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Dual booting Witstech tablet supports Android 2.1 and Windows CE

The Witstech tablet allows you to run both Android 2.1 and Windows CE. The A81-E is based on last years A81 sporting a 600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 and a seven-inch 800×480 touchscreen.
Read more here:
http://ongoingissues.wordpress.com/2010/07/03/dual-booting-witstech-tablet-supports-android-2-1-and-windows-ce/

think i'm hooked.
just ran into this and i think i'm hooked.
Something like this is the missing link in my arsenal.
Has anyone purchased tested? What do you think?

Hi there,this looks interesting anyone using this device? would like to hear
a hand on report
btw where can we buy this device and price??

ive been researching this tablet for a few hours now and from what i can tell theres no market app...which wouldnt be so bad because you could download all the apks to your sd card, but theres also no file explorer which means that plan is moot. everything though, is a dream!

I purchased one of these little beauties with 2.1 on it. When running 2.1, the bluetooth, audio and gps are broke. Audio works but is very quiet, bluetooth and gps simply do not work. I used adb to install apps, most fc'd after install. There is a new ROM out for it that fixed most of the fc's, but did not fix bt or gps. When I contacted support, I was told that if i wanted to use gps I should install wince...
Otherwise, the device is very sexy, very fast and feels to be quite durable. If they can get the 3 issues listed above worked out, this thing will be awesome.

Well? Where is the update. Have you made any progress with the wisitech? Access to marketplace at this point?
Thanks for keeping us updated!
Sent from my MSM using XDA App

Newest firmware fixed low sound,no gps,and has market. Also has Flash with froyo.
http://www.merimobiles.com/Witstech_A81E_Android_2_2_Flash_10_1_App_Market_p/meri0306.htm

It looks like this wisitech has a lot of support? Is it performing up to expectations since the last few firmware updates?
Sent from my MSM using XDA App

ViewSonic is releasing a 10.1-inch tablet that will dual boot Windows 7 and Android 1.6.
http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_new...nics-10-inch-tablet-boots-windows-and-android
My question is, why ONLY Android 1.6??? Android 2.x has been out for months and they can't have it integrated into this device? Bad decision in my opinion. Although the article does say ViewSonic has another tablet that has Android 2.2, it isn't one that dual boots. Just thought I'd share.

Witstec A81G
I just ordered the A81G (supposedly everything is working), with 2.2.
I ordered it because (in theory) it dual boots into WinCe and 2.2, GPS working in both operating systems, removable battery (most do not and most do not have very long battery life, makes the product virtually useless, as a mobile device) once the battery is dead) and a matte screen.
If all the above is true then it is one heck of a deal at $205, shipped (ordered it from Hotmid). It is it not then it will make a great paper weight.
The videos of the product on YouTube seemed very promising.
Once I get it (I was too cheap to pay for quicker shipping), around Jan 151011, I will post my review and indicate whether I accomplished the dual boot.
I even saw a video on line showing it with Multi-touch. Hmmm.

Problem with Market solved
This is the solution.
Android market setting
1) Press Home button
2) Click settings
3) Chose Applications / Manage applications
4) click Running TAB
5) Find Market program in the list and click
6) Click :
a. Clear cache
b. Force stop
7) Press back button On 81
8) Find Google Services Framework and click (Running TAB)
9) Click
a. Clear data (DELTE warning will appear. Click OK)
b. Force stop
10) Go back to Home page of A81
11) Try to Run Market
12) You should see new window with following message: An error occurred. Please try
again. (this is good message telling that all steps was done successfully)
13) Turn OFF device
14) Turn ON device
15) Make sure you have Internet connection (WiFi or other) and SD card is inserted
16) Run Market
Now its working fine.

Altek A14 Leo section?

Hey
The first (Android) smartphone with camera that can really compete with the digital cameras and no section for it?
Modding it would be great
Altek A14 Leo

Altek Leo Section
regarding the serious problems the Altek Leo has, as no google apps, not even market, no rooting published, no adobe flash, firefox will not install and so on,
a section would be useful for the distessed owners of this camera phone which
is more a fumble phone than a smart phone. Its advantages are a very good lens, an outstanding CCD chip, a xenon flash and professional camera software.

True, is buggy
I bought one actually and despite it being pretty buggy, I just absolutely love the camera.
Definitely needs some software love though:
1) Interface is pretty sluggish and 2.1 isn't helping, the latest android performance improvements would be nice.
2) Touch-screen is strangely inaccurate. Swype was a must for me.
3) Battery life is pretty bad (not certain how much a newer Android would help, but any amount of powersaving fixes would help).
4) Buttons/widgets to lock the screen (e.g. Extended Controls) don't work.
5) The camera button doesn't open the camera when the phone is locked (debatable I guess, but imo, the camera button should just open the camera, period).
6) Default alarm clock doesn't ring randomly.
7) Not to mention apps randomly crashing, strange animation bugs in the Album viewer, no google apps, terrible GPS, etc.
But despite those, I've managed to work my way round them and am in love with it.
Alex

I have one of these and I do like the quirkyness .
I would love to improve the experience by modding.

Quirkyness fits well
To continue the list (more than enough for a forum)
- Backups by Titanium, AVG or Nandroid do not work because i have no idea
how to root the Altek Leo.
- WLAN range is still very short and does not always an automatic reconnect.
- I could not manage to make any browser play flash files, but the moboplayer
plays flv files well.
- Apps like soundhound say the microphone is blocked.
About half of the apps i need are not available because they will not install
or they are exclusively available over google market and getting them from
file hosters seems a bit risky to me. Most of this problems seem to be caused
by the small software space of 120 MB for files and 83 MB for running
applications.
But i will keep the Altek Leo and use it because the camera prooved itself
as outstanding among mobile phones.
- I use the application stores Applanet, Amazone Appstore, Handango,
SlideMe SAM and the tools Memory Booster Lite, Android Tweak.
Does anyone discovered any other useful helpers for this half of an
ANDROID device ?
"We do not need any adobe flash, we have got a real xenon flash."

Where To Buy
Does anyone know where to pick up/order one of these units?

Here To Buy
Search at Ebay, you will need a Paypal account.
I bought mine from Wifigadget.
Eason of Yupitek provides International Customer Service,
have a look at the facebook pinwall.

Thanks for the tips! Really like Memory Booster and Swype.
If you're on a mac, the "missing sync" from markspace is well worth the buy - particularly given that there does not seem to be a way to add a Google account under accounts and sync - it's missing on my altek leo! Anyone elses too?
Also recommend "Lookout" if you're worried about virus from no easy way to get apks other than file sharing sites.
Despite the quirks, very happy with this all-in-one device - music player + phone + camera - 3 down to 1! Fantastic!

Vignette
Sidenote, 'Vignette' is the perfect app for this device.
It doesn't fix any of the quirkiness, but it's a photo manipulation tool which complements the fantastic camera perfectly.
You can take your pics and then touch them up making the phone a studio for all things photography.
You can purchase it from the AndAppStore.

By poor battery life, how many days do you get out of it?

root and market
Has anyone tried the Gingerbreak exploit? I heard it might work on older devices. Also, if you don't trust file sharing sites and want stuff from the market. You could try running an emulator and installing the Market on that, then sideloading the APKs. I haven't tried it myself yet, but it seems there are a lot of people doing this. Here's one HOWTO which is specific to Mac but I think it's prety much the same or at least you should be able to use the same system image. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1387830/how-to-install-android-market-app-on-the-emulator there are lots of other links if you google "android market emulator" I don't have the Leo yet because they're sold out in Taiwan, but I've got mine on order. I'm most interested whether the google apps work at all if they're sideloaded. I've just sort of bricked my older Cyanogen device. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Oh, here's a Windows specific link - http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/10004/accessing-android-market-from-android-sdk/
and be careful with Gingerbreak!

There's also UniversalAndRoot to try http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=747598
and SuperOneClick http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=803682

Poor battery-life
@rocky7st
It depends on usage. Light usage is ok. Any sort of medium/heavy usage won't get you through the day.
I bought it from an ebay seller which sent me 2 batteries which was helpful:
cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230614421067
It's is useful since it allows me to occasionally geek out with the camera, playing with apps or using the GPS (i.e. 2 hours straight) and and it'll completely run out of juice by late afternoon.
I usually wait till I get home to recharge it on those occasions, but it's been very useful to be able to switch to the backup battery if I'm out and about and I really need to use the phone.
@everyone_else
On the topic of side-loading apps, my gf has an Android phone with a market on it, so I use the "Astro" file manager which allows you to "Backup" the apks, and then I transfer them to my phone via email.

I've been unable to get my device to show up with adb, so not far enough to try SuperOneClick.
UniversalAndRoot says something like "unable to root"
Z4Root says "running root exploit" and does not progress..

That's bad news but good to know at the same time. Hopefully there will be a method soon. Still waiting on mine but I unbricked my older one. Seems to be an almost total lack of hands-on reviews (outside of a trade show) so I thought someone might be interested in this one. Also, I emailed the author to see whether and how he installed the Market app.
http://120x160.com/old-entries/216-hardware-review-altek-leo-a14-camera-phone

Cheers for the reply jackflap. Do you guys know anything about the Android 2.2 upgrade, I've heard Altek is meant to be releasing it next month.

Okay, I got SuperOneClick working so I have root. ADB worked in windows after installing the Altek software.
ADB in linux still cannot find the phone..
So I tried installing various vending.apk files but keep getting MISSING SHARED LIBRARY or out of date SDK.

@daktak I've been trying to develop for the Leo but have not been able to get ADB to work in windows. Where did you obtain the Altek software?

Hi All,
I am a complete noob here and non technical.
Recently bought an altek leo with the sole purpose of loading an app called Passport Photo Plus and using the device to create passport photopgraphs and to send by Bluetooth to a compatible printer.
We have been doing this on other android smartphones but wanted to use the altek due to its camera features.
It appears that our desired app is ony avaiable on Market.
Being non -technical we have tried and failed to find a way to install this app on our leo.
I'm sure there may be other apps available but we specifically want this one due to it's features.
Does anybody know if this can be done, and if so how? Can anybody point me in the right direction (in easy to understand non tech terms please!)
Would happily pay a small fee for succesful step by step instructions (not sure if I can post that here, if not please ignore / mods pls delete).
Many thanks in advance.

GooPhone Y5/Thunderbird 4s

Hey everyone,
Recently purchased a thunderbird 4s and have had great joy rooting and flashing the phone with various ROMS from across various forums and youtube sites(mayiandjay).
I thought I would start this start this thread due to the lack of English information regarding this fantastic iphone 4s clone and ROM information around the globe. Most is in chinese along with a russian forum but there is little else in english.
I have flashed them all and this is a guide for English users to participate in and add feedback and hints/tips to various newer ROMS.
I have ascertained via china- phone forum russia (in russian) that goophone release newer ROM'S every month or so.
The latest ROM titled GOOPHONE-Y5-1001-F-002 is the best for this phone and includes importantly the proximity sensor re calibrator under settings/general/accessibility/display. Importantly, whenever you flash the ROM'S via clockwork recovery and boot into the ilauncher screen you must always recalibrate this proximity sensor otherwise when you take/make a call the phone goes blank screen and is basically stuffed.
I have tried many roms including:
- 0805(which was very very good my reference for me but lacked newer functionality including camera operation via lockscreen and many other newer functions),
- mayiandjay,(has bugs including proximity failure in display)
- tician and gstyle (also has the same bug as mayiandjay)
If you have bought a new thunderbird 4s (and yes the screen is much brighter exactly the same as iphone 4s i saw in apple store) then you must do the following to get it up to full potential but be **WARNED** there are risks attached with this including having to open up the unit requiring a pentalobe screwdriver and sliding the cover off to de-solder red/black battery terminal wires if your flash goes wrong. This is the only way to get back in to CWM if a flash goes wrong.
1. Follow the guide here -->http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1729056 (thnx you mylove299 you are genius for posting that thread)
2. Once flashed from post 3 download the newest ROM for Y5 here --->http://www.mediafire.com/?mn2w39f5ocfdpxk and once downloaded use usb to transfer the zip to your root sd card
3. Now get into reboot recovery mode.
4. To do this turn off phone
5. Then hold power and - button together and wait to feel the vibration. Once felt quickly take your fingers off - button and power button.
6. You should now see bottom left corner of screen recovery mode
7. Follow the guide in chinese on how to flash your zip. There is a guide for CWM called IOS_recovery_2.0.1_(chinese).pdf and is available here: ---> http://www.dkmdesign.dk/?page_id=9
8. Basically, using this chinese-> english guide for CWM you follow this order a) clear the cache partition; b)clear data restore factory settings; c) apply zip from sd card; d) scroll one down and hit eneter you should be in root of your sd card where you put the zip before; e) apply update and that's it
9. Once the flash is done which take about 30 or so seconds the new ROM is now ready and all you have to do is go down to bottom hit back key until the start screen and you should be highlighting the first option in CWM and hit enter and bingo reboot
Once the reboot is done you will boot-up into the new rom. This new rom is fantastic gives you the camera option on lockscreen and also has a round home button which gives you quick access to 3G /wifi and other shortcuts. You can place this little icon anywhere on your homepage.
Once this is all done then you have to obtain g-apps from here: -->http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1729056 and Extract Go_app.zip then run installG_Apps.bat, G-app will be install then run install_App.bat to install other apps, your phone will reboot. (Thnx mylove299)
and then that's it your done you will see the new apps for play and other things on your homescreen which you can modify if in chinese just hold the icon with your finger until it starts shaking and then press the icon once and you should see options to change title/icon etc I basically changed the chinese titles to english.
In this new ROM the compass now work (0805 ROM had bugs) auto-rotate work also and functionality is awesome. There is also a nifty chinese icon program in this rom which monitors your 3G usage and i can explain how to set this up if you have a monthly allowance but I will leave that to later. Also, I have an iphonewallper.apk which i modified and I will explain how to port that across to system/app using root explorer and this way you can modify your homescreen wallpaper to newer images along with your home screen.
For now, that's it but do post/update it if you have bugs/issues or anything else to add. Remember this is the Thunderbird 4s and is exactly the same as goophone Y5 expect better screen hehehe . I will be hardware modifying the battery soon (thnx mayandjay for guide on youtube to iphone 4s 1430mah version) along with a future mod on the camera and will install an iphone 4s camera to see if it improves it which I think it will, cause the one in there now is very poor but ok)
Hope you enjoy this post and I thought I would give something back to all the hard work of programmers/engineers across the world.
:good:

Ok can add some further feedback...
* you need to set the screen to lcd density 326 to maximize the quality of imaging as this is a retina screen. To do this once you have installed google play go into market and download excellent free app called lcd resolution. Once installed set density to 326 exactly as this is correct density for this retina screen. You can also tick apply on reboot so you can it have it permanently done in the build.prop file.
*** May want to scratch the above** found 320 is the best and lock screen swipe was a little out of wack but this is now fixed with 320 dpi.
* You may want to uninstall an app which has a swirl arrow on it. This app installs a usage meter and also a dialer and sms app which is in chinese and confilcts with original apps. Definitely recommend to uninstall.
* You can add various apps via other ROM's go into system/apps of these zips copy apk files onto your sd card and install them via root explorer

Ok some further updates..
* Found a nifty tip... if you want flash on phone to work momentarily in darkness...hit the home button front screen will light up and hold either + or - button for a second or too and rear flash will light up...very kewl..
* I have also disabled the notifications pop up. I prefer to turn my Thunderbird 4s on and see on screen what I have missed. Previously with notifications on it interferes with various functionality of the phone.
* if your GPS is slow or does not work remove backcover, and re-solder the red and black battery wires to main-board. Also move these wires away from the main-board as this has helped me get a lock within 15sec of turning on my various gps app's.
* I have also installed adw launcher with apex ICS theme... between them I can launch the ICS theme and ilauncher(default) and people are amazed..
My intention is to go into Apple store and say I bought this and look no itunes work but everything else works..record on youtube and then upload heheheheh will be funny...

thx for your hints! Just one more question:
I can flash the rom, but when restarting it gives me two flickering lines on the bottom of the screen. I can load roms up to 0912. But even the modded rom from mayiandjay shows this behavior. Any idea?
the facebook app is not working for me. It just states "loading" on the main screen, also when loading profiles or certain pages. Notifications and messages work though...same for you?
thx for sharing your ideas,
jo

jodo01 said:
thx for your hints! Just one more question:
I can flash the rom, but when restarting it gives me two flickering lines on the bottom of the screen. I can load roms up to 0912. But even the modded rom from mayiandjay shows this behavior. Any idea?
the facebook app is not working for me. It just states "loading" on the main screen, also when loading profiles or certain pages. Notifications and messages work though...same for you?
thx for sharing your ideas,
jo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes the flickering is quite normal and I did not see it on ROM 0805 goophone Y5 version.
It seems the mayiandjay rom and above have this weird flickering made worst when putting the phone into landscape mode. Seems to only do it with web-scrolling and youtube. I am thinking they don't use the hardware correctly....not sure..
Unless you mean something else completely different to what I described above?
I don't use the facebook app so can't really comment. I am curious though can someone post a link to goophone ROM versions all of them and the current release versions. That would be awesome..

Just an update ROM 1013 has been released for a while now.
Will be upgrading to it soon. I have found the links to the latest ROMS for goophone Y5/Thunderbird 4s.
Stay tuned

Thanks for your answer. The flickering starts for me right from the white apple logo at boot, even within recovery.Only one or two lines. They disappear when rolling back to 0912. What I did: I've taken 1013, unzipped and copied the system folder to the unzipped 0913. Then zipping again, et voilá - features from 1013 w/o flickering
Concerning facebook: I think that is due to missing AOSP browser, but I'm not sure. I was not able to install it via root explorer or even adb.

jodo01 said:
Thanks for your answer. The flickering starts for me right from the white apple logo at boot, even within recovery.Only one or two lines. They disappear when rolling back to 0912. What I did: I've taken 1013, unzipped and copied the system folder to the unzipped 0913. Then zipping again, et voilá - features from 1013 w/o flickering
Concerning facebook: I think that is due to missing AOSP browser, but I'm not sure. I was not able to install it via root explorer or even adb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting... thank You for your feedback..
I have discovered another issue that the SMS app sometimes the sms's will continue to beep unless I open the folder.
Seems to lag when it starts to get full....
Time to flash ROM and test your feedback ..

Ok trying your method brought back issues of no auto-rotate on screen same issue as in 0912 ROM.
Will now use 1013 ROM and provide feedback.
Update feedback..
1013 all working well. No issues to report auto rotate works and phone is much more faster/zippier.
For now 1013 is the latest and greatest...

The 1013 ROM has improved the following:
* Battery life is much improved
* reception is more stable
* voice quality on call is very clear and crisp
* audio quality via music player is outstanding even better than my samsung galaxy s
* Menu speed and free memory with ilauncher is much better now ( is zippier now than before)
* no more lag with SMS
* There is still some minor flicker but hardly noticeable and much much less than before with 1001 ROM
* Camera is improved colours are more natural and correct
* If anyone has issues with GPS you may need to resolder the red and black cables back to mainboard. Mine was poor only use 3 satellites when it can see 12. Now after resolder(careful it is very thin wire) the GPS gets lock in 15~20sec and I use 9/12 satellites.
The 1013 ROM is simply fantastic. ENjoy

Hi Guys,
i also own a goophone y5 since 2 days now and i am very interested to find a ROM thats imitates iphone as well as possibel.
i currently tried these roms:
- GOOPHONE-Y5-0711-f-001
- GOOPHONE-Y5-0815-01-GF-F-IL-002
- GOOPHONE-Y5-1001-F-002
- REX_V3
i found REX_V3 + (a sortet amount of) G_apps as the best combination of functionality, stability and look+feel. i'm close to start cooking my own rom, because all roms have an issues that are nogo! i'll post a review of these roms a soon as possible for you all here and will share my experience with them. meanwhile i'm trying to combine a rom out of them all that fullfills the following points:
- stability
- functionality
- look+feel (as close as possible to iphone)
---------- Post added at 07:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:52 PM ----------
where can i get 1013 ROM from? i would realy like to test and compare this one, too.

I got the 1013 ROM from goophone.hk website. I can assure you I don't speak Cantonese/Mandarine but I managed to get on there and find the ROM.
The 1013 is very stable and eveything I said in my previous post. Will stay with it for a long time. Battery life is amazing now...and yes I also used many ROM's. The g-apps is essential along with this rom. I tried to get 1021 ROM but I need password....no go 4 now..

Hi xlr8me,
dunno how you managed to get it from that site. i'm trying to find anything on that site using google website translation, but with no success
may you have a direkt link for me? that would realy be useful. Thank you.
Hint: try "goophone.hk" as password. i've read it on several sites that they use this one.

here for everybody (i finaly made it) direct links to the last two ROMs:
ROM 1013:
http://115.239.249.24/down/Y5-zn-f-...hk=14e5086d14f219c82b23772cb64bb18f-174000334
ROM 1022:
http://115.239.249.27/down/Y5新摄像头10...hk=3df4a2c1345c210a7fefe29c493a16ef-174027862
happy downloading & flashing

ROM 1022 contains another .zip file inside which is version 1021. this version requires a password. "goophone.hk" (and some more password i tried) doesn't work as password
even so, i tried to use GPS with 1013 and many versions before, but it doesn't work. did anybody get GPS working on goophone y5? if so, how did you do that?
location via Edge or 3G doesn't work as well.
does anybody know how to modify a rom to change thwe language? it would even be nice to know how to change the language of apps.
i think it's quiet easy to do. it's only .zip file content and .apk file which can be modified with a java editor.

sp1ke81 said:
ROM 1022 contains another .zip file inside which is version 1021. this version requires a password. "goophone.hk" (and some more password i tried) doesn't work as password
even so, i tried to use GPS with 1013 and many versions before, but it doesn't work. did anybody get GPS working on goophone y5? if so, how did you do that?
location via Edge or 3G doesn't work as well.
does anybody know how to modify a rom to change thwe language? it would even be nice to know how to change the language of apps.
i think it's quiet easy to do. it's only .zip file content and .apk file which can be modified with a java editor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes GPS works. Make sure you have GPS satellites and A-GPS ticked with google (NOT nokia) inside of A-GPS settings.
It works but not as super fast as perhaps other phones. Just be patient.
The language is changed inside the settings. Changing the language of apps is a challenge so don't expect anything easy there.
Not sure whether to test 1022. Anyone know what's new with this ROM?
Anyone got a link to the above files especially 1022? It says error...

Thank you for your tips. But i already tried/checks all this
Here's where i found the files. Dunno why the direct links don't work anymore. Try this side instead: http://www.400gb.com/u/582581/1627896
1. klick the rom you like from the list
2. enter the shown number into the text field and press the big, fat, green button below
3. on the next site there's a short description of the rom and below there's a table of links. 2 rows, 3 links in a row. choose the first link in the second row
4. you can download the file
1022 has got a password in it that i don't know.
1013 has no password and can be installed in the odenary way.

Thnx dude..
Yeah just as I thought password protected...
Just a tip for anyone get a bumper preferably silicone for your thunderbird/goophone Y5.
It has tremendously improved the GPS reception as I was using it naked before.
Also forget using GPS with Aluminium case it won't work...it reduced GPS by about -6~-12dB and no good.

Guys, just a quick question.
My Safari(boat mini browser) won't save the far zoom for page settings. Any ideas how to fix this?
It keeps resorting back to medium zoom.

New fw out
Y5-12-11-20（老机）解决红屏IOS6.0.1.zip
Any ideas what it does? I am downloading it now

EVR_AL00 – light review and heavy customization

I got the Mate 20 X from Italy, delivered two weeks after order on November 12 for € 829, VAT and 2-years warranty included. It is a nice silver device 6/128 (don’t need more memory). My first hands-on impression? I was shocked.
I had pure Chinese phones before (Huawei and Lenovo) and I know how to deal with them. That wasn’t what upset me. And it wasn’t EMUI either, I like some of its functionality and I know how to customize it.
But my previous phone was Mate 10 pro (international, not Chinese), which really works well and comparison with a newcomer is what really shocked me. The EVR_AL00 came slow and clumsy with those big fat letters and ugly ios-like icons on the screen. I tried to improve the look with increasing the smallest width in the developer options, but original resolution came back with every reset.
So what I did first, is factory reset (I usually perform it on every new phone). I lost Google Play but I didn’t care, I intended to install and adjust Google apps anyway.
And then I started to customize the phone. Basically, it means “dechinezed” and “deiosinezed” it and make it usable for my purposes as the daily driver. Eventually, I succeeded and like before I don’t regret that I bought the Chinese phone as I never regretted before. I believe that my customization demands would request almost the same amount of work and effort with the “international” version.
And with “dechinezed” I don’t mean to be impolite, actually, I like some of the features of China phones, some of them after years comes to western phones as well (night sight, close all apps etc). I just prefer the more Android look of the phone (even more than currently, Google delivers).
The actual status of my phone is as follows:
In the beginning, when I started phone manager, the performance never exceeded 69%. It seems that later it adapted and healed itself (maybe with help of AI) and now performance is usually over 90, close to 100% and the phone suddenly becomes snappy and smooth, slightly better than Mate 10 pro. As expected, the battery life is due to its capacity and with my way of use it could easily survive two days. I don’t have exact data on SOT and other parameters of the battery performance yet. By adjusting the text and display size (both too small) under settings/display the phone gets a nicer look and more usable size of applications.
I had decided to keep EMUI launcher before I learned that the phone has a hard time with other launchers. I bought Nova Prime once, I consider it a great launcher, maybe the best, but even on my previous phone I used EMUI. The reason is in its features that I don’t want to sacrifice: dedicated Accuweather, swype gestures (now with 9), dark mode. I was never a fan of ios-like white themes, I always considered that Android’s color is black. Besides, what even Google admits now (and started to return black mode into its apps accordingly), the white mode consumes a lot more energy (especially with AMOLED). What is yet to admit is that it burns your eyes.
So, what I have now, is a fully customized EVR_AL00 that perfectly suits my needs. That means that it looks like Android, works like Android and behaves like Android. I replaced most Chinese apps with Google’s ones, installed additional that I use and tune the system. With tuning the system I mean screen adjustment and customization. Under Settings/Display/text and display size, I changed both values to small and thus converted ugly appearance of the display into something that suits size and purpose of the phone. I replaced IOS icons with the Android ones. Adjusted notifications and permissions for each application.
First I was thinking about keeping some Chinese apps that I considered useful, like Sky Mobile and a few others. But trying them I found out that all of them are more or less connected either with Chinese environment or payment system and therefore eventually I removed them all. After I had to perform the factory reset I was only got more careful with apps that I disabled. And according to my orientation, I kept Email, at least until Google implements dark color in Gmail. And kept useful utilities: (Manager, Gallery, Remote…).
Otherwise, I use Google Phone (the amazing last beta from: https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/app-google-phone-v14-0-175904292-bubble-t3708218, thank you Martin), Messages, Translate (removed nonfunctional MS Translate), Auto, Duo, Voice, Photos, Trips, Pay, Assistant, Lens, Google, Chrome, and of course all Google system apps. I also use third-party apps like VLC, Xiaomi calculator and YouTube vanced. Pretty much everything works as expected, including notifications to the extent that suits my way of use. After I erased Hivoice, Assistant works together with the hot word, if the screen is turned on (never wished to use it from turned off screen). The red mic on notification bar of the attached picture shows that assistant is active.
All banks application work. Google Play is not working at the moment but I expect that it will eventually. Currently, failure is the result of poor synchronization between Chinese EMUI and Google Android. No point to call the bank, it is the last one to solve the problem. The problem will be solved with the new EMUI or Play Services, because there is no material obstacle for G Play (SafetyNet passed and bank card is recognized and could be used online). I have another identical payment system installed (Inteso SP) and it works flawlessly.
CUSTOMIZATION
In order to adapt the phone to my needs, I had to deal with existing Chinese application first. I had to either: 1) remove them, 2) hide them, or 3) disable (erase) them.
Removing apps
Removing apps was easy. Just uninstall Chinese in Settings/Apps. As I said, I did it thoroughly and indiscriminately.
Hiding apps
My overall objective is to have only one home screen page. I’m fed up with slippery pages interfering with gestures. And besides, I decided to use gestures (swype) as system navigation and therefore swyping between homepages could be annoying even more.
In order to have only one home page, I have to use folders and hide auxiliary functional apps (like download, OTA, backup, clock..etc).
Surprisingly I found that Tweaker for Huawei works pretty well with EMUI9, although it is an old application: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teammt.gmanrainy.emuitweaker&hl=en. One of its functions is triggering the abandoned EMUI gesture that enables hiding any application and thus removing it from the home screen without affecting its functionality.
Disabling (erasing) apps
To “remove” any nonremovable application without root you need a computer with the adb command-line tool. In fact, this method never removes any application, rather disables and hides it for the current user. So it doesn’t affect OTA and it doesn’t revert after reset either. It does come back after factory reset though.
The method of erasing an app works through adb (so adb must be installed on the computer – either Windows or Linux) and it requests the following syntax in command line:
1. adb devices (and after that setting permission on the phone)
2. adb shell
3. pm unistall -k --user 0 <package name>
where <package name> is not the name of the application as it shows but the name of the installed package, which must be discovered and one of the apps which could do that effectively could be found here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.itto.packageinspector&hl=en.
(for example: pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.huawei.wallet)
A basic idea what to disable could be found here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/note-10/how-to/guide-to-remove-apps-root-t3828324. Of course, what to disable always depends on personal preferences and therefore this list should be taken with a grain of salt.
So, after arranging applications there comes the final stage of making the phone Android again. EMUI makeover. For that, we need this EMUI editor: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mixapplications.themeeditor.
But there is a bad news. It doesn’t work with EMUI 9 (yet). What now? There are two possibilities: either finding a good theme and simply installing it (there are plenty of them, only I didn’t test if they are working with EMUI 9 (some of the android likes are to be found in the Playstore under Hamzio7 or here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/mate-10/themes/pure-black-theme-emui-8-t3719904.
The other possibility is to find a phone with EMUI 8 and compile the hwt file there and transfer it to Mate 20 X. That is what I did. The system will warn you that it is an old version of the theme and it might not work well but skip that. It works just fine.
Don’t judge the solution by my design. I’m a modest guy, more practically oriented. You may have almost any design that you wish.
And of course, if you decide to experiment with this stuff yourself, you should be aware that you are the only one taking the risk. I honestly believe that you can’t, if you are not extremely innovative, irretrievably destroy anything, but even factory reset might be sometimes really annoying.
Good luck with your brand new Chinese Mate 20 X.

Great post Just a couple of questions:
1) Are your notifications working perfectly? By that, I mean without delay under both wi-fi and mobile networks, with screen on and screen off? If so, what did you do to achieve this?
2) Do you mind sharing where did you buy the device from?

Nice job! Looking even more forward to the arrival of my Mate 20 X!

@piskr
Would you mind give some steps to get google phone and Messages to work properly. When phone call comes in, my phone call screen does not come on. Messages only works sometime and sometime message does not send. Thanks.

Genoveffo said:
Great post Just a couple of questions:
1) Are your notifications working perfectly? By that, I mean without delay under both wi-fi and mobile networks, with screen on and screen off? If so, what did you do to achieve this?
2) Do you mind sharing where did you buy the device from?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Yes, notifications work flawlessly in my extent of use, both with the screen on and off. I don't use exotics like telegram or whatsapp though. It's a matter of permissions and notification settings. Be aware that each notification had to be set separately and checked under application and under notification sector under settings. And also have in mind that if you install the third party phone, it is just addition of original phone (under app/system processes), and the later must remain active and has its own permissions and notification as well. Phone app has different system structure than SMS. You can simply erase Huawei messaging and replace it with the Google one (haven't tried others).
2) You can find here both color and memory variants: https://www.ilmultistoredelzazza.eu...l_Sim_EMUI_9_Android_9/p1748191_19236868.aspx

wingzero said:
@piskr
Would you mind give some steps to get google phone and Messages to work properly. When phone call comes in, my phone call screen does not come on. Messages only works sometime and sometime message does not send. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should really carefully check and set both permissions and notifications for each application. And remember that you mustn't neglect the system phone app.

piskr said:
You should really carefully check and set both permissions and notifications for each application. And remember that you mustn't neglect the system phone app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I checked all the settings and seem to be correct unless I missed some steps.

wingzero said:
I checked all the settings and seem to be correct unless I missed some steps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK. Here are my settings.

You do know there's an EVR-L international models, right? Why not just get that instead? That's what I have.

piskr said:
OK. Here are my settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for taking the time to post the screen shots. All my the settings are the same except I don't the phone app on your last screen shot. Did you download it or it's a stock app?
---------- Post added at 04:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:11 PM ----------
MishaalRahman said:
You do know there's an EVR-L international models, right? Why not just get that instead? That's what I have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's too late. I already bought the China version. It's too much hassle try to sell it.

wingzero said:
Thanks for taking the time to post the screen shots. All my the settings are the same except I don't the phone app on your last screen shot. Did you download it or it's a stock app?
---------- Post added at 04:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:11 PM ----------
It's too late. I already bought the China version. It's too much hassle try to sell it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's right, the last one is Google phone from the link I published and it works just fine (I really recommend it, it has so many opportunities). But you have managed to get notifications neither on the home screen nor on the lock screen? Neither for messages nor for the phone? If I were you I would go from setting to setting for this two apps and inspect every item very carefully. It is possible in this early stage of EMUI9 that it has some weird glitches occurring randomly on some phones but it is not very likely. A small overlooked detail in settings could mean everything.
Otherwise, I don't regret that I bought the Chinese version. Now I've got everything that I would have with the international variant. Only I don't have working Google pay yet, but so far I haven't seen a clear statement that it really works on international Mate 20x either. To work means to be able pay with the phone not only loading a card, that's what I did too. Otherwise, I got a good price (€660 before VAT), integrated call recorder and rooting opportunity.
And regarding crap, international one has it too. I've got international Mate 10 pro and I know it. Besides Chinese one additional western, baked in (MS, Facebook, Google's and third party's).

@piskr
The phone will ring on the google phone app but the screen does not come. I will play with the settings and figure it out. Thanks for all the help.

Thank you. This helped get me to a non-Chinese specifc phone.
Attachin my ADB run.
UPDATE: Please check out AJ's great thread https://forum.xda-developers.com/mate-20-x/how-to/guide-remove-apps-adb-t3870727
I mistakenly removed one item (com.huawei.android.hwouc) I shouldn't have and I amnot getting OTAs (which I also turn off automatic ones in dev options, but if I want one, I lost it them).

Rudolpht said:
Thank you. This helped get me to a non-Chinese specifc phone.
Attachin my ADB run.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I'm not well schooled on ADB. How would you apply this? And why 2 Zips? Gracias

See beginning of the thread and other threads on ADB. Same list, mine in txt or zip, same file, not necessarily good for everyone.
Sent from my HWEVR using XDA Labs

def-g said:
As I'm not well schooled on ADB. How would you apply this? And why 2 Zips? Gracias
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's my Spreadsheet with a quick guide in it along with the adb files you'll need.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mate-20-x/how-to/guide-remove-apps-adb-t3870727
Once you get the list of packages on your AL00 just run the fastboot command to remove each one.

wingzero said:
@piskr
The phone will ring on the google phone app but the screen does not come. I will play with the settings and figure it out. Thanks for all the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wondering if you had any luck. Some people actually use a phone as a phone
Sent from my HWEVR using XDA Labs

Rudolpht said:
Wondering if you had any luck. Some people actually use a phone as a phone
Sent from my HWEVR using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got it working. I am using the stable v.25 version. What I did was after selected the google phone as default dialing app, I go back to default apps and click the stock phone and then click the google phone again. I did this by chance and luck. Hope this will solve your issue. The stock phone app is horrible. Make sure you use the stable version. Good luck.

wingzero said:
I got it working. I am using the stable v.25 version. What I did was after selected the google phone as default dialing app, I go back to default apps and click the stock phone and then click the google phone again. I did this by chance and luck. Hope this will solve your issue. The stock phone app is horrible. Make sure you use the stable version. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man.
Sent from my HWEVR using XDA Labs

Now it's 27. And so far everything work. Regarding comments on the forum we are on the privileged side. Just be sure to set notifications and permissions right.

NO MORE SLOW.

For the few who remain using these tablets (and the even fewer who bought a 2015 shield controller like me) I have the final nail in the coffin for performance. Without custom OS. Allowing you to use your very specific (criminally underused) 2015 Shield controller wirelessly. Welcome to the end of your woes (performance not guaranteed, this crap worked for me though). I still haven't checked if battery usage has improved, but it has certainly let me depend on this and use my controller again as opposed to using a CustomOS (previously used AEX 6.7, good performance, but bad video playback and lack of wifi controller support).
Required thingys:
TWRP
This awesome script (JournalingDisabler.zip) (thnx very much skynet28): https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...urnaling-in-internal-ext4-partitions.1252028/
Developer Options
Snacks? Drinks? This is gonna take some time, don't pass out halfway through lol
Boost 1: DISABLE JOURNALING.
Y'all. This is the good stuff. the nitro. This will make your tablet feel new (again, if everything goes right and I'm not some insane fluke). I only got the idea from an offhand comment from m0nt3s. I thought they were talking about one of the writing apps at first, but once I learned what it was, my brain imploded. Did a quick google search, and found skynet28's solution right away. It's a script designed to disable an ext4 logging service that eats up memory and processing power. I didn't think it would be compatible (but my chaotic neutral mind said why not), but it works:
1. Install TWRP using adb and prayer (that's what it feels like the first time around lol)
2. Download the zip (JournalingDisabler.zip) to your tablet.
3. Use the install button in TWRP, navigate to the zip, and install away.
It should show text saying journaling is disabled if all went well. The gains should be immediately noticeable on your next boot. I didn't notice any issues or side effects, but I also have the benefit of not having important/sensitive data on it, so just to play it safe, back up your data in case issues crop up later.
Boost 2: BACKGROUND PROCESSES
This one will be a touch more noticeable, especially if you multitask on this tablet, but it can definitely stop a lot of the hitching. This one will be in the bottom of the developer options. If you don't have dev options, go into the about tablet section and tap the build number until you become a dev. Setting it to 1 or 2 is decent, but setting it to none will have the biggest impact.
Boost 3: DON'T USE APP OPTIMIZATION
Seriously. Don't know who dropped the ball. But just turn it all off. It's not even a boost, it's just a negative having it on.
Boost 4: SYNCING
If anything is syncing, be it Gmail, your YouTube notifications, or a news feed, turn it off. Any time apps struggle and fight for WIFI, your experience sucks. If you aren't using it as a main (i'm using it in my car as a head unit)
Boost 5: Color Correction
Must have been the same peeps who dropped the ball on app optimization. With the gains you get above, you might not need to, but if you're trying to max it out this will do it.
That's it for me! This is what I've done to get my tablet feeling smooth again. Let me know how it goes?

I can attest that a lot of the above is what needs to be done to save the last days of this tablet. I did not now about the journal part- will have to try this. Related, I just flashed the original OTA's for the Wifi edition on my Shield LTE. By doing this I got a insane boost in battery life. The LTE (H+) does not work but I don't need it and there are other devices that have much better connectivity .

BLKMN said:
For the few who remain using these tablets (and the even fewer who bought a 2015 shield controller like me) I have the final nail in the coffin for performance. Without custom OS. Allowing you to use your very specific (criminally underused) 2015 Shield controller wirelessly. Welcome to the end of your woes (performance not guaranteed, this crap worked for me though). I still haven't checked if battery usage has improved, but it has certainly let me depend on this and use my controller again as opposed to using a CustomOS (previously used AEX 6.7, good performance, but bad video playback and lack of wifi controller support).
Required thingys:
TWRP
This awesome script (JournalingDisabler.zip) (thnx very much skynet28): https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...urnaling-in-internal-ext4-partitions.1252028/
Developer Options
Snacks? Drinks? This is gonna take some time, don't pass out halfway through lol
Boost 1: DISABLE JOURNALING.
Y'all. This is the good stuff. the nitro. This will make your tablet feel new (again, if everything goes right and I'm not some insane fluke). I only got the idea from an offhand comment from m0nt3s. I thought they were talking about one of the writing apps at first, but once I learned what it was, my brain imploded. Did a quick google search, and found skynet28's solution right away. It's a script designed to disable an ext4 logging service that eats up memory and processing power. I didn't think it would be compatible (but my chaotic neutral mind said why not), but it works:
1. Install TWRP using adb and prayer (that's what it feels like the first time around lol)
2. Download the zip (JournalingDisabler.zip) to your tablet.
3. Use the install button in TWRP, navigate to the zip, and install away.
It should show text saying journaling is disabled if all went well. The gains should be immediately noticeable on your next boot. I didn't notice any issues or side effects, but I also have the benefit of not having important/sensitive data on it, so just to play it safe, back up your data in case issues crop up later.
Boost 2: BACKGROUND PROCESSES
This one will be a touch more noticeable, especially if you multitask on this tablet, but it can definitely stop a lot of the hitching. This one will be in the bottom of the developer options. If you don't have dev options, go into the about tablet section and tap the build number until you become a dev. Setting it to 1 or 2 is decent, but setting it to none will have the biggest impact.
Boost 3: DON'T USE APP OPTIMIZATION
Seriously. Don't know who dropped the ball. But just turn it all off. It's not even a boost, it's just a negative having it on.
Boost 4: SYNCING
If anything is syncing, be it Gmail, your YouTube notifications, or a news feed, turn it off. Any time apps struggle and fight for WIFI, your experience sucks. If you aren't using it as a main (i'm using it in my car as a head unit)
Boost 5: Color Correction
Must have been the same peeps who dropped the ball on app optimization. With the gains you get above, you might not need to, but if you're trying to max it out this will do it.
That's it for me! This is what I've done to get my tablet feeling smooth again. Let me know how it goes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This works! Every bit of OP is legit.
I used current TWRP as of today, twrp-3.6.1_9-0-shieldtablet.img, from https://twrp.me/nvidia/nvidiahshieldtablet.html using fastboot install method on a fully updated Android 7 Nvidia Shield Tablet model p1761w.
Thanks, much respect!

It is important that those who still do not install TWRP should know that to enter fastboot, they must use the official nvidia drivers "SHIELD_Family_WHQL_USB_driver_201801"
This method helped me to lighten but it becomes impossible to install applications, the google services together with those of nvidia cause the ram to collapse and the system cannot manage correctly.
I strongly recommend you to change to a custom rom, you will finally feel the fluidity of the system
At this moment I use lineage 15.1 (android 8.1) + google services minimum (pico)
No chrome app - no Gmail app + facebook and instagram full app. and the system remains light.

nunitofiman said:
It is important that those who still do not install TWRP should know that to enter fastboot, they must use the official nvidia drivers "SHIELD_Family_WHQL_USB_driver_201801"
This method helped me to lighten but it becomes impossible to install applications, the google services together with those of nvidia cause the ram to collapse and the system cannot manage correctly.
I strongly recommend you to change to a custom rom, you will finally feel the fluidity of the system
At this moment I use lineage 15.1 (android 8.1) + google services minimum (pico)
No chrome app - no Gmail app + facebook and instagram full app. and the system remains light.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really wish a developer(s) would take one more look at this device. If there was way to bump up the android version but retain the NVIDIA features it would breath a few more years into these . These tablets are still pretty good for mid range emulation and now that everything has changed with cloud gaming, they are not as irrelevant as it would seem . I've been having pretty good performance on my LTE 32GB that I flashed the original "WiFi edition " stock ROM on. I get great battery life now and use the tablet almost daily for gaming and light use. The sound is also still pretty impressive and I like the stylus functionality as I can't really afford a Samsung device.

What is "journaling"? Is it the same as the logging by logcat? You can set the buffer size to 0K or 64K (setting it to 0 still logs at 64K).