S20+ US Version - Firmware

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loneslayer

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#291896 12-Dec-2021 11:43

Hi I have recently purchased a used S20+ which after purchase I realised was a us version. The phone works great but is running Verizon firmware and as such a few icons are different and a few features are missing (device care security tab) it also let's me know its not using a Verizon sim on start up. All and all nothing to worry about.

I was wondering if anyone in NZ had changed the 986U (carrier) firmware to 986U1 (unlocked us) firmware. And if so did all go smoothly what changes did you notice did you still get updates etc.

I know if I update I have to use a patched version of Odin etc

Linux

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#2830648 12-Dec-2021 12:11

I think the hardware is different as Verizon runs a CDMA
Network

I would return the handset for a refund

loneslayer

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#2830657 12-Dec-2021 12:14

Runs absolutely fine on skinny on issues on 4g etc. S20+ on all us carriers and non carrier are the same

Linux

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#2830658 12-Dec-2021 12:20

Does the 3G 4G and 5G and VoLTE work?

loneslayer

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#2830663 12-Dec-2021 12:28

Volte is on now haven't been in a 5g area but all the 5g stuff is their 4g works fine (except I don't like the icon) and 3g seems to work when it's been on that. No issues with any of the radios. All S20+ from the us are the same. Verizion did a slightly different s20 removing sd card and adding mmwave, but s20+ had no differences even the carrier firmware versions are the same except the userdata (bloat)

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#2830665 12-Dec-2021 12:32

US handsets support 700Mhz but a different band plan not 700Mhz band28 and you will find carrier bonding will be on different bands than what NZ carriers support

MaxineN

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#2830667 12-Dec-2021 12:40

G986U will not do 5G here currently as we're running B78/3500, it lacks support for this.

Needed the G986B Exynos variant.

Otherwise LTE bands are almost identical and will work fine in NZ, nice that VoLTE works as well(VoWiFi will be another story).

Verizon aren't TOO slow with carrier updates(they control it for their own SKUs) but I get the need for wanting to remove all bloat and carrier ware. You don't need a patched odin, just the very latest build and the latest U1 firmware, you should be able to throw the S20+ into download mode and it will go from there. If you are missing something Odin will fail so risk for a mis-flash is very low.

According to Sam Mobile Verzion is on the latest as of the time of this post so pretty much the only benefit to flashing U1 is removing anything Verizon branded.

Linux: US handsets support 700Mhz but a different band plan not 700Mhz band28 and you will find carrier bonding will be on different bands than what NZ carriers support

There is this but the only evidence of this being an issue was years ago and with my luck of importing phones that are NOT sold in NZ sometimes they end up outperforming NZ bought phones(the S20+ exynos modem performs really differently compared to it's snapdragon counter part and also this isn't the case so you're right but also in my experience I've yet to see this issue and I do believe it can happen).

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

loneslayer

35 posts

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#2830672 12-Dec-2021 13:09

Ok so no 5G no big deal all other bands are working fine

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loneslayer

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#2831991 14-Dec-2021 11:44

So updated to SM-G986U1 XAA firmware today and everything went smoothly all the Verizon bloat has gone and now looks like stock samsung. Everything works as it should but will have to wait to confirm ota updates still work. Hope this helps anyone else looking to do this

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#2832026 14-Dec-2021 12:33

Whoops, a bit late to be much help, but I have subscriptions to some private repositories holding pretty much every Samsung firmware version for all models. Repair firmwares, Combination firmware, PIT files, vbmeta - all the stuff anyone is likely to need without the painful slow download speeds offered by SamMobile & SamFirmware.

If you want a Samsung firmware file but can't find it easily, let me know & I'll grab it for you.

Megabyte - so geek it megahertz

loneslayer

35 posts

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#2832587 15-Dec-2021 00:07

Just got the OTA update for December (6 minutes after sammobile said it was available).