[Samsung Galaxy S23] xdauser2024:
Edit: I've successfully changed my CSC from KSA to ILO (Israel). Scroll to the end of my comment for more info.

Hi ChoSmile (and apologies in advance for this wall of text),

I've gone through this entire (amazing) thread and I just want your 2nd opinion on a couple of things, some confirmations and some new questions that you might be able to answer.

I have an S23 Ultra Model SM-S918B/DS with Service Provider Software Version SAOMC_SM-S918B_OXM_KSA_14_0004 KSA/KSA,KSA/XSG/KSA on Android 14 One UI 6.0 Security Patch October 1, 2023.

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I need call recording for work so after going through all the CSCs posted, especially ILO (Israel) INS (India) and THL (Thailand), I've decided on ILO because:

a) I want the call recording button to be on screen and not behind the 3 dots menu, as you've stated here. Minor inconvenience I know and auto recording is a thing but yeah.

b) Pressing the side/power key 3 times will initiate an Emergency call, according to this user. Is he correct? If so, another minor inconvenience but easily avoidable by using ILO.

c) I won't have to block a couple of numbers that send my IMEI to Indian Telecom authorities, as you've stated here. Again, not a big deal but easily avoidable.

I'll even have access to Samsung Health Monitor stuff like ECG/Blood Pressure but I don't care about all that because I don't even own a Galaxy Watch. I'll lose Samsung Pay as well but again, it's not supported in Pakistan by any bank so it's useless. You've also mentioned that INS provides Digikey but that's not something my car supports.

I'll still retain Call Recording, Caller ID/Spam like INS but without the 3 downsides I mentioned.

Some random questions:

ILO has Fridays and Saturdays marked as the weekends instead of Sat/Sun. Not a deal breaker but do you know if that's something you can change via Samsung Calendar?

I read in a YouTube comment that changing to ILO removed the "Auto download over WiFi" option. Is that true?

Do INS and ILO both support RCS in Samsung Messages? I know you said INS does in Google Messages so I was curious if the same was true for Samsung's app. I don't really use it for that but it'd be nice to have.

Have you experienced any signal reception issues after changing to INS? Do you know anything about that?

Would like to know of any other downsides unique to ILO like INS has.

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In regards to OTA, I've found that ILO and KSA (and even THL) have the same exact firmware names for both Android 13 and 14. INS and KSA only have the same Android 14 firmware names.

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Does this mean changing to ILO or INS will still allow me to receive OTA updates? If not, then I guess I'll resort to changing my CSC back to KSA to get the update and then change to ILO/INS.

And side note, I might actually do that even if I get OTA updates as a precaution in case during any update Samsung for some reason disables CSC changing.

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Some questions regarding the process:

1) Should I take out my SIM card? Some guides on YouTube do, some don't.

2) Do I need anything else (installed) besides SamFW Tool v3.31 (someone linked it here and thank you for sharing checksums) and Samsung Android USB Drivers?

3) I've seen on YouTube where they don't enter check mode via dialing *#0*# themselves but the SamFW tool does it automatically. Does it matter if it's done manuallly or not?

Again, apologies for this wall of text and all these questions. I'd really appreciate the help. Thank you in advance.

P.S: I'll update this comment with my experience when I do change my CSC.

Edit:

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I'll keep updating this comment if and when I find something new to report on.