AIO won't release Lumia Black for the 620

[oryan_dunn]

Looks like AIO doesn't want repeat customers...

Availability in North America - Nokia

The Lumia Black column just changed from "Waiting for Approval" to "Not Available" today.

Looks like I'll have to flash to a different country variant and drop AIO. That's what so great about no-contract, can jump ship when they are greedy/lazy bastards.

 

[TechFreak1]

You might be better of flashing a rom that has support for the correct frequency you need, only speaking from W.M 6.x days where flashing a rom with incorrect radio f/w would totally brick your phone.

 

[alexloe]

You might be better of flashing a rom that has support for the correct frequency you need, only speaking from W.M 6.x days where flashing a rom with incorrect radio f/w would totally brick your phone.

No worries. There is only one type of Lumia 620, RM-846. You can safely flash any variant you prefer.

 

[WhiteNiteLite]

Damn, this sucks. I'm definitely flashing at this point. I feel like being stuck on Amber is part of the reason why I'm having such a bad experience with 8.1. Does anyone know of some good instructions? I've never flashed a Windows Phone before...

Edit: I came across this and it looks pretty good: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2515453

 

[oryan_dunn]

I wonder what the best variant is to flash? Ideally, it'd be one that gets updates direct from Nokia. I've noticed that even non-carrier country variants are on the "Not Available" list for Lumia Black, so others are getting screwed as well.

 

[WhiteNiteLite]

I literally just finished flashing the "059R4G7 RM-846 VAR EU EURO1 GB CV" variant. So far everything seems to work, and I've finally got Black. I'll update again once as I've spent more time with it. But if anyone has any questions feel free to ask!

 

[AUCLABruin]

I'd figure the fire sale a few weeks ago meant they wouldn't support the 620. Although Lumia Black can improve everything, I'd imagine they will be releasing WP8.1. People on T-Mobile on any Windows Phone besides the 925 and 521 won't get updated.

 

[carlos12001]

I wouldn't worry about it to much, "black" did nothing for my phone at all

 

[Solo842]

I also Updated to 059R4G7 ROM, and I'm on aio wireless in the US. I noticed that Lumia Black Added tap to wake and improved Bluetooth. AS for battery life improvements its too early to say, ill update later on it. The only thing I noticed that is missing from the feature set is visual voicemail Using the EU rom. Also the network display says H+, H, 2g, E.. instead of 4G,3G etc.....I want to see if i can get visual voicemail to work

 

[alexloe]

Visual voicemail depends on OEM settings - I doubt that you can get it.

 

[WhiteNiteLite]

I have to say, WP8.1 runs so much better with Black than it did with Amber. I used to get incredibly horrible lag, and hard resets did nothing. So far things are smooth, knock on wood. I hope that this also solves the severe battery drain that I used to get. Still too early to tell for sure

 

[Kebero]

Visual voicemail depends on OEM settings - I doubt that you can get it.

It depends on the carrier. I have it on my 1520 on T-Mobile, but didn't on Aio.

 

[oryan_dunn]

I have to say, WP8.1 runs so much better with Black than it did with Amber. I used to get incredibly horrible lag, and hard resets did nothing. So far things are smooth, knock on wood. I hope that this also solves the severe battery drain that I used to get. Still too early to tell for sure

That's good to hear. I to have bad lag with Amber/8.1 and have horrible battery life. I streamed music for about 1.5hrs this morning (after the new 8.1 battery life update), and went from 100% to 70%. This is after I did a suggested hard reset.

You followed the guide at XDA? Any tips or gotchas?

A while back, I had planned on jumping on my fiance's Net10 family plan (~$40/mo + tax), but since AIO droped their price to $50 flat - $5 auto pay ($45/mo), it was basically a wash. I will be switching to Net10 now because of this.

When a carrier drops support, Nokia/Microsoft should just bypass them. I bet most people don't realize it's the carrier that's being greedy/lazy and it reflects poorly on Nokia/Microsoft. They clearly have a way to bypass the carrier since they have the Preview for Developers program, just extend that for everyone on schitty carriers.

 

[Solo842]

I think 8.1 was designed to be used with Lumia Black. the appalling battery life i got with 8.1 on Amber was around 22% discharge rate. I got a massive improvement in battery life when i switched to Black. keeping BT,Wifi, Location Services,Data, and NFC on, i hover around 7-10% Discharge rate. I think as usage goes on battery life will improve, but comparing when i first got the 620, Black adds a noticeable improvement when using 8.1

As for Visual Voicemail. I had it on the 620 when i was using the US ROM, but when i upgraded to the EU rom, it disappeared. i asked the "techs" at the store...and they didnt know what was going on.. (they couldnt tell i flashed the rom). Regardless, They said that aio "now cricket" will push an update to all phones on the network, in 48 hours to change the carrier branding. Hopefully this changes more than just "aio" in the top right hand corner.

 

[Kebero]

8.1 is meant for Cyan.

 

[oryan_dunn]

8.1 is meant for Cyan.

Right, but the majority of people running 8.1 now have Black. We're stuck with 8.1 on Amber.

 

[WhiteNiteLite]

You followed the guide at XDA? Any tips or gotchas?

Yep, I used that page at XDA that I posted earlier. As Solo842 mentioned, I suppose that only gotchas are the loss of visual voicemail and that the OS no longer generalizes HPSA and HSPA+ as just plain "4G." But these are trade offs that I think are well worth the benefits. Everything that was carrier disabled is now available, including tethering!

The main tip that I have is to set aide a good chunk of time. You'll lose your data in the process, and it takes a while to re-upgrade from 8.0 to 8.1. It took three total updates to get back up to speed. In addition, the US regionalization settings aren't preloaded in the ROM by default, so the OS has to download and install them when you switch to US in the speech and keyboard settings. This ends up being kind of like another update.

But the overall scheme is like so:
1. Install the Nokia Care Suite and Nokia Data Package Manager. Copy the UserGroupsConfiguration file to the designated locations.
2. Run the Data Package Manager to download the ROM. As I mentioned earlier, I used the 059R4G7 ROM, which is the one that unbranded 620s in the EU are loaded with. I also downloaded a copy of the Aio ROM just to have it handy in case I need to revert back for some reason (059S3S3).
3. Remove the SIM and SD card from the phone. Then use the Product Support Tool within the Care Suite to flash the phone with the ROM.
4. After that's done, sign into the phone and install the Preview for Developers app. Then install all the updates.
5. After I was on the latest version of 8.1, I went ahead and reinserted the SIM and SD card. Then I did a hard reset just to make this "like new" again. I also opted to not restore from a backup, but I'm not sure if it really makes a difference.

 

[Solo842]

Good Post White! These are the exact steps that i followed to get my 620 to where it is now, only thing i would add is under Cellular+Sim, Select 3G as highest Speed, and network Selection as "aio", and Under access point, select AIO Wireless... that way you get MMS and Data as well. I am not sure if the phone is physicaly capable of "4G LTE" but i did a data speed test and got HSPA or 3G+ speeds.. arround 4mbps.

 

[oryan_dunn]

Thanks for all the tips guys.

Since I'll be swapping over to Net10, I wonder if Visual Voicemail will work over there?

Edit: Oh, even on the stock aio rom, WiFi tethering worked. I was able to connect my android tablet via the wifi hotspot. Maybe tethering didn't work for Windows PCs?

Edit 2: Another question.... I assume that after flashing the EU rom, that you'll now receive OTA updates for that ROM?

The only thing I can figure why aio didn't release this (besides them being lazy and greedy) is due to the merger with Cricket and the rebranding, that they'll skip the Black update and release a Cricket branded Cyan. For the most part, without 8.1, Black didn't really bring much to the 620 (only thing I wanted it for was the 'X' button on the app switcher screen).

After you flash the new ROM, are you able to restore from a backup?

 

[Solo842]

Durring the Process of setting up my 620 on the EU rom i reset my phone twice, on both times i was prompted to restore from a backup, I noticed that there were backups using both the US Rom and the EU rom. so i believe that you can restore from backup.Just tick the usual settings "backup my phone" etc..

As for OTA updates, im not sure if updates can be pushed to a foreign ROM.Ill be updating the firmware myself from now on anyway. I assume that since flashing our phones, we are treated on networks the same as an unlocked phone that you can buy. Carriers wont provide updates, and you are using the carriers as just a data conduit for cell service.. The only reason im still on aio is because i want to unlock my 620 eventually, their plans aren't half bad either .

Seeing as how Cricket has basically changed from the 620 to the 520 for their prime WP device, its hard to say if they will continue supporting the 620. in North America the 620 was only supported by Kodoo in Canada and Aio Wireless in US, the latter supporting up to Amber (we are fortunate to even get amber). I wouldn't hold my breath for a Cricket Branded Cyan Update, or any update just to change the branding for any phones released under the aio name. The 620 has been overshadowed in the US by the 520, and AT&T will pick up a variant of the 630 "635", to introduce WP8.1 and LTE to their affordable smartphone lineup.