Parallel imported Samsung Galaxy S20 5G, no software updates

[TheEdge76]

Forgot to say, unlike my current (refurbished) S20 I didn't need to load a profile into this new one or anything - it just worked out of the box that's a good sign, right?

 

[mustang7757]

That's good
Definitely good sign

 

[TheEdge76]

Something not so good - I started doing the transfer last night, noting the battery on the new phone was quite low (about 20%). Never mind, I thought, that's enough to get this done and then I'll charge it. However the battery kept running down before my very eyes
I connected it to the charger and it said it was charging but the percentage kept dropping! Eventually it switched off and I let it charge - but I hope this isn't an omen of things to come...I bought this so I would get a new phone with better battery life!

I'll try doing the transfer again shortly and see how I go

 

[TheEdge76]

I tried doing a factory reset using the side keys and it gave an error along the lines of:
[PDP]
back-up : fail
no backup file

Anyone seen this before? It's a new one to me.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Have you considered returning these phones to wherever you purchased them? It sounds like you're getting dud devices from shady sellers. Have you considered Samsung Renewed if you aren't willing to buy a new device?

 

[TheEdge76]

Have you considered returning these phones to wherever you purchased them? It sounds like you're getting dud devices from shady sellers. Have you considered Samsung Renewed if you aren't willing to buy a new device?

Not quite like that

Here's the truncated history of me and S20's:
- First one purchased from a place here in Auckland in mid 2024. It was refurbished but came with a 12 month warranty. This is the one I'm using right now. It goes okay, except for the fact it had that hideous screen burn-out so needed replacement. The battery life isn't amazing but I'm living with it. I installed a Vodafone profile (as per this thread) and it works well signal-wide

- Second S20 I purchased off eBay. This got sent from China and looked lovely but it had no end of issues getting (and holding) a signal. This one I would agree with you, it was fully a dud. I sent it back and got a full refund

- Third S20 also from eBay (Vodafone NZ don't sell this phone anymore otherwise I would have gone straight to them). This is the one I'm in the process of trying to get going. So far it seems okay though but this one is brand new so I expect a few things will need setting up/tweaking before it works the way I want it to.

Sorry for the novel but I thought should clear up what my situation is

 

[TheEdge76]

Copying everything over now...seems to be going okay so far!

 

[mustang7757]

I tried doing a factory reset using the side keys and it gave an error along the lines of:
[PDP]
back-up : fail
no backup file

Anyone seen this before? It's a new one to me.

Side keys going into recovery?

 

[TheEdge76]

It's all academic now, I'm going to return this one too.

Positive:
- I love the screen, it's very bright
- Nice and snappy to use
- Nice colour too

Negative:
- extremely hot - not just during setup, but even afterwards. I was walking around with it in my pocket before and it was extremely warm.
I found an app called G-CPU which shows this one being 10°C warmer than my old phone (great app, by the way)
- I can't do a factory reset using the keys so I'm having to enter in the wrong PIN numerous times to make it format itself, as doing it from the Android menu inside the phone isn't wiping the data on there
- also I got this on the screen earlier this morning:

I've never seen anything like this on a cellphone before. I ended up hard restarting it using the side buttons and it came back to normal, but that was quite worrying.

Quite disappointing as I really like the phone, but given I paid almost $500 for a brand new phone, it shouldn't be overheating nor should it have the software issue shown above.

Luckily it's got a 30 day money back guarantee with eBay, so I'll return it and just get a new battery installed in my existing phone instead.

 

[Laura Knotek]

It's all academic now, I'm going to return this one too.

Positive:
- I love the screen, it's very bright
- Nice and snappy to use
- Nice colour too

Negative:
- extremely hot - not just during setup, but even afterwards. I was walking around with it in my pocket before and it was extremely warm.
I found an app called G-CPU which shows this one being 10°C warmer than my old phone (great app, by the way)
- I can't do a factory reset using the keys so I'm having to enter in the wrong PIN numerous times to make it format itself, as doing it from the Android menu inside the phone isn't wiping the data on there
- also I got this on the screen earlier this morning:
View attachment 372395
I've never seen anything like this on a cellphone before. I ended up hard restarting it using the side buttons and it came back to normal, but that was quite worrying.

Quite disappointing as I really like the phone, but given I paid almost $500 for a brand new phone, it shouldn't be overheating nor should it have the software issue shown above.

Luckily it's got a 30 day money back guarantee with eBay, so I'll return it and just get a new battery installed in my existing phone instead.

I think the problem is ebay. Who knows how honest the seller is. They could be selling the phone because they know it's defective. Additionally, it could have been sitting on a shelf for the past 5 years.

 

[TheEdge76]

That's a very good point - probably the latter part is what applies best here.

I think when I get my refund back for this one, I'll just take the money and get a new battery put in my current phone (from a local phone shop, so it has a warranty) to stretch this one out a little bit more.