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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.
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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.
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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?
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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!
Hi!
Currently I have this device as my main option for upgrading my smartphone, but I'm looking for a phone which I can install 3rd party ROMs such as Lineage OS or Pixel Experience to prolong it's life.
For now this phone is selling a lot and looks promising when it comes having a good dev community.
Is this one a good choice or do you have any recommendations?
Thanks for your time
Probably not since its only for china/india. Also the main selling point of the phone, the camera, isnt as good as you might think. So just buy a Pocco, or wait a little more and see if they release new phones (Pocco2/Mi A3).
Most of the custom roms are being ported to other devices by Indian devs. So yes, there will be good dev support for this phone.
andresteare said:
Hi!
Currently I have this device as my main option for upgrading my smartphone, but I'm looking for a phone which I can install 3rd party ROMs such as Lineage OS or Pixel Experience to prolong it's life.
For now this phone is selling a lot and looks promising when it comes having a good dev community.
Is this one a good choice or do you have any recommendations?
Thanks for your time
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Click to collapse
Yes, it already has pretty good custom rom support.
Both Pixel Experience and LineageOS have already been ported and made available on the RN7P, as well as a few others like crDroid and Havoc OS.
Personally I'm using crDroid as I was told it's a LineageOS based rom but with more customization options added in, and while I'm still tinkering around with it, there's definitely a lot of options.
It's also officially been ported and maintained, if that makes much of a difference compared to LineageOS being an unofficial port last time I checked.
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.
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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!
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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.
Hi All,
While I was searching for a new device to purchase, this question popped into my head: how do ROM developers decide which devices to support? Admittedly, this question arose because I wanted to find a phone that would be compatible with the most ROMs and is currently still under active development. But I also am genuinely curious as well.
I'm new to the custom ROM scene and just started researching but from what I can understand, most, if not all, developers are doing this on their own free time without any sort of payment. In that case, I would assume, they would only support devices that they have access to, in other words, devices that are currently using and have used. Additionally, developers are probably tech-savvy so I am also assuming that most developers will choose a phone that they think is best. Although what is best is subjective, I believe that there are a common set of desired features which will lead to a couple of devices being more popular than others. As a result, some phones will see support from a wide variety of ROMs while others will see a few or none at all.
I went through a couple of the ROMs I was interested in from this list (https://www.xda-developers.com/the-most-popular-custom-roms-on-xda/), and found that Nexus 5x was common between them all. I can't recall what phone was popular during 2015 but was this phone really so popular/desired that all ROM developers seems to have one lying around in 2019/2020? Its been past 4 years since its launch and I assume that its specs are very outdated compared to what we have now but it is still being supported by many ROMs. What lead to this phone to become such a commonly supported phone by ROM developers?
The Nexus line was at a good price point, good hardware for the time and fully supported factory images from Google with regular updates, next to impossible to hard brick, worked across multiple carriers worldwide, easy to unlock bootloader, custom recoveries available, and popular following. I'm sure I've missed something [emoji846]
Device's that are only available in a limited market, or are unable to be bootloader unlocked, don't have factory images are difficult to support and have a limited following reduces the likelihood that a person interested in developing will buy that phone.
ktmom said:
The Nexus line was at a good price point, good hardware for the time and fully supported factory images from Google with regular updates, next to impossible to hard brick, worked across multiple carriers worldwide, easy to unlock bootloader, custom recoveries available, and popular following. I'm sure I've missed something [emoji846]
Device's that are only available in a limited market, or are unable to be bootloader unlocked, don't have factory images are difficult to support and have a limited following reduces the likelihood that a person interested in developing will buy that phone.
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If you don't mind, could I have your opinion on Moto G5 Plus in regards to ROM support? It appears to be supported by Pixel Experience, AOSP Extended, and ResurrectionRemix so it looks like it has a fair amount of support. However, when I view the top devices page on XDA (https://forum.xda-developers.com/top) I don't see the Moto G5 Plus. Would there be any relationship between the top devices on XDA and devices supported by the most ROMs?
No, there really is not a correlation between the top devices on XDA and ROM support.
The top devices reflects basically the activity within the forum. So new device releases will trigger people's curiosity so even though there may be zero ROM support, the device has activity.
A device like the Moto G5 plus that has been out for awhile, just doesn't have loads of activity in the forums. There is still activity on ROM threads, but it's more sporadic.
Got it, thanks for your help. Looks like I'll just have to keep digging through the forums and rom websites and try to make an educated guess about what device has and will continue having the most rom support.
The lineageOS support for the Nexus 6 is ongoing and that phone was released in 2014. There was a lot of passion surrounding that device, but as developers had their device fail (battery died, screen broken, ect), they moved onto other devices.
My point is, the best you can do is find a popular phone in your price range and hope. The OnePlus series may be worth looking at.
I mean it is a great device with cool specs, so what gives?
I was actually thinking of buying it. But lack of development really discourages me.
sssaini007 said:
I mean it is a great device with cool specs, so what gives?
I was actually thinking of buying it. But lack of development really discourages me.
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Maybe it's because ColorOS is different from other Android, especially security. Ported ROM, OS or other apps are not as easy as other brands of Android, there must be customization of scrips, drivers, etc.
Another factor is that more and more new devices are appearing at lower prices and better specifications make developers choose other brands.
there are many other factors that make developing this device feel slow.
but there is good news that there are developers like @BluBlu and other developers are starting to manage the Device tree, meaning that soon a stable custom rom version will appear specifically for Realme 5 Pro.
faisalxp said:
Maybe it's because ColorOS is different from other Android, especially security. Ported ROM, OS or other apps are not as easy as other brands of Android, there must be customization of scrips, drivers, etc.
Another factor is that more and more new devices are appearing at lower prices and better specifications make developers choose other brands.
there are many other factors that make developing this device feel slow.
but there is good news that there are developers like @BluBlu and other developers are starting to manage the Device tree, meaning that soon a stable custom rom version will appear specifically for Realme 5 Pro.
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Thank you for the reply. Can we expect a stable miui build for it?
And if you're using the device, what can you say about it's camera, performance, battery, charging and miscellaneous stuff? Should i buy it?
Another factor is that bootloader is not unlockable for EU version users.
sssaini007 said:
Thank you for the reply. Can we expect a stable miui build for it?
And if you're using the device, what can you say about it's camera, performance, battery, charging and miscellaneous stuff? Should i buy it?
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yeah, i heard in several groups that someone has tried ported MUI Rom but it's not stable yet, there are still a lot of bugs. I think if there is already a stable OS version, the others will start to catch up. related to the camera is very good I have never gotten a quality as good as this device for the same price especially when using gcam. The performance is a little lag, but with a little tweak or using a custom ROM, the problem is resolved. battery is very economical if it is not rooted, if root only lasts a day depending on your activities. very fast charging using VOOC and miscellaneous may be related to privacy / security better than other brands.
tonibm19 said:
Another factor is that bootloader is not unlockable for EU version users.
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If using Msmdownload and equalizing the partition size with other Region (which can Unlock Bootloader). can't the Flash Stock Rom Region do and unlock? or maybe even can flash vbmeta and TWRP?
Well in my opinion, the reasons for the slow development could be
- the amount of to be supported devices:
Currently there are ~18 devices which need maintenance and support. This is a huge task for such a new company. And there are more devices to come.
- Support request from "unsupported" regions: Realme devices are being sold in Europe "official" in Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Portugal. But you can buy the devices e.g in Germany by ordering over Ebay or Amazon and inofficial resellers. These user might have problems with current "locked" features, like VoLTE/VoWifi in Germany and request support from realme which might leads to a "support flood".
- maybe small developer team?