Skypephone S2 Unlocked!
Another first in Bolehland! Yes, I've managed to at long last unlock the Skypephone S2 which was lying around at my workplace.
I plugged in my phone and at first it did not detect my phone. I found that the reason is I have not installed the phone drivers. To do so, all I had to do is double click the CD Drive that automatically appears when I plug the phone into the PC via the mini USB cable.
For the uninitiated, the Skypephone S2 is a phone exclusively created for 3UK. It's a pretty interesting phone, with built-in Skype client, Windows Live and Facebook client.
The phone is very cheap, GBP70 (around RM375), considering it's a HSDPA phone and very big and nice TFT 320x240 screen. It is made in China by a manufacturer called Amoi (which incidentally in Malaysia, a rude way of calling a Chinese girl). The phone's camera is one of the most responsive I've ever used! Just press the camera button and within a split second it is ready for shooting. The catch is of course, it is LOCKED to 3UK network and I can't use it for anything maybe except take photos and listen to MP3s. Not much fun eh? :(
In this article, I will not review the phone. I will, instead, walk you through how I got the phone unlocked. Phones in Malaysia are never locked, and it proved a challenge for me to get it done. I've asked the folks at Sungai Wang and Low Yat Plaza (mobile phone and IT hub of KL) and they only have one reaction for me "What phone is that?!". Needless to say, I gave up hope.
Then today, breakthrough! I was browsing around for a solution online and I found this forum: http://forum.gsmhosting.com/. I did a little search and I came across one particularly interesting post which claims to be able to unlock the phone. Woohoo! Just my luck! The post linked me to a website called Kulankendi . Honestly I was a little sceptical about the whole thing, but I downloaded their unlock software to take a look at it.
I plugged in my phone and at first it did not detect my phone. I found that the reason is I have not installed the phone drivers. To do so, all I had to do is double click the CD Drive that automatically appears when I plug the phone into the PC via the mini USB cable.
Then I clicked Read Info on the software. And there were very legitimate and convincing looking information about my phone which appeared like IMEI and firmware version. With that, I was pretty convinced this software will work.
The next thing to do, would be to buy an unlock credit to get this working. This was the part which got me pretty nerved, simply because I have no idea who Kulankendi is and what if this did not work? The damage: Euro25 (RM118!). Of course after much deliberation, I have decided to take the risk. After all, what's RM118 compared to an good but unusable phone? :)
From there, I paid via paypal and using the instructions given on the software, a username and password was generated for me with ONE credit. Keeping my fingers crossed and praying hard, I pressed EXECUTE. The whole process took only a few seconds. And when the phone rebooted, VIOLA! I can use my Maxis and Digi SIM cards with the phone!
I am happy to say: Kulankendi, thank you! I just gained a very nice phone to use. Unfortunately though, Skype, Facebook and Windows Mobile Live could not work on my network as there is some sort of network detection feature on the software end... Why is it that I always get nice phones but can't use their services here??? Sigh. But at least I got the RSS and Web browser to work!
Summary: Although I got my phone unlocked, I still have to warn all of you people who want to unlock your phones using this method... be very careful as you have to bear the risk of losing the phone and your money.
Good article! But I don't think I'll bother to unlock it.
ReplyDeleteHaving had it for 3 months, there are bugs three deny the phone has and apparently have no plans to fix. I should to let you know "you're not alone" if you had the same bugs or experience trying to get support from 3 customer services.
It's not all bad - I think the phone itself, an Amoi 8512 is actually a well-made, robust and fast phone. Also, the built-in modem works excellently via bluetooth and the cable - I easily get a sustained 1.3Mb down and 400k up, and it works fine for downloading BBC iPlayer stuff. It also allows me to use the "£5 for 3Gb" package, rather than the "£10 for 1Gb" package with other "mobile modem" users appear to be stuck with (correct me if I'm wrong) and with a 2-pack for £99 I'm not complaining on price!
Major Bugs:
Phone rebooting - I think this is a problem with the battery voltage sensor, because I was on the verge of taking both back and giving up (3 CS had "never heard of this" before!!) when they started behaving. I assume a few cycles of battery charge had done the trick (it was rebooting even with full battery).
The Gmail application was one of the selling points of the phone, and there is actually an inbuilt preset to download it. Until very recently, it didn't actually work (just giving square blocks for text). There is finally a working download of gmail and google maps, but before, When you called three CS, all you hear is that "no-one else has reported this problem" or "please reboot the phone" or "your signal is poor" or "please send it back for reflash" - and yet, both handsets are identical and I can find over 20 other forums posts with the same problem. Just me, eh? Maps still has a problem in that after about 600k, it says "out of memory", despite having 20Mb of phone memory and 1.8Gb of card memory left.
Other little annoyances are the lack of testing - when using the inbuilt browser, the error messages are less than helpful - how about:
"Received response with status code other than 200 that does not have body part However, notification is not given of redirection unless settings is to display body part when dialog is canceled."
When you send a message, it says "message has been sent to...", but when the other person reads it, it says "message has been sent to...", so it's difficult to know whether it has actually been received - it should, of course, be ""message has been received by...". Also, when selecting multiple items for deletion (pics, messages etc), it says "delete the marked?", which is poor English. Spelling mistakes pepper other areas of the phone, too. Not a problem, just not very polished.
When in text message function, the message count takes 20 mins (to do 400 messages)
You can't uninstall the useless pre-installed junk that clutters up the applications menu, and you can't remove Sky Sports from the feeds list. It also won't accept passworded feeds.
Java rendering problems - one of the first things I did was download Opera Mini which beats the pants off any other mobile browser, however they phone has a java graphics rendering problem with causes vertical stripes one pixel or so wide down the screen, so although it's readable, K for example would end up looking like <
Strange phone book error - or perhaps it's just me not understanding how the phonebook works:
I have set the phone to display "contacts displayed on SIM and phone", and I have copied the phone contacts to the SIM. However, there are just a few contacts which don't show in the contacts list, either when browsing or adding to an sms. But when you try and add the contact again it says "contact exists - overwrite?" (or something) and when you get an incoming call, it displays that caller's name. BUT I can't find it in the phone book!
Back button "bug" - I've seen several posts with people complaining that the back button is broken and causes the screen to break into blocks - actually, that's the way it's meant to be - the "blocks" are preview windows of page history, and this is quite a good feature, although it caught me out at first.
Here's an annoying which has nothing to do with the phone, but Yahoo and ebay FORCE me to use crappy mobile versions based on my IP! I've tried several suggestions, but if I'm using my home PC connected by the mobile modem, it is absolutely infuriating to be forced into a mobile version of the site. But that's not the phone's fault, just something I thought I'd mention if someone had a solution!
Other questions:
How can I mass-delete loads of rubbish from the T9 dictionary?
How can I backup text messages?
Overall, the phone has potential, but I'm very disappointed by the lack of support for both applications, and from three themselves. Almost every category you browse shows "sorry, there are no applications for this phone". It needs a firmware update and some support, although there is a forum at
http://www.3skypephone.com/forum/
Hi digitaltoast, wow! Thanks for your long comment. I've been so busy that I've seen my blog for awhile.
ReplyDeleteWell, at least you have support from Three... I've none! hahaha
The software responded:
ReplyDelete"Due to too many paypal cheaters USA/Canada payments are no more accepted. Ask paypal for refund your money. Sorry but is best way."
Please do not use this software if you are a US or Canadian citizen. It won't accept your Transaction ID.
hello,
ReplyDeleteanyone interested in this phone?
i'm selling one for just only GBP 40.i will be in Malaysia this august.so if anyone interested, just let me know.
thanks
I have unlocked it for free with AmoiZTE, download this program, run program and conect your skypephone tu pc. Then set AMOI/ZTE, modem: COM3, direct unlock, WP-S2 and unlock. Very simple and for free.
ReplyDelete