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

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.

 

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 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)

 

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.

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.

 

Well there's no internet community for it!

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/

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.

 

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?

 

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.

 

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.