FS (maybe): FrankenPre Sprint Pre 2

[goldyman]

My employer might be pushing me to an iPhone, so I'd have to part with my beloved FrankenPre. Just wondering a) what the market is like (searched eBay, found nothing and b) what I'd need to do to the phone to get it ready to transfer to a new owner.

So, best estimate, at what price should I list a fine-condition Sprint FrankenPre 2 and three Touchstones?

[Aganar]

I might be interested in buying. The fact that I'm on Sprint has eliminated all venues for a Pre 3 or a Veer. And since I'm gonna have to wait at least another year or so before I can upgrade to a decent Android smartphone, this might be a decent interim phone. At the very least it would be better than my current trash-heap feature phone.

If you can guarantee that Sprint will switch my account to that phone if I bring it to them (I'd have to start getting a data plan, but I imagine they'll be all-too-happy to start offering me that if I'm willing to pay), and that they can transfer my contacts, I'll give it serious consideration.

Help us out, webOS Nation! Put my fears to rest and let this fine phone find a happy home.

[SKYLARKBOY86]

Originally Posted by Aganar

I might be interested in buying. The fact that I'm on Sprint has eliminated all venues for a Pre 3 or a Veer. And since I'm gonna have to wait at least another year or so before I can upgrade to a decent Android smartphone, this might be a decent interim phone. At the very least it would be better than my current trash-heap feature phone.

If you can guarantee that Sprint will switch my account to that phone if I bring it to them (I'd have to start getting a data plan, but I imagine they'll be all-too-happy to start offering me that if I'm willing to pay), and that they can transfer my contacts, I'll give it serious consideration.

Help us out, webOS Nation! Put my fears to rest and let this fine phone find a happy home.

You will still have to do the comm board swap and metadr process, sprint will not activate any phone that is not branded with their logo

[Aganar]

Doesn't the topic title "Frankpre" indicate that he's already done the swap? Would I have to swap it again?

[sq5]

Skylarkboy86 is correct. But it's pretty straight forward. In fact, it doesn't require dealing with Sprint at all in your case.

Here would be your steps:

-On the new phone, do a Full Erase (if the seller didn't do this already) to log out of the old user's webOS profile and clean the memory.
-On your old Pre- update the PRL and network settings from the phone preferences page.
-Swap the comm board/bezel piece from your Pre- into the new phone
-Run the Sprint FrankenPre2 metadoctor on the new phone.

You may even be able to get away with not having to do the metadoctor step, since it was already done once before on the new phone.

[sq5]

Originally Posted by Aganar

Doesn't the topic title "Frankpre" indicate that he's already done the swap? Would I have to swap it again?

Yes, you still have to do the hardware part again. You can't reactivate the Sprint comm board that is already in that Pre2 (nor would you want to anyway, since you're probably grandfathered into not paying that $10/month Sprint surcharge for smartphones).

You have to put in the already activated comm board from your own Pre-.

You may not have to repeat the software part though like a said before, but it still wouldn't hurt.

[Aganar]

Yeah...that's not gonna work. As I said, I'm on a feature phone. I don't have an old Palm Pre to do that on. Nor am I going to buy one.

[sq5]

Originally Posted by Aganar

Yeah...that's not gonna work. As I said, I'm on a feature phone. I don't have an old Palm Pre to do that on. Nor am I going to buy one.

Oh I see, then yeah, looks like you're outta luck, unless you know someone with an old Pre- that you could temporarily put the comm board from the new phone in just to activate it, and then take it out and put it right back in the new phone.

[appsotutely]

For the transfer to work properly, the seller must sell both the FrankenPre2 and the original Pre. The original Pre must be directly activated with Sprint, then the FrankenPre2 can be built and turned on and will be able to reactivate properly. I'd say that an appropriate buyer for a FrankenPre2 is pretty much someone who could've done it all on their own (from having read all the documentation and how-to's here and on WebOS Internals).

I swapped my Pre2 from one line to another on my own Sprint account and originally thought it would be pretty easy, but I wound up needing to restore my old Pre, re-activate it on my secondary line, and then re-do the building of the FrankenPre2. The process is definitely not for the faint of heart ...

[sq5]

Originally Posted by appsotutely

For the transfer to work properly, the seller must sell both the FrankenPre2 and the original Pre.

I'm pretty sure that the phone body used for activation wouldn't necessarily need to be that of THE original Pre-, but any Sprint Pre-. If that is absolutely not the case, I'd be curious to hear.

Originally Posted by appsotutely

I'd say that an appropriate buyer for a FrankenPre2 is pretty much someone who could've done it all on their own (from having read all the documentation and how-to's here and on WebOS Internals).

Very good point. Couldn't agree more. That's really what this all comes down to.

[Aganar]

Right. As I said, this would basically be an interim phone. I mean I like webOS as much as the next guy (probably more, given that the next guy probably hasn't even heard of webOS and likely doesn't own a touchpad), but when you factor in the cost of what this guy is going to charge me for the FrankenPre 2, the cost of finding another Pre, and then the hassle of getting the boards switched then switched back, it's a little too much of a hassle for someone with only a passing interest in owning a webOS phone.

The seller should probably communicate this a little better when next he pitches it to a potential buyer.

[w8aq]

PM Sent

[goldyman]

Wow. Lots of good (and confusing) info here. I guess it's not as simple as just selling the FrankenPre, huh? I do have the original Pre (somewhere, around here, I hope), but it sure seems like a lot of trouble.

Answer me this, please: If I do get a new phone, could I transfer this one -- with Palm profile intact -- to another member of my Sprint family plan? Or is that also an activation requiring a comm-board swap?

[Aganar]

If you were willing to do all the gruntwork to get it setup for me, I might still be interested. I'd have to look into it, but I wonder if there is some way the phone can be activated remotely (i.e., while the original Pre comm-board is back in the Pre, I call Sprint and say, "Yo, I'm switching my phone--can you activate the phone with ESN xxxxxxxxx?"), and then transplant again to the FrankenPre 2 before shipping.

Alternatively, you could send both the Pre and Pre2 and let the buyer do the transplant themselves.

[appsotutely]

Originally Posted by goldyman

Wow. Lots of good (and confusing) info here. I guess it's not as simple as just selling the FrankenPre, huh? I do have the original Pre (somewhere, around here, I hope), but it sure seems like a lot of trouble.

Answer me this, please: If I do get a new phone, could I transfer this one -- with Palm profile intact -- to another member of my Sprint family plan? Or is that also an activation requiring a comm-board swap?

Short answer is no. When I switched my FrankenPre2 to a different line on my Sprint family, I had to swap the comm board/activate an old Pre, then re-swap the comm board into the Pre2. Each time, I had to sign into my Palm Profile - with the old Pre you only have to get as far as making sure data works and you can make/receive phone calls/texts. Still it's going to take a fair bit of time.

[HelloNNNewman]

OP... quick question... Is this phone for sale? If not, we will need to move this thread to another location as the Marketplace forum is for selling/buying.

[goldyman]

Originally Posted by HelloNNNewman

OP... quick question... Is this phone for sale? If not, we will need to move this thread to another location as the Marketplace forum is for selling/buying.

Yeah, sorry about that. Thought it might be for sale but after reading this thread I realize that it best not be. So, move if you'd like ... Sorry for the inconvenience.