Why is my NEW out of the box Galaxy Note 5 ROOTED??

[dougdraws]

Did you get it from a reputable source?

Did the OP ever answer this question? Seems to me the place he bought the phone from isn't very reliable.

 

[underway99]

I'd wondered as well. And I wondered about the tamper labels the OP mentioned. My brand new phone from Verizon didn't have any tamper labels. Is that how a carrier-unlocked phone ships?

I expect tamper labels on my orange juice, my toothpaste, and my pain reliever. I would not expect one on a phone.

 

[xrayhead]

Here's the note from the seller:

Dear Customer
As described in our item specific, our Note 5 is USA model+Software unlocked.

We would like to inform you that an android phone divided into 2 kinds, i.e. factory unlocked and software unlocked. Factory unlocked means manufacturer allow you to use the phone in Worldwide, so you don't need to unlock the phone & can use it Worldwide, so we called this phone FACTORY unlocked. The other one is SOFTWARE unlocked, for example, a manufacturer set a region lock for a phone for USA region only. If you want to use this phone in UK but originally manufacturer set a region lock for USA region only, so we need to SOFTWARE unlocked this phone & made it can be used Worldwide. USA Samsung offer their phones at the cheapest price in USA, so many dealers purchased phones from USA & sell them to other countries. However, Samsung USA set a region lock for the phones sold in USA at cheaper prices, so the dealers need to SOFTWARE unlocked those USA phones and make them can be used Worldwide. SOFTWARE UNLOCKED also called ROOTED the phone. Please note that if you find a seller declared the phone is software unlocked, then the phone must be rooted. ebay only offer 2 options for us to describe the phone status, software unlocked or factory unlocked, so we can only described our phone is a software unlocked phone(Rooted is a short form of software unlocked).

*IMEI will change after software unlocked,as described in our item description too.

By the way, experienced user loved USA model software unlocked phones because their prices are lower but the phones have same hardware as same as factory unlocked phones. A rooted phone also allowed user to download many Apps for free, too.

Dear customer, we afraid that you're not familiar with how an USA Samsung phone works & not sure about what is software unlocked phone, so lead to the confused.If you need return for full refund, please feel free to let us know & our company responsible for all return postage cost.

Regards

------------------ Follow up email ------------------------

Dear customer,

Hello again

We are sorry for your concern but our Note 5 is 100% original from Samsung,you can access to Samsung Apps store by our phone(Samsung Apps pre-installed inside our phone menu), only genuine Samsung phone can be accessed to Samsung Apps Store.

Regarding your concern with Konx, we are sorry to inform you that Knox won't work on a software unlocked(Rooted) phone, sorry. Normally, banks/financial apps or Knox requires to work with local settings smartphones to ahcieve more security or otherwise the Apps can't work properly or even you can't install the Apps on phones came from overseas. If you need a phone work with bank Apps / Konx, we recommend you to purchase a phone directly from your sim card provider or UK Samsung instead of USA model, sorry.

 

[xrayhead]

I've posted the above as I've found over the past couple of weeks that there are US Note 5 phones making their way into the UK with custom firmware that is not supported by Samsung! Hence you CAN NOT flash with official firmware as this dose not exist for the Europe frequencies...

 

[xrayhead]

Did the OP ever answer this question? Seems to me the place he bought the phone from isn't very reliable.

Read post 13

 

[ratsttam]

Seeing the results here, I looked over the screen shots, and I completely missed the huge discprepancy that validates what your seller said.
Looking at post #16
"Here's more info in download mode for my phone:
About device says: Model Number SM-N920F
Current Android version: 5.1.1
Product Name: SM-N920A"

Looks like SM-N920A was flashed with software for SM-N920F. Not sure what the "F" model is, but the "A" is the USA AT&T model. I have the SM-N920T (USA T-Mobile).

Not sure why they had to reflash the model software. A USA sim-unlocked model should work just fine on any other carrier that supports the bands your current carrier uses.

 

[Targatheory]

This might help you https://www.etradesupply.com/blog/how-to-check-samsung-galaxy-note-5-model-numbers/