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.
Hello Admin, I bricked my phone before I could write down the build number so I opened it up and wrote down these numbers on the board
10H532X652112396
X600 H532 B1
However, I could not find a stock ROM for this build number from the infinix firmware thread on the forum.
Kindly help me with the right stock ROM or this build number if available, every single assistance to help me bring my phone back to life will be much appreciated.
Hello Admin, I bricked my Infnix Note 2 so I opened it up and copied these numbers from the board…
10H532X652112396
H532 B1
I have searched through the infinix firmware thread but could not find a ROM for this build. Kindly help me with finding the right ROM to flash my phone. Please help my phone is an absolute vegetable right now.
Thank very much, for any assistance will be much appreciated.
Please, create a new thread at our forum and our forums reps will provide free step by step assistance
see https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-514.html for how to create a thread
Please help,I upgraded my infinix note 4 with 3RAM and 32GB from iOS 7 to iOS 8 after successful upgrading my phone started malfunctioning.a friend told me that it is as a result of incomplete upgrade.and my phone is virus free.please I need good information.
Yes, upgrades are sometimes buggy. Have you tried doing a factory reset?
what is the model number of infinix hot not
Hot Note is X551
Hello Sir,
I Need A Firmware file for “Tceno W5 Clone”. It’s a Clone of Tecno w5 so i am unable to find the Stock ROM. Plz Help me out. Thank you.
Please request @ https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-17000.html
Thanks for the wonderful expository, my case is with tecno camom c7. A colleague’s form bricked and can not ascertain the real number but before it completely went dead, i was able to write out series of code i saw when trying to reset it with the power and volume bottom as shown: 6.0/MRA/1474532255 and Tecnofull_rlk6735_65u-m0/rlk6735-65u-m. I am trying to flash it using the firmware i got from the net but some of the scatter .txt will come out with the error, “not enough space”, Failure error and the likes. Any help on this please?
I suggest you pend flashing for now till we help troubleshoot.
Please, create a new thread at our forum and our forums reps will provide free step by step assistance
see https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-514.html for how to create a thread
I didn’t find the the exactly firmware for tecno w3 white cover back
what is the build number?
I was wondering if you ever thought of changing the structure of your site?
Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But
maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could
connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or two images.
Maybe you could space it out better?
Thanks for the suggestion. We’ll surely look into it.
Hi I have an infinix Zero 4 Plus X602,its build number X602-H972A1-M-161115V119…do you have an update file matching the build#… i needed some help on it… it has an issue with storage while connecting to a PC storage indicates as 1.57GB while through the system menu on the phone it indicates 64GB…partly contributing to slow start up, random reboots & cant really take any file larger than 900MB… i’ve restored to factory settings but nothings changing + it has not been previously rooted, any help in solving?
Please, create a new thread at our forum and our forums reps will provide free step by step assistance
see https://forum.hovatek.com/thread-514.html for how to create a thread
Saya punya infinix zero 3 sudah ada sistem versi terbaru tapi tidak ada tulisan UNDUH seperti sebelumnya bagaimana cara atasinya ya……