Rogers L920+ GDR2 Euro Dev ROM. Results/Experiences

gilnfld

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Hello All,

I have noticed that there is quite a bit of Rogers L920 RM-820 uncertainty/questions, regarding both the GDR2 flashing process and performance; namely WCDMA/LTE bands, so, I thought I would share with you my experiences....I too was one of the eager folks awaiting for more responses from other Rogers L920 users before flashing, but, I just decided to jump right into it. I am new here at WPC but have been tinkering with phones for many years so, I don't mind getting my hands dirty with flashing etc. So, I see that there is already a thread here for the ATT L920 so I figured we can start a separate thread for the canuck model, at least until the OTA comes around (sometimes around xmas I suppose ;-) ]

OK. So, I am on a Rogers Black Lumia 920
Product Name:059Q6W4 RM-820 VAR AMERICA CA ROGERSWIR SL BLACK

I) Installation: Rogers Lumia 920 GDR2 EURO DEV

The installation guidelines provided on the earlier threads are spot on and there is not too much I can add to that. Member VegaNovus has provided an easy-to-follow step-by-step procedure. I have done it several times now and, if you follow it closely it should be smooth sailing. There are several things that I CAN add/stress, which may be the reason some of you are having problems. The vast number of pre-flash errors is the naming of the files in the firmware package. They all need to be have the preceding checksum codes removed. The Euro Dev GDR2/Amber zip package linked to in that thread in fact already has the correct file structure/naming in that folder., making it even easier to flash. Once you are ready to start flashing, two things are important; 1) make sure that the NCS/Product Support Tool is in OFFLINE mode. and 2) The tricky part is getting the boot recovery mode to properly connect to the phone in order to start the flashing process; this is a matter of proper-timing and may require several tries till you get the hang of it, but, once you do it, you will be able to do it repeatedly without any problems. As another member recently posted, I have found that with the Rogers L920 at least, you need to hit the RETRY button in the recovery screen just after the exclamation mark shows on phone. You will know when it has kicked in when it says rebooting. The rest should all be smooth sailing...

II) Performance: Network, responsiveness, battery, etc...

As of now I have had 3 full battery cycles of the phone and so far everything has been working great. The UI is super responsive, battery life very good, etc. ALL the new features including DataSense, FM radio, Glance, Double-Tap, Colour profile etc. all work perfectly, straight out-of-the-box. You will get a round of updates shortly after install.

Now, the million dollar question on everyone's mind, at least here in Canada, is how does this phone work on our local WCDMA/LTE bands. As far as I can tell in the last few days, LTE bands for NA on this EURO DEV are indeed enabled and LTE has been working great. [Note that in the European firmware you can only select 4G as max speeds under Network settings but that is a naming/marketing thing; LTE will work under 4G, if you have it available in your area.] On the Rogers firmware it actually shows LTE with the euro firmware you will only see an L. (See my screenshots). In fact I find that LTE reception, at least here in St. John's NL, has been as good as the Rogers firmware and perhaps even better. I am attaching a couple of pics of speedtests and some screen shots. DL Speeds have been jumping between 25-35 mbps and UL speeds: 15-20mbps. Not great speeds but much of that has to do with my local service I suppose.

wp_ss_20130810_0001.jpg wp_ss_20130811_0003b.png wp_ss_20130811_0002.jpg wp_ss_20130810_0002.png

Now, where the network speeds have not been that great is actually with HSPA/HSPA+; need to run some more tests on this but so far on H+ the DL speeds are not great but OK but the uploads are quite slow. DL is around the 6-10mbps but the UL is only at 1.5-2mbps. I am not sure if this is normal for Bell so, please leave some feedback. I dont have screen shots of that yet as I have maxed my data plan doing these tests but will keep testing. I am not sure if this has something to do with WCDMA bands on the Euro version? AWS? I was trying to run the field test when using 3G but I see that Field Test is no longer available. This could narrow down some of the issues re; bands.

Quick note here: With respect to network performance I can only speak about Bell/Virgin in Canada BUT I assume that my results should be similar/same as those on the Rogers network as the LTE/WCDMA bands are the same for both carriers. (Feel free to correct me on this if I am wrong). Other users with the Rogers L920 in other parts of the world should feel free to share their experiences here. From previous experience in the US, ATT LTE/WCDMA bands should also be the same as Rogers/Bell but I will let others confirm that.

Ok that is it for now please fee free to comment.... I will add some of my thoughts on the other features soon.
 

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Laura Knotek

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Thanks for sharing your results so far. This should be helpful for other people who might be thinking of flashing the update.
 

Parteek Agnihotri

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one last question, most flashing guides show that we have to flash our phones to rogers pre/portico and then update vis and then flash the euro version, My question is, since I already have a rogers red l920, do I straight flash it to euro rom or follow exactly as the thread says?
 

gilnfld

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one last question, most flashing guides show that we have to flash our phones to rogers pre/portico and then update vis and then flash the euro version, My question is, since I already have a rogers red l920, do I straight flash it to euro rom or follow exactly as the thread says?

Parteek,

As far as I know, the entire process of 'flashing' pre-portico Rogers ROM on a L920 RM-820 before moving to an RM-821 ROM, was ONLY necessary for the ATT version of the L920. If you have a Rogers and have already updated it to latest firmware, you should be good to go. What firmware are you on 1308? 1324?

gs
 

Xpider_MX

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I don't flash the euro dev rom, I flashed my L920 with the roger dev rom (RM-820_nam_canada_246) and it works great, no RM-820 to RM-821, and it have all features, radio, glance, datasense, etc.
 

pankaj981

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I don't flash the euro dev rom, I flashed my L920 with the roger dev rom (RM-820_nam_canada_246) and it works great, no RM-820 to RM-821, and it have all features, radio, glance, datasense, etc.
wait a second...there wasn't a Rogers Dev ROM. Are you sure about this one? Also what was the product code for the ROM?
 

gilnfld

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wait a second...there wasn't a Rogers Dev ROM. Are you sure about this one? Also what was the product code for the ROM?

Yeah, I was a bit surprised to read that as well. What I think Xpider_MX is referring to is a post submitted yesterday morning from an XDA dev who managed, using this 'chinese-only' program to get what 'seems' to be an RM-820 Dev ROM for Amber. I am not brave enough to go down this route as the entire process of flashing the phone is in chinese but this guy definitely seems to be a legit and experience programmer who knows what he's doing. I gather the program he is using called, WperHelper, is pulling some sort of yet-to-be-released firmware. You can find the original post/thread here:
Lumia 920 Amber Update via Rogers Dev ROM - xda-developers
 

MyThIc3LiTe

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I'll second OPs results. Speeds are improved, general smoothness is up; Amber is a good update.

Flashing the firmware was easy. How easy? As easy as iOS firmware installs to be honest. A few clicks, press two buttons, it went and finished within 10 minutes and I was back up and running with all apps and settings in under an hour.
 

pankaj981

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Okay it seems that this ROM was extracted from the AT&T developer ROM modified to work with the Rogers version. I am a bit skeptical in flashing this as I can't risk losing AWS (I am on TMOUS) hence would prefer waiting..
 

gilnfld

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Okay it seems that this ROM was extracted from the AT&T developer ROM modified to work with the Rogers version. I am a bit skeptical in flashing this as I can't risk losing AWS (I am on TMOUS) hence would prefer waiting..

Thanks for info, pankaj981. I figured it was something like that. I am content with this rom until an offiicial RM820 rom comes out and even then I am not sure there is any need to jump ship from this Euro Dev one as all is working fine. I had a couple of requests to post some speedtest screenshots with server info, so, here it is. I am in the east coast here in Newfoundland where LTE speeds on Virgin have not been outstanding but fairly good. Usually runs at 25-30mbps. With 10-20mbps Uploads. Note that my speed test was performed at a US Bangor, Maine server as the ones in this immediate area of eastern Canada were giving me horrid speeds.

3189809.png
 

MyThIc3LiTe

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Okay it seems that this ROM was extracted from the AT&T developer ROM modified to work with the Rogers version. I am a bit skeptical in flashing this as I can't risk losing AWS (I am on TMOUS) hence would prefer waiting..

I assume you're talking about the so called Rogers Dev ROM since the Euro Dev ROM has nothing to do with ATT. This specific Euro Dev ROM does not lose any frequencies. It is a Euro Dev ROM as our Roger's phones were originally unlocked devices.

Which phone do you have? Do you have an ATT phone or Rogers phone?

Flashing the ATT phone with anything will run the risk of losing AWS bands, that is just the nature of the 920 that ATT has. Flashing the Rogers 920 won't make you lose bands because the phone can't lose bands because its firmware inherently keeps all bands unlocked.

ATT has issues with firmware that permanently disables AWS bands so I can't tell you what is safe to install.
 

pankaj981

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I have a rogers 920 and i am aware of the differences between the att dev and the euro dev versions. What i meant by my statement is this particular rom posted by the op, i.e. Rogers dev rom is an extracted rom from the att dev rom hence flashing should be avoided in order to lose aws.
 

gilnfld

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I have a rogers 920 and i am aware of the differences between the att dev and the euro dev versions. What i meant by my statement is this particular rom posted by the op, i.e. Rogers dev rom is an extracted rom from the att dev rom hence flashing should be avoided in order to lose aws.

No Rogers Dev ROM Posted by OP -- ME ;-). I was merely referring to the post made by previous user. Either way it is not a Rogers Dev Rom but a ATT dev rom no?
Anywho, this is a bit off topic guys; let's keep the discussion here to Rogers L920 on Euro Dev.
cheers,
gs
 

aliencatos

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I.m using my phone on Videotron (same band then Wind) and averything work good, data snese is very nice... is Rogers will stil controle the future update or it is like a unbranded phone now?
 

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