Help Issue with my GS3(GT-I9300) bought from China

kevin5fan · Aug 18, 2013

Thank you whoever is reading this even if you dont end up helping me

This summer when I went to China I received a Samsung Galaxy S3 from my relatives. Im am not aware of the version of the phone but I do know that it says it is a WCDMA phone behind the battery. The phone came with many chinese apps which I do not want. I wish to install a new rom but I dont know where to start so I searched up a couple of tutorials, I came across this part where I needed to press the home, power and the volume decrease button at the same time. I tried it and nothing happened which lead me to the forum. I had a HTC hero about 3 years ago the flashing was pretty easy back then but I dont know where to start at all on this phone. The GS3 has a intro and a power of animation of a Chinese Phone Carrier. (China Unicom) I dont think the phone is attached to it though since it was a from a samsung box. Im really lost, i know i may not be the most detailed, I can get screen shots of my phones stats if needed just ask.

funkylogik · Aug 18, 2013

Hi is it definately a gt-i9300? Holding in Power, Home and Volume Down (with the phone off) until you see the samsung screen should put it into "download mode". Thats what youre gona need and then its really easy to flash so try and make sure download mode is there. What country are you in?

kevin5fan · Aug 18, 2013

funkylogik said:
Hi is it definately a gt-i9300? Holding in Power, Home and Volume Down (with the phone off) until you see the samsung screen should put it into "download mode". Thats what youre gona need and then its really easy to flash so try and make sure download mode is there. What country are you in?

It worked! It came to this greenish screen asking whether to go foward with increase(aud) button or to restart with the decrease button. It said warning( well in chinese)

funkylogik · Aug 18, 2013

Cool. You have to download a program called Odin and the samsung drivers to your pc. What country are u in?

kevin5fan · Aug 19, 2013

funkylogik said:
Cool. You have to download a program called Odin and the samsung drivers to your pc. What country are u in?

um im in Canada btw is this safe? like is there a chance i might destroy my phone forever?

funkylogik · Aug 19, 2013

Flashing firmware through odin is really safe when you follow instructions. Its the program samsung repair centers use.
Canada though.. i dont know if the gt-i9300 works there tbh. Any canadian i know online uses one of the north american versions (LTE radio, dual core, 2gb ram) the gt-i9300 has no LTE, quad core, 1gb ram. thats something your gona have to look into mate. The phones look the same but are different inside :thumbup:

If it wont work as a phone there, you could just put UK firmware on it and use it as a wifi mini-tablet

funkylogik · Aug 19, 2013

Been askin around on G+ and aparently its not gona work with any of the canadian carriers

Gimme a shout if u need a hand putting UK firmware or a custom rom on it. Its still a great media device :beer:

whatsitsname · Aug 19, 2013

Before you flash anything make sure you know the model of your s3. There are more versions of the galaxy s3 than just the 9300 and American version. There is also the I939 Asian version.

kevin5fan · Aug 19, 2013

funkylogik said:
Been askin around on G+ and aparently its not gona work with any of the canadian carriers
Gimme a shout if u need a hand putting UK firmware or a custom rom on it. Its still a great media device :beer:

o but i swear my friend has a GS3 is that the LTE version ur talking about?? Well its definitely a bummer..

funkylogik · Aug 19, 2013

Theres a lot of different versions of s3. Mainly because north american carriers just have to be different lol. Unfortunately for you the gt-i9300 is the most different (although it works in most other parts of the world lol). It is a bummer. Yeah your friends will be the version with LTE.
Are you SURE yours is a gt-i9300? Itl tell you in Settings>About Phone>Model Number :thumbup:

kevin5fan · Aug 19, 2013

funkylogik said:
Theres a lot of different versions of s3. Mainly because north american carriers just have to be different lol. Unfortunately for you the gt-i9300 is the most different (although it works in most other parts of the world lol). It is a bummer. Yeah your friends will be the version with LTE.
Are you SURE yours is a gt-i9300? Itl tell you in Settings>About Phone>Model Number :thumbup:

yes i have checked.

whatsitsname · Aug 20, 2013

Have you try resetting the phone. The i9300 should not have Chinese app in stock form.
You should also check under menu/system settings/about device. Take a screenshot of that and post it here

mikedt · Aug 20, 2013

If this is an S3 that's specifically meant for China, then could well be hardware differences between this and an international one and a North American one, namely in the cellular radios it's got. I bet it was supplied by China Unicom, they usually customise their phones, and that's why you're seeing their start-up animation. But they're not SIM-locked though.

OP could you report what the exact "baseband version" and "build number" and "kernel version" is in device information, I might be able to check if it's going to work in Canada or not. Namely has it got the North American cellular bands in it. It's more than likely got GSM/EDGE for North America, but possibly not 3G/4G. And if there's any possibility at all of changing the ROM.

Rogers is a GSM/EDGE/WCDMA network, so it could possibly work on that. It definitely wont work on Bell or Telus though, because they're CDMA/EV-DO networks. BTW I went to Canada about 4 years ago, that's why I know a little bit about Canadian carriers.

mikedt · Aug 20, 2013

whatsitsname said:
Have you try resetting the phone. The i9300 should not have Chinese app in stock form.
You should also check under menu/system settings/about device. Take a screenshot of that and post it here

If it's a stock S3 that was sold in mainland China, then it will definitely have a Chinese ROM in it, and from what the OP describes is customised for China Unicom as well(boot animation). Also it will be quite Googleless and pre-loaded with Chinese apps, like Weibo, Baidu, RenRen, QQ, WeChat, etc. And there's definite hardware differences as well.

BTW this is one reason why I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy Win in Hong Kong and NOT mainland. Because HK ones are the normal international ones, and would definitely work in Canada. My house mate has just bought himself an S4, again this has come from Hong Kong and NOT mainland on my recommendation.

kevin5fan · Aug 20, 2013

mikedt said:
If this is an S3 that's specifically meant for China, then could well be hardware differences between this and an international one and a North American one, namely in the cellular radios it's got. I bet it was supplied by China Unicom, they usually customise their phones, and that's why you're seeing their start-up animation. But they're not SIM-locked though.

OP could you report what the exact "baseband version" and "build number" and "kernel version" is in device information, I might be able to check if it's going to work in Canada or not. Namely has it got the North American cellular bands in it. It's more than likely got GSM/EDGE for North America, but possibly not 3G/4G. And if there's any possibility at all of changing the ROM.

Rogers is a GSM/EDGE/WCDMA network, so it could possibly work on that. It definitely wont work on Bell or Telus though, because they're CDMA/EV-DO networks. BTW I went to Canada about 4 years ago, that's why I know a little bit about Canadian carriers.

mikedt · Aug 20, 2013

kevin5fan said:

I am seeing it now...Imgur can be slow to load in China. See if I can find anything tomorrow.

EDIT:

I'm afraid what you've got here is definitely a China specific S3, going on the baseband "i9300znlh3". Any information on this is only in Chinese. Which means there's probably not much chance of a western ROM at all, unless some dev comes up with one. You should be able to remove the Chinese apps by rooting it. And you'll probably be able to add Google Play as well.

It's showing a signal in the picture, so I assume you got it connected to your Canadian carrier OK.

kevin5fan · Aug 20, 2013

mikedt said:
I am seeing it now...Imgur can be slow to load in China. See if I can find anything tomorrow.

EDIT:

I'm afraid what you've got here is definitely a China specific S3, going on the baseband "i9300znlh3". Any information on this is only in Chinese. Which means there's probably not much chance of a western ROM at all, unless some dev comes up with one. You should be able to remove the Chinese apps by rooting it. And you'll probably be able to add Google Play as well.

It's showing a signal in the picture, so I assume you got it connected to your Canadian carrier OK.

no i did not, its wifi, i dont even have my sim card

mikedt · Aug 20, 2013

kevin5fan said:
no i did not, its wifi, i dont even have my sim card

Who's your carrier? It should possibly work on Rogers. But not Bell or Telus AFAIK. When I took a United Kingdom Nokia E71 to Toronto four years ago, it only found the Rogers network and nothing else. Think there's Fido as well, but that's still Rogers.

BTW I'm teaching the students about Canada this week, and had to check if the PM is still Stephen Harper in case my lesson materials were out of date

kevin5fan · Aug 20, 2013

mikedt said:
Who's your carrier? It should possibly work on Rogers. But not Bell or Telus AFAIK. When I took a United Kingdom Nokia E71 to Toronto four years ago, it only found the Rogers network and nothing else. Think there's Fido as well, but that's still Rogers.

BTW I'm teaching the students about Canada this week, and had to check if the PM is still Stephen Harper in case my lesson materials were out of date

idk if i should get one cause the person before you said that it definitely will not work in Canada, GS3 sort of has some LTE version

mikedt · Aug 20, 2013

kevin5fan said:
idk if i should get one cause the person before you said that it definitely will not work in Canada, GS3 sort of has some LTE version

It should work provided it has the North American cellular bands. Canada basically follows the United States when it comes to telecommunication standards. LTE is only one form of cellular technology, there's GSM, EDGE and WCDMA as well, which are also used in Canada. This phone hasn't got LTE, basically because that's not really happened in China yet.

Many Chinese do go to Canada and the US for vacation and business, and they're bringing their phones with them.

kevin5fan · Aug 21, 2013

mikedt said:
It should work provided it has the North American cellular bands. Canada basically follows the United States when it comes to telecommunication standards. LTE is only one form of cellular technology, there's GSM, EDGE and WCDMA as well, which are also used in Canada. This phone hasn't got LTE, basically because that's not really happened in China yet.

Many Chinese do go to Canada and the US for vacation and business, and they're bringing their phones with them.

ok thank you every much btw because my phone is a Chinese version, I cant flash majority of the ROMS?

funkylogik · Aug 21, 2013

its the international version so you can put any gt-i9300 rom on it. Theres 100s man :thumbup:

kevin5fan · Aug 22, 2013

funkylogik said:
its the international version so you can put any gt-i9300 rom on it. Theres 100s man :thumbup:

r u sure? like you saw it from my Screen shot? btw the guy who explained after you, is he saying the truth that even though my galaxy isnt LTE it can still be used on specific carriers.

funkylogik · Aug 22, 2013

Tbh its not truth or lies, just opinions. Mikedt is VERY knowledgeable about all things China lol but ive asked canadians and they think your phones cellular radio just wont work there so i dont know tbh.
I DO know though that you have the exact same model of s3 as me (i live in europe) but it has chinese firmware on it so i know what official firmware and custom roms you can and cant put on it. i just dont know if/how you can make it connect to a canadian carrier :beer:

mikedt · Aug 24, 2013

funkylogik said:
Tbh its not truth or lies, just opinions. Mikedt is VERY knowledgeable about all things China lol but ive asked canadians and they think your phones cellular radio just wont work there so i dont know tbh.
I DO know though that you have the exact same model of s3 as me (i live in europe) but it has chinese firmware on it so i know what official firmware and custom roms you can and cant put on it. i just dont know if/how you can make it connect to a canadian carrier :beer:

OK definitive answer from a couple of friends I have at China Unicom. This Chinese S3 will work on Rogers or Fido in Canada, it has the North American cellular bands, and all phones supplied by Unicom are unlocked. Insert your SIM and it should work. It will NOT work with Bell or Telus or Verizon, or any other CDMA/EV-DO carriers. LTE is irrelevant, because there's not really any LTE in China yet. LTE is mainly a North American thing, which is a new technology that enables faster internet.

As for using non-Chinese ROMs, you're on your own. But then there's plenty of threads about installing Google Play into Chinese phones, basically they have to be rooted.

Help Issue with my GS3(GT-I9300) bought from China

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