[Sprint Samsung Galaxy Note 3] Buslova:
I never tested the talk&surf feature while I was running this ROM for about a month. I'm currently back on my very old, tried and true backup of Temasek's Lollipop CM based ROM that I always end up going back to. I know that I can call & browse on it although I've only ever NEEDED to do it maybe once. I can't remember which other ROM's I've tested it out on but I know it's worked on all the ones I tried it on and they were all post 4.4. I believe it's more of a hardware issue. Separate antennae are/were needed in a phone in order to achieve surfing data on one while talking using another. I THINK (could be wrong) that changed with the Note4 and it couldn't surf/talk simultaneously due to "sprint spark" single antennae and VoLTE wasn't working when Note4 launched. Maybe it works now. It also depends on the network. I'm sure software (ROM) could disable this in someway if done intentionally (or ported from phone that doesn't support it) but I haven't run into it on this phone yet regardless of baseband. However...it's never been a feature I cared too much about (so don't always test it) but I'm certainly glad it's there if/when needed. Then again, I hate talking on the phone and go months without using a single minute. I just did a quick search and here is a thread talking about simultaneous surf/talk on our Sprint Note3's.

https://xdaforums.com/note-3-sprint/general/sprint-killed-talk-surf-feature-t2964762

As far as Odin vs recovery image install of PL1, Odin will be more all encompassing in regards to updating your device. It will update baseband, bootloader, recovery, modem, system, data. Just a warning, depending on settings/version, Odin might also wipe your interior storage (I always remove my SDcard out of fear however I don't think Odin will do anything to it) which honestly can be a good thing to do every once in a while between ROM installs. Then you'll be 100% back to stock. Once fully booted up on official PL1, use the update features in settings to get your PRL and Profile updated and grab a GPS lock using maps or gps prog of your choice while still 100% stock. Then It's not difficult and doesn't take long to then use Odin to also flash TWRP back onto your phone and away you go, able to flash whatever newer ROM that you like/want. The TWRP backup of PL1 you got may not include the baseband or modem depending on who & how they backed up their recovery flashable PL1. I WILL admit it is now sort of difficult to find the full official PL1 .tar file for our sm-n900p device. I usually use sammobile to get Odin tar's and they have ours listed and the filesize looks correct however everytime I've downloaded it, the file ended up having an error so I had to hunt it down elsewhere. I think Sammobile's file is corrupt. However someone in the general Sprint section created a thread with a link to the file stored on their google drive. Check out the following link. They also provide links to instructions on flashing TWRP afterwards however they're referencing old versions of TWRP. They also talk about how to re-root which won't be necessary if you end up flashing this ROM since root is included. But even if you go with a different ROM that is NOT pre-rooted, it's super simple to root your device if needed. Just download supersu.zip from chainfire's site and flash it in TWRP and reboot. Simple.

https://xdaforums.com/note-3-sprint/general/odin-rom-pl1-update-t3559539

Oh.....one other thing about TWRP. You'll need the latest TWRP to flash this ROM and a lot of the other nougat/oreo ROMS. However, there are some actively maintained ROM's out there that use something called AROMA as part of their install. You would choose their .zip to install in TWRP like normal and then AROMA takes over and can give you several setup menus with choices of things to install or not install within the ROM before it actually flashes the ROM to your device. The reason I mention this is because AROMA development stopped so TWRP no longer supported it after TWRP 2.8.7. So depending on what ROM you decide to flash, look at the OP and read (duh). They usually state if it has a AROMA installer or not or might directly tell you that you will need TWRP 2.8.7 or the newest TWRP 3.2.x. This is why i keep 2, .img files of TWRP. One 2.8.7 .img file and a 3.2.1 .img file. You can even flash back and forth within TWRP. This way you can easily install any of the ROMS out there.

As far as going back to 4.4 or earlier; if I remember correctly, there IS some way to do it but there are extra steps involved. I bet it's still buried somewhere in the Sprint Note 3 section of XDA. It also might just be PRE 4.4 that is difficult to switch back to. I honestly can't remember where/when it occurred.

Shane has done a great job with this AOKP 7.1.1 ROM and having access to nightlies was nice. It is based on Lineage 14.1 builds. However now Lineage is building 15.1 (Oreo) and there are even some builds for our Note3 out there (I couldn't get data to work on any of the 4 different Oreo Lineage 15.1 builds I tried on my Sprint Note 3 tho, even after trying to manually set the APN) so I'm sure AOKP will be transitioning their focus to Oreo at some point as well once Lineage 15.1 matures. I mainly switched back due to a few very tiny preferences I have grown used to in my old Lollipop Temasek Rom backup.

I hope ANY of this rambling helps and didn't confuse you. :eek: