Alcatel open market 4s

[nate0]

Sold my newest idol4s last week. Kept the other half beaten up one hacked it so it could not even make emergency calls and what not and let my 5yr old use it to for his videos and having fun with. That incipio case has been put to the test I'll tell ya. The phone has landed and been thrown more than a dozen times. It has only hairline cracks here and there but is totally useable.

Guess it goes to show you how I really feel about this device now. Guess I'll eat my decision if Alcatel proves us all wrong one day and releases a huge I mean huge firmware update. Because that is what it will take for this device to be worthy of it hardware in my opinion.

 

[aj173]

My 6 year old doesn't even want mine because it doesn't have his favorite game in the Windows app store, and the speaker is too blown for his YouTube videos. This phone is close to the end of life and we've gotten no firmware updates yet, so I think you're in the clear. The Idol 4s could have been so much more if it had decent software support for the firmware and OS. It's tragic, really. For years we complained that Windows Phone had no compelling hardware, then we FINALLY get some five years later, and the firmware and OS for it is nonexistent.

On the bright side, I'm looking forward to picking up a Note 8. But I must admit that this battle-scarred and well-worn Lumia 1520 will always own a piece of my heart.

 

[Iain_S]

My 6 year old doesn't even want mine because it doesn't have his favorite game in the Windows app store, and the speaker is too blown for his YouTube videos. This phone is close to the end of life and we've gotten no firmware updates yet, so I think you're in the clear. The Idol 4s could have been so much more if it had decent software support for the firmware and OS. It's tragic, really. For years we complained that Windows Phone had no compelling hardware, then we FINALLY get some five years later, and the firmware and OS for it is nonexistent.

On the bright side, I'm looking forward to picking up a Note 8. But I must admit that this battle-scarred and well-worn Lumia 1520 will always own a piece of my heart.

Yes i preordered my Note 8 already, will never go back to anything Microsoft mobile. Even if they come out with a great device Samsung will have better and the google play store. I couldn't even be bothered to send my 4s back in for repair and will probably sell it cheap or let it collect dust now.

 

[aj173]

You just summed up my sentiment to the letter. For years, I wanted a 6+ inch smartphone with a stylus. Given Microsoft's success with the Surface writing experience, and the fact that the only 6" Windows Phone was the only Windows Phone ever to get fairly positive reviews, I figured it was a no-brainer to combine the two. It turns out that like everything else, Samsung/Android beat them to it. The bonus is that my dream smartphone now exists on a mobile OS that is actively being developed.

I really hate Google. I hate their business practices, and I hate their creeping monopoly on literally every aspect of life. I want to resist so badly. I even ran a Ubuntu phone for a while. However, I can't endure the pain of having useless smartphones any longer. The phone I've always wanted now exists, so I'm going to have to swallow the bitter pill and sell my soul to the evil empire.

 

[Iain_S]

I dont like Google either and have the minimum amount of google apps as possible on my S8+ and run all my Microsoft services. Samsung are , i think, the leader in the mobile space now and can develop devices pretty fast. Microsoft are just too slow in this area. The note 8 will be a great device and runs buttery smooth.

 

[nate0]

I dont like Google either and have the minimum amount of google apps as possible on my S8+ and run all my Microsoft services. Samsung are , i think, the leader in the mobile space now and can develop devices pretty fast. Microsoft are just too slow in this area. The note 8 will be a great device and runs buttery smooth.

Top players in the US are Motorola Huawei Samung and Apple from my perspective.

Edit: I too dislike Google services. I have both though. Google account and Microsoft account. I prefer Microsoft services but to me stink on other platforms. The S8+ is a sweet device. I should have tried to hold on tighter to mine...

 

[nate0]

All:
We have a method to reflash the open market firmware now. I came across a link in the XDA forums and after registering for an account on the Russian forum 4pda I was able to chat with a member there and use their method to flash the open market firmware ffu to a t-mobile IDOL 4s. I would like to see if someone is still in need to reflash their open market model IDOL 4s. This way I would work with you to hash out the instructions and later build a method similar to theirs on the 4pda site, but one that I would be able to post here being able to attach the needed info. Anyone up for it? I do not own an Open Market model at the moment, is why I am asking. I just want to be sure there are no hiccups with the method I use since it is slightly different than the the one posted on the 4pda site.

 

[nate0]

If anyone wants to give it a go, try to flash your Idol 4s from this method.

 

[Iain_S]

I will give it a try later today and let you guys know the results.

 

[Iain_S]

OK all was a success after a couple of attempts, has reset to NA Variant. Updating now so all seems to have gone well. I'm sure folk would be able to use this method to also DE brand their Tmobile devices or even for North American devices to switch to the Pro firmware if they chose.

 

[Iain_S]

For anyone doing this make sure to install the Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008 drivers and after you would need to update them via device manager, once that has been done it goes along smooth.

 

[Iain_S]

great job on finally figuring out how to fix MS and Alcatel ****up.

 

[nate0]

OK all was a success after a couple of attempts, has reset to NA Variant. Updating now so all seems to have gone well. I'm sure folk would be able to use this method to also DE brand their Tmobile devices or even for North American devices to switch to the Pro firmware if they chose.

Flashing the EU rom (Idol 4 pro model) onto the US models (T-mobile and open market) results in conflicting sw and modem configurations. You will run into cellular and telephony issues. Just a warning on that specifically. This was confirmed by two individuals so far...

 

[Iain_S]

ok, wont try that,but now my open market 4s is back to an open market 4s, thanks

 

[Iain_S]

unfortunately even after this process you can not use WDRT to reset your phone back to original for some reason.

 

[nate0]

Ya. I know. It's lame. Have to resort to finding our own way...

 

[nate0]

Did you try ffutool.exe? There is a second method to flash it using an engineering tool. I have not posted that way yet personally but a Russian user posted it on 4pda(that's how I derived the emmcdl method), and I think that method allows the open market ffu to be flash via ffutool afterwards. I have not had time to test all the scenarios yet...

 

[Iain_S]

will give it a try over the holidays when i will have a little more time.

 

[Partha Goswami1]

Flashing the EU rom (Idol 4 pro model) onto the US models (T-mobile and open market) results in conflicting sw and modem configurations. You will run into cellular and telephony issues. Just a warning on that specifically. This was confirmed by two individuals so far...

yes, I confimed it too yesterday

 

[Palm_forlackofchoice]

You just summed up my sentiment to the letter. For years, I wanted a 6+ inch smartphone with a stylus. Given Microsoft's success with the Surface writing experience, and the fact that the only 6" Windows Phone was the only Windows Phone ever to get fairly positive reviews, I figured it was a no-brainer to combine the two. It turns out that like everything else, Samsung/Android beat them to it. The bonus is that my dream smartphone now exists on a mobile OS that is actively being developed.

I really hate Google. I hate their business practices, and I hate their creeping monopoly on literally every aspect of life. I want to resist so badly. I even ran a Ubuntu phone for a while. However, I can't endure the pain of having useless smartphones any longer. The phone I've always wanted now exists, so I'm going to have to swallow the bitter pill and sell my soul to the evil empire.

I hate google MO with a passion. My wife uses an old LG G3 with most all disabled, but she still uses google browser. I refuse to leave, been in this since 1996 with my Compaq C-140.

I am on Cricket also and cannot get the visual voicemail to work. I got the new White Sim from Cricket store today and still no visual voice mail. I hard reset the phone couple hours ago and still won't work. Just letting it do any updates before I mess with it any further. If my MMS is still messed up I am going to try and return to Microsoft store and go back to my Cricket Lumia 650.

This is such a shame as the Idol 4s is a nice piece of hardware, Just had better hopes. Hopefully the hard reset will fix the need to reboot daily due to hangs/ freezes, losing apn.

Did you ever get your Visual voicemail to work? Was your MMS screwed up? Did you ever get the IMS registered so that HD Voice would work?

Thanks

Oh, I am NOT on Twitter either. Or Face Book, Instagram, snap chat etc...