Soft Case Mod For T6S

It's been a while since I had posted on the T6S. Not that I had any problems with it but I was busy with work for the past  week.

Last Sunday, while I was in town, I went to a local phone accessories shop and pick up a soft case for the T6S. Well,  the case was meant for the Sony Xperia Z1 but it does loosely fit the T6S.

Below are the pictures of what I did in about 5 minutes. With proper planning, you could come up with a better looking ones.

The case for Sony Xperia Z1 will loosely fit the T6S

The opening for the volume buttons

I didn't sliced open the opening for both the audio jack and
USB port thus creating kind of concealed hole 

The opening for the power button

I drew a reference line for the camera hole

The outline of the camera hole. You could do better with proper planning

Finished project. Good enough for me

It's finally arrived

After being stuck in Custom for a week or so,  the white T6S was delivered to my house this afternoon. I haven't root it yet since I'm thinking of making a video of the whole process.

Do you think it's necessary to have a video of the process? Let me know. I'll do it if there is enough request.

Update : My mother in law had snatched the phone so.. the video will most probably feature the black T6S.

My 4 years old son peeking at the white T6S

Approval Permit for the THL T6S

This evening, I had obtained the approval needed for my T6S which is currently being held by the Malaysian Custom.  Below is the e-permit which I received from the SIRIM officer via email.

The e-permit for the T6S

So, I can now expect the T6S to arrive at my doorsteps tomorrow or the day after that.

CyanogenMod 11 for Xiomi 1S

I had replaced the ROM for the Xiomi 1S from the official MIUI flavoured Android Jelly Bean 4.3 based to the CynogenMod 11 (Android Kit Kat 4.4.4). I actually had flashed the Mokee ROM (another custom rom - based on the CynogenMod 11) but later decided to use the pure CM ROM.

So far, the ROM is preety stable and the 1S is performing well. One thing that I need to highlight is that if I changed the CM11's runtime from Dalvik to ART, the 1S does not receive any carrier /operator signal nor any wifi signal. Maybe it's just me but some users on the 1S MIUI forum reported that they are able to run CM11 with ART.

Below are some screen capture of the ROM.

Home Screen - CM 11 Default Launcher

Free RAM - around 300MB

About 18K - score in Antutu Benchmark

Banned!

I had registered myself at the myphone.gr forum a few week or so ago and guess what? I'm now banned form the forum for using bots. What bots?

As you can see above, the banned period is almost a lifetime so..

What am I doing peeking at the forum? Well, to read the comments and help where ever I can.

Thanks for banning me.

Problem with stock THL T6S ROM

I had read many users at the various forum such as the 4pda.ru, myphone.gr, androidforum.cz and htcmania.com complain about the T6S's stock rom being unstable and unable to sync with Google servers. From my previous experience, I found this is not the fault of the stock rom in general.

Google's Play Store

The stock rom that came with my T6S was not having any of these problems. Well, a 4 yrs old doesn't complain much about his contacts or gmail account doesn't sync right?

Two possible cause to this problem.

1. The google server was busy at that particular moment. Give it some time to sync properly. I found that the play store tends to be the hog when you add a Google account to be sync. Also, check if the picasa account is also setup be be in sync. If you have a lot of photo residing in your picasaweb account, it will also cause problems in syncing your contacts and mails.

2. The gapps that was installed is not the best one. Downloading either this modular mini gapps (150MB) or this modular micro gapps (98MB) and flash it in the cwm or carliv recovery. Be sure to create a nandroid backup before anything. After you had flash the gapps, clear the cache and dalvik cache.

Hope this will helps.

Stuck in customs - Part 2

I had inform Lazada about the T6S being stuck at customs. Below is the reply that I had received from them via email.

And below are the courier tracking activity.

It's good to know that Lazada or the company that is actually selling me the T6S is taking care about the problem for me. Now, all I have to do is wait for it to show up in the next few days.

Tempered glass from the Xiomi 1S

Oh.. and I had install a used tempered glass screen protector from the Xiomi 1S onto the T6S. Well, it'll do for the time being. Still searching for a suitable armour case for it as well.

*Miui Lite (MIUI 6) express launcher is used as the default launcher.

Stuck in customs

Literally, my 2nd unit of the THL T6S is now stuck in customs due to regulation/import duty clearance.

I was contacted by the forwarding company asking me to contact a person in charge of goods clearance and taxes. Well, this was unexpected since the first unit that I ordered was delivered without any fuss.

This will mean that I would need to pay some money for getting it through to me. Luckily, I learn that the fees are not that expensive but still, money is money.

THL T6S and OTG Support

This post might spark some debate but I had tried various methods and apps to get the OTG to work on the T6S but in the end - no joy.

I had even tried by pushing the required xml file (copied from the other phones) into the /system/etc/permission but it simply will not work. From my understanding, we need both OS and hardware to support OTG for it to work. The T6S seems to lack the required hardware.

Below is the screen capture from the T6S to conclude this post. Again, we cant get everything from such a cheap device. For me, its worth every Ringgit/Dollar/Euro we had paid for it.

 

Optimizing MIUI

Now I own a few phones with different specification and rom running on each one. The Lenovo A766, Xiomi Note and Xiomi 1S are running different version of MIUI, a highly customized Android.

Since 50% of my blog readers are from chinaphonearena, the chances of you, the readers are already or had or considering of flashing MIUI are very high. So, Im going to share one simple and fast method of improving the MIUI,which are known to be a little bit laggy (even with a quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM).

Disclaimer - As usual, you are responsible if anything bad happened to your phone. I had tested this methods on all the three models stated above with success.

What you need

1. A rooted smartphone running a MIUI rom (in my case, the 1S, with JHCMIBF37 firmware).
2. Any backup software capable of freezing apps (especially system apps) such as the Titanium Backup Pro (TB). I would recommend you to freeze the apps first before deleting them. If your phone behave normally (and with better performance), go ahead and delete the apps, if necessary.

I was inform that the App Freeze can also get the job done for free but untested by me.

Steps

Lets freeze so apps!

1. Reboot into your custom recovery (CWM or Carliv or TWRP) and do a nandroid backup. Safety first. You can fall back on this backup if anything goes wrong.
2. Boot into MIUI and launch the TB app.
3. If you are connected to the Xiomi Cloud service, go ahead and log out of the Xiomi account.
4. Search for "Mi Cloud Framework" and press on it. A popup menu will be displayed with various options. Select the Freeze option.
5. Repeat the freezing process for "Sync with Mi Cloud" and "Xiomi Assistant".
6. Reboot your phone.

Find and freeze those apps

Optional apps to be frozen

1. All the live wallpapers & live wallpaper picker (if you dont use them).
2. Home screen tips.
3. System (MIUI) launcher - make sure you have other launcher such as the Nova/Apex Launcher installed and set the them as the default launcher first!
4. Other apps that you dont really use (such as Google Play Movie, in my case, at least)

Before freezing the apps - 17+++ mark

Good luck!

MIUI for the THL T6S

I have a MIUI rom baking in the oven for the T6S. Its 90% completed. Lets just hope that everything will turn out alright.

Photoshopped.. :P

Don't put too much hope on this build as there are a few required files missing from the T6S source that I/we have. I borrowed those missing files from somewhere and kind of cheat on a file.

Cross your fingers guys. I will update the result in around 5 or 6 hours due to work commitment.

Update.

Well, not everything will work out the way we wanted. The whole installation was fine but it just stuck at a garbage looking screen.

Anyway, I had learned a 2 important things.

1. The wiping of data on the T6S is about 5 whole minutes.

2. The Carliv recovery works. It can create and restore backup succesfully. With that in mind, I will try again.

The loading/boot image of miui (in a non successful port)

Update : I had tried 5 different ports and none works. Until a kitkat MIUI is released on a similiar device, a port is impossible. Until then, download and install MIUI express launcher for a taste of MIUI on this device.. 

Xiaomi / Redmi 1S

Yup.. another phone to play with. Behold, the Xiaomi / Redmi 1S.

Xiaomi / Redmi 1S

Specification wise, it's almost the same as the THL T6S. In the next few days (If I can resist myself not to do it sooner than that), I'll be comparing it with the T6S.

My early observation are the Redmi wins in terms of screen quality & after sales support. In terms of stock OS performance & value for money, the T6S wins.

Image of Masjid Zahir, Alor Setar taken with the 1S

Porting MIUI Rom

Im a bit disappointed with the quality of the custom roms available for my son's Lenovo A766.

They are either very laggy or unstable enough to be a daily driver. As a result, he was stuck with the stock rom, which are not very responsive.

I had read numerous articles on porting miui roms. To be frank, i wasn't sure that I can accept the idea of bricking a phone. But enough is enough, I need to brave myself and take the first step forward.

I went ahead and downloaded a miui rom for the Lenovo S820. Why that one? a. Its the same manufacturer so, there must be some kind of similiarity. b. They're both have almost the same hardware specificatios, especually the chipset used.

After about 15 minutes if getting the stock rom dump and another 30 minutes or so copying file between the base and stock files, I flashed the new rom onto the phone.

After a long 5 or so minutes at the boot screen, I was greeted with the familiar welcome screen of miui V5. What a relief.

The default home screen & wallpape

With everything working good (signal detection, Wi-Fi, screen size and touch feedback), I decided that I should stop thinkering too much with the rom. There are still some minor ignorable glitches, but overall its far better than the other custom roms available out there for the A766.

 

About phone information. Need to edit the build.prop

Download link on Mega. This is a trial rom for me, so dont expect miracles. Flash it on your own risks. Normal procedures, wipe data, cache, system & dalvik. Flash rom, gapps for 4.2, UPDATE-SuperSU-vX.XX.zip and reboot.

Next, porting miui for the THL T6S.. maybe..

Graphic rendering glitch. But, I'll use it as it is.

How to flash the cwm recovery and root the THL T6S

DISCLAIMER: DO this at your own risk. Using incorrect scatter file, or incorrect CWM/Carliv can brick your phone. I won’t be responsible or liable if anything bad happened to your android device.

What’s you need to have.

• USB Cable & PC
• SP Flash Tool software ver 3.1304
• ADB VCOM Drivers
• Scatter file for the THL T6S
• CWM recovery img for the THL T6S (rename it to recovery.img after you had download it)
• UPDATE-SuperSU-v1.99.zip or newer version of it (copy it to the phone's internal memory)

The SOP aka instructions

1. Download all files above and install the drivers.
2. Download, extract and run SP Flash Tool.
3. Click scatter loading on right side of SP Flash Tool and browse to where the scatter file is.
4. Uncheck all the boxes except for recovery.
5. Click the recovery line and browse to where the downloaded CWM is stored.
6. Click download at the top of SP Flash Tool.
7. A warning will pop up letting you know that not all items are selected. Click OK.
8. Remove the battery from the phone. If you attached the battery, SP Flash Tool will not be able to detect the THL T6S.
9. Connect the THL T6S to PC via USB – At this point, you will see the preloader  at the bottom of the SP Flash Tool is communicating with the PC. The bar at the bottom of SP Flash Tool will start to move indicating that the file is being transferred. At the end of the flash process, you will see a green circle indicating that the flash process had finished successfully.
10. Disconnect the USB cable from the phone and Put the battery back into the phone.
11. Boot into cwm recovery by holding vol up + power button for a few seconds. 
12. You will see a boot selection menu. Press the vol up button navigate to the Recovery Mode option.
13. Press the vol down button to enter the newly flashed cwm recovery. Take note that the cwm will be upside down. Navigate through the options by using the vol up & vol down button.
14. Select Install Zip From SD and then select the UPDATE-SuperSU-v1.99.zip.
15. Confirm the installation and then reboot the phone.

* For my friends from htcmania who are having problem streaming youtube videos, i would suggest for you to go to advance wifi setting and turn off WiFi optimization. See if that will help.

Camera test - Xiomi Note

This afternoon i went to the Al-Bukhary Mosque for afternoon prayers and took this to see if the phone is capable to handle landscape photography. The images were processed by using Snapseed and instagram respectively. What do you think?

Processed in Snapseed 

Processed in Instagram 

This one was taken yesterday morning to test its bokeh quality and macro capability, and was not processed in any way.

Straight out of the camera

Update - Night shot.

A New MIUI Experience.

Im an avid MIUI fan.. I had my first MIUI experience back in 2012 when I was using the TSM Merbau U4 (a china phone). It was the first custom rom that I tried to flash to replace the stock rom for an android device. Heck, I even compiled my first cwm on that TSM U4.

Fast forward a few (quite a handful actually) android based smartphone later and now I own an actual Xiomi device running the official MIUI - the Xiomi/Redmi Note, an 8 cores beauty.

I just own the device for a few hours and I already spflashing and stuff. God I love tinkering with roms. Learn quite a few tricks today.

I leave you with an image of the Redmi Note captured earlier today.

One more thing, Im trying to port the MIUI to the THL T6S. From what I learned from the MIUI porting team, since the T6S comes with KitKat, I need to find similiar devices which already has a MIUI ported (KitKat or not).

Good night.

Carliv Recovery for the THL T6S

I was a bit worried with the cwm recovery that I had created a few days ago. Its because the recovery is a cwm v5+. As far as I know, kitkat doesnt work with v5+. I need  cwm v6+.

And I stumble to Carliv's thread on the XDA (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2759981). So, I did as the instructions there and walla.. a cwm 6+ recovery. You can grab it here.

As you can see, it's still upside down.. :). Well, does it work? Creating backup - yes. Restoring a backup - not tested yet.

To finish off, some shots of the 2 touch (good enough for a 4 yrs old) ips screen.

Good night.

Cwm recovery image for the THS T6S

Just a quick update at this early morning (almost 3am to be exact).

To my russian comrades, sorry that I had forgotten to mention about the red charging LED. And about the 2 touch thing and 10fps video shooting, I'll find a way to test those tomorrow or on Sunday. :)

Antutu score (on stock unrooted rom).Good enough for a 4 years old I guess.

I had created an entry on how to root and install the cwm here.

Im out of here. Leave a comment if u have anything to inquire.

Unboxing and Initial review of the THL T6S

I was looking for a budget phone for my 4 years old son. Yes, for a 4 years old kid who still cant talk straight. Some might say that Im spoiling him but, thats for another discussion.

I logged in to a local merchant's website, here in Malaysia, last Saturday (16 Aug 2014) and was expecting to spend around RM400 ($126) at least for a phone of around 4.5"-5" screen, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage.

To my surprise, a phone which suite my required needs was advertised for almost half of my budget - the THL T6S. A quick search on the google didnt return much informative review, just the specifications and images. To cut the story short, I went ahead and ordered the phone.

This morning, I received a call from the courier delivery guy asking if I would be in the office at around 11am to receive a package. I smiled. In fact, I grinned.

The phone came in a properly packed bag.

The phone's box was encapsulated in a bubbled wrapped plastic. I'd give 10/10 on shipping efford.

The back of the box - the phone's main specification was printed.

The box''s content. 1 x phone without battery. 2 x 1900mAh battery (slim, like 4mm's slim). 1 x charging plug (with a mere 0.5A output). 1 x USB cable. 1 x screen protector. 1 x earphone cum handsfree device. 1 x plastic transparent hard back case. Not bad, especially for including the extra battery and the case.

The dual sim slot (stacked, to be inserted horizontally with sim 1 using the micro sim size and sim 2 using the normal sim size. I would prefer a separate slot for both sims but again, this is an ultra budget phone.

Without any further ado, I slap the battery in and turn the phone on. The power button is on the right hand side and .. clickable. So are the volume up/down buttons which was located on the left hand side. I like this configuration than putting the power button on the top or on the same side as the volume buttons.

The boot image was nothing more than glowing THL logo and some simple logo dissolving animation(I didnt pay much attention to the boot process, which didnt take too long).

The default launcher is the Launcher3. I noticed that icons are themed. Also included was a few chinese pre-installed apps such as the Baidu Browser, App Market and DU Speed Booster. I would say that the screen is beyond expectation. The contrast and saturation are on par with my Galaxy S3. Even my colleagues are impressed with the quality of the screen.

So, being a MIUI fan, I went ahead and installed the Mi Launcher, just to have a taste of it. God, I love the screen.

Well, thats all I can share with you right now. If you are curious about the gaming capabilities, I'd say that Minion Rush is playable and Samurai Rush II ran smoothly. Connectivity wise, both wifi and bluetooth are working fine.

I'll do a benchmark tonight and post it tomorrow. Till then.

*UPDATE : Rooting guide here

Both Sim card slot are working properly.