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I got my t-mobile TP2 at the end of August. At first I thought it was the best device ever. The screen was huge and clear. Web browsing was awesome and the keyboard is just the best...
Now a few months later I hate this thing. All the things I love are still true but so many bad things have surfaced.
The phone is slow and unresponsive. I hate that it ignores my inputs and I push the key again and again and again and then it decides to empty the buffer and gives me 15 of the letter I was trying to type. I don't like the wait after I make an entry.
I can't stand the lack of a scroll wheel and Dpad. Take GoogleMaps, I knew before that certain actions were a precise number of scroll clicks and then a click to select. Without the wheel I'm stuck pocking at the screen. I used to be able to use Gmaps driving without looking and only taking attention away from driving for a split second. I can't use it now because it's too risky...
I've tried to speed the device up and make it as close to what I want as possible. I turned off Manila and installed voldpad but it's not enough. I'm sick of hard resetting the device trying to make it faster.
The stupid iphone did this. Microsoft and HTC now think that everyone wants to tap away at screens with gimmicky interfaces and the devices are loosing real functionality.
My 8125 was a better device, buttons everywhere and didn't lag.
Thoughts?
yup, walk to the toilet and flushhhhhhhhhh it
I would have to agree with you to a point. My first device was the 8525 . I have also used the tilt and the fuze. It seemed with each generation, the device loses fuctons out of the box. If it was not for xda, i would be hating these devices and gotten an iphone. The tilt 2 is no exeption but the improvements over the fuze out weight the bad aspectes of the device. It might be awhile before the apps catch up with the hardware.
there has been a new wave of devices that use the sliding keybord layout. e features of the upcoming droid read like the wishlist for htc on the touch pro 2
Crazya said:
The phone is slow and unresponsive. I hate that it ignores my inputs and I push the key again and again and again and then it decides to empty the buffer and gives me 15 of the letter I was trying to type. I don't like the wait after I make an entry.
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Click to collapse
Well, this sounds like a hardware issue to me.. perhaps you have a defective phone. Mine is fine, there are a few software glitches here and there, but overall that problem is not common for this device.
I came from a Wizard, so ya know..
I hear ya, I came from a Samsung i760, quite possibly the last WinMoPro phone that will ever sport a traditional phone button grid on the front of the phone (*plus* an excellent slide-out qwerty.) I got quite used to it, and I could do everything blindfolded. It was also built like a tank, no case needed.
But like you, I was seduced by that big, luscious WVGA screen. And so far Im pretty happy, although I do miss the buttons (and Dpad) alot. "The devils' greatest trick was to make the world think they didnt need phones with buttons" was my mantra.
Well, the tradeoffs are good, good enough that I think I'll stick with the TP2 until something better comes along. The speed is much faster, the screen is, well, gorgeous, and a myriad of little other things make it more preferable than the i760 *OVERALL*.
...but man, I wish I could mate the two little bricks and get the best of both worlds.
Well it just is impossible to have both a large screen and buttons on the front of the phone. I still think this phone is the best of both world with the slide out keyboard. This phone's keyboard is very easy to use and large. My Tilt keyboard would sometimes not register a key input because I didn't push the key hard enough. This one is as fast and easy as typing on my computer.
As for sluggishness, I have had none and still use the default T-Mobile rom with TouchFlo3D. Which is actually very suprising to me in having it work so well. With the Tilt you had to ditch the AT&T rom so fast it wasn't even funny. As for your keyboard problem, it almost sound like a hardware buffer problem or that you have something messing you drivers or freezing your phone. First I would check the Memory Usage and then perhaps dig down deeper into the Task Manager and see CPU Usage of your various apps to see if any are hogging it. Perhaps selectively uninstall software. Or last try a warranty exchange.
Granted, my T-Mobile USA Touch Pro 2 doesn't have much installed or changed yet. It does have Exchange Push activated and Facebook, actuall AIM, MyPhone, Marketplace, Bing, Skyfire, PHM RegEdit, Netflix Mobile, and Garmin Mobile XT installed.
I noticed a huge reduction in issues once I switched to WinMo6.5. The keyboard buffering problem is still there, but it's nowhere near as bad, and only really occurs if you fire up an app and immediately start typing.
You just have to realize that what you typed WILL show up eventually, and that the device will quickly catch up to you. It's no different than opening Windows PowerShell on my laptop, and typing a command while waiting for it to load, it'll execute the command once it's loaded...I don't have to worry...
My problem with the TP2 is that it feels fragile and just too.. plastic.. I've had a HTC Wizard before which didn't feel like cheapass plastic.
Too bad HTC has cut on the quality of their phones.. I don't want my phone to feel like it's going to break when I bend the hinge.
i feel the same way. for me tho, i dont think its the phone... i think ita WinMo6.5. So outdated and UGLY with the 6.5.1 additions of "finger buttons." ive been searching for a phone that i can use on tmo with 3g, othrer than mytouch and g1. i hate those devices. if i could get the rhodium onto hero, life would prolly be better.
I am with you 100% when it comes to the d-pad. I currently am still on the Fuze and miss the d-pad from the Tilt. Left and right on the Fuze is unreliable, but I can still use up and down. I am very hesitant to move "up" to the Tilt 2, and you are confirming my fears.
You are right, and I've also thought that if/when Apple makes an iPhone with a qwerty keyboard, you will suddently see a huge influx of new devices with qwerty keyboards. I also bet Apple will come out with a slick voice recognition interface, then everyone else will be following suit with that too.
I still love mine, but dumped the stock ROM a long time ago. I'm on Fusion v6.0, 21869.
I moved to the Rhodium from the Vogue about a month ago and I have to say I love it as much today as I did the day it arrived, probably more. Stock ROM. I thank God every day the DPAD is gone - what a waste of space. Have experienced no hardware issues and far fewer software issues. For the first time, I have a phone that only gets reset during my weekly backup each Monday morning instead of every day or two. Although initially I hated the addition of the audio jack, I recently had occasion to use it for playing preshow music over a theatre sound system for a play, so even that came it handy, though I will always prefer Bluetooth audio.
All i can say is every one to there own, People will love it People will hate it, Me i love it, On the other hand if you Hate it GET RID and leave us to enjoy ours
Well, I'm glad so many still like it. I think my next step is to check out another unit in the store and see if mine is defective.
I'm also going to look at a new ROM, maybe that will speed it up. Any recommendations as to which one I should try?
Well I am been using it for a few months now and it still runs fine. I haven't flashed any ROM yet. Still with Telstra 6.1 ROM.
However, I do miss the D-pad too. Problem is having a large screen and a D-Pad will make the phone larger. I don't think I want anything larger so if I have to choose I will go with large screen. Otherwise I would have bought the TP instead.
I think that they could get both in there if they tried. Maybe a little joystick like the qtek 8130 or the 2125...
I miss the DPad, but then again, the screen is so much bigger than my Diamond that it's easier to finger navigate. A Blackberry trackball would have been awesome.
I'm two weeks into my Sprint TP2 with stock 6.1 ROM, and I am loving it. I listen to music and watch TV shows on the train during my commute. I just discovered voice command and I'm playing around with it. Selecting media is still a bit dodgy, but making calls works amazingly well without a need to record tags for each contact.
I know these features were available on the Diamond, but the headphone jack and storage card make all the difference in the world. I now realize that 4GB non-expandable storage is a huge liability (and ActiveSync is a slow-ass way to transfer files). The USB adapter discouraged me from using the Diamond for music -- now I listen to music and podcasts when I commute via car. No more staticky, commercial ridden radio for me.
I loaded Fusion visual voicemail, but I haven't been able to use it because I haven't missed a single call since I got the TP2 (with the Treo, Diamond, and Mogul, I would frequently get calls that went straight to voicemail).
And the battery life is a tremendous improvement over the Diamond. When I used the Diamond, I would leave the house with a full charge and then recharge it two more times at work. I don't know if I could get through an entire day on one charge with the TP2 (it would be close), but the charging itself is so much faster that I just need a 20 minute boost towards the end of the day to get me back home. The Diamond would sometimes takes 2 hours to get back to full charge. It was maddening.
I think the two features that would have made this phone perfect are a trackball and more stable screen rotation. Many apps practically crash when you rotate the screen (opera mini has to be restarted if I accidentally open the screen to type, and a couple of times I had to hard reboot because it got locked up). I'm glad the G Sensor doesn't rotate most programs -- I actually find it an annoyance. I prefer portrait mode 99% of the time unless I'm using the keyboard.
And speaking of which, what an awesome keyboard. The Mogul keyboard was awful, which is why I settled for the Diamond instead of waiting for the Touch Pro to come back into stock. I figured I barely ever used the keyboard, so it didn't make sense to spend more money and wait an indefinite amount of time for a feature I didn't even use. The TP2 keyboard is a different animal -- the spaced, offset keys make typing a breeze. I can actually pound out a few paragraphs now without having to correct every fourth letter. It more than makes up for the thickness.
And now that I have the keyboard, I can control emulated games. That was pretty much impossible on the Diamond.
Maybe in a few weeks I could change my mind, but I doubt it. If I could get the VolDpad repeat scroll mode to work properly in Opera Mini, I wouldn't even mind not having a trackball.
I have owned every HTC phone ever offered by AT&T (previously Cingular) , starting with the 2150 (wizard) , Hermes, Kaizer, Raphael, and now Rhodium. The first (2150 or wizard) was almost useless, and although you can see the potential it was practically a piece of trash. With the Hermes and Kaiser things slightly improved especially if I flashed the correct ROM, I still have my Kaiser which I use as a substitute phone. Starting with Fuze (Raphael) these phones are significantly improved, none the less lack of support for a capacitive screen have kept them one or two steps behind the Iphone or even your regular touch screen phones. My son has an LG with Symbian OS and the touch screen works beautifully, and its a lot less cost than these expensive WM phones. The notification remains an issue especially lack of repeat without third party apps.
Yet the versatility and potential for customization is far beyond any other phone. I have to say that if this site was not in existence, most likely I, like many others would have given up on these types of phones a long time ago (HTC listen and heed).
This long winded start of this post is to give you my two cents based on my experience. By virtue of being a member of this site we all make modifications to our phones, install and uninstall a huge number of app and ROMs, we remap keys and make short cuts etc. Windows OS tends to leave behind fragments of programs and registry changes and even key that were created even after uninstalls, and after many of these you have dead snippets of code left behind scattered all over, you also will have other modifications created by these programs that do not revert to original by simple uninstall, leaving your phone operating at a much less than optimal settings, where some setting is causing it to look for a program that does not exist anymore, or it is constantly hunting for things you already uninstalled, etc. My experience with my last two phones from att, is that the original ROM was really optimized specifically for that device, on both after flashing many ROMs I found that the original ROM (minus bloatware loaded by the carrier) gave me the best option for speed and functionality, which made these excellent devices much better than any phone on the market, and yes much better than an Iphone. I also found that after few month with heavy customization my phones became boggy and did not work well. I suggest that if your phone today is not working as well as it did when you first bought it, you should do a hard reset, learn how to us Sashmi which will automatically reload all the programs and settings you need. Other commercial back up programs may back up the settings that are causing the problem, and may not be useful for this purpose. Just try using your phone immediately after a hard reset with no extra software and you might be surprised at how much better it functions. If you reload your programs and it again becomes slow, then a software you are loading that may not be compatible. If so inclined you may want to reload your programs one by one and you should be able to figure out which one is causing the problem. You may have to live without a program that you like; remember many cabs you load from here are Beta modifications that are ported from other devices that may not function well on your phone . If your original OS is not fast enough then you should flash a ROM from this site that was designed for your device based on your carrier. You should remember that although it is a lot of fun to modify your phone, you may not have the best combination for optimizing your phone, and the slowness may be a result of all the fun you had doing that. I don't think it fair to say that your phone does not function well after you changed many things on it. But if you are like me, you will continue to mess with it as long as you are on this site, just remember to reset and start from scratch and things will go back to how they were!
Here's my HTC history:
Hermes (TyTN): Clunky, but a nice phone for its time
Kaiser: (TYTN II): As above, lovely tilting keyboard, faster and the most responsive satnav of them all.
Raphael (Touch Pro): What were they thinking! Screen too small and GPS a total failure, often just not working - and when it did the lag was awful. Hate this phone with a passion.
Rhodium (Touch Pro 2): Great phone. Miss the dpad a bit. No TAB key!! (OK, you can map one). Slight GPS lag. S2U2 pretty much mandatory to avoid calling people from your pocket.
If I couldn't have the Rhodium, I'd go back to my Kaiser.
I have not played enough with my TP2 yet, but I think if you like hardware buttons, you can customize the existing buttons with utilities like AE buttons and many others which allows you even double or triple click on the same buttons. I use it even on Tilt which has D pad and the scroll wheel as well. I would say give it a try.
Hello,
I have a SM-P600 with Android 4.4.2 (Note 10.1 2014 Edition) and would like to use my 3G USB Key (Huawei E1752) ; This 3G stick works fine on my old TF101.
I've tried to use it with my SM-P600 but infortunetely, it doesn't seem to work, even with the "PPP Widget" apps. PPP Widget displays the famous "No driver found" issue. Josh, "PPP Widget" developer, told me ther eis no way for the moment to make his apps working because there is no loading module (.ko file).
So I wonder if I could use a SM-P601 ROM (SM-P600 with 3G) on my SM-P600 to get the right modules or flashinf P601 ROM on P600 means "brick"?
Otherwise is there another way to make a 3G USB key working on this tablet?
Best regards.
Unfortunately...
Part of the problem is that a custom kernel module would need to be loaded with root, via insmod, and this would need to be coded and constantly reinjected on boot. As far as I know most of these fobs do not make their drivers open-source, specifically, although I could see a possibility in modifying one of the generic drivers from a typical linux full install (likely heavily modified). Even with a ko/kernel module, however, it's possible that the fob might not be able to get enough power from the tablet, itself; I'm not sure what the power draw is, but I have a few laying around; I could probably check that later on.
All of that said, while it may be possible to try to hack something up to work with OTG (for instance I know it CAN be done with external network devices in general (there have been successful drivers built for external Alfa wifi usb-based adapters, but that's wifi), my suspicion is that even if 1) and 2) here were fulfilled, there'd need to be support in other ways built into the ROM itself (I'm wondering if a bunch of the code for this could be pulled from the existent 605 ROM though, which is a consideration). I'm not sure if, for instance, even if JB/KK on the Galaxy Note 2014 were to be made to recognize it, you wouldn't have to disable other things to make it work; I know for the external USB wifi devices, a hack was needed to disable the onboard wifi within the device.
If I had the time or the money I'd certainly be willing to try to make something custom in general. That said, I'm wondering if linuxonandroid (search the forums, or check out linuxonandroid.org) might support it out of the box on the full system img's (given functionality, Kali's kernel probably has the best chance of any of the current available ones, but I don't really know; I'm grabbing the image later on tonight to see what happens if I try)...
In general, though, I suspect that even if this somehow partially works, there are going to be a lot of problems that only a real custom ROM would solve. Though frankly, I can't figure out why nobody has yet. Maybe, like me, people just don't have enough time, and the people who do have time and the skill don't really need a specialized ROM enough.
I'm still kicking myself in the butt for not getting the 3G version for development purposes, personally; hundreds of dollars more for what one could get in a USB fob for 20-30 bucks only sounded like a bad deal til I wanted the functionality; your best bet may be to get a crapper of an android phone for under a hundred dollars and just let it be a hotspot. It's what I finally just gave in to doing. The one upside is decent battery life; if the P600 could supply enough power for the USB 3G dongle to work, all USB-dongled devices, to the best of my knowledge, kill batteries faster than anything built-in would.
Good luck.
Yes... You're probabably right. Don't know.
And I could use an old phone to be a hotspot or something else like that, but it's not what I want :cyclops: Just one device for all will be better.
Kasimodo said:
Yes... You're probabably right. Don't know.
And I could use an old phone to be a hotspot or something else like that, but it's not what I want :cyclops: Just one device for all will be better.
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Click to collapse
I'd really prefer the same thing, myself. I generally carry around a phone with my other stuff anyway and don't use it for much in the way of voice calls, so it's not too much of a burden. There's also hostapd in linux, or any of a number of mobile routers you can boot up in vbox, if you're carrying a laptop around at the same time; I really hate that our devices, and android in general, won't do 'ad-hoc' networks. I think that's one of my biggest gripes.
I suspect once Ubuntu touch is fully stable it'll be our best option; at a minimum I'm pretty sure I could easily crank out a driver for that. Android, I'm not sure. I'll let you know if I find the time to dig around with with droid though; I've been meaning to learn more about device driver support in Android anyway, now that it's finally pretty much mature.
After nearly three years with my trusty Sony Xperia Z5 Compact, I feel it's time to move on. Got my eyes on this phone since like forever and now that OP6 is releasing I'm hoping for some nice price drops. Anyway, I've read some threads on getting started modding the phone, but I still have a few questions.
With my phone I'm used to having one (usable) ROM, recovery and kernel combo. However, OP5t seems to have quite a few. Which ones are recommended? Do I need to patch the kernel to be able to boot with a modded system partition and to modify it while Android is running? (dm-verity and Sony RIC on my Z5C, respectively.)
Which is the go-to Windows app for flashing ROMs? (Like Flashtool for Sony?)
Do I have to back up a partition so that the camera keeps working and to still be able to play DRM-protected content after bootloader unlock? Which partition do I need to restore to completely lock the bootloader in case I change my mind (and need warranty again)? (So it shows "locked" instead of "relocked".) (On Sony I had to do these with the TA partition.)
Thanks a lot for reading through, I know I wrote a rather huge wall of text.
QWERTYsystems said:
After nearly three years with my trusty Sony Xperia Z5 Compact, I feel it's time to move on. Got my eyes on this phone since like forever and now that OP6 is releasing I'm hoping for some nice price drops. Anyway, I've read some threads on getting started modding the phone, but I still have a few questions.
With my phone I'm used to having one (usable) ROM, recovery and kernel combo. However, OP5t seems to have quite a few. Which ones are recommended? Do I need to patch the kernel to be able to boot with a modded system partition and to modify it while Android is running? (dm-verity and Sony RIC on my Z5C, respectively.)
Which is the go-to Windows app for flashing ROMs? (Like Flashtool for Sony?)
Do I have to back up a partition so that the camera keeps working and to still be able to play DRM-protected content after bootloader unlock? Which partition do I need to restore to completely lock the bootloader in case I change my mind (and need warranty again)? (So it shows "locked" instead of "relocked".) (On Sony I had to do these with the TA partition.)
Thanks a lot for reading through, I know I wrote a rather huge wall of text.
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Click to collapse
You're entering into Oneplus country, options rule the roost. You are going to have to read about all the roms and kernals and make a decision on what best meets your needs.
I wouldn't start there though, OOS is pretty good in it's own right so the smart money is on taking it for a spin before you move on to the roms. Many who do will stay there and many of those who leave for the roms come back to it. It really is that solid. To that end I would start by either simply updating the phone to the latest stock and rooting/recovery or go to the open beta with rooting/recovery. The latter have been by and large very stable as a whole so you are usually safe using them in daily driver duties. In either case useful upgrades to stock android that came on the phone along with some tuning via magisk will get a lot of users where they want to go with stock reliability and functionality.
To install you're going to use fastboot so you'll need to set that up, there are several tutorials available if you're unfamiliar with it. Some people just don't want to take the time to get fastboot 101 capable, if you're of that mind you can use several tools which are available in the development section.
You didn't ask but I'm going to throw something out there for your consideration. The 6 is going to be here soon, I get the impression you hang onto your phones a long time making it perhaps a better choice. You'll wait a bit more than a month but gain a half a year in "newness" to start that long journey.
QWERTYsystems said:
After nearly three years with my trusty Sony Xperia Z5 Compact, I feel it's time to move on. Got my eyes on this phone since like forever and now that OP6 is releasing I'm hoping for some nice price drops. Anyway, I've read some threads on getting started modding the phone, but I still have a few questions.
With my phone I'm used to having one (usable) ROM, recovery and kernel combo. However, OP5t seems to have quite a few. Which ones are recommended? Do I need to patch the kernel to be able to boot with a modded system partition and to modify it while Android is running? (dm-verity and Sony RIC on my Z5C, respectively.)
Which is the go-to Windows app for flashing ROMs? (Like Flashtool for Sony?)
Do I have to back up a partition so that the camera keeps working and to still be able to play DRM-protected content after bootloader unlock? Which partition do I need to restore to completely lock the bootloader in case I change my mind (and need warranty again)? (So it shows "locked" instead of "relocked".) (On Sony I had to do these with the TA partition.)
Thanks a lot for reading through, I know I wrote a huge wall of text.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Came from the Xperia Z2 after about 4 years and just recently bought the OP5T.
AFAIK, there's no Flashtool like application for OnePlus devices so you just have to rely on TWRP and there's no such thing as that stupid TA-Partition on the OP5T (or any OnePlus device). You won't lose anything when you unlock your OnePlus device, not even your warranty.
I don't have a recommended custom kernel or rom since I'm very pleased with OxygenOS but the main reason why I'm not switching to a custom ROM is that of Portrait Mode and Face Unlock which aren't available on custom ROMs.
There is Skipsoft and another, the name escapes me but it's there in the development section. Face unlock (Google) and portrait are available depending on the rom but are problematic on most. It is a good point because the google face unlock is not as good as the OP implementation. There are also the nav gestures which most seem to like and I'm among them.
Thanks everyone! Already learned so much! (But I still have some more.) You said OOS is stable (I heard it has some RAM management issues), should I go for the open beta? Do the new features outweigh the bugs? How is Magisk and themeing on OOS (does the former have bugs/random reboots, is latter even possible (Andromeda on Oreo, maybe))? Is there a way I could preserve my data between ROMs? Are there some must have apps/mods I should totally try out? (such as stereo sound mod and Google Camera) Speaking of, is there a recommended Google Camera port for this phone? And lastly, how is the audio quality?
EDIT: Oh and can this phone be easily bricked? I remember no matter what I did with my Z5C I could always reflash it in flashmode.
OOS is stable as can be, even the beta is pretty darn stable, more so than some stable releases. Realistically if the beta isn't offering something you want there is no reason not to go with the official release. You can read about the beta and it's various changes over on that thread.
The only issue either OOS or it's beta in terms of RAM management is that it makes engineers over at Samsung envious, this wont be a problem for most of us.
I'm not a theme guy of I've nothing to offer there. Magisk has been fully functional and has worked without a hitch in my use. As with any device the more modules you load the more you increase your odds of having a conflict in much the same way as you run into with exposed. I'm using the stereo mod, modded youtube, volume steps, and Sony framework with their player. I've had Viper on and it worked without problems but I've since broke down and purchased high(ish) end headphones and don't use it now. You'll have to try your faves and see how it goes but if their mainstream and you don't go overboard with the modules I'd expect them to work.
I use a combination of Ti and nandroids and do a clean flash with every new rom, normally I'll backup and then just dirty flash when going to the next iteration of the same rom. The phone is difficult to brick as long as you follow instructions and pay attention to what your doing, That would apply to almost any modern android phone though, they aren't easy to brick and typically even when you think you've bricked it you haven't, you just don't now how to get out of it. As good fortune would have it a lot of people here have already stubbed their toe on almost any problem you can have and between them and the guru's you will seldom be left with an actual honest to God brick. Pay attention and you shouldn't have to encounter a day of "oh crap" while you wait for others to help you.
I'd rate the audio on speaker as just OK, the in-call quality up at the ear has enough volume and is clear but not special. That puts it right about the same place as I rate most flagship phones.
For now don't overthink all this stuff, the 5T is an excellent value as most will say but more it's in many respects a better day to day phone than my Note 8 was which I've since given to one of my kids. You don't have to make excuses for this phone, outside of a camera which is behind the flagship curve it's solid.
I hope this is the best place to ask this question since it's largely concerned with "upgrading".
Earlier this year I'd had enough of my Apple iPhone and its endless buggy updates which the phone would railroad you into installing and had no way to disable that. I elected to go for an Android phone. After spending a while looking I went for a Samsung Galaxy S8 which came with Android 7 and was literally flawless, the first such phone I'd had since iOS 8.6. Hurrah
However the phone has a major fault confirmed by the manufacturer. One key thing I checked was that I wouldn't be in the same position as with Apple, forced into installing updates. I am actually a software developer and one with a very limited tolerance of buggy things. I also understood that with Android you can't undo updates without invalidating the warranty. I have no problem with being informed they're available. Once. I can then review whether I want to risk it or not. I don't want to risk Oreo since there are plenty of reports of reduced battery life among other things and it brings nothing new of any significance and once it's on there it can't be taken off again.
So I checked the features and menus on the S8 before I bought it and went ahead.
This phone was great for about 3 months until the Oreo update was released. At which point the device began nagging. There are various settings which should, among other things, stop it downloading updates automatically and a developer mode option that should stop it updating. However as confirmed by Samsung these options simply do not work, it is a defect out-of-the-box and they are ignored. The phone will do what it wants not what you want.
So I'm now back where I was with Apple albeit the device is otherwise bug-free and superb. I have an uncancellable dialog box coming up repeatedly trying to railroad me into installing the Oreo update it should not have downloaded anyway. This is destroying what was a superb device. I've expended ages resetting it already. There aren't enough hours in the day. Android 7 is great. It isn't my primary device, that being my PC. I just want something that runs a few apps and checks email and that's about all. I don't want a "Samsung Experience"
Samsung refuse to fix this, but as they've confirmed it's a fault I can get a refund from the retailer now. However I still need a phone. My question is:
Is it absolutely necessary to invalidate the warranty on a brand new phone out-of-the-box to stop this behaviour since they're all like it? (e.g. "rooting" is the only option)
Or, does anyone know more than Samsung do about their phones and can advise how the phone can be repaired by me (have done factory reset, denied internet, set not to update etc., as Samsung confirm, this part is broken and doesn't work). I could for instance block Samsung's IPs if I knew what they were but that will only work on WiFi here, not on mobile data. As I understand it the package that needs disabling is called "Software Update" but that isn't possible (again without invalidating the warranty which I'd rather not do since it's almost new).
I know how to scupper Microsoft's Windows Updates but that's because that's what I work with and I know the OS quite well and what they're up to. But I don't know how the Android OS works nor should I need to, really. Another reason for my reluctance to forcibly replace the OS.
Don't mind a pop-up box informing me updates are available with a button "Do Not Install" coming up when the update is released. What I don't want is what this phone and Apple phones do which is to suggest they know better than you do and eventually force you into installing them.
Or, which Android phones behave properly and don't have this sort of fault? That respect the user's settings and do not do whatever they like? I'll need to choose a new one anyway so this would be really useful.
Thanks for reading all that
I've read a lot about certain MTK phones having a number of issues running GSI Roms. In addition, I've read a decent amount about the changes in treble implementation for phones released with 9.0 as opposed to 8.0 or 8.1. I'm debating getting the Umidigi F1 and am wondering if there is any reason to be hopeful that it may be more successful running GSI roms than previous phones? I'm on T-Mobile and bands 2/4/12 are very solid in my area with band 71 still a ways out. As a result, I really like the hardware for the price point, but given reviews for their other phones as well as Umidigi's history, I don't really have much of an interest running the phone with its stock software. Assuming it's not going to have a development community, I thought I'd throw it out those far more knowledgeable on the technology and ask if I could reasonably hope for it to be fully functional on a stock GSI?
Thanks
We have the phone rooted (though only on Magisk 17.3, help @topjohnwu?). The stock software is not super but also not completely terrible. The most offensive thing about it to me is the Google bloatware, ironically. It's missing the Pie gesture navigation, but it does have a decent navbar implementation and a passable if a little outdated gesture navigation system with a few decent options, all involving a swipe up. It's not too bad, and can be extended further with some Play Store apps. I mean, it's basically the typical "pretty much AOSP, but with a couple odd MediaTek tweaks" that I've come to expect from western targeted MediaTek devices from manufacturers like BLU. The Fingerprint sensor is pretty bad. I can only hope UMIDIGI will make it better with software updates. I find it's usable after you get used to it, and it gets used to you, but still occasionally annoyingly inaccurate, and not super duper fast at that (actually passing a fingerprint test is very fast on the off chance it works the first time but unlocking takes a sec). These would basically be my major gripes with buying one at this time.
I haven't really tried getting anything with Treble running, but we do have a TWRP that supports it (though I will openly admit it's kinda shady).
Check out UMIDIGI's forums. They let people talk about rooting their phones in the device sections, and even post guides for how to do it themselves, lol.
EDIT: It's probably also worth noting that UMIDIGI will probably never attempt to lock this phone down in any way. It having shady Chinese firmware is a blessing because for the most part, no matter how hard you brick the phone, you can use MediaTek's SP Flash Tool to unbrick it, and unlike BLU, UMIDIGI probably will never take that away. To be fair, that also comes with certain security risks, because not only is the bootloader easily unlockable (in a somewhat Nexus-like fashion with fastboot), I don't think it actually verifies the boot signatures even if the bootloader is locked. Fastboot won't let you flash anything but you can use SP Flash Tools to bypass that and flash unsigned software anyway. Personally I would still unlock the bootloader anyway. Even though it extends the boot time by five seconds, it allows you to use standard Android platform tools for your usual, non debricking activities, because I don't like MediaTek's much.
Thanks for all the insight on the phone. Your observations seem to echo a lot of what I have seen written about their products in general of late. It should essentially be a stock experience, as they advertise their OS as such, but their version of "stock" seems to come with it's own set of quirks that can be frustrating. In addition, they seem to do a poor job of writing software that lives up to the hardware, as exhibited by your fingerprint experience or some of the things I've read about their camera software. All of the little minor issues are why I was hoping it could run a Pie GSI with fewer hangups on account of it being released with 9.0. Admittedly, I don't know much about the details, just read enough to be optimistic about the newer phones playing a little nicer with GSI roms.
I did notice that it had an unofficial TWRP version for the phone. I may take a shot at it and hope for a little development or successful GSI experience down the road. It is nice knowing that your stock experience isn't terrible, though. I've read some horror stories about previous Umidigi phones and hopefully that is no longer the case with their newer releases.
Thanks again for the thoughts.
ColtonDRG said:
We have the phone rooted (though only on Magisk 17.3, help @topjohnwu?). The stock software is not super but also not completely terrible. The most offensive thing about it to me is the Google bloatware, ironically. It's missing the Pie gesture navigation, but it does have a decent navbar implementation and a passable if a little outdated gesture navigation system with a few decent options, all involving a swipe up. It's not too bad, and can be extended further with some Play Store apps. I mean, it's basically the typical "pretty much AOSP, but with a couple odd MediaTek tweaks" that I've come to expect from western targeted MediaTek devices from manufacturers like BLU. The Fingerprint sensor is pretty bad. I can only hope UMIDIGI will make it better with software updates. I find it's usable after you get used to it, and it gets used to you, but still occasionally annoyingly inaccurate, and not super duper fast at that (actually passing a fingerprint test is very fast on the off chance it works the first time but unlocking takes a sec). These would basically be my major gripes with buying one at this time.
I haven't really tried getting anything with Treble running, but we do have a TWRP that supports it (though I will openly admit it's kinda shady).
Check out UMIDIGI's forums. They let people talk about rooting their phones in the device sections, and even post guides for how to do it themselves, lol.
EDIT: It's probably also worth noting that UMIDIGI will probably never attempt to lock this phone down in any way. It having shady Chinese firmware is a blessing because for the most part, no matter how hard you brick the phone, you can use MediaTek's SP Flash Tool to unbrick it, and unlike BLU, UMIDIGI probably will never take that away. To be fair, that also comes with certain security risks, because not only is the bootloader easily unlockable (in a somewhat Nexus-like fashion with fastboot), I don't think it actually verifies the boot signatures even if the bootloader is locked. Fastboot won't let you flash anything but you can use SP Flash Tools to bypass that and flash unsigned software anyway. Personally I would still unlock the bootloader anyway. Even though it extends the boot time by five seconds, it allows you to use standard Android platform tools for your usual, non debricking activities, because I don't like MediaTek's much.
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Click to collapse
teeterteeter said:
Thanks for all the insight on the phone. Your observations seem to echo a lot of what I have seen written about their products in general of late. It should essentially be a stock experience, as they advertise their OS as such, but their version of "stock" seems to come with it's own set of quirks that can be frustrating. In addition, they seem to do a poor job of writing software that lives up to the hardware, as exhibited by your fingerprint experience or some of the things I've read about their camera software. All of the little minor issues are why I was hoping it could run a Pie GSI with fewer hangups on account of it being released with 9.0. Admittedly, I don't know much about the details, just read enough to be optimistic about the newer phones playing a little nicer with GSI roms.
I did notice that it had an unofficial TWRP version for the phone. I may take a shot at it and hope for a little development or successful GSI experience down the road. It is nice knowing that your stock experience isn't terrible, though. I've read some horror stories about previous Umidigi phones and hopefully that is no longer the case with their newer releases.
Thanks again for the thoughts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mostly bought the phone for the excellent North American band support, it's one of the few cheaper Chinese phones that do. I'm a fan of Xiaomi's products but band support is typically pretty limited unless you pick up the really high end ones. My biggest gripe with TWRP right now is that USB doesn't work which means you have to transfer all your zips to a microSD card since internal storage is borked thanks to forceencrypt, which we can disable now. I don't mess with the camera too much, typically, but the app itself looks pretty basic. It again reminds me of the usual stuff you would get on MTK phones, there aren't a whole lot of options but the ones that are there look OK-ish? Idk, again, I don't take many pictures. This morning I tried to flash a GSI and my phone just started bootlooping but I didn't follow the procedure at all so I probably missed a step. I will try some more in the future and let you know.
The band support was the biggest reason I was looking at the phone as well. There are certainly a ton of cool, unique new phones coming out that lack the necessary bands in the US.
Thanks again for sharing all the first-hand experience with the phone. You certainly don't need to go out of your way to flash any roms, but it would be cool to hear if you run into something that works well for you in the future.
ColtonDRG said:
I mostly bought the phone for the excellent North American band support, it's one of the few cheaper Chinese phones that do. I'm a fan of Xiaomi's products but band support is typically pretty limited unless you pick up the really high end ones. My biggest gripe with TWRP right now is that USB doesn't work which means you have to transfer all your zips to a microSD card since internal storage is borked thanks to forceencrypt, which we can disable now. I don't mess with the camera too much, typically, but the app itself looks pretty basic. It again reminds me of the usual stuff you would get on MTK phones, there aren't a whole lot of options but the ones that are there look OK-ish? Idk, again, I don't take many pictures. This morning I tried to flash a GSI and my phone just started bootlooping but I didn't follow the procedure at all so I probably missed a step. I will try some more in the future and let you know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mmm I think I did a bad thing with my F1. I actually tried to flash a ROM via fastboot (PowerShell) and it failed. I was able to successfully restore it, but upon doing so I now have red text in the upper right of the screen. Everything else seems to be fine, though! I even followed a tutorial to restore IMEIs 1+2 and MEID.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
EDIT: Actually solved now. Bencebacsi on the UMIDIGI forums posted a special version of the SN Writer tool that addresses this.
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AsqLR2yZd3fMiO9GKQIRNhiplqVcNA
I not only got root, but customized it to look the way I want. I also experimented in removing Umidigi's Quickstep system app; I succeeded. Initially, it kept bringing up a prompt indicating an instability, but after a reboot it hasn't appeared again. A side effect of this is that my Recent Apps view is now stacked vertically with the pseudo 3D look like it used to be in Android; apps are dismissed by swiping to the left or right.
I'm only sad that I can't adjust the display size.
Veiran said:
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AsqLR2yZd3fMiO9GKQIRNhiplqVcNA
I not only got root, but customized it to look the way I want. I also experimented in removing Umidigi's Quickstep system app; I succeeded. Initially, it kept bringing up a prompt indicating an instability, but after a reboot it hasn't appeared again. A side effect of this is that my Recent Apps view is now stacked vertically with the pseudo 3D look like it used to be in Android; apps are dismissed by swiping to the left or right.
I'm only sad that I can't adjust the display size.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you get substratum working? Mine is broken...
mrram said:
How did you get substratum working? Mine is broken...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have it loaded and granted SU, it's just a matter of downloading a good theme and applying it in the correct fashion.
Starting off with Building and Updating. Select the right apps/services in the Themes tab to enable it for; some are going to be incompatible and you'll receive an error if you try to do so. Once you've got the proper ones selected, there's that button on the bottom right which opens four options. Press the Build & Update one. If everything goes well, it won't return errors.
Next, you'll restart your phone and reopen Substratum. Go to the Manager tab, select the apps/services that should show up here, then go to the bottom-right button and press Enable selected. The screen should blink as substratum enables it.
I have the umi one pro it has booted every P ,Q gsi ever made
bzo22 said:
I have the umi one pro it has booted every P ,Q gsi ever made
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Click to collapse
Any major bugs? Did NFC worked well?
I have a Umidigi one pro too and I can't root, and the notch in landscape on cutout. But the big problem is the root. All the other things go good with a minor bugs. I'm refer to pie.
SnapTheRipper said:
Any major bugs? Did NFC worked well?
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Click to collapse
NFC doesn't work in any build I've flashed
---------- Post added at 12:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:38 AM ----------
Botandroid said:
I have a Umidigi one pro too and I can't root, and the notch in landscape on cutout. But the big problem is the root. All the other things go good with a minor bugs. I'm refer to pie.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should flashed asop v112 gsi it come with gapps and root
bzo22 said:
NFC doesn't work in any build I've flashed
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Click to collapse
Maybe on F1 it's different? I'm using it btw, not the One Pro!
Botandroid said:
I have a Umidigi one pro too and I can't root, and the notch in landscape on cutout. But the big problem is the root. All the other things go good with a minor bugs. I'm refer to pie.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use Magisk 17.1/17.2 it's the best for pie roms
Btw can we get miui/flymeOs/colorOs rom on our device?? I'm using Umi one pro too and I love those roms than aosp roms
Botandroid said:
I have a Umidigi one pro too and I can't root, and the notch in landscape on cutout. ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I flashed phhusson v204 (Android 10) on the One Pro. Is there any chance to get the wide notch considered ? Would the Android9 fix work ?