Any how the other problem was that the phone is rebooting every time it goes to sleep making it unusable :( Feels like I am cursed or something. Anyway. In my search to fix the phone since I don't know if I will eventually get what I ordered, tried to root it.
Used the MTKdroidtools v2.2.8.
In order for the phone to be recognized by the software, it needs to be in debugging mode and connected as a media device. (touch for other USB options, connect as media device). Storage device or camera device will not help. from that point on the process is straight forward. Keep a copy of the details of the phone both in a text file and in backup and press ROOT. the phone will reboot 3 times and then boot in the OS. The software will ask to keep a rom backup, and that should be done for better or worse. There is talk about using ADB drivers or MTK6575 drivers, although I installed ADB and tried to install the available drivers, WIN7 wouldn't recognize them TPSparkyRoot_ru would probably do the same job had I realized the above (media device) detail sooner.
CAUTION: TPSparkyRoot takes quite sometime to finish. DO NOT stop it or turn off the phone while TPSparkyRoot is working and haven't given the signal that its finished!! In case the TPSparkyRoot is accidentally stopped, start it over again. If it hasn't finished rooting, it is quite possible that the phone lags significantly. If you run it again and the rooting finishes, then the lag disappears.
DRIVERS: Also necessary are some drivers. If you have windows 7, go to the device manger and ACTION, Add Legacy device and choose the driver to be installed. I could not install it any other way.
CAMERA: This phone comes with 2 different cameras. My particular phone has the 5megapixel camera OV5647 camera as shown in the build number in the About phone tab, in the settings menu. there is a great ROM flashing guide here as well as lots of information (in russian) here. there is also a live thread on xda developers about the MTK6577 variant of the phone.
Some thoughts on the phone: there is no compass sensor which is a shame. My humble zte blade had one. there is no temperature sensor. Built quality feels ok, but on the other hand I do not have experience with iPhones or Samsung S3. the camera has a plastic cover that is protruding and could be easily scratched. the phone is smooth in touch and rather slippery. I almost dropped it a couple of times.
and a couple of thoughts on the design. This below is the cable for the power button. I think that sooner or later it will cut off. This to my opinion is a design flaw. Lets hope it will live for a couple of years.
So in my attempts to fix the rebooting issue, I flashed all the roms I could find. I installed roms for both the mtk6575 and the mtk6577 and even one rom from a different phone that mistakenly thought after reading some things that it would work. The MTK6577 roms did not work on the phone. The other rom was installed, but because it was meant for a different screen, nothing was visible on mine when it booted. It was working more or less and the buttons were working, since I could feel the vibra when touching them, but the screen was more or less blank.
At about the same time my PCs USB stopped to function and no matter how many times I tried to use the flashing tools, the phone seemed to ignore all my attempts. So I was stuck with a half brick :( Then I put a USB stick in which would not mount and then I thought to reboot the PC. SOOOOO after rebooting the PC the USB ports started working and the mobile phone to get recognized by both the device manager and the SP_Flash_Tool. Hurray! I finally managed to flash the proper rom and revive the phone.
However the reboot problem remains no matter what.
PS if you intend to buy one of these phones, ask the seller to run antutu on the exact item you buy and send you a video with the imei and serial number clearly showing to avoid my surprise.
Update
Unfortunately the seller I got it from run out of stock and asked me to specify a different model to replace this one. Which means that unless something change, I will not be playing with this one any more :(
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