on the bill. I read comments on here saying even if you buy the phone from TMobile, in order to "buy it outright" you still have to pay the full price of the phone. I need an unlocked bootloader and root so I guess I'll just pay OP directly.

Pain-N-Panic said:
Well it looks like I'll be ordering from OP directly. It seems if I pay 280 and get the device I'll still pay 12 dollars and change a month until I hit the 570 mark to have the device "paid in full." I guess the 300 dollars goes towards savings on the bill. I read comments on here saying even if you buy the phone from TMobile, in order to "buy it outright" you still have to pay the full price of the phone. I need an unlocked bootloader and root so I guess I'll just pay OP directly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it's really only a good deal if you're already or going to stay a T-Mobile customer. You wait a couple of months for the billing discount to kick in and you pay off your device in full. After that you'll still get your discount every month and you'll be able to unlock your sim card and unlock your bootloader.

hartleyshc said:
Yeah it's really only a good deal if you're already or going to stay a T-Mobile customer. You wait a couple of months for the billing discount to kick in and you pay off your device in full. After that you'll still get your discount every month and you'll be able to unlock your sim card and unlock your bootloader.
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Click to collapse
I am a TMobile customer and plan on staying with them. Flashing the latest updates is kind of a big deal to me....I've been a Nexus/pixel user for years and am not use to being locked down by carrier restrictions when it comes to unlocking devices. I just don't feel like dealing with the clutter and hassle of having sift through the carrier's rules before doing what I want with my phone.

Pain-N-Panic said:
I am a TMobile customer and plan on staying with them. Flashing the latest updates is kind of a big deal to me....I've been a Nexus/pixel user for years and am not use to being locked down by carrier restrictions when it comes to unlocking devices. I just don't feel like dealing with the clutter and hassle of having sift through the carrier's rules before doing what I want with my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, and I'm the exact same way. I've been on T-Mobile forever and have had a Nexus device since the Nexus 4. I had a Galaxy 4 for work and hated it.
This is my first carrier device pretty much ever. Before the Nexus 4 I was using the HTC HD2 and before that I was using Palm Windows and Palm OS devices.
Pretty much the way I see it is if this is too much of a pain, I can always sell it and go with my original plan of getting a used Pixel 2 XL on swappa.
I'll give it a chance. The price was just too good to pass. And I'm fairly confident in OP's laziness on locking down this phone. I have a feeling it will be pretty simple to swap over to the international rom, and if not, at most we'll have to wait a day for someone to repack the official rom removing the modem and/or bootloader. And if not, on to swappa it goes.

I'm ready to make the move to Oneplus

I've been a diehard Samsung guy all the way back to the S5. I'm on the note 8 now and my wife is on the S9+. I prefer to have my device rooted but Samsung /Verizon has made it increasingly difficult with each new generation of phone.
I've noticed since I am on the Verizon network, there are not many choices to switch to that you are able to unlock the bootloader. Verizon wants to keep them all locked up tight.
In my research I have discovered that the 6T may offer me a way out. I also understand that it's not without it's share of problems. I've noticed many posts with people saying their texts do not work correctly. Many others said they had to call Verizon and tell them the 6t is not a CDMA phone and one member said Verizon would not activate his CDMA-less 6t.
I think I may still be willing to give it a try but one thing I noticed when I do a search for a Oneplus 6t on Amazon, every listing says NOT COMPATIBLE with Verizon. I think they are only saying that because the 6t does not have CDMA capability but it does have LTE and because of that it should be compatible. Am I correct?
I do not want to buy it if I can't use it on Verizon.

I just got my Oneplus 6T last Thursday. It is a tiny bit finicky about getting the drivers to keep working for unlocking, rooting, and flashing, otherwise once I had it set up, to activate it on VZW, I just had to log into my account and make the required CDMA-less choice online and BOOM, it just works.

teddyearp said:
I just got my Oneplus 6T last Thursday. It is a tiny bit finicky about getting the drivers to keep working for unlocking, rooting, and flashing, otherwise once I had it set up, to activate it on VZW, I just had to log into my account and make the required CDMA-less choice online and BOOM, it just works.
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Click to collapse
Ok thank you, that's very encouraging. Where did you purchase it from?

TRexombo said:
Ok thank you, that's very encouraging. Where did you purchase it from?
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I bought it straight from oneplus online. It's the non TMobile dual SIM. Took maybe two days.
My Nexus 6 still works, but it's time and I'm happy.

TRexombo said:
I've been a diehard Samsung guy all the way back to the S5. I'm on the note 8 now and my wife is on the S9+. I prefer to have my device rooted but Samsung /Verizon has made it increasingly difficult with each new generation of phone.
I've noticed since I am on the Verizon network, there are not many choices to switch to that you are able to unlock the bootloader. Verizon wants to keep them all locked up tight.
In my research I have discovered that the 6T may offer me a way out. I also understand that it's not without it's share of problems. I've noticed many posts with people saying their texts do not work correctly. Many others said they had to call Verizon and tell them the 6t is not a CDMA phone and one member said Verizon would not activate his CDMA-less 6t.
I think I may still be willing to give it a try but one thing I noticed when I do a search for a Oneplus 6t on Amazon, every listing says NOT COMPATIBLE with Verizon. I think they are only saying that because the 6t does not have CDMA capability but it does have LTE and because of that it should be compatible. Am I correct?
I do not want to buy it if I can't use it on Verizon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on Verizon contract. I had no issue with getting my 6T on my line switched to cdma-less. Also buy it from OnePlus directly you can buy a warranty replacement plan witch Verizon will not cover cause they don't sell the device. I came from the unlocked Google Pixel 2 XL. I will never buy a phone from Big Red again. Unlocked and free is the way to BE???.

666syco said:
I'm on Verizon contract. I had no issue with getting my 6T on my line switched to cdma-less. Also buy it from OnePlus directly you can buy a warranty replacement plan witch Verizon will not cover cause they don't sell the device. I came from the unlocked Google Pixel 2 XL. I will never buy a phone from Big Red again. Unlocked and free is the way to BE.
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Click to collapse
Thank you guys. I agree with you both. I'm so tired of being under their thumb. I like having control of my phone and what's on it.
If I weren't a truck driver I would have already left Verizon long ago and tried to find a cellular service provider that gives me more freedom, but I travel to a LOT of backwoods places where, if I didn't have Verizon, I would have no signal.

Actually, being able to buy unlocked devices that work on Verizon is the ultimate freedom. The best phone on the best network.

TRexombo said:
I've been a diehard Samsung guy all the way back to the S5. I'm on the note 8 now and my wife is on the S9+. I prefer to have my device rooted but Samsung /Verizon has made it increasingly difficult with each new generation of phone.
I've noticed since I am on the Verizon network, there are not many choices to switch to that you are able to unlock the bootloader. Verizon wants to keep them all locked up tight.
In my research I have discovered that the 6T may offer me a way out. I also understand that it's not without it's share of problems. I've noticed many posts with people saying their texts do not work correctly. Many others said they had to call Verizon and tell them the 6t is not a CDMA phone and one member said Verizon would not activate his CDMA-less 6t.
I think I may still be willing to give it a try but one thing I noticed when I do a search for a Oneplus 6t on Amazon, every listing says NOT COMPATIBLE with Verizon. I think they are only saying that because the 6t does not have CDMA capability but it does have LTE and because of that it should be compatible. Am I correct?
I do not want to buy it if I can't use it on Verizon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Chinese version will not work.
The international version is the version that work. Buy directly from OnePlus to make sure it't the right version.
I'm using my 6T on Verizon with no issues.

Good point teddyearp, Verizon is the best network and that together with an unlocked phone is the ultimate in freedom.
Thank you tech head, I will be sure to get the international version straight from oneplus.
I did a lot of searching before deciding on the 6t. Am I right that the 6t is the only new phone that you can purchase in the US that is unlocked or can be unlocked and that is compatible with Verizon?

TRexombo said:
Good point teddyearp, Verizon is the best network and that together with an unlocked phone is the ultimate in freedom.
Thank you tech head, I will be sure to get the international version straight from oneplus.
I did a lot of searching before deciding on the 6t. Am I right that the 6t is the only new phone that you can purchase in the US that is unlocked or can be unlocked and that is compatible with Verizon?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is also the Google pixel line from Google also. Like I said I came from a pixel 2 XL and I can honestly say since I got my 6t I haven't looked back at my pixel. Way more BANG for my buck. I could have purchased two of the high-end 6Ts (8gb ram and 256gb storage) like I have for the price of one pixel 2 XL. I paid almost $1,200 including warranty with that for a unlocked 128gb Pixel 2 XL. Now for my OnePlus I paid $629 plus a extra $150 for a 2 year warranty. I baby my devices but accidents do happen. Even though I never had one but just in case cause it's better safe then sorry. You won't regret your OnePlus I've been reading about these flagship killers for a few years and been waiting for them to be compatible with Verizon. The long wait is over.

Oh yes that's right. The pixel phones. My son, who is away at college loves his pixel and as hard as it may be to believe, even though I've always used android phones (android being from google), I am extremely anti google and would not buy a pixel. I like apple even less so I use android but I don't use chrome. One of the things I always try to accomplish when I get each new device, is to root it and remove as much bloatware and all the google stuff I can without breaking it. Plus I like to stop as much of the telemetry as I possibly can.
I really appreciate the fact that the oneplus has a much lower price and yet is still powerful. Yes the long wait is over
I can't wait to get my very own flagship killer!

bought my 6t one month ago to replace a pixel 3 xl. i do not regret it one bit. the 6t just feels better in the hand to me. popped the sim out of the pixel and into the 6t and instant working except for MMS and i got on the verizon website and did the chat (couldn't find the link myself for CDMA-less texting) and it worked within minutes. zero issues so far. (sorry for the run-on sentence)