Hardware difference between FLO and DEB

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skrypj

Senior Member
Jan 17, 2011
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I have been searching for a teardown of DEB but cannot seem to find one. Does anyone know the differences in the hardware between FLO and DEB besides the obvious, one has a sim card and one doesnt.

Is the LTE capability integrated into the SoC on DEB but not FLO? If not, is the LTE chip located on the main board with the SoC or is it on the daughter board at the bottom of the tablet where the sim-card plugs in? Any help is appreciated.
 
LinearEquation

LinearEquation

Senior Member
Aug 26, 2013
1,765
436
Midwest
skrypj said:
I have been searching for a teardown of DEB but cannot seem to find one. Does anyone know the differences in the hardware between FLO and DEB besides the obvious, one has a sim card and one doesnt.

Is the LTE capability integrated into the SoC on DEB but not FLO? If not, is the LTE chip located on the main board with the SoC or is it on the daughter board at the bottom of the tablet where the sim-card plugs in? Any help is appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

It's my understanding that Deb is relatively the same as Flo with the exception of data and full GPS capabilities. Many have flashed Flo ROM's on Deb devices and they will work but will not have data and full GPS capabilities, which defeats the purpose of having a Deb. An actual Deb teardown I have not done though.

Sent from my Nexus 7 Flo running CM 11 4.4.2 with ElementalX Kernel using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
 
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LinearEquation

LinearEquation

Senior Member
Aug 26, 2013
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aarsyl said:
I don't remember seeing it anywhere, but can I flash Deb roms on my flo? Theoretically, it should be fully functional (the flo, that is...), but I haven't had the guts to try as yet.
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I'm only stating what I've heard people doing. Trying is at your own risk.

Sent from my Nexus 7 Flo running CM 11 4.4.2 with ElementalX Kernel using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
 
T

TheManii

Wiki Admin / Inactive RC
Dec 8, 2010
3,585
1,651
I've flashed deb roms onto my flo in the course of doing testing: yes it will flash and boot fine.
I forget if it would work without bugs (testing mainly consisted of making sure it boots and nothing major is broken, like wifi, screen, or touch)

Obviously you wont magically get cellular support, it'll be like how it already is: the rom will simply see a radio that cannot connect/sense any type of network.

The biggest hardware difference is obviously the lack of the modem, it's an external module like on all S600 devices.

Software wise there isnt that much major differences:
  • They use the same bootloader
  • They use the same kernels
  • At launch they had the same basebands (flo's never gets updated though info on wiki)
  • The actual drivers and roms are not identical though, at the very least they're built in both 'deb' and 'flo' configurations, at the very least they have different names inside the drivers
 
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douger1957

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2010
1,261
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Fort Wayne
skrypj said:
I have been searching for a teardown of DEB but cannot seem to find one. Does anyone know the differences in the hardware between FLO and DEB besides the obvious, one has a sim card and one doesnt.

Is the LTE capability integrated into the SoC on DEB but not FLO? If not, is the LTE chip located on the main board with the SoC or is it on the daughter board at the bottom of the tablet where the sim-card plugs in? Any help is appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

My experience is that some ROMs will work between the "Deb" and "Flo" models but others won't. Some are even advertised as being bisexual. :silly:

It's entirely possible for the hardware on both models to be exactly the same, with some deeply rooted firmware switch to activate LTE. I'd think from a manufacturing and inventory management point of view, it'd be cheaper to build one version due to less tooling and inventory holding costs.
 
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TheManii

Wiki Admin / Inactive RC
Dec 8, 2010
3,585
1,651
douger1957 said:
I'd think from a manufacturing and inventory management point of view, it'd be cheaper to build one version due to less tooling and inventory holding costs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Regardless of if the modem is in flo or not, there's no sim card tray on flos.
They could hypothetically use deb boards that otherwise work 100%, except somehow recieved a faulty modem chip,
but without a sim tray you wouldnt be able to do much with just that.

Many old tegra 2 based tablets had a PCI-E mini slot (PCI-E mini can do either PCI-E and/or usb, only the latter was actually available and that was what was used) where the modem went, you could likely solder in a slot on the wifi model and get the same modem elsewhere, but you'd need to also get a sim slot and tray to actually make it useful.
 
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    TheManii
    I've flashed deb roms onto my flo in the course of doing testing: yes it will flash and boot fine.
    I forget if it would work without bugs (testing mainly consisted of making sure it boots and nothing major is broken, like wifi, screen, or touch)

    Obviously you wont magically get cellular support, it'll be like how it already is: the rom will simply see a radio that cannot connect/sense any type of network.

    The biggest hardware difference is obviously the lack of the modem, it's an external module like on all S600 devices.

    Software wise there isnt that much major differences:
    • They use the same bootloader
    • They use the same kernels
    • At launch they had the same basebands (flo's never gets updated though info on wiki)
    • The actual drivers and roms are not identical though, at the very least they're built in both 'deb' and 'flo' configurations, at the very least they have different names inside the drivers
    View
    2
    T
    TheManii
    douger1957 said:
    I'd think from a manufacturing and inventory management point of view, it'd be cheaper to build one version due to less tooling and inventory holding costs.
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    Regardless of if the modem is in flo or not, there's no sim card tray on flos.
    They could hypothetically use deb boards that otherwise work 100%, except somehow recieved a faulty modem chip,
    but without a sim tray you wouldnt be able to do much with just that.

    Many old tegra 2 based tablets had a PCI-E mini slot (PCI-E mini can do either PCI-E and/or usb, only the latter was actually available and that was what was used) where the modem went, you could likely solder in a slot on the wifi model and get the same modem elsewhere, but you'd need to also get a sim slot and tray to actually make it useful.
    View
    1
    LinearEquation
    LinearEquation
    skrypj said:
    I have been searching for a teardown of DEB but cannot seem to find one. Does anyone know the differences in the hardware between FLO and DEB besides the obvious, one has a sim card and one doesnt.

    Is the LTE capability integrated into the SoC on DEB but not FLO? If not, is the LTE chip located on the main board with the SoC or is it on the daughter board at the bottom of the tablet where the sim-card plugs in? Any help is appreciated.
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    It's my understanding that Deb is relatively the same as Flo with the exception of data and full GPS capabilities. Many have flashed Flo ROM's on Deb devices and they will work but will not have data and full GPS capabilities, which defeats the purpose of having a Deb. An actual Deb teardown I have not done though.

    Sent from my Nexus 7 Flo running CM 11 4.4.2 with ElementalX Kernel using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
    View
    1
    D
    douger1957
    skrypj said:
    I have been searching for a teardown of DEB but cannot seem to find one. Does anyone know the differences in the hardware between FLO and DEB besides the obvious, one has a sim card and one doesnt.

    Is the LTE capability integrated into the SoC on DEB but not FLO? If not, is the LTE chip located on the main board with the SoC or is it on the daughter board at the bottom of the tablet where the sim-card plugs in? Any help is appreciated.
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    My experience is that some ROMs will work between the "Deb" and "Flo" models but others won't. Some are even advertised as being bisexual. :silly:

    It's entirely possible for the hardware on both models to be exactly the same, with some deeply rooted firmware switch to activate LTE. I'd think from a manufacturing and inventory management point of view, it'd be cheaper to build one version due to less tooling and inventory holding costs.
    View

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