Android 4.3 update for Samsung Galaxy S4, S3. Also affects new handsets.

[cheekee]

Just so everyone is aware.

Samsung have introduced "region lock" in software updates on their high end handsets. These now include Samsung galaxy S3 and S4 sold after July this year. The new note 3 already has this.

The android 4.3 update will include this feature. Even if you bought a totally unlocked handset.

Region lock means that if you buy a handset in Europe and try to use it in Asia. The handset wont allow the Asian sim card to work. This is an attempt by samsung to try and stop people buying handsets in a cheaper market and then sell them elsewhere.

I asked Samsung what this meant. They told me that in order to remove the region sim lock, that you need to use the local sim card for a minimum of 5 minutes "talk time" in the region you bought the handset and then the region lock is disabled.

Samsung had already told me in a previous conversation, that I had to have the local sim card for at least 24 hours. Then they changed the answer to ten days. They didnt seem sure.Then I got the answer that its five minutes live talk time used.

There seems to be a few posts on android forums about people having difficulty disabling the region lock. That meant that they had to use roaming as the handset wouldn't accept the foreign sim card which ended up being expensive. There seemed to be a lot of problems with handsets needing to go to a service centre to be sorted out.

I'm not happy about the region lock feature. I got an unlocked handset for a reason. I just wanted to point this out to you in case you are travelling to the Philippines soon and you wish to update your handset to 4.3. I didn't activate roaming on my globe sim card so I cant check to see if the way Samsung have told me to disable region lock works.

When I go to Cebu in January, I don't want to find out that I cant sort the problem till I get home again.

[andy222]

Im thinking I should have taken the Mrs advice now and gone for the Huawei.

[les_taxi]

I'm downloading it now,it's about 800mb

[Dedworth]

Im thinking I should have taken the Mrs advice now and gone for the Huawei.

The Chinese Govt will know everything about you

[les_taxi]

Downloaded and installed fine

[cheekee]

Les.

Do you have a foreign Sim card that has roaming so you can test whether the region lock gets removed after using the local sim card for five minutes talk time ?

[les_taxi]

Cheekie sorry no I don't

[andy222]

The Chinese Govt will know everything about you

They already know about you Ded and everybody else. Dont underestimate them.

[cheekee]

Ok.

I have updated my Galaxy S4 to Jellybean 4.3.

I used just over ten minutes of talk time on the S4 and then tried my globe sim card. The globe sim card was recognised and I was able to connect to globe via Vodafone using roaming. I guess this means the region lock is disabled or not active. I am assuming that because I have been able use the globe sim card in the UK, that would not be possible if region lock was active.

If this is the case it means that you do need to have at least 5 minutes of talktime on the local sim card to disable region lock. Either that or because I got my handset before July 2013, That my device didn't get region lock added due to the software update.

Either way the region lock seems disabled now. So if you are travelling to the Philippines with a flagship samsung galaxy device and you update to 4.3, that its worth making sure the update is done a while before you travel and ensuring that you have used at least 10 minutes talktime on a local sim.

To check my globe sim card, I emailed them to activate roaming on it.

I have just updated my S3. So will try the same procedure and will report back with my findings.

[cheekee]

I have now updated an unbranded Samsung Galaxy S3 to Android 4.3

My globe sim card works in it suggesting that the region lock isn't active.

I used the same procedure of making sure there were ten minutes talk time used before trying the sim.

So to summarise.

If you have a flagship Samsung smartphone that was purchased after July 2013, you will see a sticker on the side if the box. It will tell you the device is region locked. So before you travel to the Philippines you will need to use at least ten minutes talk time and its advised to obtain the handset at least a week before you travel so to ensure the region lock is actually disabled.

If your handset was manufactured before July 2013 and you update to android 4.3 , then make sure at least ten minutes talk time is used, but some handsets may already have the region lock disabled. Better to be safe than sorry.

Hope this is helpful to some.