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Is there such a thing as a pocket size Android device that is not a phone - but has all the other features of a smartphone ?
In other words, a wifi-only Droid/Evo/Thunder/HD2 ?
I was struck by what someone said about the Nook Color, that they did not need the camera or the microphone, because their pocket phone has those things. I do not have a smartphone, because I do not want a big monthly data bill.
But I could use something that could scan UPC codes (or QR codes), take quick photos, and could do voice activated tasks that do not need the nice large screen of the Nook.
Thanks !
ADude said:
Is there such a thing as a pocket size Android device that is not a phone - but has all the other features of a smartphone ?
In other words, a wifi-only Droid/Evo/Thunder/HD2 ?
I was struck by what someone said about the Nook Color, that they did not need the camera or the microphone, because their pocket phone has those things. I do not have a smartphone, because I do not want a big monthly data bill.
But I could use something that could scan UPC codes (or QR codes), take quick photos, and could do voice activated tasks that do not need the nice large screen of the Nook.
Thanks !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe someone else can back me (or correct me) up on this as I'm just taking an educated guess here, but any deactivated phone would do this. If you're only looking for a wifi version, that is. You might wanna look into it more, but picking up an old Droid (probably pretty cheap) would work. You would have access to the market via wifi and all that.
yep get used droid, you can use its camera, gps, download textfree/pinger and get text messaging
JLCollier2005 said:
Maybe someone else can back me (or correct me) up on this as I'm just taking an educated guess here, but any deactivated phone would do this. If you're only looking for a wifi version, that is. You might wanna look into it more, but picking up an old Droid (probably pretty cheap) would work. You would have access to the market via wifi and all that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ADude said:
Is there such a thing as a pocket size Android device that is not a phone - but has all the other features of a smartphone ?
In other words, a wifi-only Droid/Evo/Thunder/HD2 ?
I was struck by what someone said about the Nook Color, that they did not need the camera or the microphone, because their pocket phone has those things. I do not have a smartphone, because I do not want a big monthly data bill.
But I could use something that could scan UPC codes (or QR codes), take quick photos, and could do voice activated tasks that do not need the nice large screen of the Nook.
Thanks !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want something radical try, www alwaysinnovating.com/products/minibook.htm
There is also the samsung galaxy pmps, www linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Samsung-Galaxy-Player-4-and-5/
Also look at Archos, but their smaller units tend to be resistive touch screens so check the descriptions well.
And finally a google search for 'android pmp camera' should turn up a couple hits.
-Zhin
Check out the archos 43 here
http://www.amazon.com/Archos-43-Internet-Tablet-Black/dp/B0042RRTOC
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App
Cowon D3
ADude said:
I do not have a smartphone, because I do not want a big monthly data bill.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is my thinking on the matter, too and is the reason why I still use a cheap Chinese Windows Mobile 2G clone phone through T-mobile. However, I've noticed that Phone companies are starting to roll out small data plans for about $10.00 a month. That might be enough to get me to finally buy a smart phone, given that I'd mostly use WiFi for data.
Once tethering plans become affordable I'll probably go with that, but I'm talking $15.00 a month on top for data & tethering, and who knows when (or if) prices will ever reach that level (especially with AT&T swallowing up T-Mobile... yaaay, go duopoly!)
Samsung is making one galaxy player I think its going to be called
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Arbelzapf said:
Cowon D3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Too bad reviews say it is terrible
I would say simply wait for the Samsung Galaxy Player to actually be released, hopefully this spring.
JLCollier2005 said:
Maybe someone else can back me (or correct me) up on this as I'm just taking an educated guess here, but any deactivated phone would do this. If you're only looking for a wifi version, that is. You might wanna look into it more, but picking up an old Droid (probably pretty cheap) would work. You would have access to the market via wifi and all that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am now looking into this, there are lots of Droids on ebay.
I assume that "BAD ESN" only matters if you are going to use it as a cell phone, and for Wifi use, it would not matter ?
Also, I noticed in the completed listings that some with cracked screens sold for just as much as ones without flaws. Why is this ? Is there some easy way to get the screen fixed ? (Just curious on this one.)
Apologies if this has been addressed but I have been trying on and off to get this going all week now with no luck.
A friend sold me a "dead" AT&T Galaxy Tab for a good price that he got from someone at work who tried to flash it to make voice calls.
The Tab starts up with the Samsung GT splash and plays a little melody but shows no video at all. All I can get it to do is show the phone--yellow triangle + exclamation point--PC screen. It will power off if the power button is held down.
I assume it's the victim of a bad flash but I don't know if it's truly bricked or not--I am new to Samsung ROMs and GSM devices in general.
Perusing the forums here revealed Roto's stock AT&T firmware as well as the links to Odin 1.7 and Heimdall 1.1.1. I assume I need to do a full reflash of this thing but I didn't want to get too adventurous out of fear of making the problem worse than it is already so I haven't tried to flas anything yet. I fiddled around and got the proper drivers installed from Samsung and Odin shows the yellow box on the far left.
I am fine with getting this thing back working on AT&T stock firmware for now. I will then play with it and if I like it, I'll look at getting more adventurous with ROMs on it like Overcome or CM7.
Many thanks!!!
It can be recovered.
Get Odin from samfirmware.com, find the p1_hidden.pit (its in the forums somewhere) and download a Roto rom and flash them
That should bring the life back into your tab.
Sent from inside a whale.
This happened with me as well. For some reason odin was failing, only took me 30min to turn the tab off and on for it to work with odin
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
Well, after a bit of fiddling with the Tab and Odin, I am glad to say I got this sucker re-flashed. Whew! Time to start playing with it.
Quite impressive little device, I must say, especially for what I paid for it. MANY thanks to Ganj for the quick advice.
One more quick question:
I'm not an AT&T user and this thing didn't come with a SIM card. Can I just buy a regular AT&T 3G SIM from E-Bay (for a buck or whatever) or does this one require a specific prepaid and/or data-only AT&T SIM? Can I just activate a regular AT&T SIM under a prepaid plan on AT&T's web site?
I will use it on wi-fi 99.9% of the time and have no interest in using the Tab for Texting or voice regardless of ROM, but it would be nice to have 3G data "just in case" while traveling. Thanks again!
hkklife said:
Well, after a bit of fiddling with the Tab and Odin, I am glad to say I got this sucker re-flashed. Whew! Time to start playing with it.
Quite impressive little device, I must say, especially for what I paid for it. MANY thanks to Ganj for the quick advice.
One more quick question:
I'm not an AT&T user and this thing didn't come with a SIM card. Can I just buy a regular AT&T 3G SIM from E-Bay (for a buck or whatever) or does this one require a specific prepaid and/or data-only AT&T SIM? Can I just activate a regular AT&T SIM under a prepaid plan on AT&T's web site?
I will use it on wi-fi 99.9% of the time and have no interest in using the Tab for Texting or voice regardless of ROM, but it would be nice to have 3G data "just in case" while traveling. Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use t-mobile, so I can't speak 100% on the AT&T topic, but yes, all you would need to do is take it to AT&T, or the website, and activate a data plan for it.
Good buy, and even better buy now that you got it working. Good stuff, great to hear stories like this.
Just because I'm curious, what did you pay for it?
Yup, thanks again to everyone for helping me figure this one out.
I was originally planning on waiting for something like the HTC Flyer or a 7 "next-gen" tablet running Honeycomb but when this offer came along I just could not pass it up, as the asking price was just $250 "as is" and the unit is in mint condition cosmetically and included the charger and USB cable. I popped in one of my spare microSD cards and after getting this thing reflashed, I am all set!
I love the Galaxy Tab's formfactor, even more so than my Nook Color (which is now gonna go up for sale soon), so I figured I'd take a chance on a supposedly bricked device. And I'm glad I took that chance, as it let me "graduate" to a GT from the NC.
just a warning: there have been reports of non tab sims (ie users putting the sim from their galaxy s into the tab) being forced to pay for the data they use on the tab. how do they know? roumers say IMEI
brilldoctor said:
just a warning: there have been reports of non tab sims (ie users putting the sim from their galaxy s into the tab) being forced to pay for the data they use on the tab. how do they know? roumers say IMEI
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
T-mobile just prevents data usage if the IMEI doesn't match the data plan. Not sure about at&t, but seems doubtful... Now if your APN isn't right you can encounter extra fees...
Sent from my "better than an iPad" tab.
Saw one of these units for sale. The seller said that the service center told him that the board needed replacement. Is this true or can it just simply be reflashed using the instructions above? Thanks.
it very well may..
you'd have to see if it at least turned on, in any mode. water damage could cause board damage for instance.
It may be a locked bootloader and your friend tried to flash it.
Look at my other posts, I hax to have tje maonboard replaced!! Fortunately the service centre changed it under warranty
Good luck!
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
k3nnynapalm said:
it very well may..
you'd have to see if it at least turned on, in any mode. water damage could cause board damage for instance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The pictures show that it's turned on. It just has the PC to Triangle with an exclamation point to a Phone display. So it's promising right?
Hey guys. I come in peace from the land of the optimus v. My friend who works at a movie theatre found what looks like a galaxy s in the parking lot. He has a captivate on at&t, and the galaxy s is on the Verizon network, so he is giving it to me. Obviously I can't use it on my carrier (virgin mobile) but I was wondering if I could tether the galaxy s to my optimus v, and then use that wifi as a means to send messages and place calls. I know it sounds kind of far fetched but is it possible? Before you get into the legality of the situation, the galaxy has been kept in the lost and found for 28 days now, company policy is that anything lost for 30 days can be given to employees. Also, if I only use wifi, Verizon can't track where the phone is, can they? I'd appreciate an answer, love this community.
Sent from my LG Optimus V running Sense 3.0
Well, speaking of the legality of the situation.
Concerning the device, I think it's legal to keep it. However, concerning the SIM card, it's another story, and it may well be illegal.
Verizon can track the phone ONLY if you connect it to a 2G/3G network, it's the only way they could detect your ESSID. The risk is that they could block it from connecting to cell networks, if the previous owner has declared this ESSID as stolen to Verizon. The probability of this is very low, because virtually no one makes the effort of writing down their ESSID, and those who do don't even bother to report it...
About your wi-fi tethering question. I would understand if you'd like to use it as a wi-fi only internet device, but I'm wondering why you would want to send messages and place calls by using this phone... You could do it on your phone, couldn't you?
Now, about the ethics of it.
You must be aware that by keeping it, you willfully deprive the previous owner from his device, data, SMSes, photos, etc...
You could bring it back to a Verizon shop, or check the cell phone number that should be printed on the SIM card (at least, in France, it's the case) and make a call to it.
I'm not gonna lecture you on that, or tell you what you should do. It's your call (pun not intended)
gerbetta33 said:
Hey guys. I come in peace from the land of the optimus v. My friend who works at a movie theatre found what looks like a galaxy s in the parking lot. He has a captivate on at&t, and the galaxy s is on the Verizon network, so he is giving it to me. Obviously I can't use it on my carrier (virgin mobile) but I was wondering if I could tether the galaxy s to my optimus v, and then use that wifi as a means to send messages and place calls. I know it sounds kind of far fetched but is it possible? Before you get into the legality of the situation, the galaxy has been kept in the lost and found for 28 days now, company policy is that anything lost for 30 days can be given to employees. Also, if I only use wifi, Verizon can't track where the phone is, can they? I'd appreciate an answer, love this community.
Sent from my LG Optimus V running Sense 3.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant "IMEI" and not "ESSID", obviously.
some people are so careless, and care free. I would be in a blind state of panic if i lost my £400 galaxy s, I would re trace my steps and search for it. Then i would cry for help from my carrier to locate it (if mylookout struggled to locate it)
Some people lose phones and think "arr what the hell, i'll just get a new one"
People like that dont deserve such nice expensive phones.
True that some people don't care, but most people don't even know about IMEI blocking and anti-theft apps... I thinks it's a little easy to conclude that as they don't care, we deserve it more than them, and we're entitled to keep it.
That said, I clearly won't pity those clueless people who don't change their '1234' default PIN, don't password-protect their devices, or won't move their ass to try to get back their (pricey) phone. Especially if they could have gone to the lost&found office - they've had their chance. During a month.
As I've said, I was not lecturing anyone, if you find something it becomes yours after some delay, anyway. I was just saying that the cell phone could have been returned to its owner with really little effort. That's just one's choice, and I won't criticize him if he keeps it.
In all fairness, I'd hand it back bud, you'd expect someone to do the same and being a good Samaritan could earn you kudos and tbh the galaxy s is roughly just over a year old, you can pick one up brand new for 150 nicker
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App
Closing this for obvious reason. Hope the OP will do the right thing.
I need a new phone with a physical keyboard. Was looking at the Droid4, which appears to have the best physical keyboard around, but am a bit of a newb at this stuff. My old HTC Dream (G1) is dying, and I need to figure this out sooner then later. Haha
Can it be unlocked to work on Rogers Wireless in Canada?
As of right now, no.
Dave Lister said:
As of right now, no.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thnx. Is it a case of no unlock? Or (lack of knowledge here) no GSM support?
Also, once an android device is rooted, is there an unlock app of some kind? Or?
demungtoe said:
Thnx. Is it a case of no unlock? Or (lack of knowledge here) no GSM support?
Also, once an android device is rooted, is there an unlock app of some kind? Or?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Currently GSM support is disabled in the firmware and AFAIK it will stay that way until Verizon releases an update to enable it.
Was a bit disappointing they do not have the global services available on the Droid 4. If your looking for a device with keyboard right now you may be able to pick up a used Droid 2 Global. I know those work up there as I had one when I was in Canada last year.
All I can say is, damn. I can't believe how messed up the mobile phone industry is. There is a device, I want to use it, so much so that I'm willing to pay the crazy $549.99 pricetag for it. However, they've decided that I'm not allowed to use it on my network. I hope chinese clones step up their game! Heh.
I was contemplating a droid3, however don't want to spend too much since I may want the droid4 once its actually usable.
I was contemplating picking up a motorola flipout for the meantime, cheap and weird looking!
Also, this probably isn't the right place for a question about this, but I'm at a loss as to what the heck unlock codes actually are (are they issued by the carrier? or hardware manufacturer?) and why there are numerous scammy websites selling them. Can anyone recommend a site I can do some reading about this on? About why I'll probably have to pay for one? I may need to know this if I pickup a different used phone.
The SIM Unlock codes are usually given by the carrier to their paid customers. Verizon will give them out if you have had an account in good standing for 6 months if I recall right.
As for sites to get the unlock codes, I cannot make any recommendations due to I have never paid for them. I have however seen on sites like deals extreme unlocker SIMs that go between the phone and the SIM but have no idea if or how well those work.
Also if you buy a used device you may be able to get one that has been SIM unlocked already. The SIM unlock is a one time task, even if the phone gets wiped or reset it will remain SIM unlocked.
I still keep my G1 as a spare. My next step from that was a TouchPro2 - it comes with WindowsMobile, but I'm running XDAndroid on it. It has an excellent keyboard. I think I still like the TP2 keyboard better than my D4's keyboard.
But, the TP2 has the exact same processor as the G1, and only a tiny bit more RAM. It has a much higher screen rez (800x480) but no faster hardware, so it is noticeably slow.
If I were you I'd look at picking up a used Droid3. I was considering the D3 as my next phone from the TP2, but waited instead for the D4 to come out. As it is, I'm finding that Verizon's 4G service is cutting out all the time on me, so it's still better as a 3G phone. And I'm heading off to Europe in a couple weeks, and will have to bring my G1 or my TP2 on the trip anyway.
Curses to Qualcomm, Motorola, and Verizon. Verizon for their stupid policies and selling a phone with full-featured hardware and intentionally crippled software. Motorola for their locked firmware that prevents end-users, who have legitimately paid for and *own* the damn hardware, from installing software on it as they see fit. Qualcomm for preventing end-users (again, who have legitimately paid for and *own* the hardware) from even seeing the specifications so that they can provide their own software.
demungtoe said:
All I can say is, damn. I can't believe how messed up the mobile phone industry is. There is a device, I want to use it, so much so that I'm willing to pay the crazy $549.99 pricetag for it. However, they've decided that I'm not allowed to use it on my network. I hope chinese clones step up their game! Heh.
I was contemplating a droid3, however don't want to spend too much since I may want the droid4 once its actually usable.
I was contemplating picking up a motorola flipout for the meantime, cheap and weird looking!
Also, this probably isn't the right place for a question about this, but I'm at a loss as to what the heck unlock codes actually are (are they issued by the carrier? or hardware manufacturer?) and why there are numerous scammy websites selling them. Can anyone recommend a site I can do some reading about this on? About why I'll probably have to pay for one? I may need to know this if I pickup a different used phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bell sells the Motorola XT860, I'm currently using it unlocked on Rogers without a hitch. The only issue, I'm not sure if this phone will get official ICS support... The devs are hacking away at getting all of the cool ICS features up and running though
You can probably find an XT860 on Kijiji, Craigslist or even eBay for a lot cheaper than the full Bell price... heck they were giving them away on 3 year contracts during xmas. You might want to check out the Droid3 forums in the meantime to get some more info on XT860
Fwiw, i'm in Ireland now and popped an Irish SIM into the phone. Interestingly enough, you can swap the SIM while the phone is powered on, in Airplane mode. It still didn't work, but the phone didn't complain about any SIM lock. But when I rebooted the phone, it complained then.
There are properties in /system/build.prop for enabling world-mode. I turned these on, but looking at the radio logcat, it seems that our current libril-xxx.so just doesn't support any GSM commands.
The interesting thing is that the Motorola Atrix has the same Qualcomm MDM6600 radio modem as this phone. I'm going to look for an Atrix ROM and see if I can kang some libril files from there to see if I can get any further. (Btw, I wrote the multimode RIL for the XDAndroid ROM; this sort of investigation is my specialty...)
Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk
I hope they hurry with this. I want this phone now. Its ridiculous that users outside USA cannot use this phone.
Bump, any development?
HerrDarkShadow said:
Bump, any development?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look at the thread titled "Droid 4 for Hong Konger" in this forum for instructions on how to unlock GSM capability. This only came about a few days ago.
Dave Lister said:
Look at the thread titled "Droid 4 for Hong Konger" in this forum for instructions on how to unlock GSM capability. This only came about a few days ago.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And it's still not stable from what I've read...
This phone is too early to jump into for me. I'll stick to my 4G Slide for now and check back on this device in a few months. Maybe development will pick up by then and they'll have the GSM thing sorted out
Bumping this again. Any news?
I'm in the same situation as OP. Need to upgrade phone (from a Desire Z) and want something with physical keyboard. Droid 4 seems like the best bet.
eksobr said:
Bumping this again. Any news?
I'm in the same situation as OP. Need to upgrade phone (from a Desire Z) and want something with physical keyboard. Droid 4 seems like the best bet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone worked fine for me on Rogers when I had it. I did a bunch of tweaking in order to get all of the functions working, but this was back in ICS. Also, no LTE is available...
But you're much better off going full touchscreen, just get used to it... I think keyboard phones are going the way of the dinosaur
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
eksobr said:
Bumping this again. Any news?
I'm in the same situation as OP. Need to upgrade phone (from a Desire Z) and want something with physical keyboard. Droid 4 seems like the best bet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
danifunker said:
The phone worked fine for me on Rogers when I had it. I did a bunch of tweaking in order to get all of the functions working, but this was back in ICS. Also, no LTE is available...
But you're much better off going full touchscreen, just get used to it... I think keyboard phones are going the way of the dinosaur
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK guys this is perfect timing.. and i dont have much support for th eextra tweaking issues we have in Canada, with some of these phones and roms..
Anyhow. Heres my story.. You will like the ending!!
Ive owned a Droid 3 (XT860-BELLMOBILITY) for over a year now.. I came from the original Milestone 1 from Telus Mobililty.
4 weeks ago I had my Droid 3 stolen from me in the laundry room of my condo.. Well it was more.. forgotten by me (i think it was lost there.. for sure!!) and some lucky sole got their hands on it.. I can now use google and its cached pages of kijiji to see that it wass posted the day of.. lol ive got the kid selling other goods so its only a matter of time before i force karma upon him
I took a risk, but being desperate QWERTYDROID junkies like we are, and bought an American Verizon Droid 3 (XT862)
--Keep in mind that i knew nothing about unlocking, rooting, restoring, and doing the whole ROM/Bootstrap/TWRP/SAFEBOOT etc.. Im 35, been into pc's since i was 15, but never into MAC or LINUX.
At this point ive bricked these phones and the next one i speak about dozens of times, while attempting to do the practice makes perfect sort of journey to see what works, what doesnt, what sometimes does, etc.. Its always ended up being able to use the original stock rom's with no problems. (sometimes bloatwear was anoying) but not much support for our radios and etc.
So i had a bit of trouble getting this verizon droid 3 up and running as verizon themselves gives us extra work by trying to secure the load up of the activation process. Either way.. it worked, and still does, and ive gotten a few roms working on it like all SteelDroid, CM10.1, MiniMoto, and possibly a couple others. but these were the ones that can and will work, with a bit of trial and error.
shoot gotta run for a few minutes. so i wanna post this so i dont lose it all.
PART 2 of this story to follow within an hour!! But ill give you a bit of a spoiler.
I am using a Droid 4 now.. as a poster said justr before me, he had many issues to get past, well so did I, but them came the huge hurdles to get over also..
Still have my droid 3 xt862 that was wanting to sell. though,, im still not for certain ready to part with it..
be back shortly sorry about this..
next part in next post
What happened????
Sent from my Galaxy S Relay
eksobr said:
Bumping this again. Any news?
I'm in the same situation as OP. Need to upgrade phone (from a Desire Z) and want something with physical keyboard. Droid 4 seems like the best bet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I'm aware, there shouldn't be any problem getting this to run on a GSM network outside the United States. If the phone is on ICS or JB the GSM is unlocked already. If you use any of the ROM's, there's a thread in the "Droid 4 Android Development" called "Enable GSM on any ROM Patch" which should fully enable it.
Sent from my XT894 using xda app-developers app
demungtoe said:
I need a new phone with a physical keyboard. Was looking at the Droid4, which appears to have the best physical keyboard around, but am a bit of a newb at this stuff. My old HTC Dream (G1) is dying, and I need to figure this out sooner then later. Haha
Can it be unlocked to work on Rogers Wireless in Canada?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a Droid4, updated with android 4.1, and I can confirm you that it works with Rogers
Hi folks, I'm looking at getting a Simple Mobile brand Moto G6 (specs line up with the ALI version, not the Play or Plus) through Best Buy for my wife since it is quite a bit cheaper than the normal price ($130 right now), and I'm expecting it to be preloaded with Simple Mobile's crapware which is part of why I'm looking at firmware for replacement.
It doesn't say what the exact model of the Simple Mobile phone is, but it's labeled "SMMTXT1925DG3P5P" and since it is being marketed in the USA, I would assume that it's the XT-1925-6. I could be wrong about that.
After speaking with a Best Buy rep at the store, it seems that the SIMple Mobile version of phones are locked to their service for the first 6 months, after which they give you a code to unlock the phone to be used as normal (quite the annoyance).
This leads me to a few questions:
Is the G6 ALI firmware listed here on XDA the unlocked version of the firmware?
I don't see any explicit version list that the 'stock' firmware is for. Does it work with the XT-1925-6?
If so, would using that firmware be the correct course of action for replacing the Simple Mobile brand firmware, or would there be a better solution?
Any input is appreciated.
Just FYI, I have experience with other (older, circa 2012 - 2015) android phones and devices rooting and flashing replacement ROMs, so not a complete novice at this kind of thing but out of the loop for a while.
Also - I had posted this a few days ago in the firmware thread, but lacking any response I thought this might be a better place to ask about it.
Best buy deal:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/simple-...?skuId=6288014
Previous post:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/sho...&postcount=185
Forum admins: Please remove my previous post "SIMple Mobile Moto G6 [ALI] questions", as the title was not descriptive of what I'm trying to do and I didn't see any way to delete it myself.
BA20020 said:
Hi folks, I'm looking at getting a Simple Mobile brand Moto G6 (specs line up with the ALI version, not the Play or Plus) through Best Buy for my wife since it is quite a bit cheaper than the normal price ($130 right now), and I'm expecting it to be preloaded with Simple Mobile's crapware which is part of why I'm looking at firmware for replacement.
It doesn't say what the exact model of the Simple Mobile phone is, but it's labeled "SMMTXT1925DG3P5P" and since it is being marketed in the USA, I would assume that it's the XT-1925-6. I could be wrong about that.
After speaking with a Best Buy rep at the store, it seems that the SIMple Mobile version of phones are locked to their service for the first 6 months, after which they give you a code to unlock the phone to be used as normal (quite the annoyance).
This leads me to a few questions:
Is the G6 ALI firmware listed here on XDA the unlocked version of the firmware?
I don't see any explicit version list that the 'stock' firmware is for. Does it work with the XT-1925-6?
If so, would using that firmware be the correct course of action for replacing the Simple Mobile brand firmware, or would there be a better solution?
Any input is appreciated.
Just FYI, I have experience with other (older, circa 2012 - 2015) android phones and devices rooting and flashing replacement ROMs, so not a complete novice at this kind of thing but out of the loop for a while.
Also - I had posted this a few days ago in the firmware thread, but lacking any response I thought this might be a better place to ask about it.
Best buy deal:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/simple-...?skuId=6288014
Previous post:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/sho...&postcount=185
Forum admins: Please remove my previous post "SIMple Mobile Moto G6 [ALI] questions", as the title was not descriptive of what I'm trying to do and I didn't see any way to delete it myself.
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1.to be brutally honest with you Don't come on here thinking because you have rooted a few phones from 3-5 years ago you get what's going on. Root methods have changed since then especially for these phones the root for any g6 model is a little Advanced and there alot of junior members come on here thinking because they rooted a phone once they don't have to read anything in the guide then they wind up bricking there phone. 2. As long as it can be bootloader unlocked you should be able to flash the firmware for your device as long as you can 100% confirm it is the ali device but also if your flashing a firmware not made specifically for your phone you run into the risk of bugs and possible bootloop. 3. There different variants of the xt1925 some are like xt1925-1 or the Verizon model is xt1925-12 the tracphone version however is just plain xt1925. 4. Your best bet is either buying the g6 unlocked or wait 6 months to have it sim unlocked tbh
ninjakira said:
1.to be brutally honest with you Don't come on here thinking because you have rooted a few phones from 3-5 years ago you get what's going on. Root methods have changed since then especially for these phones the root for any g6 model is a little Advanced and there alot of junior members come on here thinking because they rooted a phone once they don't have to read anything in the guide then they wind up bricking there phone. 2. As long as it can be bootloader unlocked you should be able to flash the firmware for your device as long as you can 100% confirm it is the ali device but also if your flashing a firmware not made specifically for your phone you run into the risk of bugs and possible bootloop. 3. There different variants of the xt1925 some are like xt1925-1 or the Verizon model is xt1925-12 the tracphone version however is just plain xt1925. 4. Your best bet is either buying the g6 unlocked or wait 6 months to have it sim unlocked tbh
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Thank you for the words of caution. I am extremely careful when it comes to modding my devices, and there have been a couple times when I decided against it for no other reason than I couldn't get thorough enough information and details about what I would be trying to do.
I will be purchasing this G6, I will check what model it is when I get it, and I will consider just keeping it on the Simple Mobile plan for 6 months if I think there's any likelihood of having issues with the replacement firmware. I've also been reading a bit about issues that people have been having with modding the bootloader just to get TWRP installed or bricking their phones, so I'm getting the picture that these aren't the easiest to work with. I will continue reading and try to be as prepared as possible if and when I decide to start in on the G6.
They aren't the hardest device to mod. @ninjakira has a great guide but I forget if it is for the G6 or 6 Play. Since he didn't reference it, I'm assuming it's for the G6 Play. When you get the device, feel free to post back for help on deciphering whether or not the device is truly an Ali. I suspect it is, but you will be helping out the community so that we can help future members that might get the SimpleMobile variant.
Now on to Simple Mobile, I hate tracphone with a passion. More so Simple Mobile then all the others. I will say I used Straight Talk for many years without any major problems. SimpleMobile was a nightmare. They lied to me multiple times about issuing a refund. They blocked the device, initially, from being used on another Tracphone service, and it wasn't even due to the 6 Month policy. I don't know their exact policy but the 6-month rule was never even brought up. Eventually, I had to go through Tracphone Corporate to get my refund. I also had issues with reception, but maybe it was device related. I didn't use the device long. It was a cheap ZTE prepaid just to get me by until I had the funds for a proper upgrade. I will never ever use Simple Mobile in anyway shape or form. The only reason I used them was because of the prepaid devices I looked at, it had the best specs.
Side note: Your links don't work. I guess you copy and paste the links from somewhere other than your address bar. Wherever you copied the links from, they were truncated (the ...) already. So you pasted the truncate url instead of the full url.
My guide is more or less a cleaned up and somewhat simplied one for the Moto g6 play, but from what I've read from the regular g6 thread it was similar to how we needed a patched boot.img and fstab file to turn off for encryption and dm verity but since magisk 16.7 all that's needed anymore is a patched twrp and then installing magisk which patches the boot.img and everything else needed to turn off force encryption and dm verity. As long as you take the time to fully read the guides you should be successful in achieving root on any of the Moto g6 variants though. Android 8 really is the game changer on all this and partly the reason it's harder to get custom roms going though because of all the new security updates. So once the devs become more well acquainted with Android 8 as well as gsi ( generic system images) and a/b partitions we should see a general improvement on custom rom development for all phones including ours like we have seen with Android 7 and below.
Xplorer4x4 said:
Now on to Simple Mobile, I hate tracphone with a passion. More so Simple Mobile then all the others. I will say I used Straight Talk for many years without any major problems. SimpleMobile was a nightmare. They lied to me multiple times about issuing a refund. They blocked the device, initially, from being used on another Tracphone service, and it wasn't even due to the 6 Month policy. I don't know their exact policy but the 6-month rule was never even brought up. Eventually, I had to go through Tracphone Corporate to get my refund. I also had issues with reception, but maybe it was device related. I didn't use the device long. It was a cheap ZTE prepaid just to get me by until I had the funds for a proper upgrade. I will never ever use Simple Mobile in anyway shape or form. The only reason I used them was because of the prepaid devices I looked at, it had the best specs.
Side note: Your links don't work. I guess you copy and paste the links from somewhere other than your address bar. Wherever you copied the links from, they were truncated (the ...) already. So you pasted the truncate url instead of the full url.
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Thank you for the warning about Simple Mobile. I will avoid them if at all possible, but first I would like to see what I can do with this phone when it arrives.
As for the links, I had copied and pasted a large portion of the original post to this one, and looks like it messed up the links. Let me try that again:
Best Buy - Simple Mobile - Moto G6 (not play or plus) Blue - 3GB RAM / 32GB Storage, new for $130:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/simple-mobile-moto-g6-blue/6288014.p?skuId=6288014
And for my other post that I linked to, it appears to have been deleted as this discussion superseded it.
I have received the phone, and it appears to be a XT-1925DL. This obviously complicates things.
This website seems to equate the 'DL' version to XT-1925-10 and gives an outline for getting TWRP setup on it:
http://androidbiits.com/root-motorola-moto-g6-xt1925-10-xt1925dl-blaine-easily/
Most of the stuff I'm seeing here on XDA is for 1925's 2 - 6.
Advice?
What did you end up doing with the phone? Did you get it unlocked?
DL is bootloader locked, for TracFone, Straight Talk, and other postpaid services