[Q View] view with no sprint = bad idea?

callmeanoob · Feb 27, 2012

Hi
First please pardon my english
I'm new in all these android things, and i'm interested in buying Evo view 4g because of it's price and all it's positive review
but since i live outside us/europe (FYI i live in indonesia) i wont be able to get sprint contract
there's this 1 negative review, i'll paste it here

IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO SIGN UP FOR A TWO YEAR SPRINT PLAN READ THE NEXT PARAGRAPH !

If you intend to use this without connecting it to a Sprint Account there are some things you should consider before making this purchase:

1: You will NOT ever be able to update the Profile, Firmware or PRL of this device. This is very bad.

2: The Cellular network radios will always be on. They will create a SIGNIFICANT drain on your battery as they will be in constant scan mode unable to connect. There are ways around this. There is some software available on the Official Android Marketplace called "Network" that can take you to a page where you can modify the radio settings. It is not 100% reliable, and if you read through the comments on that Applications Review page you will see that it is not working for everyone. There are more permanent ways to deal with cell radios if you are willing and able to root your Evo View 4g. That is a complicated process and as of now many of the "fixes" for cell radios are PERMANENT meaning once you disable them , you can never get them back.

3: You are going to get nagged to death. Each time you boot the tablet you will be presented with a Sprint screen that urges you to activate the device. You will not be able to set your own homepage in the default browser, as, until you have activated the phone Sprint spams bloat at you instructing you to contact a Sprint Rep asap. This will happen during use as well, though it seems to happen randomly, and not very often, but it will happen if you do not disable the Radios.

4: Sprint will often interrupt whatever you are doing on the tablet to remind you that you have not activated it yet..........

5: The screen is not as sharp, vivid or responsive as that of the Best Buy Flyer.

This tablet may not "REQUIRE" a Sprint account for "use" but the features and functionality of this tablet are greatly lessened if you do not have a Sprint Account.

If you want to use this as a wifi only device this is a very poor choice of purchase. You are MUCH better off snagging a wifi only Flyer.

Bottom line the View / Flyer are great tablets, but, if you do not plan to sign up for a Sprint account this is NOT the right tablet for you. Sprint has purposefully built in crippling features to those who use it without a Sprint Account.

I am very sorry I purchased this. I really wish I had just gone with another Flyer.

I am pretty ticked off at the merchant too.......... Claiming that this does not "REQUIRE" a Sprint account to use is the same thing as saying that a Honda Civic does not "REQUIRE" headlights to drive.

Think this over very carefully...... The price really isn't that great.......

because this 14th of march my friend who lives in US will come to indonesia, it's $100-$200 cheaper to buy in US than in indonesia, so i have less than 2 weeks to decide on what tablets to buy

in indonesia CDMA have better internet quality compared to GSM, that's why i'm considering view to be my 1st android tablet, since i can't use sprint service, i'll have to inject the tablet with indonesian CDMA provider, will i miss a lot of things like the review above stated? especially #1

1: You will NOT ever be able to update the Profile, Firmware or PRL of this device. This is very bad.

Thank you

bsweetness · Feb 27, 2012

Wow, that reviewer doesn't know a thing about the tablet. All of that is completely false. Pretty much everyone around here doesn't use the device on Sprint.

1. The firmware updates come from HTC via the internet. While Sprint has a hand in approving them, they don't actually send them out. I had no problems downloading, installing, and using the OTA Honeycomb update without any Sprint service. You don't need any PRL updates if you're not using it on Sprint.

2. You can easily turn the cellular radios off - it's called airplane mode. You can still use WiFi/Bluetooth/GPS in airplane mode. There are also other simple ways to deactivate them discussed in this thread.

3. When you boot up the tablet from being turned completely off, you get a prompt to activate it, which you can quickly dismiss. There are no other Sprint prompts at any time. There's no "nagging" whatsoever. And you can even get rid of that activation prompt with root or without root.

4. There are never any interruptions to activate the tablet after the first one when booting it up.

5. The screen is exactly the same as the screen on the Flyer.

Now, as far as being able to use it on an Indonesian CDMA provider, that's something I can't authoritatively give an answer on. In the U.S., it can be successfully flashed to be used on only one other CDMA carrier - Boost - and that's because Boost uses Sprint's network. I'd say there's a good chance you may not be able to use it with any Indonesian CDMA carrier, but I can't say for sure.

callmeanoob · Feb 27, 2012

bsweetness said:
Wow, that reviewer doesn't know a thing about the tablet. All of that is completely false. Pretty much everyone around here doesn't use the device on Sprint.

1. The firmware updates come from HTC via the internet. While Sprint has a hand in approving them, they don't actually send them out. I had no problems downloading, installing, and using the OTA Honeycomb update without any Sprint service. You don't need any PRL updates if you're not using it on Sprint.

2. You can easily turn the cellular radios off - it's called airplane mode. You can still use WiFi/Bluetooth/GPS in airplane mode. There are also other simple ways to deactivate them discussed in this thread.

3. When you boot up the tablet from being turned completely off, you get a prompt to activate it, which you can quickly dismiss. There are no other Sprint prompts at any time. There's no "nagging" whatsoever. And you can even get rid of that activation prompt with root or without root.

4. There are never any interruptions to activate the tablet after the first one when booting it up.

5. The screen is exactly the same as the screen on the Flyer.

Now, as far as being able to use it on an Indonesian CDMA provider, that's something I can't authoritatively give an answer on. In the U.S., it can be successfully flashed to be used on only one other CDMA carrier - Boost - and that's because Boost uses Sprint's network. I'd say there's a good chance you may not be able to use it with any Indonesian CDMA carrier, but I can't say for sure.

wow thank you for the answer, i think i'll get this baby then

is the offer from amazon $289 the best offer atm in US? i'm planning on buying the stylus and screen guard also
when i tried to search in google about where to buy, all i got is reviews with no store that sells this product except for amazon, and yes i have no knowledge about international stores

Jjday7 · Feb 27, 2012

One thing that kept me away from the view was the updates such as possible ICS will have to be pushed by sprint. I would assume just like a phone that the updates are controlled by the carrier and if they want you to have it. This alone makes the flyer a better deal in my opinion. This is am assumption of course. Also with out having a sim slot this becomes very limited on what carriers it can be used on. I know the flyer comes without sim access but the view is locked to sprint. The 32gb model looked very appealing at 250 but the negatives out weigh the positives.

bsweetness · Feb 27, 2012

Jjday7 said:
One thing that kept me away from the view was the updates such as possible ICS will have to be pushed by sprint. I would assume just like a phone that the updates are controlled by the carrier and if they want you to have it. This alone makes the flyer a better deal in my opinion. This is am assumption of course.

As I mentioned in my post, this isn't true. While Sprint does approve the updates, the updates are actually built and sent out by HTC. This is the case with Android phones as well - the manufacturers build and send out the updates with the carrier's approval. The carrier does not push them out. My View has never been activated on Sprint, and I received the OTA update to Honeycomb shortly after I purchased it. It all works via the internet and has nothing to do with cellular connectivity. You'll still get any and all official updates on the View even if it's never been activated with Sprint.

---------- Post added at 12:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:59 AM ----------

callmeanoob said:
wow thank you for the answer, i think i'll get this baby then

is the offer from amazon $289 the best offer atm in US? i'm planning on buying the stylus and screen guard also
when i tried to search in google about where to buy, all i got is reviews with no store that sells this product except for amazon, and yes i have no knowledge about international stores

The lowest I can find for current prices via a quick search is $274.94 on eBay. It's been down as low as $239 brand new a few times over the past three months, so it will probably drop again. But if you're operating in a specific time frame for the purchase, that range seems to be what they're currently going for.

Topics

Topics

[Q View] view with no sprint = bad idea?

callmeanoob

Member

bsweetness

Senior Member

callmeanoob

Member

Jjday7

Senior Member

bsweetness

Senior Member

Similar threads

Top Liked Posts

New posts