[One (M7) General] tobin_o:
Well, OK, time for an update to my original story:

So I got the phone back from HTC:

- Camera replaced, purple haze gone. Yay!

- eMMC (entire mainboard) fixed at a cost of approx. USD$213; oh well, my fault.

- Surprise - back casing replaced for free, without prompt from my side. Reason given was "Beats logo print quality poor" (ironically, the Beats logo on the new casing is wiping off even faster than before)

Anyway, so I had the phone back in my hands, and was initially pretty happy. Signal reception seemed a bit... off... but I figured it was maybe down to being in poor reception spot in China, or needing a factory reset, or even that I should get a new SIM card after more than 2 years.

Less than a day later, I realized there was something seriously wrong. 3G was seriously unstable in most places where it used to be strong, and even phone calls would drop out abruptly. Locking the phone down to 2G seemed to help a lot, but maybe not quite perfect, either. Regardless, staying on 2G is no good. Here's the unfortunate part: I was so determined to believe within the first evening that even *if* anything was wrong, that it couldn't possibly be the phone. By the time I realized it was the phone, I had already unlocked it, in order to root it. Why? Because I'm in China, and since the Tiananmen Square anniversary, anything related to Google is totally blocked, including Google Play, Mail, Contacts, Mail, Calendar, Translate, etc. which means SSH or VPN is a must, which means unlocking->rooting.

So I get it back to HTC in HK, and explain very kindly that while I appreciate the camera being fixed, that I think they've given me a borked 3G radio. I explain that it's unlocked, only because of the situation in China, and they're very understanding about this, as apparently they've heard this from many other customers, too.

I get the phone back later, and same issue. They state that they just replaced the "upper board" which apparently handles the radio. Worst thing is that they don't even know if they've fixed it or not, because I realize the 3G radio problem in HK is far less severe, and therefore far less obvious, although definitely still apparent throughout a day of usage. Even for myself, I didn't realize the problem was still there until after the service center was closed. This leads me to believe that it might be the antenna embedded within the back casing (which they replaced in the original repair because of the bloody Beats logo... which I didn't even ask for...), because of the far better 3G coverage in HK compared to anywhere in mainland China.

I get back in touch with HTC HK, and explain the situation. They try to be understanding, but they're unsure about what to do about this. I tell them I think it's the back casing. They seem open to that idea, but then go on to explain to me that their lenience with the unlocked status of the phone only extends to repairs that don't involve mainboard replacement. If it were to come down to that, they'd want to charge me another ~USD$213.

It gets better: I had been using an old Sony Xperia Play during the time that my HTC was out of my hands, and was using a SIM card holder in it. I stupidly placed the empty holder back into its SIM slot during the most recent HTC pickup, and when I tried to remove the SIM holder from the Sony later, it had snagged on something... probably one of the electronic contacts for the SIM card. Long story short, I got the holder out, but the SIM slot in the Xperia is busted. Yay...

Faced with my HTC One being gone again for a while, and no certainty at all about whether it would come back to me any better than before, and no longer having a backup phone, I bought a OnePlus One. Despite all the crap you read about delays with their invite system and shipping, etc... if you buy it domestically, it's delivered to your hands in less than 24hrs from clicking "Buy" on their website. Nice. Although OPO has a couple of issues, too, but that's for another post.

As for HTC... I hope they might try replacing the back casing this time (at no expense to me) and that this might resolve the situation. As troublesome as this whole service situation has been since the purple haze camera started it, I still love the phone, and think it's definitely the best phone I've ever owned, and one of the best phones ever made. Even with the improvements made, the M8 doesn't beat it, either. I'm very anxious to see what HTC does with the M9...