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ANDROID PHONES AND CUSTOM ROM/FIRMWARE

s2scotty
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

For those of you using an older genertation android based phone, you may have noticed that your manufacturers' updates have become very infrequent or ceased altogether. Certain phones and tablets -- devices -- are easy to switch to what's known as a "custom ROM."

 

A custom ROM is a customized variant, a legit open source extention, of google's android operating system tailored to your device and tweeked per the specific distrobution's goals (e.g. speed and security, or more gaming than business, et cetera). In most cases a custom ROM is faster and more up to date with regard to bug fixes and security patches. There are many, many sources and variants of custom ROMS. All/any ROM is device specific. You have to mate and match.

 

A very good custom ROM distribution (many device specific editions) is LineageOS. LineageOS 14.1 parallels and paces google's android 7.1.1 quite faithfully. It is free of ad and bloat ware, though, as YOU install YOUR apps, ad and bloat may leak in via YOUR choices. Their downloads area can be found at https://download.lineageos.org/

 

I have five devices running LineageOS and all are stable and smooth running. Most are "faster" (smoother) than with origianl "stock" ROM/firmware.

 

I recommend old devices be tried first. Older typically mean more than two (2) years because -- 1) it is typically at the end of two years that the original maker/brand stops posting native updates to their stock ROM; and 2) the device is out of warranty as flashing a custom ROM *may* invalidate the device warranty and/or the carrier's technical carrier support.

 

Presently (2017Q1), the frequency of their updates to their ROM images is weekly. IMO, weekly is far better than the once-a-year or not-at-all cycle some brands provide.

 

For example, my NEXUS 5 phone is now running Android 7.1.1, Guava(7) and is security patched to 2017-JAN. If I was running stock, It would have to be 6.0.1, Guava(5) and 2016-11, respectively.

 

Happy ROM'ing.

/Scott

 

42 REPLIES 42


@thudoan63 wrote:

@will13am wrote:

@zhadj030, I feel sorry for you.  That is what happens when you buy a Samsung product.  You pay apple like pricing but without the cradle to grave support on software.  Your support probably ends abruptly when the galaxy SX+1 model shows up on the carrier shelves.

Most manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, LG, etc. seem to have around an 18 month update window for their flagship devices. Not horrible but not great either.


If the price was a lot cheaper for Samsung products, I would say it is okay to have around a year of manufacturer's support.  I stick by my approach of going buying phones that have xda support.  Android 7.1.1 is available on my nexus 4, Oppo Find 7, One plus one.  It would not surprise me if one of these devices gets android 8. 

thudoan63
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@will13am wrote:

@zhadj030, I feel sorry for you.  That is what happens when you buy a Samsung product.  You pay apple like pricing but without the cradle to grave support on software.  Your support probably ends abruptly when the galaxy SX+1 model shows up on the carrier shelves.

Most manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, LG, etc. seem to have around an 18 month update window for their flagship devices. Not horrible but not great either.


@zhadj030 wrote:

@will13am wrote:

@zhadj030 wrote:
I didn't know that after two years the device is already considered old. I have a nice galaxy S5 almost 3 yrs old and I am happy with it. I payed the full 799$ outright I won't call it old after 2yrs. Yes update are non existent almost but custom ROMs are still pouring.

@zhadj030, I feel sorry for you.  That is what happens when you buy a Samsung product.  You pay apple like pricing but without the cradle to grave support on software.  Your support probably ends abruptly when the galaxy SX+1 model shows up on the carrier shelves.


 @will13am XD. I will not deny that. 

Yes I totally agree with yoj, but that was my first Samsung phone and before that I had the iPhone 4S. So I had to experiment. While I don't really feel that I got robbed by Samsung compared to apple's WAY OVERPRICES IPhone. (Apple fans no hate please I just said it is OVERPRICES but it is a good device). While I feel pissed at Samsung only bringing a 16GB model I got way more functions (useful ones).

As you mentioned at the time it was the latest flagship and still only had updates everytime team Canada won a game in soccer . The advantage of Samsung is that they are popular so a lot of people do make ROMs for them all the time even after 3 yrs like now I am only two months late on monthly updates. 


16 gig is not the end of the world, except touchwiz makes Windows look like a really lightweight OS.  The system partition hogs so much space that the user is left with nothing.  This is the real killer.  My Oppo only has 16 gigs of storage.  The system partition is 2 gigs and I still have almost 500 megs free!  I get 14 gigs of usable space which is plenty as long as some prudence is applied to avoid installing every antivirus, cleaner, battery saver app.


@will13am wrote:

@zhadj030 wrote:
I didn't know that after two years the device is already considered old. I have a nice galaxy S5 almost 3 yrs old and I am happy with it. I payed the full 799$ outright I won't call it old after 2yrs. Yes update are non existent almost but custom ROMs are still pouring.

@zhadj030, I feel sorry for you.  That is what happens when you buy a Samsung product.  You pay apple like pricing but without the cradle to grave support on software.  Your support probably ends abruptly when the galaxy SX+1 model shows up on the carrier shelves.


 @will13am XD. I will not deny that. 

Yes I totally agree with yoj, but that was my first Samsung phone and before that I had the iPhone 4S. So I had to experiment. While I don't really feel that I got robbed by Samsung compared to apple's WAY OVERPRICES IPhone. (Apple fans no hate please I just said it is OVERPRICES but it is a good device). While I feel pissed at Samsung only bringing a 16GB model I got way more functions (useful ones).

As you mentioned at the time it was the latest flagship and still only had updates everytime team Canada won a game in soccer . The advantage of Samsung is that they are popular so a lot of people do make ROMs for them all the time even after 3 yrs like now I am only two months late on monthly updates. 


@NDesai wrote:

@will13am wrote:
@NDesai wrote:

Word of advice, back-up your data even if you don't want to before doing anything. You might have to switch between roms to find the one you like. Some will have no video or camera function on them or battery drain issues so you will have to try them out and see which one you like.I found PureNexus rom with franco kernal to be perfect for my nexus 5. 


Everybody always says back up your data.  Interestingly, unlocked bootloader devices offer the easiest ways to save data.  I don't know too many people that would not make a backup before installing a rom upgrade. 


Funny. My plan was to unlock the bootloader first then backup the image but then i found out after that unlocking bootloader completely wipes your phone 😞 


Lol, this is a security feature.  The first step I take when getting a new device is to tempt fate with the warranty and unlock the bootloader.  I want to get the factory reset out of the way. 


@will13am wrote:
@NDesai wrote:

Word of advice, back-up your data even if you don't want to before doing anything. You might have to switch between roms to find the one you like. Some will have no video or camera function on them or battery drain issues so you will have to try them out and see which one you like.I found PureNexus rom with franco kernal to be perfect for my nexus 5. 


Everybody always says back up your data.  Interestingly, unlocked bootloader devices offer the easiest ways to save data.  I don't know too many people that would not make a backup before installing a rom upgrade. 


Funny. My plan was to unlock the bootloader first then backup the image but then i found out after that unlocking bootloader completely wipes your phone 😞 

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@zhadj030 wrote:
I didn't know that after two years the device is already considered old. I have a nice galaxy S5 almost 3 yrs old and I am happy with it. I payed the full 799$ outright I won't call it old after 2yrs. Yes update are non existent almost but custom ROMs are still pouring.

@zhadj030, I feel sorry for you.  That is what happens when you buy a Samsung product.  You pay apple like pricing but without the cradle to grave support on software.  Your support probably ends abruptly when the galaxy SX+1 model shows up on the carrier shelves.


@NDesai wrote:

Word of advice, back-up your data even if you don't want to before doing anything. You might have to switch between roms to find the one you like. Some will have no video or camera function on them or battery drain issues so you will have to try them out and see which one you like.I found PureNexus rom with franco kernal to be perfect for my nexus 5. 


Everybody always says back up your data.  Interestingly, unlocked bootloader devices offer the easiest ways to save data.  I don't know too many people that would not make a backup before installing a rom upgrade. 

will13am
Oracle
Oracle

@s2scotty, I like phones with xda support myself.  I used to like cyanogemnod (lineage) back in the gingerbread, ice cream sandwich days.  These days, I like slim and omni.  Both offer pretty stable builds.  The custom rom scene is the only way to go if you want to have software support beyond about a year.

zhadj030
Mayor / Maire
I didn't know that after two years the device is already considered old. I have a nice galaxy S5 almost 3 yrs old and I am happy with it. I payed the full 799$ outright I won't call it old after 2yrs. Yes update are non existent almost but custom ROMs are still pouring.

MoreYummy
Mayor / Maire

This was very popular at the beginning of android era.  However each ROM has its own bugs, so need to keep changing to the one that suite you.  This ROM modification need people who knows what they are doing on computer and phone.   

Be careful of what you doing.  Backup before installing any custom ROM.

Have fun!

NDesai
Oracle
Oracle

Word of advice, back-up your data even if you don't want to before doing anything. You might have to switch between roms to find the one you like. Some will have no video or camera function on them or battery drain issues so you will have to try them out and see which one you like.I found PureNexus rom with franco kernal to be perfect for my nexus 5. 

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