Samsung Galaxy S6

I wonder if Samsung will fix the phone if its corrupted by the installation of some international firmware.
 
genetic said:
Jumped down your throat? :confused:

I merely stated the obvious.
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Think he was referring to my +1. Felt a little ganged up. Totally understandable and we trust he's learnt a valuable lesson.

Read other responses before you post.

Peace?
 
Seathless said:
Its official software and doesn't void the warranty.
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That's cool. The other thing is that my phone is insured through Vodacom's insurance provider, and one of the stupid rules with them is you can't so much as insert another sim card into your phone that's insured with them, without invalidating your insurance.

I wouldn't be surprised if that extends to the software too, so installing anything that doesn't come approved from Vodacom might invalidate your insurance as well. I've become very sceptical of insurance providers.

Regardless I'm going to take this further with Samsung and Vodacom in South Africa, but I'll probably end up reading up more on the international firmware version today. I know it's been answered many times before here, so sorry to be a noob about it, but can anybody recommend a version for the regular Samsung S6 that doesn't have any carrier bloatware?
 
What the heck? Just checked on Sammobile and it seems like there's an update to 5.1.1 for South Africa, right at the top of the list (since 1 August):

SAMMOBILE.PNG

I'm guessing that'd be a vanilla version released by one of the other cellphone service providers here?

I saw some people here talking about an XEU version, shouldn't I rather just go for this South African version instead?

Thanks for the help!
 
Foxhound5366 said:
What the heck? Just checked on Sammobile and it seems like there's an update to 5.1.1 for South Africa, right at the top of the list (since 1 August):

View attachment 286778

I'm guessing that'd be a vanilla version released by one of the other cellphone service providers here?
Click to expand...

Yip. Vanilla provided by CellC and Telkom - hence why they get OTA's before the slow giants.

I'm on the French XEF.

You can flash any territory you want. Doesn't have to be South African.
 
genetic said:
Yip. Vanilla provided by CellC and Telkom - hence why they get OTA's before the slow giants.

I'm on the French XEF.

You can flash any territory you want. Doesn't have to be South African.
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OK, so Odin 3.0.9 is 972kb, and this latest S6 firmware (South African variant) is 1.7 GB... oh dear, this is gonna be a wait on Sammobile's free version :D It's estimating 1:30 hours, on my 10Mbps connection.

Now I see why OTA updates are better, because they're only like 250MB for essentially patches, rather than everything brand new, right?
 
Foxhound5366 said:
OK, so Odin 3.0.9 is 972kb, and this latest S6 firmware (South African variant) is 1.7 GB... oh dear, this is gonna be a wait on Sammobile's free version :D It's estimating 1:30 hours, on my 10Mbps connection.

Now I see why OTA updates are better, because they're only like 250MB for essentially patches, rather than everything brand new, right?
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Exactly :)

You'll get OTA's from any official variant. Got the latest OTA on the XEF varient this morning. French variant seems to be the first to release OTA's.
 
genetic said:
Exactly :)

You'll get OTA's from any official variant. Got the latest OTA on the XEF varient this morning. French variant seems to be the first to release OTA's.
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Thanks genetic, sorry for being a pest but I'd like to ensure that I understand exactly what's happening before bricking my expensive toy I'm meant to have for the next 1.5 years lol
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Thanks genetic, sorry for being a pest but I'd like to ensure that I understand exactly what's happening before bricking my expensive toy I'm meant to have for the next 1.5 years lol
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Very hard to brick flashing stock firmwares. You'll be fine! And enjoy the updates! :)
 
genetic said:
Very hard to brick flashing stock firmwares. You'll be fine! And enjoy the updates! :)
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Lol, naw, but you might do something like tick the wrong box in Odin, which seems scarily easy to do considering it's not exactly the most user-friendly software in the world (but I guess it's not intended to be). I found this useful (download link to 3.10.6 version of Odin):

Odin-3.10.6-Explained_Techbeasts.png

Note to self: do NOT tick 'repartition'. I'm guessing that'd be a sure way to say goodbye to all the phone's data (which I've backed up using Smart Sync just to be on the safe side).
 

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  • Odin instructions.PNG
    Odin instructions.PNG
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Foxhound5366 said:
What the heck? Just checked on Sammobile and it seems like there's an update to 5.1.1 for South Africa, right at the top of the list (since 1 August):

View attachment 286778

I'm guessing that'd be a vanilla version released by one of the other cellphone service providers here?

I saw some people here talking about an XEU version, shouldn't I rather just go for this South African version instead?

Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

just got this update notification on my phone. Should I do it? Any cons?
 
genetic said:
Yip. Vanilla provided by CellC and Telkom - hence why they get OTA's before the slow giants.

I'm on the French XEF.

You can flash any territory you want. Doesn't have to be South African.
Click to expand...

I am on Telkom mobile and also flashed the French XEF some time back.
Will I still get automatic OTA's updates from Telkom or must I update manually?
 
Mr Feesh said:
just got this update notification on my phone. Should I do it? Any cons?
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So far, none that I can see. Changes are mild, but all improvements.

Some I've noticed (please add more you spot?):
- Can sort app drawer alphabetically (phew!)
- Cleaner default theme (I dropped my custom theme to use it for a while)
- Installation of new Peel virtual remote, that actually works well for my Samsung TV and less well for my DSTV box.
- Removal of pesky Vodacom start logo (not that you see it that much lol)

Err, that's it, in the first half hour. Anything else major?
 
Is it just me, or is this slider that dynamically previews adjustments to exposure compensation in the camera app also new?

1440257850062.jpg
 
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