Difference demo phone vs retail version? Will it ever do OTA? - Essential Phone Questions & Answers

I bought a demo Essential Phone off ebay; works pretty good, and I really like the build quality.
In regard to the OTA updates; if I manually upgrade it to a newer version, do the demo models ever use OTA or do you always have to update them manually no matter what?
Any other differences between the demo and the retail model?

cannabiscure said:
I bought a demo Essential Phone off ebay; works pretty good, and I really like the build quality.
In regard to the OTA updates; if I manually upgrade it to a newer version, do the demo models ever use OTA or do you always have to update them manually no matter what?
Any other differences between the demo and the retail model?
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Think there was an older thread asking the same.

Demo ones get OTAs.

Related

US or UK version Zoom should I buy

After much deliberation I decided to get a Xoom. I am located in UK but undecided as to get the UK version or US version. Read on the web that the the US version version is better supported & updates are quicker.
Are they any significant hardware differences between the two versions?
zen123 said:
After much deliberation I decided to get a Xoom. I am located in UK but undecided as to get the UK version or US version. Read on the web that the the US version version is better supported & updates are quicker.
Are they any significant hardware differences between the two versions?
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Click to collapse
Are you getting the wifi-only version? then no hardware difference and you can set locale.
If 3G version, there are some differences but I think there may be workarounds.
UK wifi you can flash the US images anyway pretty easier and basically have a US xoom
I bought a brand new UK Xoom from Costco for only £287.98 inc vat. Has 90 day return policy & 2yr warranty. Time to start playing.
at least uk should have 3.1 now...?
not too far behind

Polish PLUS model new update

For those of you who, like myself, have the polish PLUS model of the note and have been frustrated at the lack of updates compared to all the other regions.
Just found a new update OTA, its 105mb.
will let you guys know which update it is when my update is finished in a few minutes.
eh?
whats Polish PLUS?
is PLUS the telco?
lc2 for europe ? or lc1 ?
senectus said:
eh?
whats Polish PLUS?
is PLUS the telco?
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Click to collapse
yeah, some of the first batch of notes sold online were the polish plus carrier locked model. i bought mine online here in australia and it ended up being the polish model, we've been slow to get updates. our last update was KKA.
just completed the update.
we are now on.
PDA - N7000XXLC1
Phone - N7000XXLB2
CSC - N7000PLSLB1
Baseband - N7000XXLB2
about time we got a beefy update. sucks that it isnt ICS though.
so its lc1 - polish plus released it few days ago
ahh yeah, I think I got lucky, my wife bought mine for me in November and I got the Debtel German model... so while I too am in Australia I've been getting pretty regular updates...
besides i get polish Orange carrier (non branded) Note and its still on kka officially ;p thanks god for odin
It's also sad what happened here a few weeks ago. Samsung spent a lot of money to promote the Galaxy Note, renaming the main subway station with "Sol Galaxy Note" and putting there people all day showing it. The problem is that they had only 3 units and all running KKA firmware. I pointed out that to the people there and they did not seem to even have an idea of what a ROM is.
If they want to show the device, load it with the best firmware available and up to date programs, not just the demo video.

Where to buy A2017U (US Model) with shipping to Europe?

Hi there.
I've decided to return my A2017G and get the A2017U model. I have already looked up online where I could order the US Model. But most of my favorite shops like BHPhoto don't send the Axon 7 to Europe. It says "Due to restrictions".
That's the first for me as I use BHPhoto for my Home Cinema and Photo equipment.
Does anyone know an good alternative?
I already checked gearbest but they only offer the International Model (A2017G).
Had the same problem. US official sellers of ZTE AXON 7 are zteusa.com, newegg, bestbuy and bhphoto. Bhphoto is excellent shop with top notch service and international shipping so I placed order end of July after American model launch. When I tried proceed to checkout I got pop up window saying "error has occurred". Asked customers service, they were very polite and it seemed that bhphoto ships international and they would send my phone but ZTE made international sale of Axon 7 forbidden and they couldn't omit this limitation. Was so pissed off :/ finally I bought on ebay but really overpaid (with custom fee 200 usd more). However I don't regret any penny spent at US version. In every aspect it's night and day compared to EU model.
I guess I will sell EU version and buy another US (wanted EU for warranty)
Wysłane z mojego ZTE A2017G
You need to use a shipment service that ships the device to you after receiving it. Something like Shipito.
The only issue are the taxes and the shipment cost.
I have a buddy living and working in NYC he offered me to buy and ship the phone to me. It's just sold out everywhere it seems.
I hope BHPhoto gets an restock soon.
celoxocis said:
I already checked gearbest but they only offer the International Model (A2017G).
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Click to collapse
Doesn't Gearbest have chinese version with multilingual ROM (A2017)?
nathasnajperowa said:
However I don't regret any penny spent at US version. In every aspect it's night and day compared to EU model.
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Click to collapse
Besides of lack of EU volume limit what are the advantages of A2017U?
For me the most important in phones hardware are screen (amoled 1440p is always my choice) and audio. For audio US version is much better for me cause besides clarity i like really smokin' volume. US version sound loud, crispy, clear and punchy, European is really quiet and dim.
And YES, for me audio power and volume is DEAL BREAKER, i listen to US version at max volume and that's the level I'm satisfied. I don't care about its healthy or not, I'm grown up and it's my preference to blow my ears with noise
Next reason software is completely different. American Axon 7 has ui with app drawer and my voice working (i always use this feature when taking a photo, extremely useful with long exposure you can't move the device to not destroy pic), my voice also open apps etc but most scenarios besides camera i use Google now.
Volte is active and ready to use.
Updates are better done and more frequent, i have September security patch with B27, with EU B03 it's July.
Camera performance, battery life i find also better with us version.
I don't care missing 800lte, cause i use my data without any problems. Watching. HD podcast, streaming extreme quality Spotify, etc with no lags and buffering.
Sent from my ZTE A2017U
ourplaceinthestars said:
Doesn't Gearbest have chinese version with multilingual ROM (A2017)?
Besides of lack of EU volume limit what are the advantages of A2017U?
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Click to collapse
Gearbest version is the A2017G. A friend of mine got it for 350€ with their sale coupon.
The other advantage would be VoLTE support as. The A2017G has no VoLTE in its firmware/baseband. The A2017U does.
Software support is far better and way ahead on the US version.
Also I order from Newegg you get 200$ headphones for free it the current pre-order.
celoxocis said:
Gearbest version is the A2017G. A friend of mine got it for 350â?¬ with their sale coupon.
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Click to collapse
That's too bad. Could your friend confirm if ROM that Gearbest Axon comes with, also has the same EU volume limits like the A2017G sold in Europe? It's pretty much the only thing that could drive me away from A2017G since I mostly care about quality of the headphone jack, speakers, screen and build quality in this phone.
ourplaceinthestars said:
That's too bad. Could your friend confirm if ROM that Gearbest Axon comes with, also has the same EU volume limits like the A2017G sold in Europe? It's pretty much the only thing that could drive me away from A2017G since I mostly care about quality of the headphone jack, speakers, screen and build quality in this phone.
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Click to collapse
Yes it's the same.
celoxocis said:
Yes it's the same.
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This is ridiculous, then. From what I've heard even australians are getting A2017G, so it seems so stupid that some bizarre EU restrictions would hinder audio experience for non-europeans too. Shame, ZTE, shame.
ourplaceinthestars said:
This is ridiculous, then. From what I've heard even australians are getting A2017G, so it seems so stupid that some bizarre EU restrictions would hinder audio experience for non-europeans too. Shame, ZTE, shame.
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Click to collapse
The audio limitations are probably a software limitation. Which hopefully will be undone by CM.
I doubt that they would implement a hardware limitation. That would have raised the bill of materials.
Where can I buy the G int. model?

Differences in the Model Numbers?

Hello,
I was looking to get one of these phones but because Amazon UK has ran out of Axon 7s I had to look else where. While I was looking I found Aliexpress, I have brought things off there before while looking for cheap keyboards so this is not my first time.
At first I thought there was just 2 types, the EU/US type which has the same ish hardware while the chinese one is different because it china only.
But after a few hours I have found that all 3 different model numbers have different LTE bands. This was not a problem as my network (UK EE), supported the bands.
BUT THEN... I found that some versions of the phones has on scree buttons while the other ones have capacitive buttons.
Can someone please just clear this up for me.
Which phone and which model number belongs to which region and what are the pros and cons of each of these?
Also, anyone found a way to install the US rom on the EU phone or the EU rom on the China phone? or any other combonation of these? I might want to install a custom rom in the future or get rid of the volume thing on the EU model.
There are 3 variants A2017 - China A2017G -Europe/Global and A2017U for the United States. I'm no expert but from what I've found in my research before buying the device is that essentially on a hardware level all 3 are almost similar. The China version i suppose has capacitive + onscreen . The EU version of the phone is of slight variance from the China version. US version has CDMA support.
The main differences are on a software level with ROMs that are different for each region. The most preferable is the US version with much better support from ZTE considering they are trying to pamper that market. I would suppose based on how things currently look, EU will be behind the pack till we get a bootloader unlock and that will usher in custom ROM dvelopment.
Note that the official ROMs cannot be interchanged among models mainly due to modems being different. Maybe once custom ROM's are made they might be, not the official ZTE ones. If you are in the UK, i'd recommend buying the version meant for UK/EU and don't get yourself into the hassle of a model meant for China unless you looking for the 6GB RAM/128GB version and know your way around rooting/flashing et al. Another factor you would want to consider is warranty. Aliexpress phones can be considered having none. I read somewhere that you get 3 years for the UK/EU one so why not wait for that
Hopefully someone corroborates or corrects whatever i stated above, whichever is necessary . I hope this helps!
bonk3rzzz said:
There are 3 variants A2017 - China A2017G -Europe/Global and A2017U for the United States. I'm no expert but from what I've found in my research before buying the device is that essentially on a hardware level all 3 are almost similar. The China version i suppose has capacitive + onscreen . The EU version of the phone is of slight variance from the China version. US version has CDMA support.
The main differences are on a software level with ROMs that are different for each region. The most preferable is the US version with much better support from ZTE considering they are trying to pamper that market. I would suppose based on how things currently look, EU will be behind the pack till we get a bootloader unlock and that will usher in custom ROM dvelopment.
Note that the official ROMs cannot be interchanged among models mainly due to modems being different. Maybe once custom ROM's are made they might be, not the official ZTE ones. If you are in the UK, i'd recommend buying the version meant for UK/EU and don't get yourself into the hassle of a model meant for China unless you looking for the 6GB RAM/128GB version and know your way around rooting/flashing et al. Another factor you would want to consider is warranty. Aliexpress phones can be considered having none. I read somewhere that you get 3 years for the UK/EU one so why not wait for that
Hopefully someone corroborates or corrects whatever i stated above, whichever is necessary . I hope this helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UK is meant to drop in Q4(like now...), I'll give it a few more weeks before buying one.
Also, does anyone here who is a dev know if 6gb/4gb and 64/128gb will change rom compatibility?
BlazingBullets said:
UK is meant to drop in Q4(like now...), I'll give it a few more weeks before buying one.
Also, does anyone here who is a dev know if 6gb/4gb and 64/128gb will change rom compatibility?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it won't.

Which model shall I buy?

I'm looking at buying a new phone. I already have the 6p and was interested in a Mate 8 as the price isn't bad at this time on Amazon.
Do I get the L29 or L09. I guess both are international so it shouldn't matter..I'm in Atlanta. I like to tinker as we all do here but my end goal is to update it to Nougat emui 5.
Just buy one they can be converted to each other easy with srk tools.
Perfect. I was looking the srk tools..looks similar to the nexus root toolkit. Also looks like the h/w is essentially the same..only difference is the dual sim thing which I could care less about. I get the model and firmware..is the middle number the region? NXT-l29xxxxB152
itbull said:
Perfect. I was looking the srk tools..looks similar to the nexus root toolkit. Also looks like the h/w is essentially the same..only difference is the dual sim thing which I could care less about. I get the model and firmware..is the middle number the region? NXT-l29xxxxB152
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I recommend C432 because usually is updated first, but region is switchable to so don't worry if you can't find that region variant
So new phone just arrived as a L29C185B200 and wanted me to upgrade to 5.0 right out of the box. I opted to run MM for a bit as I've read folks say battery is way better. Thoughts on upgrading?

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