Opinion needed

[AcridGosling]

Hello. I am currently using a Droid 2, and looking for an upgrade. I was considering the rezound. So I need to know 2 things.

1. Is it possible to permanently brick the phone, or is ot like the Droid 2 and if bricked simply re-SBF to fix?

2. What's your opinion of the phone, good and bad? (Verizon says its fantastic and perfect and nothing can go wrong with it ever and it will forever. Lol)

Thanks.

Sent from my rooted DROID 2! Much thanks to phifc from rootzwiki for the 2.3.4 .621 root!

 

[tannins]

I'm no technical expert, but the rezound has been a really great experience coming from Motorola.
When there is a bug, there has always been a fix. Not that there are many bugs.

 

[AcridGosling]

Do you happen to know if call recording apps work?

Sent from my rooted DROID 2! Much thanks to phifc from rootzwiki for the 2.3.4 .621 root!

 

[marioval]

There is no SBF for the HTC Rezound...... Call recording apps will work but you will only record the other persons voice if you use speakerphone.

 

[skennelly]

HTC's version of an sbf is an ruu. There is always potential to hard brick, but in many cases an ruu should fix ya.

Sent from my SCH-I535

 

[HowardZ]

Hello. I am currently using a Droid 2, and looking for an upgrade. I was considering the rezound. So I need to know 2 things.

1. Is it possible to permanently brick the phone, or is ot like the Droid 2 and if bricked simply re-SBF to fix?

2. What's your opinion of the phone, good and bad? (Verizon says its fantastic and perfect and nothing can go wrong with it ever and it will forever. Lol)

Thanks.

Sent from my rooted DROID 2! Much thanks to phifc from rootzwiki for the 2.3.4 .621 root!

1. Yes, one can brick the rezound - permanently unusable. Many wild & crazy Cowboys at xda permanently brick phones all the time. It seems a game to them, and verizon or insurance keeps buying them replacement phones.

Things are more complicated than Motorola phones because HTC gives us more access.

At Welcome to HTCdev one waives his warranty to be able to unlock the bootloader.

After unlocking the bootloader loader the stock recovery is completely replaced with Amon RA recovery or TWRP recovery.

SuperSU.zip is installed by the recovery to gain root access. Now you can run Titanium Backup and Wifi Teather programs.

At http:unlimited. io one can obtain S-OFF which allows access to all partitions. This provides more features like the ability to go backwards in operating system version. They also provide you replacement hboot bootloader.

The biggest risk to bricking is flashing a hboot. If the flashing fails, you get bricked. The replacement hboot are not signed by HTC, so if the command to go from S-OFF to S-ON occurs you get bricked.

My opinion is to get unlocked, rooted, and S-OFF but never use a custom hboot. Every new version of the Android os comes with a new stock hboot, and that is the only time I install a new hboot.

Another way people screw up is by mixing up parts from different versions. Believe it or not people have used cell radio firmware from gingerbread with ics. People have also done the opposite. There have been bricking incidents where people mixed partitions contents between versions.

Personally I need a compelling reason to use a rom. Some roms start with the stock Android os, get rid of Verizon apps, eliminate HTC sense, add optional gsm support, etc.. These don't sound so bad.

Most roms start with android os from a completely different HTC phone. Initially they brick phones and break some phone functions. It's always a question of whether the rom's features are worth dealing with its broken functions.

I consider the rezound developers so reckless and immature that I won't use any rom they make. But, I will be very tempted if cyanogenmod 10 comes.

I rom my Motorola Droid X, currently using gummy.

The safe way to rom is always start with a fresh RUU install and then only replace components with those explicitly stated as being safe for your version of the operating system by a trusted developer.

I've seen people with screwed up phones after going from one rom to another without first going back to stock first. They have serial romers who change roms every few days.

Rezound land is more like the wild west compared to Droid X land.


2. The Rezound has the best cell radio of any verizon 4G phone. 720p screen is nice, but not in full blown outdoor sunlight. Best to stand in the shade of a tree. Battery isn't great, so buy Verizon store extended battery or charge often.

Regardz
Howard

 

[AcridGosling]

There is no SBF for the HTC Rezound...... Call recording apps will work but you will only record the other persons voice if you use speakerphone.

What if not using speakerphone, will it record both sides?

HTC's version of an sbf is an ruu. There is always potential to hard brick, but in many cases an ruu should fix ya.

Sent from my SCH-I535

Thanks for the info. How hard is it to hard-brick though. On the Droid 2, it is only a theory.

From my understanding, no matter what you modify software wise (roms, different network flashing, rooting, etc.) It is only software. If you re-flash, it will take it back to stock for the version installed. I am not sure I have ever seen anyone who really hard-bricked their phone, unless they were making modifications to the phone itself, such as swapping out a cracked screen.



I need a good, durable phone, that can be rooted and record a complete conversation.

Is the HTC Rezound my answer?


Sent from my rooted DROID 2! Much thanks to phifc from rootzwiki for the 2.3.4 .621 root!

 

[MrSmith317]

I can't speak to the call recording but howardz is pretty much spot on. The warranty is only voided for any error you create by unlocking the phone. Manufacturing defect is always covered.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[marioval]

What if not using speakerphone, will it record both sides?

No, it will only record you. This is the app I use:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.record.my.call&hl=en

 

[AcridGosling]

1. Yes, one can brick the rezound - permanently unusable.
At Welcome to HTCdev one waives his warranty to be able to unlock the bootloader.

After unlocking the bootloader loader the stock recovery is completely replaced with Amon RA recovery or TWRP recovery.

SuperSU.zip is installed by the recovery to gain root access. Now you can run Titanium Backup and Wifi Teather programs.

At http:unlimited. io one can obtain S-OFF which allows access to all partitions. This provides more features like the ability to go backwards in operating system version. They also provide you replacement hboot bootloader.

The biggest risk to bricking is flashing a hboot. If the flashing fails, you get bricked. The replacement hboot are not signed by HTC, so if the command to go from S-OFF to S-ON occurs you get bricked.

Another way people screw up is by mixing up parts from different versions. Believe it or not people have used cell radio firmware from gingerbread with ics. People have also done the opposite. There have been bricking incidents where people mixed partitions contents between versions.

2. The Rezound has the best cell radio of any verizon 4G phone. 720p screen is nice, but not in full blown outdoor sunlight. Best to stand in the shade of a tree. Battery isn't great, so buy Verizon store extended battery or charge often.

Regardz
Howard

Yes, but thsee are all all soft-bricking, which simply requires a re-flash of the factory ruu file to correct. Possibly the partitions if it affects the 1 that is programmed with the imei etc.

Right?

Sent from my rooted DROID 2! Much thanks to phifc from rootzwiki for the 2.3.4 .621 root!

 

[HowardZ]

Yes, but thsee are all all soft-bricking, which simply requires a re-flash of the factory ruu file to correct. Possibly the partitions if it affects the 1 that is programmed with the imei etc.

Right?

Sent from my rooted DROID 2! Much thanks to phifc from rootzwiki for the 2.3.4 .621 root!

A bad hboot flash is permanent brick.

Turning S-ON on. when not using a stock hboot is a permanent brick.

There also exists things which an RUU can not fix. I recently screwed up my APN, and could not change it back. An ruu did not fix it. I had to figure out how to fix the apn to get data working again. I have no idea where APN is stored in the latest ICS global phone ruu. There seems to be some unknown magic in the rezound.

I am not trying to talk you out of the rezound phone, just answering your questions.

There are supposed to be 5 new nexus devices announced this year. The nexus 7 tablet, and 4 more. I'd consider waiting to see what shows up.

PS In the last month two Xda developers bricked their own rezound phones and got replacements.

 

[skennelly]

I think the point is read, read, read before you do anything new. Ask questions and then read some more.

Sent from my SCH-I535

 

[crxlsturbo]

Right on point HowardZ. Nice well explained post. I really love my Rezound coming from a Droid Razr, Maxx, gnex, iphone 4s and out of all those phone the Rezound is the best. Better radio signal. Reason being, I am in a poor 4G cell area. And out of all those phones except for the iphone. The Rezound had the best signal and my 4G would hold. The gnex was the worst being that I would never get a 4G signal at my house. The GS3 from what I read is alittle bit better in signal but not even close to the Rezound.

But what it boils down to is you and what you want. Just keep in mind if you like to root and want good cell signal the Rezound is the way to go. Good luck on finding your choice.

 

[droid2drummer]

1. Yes, one can brick the rezound - permanently unusable. Many wild & crazy Cowboys at xda permanently brick phones all the time. It seems a game to them, and verizon or insurance keeps buying them replacement phones.

Things are more complicated than Motorola phones because HTC gives us more access.

At Welcome to HTCdev one waives his warranty to be able to unlock the bootloader.

After unlocking the bootloader loader the stock recovery is completely replaced with Amon RA recovery or TWRP recovery.

SuperSU.zip is installed by the recovery to gain root access. Now you can run Titanium Backup and Wifi Teather programs.

At http:unlimited. io one can obtain S-OFF which allows access to all partitions. This provides more features like the ability to go backwards in operating system version. They also provide you replacement hboot bootloader.

The biggest risk to bricking is flashing a hboot. If the flashing fails, you get bricked. The replacement hboot are not signed by HTC, so if the command to go from S-OFF to S-ON occurs you get bricked.

My opinion is to get unlocked, rooted, and S-OFF but never use a custom hboot. Every new version of the Android os comes with a new stock hboot, and that is the only time I install a new hboot.

Another way people screw up is by mixing up parts from different versions. Believe it or not people have used cell radio firmware from gingerbread with ics. People have also done the opposite. There have been bricking incidents where people mixed partitions contents between versions.

Personally I need a compelling reason to use a rom. Some roms start with the stock Android os, get rid of Verizon apps, eliminate HTC sense, add optional gsm support, etc.. These don't sound so bad.

Most roms start with android os from a completely different HTC phone. Initially they brick phones and break some phone functions. It's always a question of whether the rom's features are worth dealing with its broken functions.

I consider the rezound developers so reckless and immature that I won't use any rom they make. But, I will be very tempted if cyanogenmod 10 comes.

I rom my Motorola Droid X, currently using gummy.

The safe way to rom is always start with a fresh RUU install and then only replace components with those explicitly stated as being safe for your version of the operating system by a trusted developer.

I've seen people with screwed up phones after going from one rom to another without first going back to stock first. They have serial romers who change roms every few days.

Rezound land is more like the wild west compared to Droid X land.

2. The Rezound has the best cell radio of any verizon 4G phone. 720p screen is nice, but not in full blown outdoor sunlight. Best to stand in the shade of a tree. Battery isn't great, so buy Verizon store extended battery or charge often.

Regardz
Howard

Everything I read here is ok, and I agree to some statements, however, a few opinions a bit too strong.. Especially the rezound having strongest or best radio... That was good. Lol Really though.. Close!! I lol Peace!

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Droid Forums