Is unlocked the same as unbranded?

[ChilledPilchard]

Hi,

Ive just received an unlocked s7e from eBay which is operating fine with my 3 sim, however, it does have evidence of o2 software on it. I'm assuming that mean it wasn't unbranded, just unlocked from o2.

If it was o2 and now unlocked with a 3 sim, does the system updates still come from o2 or from Samsung now?

If it is still o2, can I flash a Rom to make updates come from Samsung?

Cheers.

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[LeoRex]

'Unlocked' in your case means that there is no carrier lock, aka SIM lock. So you can pop a SIM from another carrier in there and there will be nothing (other than hardware/radio differences) that will stand in your way.

Since the phone came from O2, the OTA updates for your phone have to pass through O2 since as far as Samsung is concerned, your phone is an O2 phone.

As for ROMs, IF there is an international ROM that fully supports and is fully compatible with your particular model (with Samsung, its hard to tell), loading that 'unbranded' ROM will strip O2's involvement in the OTA chain. But Samsung has a habit of making a million different models with slightly different hardware bits, loading the wrong ROM can torpedo the phone.

 

[ChilledPilchard]

Is there a way to tell for sure if it was previously a networked phone?

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[ChilledPilchard]

There's no o2 branding or splash screens, just 1 o2 app that it let me Uninstall and the email signatures in the stock email app defaulted to something like 'sent frome Samsung on o2'

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[LeoRex]

The most obvious one is if you see carrier-specific apps stuffed in System (apps that you can't uninstall).

Samsung used to use a ton of different hardware SKUs to differentiate the different models, but I think they did away with that this time around. But you might be able to check the software build against a list on a site like sammobile.com... that should tell you if the build installed on your phone was a carrier one or a generic, unbranded one.

 

[ChilledPilchard]

Cool, I'll give that a go.

Thanks.

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