If you own an Itel, Infinix, Tecno..infact any Android phone then you might want to pay a little more attention to one piece of information perching quietly on your phone; the Build Number.
The Build Number can be located under Settings > About > Build Number of your phone.
So what is this Build Number of a thing and why is it so important?
Any talk on Build Number without the mention of Variants is incomplete. Have you ever heard of Variants? Well, variant is what separates the Men from the Boys in the Firmware Collection Micro Niche. Variants are two phones of the same model with a slight difference in hardware or software configuration. e.g Infinix Note 2 X600 LTE vs Infinix Note 2 X600. In this example, the major difference between the two phone models is that one supports LTE while the other does not. This makes them variants of each other.
Back to the Build Number. The Build Number tells you the model, Android version, group and software version date. Lets take the Build Number of one Infinix Hot 4 phone as our model Build Number.
X557-H807-A1-M-160815V57
From the above, we know that:
- Its a Hot 4 (X557)
- It belongs to the H807 group
- It belongs to the A1 sub-group
- Its running on Android 6.x or Marshmallow (M)
- The Software version date is 15/08/2016
- Its a relatively new variant (V57)
Now, lets compare two Tecno W4 varinats (of the 5 we’ve seen so far)
W4-AW875A1-M-160808V2
W4-AW875A1-M-20160910
From the two examples above, you can see they’re identical in every way save for the dates (and V2 in the first example signifying its one of the newer variants). Does this mean you can inter-flash their firmware? Not necessarily and you’ll find out why later.
Let me stir things up a little:
X600-H532-A1-L-20151223
X600-H533-A1-L-20151223
X600-H533-B1-L-20151223
X600-H532-A1-M-20160224
These are for the Infinix Note 2 X600. As you can see, the differences occur in both the groups (H532 vs H533), sub-groups (A1 vs B1) and dates. The Infinix Note 2 is one phone you don’t want to flash the firmware for the wrong Build Number to because the only way back from that is an Infinix X600 Motherboard Jumper .
Another example using Itel
Itel-it1409-W406-20160715
Itel-it1409-W406-20160823
Itel-it1409-W406A-6.0-20161028
Here, the differences occur at the groups and dates.
I’ll take one last example using Tecno
CX-H501DEFG-N-171109V159
CX-H501DEFG-N-171109V159
If you’ve been unable to spot any difference between both build numbers then its because there’s none. Mind you, this build number has variants running on two different Mediatek chips; MT6750 & MT6755
How does Build Number affect which firmware I should choose to flash?
Flashing the firmware for a build with a different date is enough to cause problems. Even OTA update zips might not be cross compatible with Build Numbers of different dates; we’ve seen this with the Tecno C8 Lollipop upgrade to Marshmallow attempt. Flashing might be successful but then a number of bugs spring up due to incompatibility. Its very important that once you purchase your phone, you take note of your Build Number against a time when its bricked and none of the firmware you’ve tried seems to be working properly.
Its also important to note that firmware (for the same model and group) with a different date might work fine on your phone. Its just wise you do a full backup of your firmware before flashing…..just incase.
How can I get the firmware for my exact variant?
We at the Hovatek Forum work tirelessly to keep our Android firmware collections up to date down to compatible build numbers. Our list is different from any other you’ll find online because they’re constantly used in providing support to our members. This is why we’re able to quickly identify new variants or buggy firmware and take action. If you’re having issues finding the right firmware for your phone, we’ll be happy to help.
Hi.. I want to root my Tecno camon cx air and i have looked through every thread regarding rooting my device.. I can’t find my current build number CXAir-H3713A-N-171207V139 on the thread.. I’m hoping you’ll help me out by getting a Twrp/Philz recovery for this build number.. Thank you
Use Magisk at https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-21427.html or port Philz recovery for your build using our tool at https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-21495.html
My infinix note 4 x572 is hard brick and i do not know the build number. How i can choose the right firmware for my phone? Help me please… ( sory for my bad english)
Its already too late to find out the Build Number. What you need to do now is backup your phone’s current firmware then keep flashing different firmware for your phone model till one works
i also want to know, if i can flash my phone with a build number with different version?
its usually best to stick to your build number, this isn’t to say other builds can’t work, only that there’s an almost equal chance of incompatibility.
thank your very much for such educative post, most of us have little knowledge about what we are doing, but now i understand better .. i followed every tutorial i found online but they never mentioned anything about how important is build number when flashing a firmware. i am a victim of a bricked phone and so unfortunately i didn’t back up my firmware.. now i am so confused and i don’t know what to do.
i have a infinix hot 4
That’s rather unfortunate but we can help. You’ll need to download and flash each full rom at https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-19956.html till one works. If you’d noted your build number then that would have narrowed down which rom you need to download
My case is the same as Ernest on it, but my phone is Leagoo Kiicaa Mix, do you have any firmware for it?
plz hovatek I need a stock Rom of my TECNO l7.It is hard bricked and I don’t know d build No.
Tecno L7 roms are listed at https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-19382.html
Zero2pro انفنيكسhello i need a nougat or android 6 for infinix zero 2 pro
3 gb ram
4g
16 gb rom
stock 5.1
mt 6735
kernel 3.10.65
thanks
and if there an open rom that need to port it’s ok but i need the way of porting
Please Hovatek .My Itel s31 build number v068 dead after flashing stock rom of itel s31 build number v031. please hovatek give me stock rom of itel s31 build number v068.
Well, you shouldn’t have done that without first making a backup. Have you posted this at our Forum?
Hello
Just I Wanna know if Android nougat is available to my phone infinix hot 4 Lite which build number is x557-H807BE-M-170524V173 and what happened if i install Android 7 which belongs to hot 4 is it could be crash my phone?!!
Thx alot
I have a hard bricked infinix x557, it does not charge or turn on no matter how hard i push the power button, but it produces continuously the connect and disconnect sound when connected to a pc.
because the phone can not power I do not have access to view the build number, it makes it difficult for me to ascertain the actual stock rom or firmware to flash with.
In your case, you’re way past Build Number. It’ll have to be trial and error.
You can find firmware for your model @ https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-533.html
So how can this error be corrected in order to get my build number?
What error are you getting?