[Q] HELP - Stay with AT&T or switch to T-Mobile

Stay with AT&T or Switch to T-Mobile?

  • Stay with AT&T S5 and wait for a Root method!

    Votes: 9 52.9%
  • Switch to T-Mobile S5 and get Root right away!

    Votes: 8 47.1%

  • Total voters
    17
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kharrison83

Member
Apr 12, 2014
10
2
Holiday
Hello Everyone,

Long time view, first time poster.

Let me start with, I'm so damn confused on what to do now...

I've recently (yesterday) upgraded (using AT&T Next) to get the Galaxy S5 (awesome phone, btw) and immediately starting looking into Rooting and Custom Recovery. Through all my searching, I find the same info, AT&T with it's locked BootLoader and no Root as of yet. I originally had the AT&T S4 that I rooted as soon as I got it, which had the unlocked BootLoader, so LOKI was awesome and I didn't get hit with the OTA upgrade to a locked BootLoader, so this is all new today. I know the SafeStrap stuff for the upgraded S4 but never had to experience that.

Now I have the S5. The dev's are awesome, so I'm sure there will be a way to root the S5 at some point, but it sucks looking on the forums every hour, hoping, but seeing the same CFAUTOROOT's for all the other versions, like T-Mobile, which brings me to my main question.

SHOULD I RETURN THE AT&T SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 AND GO WITH T-MOBILE??? :confused:

Details:
I've already sold my awesome S4. I have 14 days to return the S5, but would have to link another phone to my account due to contact (till 10/2015), which is fine because I still have a Note and Iphone 3GS. I also see that T-Mobile will pay the cancellation fee for switching to them. The plan that I have with AT&T and the plan that T-Mobile is offering are roughly the same in specs and price, T-Mobile may even be *slightly* cheaper.

BUT...

Is it worth it to do this, just for the S5 with an unlocked BootLoader, that already has a Root method and Custom Recovery available, right now, as I type this... :eek:

I know, ultimately, I'm the only one that can answer this question; depends on how badly I want to root my phone.

I guess I'm just looking to see if other people are in the same boat as me and what their thoughts are on it, and what they are doing...

Any advise, comments, recommendations or in-sight is greatly appreciated.

THANKS!!!
 

CZ Eddie

Senior Member
Sep 27, 2011
6,397
2,442
Austin, TX
If TMO has a good rep in your area then I would switch. Absolutely. Tbe S6 on ATT will even worse im sure.

Sent from my GT-I9505G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
 
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MattMJB0188

Senior Member
Apr 30, 2011
1,407
214
I have a prepaid $70 unlimited everything sim from T-Mobile. I find them to be good, not great. I live in Northwest, Indiana (suburb of Chicago). In my experience I find T-Mobile's LTE LTE signal to be pretty weak in general. Most likely due to the AWS frequency. The HSPA+ signal seems fine. I have also noticed that the LTE is not very fast (despite their claims). If you turn if off, the HSPA+ performs just as good, or if not better. I do not travel at all. But I like having a peace of mind with guaranteed HSPA+ coverage on AT&T. T-Mobile only gives me EDGE at home. It's 100% useless. I haven't tried out the wifi calling recently, but I wonder if you can send MMS over that.

I just returned my AT&T S5 for a defective headphone jack. I was going to exchange it, until it hit me that $700 is not worth it for a locked down device. I loved to flash custom roms and modify everything. AT&T has stopped that. Despite excellent coverage, I too am contemplating switching to TMO permanently. I like that they don't modify their devices. Maybe AT&T's system loosing my unlimited data plan today was the final straw.

Gonna look into options.
 

norbarb

Account currently disabled
Dec 22, 2011
3,784
2,920
I have a prepaid $70 unlimited everything sim from T-Mobile. I find them to be good, not great. I live in Northwest, Indiana (suburb of Chicago). In my experience I find T-Mobile's LTE LTE signal to be pretty weak in general. Most likely due to the AWS frequency. The HSPA+ signal seems fine. I have also noticed that the LTE is not very fast (despite their claims). If you turn if off, the HSPA+ performs just as good, or if not better. I do not travel at all. But I like having a peace of mind with guaranteed HSPA+ coverage on AT&T. T-Mobile only gives me EDGE at home. It's 100% useless. I haven't tried out the wifi calling recently, but I wonder if you can send MMS over that.

I just returned my AT&T S5 for a defective headphone jack. I was going to exchange it, until it hit me that $700 is not worth it for a locked down device. I loved to flash custom roms and modify everything. AT&T has stopped that. Despite excellent coverage, I too am contemplating switching to TMO permanently. I like that they don't modify their devices. Maybe AT&T's system loosing my unlimited data plan today was the final straw.

Gonna look into options.

I don't understate why did you do this for. T-mobile Samsung galaxy S5 have lock bootloader too : http://support.t-mobile.com/thread/67380
 

rfb813

Senior Member
May 15, 2012
1,625
674
Winter Garden, FL
If you check the tmobile forum you will see that they have rooted the S5, installed a custom recovery and some tmobile owners have even flashed and installed Indies rom from the International forum.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using xda app-developers app
 

djkinetic

Senior Member
Feb 26, 2011
3,641
1,387
Chicago
Ok some people need some education here, so here goes.

The ATT S4 Bootloader was technically LOCKED when it shipped. There was however a bootloader exploit that allowed custom roms and recoveries, this exploit was known as LOKI. Loki is not a true bootloader unlock, it is a bypass. It intercepts instructions during the boot process that allows unsigned code to be run. This exploit was patched in later updates by Samsung, and all current Samsung's are no longer vulnerable to the LOKI exploit.

The S5 on tmobile is BOOTLOADER UNLOCKED. This is confirmed. To those saying TMO is locked you are mistaken. I will enlighten you as to why. The root method used to obtain root on the TMO S5 requires an Unlocked BL to be successful. CF Auto Root by Chainfire works by modifying the stock recovery partition and then using ODIN to flash the TAR file. Odin flashes this modified stock recovery which then pushes SU binary which then flashes the Stock S5 firmware over. This only works if the BL is unlocked. 1 of 3 outcomes will happen if trying to flash on a locked BL. First if the BL is locked Odin will error out saying that the modified recovery image is not official/signed (end of story thats it), this is the most likely scenario. If somehow the modified image flashes onto a locked BL, the phone will not boot. Worst case scenario it flashes and you end up with a brick.

CF has already stated his root method won't work on the ATT S5 or VZW S5 because of the BL, worse is that modifying system to get root is not possible according to CF. This was used to root the S4 and Note 3 orginally. The only way the ATT or VZW S5 gets rooted is if a dev is able to find an exploit for Kit Kat.

In short TMO S5 has an unlocked BL and ATT is locked, stop being in denial. Class over.
 

kharrison83

Member
Apr 12, 2014
10
2
Holiday
Ok some people need some education here, so here goes.

The ATT S4 Bootloader was technically LOCKED when it shipped. There was however a bootloader exploit that allowed custom roms and recoveries, this exploit was known as LOKI. Loki is not a true bootloader unlock, it is a bypass. It intercepts instructions during the boot process that allows unsigned code to be run. This exploit was patched in later updates by Samsung, and all current Samsung's are no longer vulnerable to the LOKI exploit.

The S5 on tmobile is BOOTLOADER UNLOCKED. This is confirmed. To those saying TMO is locked you are mistaken. I will enlighten you as to why. The root method used to obtain root on the TMO S5 requires an Unlocked BL to be successful. CF Auto Root by Chainfire works by modifying the stock recovery partition and then using ODIN to flash the TAR file. Odin flashes this modified stock recovery which then pushes SU binary which then flashes the Stock S5 firmware over. This only works if the BL is unlocked. 1 of 3 outcomes will happen if trying to flash on a locked BL. First if the BL is locked Odin will error out saying that the modified recovery image is not official/signed (end of story thats it), this is the most likely scenario. If somehow the modified image flashes onto a locked BL, the phone will not boot. Worst case scenario it flashes and you end up with a brick.

CF has already stated his root method won't work on the ATT S5 or VZW S5 because of the BL, worse is that modifying system to get root is not possible according to CF. This was used to root the S4 and Note 3 orginally. The only way the ATT or VZW S5 gets rooted is if a dev is able to find an exploit for Kit Kat.

In short TMO S5 has an unlocked BL and ATT is locked, stop being in denial. Class over.

This is an awesome explanation! Thanks! So technically, my S4 didn't have an Unlocked BootLoader, there was just an exploit Jellybean (LOKI) that was able to gain root (that I used) prior to Samsung patching. And that same patch (or "fix") is applied to the S5, right out the gate. :crying:
 

pcidiot

Senior Member
Oct 30, 2010
291
45
I'd, switch and all of us here that can't switch should let them know that because they locked their bootloaders. That we will all be switching carriers due to them locking the bootloader. If we can find the right place to tell them that they will be losing many customers then maybe they will change the way they do things or send us a unlocked update.
I had to call them yesterday with a problem with my sim. It was coming up not registered on a network. When talking with AT&T I told them when upgrade time comes I am switching to T-Mobile due to them locking the boot loader. That it should be my choice what I do with and to my phone that I paid for. Then today while doing a servay about the call. I told them again, at the end when they asked if there was anything else. After telling them again, the response was. Thanks again for your time and feedback. Your comments will help us continue to improve our service.

Now this is probably just a general response that's given at the end of the servay. But if we can find the right place in AT&T and threaten them with the loss of many consumers. Then maybe they will change some things. Just think T-Mobile in One year or Two seeing the trend of more and more At&t and Verizon consumers jumping ship to them. They will have no choice but to make T-Mobile better than the others, in all aspects.
 
Last edited:

Earthdog

Senior Member
Mar 6, 2011
457
81
Atlanta, GA
Honestly, I am thinking of either going back to my Note 3 or doing the T-Mobile but I am not sure that the S5 offers enough new stuff to support the added expense over the Note 3.
 

kenfb1

Senior Member
Oct 25, 2012
218
26
Scranton
Hi

Honestly, I am thinking of either going back to my Note 3 or doing the T-Mobile but I am not sure that the S5 offers enough new stuff to support the added expense over the Note 3.

Hi,
I'm also thinking about going to T Mobile especially because they
will pay your ETF for the switch. Just not sure about their coverage,
that's the only thing holding me back right now,
Ken
 

titaneds73

Senior Member
Sep 22, 2011
475
142
yakima
Or you could go with the HTC one m8 it's unlocked,rooted with a custom recovery and s-off.I had never owned an HTC device always had Samsung.but after handling the phone and how dev friendly HTC it's I'm glad I went with them still have my s4 anyway with Loki.
Second choice buy an s5 from t mobile unlock it and use it on AT&T , people have said that lte and reception is excellent on AT&T with the tmo s5.

I hate the fact that AT&T is going the Verizon rout but lays face tmo network is no where near AT&T .I've used both .hope this helps.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using xda app-developers app
 
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kharrison83

Member
Apr 12, 2014
10
2
Holiday
Thank you everyone for your responses!

I finally did it and made the move to T-Mobile.

LTE on T-Mobile is soooo much faster than AT&T. On LTE I went from between 10-20 MB/s to a minimum of 25 MB/s on TMO, and most of the time a solid 30 MB/s.

HOWEVER, I did notice that places where I would normally have LTE with AT&T, I only sometimes get LTE with TMO; otherwise it's just 4G, which knocks the speed down to between 8-18 MB/s from using speedtest, but still not a huge deal.

I do find myself 'waiting' for websites to load a little longer on TMO, probably slow DNS servers, so gotta look in to that to see if I can change the DNS servers used when using Cell DATA (not Wifi).

All in all, I couldn't be happier with the same exact phone, but that has an unlocked bootloader and already rooted and custom recovery. I was nervous about switching since AT&T did have GREAT service (and by service, I mean reception, lol) but glad I did.

So, if you have AT&T and the S5 and want/need root and are tired of looking for a Root and keep seeing the CF-Auto-Root available for TMO, take the plunge and switch... just check out service reviews in your area first.

Thanks again everyone!!
 

pcidiot

Senior Member
Oct 30, 2010
291
45
Thank you everyone for your responses!

I finally did it and made the move to T-Mobile.

LTE on T-Mobile is soooo much faster than AT&T. On LTE I went from between 10-20 MB/s to a minimum of 25 MB/s on TMO, and most of the time a solid 30 MB/s.

HOWEVER, I did notice that places where I would normally have LTE with AT&T, I only sometimes get LTE with TMO; otherwise it's just 4G, which knocks the speed down to between 8-18 MB/s from using speedtest, but still not a huge deal.

I do find myself 'waiting' for websites to load a little longer on TMO, probably slow DNS servers, so gotta look in to that to see if I can change the DNS servers used when using Cell DATA (not Wifi).

All in all, I couldn't be happier with the same exact phone, but that has an unlocked bootloader and already rooted and custom recovery. I was nervous about switching since AT&T did have GREAT service (and by service, I mean reception, lol) but glad I did.

So, if you have AT&T and the S5 and want/need root and are tired of looking for a Root and keep seeing the CF-Auto-Root available for TMO, take the plunge and switch... just check out service reviews in your area first.

Thanks again everyone!!

This is exactly what I will be doing when they get reception in my area. The people that voted stay with At&t either work for them or have high hopes. As there most likely will never be root for At&t's S5 unless they give it up and that most likely is not going to happen. So in all reality their votes don't count as there won't be root.
 

MattMJB0188

Senior Member
Apr 30, 2011
1,407
214
Thought I'd add my two cents here. I just recently tried out T-Mobile (again) and the more I used their service, the more I hated it. Of course this is subjective because not everyone lives in my area. After having AT&T LTE for years, you get use to it. When driving AT&T's LTE signal was stable. It would never drop to E or 4G. If your driving and streaming something with T-Mobile, FORGET IT. The LTE signal is EXTREMELY weak. In my area AT&T & TMO share towers. My AT&T LTE phone would show a -90dbm signal, while T-Mobile would show a -110 signal.

In my area they need low bandwidth spectrum to cover it. They will never get it here. I can't have my phone signal bouncing all over the place. Its annoying and drains the hell out of your battery.

I also found their LTE to be slow. Much slower than AT&T's (in my area). So anyone who switches to TMO and has great service, I envy you. For me, it wasn't what I thought it was, after a few days of use.
 

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  • 5
    Ok some people need some education here, so here goes.

    The ATT S4 Bootloader was technically LOCKED when it shipped. There was however a bootloader exploit that allowed custom roms and recoveries, this exploit was known as LOKI. Loki is not a true bootloader unlock, it is a bypass. It intercepts instructions during the boot process that allows unsigned code to be run. This exploit was patched in later updates by Samsung, and all current Samsung's are no longer vulnerable to the LOKI exploit.

    The S5 on tmobile is BOOTLOADER UNLOCKED. This is confirmed. To those saying TMO is locked you are mistaken. I will enlighten you as to why. The root method used to obtain root on the TMO S5 requires an Unlocked BL to be successful. CF Auto Root by Chainfire works by modifying the stock recovery partition and then using ODIN to flash the TAR file. Odin flashes this modified stock recovery which then pushes SU binary which then flashes the Stock S5 firmware over. This only works if the BL is unlocked. 1 of 3 outcomes will happen if trying to flash on a locked BL. First if the BL is locked Odin will error out saying that the modified recovery image is not official/signed (end of story thats it), this is the most likely scenario. If somehow the modified image flashes onto a locked BL, the phone will not boot. Worst case scenario it flashes and you end up with a brick.

    CF has already stated his root method won't work on the ATT S5 or VZW S5 because of the BL, worse is that modifying system to get root is not possible according to CF. This was used to root the S4 and Note 3 orginally. The only way the ATT or VZW S5 gets rooted is if a dev is able to find an exploit for Kit Kat.

    In short TMO S5 has an unlocked BL and ATT is locked, stop being in denial. Class over.
    1
    If TMO has a good rep in your area then I would switch. Absolutely. Tbe S6 on ATT will even worse im sure.

    Sent from my GT-I9505G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
    1
    It's not locked. They wouldn't have root if it was.

    They had root for galaxy S4 from AT&T and bootloader is lock. Root is not proof.
    1
    Or you could go with the HTC one m8 it's unlocked,rooted with a custom recovery and s-off.I had never owned an HTC device always had Samsung.but after handling the phone and how dev friendly HTC it's I'm glad I went with them still have my s4 anyway with Loki.
    Second choice buy an s5 from t mobile unlock it and use it on AT&T , people have said that lte and reception is excellent on AT&T with the tmo s5.

    I hate the fact that AT&T is going the Verizon rout but lays face tmo network is no where near AT&T .I've used both .hope this helps.

    Sent from my HTC One_M8 using xda app-developers app