Another Cheap Android Phone - £79.99

[Charlie]

Found a good source of information for this phone - !!! MOD AT YOUR OWN RISK !!!

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=778880

I am not hardcore moding this phone (well not yet anyway ) - Just done the GPS fix which is an app from the market. This is a safe mod to do, as far as I can tell.

Octy makes an application that fix gps problems on 5800 and works great! You'll find this app for free on the market, just search for any of these keywords: octy, GPS optimisation or GPSopt

[Fonefixer]

Then there is also disabling the permanent data connection that saves battery power, oh and 3g.

Lets see who the first person to work out how to do that without me telling them (Hint: think along the same lines as the scroll, what you done use - do without)

So far my daughters has lasted 4 days on a charge, with normal use.

[Charlie]

Well a created a APN that was call 'off' and the info is set to 'blank' so no data connection and set data choice to GSM only - also you can use APNdroid to do similar - Wifi and GPS off when not using it - lower the brightness - ummm these are all the things I have done this morning.

Yesterday I had wifi on all the time and I was GPS testing for 2hrs - so I guess those were a big power drain. Also I am limiting what the CPU uses as this again is a power drain. In the mean time I am still conditioning the battery.

So how about that for starters

[Fonefixer]

Charlie: Smart arse!

easier way is to delete the net apn and turn off 3g
if. you want to reinstate it just hit reset to default
that way it can't connect at all
having said that gps likes the net connection to get a quick fix from the bts (for the technically dumb - thats the "base transceiver station" - the pole thingy and the grey box that nobody wants near their house )

[Charlie]

- It's certainly a different experience with 2.1, having the phone/gps/bt etc hardware in a device - Great fun

[Fonefixer]

If anyone wants to look at the firmware (or rather open source parts of it) loaded on these handsets, have a look here: http://opensource.samsung.com/
The i5800 is the generic one, the i5801 is the orange-branded one. Just enter the relevant model number in the search box at the top and youre good to go.

[Charlie]

Cool, thanks - I am downloading them now to take a look, doubt I can do much with them, but it might help to get a better understanding of Android.

[Charlie]

@ FF

I have found that z4root will (well should) work on the GT-I5800 - I am looking to root this phone, as some of the app's that would be very useful to me need root access, also want to get rid of that damn 3d gallery app. Is having root going to cause problems with CPW if I need to take the phone back for a hardware issue or for a software issue. Not concerned if an issue is caused by rooting or something I have done, because of having root. I.e. - If I change all the system files or delete them etc, then stupid me and I would not take the phone back to CPW.

TIA

[Fonefixer]

Charlie: It shouldnt cause an issue because the CPW engineers dont have high enough access on the samsung service system to see whats gone on. If they take it in for a software fault they will only dead-flash it, which replaces everything as it should be.
The only problem you might encounter is if it wont reflash (very rare) and it gets sent to someone like me to investigate the problem. Having said that, if you do send it in and are conerned, keep a note of the imei and pm me with it so i can sort it out.

If you do bugger it up, use the emergency recovery in kies to reflash it before you send it in.

One other thought - if you ask a CPW engineer what "root" is they are liable to reply "thats what the bottom of a tree is called, isnt it?"

[Charlie]

One other thought - if you ask a CPW engineer what "root" is they are liable to reply "thats what the bottom of a tree is called, isnt it?"

PML

Cheers for the great info

EDIT - Would having root cause an issue when the official 2.2 upgrade comes out? Or is it just a case of using z4root to unroot before doing the update?