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XDA-ability of Huawei phones ;)

Hey guys,
smashed my phone this week :crying: and now I'm thinking about picking up the P9!
I wanted to have a little discussion about how easy it is to root/mod Huawei phones in general, since I never owned one before. I realize that the P9 is just coming out and we don't have all the information yet, but the general policy from Huawei should translate to the P9 - i think.
So for example, unlocking the bootloader kinda gimped the camera on my previous phone (xperia z3c). Is this common practice? Can you root huawei phones without unlocking the bootloader? How about xposed?
And how willing are the devs to work on these products.
Oh and do you guys think the P9 will get double tap to wake eventually? I haven't seen confirmation if it exists, but this should be such a basic and standard feature these days that it's unbelievable that the P9 doesn't have it?
cheers and have a great day!
Matt

So all of my experience comes from a cheapo 7" tablet called the Honor T1 which my wife had. That's a really old device though and not very popular.
Anyway it was rootable with a chinese tool (language was an issue for me obviously) but it had basically zero dev support (unsurprisingly)
My question is if that's what I have to expect with the P9^^

come on guys I don't exactly need all facts^^ But let's discuss, give me your opinions! I will probably get my P9 tomorrow anyway so I'm looking forward to modding our P9 exactly the way we want.

clouds5 said:
come on guys I don't exactly need all facts^^ But let's discuss, give me your opinions! I will probably get my P9 tomorrow anyway so I'm looking forward to modding our P9 exactly the way we want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll (mostly likely) be getting the P9 Plus but am doing so in the realisation that full custom ROMs are unlikely to come to this device and those that do will likely not not have full functionality. Only for this phone is this not a deal breaker for me. If it was a pre-requisite for me buying a new phone I'd have been looking at the new Samsungs or HTC.
I really hope you won't be disappointed that you won't be able to get you P9 modded the way you want it, but I fear you may be.

clouds5 said:
Hey guys,
smashed my phone this week :crying: and now I'm thinking about picking up the P9!
I wanted to have a little discussion about how easy it is to root/mod Huawei phones in general, since I never owned one before. I realize that the P9 is just coming out and we don't have all the information yet, but the general policy from Huawei should translate to the P9 - i think.
So for example, unlocking the bootloader kinda gimped the camera on my previous phone (xperia z3c). Is this common practice? Can you root huawei phones without unlocking the bootloader? How about xposed?
And how willing are the devs to work on these products.
Oh and do you guys think the P9 will get double tap to wake eventually? I haven't seen confirmation if it exists, but this should be such a basic and standard feature these days that it's unbelievable that the P9 doesn't have it?
cheers and have a great day!
Matt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Having owned four Huawei mobiles (P8, P8 Lite, Honor 6 and 4C) allow me to clarify some things for you:
Unlocking the bootloader is easy and won't effect any of the proprietary stuff (such as losing DRM keys, Bravia Engine on Sony devices). The bootloader once unlocked can also be re-locked pretty easily. I used P8 and unlocking bootloader didn't effected camera, sound, etc.
You can probably root Huawei devices without unlocking bootloader using Kingroot. Kingroot supports most of the Huawei devices and currently is also able to root Android 6.0 EMUI 4.0 devices. So I believe, Kingroot will add support for the P9 too.
Huawei devices lack development due to incomplete Kernel sources. I haven't the seen the face of stable Cyannogenmod for any of the Huawei devices I've owned. Honor 6 got CM 11 but was unstable for daily use. It's because of the Kirin SoC which has no good sources and is not development friendly. You won't find any spec sheet relating to any Kirin devices. Talking about Kernel sources, they're a mess and they won't even compile. Huawei releases some of the sources in order to be GPL compliant and if you try to compile AOSP, all proprietary stuff such as NFC, Fingerprint, IR Blaster (in this case) are extremely difficult to be run on custom ROM.
Since EMUI 3.1, almost all Huawei devices have double tap to wake feature. P9 should have it including off screen gestures and probably knock gestures.

Thx! Exactly the information I was looking for. This sounds good enough for me. I usually use stock roms with root/xposed and this should be possible on the P9. Good news about the bootloader as well.
The main reasons I used custom roms in the past was to improve performance and battery life. Both are basically not an issue anymore with current phones. And theming is built in anyway.

Honor 8 a viable choice in 2017?

Hello.
I'm looking for a new phone, my budget is around 340 USD and therefore Honor 8 has really caught my eye. I'd like to ask a couple questions.
1. Is the bootloader unlock process problematic? Have you faced any issues with it or is it hassle-free? Coming from an LG device, I want to be extra careful with this.
2. I plan to have this device for a longer period of time, around 3-4 years. Is Honor 8 a viable choice, despite the fact that it will soon be a year from the release? Will it be able to hold off for that long, in terms of ROM support and general performance/usage?
3. How do custom ROM development prospects look right now for the device? From what I've seen, Huawei still hasn't released sources for Nougat. Can I expect good custom ROM support from this device?
4. How satisfied are you with your phone? Would you recommend it to me? Are there anything you don't like about the phone?
Thanks in advance.

Hi , i will just speak about question 4 ....
I had iphone7 , Huawei P9, Galaxy s7 and since 2 month : Honor 8
Yes for me you can buy this phone in 2017
It's a very good phone , very fluid, no lags, the phone is not too big , not to small, you can use with one hand . Screen is good , photo too but not like Iphone7 or Galaxy S7 . I am very happy with quick charge . For me the phone is more faster than an Iphone7, or Galaxy S7 . You can personalize like you want , You have a lot of nice themes on XDA or Google+ Emui Community . Sound is good, with headset is not like an Iphone or Galaxy s7 but to listen music is suffisant for me . Voilà, my advice is very good phone, just photo and music with headset can be better but stay ok for daily use .

The device is solid. Runs fast, pretty good specs, and looks nice.
Expect zero updates. Zero custom ROM support, and even rooting is a pain in the butt.
If you're into it for the dev scene, move on. If you want a half decent device for daily use, not bad at all.
Personally I regret buying it because Huawei is terrible at updates and keeping promises.
But as a daily driver device, it's fine.

Don't buy it's an alright phone but no custom ROM support is like a death sentence for a phone. This phone has been out for like 9 months and doesn't have a fully working custom ROM, that right there tells you that this phone has no future. Also who keeps wants to keep a low to mid range phone for 3-4 years? Must be in a 3rd world country!

I am happy with the phone but I'm disappointed with Huawei/Honor when it comes to updates and I am not going to buy more phones from them.
I would get something else right now, it was a good choice when it was released
Next time I will just pay 200 extra euro and get a real phone

Yeah it is a good phone but i am disappointed i expected few roms by now...i wish i could turn time back and go for xiaomi rednote 3 pro

1. Is the bootloader unlock process problematic? Have you faced any issues with it or is it hassle-free? Coming from an LG device, I want to be extra careful with this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's hassle-free.
2. I plan to have this device for a longer period of time, around 3-4 years. Is Honor 8 a viable choice, despite the fact that it will soon be a year from the release? Will it be able to hold off for that long, in terms of ROM support and general performance/usage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huawei offer 2 years of updates, but not monthly updates. Taking a look at honor 6 released in august 2014 - it is indeed so. Latest update for honor 6 is september 30th 2016.
3. How do custom ROM development prospects look right now for the device? From what I've seen, Huawei still hasn't released sources for Nougat. Can I expect good custom ROM support from this device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. Don't expect good custom ROM for this device.
4. How satisfied are you with your phone? Would you recommend it to me? Are there anything you don't like about the phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty satisfied. I enjoy it's dimensions, design, performance and battery life. Games aside, it's faster than any SD820 phone and most SD821 phones (take a look at performance comparison videos on youtube), so it's definitely going to be quick enough for 3-4 years.
If no custom ROM support, lower than SD820 GPU performance and only 2 years of official updates are OK for you (as it is for me) - I definitely recommend it.

Fobos531 said:
Hello.
I'm looking for a new phone, my budget is around 340 USD and therefore Honor 8 has really caught my eye. I'd like to ask a couple questions.
1. Is the bootloader unlock process problematic? Have you faced any issues with it or is it hassle-free? Coming from an LG device, I want to be extra careful with this.
2. I plan to have this device for a longer period of time, around 3-4 years. Is Honor 8 a viable choice, despite the fact that it will soon be a year from the release? Will it be able to hold off for that long, in terms of ROM support and general performance/usage?
3. How do custom ROM development prospects look right now for the device? From what I've seen, Huawei still hasn't released sources for Nougat. Can I expect good custom ROM support from this device?
4. How satisfied are you with your phone? Would you recommend it to me? Are there anything you don't like about the phone?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can easily get a code from Huawei to unlock the bootloader, but there's not much point to rooting the phone with development on it pretty nonexistent.
The hardware is really nice. The phone's a great size, the CPU is a beast, the GPU kind of sucks (but that doesn't matter if you're not playing new/demanding games on it like me), but the security updates are TERRIBLE. The most recent software update for the US version of the phone came out in the beginning of January. So we're almost four months into the year and the December 1st security patch is the most recent one available.
If you'd be happy with Nougat 7.0/EMUI 5.0 in a year from now and don't do anything that having security up to date matters it's fine, but otherwise I'd look elsewhere.

Custom Rom Questions

I have been using a FRD-L14 running EMUI 4.1 (B150) for a few months and while I love having such a long battery life, I am starting to get frustrated with how much of my apps the system automatically kills in the background (alarm apps, text delay send, etc). I am considering trying out a custom ROM but have a few questions before proceeding.
1. If I make a TWRP nandroid backup, can I just reflash that at any time and revert back to my current rom without any hiccups if I have regrets?
2. I remember reading somewhere that I have to first upgrade to EMUI 5.0 before using a custom rom, this will not cause any issue with potential rollback?
3. What is the best currently available custom rom to try if I am looking for longest battery life and fewest bugs? Will the battery life come anywhere close to EMUI 4.1?
Thank you in advance!

Aren't there any official updates for the premium H8s?
Also that's quite the lengthy question and I know it's been asked before somewhere, please use the search function.
(Plus i can't remember the exact details as well)
Also battery life is **** with custom,(won't last me a day so i went back to stock) especially compared to MM (Even stock nougat is a worse) and all of them are somewhat buggy, but it depends on what you use.
Sent from my HUAWEI FRD-L09 using XDA Labs

I'm a new user of the Honor 8 with the exact same problem...
Also have the FRD-L14... wondering if any improvements/insights?
Would love to root, remove bloat, and even install a custom ROM, but all I've seen is that it can be a complete clusterf*#@ to do so. I'm just about to return this phone, its quirks are really ruining it for me.

anoukaimee said:
...... Would love to root, remove bloat, and even install a custom ROM, but all I've seen is that it can be a complete clusterf*#@ to do so. I'm just about to return this phone, its quirks are really ruining it for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i recommend that you return it asap! there are other phones that are way better. the good thing is that most new phones will have oreo and treble by default which is going to be mandatory in android from now on.
at worst, users will get AOSP. at best, custom ROMs that have much better functionality. i recommend saving for either a oneplus, or maybe a nokia.

thanks, I think you're right, just such a headache shopping for a bargain again. do you have any recs for phones that are similarly fast but without the intrusive bloat and which hopefully are easily rooted/support magisk mods etc? I wish the xiomi 5 series worked in the US, they sound great for the money. maybe another Chinese brand (Oppo, Meizu) that has better specs than the going rate here but can also be modded? I don't need to get it back to Amazon until the end of February (thank you, extended holiday returns), so I can wait for shipment from China. Or else a Motorola or even Nokia? need to keep under $350; significantly less would be much better.
appreciate it if you have any ideas.
---------- Post added at 03:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:12 AM ----------
droidbot1337 said:
i recommend that you return it asap! there are other phones that are way better. the good thing is that most new phones will have oreo and treble by default which is going to be mandatory in android from now on.
at worst, users will get AOSP. at best, custom ROMs that have much better functionality. i recommend saving for either a oneplus, or maybe a nokia.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry, just saw that you HAD recs. kind of intrigued by Nokia because I think they're selling at a discount to get their name out there. is there a specific model?
and is there anywhere you can still buy a OP3?

anoukaimee said:
............. do you have any recs for phones that are similarly fast but without the intrusive bloat and which hopefully are easily rooted/support magisk mods etc? I wish the xiomi 5 series worked in the US, they sound great for the money. maybe another Chinese brand (Oppo, Meizu) that has better specs than the going rate here but can also be modded?.......... and is there anywhere you can still buy a OP3?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
okay, so now that you informed me about your location (US) it seems that you and i are in the same situation. i was waiting to get a 1+5t after buying a few 1+5s for various family members. they all needed updates. after thinking about it i decided to wait because 1+ lacks the one thing i desperately rely on.... EXPANDABLE STORAGE!
sadly, this is the one area where huawei really excels at. they include expandable storage on most of their phones. after htc decided to skip a US release of the U11+ it seemed that i would be forced to settle for the 1+ but thankfully there have been leaks of many new devices.
the one im looking forward to is the new redesigned sony line. from what i have read they will keep the 16:9 which i love and adopt a rear fingerprint scanner plus small bezels. the huge bezels are the only thing keeping me from buying a sony as they keep their android ROM clean with no horrible UI.
aside from sony, xiaomi is said to be releasing a few phones in the us as well. these combined with a redesign of the LG flagships. that makes for many options but, you will need to set aside a bit of money. imho, it will be worth it because all of these phones will come with oreo and treble.
for those devices that have a horrible stock rom, you can just install AOSP or any of the treble based custom ROMs. it will be great since all the latest phones have more longevity thanks to their hardware. the only limitation is software but treble will take care of that.
as far as a 1+3/t, you can find them on swappa. if bought 2 a few weeks back for $215 shipped. both were 64GB models that only needed the screen repaired. the total ended costing me about $170 each. if you have any kind of experience with repair, i recommend taking that route. i hope this helped, if you have any questions, dont hesitate to pm me. we gotta help each other out some way or another. cheers!

I'm starting to hate Xiaomi

First of all, they rushed the Oreo update with tons of severe bugs and the beta testing was open to a number of complete random Joes most of whom could never do their job properly.
Secondly, they now cancelled the second Oreo update without any announcements.
Thirdly, there's zero communication with/from them - there no official Xiaomi employees/representatives either on miui or xda-dev forums, they never reply to your questions in Twitter.
This was supposed to be an exploratory OEM device running Android One - instead we've got a big f***ing mess.
To add insult to injury there are no kernel sources four months after the device release. EIS/Camera2API are still not enabled in any builds. Low light camera performance is simply horrible. There's white noise for headphones which most likely will never be solved since this phone has a broken amplifier which should have never passed QA/QC.
I'm never buying anything again from this company.
And it's not like Nougat releases were bugs free - there were at least a dozen of serious bugs. And Android System/OS power use is still enormous. Seems like Xiaomi simply doesn't care.

I think that you are not correct. Phone is just amazing for that price range.
Beautiful design, excellent response and many many good things.
Im on January update now rooted, with framework reset and don't have one bug.
For camera they should make better software. Because Gcam can make excellent photos compared to stock. But never the less phone is just great.
Good job xiaomi.

janchaman said:
I think that you are not correct. Phone is just amazing for that price range.
Beautiful design, excellent response and many many good things.
Im on January update now rooted, with framework reset and don't have one bug.
For camera they should make better software. Because Gcam can make excellent photos compared to stock. But never the less phone is just great.
Good job xiaomi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like you don't use this smartphone at all or use it for a handful of functions because it has tons of bugs. I'm glad you like it though.

i got oreo 1st update, bug only on packet data notification.
Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk

What you've pointed out is very true. I also think a lot of randos are in the beta program, but then again the beta program is entirely USELESS if there is no communication with the dev team. The individual devs too can't do anything until the source arrives, which Xiaomi claims is taking time "to make it better" which can be read as "our kernel is still not good enough" I'm not surprised that the ROMs are buggy. There is huge potential for Mi A1, but software and Xiaomi cripples it.
After source kernel is released though, I expect it to have the best and most optimal software. Until then it's just a waiting game.

I think you miss the point that you bought a cheap 200 bucks device. Tons of bugs ??? Not really. Oreo is ok, if you can help yourself a little bit. Other expensive brands have update and even hardware issues too. Just sit back and chill. The perfect device and perfect support ? Have fun to wait for it

birdie said:
First of all, they rushed the Oreo update with tons of severe bugs and the beta testing was open to a number of complete random Joes most of whom could never do their job properly.
Secondly, they now cancelled the second Oreo update without any announcements.
Thirdly, there's zero communication with/from them - there no official Xiaomi employees/representatives either on miui or xda-dev forums, they never reply to your questions in Twitter.
This was supposed to be an exploratory OEM device running Android One - instead we've got a big f***ing mess.
To add insult to injury there are no kernel sources four months after the device release. EIS/Camera2API are still not enabled in any builds. Low light camera performance is simply horrible. There's white noise for headphones which most likely will never be solved since this phone has a broken amplifier which should have never passed QA/QC.
I'm never buying anything again from this company.
And it's not like Nougat releases were bugs free - there were at least a dozen of serious bugs. And Android System/OS power use is still enormous. Seems like Xiaomi simply doesn't care.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And still no kernel sources yet

No kernel sources..we just lost the lineage OS devices as he lost his phone ???

There are some setbacks but come on every OEM is doing the same thing with their customers, you can't specifically say about a1. Btw the kernel sources still not released is a big blunder committed by Xiaomi.

Working great for.my wife.
I do recall the noise on social media and forums demanding the update before Jan. 1. I think Xiaomi have learned a lesson and decided to say less to temper expectations. The complaints do suggest that the update was not ready, and they should have just let folks harass them on social media and various sites and ignored them until it was ready.

birdie said:
First of all, they rushed the Oreo update with tons of severe bugs and the beta testing was open to a number of complete random Joes most of whom could never do their job properly.
Secondly, they now cancelled the second Oreo update without any announcements.
Thirdly, there's zero communication with/from them - there no official Xiaomi employees/representatives either on miui or xda-dev forums, they never reply to your questions in Twitter.
This was supposed to be an exploratory OEM device running Android One - instead we've got a big f***ing mess.
To add insult to injury there are no kernel sources four months after the device release. EIS/Camera2API are still not enabled in any builds. Low light camera performance is simply horrible. There's white noise for headphones which most likely will never be solved since this phone has a broken amplifier which should have never passed QA/QC.
I'm never buying anything again from this company.
And it's not like Nougat releases were bugs free - there were at least a dozen of serious bugs. And Android System/OS power use is still enormous. Seems like Xiaomi simply doesn't care.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, just stop crying!
Nobody made you to buy xiaomi!
It was a small company that became larger than old Not Chinese companies, they sell good stuff, their QC is better than in other companies.
A1 is first not MUI phone. It takes time to things well. I use android O and have no problems at all.
About a camera, you can't get Leica or Samsung camera for 150$!!!
Want a good camera? Buy Huawei, Samsung, iPhone... Pay 700$ and don't write things you don't understand...
BTW, if you won't buy xiaomi stuff, xiaomi won't beg you to do it!

yanleites said:
OK, just stop crying!
Nobody made you to buy xiaomi!
It was a small company that became larger than old Not Chinese companies, they sell good stuff, their QC is better than in other companies.
A1 is first not MUI phone. It takes time to things well. I use android O and have no problems at all.
About a camera, you can't get Leica or Samsung camera for 150$!!!
Want a good camera? Buy Huawei, Samsung, iPhone... Pay 700$ and don't write things you don't understand...
BTW, if you won't buy xiaomi stuff, xiaomi won't beg you to do it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The point isn't that the device is bad, the problem is that i could be far better than how currently is.
The camera isn't great at all, but it could be better by simply activating api2 in build.prop, how much does it cost to xiaomi? Maybe it don't give a f**k about this device.
Bugs, they could be less, of course with kernel sources there will be even Ron development.
The dac is absolute s**t, i can't understand all the reviewer that said it was stunning, the hissing sound isn't a minor issue
Update, really xiaomi, really? Releasing buggy and early update should be you marketing strategy. It suck , just in case someone is reading this.
Lack of communication on Twitter or xda, they even haven't said that all otas are blocked, xiaomi you are acting like a ****.

Give them a break man! They have to release a phone every 2 minutes, that's hard! I'm a first time user of xiaomi, bought it because of Android one. Hey, mistakes were made! It's my last phone for sure , now I can't do nothing more than try to enjoy this and hope for custom ROM devs fix everything (if the phone survives that long)

To OP (and others who identify themselves): Boohoo, this phone is not perfect, boohoo, Xiaomi never again, boohoo. Again? Seriously? Isn't there something more meaningful what you can do in your life? I don't know..did you maybe consider buying another phone where you'll actually be happy and you could move on? Being in constant pain and frustration with Mi A1 is not good for your health.

I have no idea what's about here.
For my needs this phone is perfect. Yes, perfect, so I bought 3 of them for me/wife/daughter.
I was happy with Nougat and now I'm happy with Oreo Jan patch.
For now I just wait for sources and custom ROM avalanche to squeeze every bit of software from this hardware.
Bottom line, as usual YMMV.

The only thing that I hate Xiaomi for is that the Mi A1 xda forum is full of idiots reposting and spamming, instead of developers showing their amazing work which could be done with the kernel sources out.

Hating Xiaomi have become mainstream here, you cannot say you love this phone anymore. How many thread do we need for hating Xiaomi and bugs discussion.
I have to say that my Oreo doesnt have major bugs, only minor bugs, i still can wait for the fix. Battery life incredibly better than nougat, it stay more than 24 hours for me.
If you have major bugs like wifi or call problem, just bring it to service centre, I'm sure they can help. Or you can use Nougat while waiting for stable Oreo (UI is quite the same). MiFlash tools is very easy to use too. (I think you need to backup your data if you want to downgrade because of difference encryption)
I think because of this phone so easy to unlock/relock bootloader (without wiping data) plus with magisk undetectable root, its impossible to tell which bugs (in xda & MIUI forum) came from root or unroot device. I'm not saying all the bugs came from root device, but it make it worse. Maybe that cause Xiaomi panic and pull back update, just maybe.
I didnt see when someone post a bug and the first question is "did you unlock bootloader?" every bugs post usually follow with hating this phone. All I want to see is workaround for the bugs while waiting it to be fix.
I hold my update for 2 week because of all these bugs post, but after I update my phone, its not that bad. Those thread are not reliable anymore. Why?

Welcome to the club..
And on cue paid xiaomi trolls arrive to say Xiaomi is god, buy another phone.. ???
Sell the phone & buy another.. Thats the only option.. Mi's inhouse development team is sh*t.. I don't think there's hope for this phone..

neojith said:
Welcome to the club..
And on cue paid xiaomi trolls arrive to say Xiaomi is god, buy another phone..
Sell the phone & buy another.. Thats the only option.. Mi's inhouse development team is sh*t.. I don't think there's hope for this phone..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See? This why people who has working phone remain silent. you cannot share something good about this phone. In the end all these threads become less and less informative. Anyway, if you think there is no hope, why you still here?

If You buy a phone for $150-$200 You really can't be that stupid/naive that You expect same build quality, same camera, same support, same update interval, same bug fix speed, etc as a $600-$900 phone??
Software development is expensive and cheap phones doesn't pay big dev teams!
This phone is my sixth "cheap China phone" and second Xiaomi and I can promise that the updates are miles better than from many others in same price range!
I don't have any major "bugs" or bigger annoyances in my phone (currently running Oreo Dec 1 2017) and it works great as my daily driver.
The small issues are there yes, but please show me a phone in same price range that's free from bugs.
So from my point of viev: A1 is good phone for that price!

why so "less" development ?

as the title says i wonder why there is so "little" development for the i9lite going on
i thought a device with this great specs for such a little price would be very interesting, but when you look at similar devices as the 9t or 9t pro there is a lot more of development
don't get me wrong i really thank all the devs that work on the i9lite right now, but i am a little bit worried as the a2 lite i have right now is also a great device but without much development there are only a few custom roms and and a hardly working twrp for it
my i 9lite is actually on the way to me, but right now i am really afraid that i will get in the same problem as with the a2 lite that there is absolutely no interest for the devs to work for this device.
Maybe the 9t(pro) would have been the better decision regarding this, but i really do not like the front cam of the T devices
I wish i could do a little developing for custom roms myself but i do not have the skills :crying: -
what do you guys think about it or you you have no concerns in this direction and you are really happy with the i9lite an how things are at the moment ?

I'm the same as you, waiting for mine to arrive.
Moving from Moto g5 plus it looks pretty quiet here.
I hope we can get a decent gcam at least

I don't know about other countries but in France the Mi 9 Lite just started becoming available through carriers. It might be that there are just less people equipped with that phone for now. I will also get a Mi 9 lite, there is already Lineage and GSI, so the roms I'm most interested in are there already.

Just reading from telegram group. One developer (coderzs)is ready to make base tree(I'm not sure of the term),also a recognized developer of mia2 lineage and other custom rom fo a2. But they trying to raise fund to get the device. I think it's just a matter of time and we can see a lot custom here in xda. Just follow the telegram group,search for mi9t lite/Cc9 global.

For there to be active development and/or many developers, the device must be widely available and relatively popular. You can't expect all those things to be a fact barely few months after device release. Seeing as it has great specs and is reasonably priced, it's just a matter of time until the device becomes interesting to developers.
Also, a word of advice - nobody likes doing stuff for free for a pushy user base.

shhnedo said:
Also, a word of advice - nobody likes doing stuff for free for a pushy user base.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that is absolutly clear, also i really apriciate all the work that the devs do in their freetime and for free, my opening post is absolutly not meant in this direction.
i am grateful that there is this great modding community that gives us a lot of opportunities that the manufacturers themselves do not even they get paid for it.
i am only worried as custom roms is the only way to have a long life for the smartphone as you still get new android versions when the manufacturer is only releasing security updates or nothing at all at a certain point.
so i hope you are right and that its only a matter of time
@Kadyo
a that sounds interesting i hope i can find this group as i am not so familiar with this telegram, i would also like to spend a certain amount to get the i9lite for the dev (maybe you can pm me the group if its not against xda's rules)

ilovebytes said:
that is absolutly clear, also i really apriciate all the work that the devs do in their freetime and for free, my opening post is absolutly not meant in this direction.
i am grateful that there is this great modding community that gives us a lot of opportunities that the manufacturers themselves do not even they get paid for it.
i am only worried as custom roms is the only way to have a long life for the smartphone as you still get new android versions when the manufacturer is only releasing security updates or nothing at all at a certain point.
so i hope you are right and that its only a matter of time
@Kadyo
a that sounds interesting i hope i can find this group as i am not so familiar with this telegram, i would also like to spend a certain amount to get the i9lite for the dev (maybe you can pm me the group if its not against xda's rules)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MOD EDIT: Telegram link removed, read the STICKY!

A huge factor in ROM development is the geographic area in which the device is popular. Most developers for Xiaomi phones are from India which is an incredibly competitive market where, frankly, this phone makes little sense: the Mi 9T with basically the same specs is only marginally more expensive, and the latest Redmi is waaaaaaay cheaper. Now, in Europe the Mi 9 Lite makes more sense for the price bracket it's in, but for some reason the developer scene in European countries is lackluster at best. Fortunately, Russia is another country famously active for Android developing and, apparently, this phone is doing fairly well there.
As someone mentioned early, we're currently trying to buy and send a Mi 9 Lite to a ROM developer, so depending on how this ends we may be able to get this forum moving a bit
In the meantime, my standard response is the usual: if you really can't stand MIUI, give GSIs a shot! They're far better than I thought!

iuliusdeblobbis said:
Most developers for Xiaomi phones are from India which is an incredibly competitive market where, frankly, this phone makes little sense: the Mi 9T with basically the same specs is only marginally more expensive, and the latest Redmi is waaaaaaay cheaper. Now, in Europe the Mi 9 Lite makes more sense for the price bracket it's in
As someone mentioned early, we're currently trying to buy and send a Mi 9 Lite to a ROM developer, so depending on how this ends we may be able to get this forum moving a bit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not yet released in India, is it? That might also be a reason for why there's not a lot going on yet. I do think it is weirdly priced in Europe as well. It's a bit disheartening to see there's not a lot going on (yet, hopefully!) in terms of custom ROMs, but I've never used a custom ROM before on either of my phone and I don't intend to play around with ROMs anyway.
But nice to hear you guys try to get a phone to a ROM developer!

thanks for all your suggestions and opinions so far, will try to get onto telegram this weekend and see how this works.

I've Purchased Mi9Lite About 2 Month Ago(Iran- From Abu Dubai) , Device is Great For Price (350-400$ In My Country! ) in Compare to other devices like RN8P
But development???
There's Even No Ported Gcam For Mi9Lite and Stock Camera Quality is awful
Custom Roms? Hmmn I'd rather to use more stable versions
But there's still a hope, In Russian Forums (4pda) some devs r developing kangaroo kernel for this device
MIUI Rom Are So Smooth but have little bugs and they're annoying like app freezing while using VPN!

amirinjast said:
There's Even No Ported Gcam For Mi9Lite and Stock Camera Quality is awful
Custom Roms? Hmmn I'd rather to use more stable versions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-cc9/development

we have the basics, which is TWRP and a way to flash GSIs, there's not really any need for anything else tbh, the days of specific devices development are behind

I bought mi 9 lite for 217$ month ago. This is the best choice of Mi9/Mi9T because of its price and card slot.
This smartfon had working LOS 2 months after world release! Now LOS is ebought mature for use it as daily driver. With ported gcam is absolutely amasing. My old xperia z3c waited years for first LOS, and up to 5 years for OFFICIAL version of LOS.
If Mi9 will sell itself very good, we will see many other custom roms.
I will stay with LOS, because is the best for me.

VyktorJonas said:
we have the basics, which is TWRP and a way to flash GSIs, there's not really any need for anything else tbh, the days of specific devices development are behind
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even with GSI, I could not make the camera work satisfactorily and rom to pass the safetynet, and the statusbar does not display the icons properly ...

I have the mi a3 and I'm looking at the 9 lite for the bigger and more high res screen. But yeah there's definitely more development for the a3 though it was officially launched in September vs July (according to gsmarena). I do hope we get more devs for this phone, because it seems like a good one. I'm already stretching my budget with the 9 lite. I don't want to stretch more with the 9t

It's just not that popular as other devices are right now..
I just purchased it though, looking nice, when I get it first thing I'll do will be unlocking BL.

I think this phone has not released yet (or released very recently) in India, this will boost activity a lot.

Just kinda surprised custom recovery is not at the official twrp site yet.

xzn1 said:
It's not yet released in India, is it? That might also be a reason for why there's not a lot going on yet. I do think it is weirdly priced in Europe as well. It's a bit disheartening to see there's not a lot going on (yet, hopefully!) in terms of custom ROMs, but I've never used a custom ROM before on either of my phone and I don't intend to play around with ROMs anyway.
But nice to hear you guys try to get a phone to a ROM developer!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mi Cc9 was released in India 9 months ago or so. The Mi9 Lite is a rebranded CC9. The specs are all the same afaik.
I made a mistake. See the next reply.