[Galaxy S Advance I9070 General] CallMeVentus:
Hello there, to whoever will read this thread.

I am CallMeVentus (you call just call me Ventus :D) and I'm here to provide a newbie guide for this device :)

First off:

What is Android? Is it a coffee maker? :confused:

No, silly! Android is an Operating System (OS) optimised for mobile phones, just like iOS (iPhone), Symbian (Nokia) and Windows Phone (Microsoft). It is based off the Linux OS, from computers.

However, what's different from it is that it's one of the most customisable OSes. You can find more info here.

I've heard that Android devices can be rooted. What is the "root" you speak of? :confused:

Alright, newbie. Here's a description taken from Wikipedia:

"Android rooting is the process of allowing users of smartphones, tablets, and other devices running the Android mobile operating system to attain privileged control (known as "root access") within Android's subsystem. Rooting is often performed with the goal of overcoming limitations that carriers and hardware manufacturers put on some devices, resulting in the ability to alter or replace system applications and settings, run specialized apps that require administrator-level permissions, or perform other operations that are otherwise inaccessible to a normal Android user.

Rooting is analogous to jailbreaking devices running the Apple iOS operating system

. On Android, rooting can also facilitate the complete removal and replacement of the device's operating system, usually with a more recent release of its current operating system."

More info can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooting_(Android_OS)

Hmm....that seems decent. But what I'm wanting to know is the device specifications. Can you help me on that?

Sure thing. The Galaxy S Advance has:

- A 1Ghz dual-core NovaThor U8500 processor (which is a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9)

- A Mali-400MP graphics processor (the single-cored version unfortunately :()

- 768MB of RAM (though the Samsung Task Manager shows it as 555MB)

- 2GB ROM (a.k.a system ROM)

- 8/16GB storage (internal memory)

- Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP and HS

- HSPA connection of up to 14.4Mbps download and 5.76Mbps upload

- Android v2.3.6 (update to Jelly Bean coming on January)

- 5MP back camera (records videos at 720p@30fps), 1.3MP front-facing camera

- Supports Adobe Flash (HELL YES)

- Comes with the Touchwiz v4 interface (well....let's just say that the launcher sucks)

- 4-inch SUPER AMOLED touchscreen (Just the nice size and good screen)

- 1500mAh Lithium-Ion battery (the battery is kind of a drawback lol)

- NFC support (I9070P only)

Oh yes, by the way.....does this phone have a recovery or a fastboot?

Yes, we do. DOWNLOAD MOOOOOOOOOODE and RECOVERY MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODE

Download Mode is usually the flashing method that can save a phone's life from bricks. It's basically the one that allows your phone to correct its mistakes that YOU made to it. To access it:

- Turn the phone off (or remove its battery) and don't place it on a charger (yet).

- Hold the Power + Home + Volume DOWN button together to get into a warning screen

- Don't bother reading that crap, just press the Up button to continue

- TADA DOWNLOAD MOOOOOOOOOOOOODE

Recovery Mode is where you fix all your Android-level errors, or flash a new custom ROM! There's no way of getting to it once your phone is bricked. To access it:

- Turn the phone off (or remove its battery) and don't place it on a charger (yet).

- Hold the Power + Home + Volume UP button

- TADA RECOVERY MOOOOOOOOOOOODE

- For stock recovery/ClockworkMod Recovery users, use the volume buttons to navigate and press the Home button to select.

- For TWRP, use the touchscreen to do everything.

Oh no, I installed something wrong on my phone and now it refuses to boot. What should I do? :(

Don't worry, it depends on what type of "refusing to boot" stage that you're stuck in.

Boot animation shown (not repeating entire sequence), but been less than 5-7 minutes: Usually, when you install a new ROM, the Dalvik-cache, along with the normal cache, will be wiped. Upon boot, Android will rebuild the Dalvik-cache, which causes boot time to be significantly longer. This is most apparent in slow phones, but we have a decent phone so rebuilding the Dalvik-cache shouldn't take too long.

Boot animation repeating entire sequence: There may be something wrong with the system libs and you should recheck if it's suitable for your phone. Otherwise, try a factory reset with a system wipe before installing the ROM.

Stuck at splash screen (Samsung Galaxy S Advance GT-I9070 or Gt-I9070P): This indicates a soft brick, which may be due to a bad kernel, or an incompatible one. This requires an Odin flash using the button combo to get to Downlod Mode.

Blank screen when turning on/Phone not turning on: Either it's a hard brick (which requires a USB Jig to fix), or your phone just simply ran outta juice.

Yeah.....that's about it.

You can go ahead and ask more questions here. I'll answer them and they might even be reflected in the OP ;)