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[PSA] Take caution - Tencent-branded Chinese models with "Global/International ROM"

CH_ASUS
Community Legend II
Hi all

We have come to notice there are resellers selling the so-called "Tencent ROG Phone II"-models for the Chinese market with "International ROM".

We would like to make clear that ASUS does not officially sell any Tencent-branded ROG Phone II with so called "International ROM" or "Global firmware".
We cannot guarantee the functionality of this combination , if you are facing any type of issues - please turn to your reseller where you bought this device - as this is is not a combination we are selling.

Please also take careful note that updates/FOTA functionality will be disabled since the ROM and the models dont match, some resellers note this in the fine-print.. some may not..

Extra info:
If you are seeing anything about a "Global ROM version" or "Tencent with Global/WW ROM" it would be a clear giveaway.
159 REPLIES 159

Lino
Star II
I purchased a ROG2 (Tencent Games) from Gearbest, I wasn't aware of this issue, I'm from South Africa, so far I have no issues with my device, so basically I'm not going to get any OTA updates? I feel it's Asus responsibility to honour their devices , also how do these devices leave Chine with the international ROM version , with the boxes fully sealed and with the original wrapping?


LP_ASUS
Community Legend I
Lino

I purchased a ROG2 (Tencent Games) from Gearbest, I wasn't aware of this issue, I'm from South Africa, so far I have no issues with my device, so basically I'm not going to get any OTA updates? I feel it's Asus responsibility to honour their devices , also how do these devices leave Chine with the international ROM version , with the boxes fully sealed and with the original wrapping?


View post
To my knowledge a Tencent edition ROG Phone II will never receive a WW FOTA update. You can attempt a manual installation, but we can't guarantee that the FW will update.
We are not supporting these devices because the software was never designed to work with that hardware. Different antennae bands, data connections, etc etc. Google and Android do not exist in China, therefore running an Android FW on a phone designed for a world without Google is problematic at best.
How did the device leave China in the original wrapping? Presumably, someone bought a Tencent phone in China, unboxed it and flashed the WW firmware, then resealed it and sold it to Gearbest after bringing it across the Chinese border. This is not an official configuration and we have never produced a Tencent edition on worldwide firmware. You can consider it tampered with. Our engineers won't even allow me to provide instructions on how to flash it back to China FW because they are so concerned it will brick the device.
I'm sorry to hear that you have one of the affected devices. Consider contacting Gearbest with this information and requesting some kind of return/refund.

vaxaviv
Star II
LP_ASUS

https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/comment/33105#Comment_33105

To my knowledge a Tencent edition ROG Phone II will never receive a WW FOTA update. You can attempt a manual installation, but we can't guarantee that the FW will update.

We are not supporting these devices because the software was never designed to work with that hardware. Different antennae bands, data connections, etc etc. Google and Android do not exist in China, therefore running an Android FW on a phone designed for a world without Google is problematic at best.

How did the device leave China in the original wrapping? Presumably, someone bought a Tencent phone in China, unboxed it and flashed the WW firmware, then resealed it and sold it to Gearbest after bringing it across the Chinese border. This is not an official configuration and we have never produced a Tencent edition on worldwide firmware. You can consider it tampered with. Our engineers won't even allow me to provide instructions on how to flash it back to China FW because they are so concerned it will brick the device.

I'm sorry to hear that you have one of the affected devices. Consider contacting Gearbest with this information and requesting some kind of return/refund.


View post
I think this is unacceptable, Asus should have done a better job with preventing this phones to leave China and alerting the public about this issue.
It is very tempting to buy a phone with this specs for around 550 USD and I think Asus is getting great PR and sales from this mishap.
You can't sell so many devices and then tell all the costumers who paid for them they are basically screwed and send them to negotiate with Gearbest, Aliexpress, Banggood etc. this sites are not Amazon and there is no real buyer protection there they will not refund us and will not give us the option to return the device after being used.
If Asus would have wanted to prevent this issue the least they could do is complain and prevent the selling of this device in Amazon, Ebay and other respected sites but I believe it is under Asus's best interest to keep selling this devices worldwide.
Now that the "cat is out of the bag" and so many devices are out on the world I thing Asus should at the very least give the people who bought this version an easy way to at least change the fingerprint version to WW, I can understand that you can't support OTA for this device but having people who spent hundreds of dollars on your phone's brand telling them they basically have a brick is cruel at best.
Luckily I have some experience in Android modding and I was able to get everything to work apart from OTA, VOLTE, WIFI calling and 4G+ but I sure am regret of buying this phone, I would have never paid the full price for the global version and even if I did I think in my country (Israel) I wouldn't have gotten VOLTE, WIFI calling and 4G+, if I had known this before I purchased I would have never bought this device.
SHAME ON YOU ASUS!

PhysiTech
Rising Star I
Hello everyone, I am very new to this platform and I recently bought the new ROG phone 2 obviously the tencent version because i am currently staying in china. when i come to this platform i noticed that people are facing many problems with tencent version phone. i also want to change my whole software to global version and sync with google account. please help in this regards

PhysiTech
Rising Star I
It is the ASUS's responsibility to solve all these kind of issues they didn't announced it in advanced and most people get fooled and facing many problems now. its very sad.