What is my phone?

[skyhigh_91]

Slightly unusual title, I know. I have had my M8 for 2 weeks now and bought it sim-free in the UK, however it came with a MyEE app installed that cannot be removed, indicating that the phone is an EE phone and not sim-free. The phone works fine with my 3 SIM card, so I know it's not locked though.

I would assume then that someone had unlocked my phone and sold it on as unlocked, but the box was sealed properly and EE phones are sold locked and there isn't any EE branding anywhere.

In a nutshell - I seem to have got a sealed unlocked phone with software from a network that only sells locked phones on it.

What should I do?

 

[UJ95x]

Is the phone working on your current network? Don't think it would cause any major issues if it was in fact an EE phone though.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SOKP 4.4.2

 

[skyhigh_91]

It is working fine on my network, at least for 3G. I don't know if I have to wait for EE to release software updates though and they are incredibly slow.

 

[Android Optimizer]

Slightly unusual title, I know. I have had my M8 for 2 weeks now and bought it sim-free in the UK, however it came with a MyEE app installed that cannot be removed, indicating that the phone is an EE phone and not sim-free. The phone works fine with my 3 SIM card, so I know it's not locked though.

I would assume then that someone had unlocked my phone and sold it on as unlocked, but the box was sealed properly and EE phones are sold locked and there isn't any EE branding anywhere.

In a nutshell - I seem to have got a sealed unlocked phone with software from a network that only sells locked phones on it.

What should I do?

I'm not familiar with EE or how the UK version of the m8 differs from the US version, but I see they have different ways of uninstalling apps:
HTC One (M8) - Uninstall an application
I'm guessing the uninstall option is greyed out as opposed to you not holding and dragging like the instructions in the link above says. Did you buy the phone from a reputable/establish retailer? Since you're suspicious that it may be a EE phone I'd think you may want to contact EE (or HTC), explain to them the situation, and see what their take is on it. EE might be able to tell you if it really is an EE phone, and HTC might be able to tell you why it has an EE app you can't uninstall even though it may not be an EE phone.

If you care to share your phone software version number people using EE versions could tell you if it matches with their phone version number (indicating if you're being updated by EE or not). In the US when we go into Settings -> Software Update -> Status it reads something like: "Last Successful Software Update from Verizon Wireless:"which tells us the updates are coming from Verizon. Perhaps your's will read Last Successful Software Update from EE if you have an EE linked phone or Last Successful Software Update from HTC if you're not.

 

[skyhigh_91]

Thanks for replying. Yes, the uninstall option for the EE app is greyed out. I did buy the phone from a fairly reputable retailer and because EE say they don't sell unlocked phones and this one was properly sealed I think I'll try contacting HTC first to see what they say as I don't think it's the fault of the retailer.

I got an update yesterday for my phone which took it to version number 1.70.61.3 but still Android 4.4.2 which slightly confused me as I haven't seen this update reported anywhere else. As far as I can see, there is nothing here which tells me where the last update came from though.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using AC Forums mobile app