So 24 days after my first Agora was dead on arrival, I finally got my Agora 5 replacement. First thing that i noticed were the apps installed by default, Skype (not the standard version from the marketplace another one :S), accuweather, some shit house keyboard oh and facebook. Now first i tried to remove these normally through the apps section but then i realized they were unable to be removed. So time to root. However there is no info on these Agora 5 phones anywhere so i grabbed an app to find out what CPU etc the phone was running;

From here i did some reading on how to root this model phone/CPU. So lets get rooted.

First off go and ensure USB debugging is turned on (Settings -> Developer options)

Next connect the phone via USB, Jump into Device manager on your PC (Right click my computer and selet manage OR press the windows key on your keyboard and Pause break at the same time,then choose device manager). You should see something like the following:

You need USB drivers for this device so download them from here . ( i hosted locally as i am sure this one works). Extract these files into a folder on your desktop, Head back to your device manager. Right click on MT65xx Android Phone and select “update driver”.

Select “Browse my computer for driver software” and choose the folder you extracted to your desktop;

Select Next, If windows asks you if your sure you want to install this, select install.

Now the drivers should be installed;

Okies now were good to talk to the phone and use the rooting program. Download this rootin toolkit; Root_with_Restore_by_Bin4ry_v17 (Now this is an older version you can go to xda developers and get a later version but i tried a later version (18) and it didnt work.) , So 17 is the exact one i used successfully.

Extract this file to the desktop or whatever and run the runme.bat file inside. On the windows that Comes up enter “1” for normal device type. and hit “enter”/”Return”

Now the command prompt will tell you to click Retore

On your phone you will see a message like the following, just click “Restore My Data”

When it reboots you should see an app called Super SU

You can also grab an app from the market place / play store “root checker basic” This is juat a real obvious way to check for root, once installed and you run it you  should see;

So now  you know you have root. Lets Kill some bloatware off, and soem older crappy versions of software. So go to the market place / play store and grab “Root App Delete (uninstaller)”. Once installed you can run this, Click sysApp at the bottom.

Select the apps you want to get rid of (but be careful here you dont want to kill your device) So i removed AccuWeather first, by clicking on it and then hitting disable. (You may be asked to grant super user, select grant)

I then uninstalled the following items:British English for magic Keyboard v1.01, facebook 1.9 (if you have a later version it can replace this in the user apps, so you would need to remove that first), Magic Keyboard Free v1.4.15,  Skype 2.9, Twitter 3.6.0. Youtube App 3.3.0.

Next i installed facebook, twitter, youtube, streetview etc all from the Play store fresh, so you know their legit and the latest.

From here i only have one more thing i personally enjoy and thats googles sype keyboard, if you dont knwo what im talkign about check…

So you want it right, but it currently is only really available on Later versions of android, no problem XDA developers to the rescue, I have uploaded the version im using again as as of writing this it worked with this device grab the apk from here .

Before you install it (by downloading on your phone and clicking the downlaoded file) you just need to turn unsigned app installation on (you can turn it off after installing the keyboard if you want.) So to turn it on go to settings > security ansd select unknown sources.

Now click on the apk you downloaded and install the keyboard,

Now lets just setup this keyboard as the default input. go to settings > language and input. Select the unchecked Android keyboard English (US), then click the Default and change it to the other keyboard.

Now when you type you will have Swype-esk interface form the later android. 🙂

As per normal this is at risk, and if you brick your device etc i will not be blamed.