Code Reading or Direct Decoding – What is the Right Choice?
Once you've purchased a locked phone, it's in the carriers' best interest to keep that phone tied to their network, so they're going to make the decoding process pretty difficult. That's when the special phone servicing boxes come into play. There are quite a few techniques that make phone decoding possible. But direct decoding and codes reading are the basic.
At the moment lots of developers add to their software codes reading feature along with or instead of direct decoding for supported phone models. Pegasus, Sigma, Octopus, Octoplus and others. Is it better or worse than direct decoding? Code reading is considered to be a safer method of decoding, which has at least 2 positive moments. First of all, nothing except reading operations takes place during the code calculation process. So if you're not writing anything into phone's memory, you don't risk to burn incorrect data into the critical parts of the memory that can cause phone's malfunctions due to developers' mistakes or unexpected changes made to the phone's software by the manufacturer. Especially it is critical if it's hard to find a firmware or a flasher for a certain phone model in order to fix it after the unsuccessful attempt of direct decoding. Second, writing into the flash memory with direct decoding will void phone's warranty. It's just that phone servicing software during decoding process modifies certain protected parts of the memory that is typically unreachable for the user. Usually techs from authorized servicing centers can tell if the phone was flashed with third party tools.
Thus, code calculation that sometimes can be neither so convenient nor as fast as direct decoding, in fact is more secure and reliable. Admit that it's better to enter the code manually than to lose money or put at stake the reputation of your workshop. Unfortunately, it's not always possible to read codes due to different reasons. Sometimes there's no algorithm of code calculation or developers just did not manage to figure it out. That's the case when you should probably use direct decoding feature. If you're not sure about it, you can always look up at the special forums. Someone should've probably done that kind of operation for that specific phone with a certain firmware version.
You should also know the difference between code calculation via certain algorithm and decoding by IMEI option. Some phone decoding software use the second method. Code calculation is more universal solution and shows the skill of developers. It means that they figured out the code generation algorithm for almost all phones based on a certain platform regardless of the country, the carrier or even a phone model. In this case you can be sure that any phone of this model will be decoded regardless of its origin.
Decoding via IMEI is strictly limited by the country or/and the carrier. Not all phones of the same model can be decoded with this method. It doesn't depend on the skill of the developers and is based on the "IMEI-code" database that was "landed" from the manufacturer of the model or the carrier. Usually they're really hard to get, so the price for IMEI decoding can be pretty expensive and depends on the model and the carrier.
Up to date most of the online end customer services provide such IMEI decoding feature. All they need is your phone's IMEI number. If the number is not in their database, then decoding via IMEI isn't an option. And that's when code calculation or direct decoding comes in handy.
Sometimes IMEI database is available even before the model comes out. It all depends on the owners of the service. But a very strong argument in this case is the price. You should remember that IMEI decoding draws additional expenses on every single phone even for the owner of special servicing software and makes sense only if the mentioned above methods are unavailable. Depending on the model and the carrier, the cost of IMEI code can vary from couple of bucks to a few tens of dollars. But if it's an acceptable price for the owner of the phone, it can be way too expensive for servicing centers.
Therefore, direct decoding is a quite risky procedure, though effective. Code reading is safer and more reliable, but it takes some time for calculation and entry. And decoding via IMEI is quite expensive, so it's up to you what to choose.
By Roman Sushko, translated by Volodymyr Svinchuk
