[truck1985]

I am getting ready to buy a Stratosphere 2 to use as my work phone. My work does not allow me to have a camera phone in most areas. I am going to physically remove the camera lenses from the phone, but need to also root the phone and disable the camera functions within the software. The task of removing the cameras is straight forward however, I am uncertain how to do the second task. How would I go about rooting the phone then disabling the cameras in the software?

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[truck1985]

Also, it would be helpful if I could replace the shell of the phone with parts that do not have holes for the cameras, if that is possible?

[acejavelin]

Rooting the Start 2 is problematic at best, if you are on the current OTA there is no known exploit to root.

Also, for your other part, removing the lenses is probably your only option... The Strat 2 wasn't a popular phone, you likely will find little info on doing other mods.

Sorry.

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[truck1985]

Should I be considering a different phone then? What would you recommend? I currently have Blackberry Bold 9930 without camera, and a Galaxy Note 2. I am unwilling to destroy/remove the cameras from the Note 2, but need to find a replacement to my Bold soon.

[acejavelin]

Should I be considering a different phone then? What would you recommend? I currently have Blackberry Bold 9930 without camera, and a Galaxy Note 2. I am unwilling to destroy/remove the cameras from the Note 2, but need to find a replacement to my Bold soon.

I assume you want/need a physical keyboard? Your only choice would be to try and find a Moto Droid 4. No other Verizon smart phones are available with a physical keyboard and the market isn't demanding them, so we likely won't see a new one anytime soon.

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[truck1985]

I liked that the Stratosphere 2 is going for a relatively low price on ebay. Though as a converting Blackberry user, the full keyboard did seem nice

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[acejavelin]

I liked that the Stratosphere 2 is going for a relatively low price on ebay. Though as a converting Blackberry user, the full keyboard did seem nice

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Honestly, I have bought a few phones on eBay, everyone was bad in one way or another... Swappa is pretty good though.

If your just going to cripple it, what features do you really need? And is VZW a requirement?

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[truck1985]

Honestly, I have bought a few phones on eBay, everyone was bad in one way or another... Swappa is pretty good though.

If your just going to cripple it, what features do you really need? And is VZW a requirement?

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I've never had issues with ebay, though I had never even heard of Swappa. Thanks for that resource.
The biggest features I need are 4G and must be a smartphone. I am unwilling to buy another blackberry, and don't really want Apple either. VZW is a must because I'm grandfathered on their UDP, and the rest of the phones on my plan are under contract for another 23 months, so switching to another carrier with UDP isn't really an option.