Hi,

I'm looking at purchasing an LG G4 smartphone in the future, to replace my aging Samsung Galaxy S4. I've found various different phones on online sites, they are all the H815 model, but there are slight differences as follows:

One is a G4 H815.ANLDLD and the other is a H815.AGBRLD. the first one is about £60 cheaper than the other one.

Are there any differences between the slight variations? More to the point, will they both work on UK networks and are they both likely to get software updates, such as voice over lte?

Thanks for your help!

ANLD is Netherlands firmware, AGBR is UK firmware. Both will receive software updates, both will work on UK networks.
AEEE is EE firmware, the most likely to receive 4G calling from EE and the only to support WiFi calling on EE.

Saying that, there has been no suggestion from any official source that the LG G4 will receive 4G calling from EE.
Please do not buy this phone and then moan in a couple of months time when it turns out it won't support EE 4G calling.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I didn't know about the different regions, which probably explains why the UK one is more expensive! However, which would be the best one to buy, the UK or the Netherlands?
I assume that, if EE get the VOLTE to unlocked devices, they will both get the update? Not too fussed with VoWiFi because my signal at home is strong.

Further, can you buy the EE firmware phone on PAYG outright or do you have to get a lengthy contract?

I know that VoLTE support is not certain but it'll have a better chance than the 3 year old S4!

You'll just force 4G on it anyway. Does it really matter.

Nope, no forcing of 4g will be necessary since it has lte/wcdma mode, so I can use that and get both 3g and 4g.

There will be very little if any difference between firmware variants, however there may be a small difference in software update times.
There may be differences with warranty support between the models though.

No point assuming all unlocked G4s would receive a VoLTE update as there's no evidence to support that theory. The only reason I mentioned VoWifi is that so far devices have either VoWiFi or VoWifi+VoLTE. No EE device has VoLTE only yet.

You can't buy a G4 directly from EE on PAYG, only with a contract.

Buy this:

http://shop.ee.co.uk/mobile-phones/p...0-payg/details

4G Calling, Wifi Calling, TunIn Windows App, £70 new.

Edit: As a special treat, and to prevent you asking about it, I even Googled something for you:

http://nokiaviews.com/how-to-stay-on...ows-phone.html

See - you can even just select 3G and 4G with it.

It's made for you. Clearly. Go get 'em.

Only one with a chance to get VoLTE would be EE firmware at this point.

Have either LG or EE hinted at it getting VoLTE though?

Hi, thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately I dont want a Windows Phone as I have a friend who has a windows phone and doesn't like it, plus I have quite a lot of apps and widgets, many of which won't be available on windows phone.

How comes they can get VoLTE to cheap £70 WP phones yet cannot provide it to last year's flagships?

That phone seems to have modes to force 3g, and force 4g separately, but not keeping 3g and 4g whilst banishing 2g?

I'm not getting a lengthy 24 month contract though, I prefer to buy phones outright and keep with the SIM Only.

Hopefully one day in the future they will bring VoLTE to non EE devices, and this LG phone is only a year old?

Unless someone gives you a current flagship phone, there doesn't seem to be a device out there that (a) meets your requirements now (b) is likely to meet your requirements next week (c) you have the will to do anything other than talk about, and (d) you can afford.

On that basis, why don't you do what every other person in civilisation does in the same circumstances - accept it, get on with what you've got, and stop moaning and boring everyone else about it?

Well then you're stuck between a rock and a crazy place. There's probably no solution that fits you exactly at this exact moment of time. Just as there is never a solution that fits anyone exactly. We can't fix it, you don't want to compromise so we're a bit stuck aren't we.

Have you thought about getting a Sony Xperia Z5 and flashing EE firmware onto it? It supports VoLTE and through one of the service menus (*#*#7378423#*#*) you can force 3G/4G only. Good phone and VoLTE works well on it. About £350 on ebay, probably less for the compact model.

Hi,
Thanks for the recommendation! No, I hadn't thought about the Sony Xperia Z5 before.
I don't know how I'd flash the firmware (I haven't done anything like this before yet).
The 3G/4G only mode would be excellent as that is a key requirement for my next phone.
If it does VoLTE once the EE firmware is loaded onto it, that'd be excellent as I'd only ever see 3G2100, 4G1800/2600 and 4G800 for better rural coverage.
Btw, how is the Z5 in terms of picking up a signal, has it got a reasonably good antenna on it? I know that the Galaxy S4 is said to have a poor antenna (quite possibly one of the reasons why my S4 isn't giving great coverage in some areas) so don't want to run into those issues again. Also, does it support a microsd card?

Hi,
I doubt that these G4s that I am looking at now, would have much (if any) warranty on them, since they are from eBay sellers (and the phone is a year old). Any warranty would likely be for the original buyer, correct?

So, just to confirm, both models will work fine in the UK on all frequency bands (800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2600) without any incompatibilities? Also, will everything be in English language or will there be some hiccups in some of the settings? Reason why I'm asking is that if I get the cheaper, Netherlands firmware G4, I don't want to discover (in some of the settings etc) that I should have spent the extra to get the UK firmware G4.

Thanks for clarifying about the VoLTE and VoWifi. I suppose I'd have to risk it and take a chance and hope that VoLTE/VoWiFi is released - or alternatively, I could wait another year and then pick up a G4 on eBay that has EE firmware (end of people's contracts). But then a 2 year old phone wouldn't be worth buying.

Having said that, although VoLTE would be nice, it'd be worth upgrading now just for the extra power/storage and the LTE/WCDMA mode... Decisions, decisions!

Flashing is pretty simple - can't remember the utility I used but it and the firmwares are easily available - a bit of googling will find it.

Signal - good, at least as good as my previous iPhone 6 and SE
SD card - yes

Okay, thanks for the info. Its just that I've never had to flash software before and I wouldn't want to brick my phone in the process!

Good, so it should pick up a better signal than the Galaxy S4! The S4 hasn't been the best in terms of signal....
It doesn't have a removable battery though does it? (Not the end of the world though!)

Also, as regards to an update - the Netherlands ROM LG G4 has now sold, but the UK one is still there.

Bit risky going for a used G4 with no warranty as they regularly go into boot loop leaving them doorstops unless you send them off to LG to fix them.

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-...-a-fix-1313769

Thanks for the info, I was unaware of the bootloop issue....

If I did get a G4, how likely would it be for it to go into this so-called "bootloop" and how much would it cost to get repaired?
I take it that LG G5's don't have the bootloop?

Reason why I wanted to get a G4 instead of the G5 is because the G5 is far too expensive and also doesn't have the room to put a bigger battery in (unless you purchase the camera add-on and permanently keep it connected).

Mine bootlooped.

It was in warranty, so they did accept it as their responsibility, but it took them 8 weeks and 6 phone calls before it came back.

Based on what I've read in your posts on this forum, I'm not sure you'd come out of it in one piece.

They all seem to suffer from it at some point.I think they replace the motherboard so doubt it would be cost effective to have it repaired out of your own pocket.
The G5 is ok no problems but obviously more expensive.

That's not good - why did LG create a flagship device that will eventually fail, due to bootloop issues?

Not getting a G5 at the moment as it's too expensive.

G4s are available on eBay for about £200, and the G4 does support 4G Calling (though the networks don't yet) so I could buy it as an upgrade over my Galaxy S4, then if it did get any bootloop errors, there would hopefully be something available that would meet all of my requirements. Having said that, the G4 meets almost all of my requirements, and if EE/LG implemented native VoLTE to unlocked handsets, then it would meet all of my requirements (as I'd be able to swap out the battery for a bigger one if required).

I put the EE firmware on my LG G4 and edited a file and got WiFi calling. I did however sometime later also suffer from the bootloop issue. It depends as later serials I understood not to be vulnerable.

Mine was. Thankfully I bought it from Amazon who were excellent. Full refund at 9 months old so no mucking about. Went and bought a Oneplus 3 with the refund.

Avoid g4's that originally came on three. Because although unlocked I got one and the modem settings *#546368#*815# didn't work. Well the menu came up but none of the band locking worked

Delete.