[Huawei MediaPad, T-Mobile SpringBoard] Jeroen_NL:
How I managed to upgrade 7D-501L European 4G model of Mediapad X1 7.0 to kitkat

This is how I managed to upgrade 7D-501L European 4G model of Mediapad X1 7.0 to kitkat

(this is the X1 model sold by Conrad)

WARNING: This is not for 7D-501U / 7D-503L but only for 7D-501L

Step 1: download HiSuite to your PC

http://www.huawei.com/minisite/HiSuite_en/

and install it on your PC. Connect your PC to your X1 with the USB cable.

When asked by X1 allow USB debug mode.

Step 2: use HiSuite to make a backup of your apps and data

(warning: Note that data from some apps are not included in the backup so you need to back up these other data from these apps to a SD card, also your google account is not back-upped by HiSuite, so you need to synchronize with google servers and set the google account up again after the kitkat upgrade and restore of backup and then re-synchronize)

Step 3: Download the latest kitkat ROM for European 7D-501L model from this German link:

http://huaweidevices.de/mediapad-x1-7?show=downloads

At the time of writing the most recent version is "Software update version B102". Don't worry about not speaking German, the update has a very large amount of languages, including English.

Step 4: Take an empty SD card of at least 2 GB and at most 32 GB. Make sure it is formatted as FAT or FAT32. (note that NTFS and ExFAT formats will not work!)

(On your PC) create a new folder on the empty and correctly formatted SD card named: dload

Step 5 Go to the downloaded zipfile with the kitkat ROM, open it, and locate the file named "update.app" and extract that file.

(in the HUAWEI_MediaPad X1_SDCard_Upgrade_B102.zip it is in the folder /HUAWEI_MediaPad X1_SDCard Upgrade_B102/ but this may be different in versions >B102) The size of the B102 version of the update.app file is 1,515,820 bytes.

Step 6 Copy the extracted update.app file to the dload folder on your SD card.

So you now have an SD card with just one folder named dload and in that folder one file named update.app and nothing else.

Step 7 Make sure your X1 has enough power to complete the update. To be sure, connect it to the power adapter.

Insert the SD card in your X1 and reboot.

Wait and be patient while android runs its update app and outputs all kinds of comments on what it is doing to your screen.

Just leave the X1 untouched during this update process until it is ready and shows a big OK on the screen.

At that point it will ask you in small font to remove the SD card and reboot.

IMPORTANT: If you want to use the SAME SD card in the X1 for extra storage, make sure to delete the update.app file before reinserting the SD card in your X1.

After reboot, in the welcome screen scroll to select the preferred language BEFORE you press start, and follow the instructions that follow to re-setup your X1.

Go to Settings, About Phone to check your Android version number and Build number.

After your account etc. has been re-set up you can restore the backup of your apps and data using HiSuite (and next you can re-synchronize with google servers if you use them)

If you don't like the 400DPI problem of this kitkat implementation for X1, you can revert to the 4.2.2 Android 320 DPI version using the B006 rom available here:

http://consumer.huawei.com/download/downloadCenter?downloadId=25634&version=46392&siteCode=tw

After installing that B006 ROM, the X1 initially will only speaks Chinese or English, don't worry: after going to settings, updates,system updates, online update, it will upgrade from B006 to B007 (7D-501LV100R001C324B007) and provide much more languages to choose from.

I hope this is of help.

Jeroen