New sealed box SGH-i257M came Rooted

[systwk]

An Interesting surprise unpacking a 'New' SGH-i257M sourced from eBay.

The Box was shrink wrapped, black seal with the 'Do not accept if seal is broken..etc. ' warning intact. The phone for all intents and purposes was new, plastic protective tape around the Aluminum edge band, standard screen & protective covers all new. Now the good part. Sold as unbranded and unlocked, it came with a Telus box, however when powered up it was indeed free of carrier bloatware and no case branding. When I looked into the Apps drawer there was SuperSU. Hmmmm.... Installed a root checker and dang, it was rooted. I powered down the phone, booted into recovery and yep, the latest CWM. Not a single sign of ANY use or even un-boxing, I looked VERY thoroughly.

I did have access to a US carrier's S4 mini and looked inside carefully and it's definitely not counterfeit. Very well repackaged somewhere obviously or someone at Samsung had some fun, (doubt that).
Along with that I got the thing from Canada to Florida the next day FedEx. But price included standard 3 day expedite.
And yes, of course it's 0x1. But it was going to be anyway within 12 hours. Now de-bloated and running on AT&T it works flawlessly.

Sometimes this hobby/obsession can have surprises.

 

[the Doctor]

This shouldn't be surprising, really. A great number of "new" and "unlocked" phones devices sold on ebay are formerly locked and branded devices like yours. I hope you got a great deal on it.

Edit
---------------
Beware any unlocked/unbranded 4G tablet with US frequencies sold on ebay.

 

[systwk]

This shouldn't be surprising, really. A great number of "new" and "unlocked" phones devices sold on ebay are formerly locked and branded devices like yours. I hope you got a great deal on it.

Edit
---------------
Beware any unlocked/unbranded 4G tablet with US frequencies sold on ebay.

The deal was unremarkable but the free overnight FedEx shipping from Canada to Florida made up for it.
The V1 Arco68 root/CWM is what surprised me, The case is unbranded, no Telus, Bell, Rogers or anything on the case, the same UPC as a non branded phone, same inside, no different from the unbranded & above the standard UPC code is printed TELUS in a different font, I suspect it was intended as a replacement for TELUS Tech and as usual some 'Fell off the truck', or it's 'overstock' China commerce. I am aware of the 'pitfalls' of new Cell purchases, A minefield comes to mind. That is where PayPal comes in very handy if something is not as it should be. Been there, done the dance before. I'm pleased with it and it saved me a small amount of time. It is an unbranded, unused phone, so what the heck. I posted the info since this is a case where something was done right. Unusual.

 

[phositadc]

An Interesting surprise unpacking a 'New' SGH-i257M sourced from eBay.

The Box was shrink wrapped, black seal with the 'Do not accept if seal is broken..etc. ' warning intact. The phone for all intents and purposes was new, plastic protective tape around the Aluminum edge band, standard screen & protective covers all new. Now the good part. Sold as unbranded and unlocked, it came with a Telus box, however when powered up it was indeed free of carrier bloatware and no case branding. When I looked into the Apps drawer there was SuperSU. Hmmmm.... Installed a root checker and dang, it was rooted. I powered down the phone, booted into recovery and yep, the latest CWM. Not a single sign of ANY use or even un-boxing, I looked VERY thoroughly.

I did have access to a US carrier's S4 mini and looked inside carefully and it's definitely not counterfeit. Very well repackaged somewhere obviously or someone at Samsung had some fun, (doubt that).
Along with that I got the thing from Canada to Florida the next day FedEx. But price included standard 3 day expedite.
And yes, of course it's 0x1. But it was going to be anyway within 12 hours. Now de-bloated and running on AT&T it works flawlessly.

Sometimes this hobby/obsession can have surprises.

Does it get AT&T LTE? Can you confirm whether it has a notification led like the Verizon version?

Sent from my XT1053

 

[systwk]

Does it get AT&T LTE? Can you confirm whether it has a notification led like the Verizon version?
Sent from my XT1053

As to working on AT&T, yes both HSPA+ & LTE work, but it is still the Canadian/NA band phone. No notification LED. The AT&T's from what I have been told will not be out until January. The few phones that have been pre-released earlier may not be the final product. It's a 'wait ans see' situation. I wanted one that will work on T-Mo as well so I have the option of popping in a pre-pay SIM and switching APNs to have access to two networks. An AT&T or T-Mo phone will not do that. I suspect as the user base grows, a BLN compatible Kernel will be available for non AOSP Roms.
Once AT&T rolls out we can extract individual components from the firmware that are unique to AT&T.

 

[civicsr2cool]

As to working on AT&T, yes both HSPA+ & LTE work, but it is still the Canadian/NA band phone. No notification LED. The AT&T's from what I have been told will not be out until January. The few phones that have been pre-released earlier may not be the final product. It's a 'wait ans see' situation. I wanted one that will work on T-Mo as well so I have the option of popping in a pre-pay SIM and switching APNs to have access to two networks. An AT&T or T-Mo phone will not do that. I suspect as the user base grows, a BLN compatible Kernel will be available for non AOSP Roms.
Once AT&T rolls out we can extract individual components from the firmware that are unique to AT&T.

how are you getting lte?
I started with a rogers i275m on 4.2.2
I am getting a 4g indication but never an lte indication. I rooted with vroot, flashed twrp with odin, and then unlocked with the regionlock away app. I debloated ALOTof apps, maybe that is why I do not have lte? stock rom, slimkat, and carbon all do not show lte. Im stumped.