Cell Phone Questions? (Page 1/1)
James Bond 007 MAR 29, 02:06 PM
Saw this on ebay. Anyone know why, a cell phone has no, cell number or IMEI? Is that information stored on the SIM card? Also Im useing an older Samsung Galaxy 7, any reason why I should upgrade?
ls3mach MAR 29, 02:43 PM
I liked my S7 Active a lot. Plenty of reasons to upgrade.

I buy from Swappa.com (at least a decade). Don't even bother with eBay on that crap. I also only buy U!/XAA unlocked Samsung. Since the S8 all S and Note models are the exact same internals. Meaning can work on ANY carrier period. They share every radio band.


Your battery life alone will be worth the upgrade. Speed will be increased. Reception will be better as it will contain newer radio bands. Camera will be leaps better. Dex was introduced with the S8 and up. Induction (Qi or wireless) charging. Software updates.

IMEI is not stored on the SIM though, to answer your question. Cell number is stored on the SIM.
Raydar MAR 29, 03:58 PM
I think my last phone was an S8. I bought the S20 FE 5G, about a year ago. (Think I bought mine from Amazon.)
I don't regret it. It's a much better phone. But I get asked to upgrade my SW, about twice a month. Kind of a PITA. And it's full of "bloatware". Apps I'll never use, in spite of their best efforts.
The cool thing is, if you don't use an app for a while, the phone puts in in deep sleep.
I very seldom drop the battery charge below 65%, and I live in a fringe area. But I also supplement my service by using wi-fi calling. Phone stays on 24/7, but is put on charge at night. My Bluetooth also stays on all the time.

The lack of an IMEI, on the phone above, is... puzzling? It should be hard-coded into the phone. Like an electronic serial number, only different. Makes me wonder if it's been stolen and... wiped?

Mach may have some other ideas. He's given me some good advice, before.

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 03-29-2022).]

theogre MAR 29, 07:00 PM
Yup...
Phone # is in the SIM so phone above just has no SIM...
IMEI is in the Phone and many carriers will Barf on 0'ed IMEI and not work.

Buying off Ebay etc often have problems or is stolen.

Is No Reason to upgrade if the phone works...
Example: If you have 3G only phone then Carriers are killing 3G and need an upgrade now or soon.
LTE isn't going away soon.

"5G" often uses LTE in way more places and likely continue for many years.
5G UW et al has a Very Short Range and Does Not go thru walls and more. Worse then WiFi 5GHz Band and new 6GHz for WiFi 6/ax and future formats.

Short Battery life/time is often people w/ crap loaded eating batter power 24/7.
Bad enough many come w/ bloatware from a Phone Co but a lot have way more crap loaded on top of that and most rarely used.
Worse, many have Otterbox etc cases that block heat getting out of the phone. The battery alone generate heat to discharge and charging and worse when use Fast Charging.

My Moto G Power says big battery should last 2-4 days for "average user..." I charge about once a week or longer because don't have a lot of crap loaded and disable/uninstall other things not needed.
While has Fast Charging... I rarely use that. I use USB3 port on a computer to charge most times. Could "charge slowly" on USB2 or old wall warts. Either reduce charging heat in the battery a lot.

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave

ls3mach APR 03, 11:25 AM
I just noticed that is a DS model. Dual SIM. That is possibly why the IMEI doesn't show. It might have 2. 1 for each SIM network. I HIGHLY do not recommend you buying that device. It is not a US based phone. Many Korean models are this way and often the 2nd SIM can be used for SD.

I personally only like to buy U1 which is international unlock. It will include the Snapdragon and (as of my knowledge) locked bootloader. The Exynos models are overseas variants. That is a Samsung in house chip I believe. U1 is the same as all US variants with all bands and features unlockable. To clarify you can flash a U model to a U1 and it will function the same as a U1.
ls3mach APR 04, 02:33 PM
After doing more research it is in fact a US model. It is the first time I have seen a U1 and DS designation.

If you like the S7, then anything S8 or Note 8 and up will be a thrill. I still prefer swappa. You probably want something 10 series or higher though, just for the OS updates.
ls3mach APR 07, 11:10 AM
Not trying to be more concerned about this than you are, but something popped on my news feed yesterday. Samsung is re-releasing the S20FE. I think this is only for Korean models. They are calling it the S20 FE 2022. There are 0 hardware differences and only 1 memory configuration. The questions are: Is this a Korea only thing? Is this going to mean updates for the original for 3 more years now too?

This phone isn't better specced than any of 2 or 3 year old flagships are. You have to realize the way this tech has changed so much. Unless there is a hardware feature added, not much to be said about the differences. Even something 3 years older like the Note 8 has mostly better specs. The Note 8 is now pushing 5 years old and is still faster than any computer you had prior to 2010. In 7 years your phone is going to be more powerful than whatever PC you are on at this exact moment. The upgrades is hardware are really more evolutionary. More speed, RAM, MP on camera and screen. More GB, battery, and WWAN. Battery is going to be the biggest upgrade for you.

5G is going to be a game changer, but it isn't about phone download speeds. Figure out if Verizon wins this battle before I worry about 5G anyway.
I mean it is fast if you have the service. I think my 5G hotspot just did like a 200Mb speed test.