I bought an unlocked AT&T i747 in the U.S. and gave it to my sister in Germany, where she uses it on the O2 network. It's still on the 4.1.x AT&T stock ROM, and I want to upgrade it to 4.3, but have a few question for you S III experts:
1) Should I use the official AT&T MJB ROM, or one of the Rogers/Bell/Telus MK5 ROMs? (keep in mind that I need none of the carrier specific stuff, I just want the best 4.3 stock ROM for the i747)
2) It is unclear to me what difference the new 4.3 bootloader makes. Do I need o flash it, or am I better off leaving the bootloader unchanged? I understand one cannot go back once on the 4.3 bootloader, but I don't understand what advantages the new bootloader brings.
Any advice is greatly appreciated. I am still in Germany for a few days before returning to the U.S., and would love to perform the upgrade while I'm here.
Also, battery life is of utmost importance, so if upgrading to 4.3 is known to have any negative impact in this regard, please let me know.
Thanks!
-J
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
Related
Hey folks. I'm really tempted to get the T-Mobile S4, have it unlocked so I can take it to AT&T but I know at some point I'll be doing custom roms and probably radio upgrades since they come out once in a while. But will doing any of that break the SIM unlock? The one I fear most is probably radio upgrades but I've never moved a phone to another carrier so don't know all of the implications. Roms I doubt will be an issue but anyone know or have previous experience? At worse I have to keep calling T-Mobile to get it unlocked again if radio upgrades mess it up but I'd rather not be calling them all the time and if it is a problem then maybe I need to rethink this a bit more.
No, when you unlock it, it will be permanently unlocked, even you restore to stock rom, flash any other rom, radios, recovery or anything to OS or software related.
Before you flash a rom, make sure to try it in another provider with the factory/stock version, so you can make sure that the phone is working fine since the beginning,
T-Mobile S4 (SGH-M919) has a lot to offer in connectivity such as LTE Bands 1/2/4/5/7/17; in HSPA+/UMTS: 850/AWS/1900/2100MHz and finally GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz, so it surely will work on the AT&T network.
While the AT&T S4 (SGH-I337) only has LTE: Bands 1/4/7/17; HSPA+/UMTS: 850/1900/2100MHz; GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz.
For unlocking your T-Mobile S4, here is the link to the new T-Mobile Unlocking Policies: http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-1588. I bought my new S4 recently and they declined to unlock it before the first 40 days (postpaid) and before the first 60 days (prepaid) and there are certain other requirements to comply.
Lucky for me I found a trick on this forum to unlock it without the subsidy code (since my requests were rejected), it worked flawlessly and even I restore or flash any stock or custom rom, the unlocked state stays permanently because it's based on the NV system, just don't mess up with the NV base system.
If you want a phone with full LTE bands coverage, go for the M919 and it's bootloader unlocked from factory unlike the AT&T version which is bootloader locked. So, you can't go wrong with this model.
In terms of performance, the international version I9500 (without LTE support) is faster than any other S4 with SnapDragon 600 processor, I tested it myself since I have both I9500 and M919, the I9500 is octa-core (4-core of 1.6, and 4-core of 1.2) but only 4-cores work at the same time, in order to have a better power management, but even works in 1.6, it's a little bit faster than the 1.9 from SD600, i noticed on the graphics performance too.
And custom roms and other mods will come thru time for this specific model, just be patience, I have my M919 working with a non-US carrier sim card and installed custom rom Wicked v2 and it's working fast and stable.
I hope this info help you to decide!
Cheers!
Screwbal said:
Hey folks. I'm really tempted to get the T-Mobile S4, have it unlocked so I can take it to AT&T but I know at some point I'll be doing custom roms and probably radio upgrades since they come out once in a while. But will doing any of that break the SIM unlock? The one I fear most is probably radio upgrades but I've never moved a phone to another carrier so don't know all of the implications. Roms I doubt will be an issue but anyone know or have previous experience? At worse I have to keep calling T-Mobile to get it unlocked again if radio upgrades mess it up but I'd rather not be calling them all the time and if it is a problem then maybe I need to rethink this a bit more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I have a 2nd hand S3 i747m with ver 4.1.2 on it. It is unbranded, rooted and has TWRP on it as well. How can I tell which ver. it is? Or does it even matter when flashing roms? Trying hard not to screw it up ?.
Thanks for any info.
can any aussies help me with this...ive got a n 7105 4g coming to me...now I know(??) its not a Telstra phone,as it doesn't have the Telstra logo next to the 4g on the back cover..i need to find a firmware on sam mobile to load into it (previous owner has rooted it and left a custom rom on it)..now I can find Telstra and optus firmware (im with optus atm), but I was hoping theres an aussie unbranded 4.1.2 firmware I can flash that will work ( owner assures me phone never updated to 4.3,and I want to keep it that way,to avoid all that knox bs.. also will I have problems just flashing a stock 4.12 to the phone??? I have read that I could have problems if I downgrade the firmware,what could happen?(assuming it hasn't seen the 4.3 update)..will I have problems if I flash the optus or Telstra? any help mu7ch appreciated, thanks :good:
It's an old thread but this is a 4.1.2 aussie based rom
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2093080
[ROM][GT-N7105/N7105T]#HASHCHECK-HYBRID# V3.0[4.1.2][Aroma][DEDEX-ROOTED][28/06/2013]
If you want to run a 4.3 rom without knox you just need agni or devil kernel for wifi. I'm from the UK so can't really help with much else
Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk
Well in short I have an At&t Model GS4 the i337 its currently unlocked running on stock Nj4 and of course want to root it. First of all i suspect i need to use t mobile roms now that i am on that network.
Here is a list of questions and links are also appreciated as answers anything that helps!
First and foremost how should i root this (my last device was a G3) so if things are different please tell me also, I their an app or a thread you can point me to.
Secondly how do i update it to a v5.1 or the latest so updating them rom later is not a problem if i must use odin to do this (i want to use the latest to use odin the least)
Lastly anyone who can give directions on how to root and get to the latest version of android i wold greatly appreciate the time anyone spend to respond to this this post i TYIA
So any links that will work work with NJ4 I would be so happy I have only experience with the G3 I feel i know what to do with it but the Gs4 is new to me and i appreciate any help i receive/
Thank yo for reading this and TYIA for responding thank you for your help i hope its as simple as someone posting some links so i can do this easy i again thanks for leading me through the fog and TIA
@BeatnikBandit :
Basically, you're in the wrong forum. You'll need to get support fir the ATT version i337 over in the forum for that model. I used to have one, actually. I sold it on Swappa and got a T-Mo M919 S4 so that I could take advantage of all the AOSP ROMs for the M919. At least as of a year ago, there was no way to unlock the boot loader on the i337 and the only ROMs available for it were basically just skins on the TouchWiz kernel. ROMs, such as they were, used something called SafeStrap. Not sure if things have changed for that device in the year since I gave it up.
You can only use ROMs made for your model. So, even if the locked boot loader weren't an issue with the i337, its hardware is different from the Verizon or T-Mo variants. Using a ROM for a different model will give problems. On the T-Mo M919, there's a bit of an exception in that we're hardware comparable to the international variant, so we can often use ROMs for that one (9505 I think). Oh, and the M919 never got an official lollipop upgrade from T-mo before they gave up on it, so there are some issues with using LolliPop ROMs on the M919.
I'm sorry I can't help you with how to root, but presumably you will find that answer over in the i337 forum.
As for using the i337 on T-Mo, that should be easy enough. Just go in and enter the APN information for T-Mo (probably is in the T-Mo forum somewhere) in place of the ATT APN info and you should be good to go, presuming your phone is SIM-unlocked. Instructions on SIM-unlocking it should be in the ATT i337 forum, if you're not already unlocked. For example, when I got my M919, all I had to do to get it to work on ATT was enter the APN info from ATT, and BOOM I was on the network. I bought a pre-SIM-unlocked phone to avoid having to unlock it myself.
I hope this is at least a little helpful even if it's not all the answers you were hoping for.
Marc
SIM-locked to Claro Puerto Rico with Android 4.3.
I did not see any original Claro ROMs to reflash it down to 4.1.1 to unlock. Is it worth trying to flash it with any other (Canadian or AT&T ROM) or I'd be better off just purchasing unlock code? I've heard that I317 and I317M has 100% identical hardware, on another side it's a very bad idea to flash phone with the wrong model ROM.
I would not take a chance and just buy the unlock code.
Usually, Odin stops a person from flashing an incorrect ROM to a phone.
Found myself plenty of ROMs for Claro. Just need to understand what I317MUMBMA1 version is
MA1 appears to be either 4.1.1 or 4.1.2.
Thanks! 4.1.2 is MH2
Did you flash the MA1 ROM to sim unlock via the dialler ?