My 910S appears as a 910F + battery draining problems

[ebusmaximus]

I've just bought a new Note 4, under settings and system it says it's the n910F version, but cpu-z says the bootloader is N910SKSU2COL1. If I boot it in safe mode (home button + volume up + power), it's says
Android system recovery <3e>
LMY47X.N910SKSU2C0J4

recovery mode (home button + volume down + power) gives me the warning in korean language then states product name as SM-N910S

Also, and what bothers me the most is that I have a huge battery drain on the phone. I tried wiping the cache and hard resetting the fone for the 4th time now, still getting a massive battery drain doing basically nothing. I've just lost 15% in less than 40 minutes from a 100% charge. My guess is that the phone was "badly" updated from KitKat to Lollipop (KNOX warranty void is on 1, and i can't get the OTA update for Marshmallow).

I would like to update it to 6.0.1 (or again to 5.1.1 myself) to see it that fixes the problem, but I am not sure how to do it since my case is a little bit "particular" if i may say so.

I come from an iphone, so any help would be extremely appreciated, I am completely lost.

Thanks

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Are you certain the phone was brand new? I'm going to guess that someone took a 910S and flashed a 910F ROM. Flashing the firmware for a different variant can cause various issues, so that might be one of the reasons your battery life is poor.

I'll ping our local Samsung guru ironass and see what he has to say about this.

 

[ironass]

You do not need me.

Between you, you have sorted it out. The actual phone is the carrier minority variant for the South Korean network SK Telecom, model N910S. This octa core, Exynos, model is produced by Samsung, also South Korean, because of the slight variation in the SK Telecom network from the usual, global, GSM networks and has a slightly modified hardware modem. This means that it is not fully compatible with worldwide GSM networks. See, Will My Phone Work.

Someone has then flashed a Note 4 firmware for the global model, N910F, probably in an attempt to obtain a French language pack for use in Côte d’Ivoire, (Ivory Coast, W. Africa) and Liberia, since the Note 4 is not marketed in Africa, and possibly in the mistaken belief that it might make the phone more compatible with the local Orange network. Because of this, the phone will no longer receive updates OTA, (Over The Air), and if you want to update it you will need to download and flash an N910F firmware with a French language pack and flash it via Odin to your phone. Below is the latest Marshmallow, Android 6.0.1, firmware for the unbranded N910F model for France and the latest, November 2016, security patch. The link also has details on how to flash it using Odin.


Model SM-N910F
Model name GALAXY Note4
Country France
Version Android 6.0.1
Changelist 9117724
Build date Thu, 03 Nov 2016 06:59:43 +0000
Security Patch Level 2016-11-01
Product code XEF
PDA N910FXXS1DPK1
CSC N910FOXX1DPI1

Hope that helps!

 

[ebusmaximus]

Welcome to Android Central! Are you certain the phone was brand new? I'm going to guess that someone took a 910S and flashed a 910F ROM. Flashing the firmware for a different variant can cause various issues, so that might be one of the reasons your battery life is poor.

I'll ping our local Samsung guru ironass and see what he has to say about this.

Nope, found out that it was actually refurbished. Cosmetically new, but still.

 

[ebusmaximus]

You do not need me.

Between you, you have sorted it out. The actual phone is the carrier minority variant for the South Korean network SK Telecom, model N910S. This octa core, Exynos, model is produced by Samsung, also South Korean, because of the slight variation in the SK Telecom network from the usual, global, GSM networks and has a slightly modified hardware modem. This means that it is not fully compatible with worldwide GSM networks. See, Will My Phone Work.

Someone has then flashed a Note 4 firmware for the global model, N910F, probably in an attempt to obtain a French language pack for use in Côte d’Ivoire, (Ivory Coast, W. Africa) and Liberia, since the Note 4 is not marketed in Africa, and possibly in the mistaken belief that it might make the phone more compatible with the local Orange network. Because of this, the phone will no longer receive updates OTA, (Over The Air), and if you want to update it you will need to download and flash an N910F firmware with a French language pack and flash it via Odin to your phone. Below is the latest Marshmallow, Android 6.0.1, firmware for the unbranded N910F model for France and the latest, November 2016, security patch. The link also has details on how to flash it using Odin.


Model SM-N910F
Model name GALAXY Note4
Country France
Version Android 6.0.1
Changelist 9117724
Build date Thu, 03 Nov 2016 06:59:43 +0000
Security Patch Level 2016-11-01
Product code XEF
PDA N910FXXS1DPK1
CSC N910FOXX1DPI1

Hope that helps!

Very helpul, indeed.

I was concerned that something else had to be done before flashing a N910F firmware. I finally decided to return it, and got a full refund. Found a "true" N910F along with various other american models with matching pda,csc and model numbers (N910V, P and T). Looks like they all are qualcomm versions, the 910S was the exynos.
I've read that the former has a better support for custom ROMS, but what about battery life?

Thanks a lot for your help.

PS: The Note 4 was actually officially marketed here (Ivory Coast) by Samsung, but was discontinued in favor of newer models. They sold the F and C variants, and maybe the H one too.