Sh7218u

[buttermesilly]

The Breathe illumination is shown in my SH-01Bの光 video on Youtube. It was activated by closing the phone. Could someone please show the full number of SH7218u illumination settings? It wouldn't take long to make. How many colours too?

The breathe illumination is on the sh7218u I think its patter# 7 or 6. The difference is that when you close the sh7218u, it will do the illumination only twice, basically only glowing twice not as long on you video.

[ahhdillon]

The Breathe illumination is shown in my SH-01Bの光 video on Youtube. It was activated by closing the phone. Could someone please show the full number of SH7218u illumination settings? It wouldn't take long to make. How many colours too?

Hey Martin, check out this vid on the SH7218U, 7 patterns in total and the settings for it are native in the standard android settings menu.

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjQ4ODI1ODc2.html

^ anyway, check out the vid to see all of the patterns and colours in action, lights can be set up to activate when calling, SMS received, open/close, though the colors are shown in a way that it's hard to differentiate because of the pattern choice being demonstrated.. anyway, there are a few other options, as well as 3 different keyboard illumination settings (no colors, just light pattern effects). Also, I honestly think Sharp has abandoned any thoughts of updating these devices, sadly. 2.3 has alot of core differences that make things smoother and most likely easier on battery so it would be really neat to have it. The custom ROM currently being developed seems to have the 007SH framework for it's status bar and a few other things I am thinking are taken from the 007SH UI like blue highlights instead of standard orange, I am personally a fan of Sharps Tapflow UI, imo it makes things very clean looking on even things like the settings menu (all judging from the 003SH I had)

It should be out in the middle or close to the end of this month.

[martindesu]

Thanks ahhdillon for the information just what I was after!

This phone [SH7218T] has 2.3 but seems to be CDMA only, though it has a 800Mhz processor...

I would be interested in a custom ROM being uploaded, with detailed instructions for fellow users. I would happily host the ROM, though there are many file sharing sites now.

I am considering picking one of these up as I love the design, and the iPhone and similar shapes are very boring to me!

[buttermesilly]

Thanks ahhdillon for the information just what I was after!

This phone [SH7218T] has 2.3 but seems to be CDMA only, though it has a 800Mhz processor...

I would be interested in a custom ROM being uploaded, with detailed instructions for fellow users. I would happily host the ROM, though there are many file sharing sites now.

I am considering picking one of these up as I love the design, and the iPhone and similar shapes are very boring to me!

Great I've only had the phone for a month and they come out with a better specd phone. It looks exactly like the sh7218u though just with android 2.3, a better processor.

Although I've never really had any issues with the battery as I don't use my phone often, I don't even have a data plan. I wonder when this phone will come out?

*Just a tip, if you're battery is low, the phone will not allow you to open the camera app at all.

It says CDMA 800MHz would that be compatible to rogers?

[ahhdillon]

No prob Martin, the custom ROM should be out any day now. It has a big 60% next to it so very soon it will be available and the best Google Translate can tell me is that it will come out around the Chinese Spring Festival. hwfjunkman and I are watching its progress carefully so when it's out I'll shout it out over here as well as get together a (finally) English guide on how to mod this phone up. I'm completely understanding to your bore with iPhone and it's many slab designs followers, it's just plain boring to me as well and I've always been in love with the SH-01B design ever since it came out in like 2009. Really cool to hear that people are still using it, I'm sure an Android revision would have done amazing in Japan.

As for the SH7218T, woooowwww that's awesome. Too bad I NEED the GSM version since I'm living in the states but maybe this means I and others can hold on hope to 2.3 actually being ported over from the "T"s to the "U"s, since overclocking the processor would bring it up to par and give it better requirements since both are essentially the same phone except for one difference.. Haha, but I guess I'm just trying to tell myself it's okay since a better spec-ed phone is out of my grasp.

Oh, and I completely forgot, but overclocking the SH7218U dsn't seem too difficult as the custom ROM coming out will have the processor overclocked at 900Mhz anyway. Though, I am def getting setCPU and letting it stay at 700Mhz most of the time.

@buttermesilly yeah, battery has been pretty good for me as well. For power users this thing will die in a matter of like 2-3 hours but if used sparingly (like a keitai) it can last a while. Even browsing for a few minutes on a site or two dsn't really do much. Though, I keep data off until needed and have setcpu to slow my processor to 122Mhz when the screen is off.

As for the camera problem, yeah.. It's something that is native to almost all Sharp phones, android or feature. Very annoying but luckily it can be bypassed by another camera app if the need arises.

[patrixl]

It says CDMA 800MHz would that be compatible to rogers?

No, Rogers is GSM and W-CDMA (not to be confused with actual CDMA), both running at 850 MHz and/or 1900MHz (depending on the region).

[buttermesilly]

No, Rogers is GSM and W-CDMA (not to be confused with actual CDMA), both running at 850 MHz and/or 1900MHz (depending on the region).

Thanks for the clarification, kinda sucks a bit. All I need to do is look at my sh7218u and see it glowing to remind me that its still a bad *** phone.

[buttermesilly]

Thanks ahhdillon for the information just what I was after!


I am considering picking one of these up as I love the design, and the iPhone and similar shapes are very boring to me!

+1 on the iPhone or any kind of Android handset in Canada that's all touch screen. I could walk into a store here and not be able to identify any android handset. They all look the same to me.

It's funny how people regard the iPhone as one of the best designed phones here while I find that Japanese phones ones that are even old blow it out of the water.

@ahdillon

Cool that youd want to work on a guide to modding this phone. I'll post any other bugs/tricks that I find on the phone here.

[ahhdillon]

Thanks for the clarification, kinda sucks a bit. All I need to do is look at my sh7218u and see it glowing to remind me that its still a bad *** phone.

I honestly wouldn't worry about it my friend, even though it does have a better processor it's not a huge upgrade from the one in our SH7218Us. We have Qualcomm MSM7227 and the SH7218T has a MSM7627. So, not very different at all; same design, same camera, same cool lights. Just slightly faster processor. From a few frequents of Chinese forums, it seems that many SH7218U owners are already excited and talking about the probability of porting the new 2.3 to our phones. Whether that happens or not? I'de say chances are pretty high actually.

I also have to thank you for tinkering with fastboot and recovery images and posting results and instructions, very crucial info that saved me before.

[buttermesilly]

@ahdillon

No problem about the fastboot and recover images. I had to post it, I didn't want anybody to go through what I did which is basically bricking my phone after 2 days of use. It's amazing where desperation can get you hahahaha

I'm planning to do a small review for the phone since user information about the phone is generally scattered around the forum.

*Just noticed this today, if you set your camera to burst mode, the resolution of the pictures go to 640x480 but when you switch back to normal shooting mode it will keep the 640x480 resolution setting. So don't forget to switch back to 8 mp.

*Also figured out chase focus mode on the official camera app. To anybody who hasn't figured out how to use it. Aim the focus box on the subject that you want to be in focus, once the subject is in place press the Volume up button. The box will turn yellow and if you move the camera around the yellow box will chase that subject around(don't move the camera too fast it will drift off the subject), once you have achieved your composition, press the shutter all the way through to take the picture.

[ahhdillon]

Alright everyone, I'm in the process of creating a detailed guide on everything discussed about this phone regarding modifications and basically anything that gives a better experience. It will take me a few days but once posted I would like input for any possible thing I missed (more or less referencing guides on using adb/fastboot).

[njr]

I seem to have trouble getting into the fastboot menu. I hold down 2 and the power button (when off), but the phone just switches on normally. If I do this with the USB cable plugged in, it vibrates once then doesn't do anything after. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for any help.

[buttermesilly]

I seem to have trouble getting into the fastboot menu. I hold down 2 and the power button (when off), but the phone just switches on normally. If I do this with the USB cable plugged in, it vibrates once then doesn't do anything after. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for any help.

If you look at my posts a few pages back that should help you out a bit.

If it vibrates once then you did it right. The phone does not display anything when it is in fastboot mode.

[martindesu]

No prob Martin, the custom ROM should be out any day now. It has a big 60% next to it so very soon it will be available and the best Google Translate can tell me is that it will come out around the Chinese Spring Festival. hwfjunkman and I are watching its progress carefully so when it's out I'll shout it out over here as well as get together a (finally) English guide on how to mod this phone up. I'm completely understanding to your bore with iPhone and it's many slab designs followers, it's just plain boring to me as well and I've always been in love with the SH-01B design ever since it came out in like 2009. Really cool to hear that people are still using it, I'm sure an Android revision would have done amazing in Japan.

As for the SH7218T, woooowwww that's awesome. Too bad I NEED the GSM version since I'm living in the states but maybe this means I and others can hold on hope to 2.3 actually being ported over from the "T"s to the "U"s, since overclocking the processor would bring it up to par and give it better requirements since both are essentially the same phone except for one difference.. Haha, but I guess I'm just trying to tell myself it's okay since a better spec-ed phone is out of my grasp.

Oh, and I completely forgot, but overclocking the SH7218U dsn't seem too difficult as the custom ROM coming out will have the processor overclocked at 900Mhz anyway. Though, I am def getting setCPU and letting it stay at 700Mhz most of the time.

@buttermesilly yeah, battery has been pretty good for me as well. For power users this thing will die in a matter of like 2-3 hours but if used sparingly (like a keitai) it can last a while. Even browsing for a few minutes on a site or two dsn't really do much. Though, I keep data off until needed and have setcpu to slow my processor to 122Mhz when the screen is off.

As for the camera problem, yeah.. It's something that is native to almost all Sharp phones, android or feature. Very annoying but luckily it can be bypassed by another camera app if the need arises.

Well, android is popular in japan now, and I see many using the SH-01B, myself included. A slightly modified version with a decent battery and android might sell well here. Who knows

One thing that is surprising, is that this T model proves some faith by Sharp in this line of phones. Hopefully a good future sign. Let's hope someone makes a very powerful battery and a rooted custom 2.3

Alright everyone, I'm in the process of creating a detailed guide on everything discussed about this phone regarding modifications and basically anything that gives a better experience. It will take me a few days but once posted I would like input for any possible thing I missed (more or less referencing guides on using adb/fastboot).

Sounds good. When it's done, drop me a PM and I'll make it a sticky-thread.

[hwfjunkman]

Does anyone posting here speak and write chinese? It appears from Ms. Tse's forum posts that she has an overclocked kernel functioning on our device. All that would be required for overclocking to work is a modified and recompiled kernel. If she has this working, then all one would need to do is reflash the boot partition of the device with the updated kernel. Then SetCPU or any other similar app would allow a rooted user to change the clock speed.

If someone who is able to post on her forum and ask for the kernel would be willing to do so, we might be able to at least test the overclocking. It seems from her posts that her custom ROM is really a heavily modified version of the stock ROM - debloated of uneeded software, Google apps installed, and some other third-party apps added with a few other superficial tweaks.

There is no indication from what has been posted that she is compiling a custom build from the Android source. I have also not found anything that indicates that she or anyone responding to her post (in all 41 pages of responses) is trying to compile a version of Gingerbread for the device. This would be a large undertaking as it would require rewriting or porting over all of the drivers for the rather unique form-factor of the device.

In short, I suspect that her custom ROM is a rooted, modified, and overclocked version of the stock ROM. It will be nice to have a complete ROM like this as it removes the need to root yourself, debloat the device, and make all of the desired tweaks. All you would need to do is boot into fastboot mode, flash clockworkmod to the recovery partition, boot into recovery and then install the entire ROM from there. A fairly easy process once you have fastboot working.

I have my device working as I like it, but would love to have it overclocked. If anyone is willing to post and ask, she might be willing to release just the custom boot partition with modified overclock kernel, or even just a clockworkmod recovery installation file that flashes the custom kernel.