Samsung without the Samsung - Samsung Galaxy S20 / S20+ / S20 Ultra Questions &

I've not dealt with rooting and firmware on Android devices, so I'm not sure this is a thing. I love my 20+ hardware but the Samsung software experience blows. I prefer the Pixel software experience, but the hardware blows (comparatively.)
Do I have any stock Android options on this phone (SM-G986U1)? Something that would bring me closer to the pure Android experience?
A user on Reddit suggested that no matter ROM I used, banking apps would be inop for me. Is that true?
Thanks for the newbie help.

Related

OP3T arriving to me soon - worth rooting?

So recently I have purschased a 3T (after my Galaxy S6 exploded) and it's coming to my hands really soon. The question I'm asking myself right now is whether that amazing device is worth rooting. The question is quite bizarre in my case since I am an Android enthusiast and so far I have rooted EVERY SINGLE device I have owned. I also used to be a ROM/kernel developer as well back in the Xperia Arc/HOX/N4/5 days and root was simply essential for me especially that I loved playing around with Android. Referring to my last choice - Galaxy S6 (which replaced my old might Nexus 5) just had to be rooted. I came to Samsung from CLEAN Android experience and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't make it with tons of Touchwiz bloatware slowing my device down. Now, I have reached the point when I am not really this sure if I'll be rooting OP3T. Now, I just expect a device to be flawless in everyday usage and simply reliable. Any tips? Is it really worth rooting OP3T and sacrificing Oxygen OS OTAs? Or maybe the custom ROMs out there are so outstanding that it's just a must do. Thanks in advance
MaxFTW said:
So recently I have purschased a 3T (after my Galaxy S6 exploded) and it's coming to my hands really soon. The question I'm asking myself right now is whether that amazing device is worth rooting. The question is quite bizarre in my case since I am an Android enthusiast and so far I have rooted EVERY SINGLE device I have owned. I also used to be a ROM/kernel developer as well back in the Xperia Arc/HOX/N4/5 days and root was simply essential for me especially that I loved playing around with Android. Referring to my last choice - Galaxy S6 (which replaced my old might Nexus 5) just had to be rooted. I came to Samsung from CLEAN Android experience and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't make it with tons of Touchwiz bloatware slowing my device down. Now, I have reached the point when I am not really this sure if I'll be rooting OP3T. Now, I just expect a device to be flawless in everyday usage and simply reliable. Any tips? Is it really worth rooting OP3T and sacrificing Oxygen OS OTAs? Or maybe the custom ROMs out there are so outstanding that it's just a must do. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No i dont think so. Oxygenos is simply smooth you hardly find lag and 6gb is just enough. All my family members using oneplus 3 and 3t. Except me nobody has rooted it. But the performance is so awesome you dont need to root the phone
Btw oneplus warranty includes rooted devices
abhi0502 said:
No i dont think so. Oxygenos is simply smooth you hardly find lag and 6gb is just enough. All my family members using oneplus 3 and 3t. Except me nobody has rooted it. But the performance is so awesome you dont need to root the phone
Btw oneplus warranty includes rooted devices
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even for AdAway, Greenify or SDMaid? Those were quite essential apps for me especially on the crappy GS6. SDMaid could do wonders to put it back to smooth work.
If you find those apps useful, then it's worth it.
RJMacReady said:
If you find those apps useful, then it's worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly.
For what it is worth, I was a huge AdAway user. I've gotten around it by using Dolphin browser with ad blocking extension. Works every bit as effectively as AdAway for web browsing. Sure, I have to deal with a few ads in some apps, but this is a minor annoyance for me.
I have had the phone since June and never once felt the need to root. As stated earlier, OOS is simply brilliant.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk
Try YuBrowser on this phone. It's optimized for our Snapdragon and comes with a lot of security. I also use SDMaid.
MaxFTW said:
Even for AdAway, Greenify or SDMaid? Those were quite essential apps for me especially on the crappy GS6. SDMaid could do wonders to put it back to smooth work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need greenify bcoz oxygenos has built-in hibernating tool. For blocking ads use can use a adguard which do not required a rooted phone. As far sd maid is concerned i have not used it so i cant comment on that.
If you root the phone and oneplus released a new update you can flash the update ( but u need flash updated full rom available from oneplus website) through twrp. You dont need oneplus recovery.

MIUI Pro Custom ROM

I was wondering if anyone has experience using the above custom ROM? The homepage is in Russian and I haven't been able to find out much more about it other than the fact that some people really seem to like it.
If anybody is running the ROM I would be interested in opinions. Is it worth flashing instead of using stock MIUI? Any problems using it in English or compatibility issues with US phone service?
I haven't unlocked my bootloader yet but have permission. I'm trying to figure out if there is a custom ROM worth flashing that offers some advantages over stock. My original plan was to flash LOS but some people seem to be experiencing bugs.
Any info on MIUI PRO (or even a different recommendation) would be appreciated.
I can't complain about performance on stock which is blazing fast but I do miss Google Smart Lock.
jhs39 said:
I was wondering if anyone has experience using the above custom ROM? The homepage is in Russian and I haven't been able to find out much more about it other than the fact that some people really seem to like it.
If anybody is running the ROM I would be interested in opinions. Is it worth flashing instead of using stock MIUI? Any problems using it in English or compatibility issues with US phone service?
I haven't unlocked my bootloader yet but have permission. I'm trying to figure out if there is a custom ROM worth flashing that offers some advantages over stock. My original plan was to flash LOS but some people seem to be experiencing bugs.
Any info on MIUI PRO (or even a different recommendation) would be appreciated.
I can't complain about performance on stock which is blazing fast but I do miss Google Smart Lock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would actually also appreciate any information on this ROM. I have used LineageOS, MIUI Stable, Developer, Nightly Beta, EpicRom, RR but not this one solely because the site is Russian as you stated. Would love a bit more info...Figured I'd reply to this in hope to revive it.
As for LineageOS, you might as well try it out now. The third release (most recent one) has had a LOT of fixes and optimizations done to it.
I've been using it for more than one Xiaomi phone and I think it's a great rom. Very fast, smooth, without lag and with an excellent battery life. It also has a face unlock and other settings that you can't find in other roms...I try Epic Rom,Xiaomi Eu,Lineage...
I don't know about US phone service because I'm from Europe...not from Russia but I use Miui Pro without problems or fear also if they are from Russia
Try it:good:
3o3ulka76 said:
I've been using it for more than one Xiaomi phone and I think it's a great rom. Very fast, smooth, without lag and with an excellent battery life. It also has a face unlock and other settings that you can't find in other roms...I try Epic Rom,Xiaomi Eu,Lineage...
I don't know about US phone service because I'm from Europe...not from Russia but I use Miui Pro without problems or fear also if they are from Russia
Try it:good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I shall look into it. What kind of modifications/differences are there compared to the stock MIUI?
For example you can encrease at 6 number of toggles... double tap where do you want to wake up or turn off the screen...choose the colour the battery when is 100% or 80%...etc
MIUI Pro has had very bad battery backup for me
I switched to Mi-Globe ROM
Kaji said:
Would actually also appreciate any information on this ROM. I have used LineageOS, MIUI Stable, Developer, Nightly Beta, EpicRom, RR but not this one solely because the site is Russian as you stated. Would love a bit more info...Figured I'd reply to this in hope to revive it.
As for LineageOS, you might as well try it out now. The third release (most recent one) has had a LOT of fixes and optimizations done to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried LOS. I was excited at first to have stock Android back but then I experienced issues with poor call quality and my mobile data reception became erratic so I ended up going back to MIUI Global with the MI Flash tool and not paying close enough attention allowed it to lock my bootloader again.
My skepticism about MIUI PRO goes beyond the Russian website. There is no information about the ROM in English anywhere I could find. The only review on YouTube is in Hindi. None of the Xiaomi threads on XDA, Google+ or Reddit has information about the ROM. I know Xiaomi phones are primarily sold in China and India but that doesn't really explain why there seems to be no information anywhere about the ROM.
But the fact that the ROM is based in Russia does seriously concern me. I had an issue with Kaspersky Anti-virus (which used to be first rate) not flagging Russian malware on my computer. And that happened a full year before Russian hackers helped Trump become president. Using a Russian operating system on a phone just doesn't seem like the smartest idea.
If you try MIUI Pro post what you think of it.
jhs39 said:
I tried LOS. I was excited at first to have stock Android back but then I experienced issues with poor call quality and my mobile data reception became erratic so I ended up going back to MIUI Global with the MI Flash tool and not paying close enough attention allowed it to lock my bootloader again.
My skepticism about MIUI PRO goes beyond the Russian website. There is no information about the ROM in English anywhere I could find. The only review on YouTube is in Hindi. None of the Xiaomi threads on XDA, Google+ or Reddit has information about the ROM. I know Xiaomi phones are primarily sold in China and India but that doesn't really explain why there seems to be no information anywhere about the ROM.
But the fact that the ROM is based in Russia does seriously concern me. I had an issue with Kaspersky Anti-virus (which used to be first rate) not flagging Russian malware on my computer. And that happened a full year before Russian hackers helped Trump become president. Using a Russian operating system on a phone just doesn't seem like the smartest idea.
If you try MIUI Pro post what you think of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said my friend, and kudos for using the flash tool....just feels so much more..genuine. Can't say I haven't accidentally locked my bootloader too but that's how we learn.
I found the LOS to be, well, an absolute stock experience. But like you and I'm sure many others, it just isn't at the point where it should be used as a daily driver. I'm currently running the 11th of May beta but honestly has more bugs than LOS at this stage so will be reverting back to the latest official developer ROM from the MIUI site (fastboot ver of course).
Gave this MIUIPro some extra thought and seeing as though it sounds very limited in extras (you can mod the number of toggles in the quick settings with packages already available on XDA if you wished to do so) I'll stick with builds straight from Xiaomi.
Sorry for the let down
Kaji said:
Well said my friend, and kudos for using the flash tool....just feels so much more..genuine. Can't say I haven't accidentally locked my bootloader too but that's how we learn.
I found the LOS to be, well, an absolute stock experience. But like you and I'm sure many others, it just isn't at the point where it should be used as a daily driver. I'm currently running the 11th of May beta but honestly has more bugs than LOS at this stage so will be reverting back to the latest official developer ROM from the MIUI site (fastboot ver of course).
Gave this MIUIPro some extra thought and seeing as though it sounds very limited in extras (you can mod the number of toggles in the quick settings with packages already available on XDA if you wished to do so) I'll stick with builds straight from Xiaomi.
Sorry for the let down
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking about trying the MIUI Developer ROM. Is it stable enough to use as a daily driver? I looked at posts about the beta but that seemed to be to buggy for me. I value stability since I'm using the Mi Mix 2 as my main phone. That wasn't my original plan but the signal reception is so superior to my Essential PH-1 I couldn't justify using it daily instead even though there are many things that I prefer about that phone.
Maybe LOS for this phone will get better eventually but that was what I kept telling myself when I had an OP5. I hated the stock OS but after trying every custom ROM that existed I found only 1 Nougat ROM (Viper) and 1 Oreo ROM (Phoenix) that I considered good enough to use as a daily driver. I'm not a programmer but I think the quality of custom ROMs has gone down the toilet because they are almost always being made now by people who don't use the phone as their daily driver. The only non-OOS ROM made by a developer who actually used the OP5 daily was Phoenix and you could tell the difference the developer actually using the phone made.
Cyanogenmod was the first custom ROM I ever used that always had bugs, probably because they were trying to be compatible with as many phones as possible. My experience with LOS on 2 previous phones has been exactly the same. I love that they are trying to bring stock Android to phones that don't have it but I wish they were doing a better job.
jhs39 said:
I was thinking about trying the MIUI Developer ROM. Is it stable enough to use as a daily driver? I looked at posts about the beta but that seemed to be to buggy for me. I value stability since I'm using the Mi Mix 2 as my main phone. That wasn't my original plan but the signal reception is so superior to my Essential PH-1 I couldn't justify using it daily instead even though there are many things that I prefer about that phone.
Maybe LOS for this phone will get better eventually but that was what I kept telling myself when I had an OP5. I hated the stock OS but after trying every custom ROM that existed I found only 1 Nougat ROM (Viper) and 1 Oreo ROM (Phoenix) that I considered good enough to use as a daily driver. I'm not a programmer but I think the quality of custom ROMs has gone down the toilet because they are almost always being made now by people who don't use the phone as their daily driver. The only non-OOS ROM made by a developer who actually used the OP5 daily was Phoenix and you could tell the difference the developer actually using the phone made.
Cyanogenmod was the first custom ROM I ever used that always had bugs, probably because they were trying to be compatible with as many phones as possible. My experience with LOS on 2 previous phones has been exactly the same. I love that they are trying to bring stock Android to phones that don't have it but I wish they were doing a better job.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey man. I had been using Developer builds up until now and I can tell you they are easily stable enough for daily use. I cannot confirm this is 100% correct but I'm fairly sure Developer ROMs are just the in-between ROMs where all the minor adjustments happen. The change logs have all included things like "Improved system stability", "removed unnecessary files for [insert app here]" etc. So you never know, they could actually be more stable than any of the "Stable" releases you've used so far, you'll have to be the judge of that. I don't travel much, nor do I require any very advanced function of Android at this stage so for sure there could be something I've missed but I have never had a force shut-down, lack of signal, graphical bug or force-close of app with any of the developer builds.
I never owned a OP5 but I did have a OP3 and OP3t which I used FreedomOS on both but eventually came around to LineageOS only because they all seemed about as optimized as eachother. I'm all for custom MIUI ROMs if they are going to actually improve on something but at this stage all they do is debloat which can be done by anyone and add a few features which actually make the system less stable and battery hungry. My plan is to try the occasional Beta to see what new features Xiaomi is bringing to the table, stick with the latest developer the rest of the time, and when they finally make a stable I'm happy with then stick with that until the next wave of software upgrades is due.
How is the Essential by the way? Apart from the signal. Never met anyone who owned one.
Kaji said:
Hey man. I had been using Developer builds up until now and I can tell you they are easily stable enough for daily use. I cannot confirm this is 100% correct but I'm fairly sure Developer ROMs are just the in-between ROMs where all the minor adjustments happen. The change logs have all included things like "Improved system stability", "removed unnecessary files for [insert app here]" etc. So you never know, they could actually be more stable than any of the "Stable" releases you've used so far, you'll have to be the judge of that. I don't travel much, nor do I require any very advanced function of Android at this stage so for sure there could be something I've missed but I have never had a force shut-down, lack of signal, graphical bug or force-close of app with any of the developer builds.
I never owned a OP5 but I did have a OP3 and OP3t which I used FreedomOS on both but eventually came around to LineageOS only because they all seemed about as optimized as eachother. I'm all for custom MIUI ROMs if they are going to actually improve on something but at this stage all they do is debloat which can be done by anyone and add a few features which actually make the system less stable and battery hungry. My plan is to try the occasional Beta to see what new features Xiaomi is bringing to the table, stick with the latest developer the rest of the time, and when they finally make a stable I'm happy with then stick with that until the next wave of software upgrades is due.
How is the Essential by the way? Apart from the signal. Never met anyone who owned one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a nice looking phone. Great build quality and excellent QHD screen. It's smaller than other phones I've owned over the past 5 years bit doesn't feel like a small screen phone because of the high screen to body ratio. It's much more comfortable to handle than the Mi Mix 2 although I'm getting used to this one. It's not as smooth or snappy as the Mix 2. But the weak signal reception is a big problem. I used it on T-Mobile (erratic signal), AT&T (poor signal), Sprint (poor signal) and Verizon (very good signal). Unfortunately Verizon's MVNO (Straight Talk) is way more expensive than the ones available for T-Mobile so it made more sense to use a different phone than pay a higher cell service bill every month just so I could keep using the Essential. I should have returned it for a refund but fell in love with it which was why I tried every network. I'm just using it as a backup with very cheap T-Mobile. The signal at home is crap but since WiFi calling works it doesn't matter.
Maybe I'll try the dev ROM then. Thanks for the info.
Kaji said:
Hey man. I had been using Developer builds up until now and I can tell you they are easily stable enough for daily use. I cannot confirm this is 100% correct but I'm fairly sure Developer ROMs are just the in-between ROMs where all the minor adjustments happen. The change logs have all included things like "Improved system stability", "removed unnecessary files for [insert app here]" etc. So you never know, they could actually be more stable than any of the "Stable" releases you've used so far, you'll have to be the judge of that. I don't travel much, nor do I require any very advanced function of Android at this stage so for sure there could be something I've missed but I have never had a force shut-down, lack of signal, graphical bug or force-close of app with any of the developer builds.
I never owned a OP5 but I did have a OP3 and OP3t which I used FreedomOS on both but eventually came around to LineageOS only because they all seemed about as optimized as eachother. I'm all for custom MIUI ROMs if they are going to actually improve on something but at this stage all they do is debloat which can be done by anyone and add a few features which actually make the system less stable and battery hungry. My plan is to try the occasional Beta to see what new features Xiaomi is bringing to the table, stick with the latest developer the rest of the time, and when they finally make a stable I'm happy with then stick with that until the next wave of software upgrades is due.
How is the Essential by the way? Apart from the signal. Never met anyone who owned one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Programming on OnePlus phones has gotten way worse since the OP3/3T days. Oxygen was programmed by a team in Europe back then. But to save money OnePlus fired the European programmers and transferred the ROM to the Hydrogen team in China. That's when the coding started to go completely to hell.
Software engineers in China and India analyzed the OnePlus version of Oreo and reported that a lot of the code was actually Nougat. They also said the coding overall was very sloppy and unprofessional.
If you follow software devs on their Telegram channels (outside of XDA) it doesn't take long to discover that the poor programming on OnePlus phones is a running joke with many of them.
Running a custom ROM doesn't completely fix the problem either because the custom ROMs still need to use OnePlus firmware which is a mess.
OnePlus phones are so poorly programmed there is no way to use TWRP safely unless you decrypt the data on your phone and keep it permanently decrypted.
jhs39 said:
Programming on OnePlus phones has gotten way worse since the OP3/3T days. Oxygen was programmed by a team in Europe back then. But to save money OnePlus fired the European programmers and transferred the ROM to the Hydrogen team in China. That's when the coding started to go completely to hell.
Software engineers in China and India analyzed the OnePlus version of Oreo and reported that a lot of the code was actually Nougat. They also said the coding overall was very sloppy and unprofessional.
If you follow software devs on their Telegram channels (outside of XDA) it doesn't take long to discover that the poor programming on OnePlus phones is a running joke with many of them.
Running a custom ROM doesn't completely fix the problem either because the custom ROMs still need to use OnePlus firmware which is a mess.
OnePlus phones are so poorly programmed there is no way to use TWRP safely unless you decrypt the data on your phone and keep it permanently decrypted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You make me really appreciate the fact I chose my Mi Mix 2 over the OnePlus 5t. Coming from the OnePlus 3T it was a difficult decision but I'm glad I made the switch.
Honestly this is the first I've heard of this but that's so bad, they are becoming one of the most popular high end smartphone manufacturers and they struggle to make solid, secure advancements in their software which can potentially lead to massive breaches of privacy via exploits.
Actually I remember not too long ago, wasn't there a big issue where users could access root from within the hidden developer settings of the OS? Without even an unlocked bootloader.
Gotta love that this is an entirely different topic from what this thread was made for.
Kaji said:
You make me really appreciate the fact I chose my Mi Mix 2 over the OnePlus 5t. Coming from the OnePlus 3T it was a difficult decision but I'm glad I made the switch.
Honestly this is the first I've heard of this but that's so bad, they are becoming one of the most popular high end smartphone manufacturers and they struggle to make solid, secure advancements in their software which can potentially lead to massive breaches of privacy via exploits.
Actually I remember not too long ago, wasn't there a big issue where users could access root from within the hidden developer settings of the OS? Without even an unlocked bootloader.
Gotta love that this is an entirely different topic from what this thread was made for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For whatever reason tech sites in the United States allow themselves to be shills for OnePlus. Reviews for the latest OnePlus device frequently sound more like shameless promotion than honest analysis because they often are. OnePlus solicits reviews in exchange for free phones and places the reviews on accommodating tech sites. I received an invitation to apply for a free OnePlus 6 phone and help to influence tech buyers. To apply OnePlus wanted a full length sample review of a tech product I already owned. The people who submit the most professional sounding reviews get the free phones and send their reviews to OnePlus. OnePlus then cherry picks those submissions and publishes the reviews it likes on various tech sites.
Pretty much the only two places you can get accurate information about OnePlus phones is on Telegram and Reddit.
Here's what happened with spyware in the 8 months I had an OP5. Someone discovered that a system process in Oxygen was secretly transmitting a lot of detailed user information to servers in China. This was separate from the User Experience Program that owners could opt out of.
An explanation of how to disable the spyware process was published and when asked to comment OnePlus promised to remove the spyware.
Nothing was done at all until the next scheduled monthly update. It appeared that OnePlus removed the spyware but it was discovered that OnePlus instead changed the name of the spyware process and that it was still transmitting the same user information to servers in China.
OnePlus apologized again but still left the spyware functioning until the next scheduled monthly update.
Shortly after it was discovered that an app in Oxygen allowed anyone with physical access to a OnePlus phone to unlock and root it by connecting it to a computer. OnePlus claimed that it was a Qualcomm test app that had been accidentally left on the phone. There actually was such an app but when Qualcomm examined the app found on OnePlus phones they said it definitely wasn't theirs.
It took OnePlus two months to remove the app from Oxygen.
Then in December a new type of spyware was discovered in an Oxygen beta build for the OP3/3T--a clipboard app that was transmitting contents to a server in China. OnePlus insisted that the clipboard app wasn't spyware but was actually a feature intended for its Chinese customers even though OnePlus sells virtually no phones in China.
Also in mid November OnePlus started to receive reports that customers who used their credit cards to make purchases on the official OnePlus site were seeing unidentified charges on their accounts. OnePlus didn't shut down credit card processing on its website until January. By that time over 40,000 OnePlus customers had their credit card information stolen.
OnePlus is not a good company so the fact that American tech sites continue to shill for them is nauseating.
I'm definitely much happier with my Mix 2 than I was with the OP5. This isn't a perfect phone but it's very good for the cost. The OP5 had crummy build quality and felt like cheap junk.
I tried MIUI Pro for a couple days. I wasn't all that impressed with it. MIUI Pro is less smooth and fluid than the latest official Global Dev Build despite having almost all of the Xiaomi MIUI apps removed.
The default keyboard is from Sony Experia for some reason. The only added feature than I personally found worthwhile was the expanded boot menu.
These are the other differences I noticed:
1) There is a smart network function that allows you to choose a specific type of network connectivity when making or receiving phone calls. You can have the phone switch to a specific network type and also automatically shut off WiFi, data or Bluetooth when on a call.
2) Menu options to change the system font and animations and their speed.
3) Built in charging alarm that would have been way more useful if you could customize the low charge/full charge values.
4) Option to use LTE instead of 4G in status bar as well as more options to disable/enable icons that appear there.
5) Three status bar settings (stock, aosp & IOS) that sound promising but all they did was change the arrangement of the status bar icons.
I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting. The Google Play Store comes pre-installed but nothing else--not even the Google app. That makes setting up Google Assistant with voice commands much more of a hassle but it's doable--the menus to make that happen in MIUI Pro aren't intuitive but that's probably because it's based on the China ROM.
It's also more of a hassle to get Google apps working properly in MIUI Pro compared with Official Global because you need to download everything from the Play Store and also manually grant the permissions for each app.
Since there are very few pre-installed apps you do have more free storage but I expected the ROM to be way faster and smoother since it's so stripped down. Performance of the ROM definitely isn't bad but for some reason it's inferior to stock.
Even though I chose English as the install language a couple of notifications came up in Russian. What they said I don't know.
I also don't know if any spyware or malware was written into the OS.
I missed stock after using MIUI Pro for just a few hours but ran it for 2 days anyway to give the ROM a fair chance.
I could see someone running MIUI Pro on a device where there was no official global ROM but it didn't do much for me.

Does anyone use this OS as their daily driver? What are your experiences and thoughts with the OS?

My Samsung A3 is almost 5 years old and I still use it as my daily driver, I'm thinking about flashing Lineage OS to the device and I'm wondering what anybody's experiences were with using the OS as their daily driver. I will use it mostly for calling, texting and journaling. I also listen to music quite frequently. I don't intend on installing any of the popular apps.
I've been using LineageOS and Cyanogenmod forever. It works wonderfully and I do anything I can with the stock OS and more.
I run LineageOS on my Samsung Galaxy S5 Duos and use it as my daily driver. It's running Lineage 17.1 which is Android 10 (18.1/11 has just become available too) - not bad for a phone launched in February 2014, which is now over 7 years ago!
If it wasn't for this phone only having 2GB of RAM onboard a lay person probably wouldn't notice much difference compared to a more modern mid range phone.
With LineageOS there's a lot less bloat so Storage, RAM, CPU Performance, and Battery Life are all improved.
I went the whole way and the phone is rooted as well and to be honest I wouldn't look back. I bought this phone all those years ago specifically to do this and it's really paid off.
But remember the LineageOS ROMs are specific for each phone. So the first thing to do is to find the support thread here for your particular model and read through it for points relative to your specific device.
I really like the freedom that LineageOS and Root gives me to do whatever I like with my phone, all while getting monthly updates and having a support thread of like minded users (well actually many of them are way more power users than me). Daily driver performance is excellent.
When I buy a new phone it will again be a model that can run LineageOS and be rooted. And I'll do this immediately after purchasing the device. These days that also makes some chinese model phones a good option as they often have a good hardware to price value ratio, but terrible support and updates. So it's possible to use this good value hardware but combined with an excellent LineageOS ROM, support, and updates instead.
Hope that helps
eu7tFeTyT7vfPy said:
My Samsung A3 is almost 5 years old and I still use it as my daily driver, I'm thinking about flashing Lineage OS to the device and I'm wondering what anybody's experiences were with using the OS as their daily driver. I will use it mostly for calling, texting and journaling. I also listen to music quite frequently. I don't intend on installing any of the popular apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's OK if you have A3 2016. But what's your motivation? Playing around? Avoiding Google spying? Impressing friends with new android version?
kurtn said:
It's OK if you have A3 2016. But what's your motivation? Playing around? Avoiding Google spying? Impressing friends with new android version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Avoiding google spying No friends to impress lol!
jmh2002 said:
I run LineageOS on my Samsung Galaxy S5 Duos and use it as my daily driver. It's running Lineage 17.1 which is Android 10 (18.1/11 has just become available too) - not bad for a phone launched in February 2014, which is now over 7 years ago!
If it wasn't for this phone only having 2GB of RAM onboard a lay person probably wouldn't notice much difference compared to a more modern mid range phone.
With LineageOS there's a lot less bloat so Storage, RAM, CPU Performance, and Battery Life are all improved.
I went the whole way and the phone is rooted as well and to be honest I wouldn't look back. I bought this phone all those years ago specifically to do this and it's really paid off.
But remember the LineageOS ROMs are specific for each phone. So the first thing to do is to find the support thread here for your particular model and read through it for points relative to your specific device.
I really like the freedom that LineageOS and Root gives me to do whatever I like with my phone, all while getting monthly updates and having a support thread of like minded users (well actually many of them are way more power users than me). Daily driver performance is excellent.
When I buy a new phone it will again be a model that can run LineageOS and be rooted. And I'll do this immediately after purchasing the device. These days that also makes some chinese model phones a good option as they often have a good hardware to price value ratio, but terrible support and updates. So it's possible to use this good value hardware but combined with an excellent LineageOS ROM, support, and updates instead.
Hope that helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the detailed response, and for reminding me to check the support thread for my model! I also noticed that the less popular Chinese model phones had better price to hardware ratios and the only thing stopping me was exactly what you mentioned, though I'm doing this to an A3 I'll probably consider buying something of the sort in the future for when I want an upgrade. From your response, Lineage is looking hopeful!

Best custom ROM for my sister's A50

Hello!
My sister would like to have a stable, no thrills, custom ROM. Also a suitable Gcam mod with that.
She is accustomed to ONE UI and all that is Samsung, however, she would like get rid of bloatware in order to save space and resources.
She uses Google apps, of course, but perhaps also some Samsung apps, like S Health.
I can program it for her, I think. I have reprogrammed several Samsung devices before, albeit a few years ago.
Please advise me what to choose. It's a SM-A505FN/DS.
Thanks!

Question Does this phone really have no custom ROMs?

I don't see separate sub-forums for ROMs and recoveries etc. Just wondering what happened to this phone? The root is available. So, why is ROM development not there?
devsk said:
I don't see separate sub-forums for ROMs and recoveries etc. Just wondering what happened to this phone? The root is available. So, why is ROM development not there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Root is not available on all versions. There is no unlocking the bootloaders on the US versions.
Oh... And there is this.
[13][ROM][sGSI][CWAI+][Exynos2200] Pixel Experience Plus
Pixel Experience Plus "s"GSI DISCLAIMER I am not to be held responsible for any damage that might come to your device while trying to install or using this rom. This is your own responsibility. What is this? Pixel Experience is an AOSP based...
forum.xda-developers.com
Latest Samsung phones are not really friendly towards custom roms and third-party modifications. S20 is advancing at a really low pace compared to S10 and S9 series, which recieved a lot of love from the community. Maybe, if you're truly interested in custom rom development, you should get a phone from another brand (OnePlus, Google, etc..)
Tbh considering how long Samsung is supporting their phones currently i do not miss custom ROM's that much..
k3lcior said:
Tbh considering how long Samsung is supporting their phones currently i do not miss custom ROM's that much..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel the same way. I would only bother with a custom rom if SOT was a few hours higher.
Custom ROMs will make changes to your device that cannot be undone. You might have issues later if you want to use company resources on your phone for your job. Also ROMS have really improved a lot the last years. Personally I don't miss custom ROMs anymore on my S22+. Even on my previous S8+ I was really satisifed with stock roms. The only thing I miss today is good ad-blocking. But not enough to 'partially break' my device.
If you can't live with Samsung's bloat, then you need a custom ROM

Categories

Resources