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[Rich J]

Hi All - I'm looking for some advice re: the above phone.

This device was purchased originally on a Vodafone deal, now unlocked and on 3 network.  It came with a load of pre-installed apps (bloatware) which I'm trying to get rid of - unsuccessfully so far!  I've added a 16GiB micro SD card which works ok but none of the embedded apps will transfer to it and - surprisingly - very few of the apps I install will transfer either..... I can save photos and other data files however.  This means that whenever I run updates, the phone complains there is little storage left - no wonder as the 'bloatware' takes up most of the space!

Scanning the 'net has brought up tons of how to's and the like, none of which have been any use - usually you end up in a advertising loop or the software doesn't download at all.  Reading up, I realise that any embedded apps are there to stay so, realistically, it means flashing a new ROM is the only way to clean things up.

What I'm looking for is an 'idiot's guide' that can point me in the right direction.  Or, if any of you good folks have experience of flashing ROMs, could you give me some pointers?  There appears to be no official custom ROMs available for this device but there are some unofficial upgrades that are supposed to work.  Also there are official stock ROMS available.  Would a stock ROM do the job?  Insofar as it would be a basic set of apps (before the retailer's developer got hold of it) that I could add to myself?

I really have no experience whatsoever with Android so any advice would be most welcome!  It does seem (to a beginner) that smartphones are a minefield to work with and I don't want to screw things up if I can help it!

Thanks in advance

Rich