I just flashed my Finow x5+ w618 (DDR3) with the latest available Factory Firmware Update from our board, and want to report some bugs/issues after testing it.
Pre-Story: Received the Watch from Gearbest HongKong Warehouse last week. First opened the box, powered it up, got shocked, watch had no sound.
Went home, connected to Wifi, and did the Update that it suggested.
I noticed heavy battery drain even when the watch just sits around with nothing enabled and no simcard inserted.
I decided to flash, because after installing the latest firmware update directly provided by the watch itself, I monitored several problems. Hoping a proper factory flash and manual installation would help.
Unfortunately the Factory-Update is exactly the same as the one which came from the finow server via WiFi.
Maybe some other users (better call us beta-testers)
like to join and together we can manage to find a solution for those known problems and/or ask the developers to fix it.
3.10.72+
sw04@PowerEdge-R710-01 #1
Mon Mar 27 17:46:07 CST 2017
LMY47I test-keys
ALPS.L1.MP6.
V2.19_CENON6580.WEG.1.L
Known Issues:
No sound-output or vibration at all (loudpseaker dead, microphone working) --> not app related. there seems to be a loose connection in my watch. it’s working after I removed the backplate and tapped on the metal plate cover inside the watch. but only until next reboot. then sound is gone again.
Last row of Android Keyboard in Browser and Google Play Store not working (you touch it and nothing happens) --> app related
Bluetooth stays always on. Even when you manually turn it off and go into flight mode or power safe mode.
Excessive Battery Drain when idle and in powersafe mode or flight mode or whatever. Without a simcard inserted and everything possible disabled you run from 100% to zero in 8 hours.
....
Wanted: Please let me know what firmware version runs smooth and without big issues on the Finow X5+ w618, including a "normal" battery drain.
Update 05MAY17: in the meanwhile I flashed the January Stock Rom provided here on the board, but sound is still not working and OTA Update Check says I am on the newest Firmware.
Update 06MAY17: Suddenly the watch noticed me about an Wifi Update. I installed it and am now running Kernel Version 170322. Same heavy battery drain present.
Update 07MAY17: After I disabled Google Services, as well as other background apps like File Explorer, Watch Helper and so on, and the installation of Wackelock Detector I noticed a significant better Battery Life. In Flight Mode the watch goes now into Deep Sleep Mode and after beeing unplugged from a full 100% Charge it’s now on 77% after 15 hours and 14 mins. Hurray!
Next step will be to root it, install a CPU Governor and tweak this f***ing little beast to what it was built for.
Because now, as soon as I reboot it, all my settings are gone and the whole nightmare battery drain thing will start again.
I actually had similar issues to yours except the sound.
Got mine from Alliexpress, made the OTA update. I use it withowt sim and i was sharing my phone internet connection through bluetooth.
Initialy i was getting at most 12 hours of battery and weather widget was not working at all (even if connected to wifi and high acuracy setting on).
Then i have installed kingroot and wether widget suddenly started to work. I kept it for several days in this configuration then bluetooth stoped working (could not turn it on). The i wanted to remove kingroot and root it the proper way (with TWRP and install SU) but i could not get rid of kingroot.
This is where it gets interesting :
I decided to flash manualy another firmware, got on this site, made an acoount and downloaded this exact firmware.
I have installed all the necesary tools and drivers and flashed (with wipe everithing enabled). Althought the SP tool gave me the green OK, i`m not sure it flashed anything (same versions, same logo, etc…). But this happened :
No kingroot
Bluetooth works again
And the most important part is battery life, i now get around 50 Hours of same ussage, connected all the time to phone and notifications forworded to watch.
hi savi,
thanks for your reply.
it just made my day
so… please confirm if I got the following steps of your “procedure for success” right:
you own an w618 model
first installed the custom twrp version for w616 provided by ciro
then installed super su
and finally flashed the latest stock rom?
50 hours of battery life -
holy moly… thats hard to believe at the moment, but finally rewarding. congrats. I hope I can report the same in a few days.
did root also remove the bug with the non working last row of the android keyboard?
I have actualy made theese steps but in different order:
Flashed the latest 618 firmware to get rid of kingroot. I have installed it with “Format all+Download”.
Now the watch is no longer rooted but great battery life.
After several days i have used again my phone for internet connection sharing in order to get some new watch faces. I have got them but battery life seriously decreased (after 15 hours i was at 30%) this was happening yesterday. Then (yesterday evening) i have disabled internet sharing (left just a normal bluetooth connection to get notifications) disconected this morning from charger at 8 and now at 10:45 i was at 98% of battery, so i guess the internet connection is to blame, sommething happens in it that prevents deep sleep while it has a internet connection.
Now i`m at the office and decided to root,
I have booted succesfully and copied in the “download” directory SU version 2.79 zip file
Used the MTK toolbox to reboot into TWRP recovery and flashed the SU zip
Made a cache and dalvik wipe
Booted and SU is not crashing. Now i will make my google play work and download the Busybox, terminal and CPU controll app and will report a bit later if it is all okay
P.S. : this my first time root of a MTK device. I`m used to sony phones (witch has a very different way, and more complex
)
Edit (20 minutes later)
I confirm that i have root and same bugs of the SU is present (periodic crash) and if it set to “promt” , SU will crash instantly if an app requests root.
I also own a Sony (z1) and it’s the only xperience with rooting devices (cyanogenmod and twrp) I can report. Honestly I flashed the hell out of it with different OS’, bricked it several times, but it’s still running smooth and my daily friend. Some raspberry pi and beagleboard play around here and there, an old linux machine, and an openwrt vpn router setup.
Maybe thats why I am not afraid of grabbin deep enough to get this little beast working. Hehe.
Will perform x5+ root today and keep you updated as well.
I will keep my eyes on the battery. Im certain it is sommething connected to the internet connection . I heard there are some apps that can log witch apps prevent deep slep from ocuring but im not familiar with them. Do you know any that is user friendly with this round screen ?
I have installed “Wakelock Detector free” for that purpose. It works pretty well when you first activate the “square screen mode” on the watch. This app delivers a lot of useful infos. Only the “settings” part is a little hard to read/because of black letters on black backround menu screen of the watch, but you can handle it.
With root this app should be even more powerful.
Another useful app (free) is “Device Info HW” for reading out all hardware realted infos including sensor datas and antennas.
May 9, 2017 8:58:55 GMT 1savi said:
I confirm that i have root and same bugs of the SU is present (periodic crash) and if it set to "promt" , SU will crash instantly if an app requests root.
I just posted regarding those crashes and permission issues of supersu an info here:
I am having similar problems. I am seeing a Bluetooth Device called WATCH_NC odfrom my phone and watch is switched on but in Airplane mode.
If any internet connection is active battery gets hammered. and last row of keyboard does not work. and font rendering bugs some text is not visible as its colored the same as background. Fonts are visible if you go into accessablilty settings via setting searcher and selecting High Contrast fonts.
Loads of bugs in this firmware cannot realy call it release ready its of lower quality that some beta releases for some devices
Jun 27, 2017 0:16:55 GMT 1c0manche said: I am having similar problems. I am seeing a Bluetooth Device called WATCH_NC odfrom my phone and watch is switched on but in Airplane mode.
If any internet connection is active battery gets hammered. and last row of keyboard does not work. and font rendering bugs some text is not visible as its colored the same as background. Fonts are visible if you go into accessablilty settings via setting searcher and selecting High Contrast fonts.
Loads of bugs in this firmware cannot realy call it release ready its of lower quality that some beta releases for some devices
This is the Iphone BT notification service and cannot be turned off - big mistake from the firmware designers
Have to be rooted and remove the offending file. But - I have noticed that battery life does not improve much even with this taken care of.
Unfortunately there are so many framework issues (like the black text and background issue and others)
This watch could really do with a complete overhaul in the UI department.
The new X5 Air will have a new UI. I really hope they have sorted the text and background issue as well …
Anyways - I wanted to say - thanks for all the effort that has been put in here by you guys - especially +m47r1x
Good job people - I will be feeding all this back in the hope of a new firmware.
Any screen shots or photos of the text and background issue and in fact any issues is highly apreciated.
Makes life a lot easier when you are trying to explain the bugs to these guys.
This is the Iphone BT notification service and cannot be turned off - big mistake from the firmware designers
Have to be rooted and remove the offending file. But - I have noticed that battery life does not improve much even with this taken care of.
Unfortunately there are so many framework issues (like the black text and background issue and others)
This watch could really do with a complete overhaul in the UI department.
The new X5 Air will have a new UI. I really hope they have sorted the text and background issue as well …
Anyways - I wanted to say - thanks for all the effort that has been put in here by you guys - especially +m47r1x
Good job people - I will be feeding all this back in the hope of a new firmware.
Any screen shots or photos of the text and background issue and in fact any issues is highly apreciated.
Makes life a lot easier when you are trying to explain the bugs to these guys.
Thanks again as well +savi and +c0manche
But knowing our luck if they do fix the problems in the X5 Air I bet they don't bother fixing them in the X5+ seeing its now discontinued
Have to be rooted and remove the offending file. But - I have noticed that battery life does not improve much even with this taken care of.
Unfortunately there are so many framework issues (like the black text and background issue and others)
This watch could really do with a complete overhaul in the UI department.
The new X5 Air will have a new UI. I really hope they have sorted the text and background issue as well ...
Anyways - I wanted to say - thanks for all the effort that has been put in here by you guys - especially +m47r1x
Good job people - I will be feeding all this back in the hope of a new firmware.
Any screen shots or photos of the text and background issue and in fact any issues is highly apreciated.
Makes life a lot easier when you are trying to explain the bugs to these guys.
Thanks again as well +savi and +c0manche
But knowing our luck if they do fix the problems in the X5 Air I bet they don't bother fixing them in the X5+ seeing its now discontinued
Found another serious bug with the X5+ and the bug also exists on the newer Q7
If you go into the accounts / sync settings (have to use settings search app off play store) you find that all the google sync settings are corrupt. you can remove the google account by clicking on your google account and drilling down to the area where you would normally find switches for syncing of mail / contacts etc.
I found they were all corrupt so pressed the bottom button (its mapped as a menu button) on the X5+ to bring up a menu and selecting remove account and then re-adding the google account.
This is all well and good until you reboot the watch and then leave it for a few minutes for the watch kills all applications and resets all the developer settings.
9 times out of 10 if you now go into the sync settings you find all the google account settings are now corrupt and gmail / contacts sync no longer work.
In fact the gmail app will no longer download any email.
The firmware is shocking makes the watch for many applications as much use as a chocolate teapot and this bug is still present in the newer firmware in the Q7. seeing the Q7 does not have any buttons mapped as a menu button you have to send keycode 82 direct to the watch using adb to bring up its menu to delete the account.
deleting the google account and re adding it is not rely an option when you reboot the watch.
How on hell did this ever make it out the door its very poor.
I can confirm the killing of all apps and reset of settings a few minutes after a reboot. I tried to autostart some apps after boot including Floatify that needs Notification access. But after a few minutes all autostarted apps are killed and Floatify loses Notification access.