[Question] New Phablet

[Sanxion]

WOW! That really sucks about the Huawei. As for how they found out, it is possible that the reasons they gave are truthful, but it is doubtful. Google (in the past) had embedded their OS with tablet, phablet, and phone UI. Currently (4.4+) they do not embed that in the OS like they used to. The point is that this is an easy identifier - your OS is identifying your device as a tablet and this bit of information can be detected via software. Therefore, it could easily be something as simple as the stock dialer or other software relating the status of the device to the operator.

Case in point: One of the most useful tools pre 4.4 is "TabletMetrics" as used with "Xposed". It allows a phone to fool software using the device type as a trigger to give different service based on that profile. For example, the music software Spotify forces a much more limited service (skip restriction, radio being forced on small playlists, cannot select individual songs) if it thinks you have a phone. However, if one were to root, install Xposed, install tabletmetrics, and finally install Spotify - then Spotify would give you a different profile for streaming your internet music. In fact, it would act EXACTLY as if you had a laptop or tablet. The limited service descriptions listed above would be removed.

The above method does not work on the newer Android as Google has removed this universal trigger.

Now that my best guess as to what happened and a sly piece of information which many may/may not know has been put out there, thank you for the data for those using Three in the UK.

I look forward to your thoughts on the ZTE Nubia X6.

That's interesting...I understand the issue about different UIs for a phone/tablet but the UI on the Honor X1 was just like a normal phone. Nothing appeared to have been optimised or altered for its 7". It seemed to behave just like a normal phone and yet the carrier recognised it as a tablet...I would love to know how exactly they do this...

In my experience, it is exactly the same situation with "tabletmetrics" installed via xposed.

For example, I have it installed in a Samsung Note 3. It changes no UI elements - just like the normal phone I had before installation. It is independent of DPI, resolution, etc.

However, for certain apps (Spotify being just one such example), it will read a tabletUI flag, and act accordingly - even though no UI elements are present on the device.

Evil magic, I say.

I would like to know exactly how they do this as well!! In particular, if there is a way to fool software in 4.4.4+

Ok...so how does the OS differentiate between phone and tablet form? What criteria does it use?