Note 5 Motherboard Compatibility - Galaxy Note5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey I am new to the forum but I know this is the best place online to go for advice like this.
The problem is this: I have a Note 5 from T-Mobile. The wifi and bluetooth are acting funny, and I am assuming that the wifi chip/motherboard is failing.
I have a Note 5 Motherboard from Sprint that my brother broke, but before i take my phone apart and perhaps do more worse than good trying to squish the other motherboard into it, I wanted to know: Are these motherboards compatible?
I know that with the >Galaxy S6< the CDMA and GSM versions are different. There is a corner of the motherboard where the components are moved a little so the motherboard wont fit snug against the lcd carcass, and ultimately you cant shut the phone completely. All the CDMA variants use the Verizon motherboard so they are certainly compatible. No clue about the GSM variants they all have a different marking for each company.
Is this the case as well with the Note 5? In the pictures I am seeing online, they look identical... but I am afraid they might be generic stock photos of the motherboards so I don't want to rely on that.
Alternatively, are the GSM variants compatible with each other? If i bought one from ATT could i put it in a T-Mobile phone? Or does it have to be the EXACT SAME MODEL?
SUMMARY OF QUESTION: Are the N920P and N920T motherboards swappable? Are GSM variants of the Note 5 generally swappable? (N920A N920T N920M, etc)
Thanks in advance for any help!

N920 Note 5 variants and logic board compatibility
You would not believe, despite how simple and necessary your question is, that you'll not find the answer hardly anywhere on the internet. I know where I've searched will tell me if the frame for the Verizon version of an n920p would fit the logic board from an in 920p Sprint motherboard. Actually you've given me more insight than anywhere else of red from, in that there must be extra or less Electronics fastened to the GSM version. If you would have to slam it into your CDMA formed case, then that would absolutely defeat the purpose of having a 4 gigabyte RAM Qualcomm awesome processor $550 phone. From what I hear however, all of the Note 5 series phones are capable of transmitting and receiving all frequencies, CDMA and GSM. Of course the n920p than I have focuses on wcdma bands and LTE bands. As a matter of fact I can't even get it to work on a GSM carrier, even though I've spent at least $50 and 15 hours trying to get it unlocked to do so. And I agree with what you had stated at the beginning, if there is a place to find the answer than this would be it. So why don't want to view phone know every damn thing all people please let us know, can I put a T-Mobile motherboard from a note 5 inside of my Note 5 that I got from Sprint? Thank you. And I will go ahead and let you know I have done the conversion over to n920p I, I think I currently am running a firmware from Pakistan or maybe Uganda. The phone is quite simple to root even at the 7.0 level firmware, I've changed the IMEI, I can change the location to make it appear that I'm in Paris France and Dallas Texas at the same time, but I can't get the thing to run on a GSM frequency and a carrier that's based here in the US.

Related

[Q] HSPA 850MHz on International (Non Bell) Samsung I9000 (firmware)

Hy guys,
I've been reading on that thread for few days and one question raised in my head.
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=790984
And that post
forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=8299301&postcount=18
If I buy an International (European or other version) of the Galaxy I9000 that doesn't support frequencies HSPA 850MHz from scratch, do you think it has the same hardware as the Bell Canada one ans that it's just the firmware that enable or disable those frequencies?
If so, it may be interresting to try flashing one Internal version of the I9000 with the CSC and Phone file from firmware UGJH2 and see if it enable the 850MHz HSPA frequency.
If that work, that means that International and/or European unlocked I9000 phone are exactly same hardware and that, We could buy them and use them with Bell and other providers in Canada instead of buying a Bell one.
short answer no
it has been tested and re-tested by several people already
it doesn't work
but feel free to try if you have the time and money to spare
if you want the I9000M (3g 850/1900/2100) you can get it off ebay if you don't care about the 3 button issue, but if you do care about the 3 button thing, you can ping me
Wow thanks alot AllGamer for the quick reply. Sorry if that thread is a double post because I haven't seen one talking about this specifically. I've seen alot about the 850Mhz lost after flashing firmware thow...
So if I understand it correctly... the only option we have is to buy a I9000M from Bell and do the 3 buttons fix from that thread in order to be able to unlock and upgrade...
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=784704
I still don't get why those big compagnies does different hardware versions of the same phone for different regions.... that must cost more money...lol
P.S. anyone know if Bell allow us to buy that phone full price (499$) without even activating it or we really need to get it activated for a month even at full price???
franckqcc said:
I still don't get why those big compagnies does different hardware versions of the same phone for different regions.... that must cost more money...lol
P.S. anyone know if Bell allow us to buy that phone full price (499$) without even activating it or we really need to get it activated for a month even at full price???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
correct in all counts
yes, it's kinda stupid they have released more than 8 different variants of the same phone, each of them with just minor changes in hardware/software
like with TV, no TV
with Front Camera, no FC
with Upload speed cut off, Full speed upload (USA AT&T)
with Flash, with no Flash
with more storage, with less storage
with keyboard, without keyboard
with these radio bands, without that radio band
with... bah just too many
I have no clue how they keep up with all the different branches of the same tree
re: Bell...
nope, they do have an activation fee when you purchase it, even when you but it off at full price, the total is roughly $650~680 including all the taxes, activation, shipping materials, shipping, packaging, all the other crazy fees the Bell and the government charges
Just by curiosity.. Do you know a version of that phone that work with 850MHz but include the flash for the camera?
That would be nice to have a flash included with it
The flash is on the CDMA Galaxy S for Verizon only. I don't think this device can be unlocked but anyways I don't think you would want a CDMA smartphone in Canada.
he can always hook it up to Telus or Bell, both runs on CDMA
but you are right CDMA kinda sucks, you can't travel to Europe or most other countries with it.
Yep and since CDMA is way slower than HSPA, that would be useless....the only time we use CDMA is in the regions where HSPA isn't working...
Thanks all for your reply
AllGamer said:
he can always hook it up to Telus or Bell, both runs on CDMA
but you are right CDMA kinda sucks, you can't travel to Europe or most other countries with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bell or Telus will not allow anyone to hook up another carriers CDMA phone. This is NOT an option.
In relation to this same question somewhat...What about a hardware transplant from a Bell Vibrant to a European i9000?
Does anyone know what radio chipset the Bell Vibrant uses and what radio chipset the European i9000 uses? I've seen two different radio chipsets for the i9000, one from Qualcomm and one from Triquint:
Qualcomm RTR8265: (Maybe the Korean i9000?)
http://translate.google.com/transla....com/News_List_View.php?nModeC=4&nSeq=1742568
Triquint TQM6M26028L: (Maybe the Singapore and European i9000?)
http://www.phonewreck.com/2010/08/19/samsung-galaxy-s-teardown/
http://www.careace.net/2010/06/09/disassembly-of-the-samsung-galaxy-s/
http://www.careace.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/galaxy-s-disassembly-28.jpg
Unless I'm reading all 3 disassembly wrong, they have conflicting info in regards to the radio being used. Maybe the radio chipset being used is dependent on the region where the i9000 is from? Can any one confirm? I plan on purchasing an international i9000 to replace my bricked i9000M and would like to see if I could transplant certain parts to see if I could get the 850 MHz via hardware. I plan to disassemble my bricked Bell Vibrant once my toolkit comes in and take some pictures so maybe it'll be of help to people in the future.
Electroz said:
Bell or Telus will not allow anyone to hook up another carriers CDMA phone. This is NOT an option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure where you got that from but i worked for Telus and we hooked up quite a bunch of USA verizon/sprint CDMA phones online.
we used to do a IMEI check first to make sure it was not blacklisted before signing them up for a plan with their phone
is there an easy way to find this out without taking apart the phone?
dawgpound6985 said:
In relation to this same question somewhat...What about a hardware transplant from a Bell Vibrant to a European i9000?
Does anyone know what radio chipset the Bell Vibrant uses and what radio chipset the European i9000 uses? I've seen two different radio chipsets for the i9000, one from Qualcomm and one from Triquint:
Qualcomm RTR8265: (Maybe the Korean i9000?)
http://translate.google.com/transla....com/News_List_View.php?nModeC=4&nSeq=1742568
Triquint TQM6M26028L: (Maybe the Singapore and European i9000?)
http://www.phonewreck.com/2010/08/19/samsung-galaxy-s-teardown/
http://www.careace.net/2010/06/09/disassembly-of-the-samsung-galaxy-s/
http://www.careace.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/galaxy-s-disassembly-28.jpg
Unless I'm reading all 3 disassembly wrong, they have conflicting info in regards to the radio being used. Maybe the radio chipset being used is dependent on the region where the i9000 is from? Can any one confirm? I plan on purchasing an international i9000 to replace my bricked i9000M and would like to see if I could transplant certain parts to see if I could get the 850 MHz via hardware. I plan to disassemble my bricked Bell Vibrant once my toolkit comes in and take some pictures so maybe it'll be of help to people in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AllGamer said:
not sure where you got that from but i worked for Telus and we hooked up quite a bunch of USA verizon/sprint CDMA phones online.
we used to do a IMEI check first to make sure it was not blacklisted before signing them up for a plan with their phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats pretty weird then. CDMA phones don't even have an IMEI. That is a gsm/hsdpa specific number.....
Sent from my GT-I9000M using XDA App
you said IMEI people will understand what it is
you tell them ESN they will be like "wuuaaat number?"
cust: "my old number before DC?"
me: NO
Your number under the battery compartment or box that came in...
cust: "wuaaat? where?"
me: ohh... never mind, just give me the phone
cust: "here"
me: where's the sticker?
cust: "i peeled it, it didn't look good" (that happened once)
another time was
me: where's the sticker?, it's all smudged & worn out!
cust: "i dunno"...
needless to say both cases were denied, no IMEI/ESN can't register them
a couple of times we did get some black listed ESN from verizon/sprint, also denied on those cases
most of the time they are okay, and can easily be joined to the network, the only trouble was finding the re-programing instruction for those Odd phones as we knew by memory the models we sold, but anything weird will take some times.
we always charged extra for that.
Okay so quick update and something quite interesting. I'm disassembling my Vibrant right now and the piece where the antenna connects is labeled i9000T. More to come in a new thread.
dawgpound6985 said:
Okay so quick update and something quite interesting. I'm disassembling my Vibrant right now and the piece where the antenna connects is labeled i9000T. More to come in a new thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ohhhhhhhh wow! so we got a Latin America model inside?!
AllGamer said:
ohhhhhhhh wow! so we got a Latin America model inside?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems to be one part. Check out the pictures here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=8395614#post8395614
<farnsworth> Good news everybody! </farnsworth> I have the european i9000 (900/1900/2100) which I bought unlocked in New York City and have been using (with 3g/HSPA) on AT&T.
When I came home to canada, I got a bell sim card (as I have a bell plan, previously with a CDMA phone). When I started the phone, all I was getting was voice, and I was very dissapointed.
I decided to see if Rogers or Tellus would work (as somebody told me they use 1900 more than 850), and when the rogers guy tried his sim, it was the same story. THEN he figured out that for this phone, you have to manually enter the APN info for the canadian carrier. He tried it on my phone, and I started picking up EDGE.
I immediately called bell tech support for the same info, and they refered me to the website. I entered the bell APN info in the settings menu and I now have HSPA on bell in Canada on my european i9000! Spread the word!
mthiffau said:
<farnsworth> Good news everybody! </farnsworth> I have the european i9000 (900/1900/2100) which I bought unlocked in New York City and have been using (with 3g/HSPA) on AT&T.
When I came home to canada, I got a bell sim card (as I have a bell plan, previously with a CDMA phone). When I started the phone, all I was getting was voice, and I was very dissapointed.
I decided to see if Rogers or Tellus would work (as somebody told me they use 1900 more than 850), and when the rogers guy tried his sim, it was the same story. THEN he figured out that for this phone, you have to manually enter the APN info for the canadian carrier. He tried it on my phone, and I started picking up EDGE.
I immediately called bell tech support for the same info, and they refered me to the website. I entered the bell APN info in the settings menu and I now have HSPA on bell in Canada on my european i9000! Spread the word!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go outside of a large metropolitan area and report back. Or maybe you could even try reading this thread....

Note 8 reception

I have to say.... This is a bucket of **** (Aus Optus/Vodafone). I have half the 4g reception than my previous note 5.
It struggles switching frequency it seems. I hope future updates fix this and it's not a hardware issue.
me_ashman said:
I have to say.... This is a bucket of **** (Aus Optus/Vodafone). I have half the 4g reception than my previous note 5.
It struggles switching frequency it seems. I hope future updates fix this and it's not a hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love the phone but noticed reception isn't as good in certain areas of North Carolina. I'm a T-Mobile user and also previously owned a Note 5. Definitely a difference.
Yeah mate...in places I had reception before I now have none.
I've noticed that my wife's phone will have 1 bar where mine has two, but if I go into settings and look at signal strength, it is exactly the same or even a little better.
Two note 8's had issues
Pre-ordered 1... nicest phone I've ever had until it started showing 'searching for service", ROAM, Emergency calls only... then would go to LTE with full bars, and back again. I went back to my S6 for two days with no problems, they sent me a second one... Fine for a day, then SAME ISSUES... did factory reset on both units... still persisted.. got LG V20 on special and full signal, every day....... Hope Samsung fixes issue and I will try one again.
---------- Post added at 10:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:47 AM ----------
Signal strength is VERY important to me as I live way out in the sticks on the coast. The best reception on any mobile I have owned has been with the old Nokia's. The worst would be HTC. Samsung, LG, Asus, Motorola and Sony all work fine here. I am in part of the county that is notorious for very poor signal strength. I have not had a problem with my Note 8 seems to be fine on Vodafone but if I change to another supplier I get zero signal on all models of mobiles.
On times its not the phone brand but our service provider. My present provider for my TV and ADSL give me about 1Mbps!!!! that's if I get a signal at all. Vodafone hotspot gives me up to 30Mbps. Again it can be the provider more than the phone. I have found Samsung fine but others have not been so fortunate. I doubt its the Note 8 though? There are always lemons though in every brand.
Ryland
which model of Note 8 are you guys experiencing this with?
Many of us Exynos owners have been noticing exceptionally poor reception and data speeds on USA carriers, but in my case I have narrowed it down to a hardware issue. Unplugging the lower antenna PCB has no effect on the poor signal strength, and this started suddenly after about 5 days of use. Out of the box it was amazing, and my download speeds were 30-50% faster than with the Note 5. I'm just waiting for replacement parts to become available so I can get a new board and replace it.
Kalm_Traveler said:
which model of Note 8 are you guys experiencing this with?
Many of us Exynos owners have been noticing exceptionally poor reception and data speeds on USA carriers, but in my case I have narrowed it down to a hardware issue. Unplugging the lower antenna PCB has no effect on the poor signal strength, and this started suddenly after about 5 days of use. Out of the box it was amazing, and my download speeds were 30-50% faster than with the Note 5. I'm just waiting for replacement parts to become available so I can get a new board and replace it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought the Snap Dragon version was issued in the States and China and the Exynos the rest of the world? PERHAPS the problem could be your carriers are not well suited to the Exynos models only the SD?
I am talking through my ears as I understand zero about such things. Here to learn. :good: Could also be one has purchased a lemon? I dont think its general to the Note 8, as I wrote above mine works very well here in a notoriously bad area of this country running Exynos.
Q; Is it wise to modify your mobile while it still has 12 months warranty? How many people have the skills to perform your modification and why should it be necessary? Your guarantee is now void.
Q; Out of the box you said it was amazing. What changed?
Ryland
Ryland Johnson said:
I thought the Snap Dragon version was issued in the States and China and the Exynos the rest of the world? PERHAPS the problem could be your carriers are not well suited to the Exynos models only the SD?
I am talking through my ears as I understand zero about such things. Here to learn. :good: Could also be one has purchased a lemon? I dont think its general to the Note 8, as I wrote above mine works very well here in a notoriously bad area of this country running Exynos.
Q; Is it wise to modify your mobile while it still has 12 months warranty? How many people have the skills to perform your modification and why should it be necessary? Your guarantee is now void.
Q; Out of the box you said it was amazing. What changed?
Ryland
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm no expert by any means, but I have the Note 5 from T-Mobile, which is also an Exynos device. The Exynos Note 8 is essentially just a newer Note 5, newer version of the CPU and modem (both have Shannon modems), and support T-Mobile's LTE bands. I do not believe there is any compatibility issue with the hardware. I definitely could have purchased a lemon, and that's what it seems like. The rest of the phones functions are amazing - it's literally just been issues with the components on that bottom PCB that have been popping up (not just for me, but also others on here, the lower circuit board has LTE antennae, mic, and lower speaker - all of which have had a few complaints of not working or not working properly).
To answer your Qs, my phone is a South Korean model and I live in the USA, so Samsung here will not honor the warranty. I would need to ship it back to Korea if anything. Many people have the skills necessary to replace this board, but it is a pain in the butt due to the rear glass using adhesive from Hades to stick to the frame. It shouldn't be necessary, but Samsung seems to have sent out some phones with faulty usb/antenna boards and it's less of a hassle for me to fix it myself than try to deal with international repairs.
Out of the box was amazing, I had equal LTE signal strength to my Note 5, and download speeds were about 4-6x what they suddenly dropped to after about 5 days of use. At the time, I thought it was due to flashing NEMESIS ROM, but I Odin flashed back to full stock and nothing was 'fixed' . Then, I opened the phone and found that physically applying pressure on one of the LTE antenna connectors in a specific direction made the signal strength jump up to equal my Note 5, and the super fast data speeds returned - as long as I kept pressure applied in that specific direction.
Kalm_Traveler said:
I'm no expert by any means, but I have the Note 5 from T-Mobile, which is also an Exynos device. The Exynos Note 8 is essentially just a newer Note 5, newer version of the CPU and modem (both have Shannon modems), and support T-Mobile's LTE bands. I do not believe there is any compatibility issue with the hardware. I definitely could have purchased a lemon, and that's what it seems like. The rest of the phones functions are amazing - it's literally just been issues with the components on that bottom PCB that have been popping up (not just for me, but also others on here, the lower circuit board has LTE antennae, mic, and lower speaker - all of which have had a few complaints of not working or not working properly).
To answer your Qs, my phone is a South Korean model and I live in the USA, so Samsung here will not honor the warranty. I would need to ship it back to Korea if anything. Many people have the skills necessary to replace this board, but it is a pain in the butt due to the rear glass using adhesive from Hades to stick to the frame. It shouldn't be necessary, but Samsung seems to have sent out some phones with faulty usb/antenna boards and it's less of a hassle for me to fix it myself than try to deal with international repairs.
Out of the box was amazing, I had equal LTE signal strength to my Note 5, and download speeds were about 4-6x what they suddenly dropped to after about 5 days of use. At the time, I thought it was due to flashing NEMESIS ROM, but I Odin flashed back to full stock and nothing was 'fixed' . Then, I opened the phone and found that physically applying pressure on one of the LTE antenna connectors in a specific direction made the signal strength jump up to equal my Note 5, and the super fast data speeds returned - as long as I kept pressure applied in that specific direction.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excuse my ignorance,.but aren't there others on here complaining about LTE speed throughput on there F models also ? When using USA sim cards.
Perhaps it was a faulty batch?
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Limeybastard said:
Excuse my ignorance,.but aren't there others on here complaining about LTE speed throughput on there F models also ? When using USA sim cards.
Perhaps it was a faulty batch?
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct, F and N models. They are the exact same hardware, and my thought is that a batch of those boards went out that have developed issues very quickly.
I read a post this week but can't find the thread now of course. In it, a user who worked on configuring phones for a large telco or something said that the antenna for each regional model is tuned to the particulars of that specific region. He wasn't just talking about supported bands, etc. It was really about antenna tuning. Ultimately he said this is why he decided to forgo the international Note 8 models in the U.S., even though he badly wanted an Exynos model for custom roms, etc. Now I personally don't know whether there is anything to his claims (and I wish I could find that thread again), but it made sense so I thought I'd mention it here as it could explain the LTE or signal issues. If it's bunk though, then please ignore
sefrcoko said:
I read a post this week but can't find the thread now of course. In it, a user who worked on configuring phones for a large telco or something said that the antenna for each regional model is tuned to the particulars of that specific region. He wasn't just talking about supported bands, etc. It was really about antenna tuning. Ultimately he said this is why he decided to forgo the international Note 8 models in the U.S., even though he badly wanted an Exynos model for custom roms, etc. Now I personally don't know whether there is anything to his claims (and I wish I could find that thread again), but it made sense so I thought I'd mention it here as it could explain the LTE or signal issues. If it's bunk though, then please ignore
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the bands are the frequencies that are 'tuned' for. Any given piece of metal is better at picking up certain frequencies than others, depending on how long it is, how thick it is, if there are any coils etc.
This is why region doesn't matter in and of itself - if a specific band is supported, the phone can operate with that band/frequency regardless of which country it was manufactured for. Where a person might run into problems is if their carrier uses a given LTE band or group of them and the international phone model they want does not support those bands.
In our case, the Exynos Note 8 has all the main bands we need for T-Mobile and AT&T here in the USA.

Enable Tmobile US Carrier Feature On Exynos N960F/DS

Hello Is it possible to enable all the T-mobile US carrier features on the Exynos N960F/DS ?
Yes, when I reach 10 posts. I will be able to make a new thread with step by step images.
HERE is the guide, I got to 10 post
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-note-9/how-to/note-9-n960fd-dual-sim-csc-change-oxm-t3841000
jgoorn said:
Yes, when I reach 10 posts. I will be able to make a new thread with step by step images.
HERE is the guide, I got to 10 post
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-note-9/how-to/note-9-n960fd-dual-sim-csc-change-oxm-t3841000
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there absolutely any way to do it without root? Can't I take the home CSC of a desired rom and flash just that in Odin, keeping everything else as it originally was?
hkalltheway said:
Is there absolutely any way to do it without root? Can't I take the home CSC of a desired rom and flash just that in Odin, keeping everything else as it originally was?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure, I saw something like that on another post but then it was updated 4 pages later to say that method was not functioning. I assume you don't want to trip knox, but if you just don't want root but want custom CSC flash twrp and custom rom with root. Edit files to change csc as shown in my guide, or others guides. then factory reset rom, and reflash without root, and then make odin reset the recovery to stock recovery.
This is all speculation however.
I was very excited to see this as I've been wanting an international Exynos variant due to absolutely 'needing' to have root.
The Million dollar question is "Does the carrier aggregation still exist? ie... Does ALL the bands work perfectly on T-Mobiles network just as it would 1:1 on a TM variant Note 9?"
I along with some other fellow Note 8 owners got the (F) model of the Note 8 last year and we had discovered that the international variants on T-Mobile / US network suffered from carrier aggregation, where it would connect fine to one single frequency, but it would not aggregate properly to where it would not be able to 'hand off' / 'connect to multiple frequencies at once' with the (F) variants....
For those that remember, I went as far as completely disassembling my Note 8 and testing varies antenna cables thinking that it was hardware related, however, it has been concluded that it is a software issues that causes the international variant of the Note 8 to not work properly on US carriers....
Note: If one is in an area with good signal in the US with a (F) variant, it may look like everything is fine and well, however, it is not. Due to the good reception, the (F) variant is connecting only to that one band, whereas with other devices the domestic US variant would have the ability to pick up several bands and aggregate accordingly, where the (F) can't ...
Therefore, the Million dollar question is "Does this carrier aggregation issue still exist on the Note 9?"
The only way to be able to properly test this is for one to have both the T-Mobile Note 9 + the International (F) variant Note 9 and test the bands side by side in multiple areas ... along with checking in the hidden settings to see exactly what bands it is connected to. If they match, great.... if not, then the carrier aggregation still exists.....
While at it, I'll tag my fellow OG partners in Android Fanatics @DeeXii , @butchieboy , @KennyLG123 ....
I doubt it. It will probably be another year or two to get full or near full capability on Samsung modems. Look at all the weird spectrums going up in different countries. And TMobile just got band 71. It will be awhile before we start seeing noticeable effects nationwide for 71. Your optimism is obsessive. When the galaxy note 2 came out all were Exynos chipsets but some had LTE radios. I opted for without mainly because LTE was not fleshed out yet. (and the LTE radios were add on chips and not fully integrated meaning they were battery drainers). I made a good call as did Apple. You also have to consider Qualcomm has a lot more experience than Samsung and Intel in modems and radios. People are so focused on the results or what they can get without thinking through the whole front end of it and what is plausible, necessary and time needed. I am not saying no but again your optimism is obsessive to a fault. Qualcomm hasn't even made a truly international modem yet. (More bands than they can fit in their design and still too many different techs.) How would Samsung do it? It could be done but your battery life would suffer. That's why there are regional phones. Alsooooo, 2g bands are being deprecated in a few places (I think hspa too but nowhere near as much as GPRS/EDGE). To be honest I think it won't be until 2021 at the very least where there will be a few mainstream phones that you could pop in a sim anywhere and get good service across those regions. For now, you have to compromise. LTE is thankfully dropping in the GSM bucket but it needs to be sorted out.
iunlock said:
I was very excited to see this as I've been wanting an international Exynos variant due to absolutely 'needing' to have root.
The Million dollar question is "Does the carrier aggregation still exist? ie... Does ALL the bands work perfectly on T-Mobiles network just as it would 1:1 on a TM variant Note 9?"
I along with some other fellow Note 8 owners got the (F) model of the Note 8 last year and we had discovered that the international variants on T-Mobile / US network suffered from carrier aggregation, where it would connect fine to one single frequency, but it would not aggregate properly to where it would not be able to 'hand off' / 'connect to multiple frequencies at once' with the (F) variants....
For those that remember, I went as far as completely disassembling my Note 8 and testing varies antenna cables thinking that it was hardware related, however, it has been concluded that it is a software issues that causes the international variant of the Note 8 to not work properly on US carriers....
Note: If one is in an area with good signal in the US with a (F) variant, it may look like everything is fine and well, however, it is not. Due to the good reception, the (F) variant is connecting only to that one band, whereas with other devices the domestic US variant would have the ability to pick up several bands and aggregate accordingly, where the (F) can't ...
Therefore, the Million dollar question is "Does this carrier aggregation issue still exist on the Note 9?"
The only way to be able to properly test this is for one to have both the T-Mobile Note 9 + the International (F) variant Note 9 and test the bands side by side in multiple areas ... along with checking in the hidden settings to see exactly what bands it is connected to. If they match, great.... if not, then the carrier aggregation still exists.....
While at it, I'll tag my fellow OG partners in Android Fanatics @DeeXii , @butchieboy , @KennyLG123 ....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I remember that thread very well, kalm_traveller also made adjustments to the antenna . I recall that ultimately carrier aggregation didn't work on international models when used on the USA networks.
Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk
@rbiter said:
I doubt it. It will probably be another year or two to get full or near full capability on Samsung modems. Look at all the weird spectrums going up in different countries. And TMobile just got band 71. It will be awhile before we start seeing noticeable effects nationwide for 71. Your optimism is obsessive. When the galaxy note 2 came out all were Exynos chipsets but some had LTE radios. I opted for without mainly because LTE was not fleshed out yet. (and the LTE radios were add on chips and not fully integrated meaning they were battery drainers). I made a good call as did Apple. You also have to consider Qualcomm has a lot more experience than Samsung and Intel in modems and radios. People are so focused on the results or what they can get without thinking through the whole front end of it and what is plausible, necessary and time needed. I am not saying no but again your optimism is obsessive to a fault. Qualcomm hasn't even made a truly international modem yet. (More bands than they can fit in their design and still too many different techs.) How would Samsung do it? It could be done but your battery life would suffer. That's why there are regional phones. Alsooooo, 2g bands are being deprecated in a few places (I think hspa too but nowhere near as much as GPRS/EDGE). To be honest I think it won't be until 2021 at the very least where there will be a few mainstream phones that you could pop in a sim anywhere and get good service across those regions. For now, you have to compromise. LTE is thankfully dropping in the GSM bucket but it needs to be sorted out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So how come Apple is doing that since the iPhone 6s unlocked version? Qualcomm Modem and a truly a word.
Doing what?
I would almost guarantee no ca working. Does it really matter? My s8+ still got 12mb download speeds.
Yakuzahi said:
So how come Apple is doing that since the iPhone 6s unlocked version? Qualcomm Modem and a truly a word.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doing what?
iunlock said:
I was very excited to see this as I've been wanting an international Exynos variant due to absolutely 'needing' to have root.
The Million dollar question is "Does the carrier aggregation still exist? ie... Does ALL the bands work perfectly on T-Mobiles network just as it would 1:1 on a TM variant Note 9?"
I along with some other fellow Note 8 owners got the (F) model of the Note 8 last year and we had discovered that the international variants on T-Mobile / US network suffered from carrier aggregation, where it would connect fine to one single frequency, but it would not aggregate properly to where it would not be able to 'hand off' / 'connect to multiple frequencies at once' with the (F) variants....
For those that remember, I went as far as completely disassembling my Note 8 and testing varies antenna cables thinking that it was hardware related, however, it has been concluded that it is a software issues that causes the international variant of the Note 8 to not work properly on US carriers....
Note: If one is in an area with good signal in the US with a (F) variant, it may look like everything is fine and well, however, it is not. Due to the good reception, the (F) variant is connecting only to that one band, whereas with other devices the domestic US variant would have the ability to pick up several bands and aggregate accordingly, where the (F) can't ...
Therefore, the Million dollar question is "Does this carrier aggregation issue still exist on the Note 9?"
The only way to be able to properly test this is for one to have both the T-Mobile Note 9 + the International (F) variant Note 9 and test the bands side by side in multiple areas ... along with checking in the hidden settings to see exactly what bands it is connected to. If they match, great.... if not, then the carrier aggregation still exists.....
While at it, I'll tag my fellow OG partners in Android Fanatics @DeeXii , @butchieboy , @KennyLG123 ....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the F model and tested with both AT&T and T-Mobile. Carrier aggregation works with 2 bands on AT&T (12+2) and while it supports all the other AT&T bands it will not aggregate them. No carrier aggregation at all on T-Mobile (single band only).
You can see the supported CA combos the F model has by looking at the FCC filing of the device (do a google search).
Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk
@rbiter said:
Doing what?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doing a world phone with smaller battery than the Note line.
So basically it can be done. Samsung can make a world if they want to.
Apple doesn't have a world phone. They have a minimum of 2 phones to do the world. You have to pick your poison of which part. If they do have one, it probably has you covered for calls but not data. Heck any phone has this if data is less a priority and making calls and texts are a higher priority.
There might be obscure world phones but we probably are not privy to it. Satellite phones too of course but price. I actually read an article about Qualcomm's modem and the increase of LTE bands that came out recently talking about RF360 and Intel and Samsung probably not having anything to compete for at least a couple of years. They don't have an all in one solution yet. Close but not world yet. You have China, US and I forgot what part of South America that messes it up. Even though LTE falls under GSM standards I wish they would tighten it up. So many bands across different countries now and you can't keep up. Band 71 for TMobile is not relevant yet unless you live in a market that is getting it because of low or no coverage.
@rbiter said:
I doubt it. It will probably be another year or two to get full or near full capability on Samsung modems. Look at all the weird spectrums going up in different countries. And TMobile just got band 71. It will be awhile before we start seeing noticeable effects nationwide for 71. Your optimism is obsessive. When the galaxy note 2 came out all were Exynos chipsets but some had LTE radios. I opted for without mainly because LTE was not fleshed out yet. (and the LTE radios were add on chips and not fully integrated meaning they were battery drainers). I made a good call as did Apple. You also have to consider Qualcomm has a lot more experience than Samsung and Intel in modems and radios. People are so focused on the results or what they can get without thinking through the whole front end of it and what is plausible, necessary and time needed. I am not saying no but again your optimism is obsessive to a fault. Qualcomm hasn't even made a truly international modem yet. (More bands than they can fit in their design and still too many different techs.) How would Samsung do it? It could be done but your battery life would suffer. That's why there are regional phones. Alsooooo, 2g bands are being deprecated in a few places (I think hspa too but nowhere near as much as GPRS/EDGE). To be honest I think it won't be until 2021 at the very least where there will be a few mainstream phones that you could pop in a sim anywhere and get good service across those regions. For now, you have to compromise. LTE is thankfully dropping in the GSM bucket but it needs to be sorted out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think your lack of optimism is obsessive and at fault. What's wrong with being optimistic and having hope? Most of us are just wanting a simple root on the SD variant of the Note 9, whether it be a samfail method or whatever, we'll take it.
The US variant Note 5 was Exynos and worked just fine, so its not impossible for an Exynos equipped phone to work on US carriers. After all, most of the newer phones have a wide range of frequencies that it can support. Sure some phones are set regionally, but you're aware that there are dual SIM phones right?
If you were familiar with the F model Note 8 that some of us got and have tested last year, then my post would have made more sense to you.
suzook said:
I would almost guarantee no ca working. Does it really matter? My s8+ still got 12mb download speeds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it does matter, because with out the ability for the phone to hand off and/or merge the signals, for those in areas where the reception is sketchy, it'd become major headache.
clubtech said:
I have the F model and tested with both AT&T and T-Mobile. Carrier aggregation works with 2 bands on AT&T (12+2) and while it supports all the other AT&T bands it will not aggregate them. No carrier aggregation at all on T-Mobile (single band only).
You can see the supported CA combos the F model has by looking at the FCC filing of the device (do a google search).
Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey @clubtech, thanks for reiterating. Yea that was the case exactly as you've described.... I was getting the same results on TM on the F variant. I'm aware of the fcc filings, but the curiosity stems from the potential possibility...
Is this a possible lead to get CA working on N960F/DS?
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS8/comments/75ru94/root_exynos_galaxy_s8_how_to_get_carrier/
I've tried this method but just get these two lines without the menu popping up as instructed.
Broadcasting: Intent { act=android.provider.Telephony.SECRET_CODE dat=android_secret_code://27663368378 flg=0x400000 }
Broadcast completed: result=0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am most likely doing something wrong or these devices are somehow further locked down. I'm rooted, connected adb, etc. as the instructions say with no success.
Techronico said:
Is this a possible lead to get CA working on N960F/DS?
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS8/comments/75ru94/root_exynos_galaxy_s8_how_to_get_carrier/
I've tried this method but just get these two lines without the menu popping up as instructed.
I am most likely doing something wrong or these devices are somehow further locked down. I'm rooted, connected adb, etc. as the instructions say with no success.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mind sharing more info? I'm willing to try it with my device, I'll make a full backup and give it a go! Anything for even better reception!
jgoorn said:
Mind sharing more info? I'm willing to try it with my device, I'll make a full backup and give it a go! Anything for even better reception!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried using the dialer codes *#0011# and *#2263# first to get an idea of what I was looking at. These are mentioned further down in the Reddit thread by other users.
Apparently the code mentioned in the Reddit thread OP is a more advanced code that was removed/disabled from being activated from the dialer several iterations of Samsung devices ago...(ie. It now requires root, can only be activated from adb or terminal).
My theory is that Samsung has now fully gimped it or further hid the activation method. This method apparently worked on the Note 8...
Techronico said:
I tried using the dialer codes *#0011# and *#2263# first to get an idea of what I was looking at. These are mentioned further down in the Reddit thread by other users.
Apparently the code mentioned in the Reddit thread OP is a more advanced code that was removed/disabled from being activated from the dialer several iterations of Samsung devices ago...(ie. It now requires root, can only be activated from adb or terminal).
My theory is that Samsung has now fully gimped it or further hid the activation method. This method apparently worked on the Note 8...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, I'm the author of that thread and I also have an Exynos s9+ which is same as the Note 9.
The menu is indeed completely disabled, you can't get to it even with adb or root.
There is a way to activate it, but it will not fix our issue. I've been trying for weeks.
We have a problem that started out on the Note 8, and that is the phone is not reporting the correct supported aggregation combos to the cell tower.
Using the menu, my phone does not support 4+12 however it reports 2+12 and I get carrier aggregation when I disable B4.
So far j haven't found a way to change those combos. At this point I'm very sure it grabs them from the CSC. I've been experimenting and have been unsuccessful so far
The S8 reported the correct combos out of the box, however the ill configured 3xCA was stopping it from working, disabling 3xCA made 2xCA work perfectly.
Our issue here is just were missing those combos so no matter what the phone will not do 4+12 even though the hardware is fully capable.
If anyone knows how to change combos, pm me or reply here, thanks.
Interceptor777 said:
Hey, I'm the author of that thread and I also have an Exynos s9+ which is same as the Note 9.
The menu is indeed completely disabled, you can't get to it even with adb or root.
There is a way to activate it, but it will not fix our issue. I've been trying for weeks.
We have a problem that started out on the Note 8, and that is the phone is not reporting the correct supported aggregation combos to the cell tower.
Using the menu, my phone does not support 4+12 however it reports 2+12 and I get carrier aggregation when I disable B4.
So far j haven't found a way to change those combos. At this point I'm very sure it grabs them from the CSC. I've been experimenting and have been unsuccessful so far
The S8 reported the correct combos out of the box, however the ill configured 3xCA was stopping it from working, disabling 3xCA made 2xCA work perfectly.
Our issue here is just were missing those combos so no matter what the phone will not do 4+12 even though the hardware is fully capable.
If anyone knows how to change combos, pm me or reply here, thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will totally donate to you if you can get this to work some how! It's pretty much the last feature I'm looking at as a "This phone is perfect except for X".

SM-G973F/DS in USA? Waste of time?

Long time lurker, first time poster here. First of all, a massive THANK YOU to everyone here. You guys and gals are Awesome! <3
So, I bought a Samsung S10 (SM-G973F/DS) on Ebay recently and flashed it to Lineage OS 19.1. All was fine until I tried to activate it. We did everything...manually changing the ASP settings, and a bunch of other stuff to try and get this thing to connect to the mobile network. Even placed the SIM card in another phone just to confirm the SIM card was fine, which it was.
Long story short, I think the device was perhaps locked even though the seller claimed it was unlocked. Whatever, I'm over it. I flashed stock back on it and re-locked the boot loader, sent it back. Not worth the aggravation. However, I am questioning if there wasn't something else I could have done?
I was trying to activate the S10 on Mint Mobile USA (a T-Mobile reseller, so GSM) it should have been fine. The default language on the device was German. I don't think that should matter, but maybe it does? Do European phones have problems activating in North America?
My question is: If I decide to get another S10 (SM-G973F/DS) from the secondary market (if its even worth it at this point, since the SM-G973F/DS is really hard to find), is there anything I can find out from the seller first so I don't end up having to send it back?
Or, should I just give up my dream of having an S10 installed with Lineage OS and it's glorious headphone jack and expandable storage forever? If so, are there any worthy alternatives to the S10 worth considering, given my affinity for headphone jacks and expandable storage?
Hello PhonePerfection, all a novel why you speak S10 G973F / DS in the United States.
Already your model S10 G973F/DS exynos 5G or the first 4G model so if these this Europe chip model, if now installed Samsung phone info look at who is scoring at worst take screenshots.
I don't understand your question United States, locked unlocked the seller.
You buy in the back market refurbished and unlocked telephone all operator therefore for sim card, the concern these the chip to install network either US or ASIA controls your model if these good SM-G973F/DS and not SM-G973U or G973U1.
Don't forget to say hello
I think what @meric57 is trying to say is that your phone doesn't have the right chips to communicate on the frequencies in the USA. It's made for other markets and other frequencies... so it won't work here.
If you use FrequencyCheck you can see what carriers support what frequencies on your specific model: https://www.frequencycheck.com/comp...m-td-lte-512gb-samsung-beyond-1/united-states
Scroll down to the "United States" area and you'll see it doesn't support the frequencies used in the USA (except for GSM 2.5, which is old and dead here in the USA). The US is primarily on LTE... and you can see that phone model doesn't support ANY of the available frequencies.
Bottom line "GSM" doesn't tell you enough. You have an incomatible phone model for the USA market. No SIM card will fix that.
Note, in SOME cases, you can activate other frequencies by loading different ROMs into the phone. My old LG V30 did this, for example. I have heard that you can run some Exynos phones here in the USA, but I don't know the details to help. FrequencyCheck may help you figure that out. Be sure the look for the complete model number, not just "Galaxy S10" or something... the naming is worthless for figuring this out.
schwinn8 said:
I think what @meric57 is trying to say is that your phone doesn't have the right chips to communicate on the frequencies in the USA. It's made for other markets and other frequencies... so it won't work here.
If you use FrequencyCheck you can see what carriers support what frequencies on your specific model: https://www.frequencycheck.com/compsomethingatibility/RdEkS7k/samsung-sm-g973f-ds-galaxy-s10-global-dual-sim-td-lte-512gb-samsung-beyond-1/united-states
Scroll down to the "United States" area and you'll see it doesn't support the frequencies used in the USA (except for GSM 2.5, which is old and dead here in the USA). The US is primarily on LTE... and you can see that phone model doesn't support ANY of the available frequencies.
Bottom line "GSM" doesn't tell you enough. You have an incomatible phone model for the USA market. No SIM card will fix that.
Note, in SOME cases, you can activate other frequencies by loading different ROMs into the phone. My old LG V30 did this, for example. I have heard that you can run some Exynos phones here in the USA, but I don't know the details to help. FrequencyCheck may help you figure that out. Be sure the look for the complete model number, not just "Galaxy S10" or something... the naming is worthless for figuring this out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
schwinn8 said:
I think what @meric57 is trying to say is that your phone doesn't have the right chips to communicate on the frequencies in the USA. It's made for other markets and other frequencies... so it won't work here.
If you use FrequencyCheck you can see what carriers support what frequencies on your specific model: https://www.frequencycheck.com/comp...m-td-lte-512gb-samsung-beyond-1/united-states
Scroll down to the "United States" area and you'll see it doesn't support the frequencies used in the USA (except for GSM 2.5, which is old and dead here in the USA). The US is primarily on LTE... and you can see that phone model doesn't support ANY of the available frequencies.
Bottom line "GSM" doesn't tell you enough. You have an incomatible phone model for the USA market. No SIM card will fix that.
Note, in SOME cases, you can activate other frequencies by loading different ROMs into the phone. My old LG V30 did this, for example. I have heard that you can run some Exynos phones here in the USA, but I don't know the details to help. FrequencyCheck may help you figure that out. Be sure the look for the complete model number, not just "Galaxy S10" or something... the naming is worthless for figuring this out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, this is great info. Good to know. It looks like that S10 could only communicate on 1 of 8 bands used by Mint/T-Mobile. That 1 usable band appears to have been deprecated by T-Mobile as it is. I think that explains it perfectly. Thank You!
You're welcome.
Yeah, frequencies/bands are very important to watch, particularly if you're buying out of market devices. You have to know model numbers and carriers to be sure of anything, and unfortunately this info is relatively hidden.
schwinn8 said:
You're welcome.
Yeah, frequencies/bands are very important to watch, particularly if you're buying out of market devices. You have to know model numbers and carriers to be sure of anything, and unfortunately this info is relatively hidden.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The CSC on that device was DBT (Germany). I had to find that out in order to put the correct stock OS back on there.
Makes me wonder if the ebay seller even knows this. They appear to specialize in mobile phones with tens of thousands of transactions, so I would hope they've encountered this situation before. They were more than happy to accept a return on the device. Sent me a prepaid shipping label immediately.
Back to the CSC... Let's say I look for another S10 (SM-G973F/DS) but I ask what the CSC is for that device. Are there any regions outside the lower 48 states with reasonably good chances of it working? I suppose I would need to study the mobile frequency website for the answer to that.
I did some quick searching, and supposedly there are websites that say the 973F/DS will work on MM (mint mobile)... but they don't detail how. For example: https://de-googled.com/blogs/news/a-word-on-network-compatibility-of-our-degoogled-phones
and https://www.ebay.com/p/15030406771 (in the description).
So, maybe it is possible? I don't know, so maybe someone else can chime in.
Personally, I stuck with U-version phones and gave up rooting/romming. It's just getting too hard to find phones that offer this, so I figured I'd just adapt back to a stock ROM, since choices are limited. I had done a bunch of that in the past, but I found that stock roms (today) are pretty good... and allow enough customization that made root/rom unnecessary... for me. My current is an SM-G975U1 (unlocked, USA, Snapdragon S10+) on Total Wireless (VZ MVNO)... it works great and I don't miss root/rom at all.
Rumor is that the Galaxy S23 will only be offered as Snapdragon, so maybe that will open up more options... but I doubt it. Samsung loves it's Knox system, and will likely lock down the phone even more with every generation.
schwinn8 said:
I did some quick searching, and supposedly there are websites that say the 973F/DS will work on MM (mint mobile)... but they don't detail how. For example: https://de-googled.com/blogs/news/a-word-on-network-compatibility-of-our-degoogled-phones
and https://www.ebay.com/p/15030406771 (in the description).
So, maybe it is possible? I don't know, so maybe someone else can chime in.
Personally, I stuck with U-version phones and gave up rooting/romming. It's just getting too hard to find phones that offer this, so I figured I'd just adapt back to a stock ROM, since choices are limited. I had done a bunch of that in the past, but I found that stock roms (today) are pretty good... and allow enough customization that made root/rom unnecessary... for me. My current is an SM-G975U1 (unlocked, USA, Snapdragon S10+) on Total Wireless (VZ MVNO)... it works great and I don't miss root/rom at all.
Rumor is that the Galaxy S23 will only be offered as Snapdragon, so maybe that will open up more options... but I doubt it. Samsung loves it's Knox system, and will likely lock down the phone even more with every generation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link. I think I may try for an S10 again if the seller can tell me what the CSC is. That page on De-googled.com affirms that American devices are more restrictive than their European counterparts.
It just doesn't make any sense to me personally to use a device with an open source OS that has loads of telemetry, spyware, bloat, etc. Which is a contradiction that I am not comfortable with. It's like installing a Linux distro that comes bundled with Facebook.
To me, being proactive about privacy is the equivalent to standing up for yourself in the real world. Sure, you can use a stock ROM and there is nothing wrong with that. It's having the freedom to choose which is most important. So long as that choice is available, I will happily go that route.
I like the added bonus of an Android device that seems faster with a longer lasting battery as well. I mean, I paid for this device. I should have the right to decide what apps are running on it.
No argument there... I agree with why we should be allowed to root/rom. Unfortunately, the carriers pull the strings in the USA (business over people) so we are losing options. Frankly, it pisses me off that they can still prevent phones from connecting to their network just because the IMEI doesn't match (even if the software is correct). In the end, if the device CAN work on the network, the carrier should have no say in allowing/disallowing it on the network. They like to claim that a "bad" device could "hurt" the network, but if that happens, they can lock out that phone and figure it out. I doubt that's even ever happened, but whatever. (They prevented me from using my already-working V30 US998 phone on the network, even though it ran as VS996 with no issues for years... they only later saw the IMEI wasn't "theirs" (original SIM card failed) so they prevented me from re-registering it. So stupid.)
Good luck, and let us know if you figure it out... I'm always curious to learn!
yes, most japan and europe phones do not have the correct radios channels in them for 4g and 5g. i ran into this same problem with my xperia phones that i bought overseas. this is a common problem that can happen.
The S10 and all it's variants is a world compatible GSM phone. So yes, the F variant should work with most GSM carriers and resellers in N. America.
There are various websites that will tell you what frequencies and carriers any particular model will work with if you do a search. Like this one.
WillMyPhoneWork.net - Check if your phone works on a network
Check 2G, 3G, and 4G LTE Network Frequency Compatibility for a Smartphone, Tablet, and Mobile Device in any Country and Mobile Network Carrier
willmyphonework.net
According to that site the SM-G973F/DS supports all 2G, 3G, and 4G frequencies used by Mint.

Has anyone managed to get an XZ1C working on US Verizon now that 3G CDMA is dead?

My old Iphone SE (1st gen) gave out after nearly 6 years of solid service. So I'm finally looking for a new phone and I absolutely cannot stand how large phones have gotten. I don't want a screen that's literally half a foot corner to corner. The XZ1C is the perfect size and shape but there's one problem, it's GSM. I know that CDMA and GSM have died out completely and everything is LTE and up. After looking, I see that the XZ1C supports both voLTE and B13 for Verizon, meaning it should theoretically work on their network as a normal phone as nothing there needs CDMA anymore. When I asked the Verizon support (stupid move, I know) they told me it wouldn't work because it's GSM and that I would need to look at their website to find a phone. I know that they're more worried about lining their pockets than actually helping.
Has anyone managed to get an XZ1C working as a normal phone on Verizon's US network now that the GSM vs. CDMA debacle has finally died out? If so, how difficult was it to get working? I'm almost certain I'll need to get on support with Verizon to get the phone whitelisted but I just want to make sure I don't buy one only to find out that there's some hardware incompatibility (I do know I would need the G8441 model). All the threads I can find on it are from ~2017 when the phone first launched.
Any help would be much appreciated!
Not all LTE is the same, there are still different bands for different providers.
From memory, I used frequency check (or similar, https://www.frequencycheck.com) to look up compatability with the various providers. At the time, it didn't look like Verizon would support it, but you should double check my work, since it may also have changed.
You could so try a SIM if you have one (both the phone and the card). I borrowed a friend's at one point and had little success, but again, it was a while back, and I didn't tyres to get it whitelisted.
I hope that helps. Let us know how you fare.
tonsofquestions said:
Not all LTE is the same, there are still different bands for different providers.
From memory, I used frequency check (or similar, https://www.frequencycheck.com) to look up compatability with the various providers. At the time, it didn't look like Verizon would support it, but you should double check my work, since it may also have changed.
You could so try a SIM if you have one (both the phone and the card). I borrowed a friend's at one point and had little success, but again, it was a while back, and I didn't tyres to get it whitelisted.
I hope that helps. Let us know how you fare.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Checked the freq and it showed the same as the website I use (Kimovil). Same bands are present which is shown to be all except one Verizon band. The main one (at least according to the workers on the Verizon support forums) is B13 which is the main band that carries calls and texts now.
Ah, maybe their primary band has changed, then.
I think it was the opposite last time I looked.

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