Flashing Samsung firmwares (Galaxy Note Pro, naff colours, missing settings,...Help!)

Shifty Geezer

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Edit - some developments suggest a flashing of firmware is possible. Anyone with advice/experience of flashing Samsung devices, please weigh in! See post 5

Given the rest of world seems quite, quite useless, I turn to B3D, and sadly the forum that gets least interest. Still, there are Hong Kong people on this board and experienced folk and maybe someone can help.

I bought a Galaxy Note Pro from Hong Kong that arrived yesterday. It's wonderful in every way except the rendition of yellow is off. It's dull and greenish, like a TV set to movie mode or something. This can either be because RGBW can't render yellow very well (some reports of this from Lenovo Yoga 2 using same screen) or because my device isn't set up right. According to the downloaded .pdf manual, there's a Screen Mode setting where I can choose from four colour options. This is my guess as to my issue. However, this setting is not on my tablet! Not as a factory reset, nor as the latest FW.

Is there any reason why the Hong Kong version of this tablet would miss a feature everyone else has? Is it possible this setting is only available in Chinese language and is hidden in English? Is RGBW just plain poop? Or have I gotten a defective unit that needs replacing?

Contributions much appreciated!

Edit: I you have a Note 10.1 2014 from Hong Kong, that'll help. It's bascially the same tablet. If the Hong Kong 10.1 2014 edition has Screen Mode setting, I see no reason my Note Pro shouldn't have.
 
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maybe an app in here can help:
http://appcrawlr.com/android-apps/best-apps-color-calibration

Btw it says here the screen has 4 million pixels..
http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxynotepro12.2/features.html
This corresponds with the 2560x1600 (WQXGA) resolution. However, it uses a pentile layout:
http://www.sammobile.com/2014/01/08/samsung-galaxy-tabpro-10-1-uses-pentile-lcd-display/

The RGBW arrangement actually even lowers the amount of sub-pixels per pixel; so yes, it's perfectly possible that yellow cannot be displayed correctly; sadly. Don't look at the screen too much though (too closely); once you see a pentile configuration; you can never unsee it again; and you'll have rainbows surrounding black on white text and so on
 
The latest theory is that the tablet is set in a screen mode like Movie mode. Samsung's Pentile displays have this feature like TVs. A friend tested a similar display yesterday (Tab S Pentile) and found a couple of Screen Modes produced muddy colours. The problem seems to be that Hong Kong Note Pro's don't have this setting. In the US and UK manuals, under Display Settings, there's an option for Screen Mode. In the HK manual, there isn't.

Why leave out that feature? Who knows, but now I've got a weird consumer issue. Reports of (US and European) Note Pro's screens being gorgeous fits in with this theory.
 
I hope there is a capable calibration app in that case; it does seem like a great tablet, especially with the resolution. I think rooting is not an option right?
 
I don't want to engage in any solutions that will prevent me returning the item for a refund. However, Sammobile seems to think any Samsung device can be flashed with a suitable FW using Odin 3, so it may be possible to flash the FW and get a working NotePro. However, the peeps at Sammobile don't trust this tablet, although not following a good argument, and reckon I should return it, leading to the dilemma :

I can flash the FW
If it works, new tablet. Woohoo
If it doesn't, I'm stuck with a naff or broken tablet

I can return the tablet
Guaranteed return of some of the money but at considerable cost (probably about £130 out of pocket)
 
130! thats sounds like a hell of a lot of money, I would guess thats a fair chunk of what you paid for it

from google, 325 quid for the same device
http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/review/2349261/samsung-galaxy-tab-pro-101-review
thus it is a huge chunk, in that case I would flash it, I done this to someones phone a couple of months ago, pretty painless. If you're feeling unsure though I'ld take it to a shop that does that in the UK, the (indian/chinesse (warning - unfunny stereotype) ) guys behind the counter would be pro's, it will be a lot cheaper than 130 (perhaps 20quid) and they could tell you probably whats up
 
130! thats sounds like a hell of a lot of money, I would guess thats a fair chunk of what you paid for it

from google, 325 quid for the same device
http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/review/2349261/samsung-galaxy-tab-pro-101-review
That's the 10.1. Mine's the 12" Note Pro. Usual price is ~£450 but I jumped at £350 on an online retailer. Bought accessories for it which'll be useless without the tablet...

So if I return it, I'll get something like £300 back in total, and then another £150 for a UK tablet for a total price of ~ £500.

If I flash it and it works, I've got a tablet for £350, saving £100 of retail and £150 off the return option.

If I flash it and it fails, I lose £350 of tablet and face £450 more on a replacement (which ain't gonna happen).

It wouldn't be a hard decision if only the flashing side of it didn't appear so easy! Run Odin 3, provide the FW download (obtained already from Sammobile). It does its thing - working tablet! Or high end table-mat.

thus it is a huge chunk, in that case I would flash it, I done this to someones phone a couple of months ago, pretty painless. If you're feeling unsure though I'ld take it to a shop that does that in the UK, the (indian/chinesse (warning - unfunny stereotype) ) guys behind the counter would be pro's
Plenty of Indian's round here offering those sort of services! But I wouldn't trust any of them to know what's going on. It's a rare tablet and unless they know about Hong Kong goods, potentially has differences they wouldn't know.
 
Plenty of Indian's round here offering those sort of services! But I wouldn't trust any of them to know what's going on. It's a rare tablet and unless they know about Hong Kong goods, potentially has differences they wouldn't know.
I don't know they will of done this far more times than you will of, they prolly do it multiple times a day. Im not talking about someone off the street but a proper shop, I doubt a samsung note pro is as rare as you think, IIRC samsungs are the second most common after ipads (OK theres lots of different models but still its not like a non name chiness ripoff)

btw you did write 10.1 in your OP
 
I don't know they will of done this far more times than you will of, they prolly do it multiple times a day. Im not talking about someone off the street but a proper shop, I doubt a samsung note pro is as rare as you think
Well there's no internet community for it!
IIRC samsungs are the second most common after ipads (OK theres lots of different models...)
People own the other models. 12" tablets aren't all that popular. eg:
http://bgr.com/2014/03/24/12-2-inch-samsung-galaxy-pro-tablet-sales/

btw you did write 10.1 in your OP
Note Pro in my opening. I added mention of the 10.1 2014 edition talking about the tablet being comparable, as the chances of me meeting a Note Pro owner are far, far lower than my chances of meeting a Note 10.1 owner.
 
I've seen the note pro (South East Asia version) myself and it got that screen thingies where you can set dynamic, normal (or standard?), movie, and something like auto. But it is the Octa core non LTE version so it might be different than the Quad core LTE version. I just look at Sammobile and for HK (P905), the latest firmware was released in July. Have you updated the firmware to the latest version? From what I see, they already released the latest firmware for the HK version (G1), thus you don't need the firmware from other models. But if you want to flash firmware from another model, just make sure that it is all identical, especially since there is an LTE and non LTE version with different SoC. If the SoC is the same, then make sure it support the same bands. If you're sure that the hardware is identical, then flashing it with the other firmware from identical hardware should be safe.
Just to make sure, you've got the screen setting in the Android setting, but can't find the choice for dynamic/normal/movie there?
 
Mine's the Octacore non LTE SM-P900. Curious that you say you've seen the SE Asian Note with the setting as the manual excludes mention.

Hong Kong Manual pg 144
http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/c...M_Open_HongKong_Kitkat_Eng_Rev.1.0_140212.pdf

US Manual pg 129
http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/c..._Tab_PRO_KK_English_User_Manual_NAE_F5_AC.pdf

UK Manual pg 142
http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/c...33792/SM-P900_UM_EU_Kitkat_Eng_D07_140205.pdf

Hong Kong manual excludes mention of the Screen Mode setting in both English and Chinese flavours of the manual. I had two FW updates on opening the tablet on last Monday, so it should be at the latest version (it's not now as I hardware reset on Samsung's advice and now it doesn't OTA update at all...).

Did you see the screen modes in action? Did you see the yellows take a nose-dive into the dingy greens?
 
That's the wifi only version? Should be safe flashing other p900 firmware since you don't need to worry about the radio differences. I remember flashing and old 7" wifi only Samsung tablet with other country firmware of the same model, and it ran fine.
As for the screen mode itself, the difference isn't as stark compared to the similar setting in TVs. The initial setting on the unit is on dynamic. Using movie setting, it did go a bit green/yellow-ish (warm), but not much, while on dynamic the white is more white and the normal one seems blue-er (cool) after going from the movie mode. Again, the difference between the setting is subtle, but noticable. Maybe in a more darker environment the difference would be more pronounced. Unfortunately, Samsung doesn't release the wifi only version in my country, thus I can't see if this is a wifi only thing or just the wifi only HK thing. Maybe someone else can help and find a P900 on local showroom to test.
Btw, Galaxy Tab 4 also doesn't have that screen setting and that's a newer (but lesser) device than Note Pro.
 
Hmm. This yellow is very off - it's not subtle. If you put the yellow against other colours, it doesn't look so bad, but painting yellow in Sketchbook on a white page, it's plain wrong.
 
If I flash, I can always factory reset to the very original flavour, right? If so, could be worth flashing and then resetting if it doesn't fix the colours.
 
IF you flash your going to only be able to factory reset to the old verison unless you have a dual boot set up. But you can allways use something like odin to flash back
 
Thanks guys. I'm very tempted to try it. I'll wait on the store's advice before trying, but if they end up useless, I can give it a go and, fingers crossed, at worse end up with a returnable product.
 
At least you do have access to the original firmware. That 7" Samsung tablet that I mentioned before, I don't have access to the original firmware. I don't mind staying on the old firmware if it wasn't buggy. The new firmware fixed the bugs, but wasn't available on my country. Maybe because it was a minor device (low end tablet) deserved minor to non existant support from Samsung.
 
Question:
Why did you buy such an oddball tablet? :) It's difficult to imagine a samsung device without a community (since they're the largest manufacturer of android devices in the known universe...) Is it very new or something?

Suggestion:
Take your device to a service center and ask a tech to take a look at it, tell you if what you're seeing is "normal" or not. Possibly compare side-by-side with a similar device?
 
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