Thankyou, for so clearly explaining the situation for me. It has certainly saved an unnescessary argument with the Australian carrier.
I had been clinging to a falsehood for a while since buying the watch, and missinterpreting the sim status (4G voice, 4G data) as implying VoLTE was fine.
It appears that my initial research was also flawed as I had vowed not to be caught out by the missing capacities of watches and their implimentation on local networks. Every one of my previous watches have fallen foul of the planned progressive updates to local networks. My longest surviving (old Neptune Pine), almost saw out the network but Android 4.* couldn’t.
Android 11 has a lot more life in it, even with the restrictions of the current manufacturer’s variations. Not being able to use it for phone calls is wrenching but at least everything else works.
Thanks again, and thanks for prompting the generation of a list of providers (worldwide) that may accommodate VoLTE on 4G for those that have access. (No pirates).
It’s not the hardware.
This watch has been working fine on VoLTE in places where cellular carriers have compatible settings.
It’s basically the fact that different settings are required for voice calls over LTE in many different countries.
LTE data is not a problem it seems.
Just VoLTE
I have been looking through a number of forums associated with other phones out of china. Many are also experiencing issues with 4G VoLTE in updates from the manufacturer’s versions of A10 to A 11 to A12. The need for the manufacturer to accommodate the settings of the carriers for their VoLTE settings in their firmware was a hot topic of discussion, as the manufacturers appear to identify the hardware and software versions via something like the IMEI or MBN (not sure what the last one stands for).
So if the firmware side of the manufacturer hasn’t been negotiated to a carrier like Telstra’s (au) standards it won’t work. The same may not be true for Telstra subsuduaries like Boost, as some reported their phone would work on one and not the other. Optus and Vodaphone appeared to work on some of these phones where Telstra wouldn’t too.
I can’t check this with my wife’s sim (TPG / Vodaphone) as there is a size difference for some reason. Possibly someone else is on one of the other carriers and could lets us know if their watch works, or if their carrier can identify their watch and suggests they need to update to remain connected?
On another tack, however, I recall, some time ago, that my watch was being miss identified as a P***L, so I had a look at some of these forums where folk were successfully enabling VoLTE by using a dialer code that gave access to a series of settings in the firmware that wasn’t enabled by the manufacturer in their user interface but was present underneath. One of these was the ability to toggle between “carrier check - enabled or disabled”. On the disabled toggle their missing VoLTE worked! Apparently this then allowed them to also enable ViLTE (voice over WiFi).
I haven’t tried the dialer code as yet, for fear of messing something up that I have little knowledge of how to repair. I was wondering if anyone knew of any of these hidden settings that may be of use in the search for a solution to the impending 3G closure?
If not, Telstra is unlikley to release a firmware update for us, or even a software workaround for their hardware identifier lists.
Is it in the same league, coding wise, as the FAW version of android that folk flash for other watches? That would certtainly be more than a hobby to undertake as a solution.
If anything truly concrete turns up on the other forums I will mention it here. I know my research is more like wishful thinking though as I don’t truly understand the way the settings interact.
Hi Pablo,
I did not upgrade to fix a problem; some time after I bought my watch I was offered
firmware V1.6 OTA. Assuming it would be beneficial and not yet aware of this forum, I installed it, with aforementioned result…
This is interesting,
So, you say it was “offered” does that mean that you got a notification on your watch that an update was available to download and install? @Riet02 did you get a notification asking if you want to update?
From the watch…?
Cheers
Pablo11
I did respond to your question right after you asked it.
There is no other firmware for the Android 11 watches.
When you say shelf life, I’m not sure what you mean…
There will not be any more firmware updates if that’s what you mean?
The battery life is probably not much better on the Android 11 watch if you are using our firmware on the LEM 15.
All I can say is that your LEM 15 is getting quite old now, and it might be an idea to look for something else when or if it fails.
Currently there is no reason why you should buy another device in my opinion.
@pablo11 thank you firstly for your reply. You are always very thorough. By the A11 shelf life, I mean, apps will always be supported on Android 11 for a bit longer than on Android 10. Other than that, your post leaves much to contemplate. Although, with no new FAW watches on the horizon since the Z40, one has to wonder what the future of FAW really is outside of this industrious forum?
I have also made several posts about the issues with the future of Android watches here on the forum.
A simple search in the forum will undoubtedly bring up the posts I have made.
I really don’t want to keep repeating myself.
@pablo11 my apologies if I have been repetetive in asking a questions that others asked. If it helps to have context, I am blind and utilize screen-reading technology. When we individuals with visual disabilities are compelled to work with our ears to process content, scrolling and searching are not as easy as scanning the page with one’s eyes. For this reason, I kindly ask for grace from you and from others, now that you are aware of my background. Thank you.
Trust me - if we could afford to develop the FAW firmware for Android 11 Unisoc models like the Z40 - we would. It’s not just a financial problem, it’s the amount of time required to do the work.
It’s a catch 22. If I do it I can save the money, but I just do not have the time in my life to do it.
I have to worry about my real job and my family and my health.
There is someone who can help, but I can’t afford to pay him. We can barely keep this site alive… The site is paid for by the annoying ads - that only just covers our hosting fees etc.
Well, did you set your screen as " Always On"? in order to use " Hey Google" at any moment while wearing it, (by the way, the " hey google" just never worked while screen is Off even after “using hey google when screen is locked” is Enabled), that is why I have to set my screen to " Aways On" , "25% brightness, “this is one of the reasons why battery is being using too quicky, interstingly with the exact same settings on Kospet Optimus 2 watch, this is Not a problem, the Kospet can still last a whole day even with screen set to " Always on to 25% brightness”, it consumes about 13% battery every hour,
Why do you think there is such a obvious difference in terms of battery life between these 2 watches, is it because of the different CPUs , RAM difference?, or other differences in HARDWARE? is it possible to change hardware like battery to get a whole day battery life so that I can use Google Assisant just like using Google assistant on Kospet Optimus 2 without worrying about battery drain?
How to get a long battery life with my Lemfo 16 just like Kospet Optimus 2 ?