Advantage of debranding T-Mobile Nokia N95 8GB or not?

patwa_2

Hi,

I've just got the Nokia N95 8GB. I was wondering, before I go and do something I might regret, does the default T-Mobile branded N95 8GB have any "negative effects" over an unbranded N95 8GB? I ask simply because I have one day left to decide to keep it or not, and if I just went ahead and debranded it, it would void my warranty or returns option. I know many people do debrand the phone out of choice, so wondered if you've noticed any difference?

I've always debranded phones in the past, but that was because features were either removed (e.g Orange with their voip application) or so badly laiden with advertising that it crippled performance. But I've not heard anything bad about T-Mobile so...

Thanks.

H.

gaming_guy

i dont know how much t-mobile customize nokias, but when i debranded my t-mobile SE K810 it got rid of all of the t-mobile icons, web links, sounds, pictures and even the t-mobile racket it played at startup.

it also removed the noisy camera shutter tone and video beep

patwa_2

Hmm, no startup racket here other than the Nokia tone (hey, is it worrying that it's actually grown on me - at least I don't have it as the ringtone ) but I do see the rather dark theme they've put on (not good for a VI person!) and when I did put speech on the thing I did notice the right shortcut key was assigned to Web 'n Walk (I'd prefer camera).

But as for whether all that is worth a debrand, loss of warranty in the unlikely event I decide to return it within the next 32 hours, I'm still unsure.

H.

Leopard

Unless it's really irritating, I never remove the branding from a 'phone until its warranty has expired.

If a software fault develops, the retailer can use the fact that one has altered the originally supplied software and/or firmware as an excuse not to fix it for free.

You're then down to the manufacturer's warranty. With Nokia 'phones that's not too much of a problem because Nokia has its own support network of service agents (there's one ten miles from where I live), but if such a thing exists for Sony Ericsson 'phones I've yet to succeed in discovering it and I depend on the retailer.

When pressured without compromise to do so, Carphone Warehouse will usually supply a 'phone that is unbranded and unlocked (but it cannot sell one on Vodafone).

S0litaire

My N95 is unbranded (I'm on 3 network).
It actually gave me access to slightly more services.

If it developed a fault, depending on what type, you could always rebrand it to the network before sending it back (Just remember to backup everything first)

patwa_2

Hi, could you perhaps detail what extra services you got? And would these be missing from the T-Mobile one? The firmware number is the same as the Nokia generic one v20.0.16.

And sorry to be a little pedantic, but if you got the phone unbranded from '3', how did you know there were extra services compared with the branded one?

H.

Leopard

S0litaire wrote: »

If it developed a fault, depending on what type, you could always rebrand it to the network before sending it back (Just remember to backup everything first)

If it develops a fault, you might then not actually be able to restore the branding (or anything else) from a backup...

Leopard

patwa wrote: »

.

And sorry to be a little pedantic, but if you got the phone unbranded from '3', how did you know there were extra services compared with the branded one?

H.

Sorry to be a little pedantic but he/she didn't state that it was supplied unbranded.

The inference to be drawn was that it was supplied branded and the additional services were obtained by removing the branding.

patwa_2

You are right, and I apologise. I misread the post, it says 'is unbranded' and I thought i heard 'was unbranded'.

I'd still be really interested in knowing what extra features were revealed, and by extension, which features, if any '3' blocked?

Sorry again.

H.

Leopard

Forgive me for tweaking your tail about it, Patwa; no malice was intended.

patwa_2

Hey, no problem. Teaches me to read things properly next time

H.