Database Develop

Nexus 4 in UK - First mini test

Today, I had a chance to test for awhile new Nexus 4 phone. It was demo version in Carphone Warehouse.
I have been told, they selling only this phone with a contract, so I haven't asked more as we know Google is selling it with "no strings attached".
First impression was really good, nice phone, big enough but not so big, light weighted.
Screen is very responsive, considering it has still protective film on in. I had no chance to test WiFi as well as 3G connections, as this phone has no simcard. During the test once appears one white artefact on the bottom of the screen and suddenly disappear once I touched the screen.
I hope some of photos tell more than I wrote.
I would like to thank for people from Carephone Warehouse in Croydon, where I was able to test this phone.

Your test was all wrong, you are meant to come back and tell us every little fault with the phone and moan about how terrible a company Google are. Tell us to never ever get this phone and go on for 3 pages about the lack of LTE (even tho useless in UK) and micro SD card :laugh:

@roughavoc why shall I moan about this? I'm considering to buy this phone, but as we know it's not available right now. Yesterday, sale was started and finished immediately. Lack of LTE? That's true - but as Three network user, I will not need LTE for year or even longer.
There's no micrSD card... but it's microSIM... how wonderfull
Seriously, there's no reason to be disappointed, besides the first impression was really good - considering the price of this device.

He was being sarcastic

If a 'first mini test' means picking up a display handset in store, then god help us.

nasedo73 said:
@roughavoc why shall I moan about this? I'm considering to buy this phone, but as we know it's not available right now. Yesterday, sale was started and finished immediately. Lack of LTE? That's true - but as Three network user, I will not need LTE for year or even longer.
There's no micrSD card... but it's microSIM... how wonderfull
Seriously, there's no reason to be disappointed, besides the first impression was really good - considering the price of this device.
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WallnutBoy said:
He was being sarcastic
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[Q] Few Questions before buying an S3 Mini

I am strongly considering this phone based on its dev community and cheap price. I just have a few things that I need cleared up.
Does this phone need its bootloader to be unlocked to install roms with custom kernals and if so is there a possibility that I won't be able to unlock the bootloader, i.e, carrier lock.
I have noticed that there are 3 different models of this phone, as far as I can gather one model has NFC and the "L" is for a Latin model. Are roms (example CM11) compatible with all 3 models?
Thank you so much for your help!

Kevinjs said:
I am strongly considering this phone based on its dev community and cheap price. I just have a few things that I need cleared up.
Does this phone need its bootloader to be unlocked to install roms with custom kernals and if so is there a possibility that I won't be able to unlock the bootloader, i.e, carrier lock.
I have noticed that there are 3 different models of this phone, as far as I can gather one model has NFC and the "L" is for a Latin model. Are roms (example CM11) compatible with all 3 models?
Thank you so much for your help!
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Well, I really recommend you this phone if you like it. The bootloader doesn't need to be unlocked cause by default samsung kernels are unlocked, I think & yes, maclaw's rom works on all models.

mauam said:
Well, I really recommend you this phone if you like it. The bootloader doesn't need to be unlocked cause by default samsung kernels are unlocked, I think & yes, maclaw's rom works on all models.
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Thank you, I can see that one shop in my town sells the original model while another sells the NFC for 20 euro more. So I will try get the cheaper one but that shop never stocks phones over the 100 euro price mark so im guessing the NFC model will be mine

Kevinjs said:
Thank you, I can see that one shop in my town sells the original model while another sells the NFC for 20 euro more. So I will try get the cheaper one but that shop never stocks phones over the 100 euro price mark so im guessing the NFC model will be mine
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You will enjoy this phone for sure (with maclaw's cm11) BTW, my s3 mini cost me 300e:laugh:

mauam said:
You will enjoy this phone for sure (with maclaw's cm11) BTW, my s3 mini cost me 300e:laugh:
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Thats crazy, its 149 euro here on vodafone which I will be getting and 249 sim free.

Kevinjs said:
Thats crazy, its 149 euro here on vodafone which I will be getting and 249 sim free.
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Yeah, 300e but is sim free (unlocked)

mauam said:
Yeah, 300e but is sim free (unlocked)
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Bought it yesterday, within an hour I had it unlocked and running cm11. Really happy with this phone, thanks for the suggestions.

Kevinjs said:
Bought it yesterday, within an hour I had it unlocked and running cm11. Really happy with this phone, thanks for the suggestions.
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You're welcome bud. Happy new year!

Expect a very slow phone with ****ty display.

bebseh said:
Expect a very slow phone with ****ty display.
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these both are very relative and i don't agree to them myself.
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S III mini is a cheap smartphone, easy to install a custom ROM, can be used by one hand (no gigantic screen size): overall it's a good p/f phone. one major drawback is its battery capacity.

wtx1033 said:
these both are very relative and i don't agree to them myself.
----
S III mini is a cheap smartphone, easy to install a custom ROM, can be used by one hand (no gigantic screen size): overall it's a good p/f phone. one major drawback is its battery capacity.
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I really agree on this, well the battery isn't really a problem I think, unless you use your phone the whole day...

WARNING!!! Fake vs Real Note 4

Warning!! I just came across this at work when my co-worker asked me to set up his phone. I realized something was wrong when I saw the screen and size of this note 4. I decided to show it off for those who is considering picking up one from ebay or Craigslist. See the comparison from a real note 4 and see for yourself. There's no real difference w/ the software but the hardware might be a concern since the battery(charger) is not Original it might blow-up or melt. The fake one is really flaky and has weird vibration and I would not recommend using it at ALL!!

yes yes we know all about the fakes for months. they are pretty good and not going to blow up on you.
also they are a good deal at $160 incl shipping from china.

zurkx said:
yes yes we know all about the fakes for months. they are pretty good and not going to blow up on you.
also they are a good deal at $160 incl shipping from china.
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I wouldn't know how good is the phone if it's has random vibration from it...do you?

jaytee84 said:
I wouldn't know how good is the phone if it's has random vibration from it...do you?
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you dont get random vibrations from it. the clone is a normal HDC manufactured 3G stock android phone with a note 4 "skin". You can root it. i've bought both a clone (910Fake off dhgate) and real (910U off ebay). they are both good.
Your clone is defective if it gives you random vibrations. Get it exchanged or replace it.

zurkx said:
you dont get random vibrations from it. the clone is a normal HDC manufactured 3G stock android phone with a note 4 "skin". You can root it. i've bought both a clone (910Fake off dhgate) and real (910U off ebay). they are both good.
Your clone is defective if it gives you random vibrations. Get it exchanged or replace it.
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Unfortunately, some people aren't good at this and buy from Craiglist or somewhere with a no return policy so this helps them out to figure from the fakes. BTW, like I stated it's my co-worker not mines. I told him already it's fake.

jaytee84 said:
Unfortunately, some people aren't good at this and buy from Craiglist or somewhere with a no return policy so this helps them out to figure from the fakes. BTW, like I stated it's my co-worker not mines. I told him already it's fake.
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well it doesnt matter who owns the phone. if its not working properly recommend you reflash it.
http://www.needrom.com/download/hdc-galaxy-note-4/
at least if its a software problem it can be corrected.

That's hard when the recovery doesn't work...haha

jaytee84 said:
That's hard when the recovery doesn't work...haha
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what do you mean haha ? you can flash it with the MTK tools. recovery does work with the fake note 4, the code is just different.

zurkx said:
what do you mean haha ? you can flash it with the MTK tools. recovery does work with the fake note 4, the code is just different.
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I gave it back and said I can't touch this device because I don't want to be liable if anything happen. If it was mine sh*t I would do it but it's not.

Mod Edit
Fake thread is already here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/general/beware-fake-galaxy-note-4-t2969304
Thread closed
malybru
Forum Moderator

Help me choose a note 4 deal!

Ok my 2 options are
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samsung-G...%3Aaadc43d715b0a9c9732abbe7ffffe9dc%7Ciid%3A1
Excellent condition-32day money back-£176
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samsung-G...%3Aaadc43d715b0a9c9732abbe7ffffe9dc%7Ciid%3A1
good condition-1 year warranty-£190(unlocked)
Which one is better guys?... Also does the first one have 1yr warranty as i read somewhere that in uk law electric goods must have 1yr warranty?

If you wish to install a custom rom, FORGET about the first one! The ATT variant's bootloader is locked and no one has figured out how to unlock it! Not sure which variant the second link is though.

ripee said:
If you wish to install a custom rom, FORGET about the first one! The ATT variant's bootloader is locked and no one has figured out how to unlock it! Not sure which variant the second link is though.
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Thank you for replying but i'm mainly interested in the warranty and worried that is the phone stops working and i dont have warranty what could i do then....

Also does this seem to cheap or expensive for a note 4 in 2017?

razakma16 said:
Also does this seem to cheap or expensive for a note 4 in 2017?
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Fair price for a two and a half year old flagship model.

ripee said:
Fair price for a two and a half year old flagship model.
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But it has replaceable battery ,external SD card it has also the same screen as note 5 .it is worth it, no ?

I'd go with the second one if I were you... on instinct.
Just make sure it has 4G.
The Note 5 is also worth it if you can find one around the same price.
The note 7 refurbished will also be online also.

Hi, the first one is an American variant, if you are in the UK best to forget it, you need to know the model number of the second one, the best model for thre UK is the 910F. Phil

Thanks guys for responding ill take your comments into consideration
I may have to go for the 2nd as the first has a low trust pilot rating
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/photodeals.co.uk

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-7-inch-...999418?hash=item3ac9751fba:g:VU4AAOSwhOdXoyoG
How about this deal guys? Also if you find any good ones under £200 can you notify me, Thanks for the help

Thanks for the help guys, but i've decided to get a lenovo p2 as the note4 is quite outdated

I ordered an N950F/DS and got an N9500 -- should I be upset?

I live in the US and the phone works - but it's a Snapdragon, not an Exynos ( so ... better?) and I'm not really sure what to think now that I see the hardware model of it.
The only noticeable differences I could find are that handwriting defaulted to Chinese and the Chinese calendar seems burned into the Samsung Calendar app.
Anything I should look out for? Should I pursue a return through Amazon?

Samsung pay?
Try hard reset then immediately sideloading Samsung Pay 2.7.03 (apk from apkmirror) and Framework 2.7.51 see if spay will work.

If you have problems with language options in general, you can factory reset and set up your languages defaults from the very beginning (on the very first page, you will have a language selector, possibly showing Korean as a default choice, type the Korean writing and choose your favorite localization; this happens on any model by Samsung). This is highly recommended if you do not trust the vendor.
As far as I can tell, the main limitation of N9500 is localization of hardware-secured features: if you plan to use the (awesome) Samsung Pay, apparently you can do so only in Hong Kong so far (with N9500). As I understand, Samsung uses/experiments a more advanced system in Hong Kong, which you will not be able to use elsewhere. I have a N9500 and I want to try to spoof the model number in build.prop to see if one can cheat the phone to have Samsung Pay work everywhere.
Snapdragon vs Exynos is a mixed bag, depending on your workload. Exynos performs slightly better, Snapdragon will offer a faster web experience. In my opinion, no noticeable difference at all. However if you:
-Have a 64GB model
-Have a write heavy workload (quite rare, for instance you do some video-editing on phone or backup GB of data TO the phone every day)
exynos will perform noticeably better in these tasks since Samsung uses different NAND on the two models. For reading workload, again the difference is not noticeable.
Also, my guess is that you got N9500 for a better price: these are usually imported models from Hong Kong or UAE, with no official support. Importers likely got a much better price than the local Samsung offer, or maybe they avoided some import taxes via shady practices. If you paid the same as the official listing in your country, you may want to ask for a replacement regardless of the hardware.
---------- Post added at 09:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:23 AM ----------
Just to clear out, in the message before I meant that both the conditions (64GB AND write heavy) need to be satisfied to have an Exynos preference.

I haven't run into any actual problems yet (4 hours of use?) and I'm trying to avoid any modifications while I decide how to handle this... The whole thing seems shady, there's a promotional coupon stuck over the model number on the box. I feel like it was done intentionally for some reason.

delugeofspam said:
I haven't run into any actual problems yet (4 hours of use?) and I'm trying to avoid any modifications while I decide how to handle this... The whole thing seems shady, there's a promotional coupon stuck over the model number on the box. I feel like it was done intentionally for some reason.
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Well if you were sold a model different than the listing description and you are worried/not happy about it, get your money back and make sure you don't lose even a penny (teaching seller a lesson in the process since a lot of this purposeful shadiness seems to be happening even when seller knows).

Don't be upset. You might have gotten the only Snapdragon variant with an unlockable bootloader out the box. If you don't mind double checking this, go to developer options and see if there's an OEM unlocking toggle. Then download Crom and run it, it should unlock your bootloader.

Paradoxumical said:
Don't be upset. You might have gotten the only Snapdragon variant with an unlockable bootloader out the box. If you don't mind double checking this, go to developer options and see if there's an OEM unlocking toggle. Then download Crom and run it, it should unlock your bootloader.
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Unfortunately, no such luck.

delugeofspam said:
Unfortunately, no such luck.
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Really? Damn, Samsung is seriously tightening things up, the HK and CN variants used to the only Snadragon models that came with an official bootloader unlock tool/method.

Paradoxumical said:
Really? Damn, Samsung is really tightening things up, the HK and CN variants used to the only Samsung models that came with an official bootloader unlock tool/method.
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Didn't people have to wait exactly a week after activation for that option to show up or something like that?

evangelionpunk said:
Didn't people have to wait exactly a week after activation for that option to show up or something like that?
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I don’t recall anything of the sort, but don’t hold that against me. My last Samsung device prior to the Note 8 was the S6 (which I despised). The S5 was Samsung’s last great and true user/developer/mod friendly device. Even though the design got a lot of hate, I quite liked it. It went to eight different countries with me, and never gave me grief even though I used it as an underwater camera countless times.

Paradoxumical said:
I don’t recall anything of the sort, but don’t hold that against me. My last Samsung device prior to the Note 8 was the S6 (which I despised). The S5 was Samsung’s last great and true user/developer/mod friendly device. Even though the design got a lot of hate, I quite liked it. It went to eight different countries with me, and never gave me grief even though I used it as an underwater camera countless times.
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Yep double checked and there is a 1 week wait post activation for OEM UNLOCK option to appear.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...-8-exynos-n950f-fd-oem-unlock-t3673140/page64
Not sure if applies to qualcomm variants too. Doesnt HK/CN by law require OEM UNLOCK? Read something along this line somewhere here.

evangelionpunk said:
Yep double checked and there is a 1 week wait post activation for OEM UNLOCK option to appear.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...-8-exynos-n950f-fd-oem-unlock-t3673140/page64
Not sure if applies to qualcomm variants too. Doesnt HK/CN by law require OEM UNLOCK? Read something along this line somewhere here.
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Hey! That’s amazing news for OP. I believe HK/CN does require that by law. I remember when the S7 was released there, it looked so sleek without the Samsung logos.

Paradoxumical said:
Hey! That’s amazing news for OP. I believe HK/CN does require that by law. I remember when the S7 was released there, it looked so sleek without the Samsung logos.
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Yep it would be if it applies to Qualcomm variants and if it does it may only apply to HK/CN variants.
Maybe someone that has already had this model for 7+ days can confirm it for him.

The company I purchased it from refuses to advance-replace this with the phone I ordered and seems to expect me to pay to ship it back to them. This is probably going to turn into a dispute with Amazon, so I'm out another $900+ as I have to get into a new phone ASAP, and leave this one with zero wear.
I'm pretty convinced that I want the N950FD/S Aus, Europe & Lat edition of this phone despite living in the U.S. I don't want to suffer heavily locked bootloaders even for a Snapdragon and it seems there is more development for Exynos.
Please, though, tell me I'm wrong and that I should keep this phone that I dumped hours into configuring before catching on to the damn Chinese calendar embedded in the Samsung Calendar app :|

Damn yeah I would return it and get the exynos model you want oem unlock for sure ! I love my deep sea blue 256gb N950N its a work horse things were a pain at first but most the issues have been sorted out and its the best 1200$ i spent.

delugeofspam said:
The company I purchased it from refuses to advance-replace this with the phone I ordered and seems to expect me to pay to ship it back to them. This is probably going to turn into a dispute with Amazon, so I'm out another $900+ as I have to get into a new phone ASAP, and leave this one with zero wear.
I'm pretty convinced that I want the N950FD/S Aus, Europe & Lat edition of this phone despite living in the U.S. I don't want to suffer heavily locked bootloaders even for a Snapdragon and it seems there is more development for Exynos.
Please, though, tell me I'm wrong and that I should keep this phone that I dumped hours into configuring before catching on to the damn Chinese calendar embedded in the Samsung Calendar app :|
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If I were you, I would keep it. I’m 92% sure TWRP will pop-up for your device in the upcoming weeks. I don’t know if Samsung has released the kernel source yet, but once they do, I’ll be more than happy to compile it for you. I remember the same thing happened with the HK/CN variant of the S7. Holding out a week to see if OEM Unlocking shows up will be worth if it does.

Dont want to start a new thread so hopefully someone can help on here.
I ordered a N950fd but have received a N9500. It's currently sat in dubai waiting for a friend to bring back to UK.
Should i stick with it or get the N950FD instead? I would like to use Samsung pay but it's not a deal breaker as dont use it that much now anyway. Is there anything else i should be worried about?
thanks

So you ordered the Big Mac and got a Cheeseburger...
If you were at Macca's would you complain and want the right order? I know I would...

ultramag69 said:
So you ordered the Big Mac and got a Cheeseburger...
If you were at Macca's would you complain and want the right order? I know I would...
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Lol do you really think there's that much difference?

imy300 said:
Lol do you really think there's that much difference?
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Yes.....
Not only is there a difference, but I want what I ordered...