Hi,
since today there's the big 11.11 sale and I could need a new secondary phone I was looking for a cheaper model (say up to 150€ maybe 200€).
One could get some very nice hardware for this money already, but unfortunately they come with software that I don't trust.
Also I'd like to avoid Xiaomi and their annoying bootloader unlocking process (unless it's Android One).
Do you know any newer phone model or brand in general that has good custom ROM support? I looked at the supported device list of LineageOS but most of the devices are either a bit old or quite expensive. Ulefone, Dogee, Umidigi, Oukitel or how they are all called - I don't care as long as I can install my own software.
Thanks in advance for your recommendations.
simsees said:
Hi,
since today there's the big 11.11 sale and I could need a new secondary phone I was looking for a cheaper model (say up to 150€ maybe 200€).
One could get some very nice hardware for this money already, but unfortunately they come with software that I don't trust.
Also I'd like to avoid Xiaomi and their annoying bootloader unlocking process (unless it's Android One).
Do you know any newer phone model or brand in general that has good custom ROM support? I looked at the supported device list of LineageOS but most of the devices are either a bit old or quite expensive. Ulefone, Dogee, Umidigi, Oukitel or how they are all called - I don't care as long as I can install my own software.
Thanks in advance for your recommendations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Idk if this offer will be available in your country, but for 204€ you can have a google pixel 3a, it has really good ROM support, easy bootloader unlock, and official Android updates.
Here's the link : https://www.backmarket.fr/google-go...cSYGn2dk7zH0iLe_IMj76LldDMGMtSYRoCnuoQAvD_BwE
Try this one if the other doesn't work with your country :
https://fr.shopping.rakuten.com/mfp...rid=pt|930664584875|m|471167205547|3912771384
In short, Google pixel 3a is a good 2ndary phone
The cheap knock offs state fake specs on the phone and descriptions. Since they are all slightly different you would have to study the product in detail using an app called phone information. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.inpocketsoftware.andInfo&hl=en_CA&gl=US
The most common processor is the MT65XX. Most of these phones are surprisingly 32bit only. The sellers will never tell you exact specs before you buy, so it's a gamble. I have the Oukitel K9 with a MT6765 that works with Android 12 GSI, but lacks a partition and required some additional magisk setup. Having this knowledge you can look for Oukitel as a model number in the Spec on websites. For instance Mix 4 (knock off) all fake specs but the model is Oukitel and chances are the processor should be Mediatek. If the processor is greater than MT67XX and Ram is 4GB then you will be able to install GSI provided the partitions are standard.
Related
I'd like to buy a new phone and/or tablet, I don't mind if no-name Chinese, but it has to be
powerful with up-to-date hardware
low-budget (I mean a real bargain)
suitable for running CyanogenMod
No idea about a tablet yet, it should be around 10" (min. 1280x720px) with built-in 3G, thought about a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 GT-P5100, but compared to some Chinese devices I found on Alibaba it's quite expensive, with the freshly announced Tab 3 even at a higher price.
Concerning the phone I found the amazing Lenovo A820 at an unreal low price with top specs, but it's Dual SIM and not supported by CM (in fact CM currently has no Dual SIM support at all).
The major issue with no-name Chinese devices is the uncertain CM support (don't mind if officially or unofficially supported), but not being able to install CM would be a showstopper for me, as I have no intentions at all to run any Android device with GAPPS installed!
And advice?
Master One said:
And advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most Chinese devices (HTC and huawei and Oppo excluded) will not get CM support. If they do, it will be very limited. As in, they'll stop after maybe a couple months of nightlies.
Lenovo makes android tablets? Hmmm.
And stuff that is made specifically for China is usually much cheaper, but much harder to get your hands on.
My 0.02.
After some more research and searching through the list of supported devices at CM I came to the conclusion, that unfortunately none of such interesting Chinese / no-name hardware is suitable for me. I just have to have CM without GAPPS on my device, there is no way around it.
It seems there are quite some devices coming now with reasonable (and similar) specs at very low prices, like the freshly announced Huawei Ascend G525, which are all Dual SIM. If it wasn't about the missing CM support, I'd go for something like the Lenovo A820 or similar.
I still don't know what to do. The tablet is not a must-have, but a new phone would be nice right now. The list on CM does not show which devices are new, it should be a recent 2013 model.
So any hint, which of the un-/officially CM supported recent devices would be worth looking at?
Please use the thread stickied for this type of discussion
Thread closed
Hi guys,
I want to find a cheap Android phone (around $100) which is good for AOSP and kernel development.
I need it cheap because I want to buy a lot of them for my classes in University (about 50 phones).
There are tons of cheap phones, but I am not sure that it will be easy to find Android and kernel sources for them.
I would prefer a vendor that open-sources all stuff, so I do not have to waste too much time for searching sources.
What would you suggest?
Max88888 said:
Hi guys,
I want to find a cheap Android phone (around $100) which is good for AOSP and kernel development.
I need it cheap because I want to buy a lot of them for my classes in University (about 50 phones).
There are tons of cheap phones, but I am not sure that it will be easy to find Android and kernel sources for them.
I would prefer a vendor that open-sources all stuff, so I do not have to waste too much time for searching sources.
What would you suggest?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe Samsung Galaxy Trend Plus (if you can find many of them)
Sent from my GT-S7580 using Tapatalk
Cheap Phones
The FIGO Virtue 2 is about as cheap as you are going to get (50 bucks) for a phone running Android 5.1 out of the box. Not exactly a fire breather but it is complete. 512MB RAM 8GB ROM MT 6580 chipset. SMALL display. Feels like a toy when you pick it up.
Just got a first partially successful attempt at TWRP to at least not bring the whole thing down when booting to recovery but at this point all it will do is show me what I need to eventually fix and let me re-boot normally, but it is a start :good:
UPDATE 18 November 2016 - TWRP now appears to be fully functional (hacked a different one into it) so looking to create or find a CM 12 ROM for it.
The 5.1 implementation is delightfully devoid of bloatware although not quite the "pico" GApps option I would prefer with CM.
Easy to root with Kingo Root (use the APK rather than the PC version) and the standard MTK tools you can find online will work with it as well.
Their web site is figoglobal.com
They have some reasonable support staff as well. People who actually respond intelligently to e-mails and offer useful replies. Rarely if ever life telephone support but it is, after all, the 21st century and these are all rather inexpensive mass produced in China devices
TRY the redmi 3s
I am in need of a new phone and I am looking for suggestions for something that should be easily rootable?
Any device that using Android 5.0 and below and you just need Kingroot to root it easily.
I am no expert on Android but considering Android 5 came out in 2014 and we are now on Android 7 is it realistic to expect to find a new phone running Android 5?
Can you think of any?
Usually cheap chinese phones that are available on the market like Lenovo, Leagoo or etc. and some retailers still selling old Android models mostly from KitKat and Lollipop ones.
So unlikely for any phone that most people would be looking for. Also Kingroot is full of spyware/adware and hardly a good route to be considering in any case.
If not preferring Kingroot, you might want to find some devices that are using Snapdragon chipset, which are pretty easy to install most of custom roms. recoveries and etc. but requires a little bit higher than average android usage skills. Any device is using Android Marshmallow and above would require to use TWRP or similar custom recoveries to root the device, that's the only way to do it.
It sounds reasonable but my current Experia Z3 rooting attempt fell at the first hurdle because the bootloader unlocking option says 'NO'!
So the detail of the process is critical and general simplified methods are often far from it. Hence being very clear on the rooting method is more important than the phone spec.
I wasnt expecting simple answers here just methods of narrowing down the choices, so all information is helpful.
But it does seem I have to start from the exact phone and try to work backwards to find out rootability as I have no experience to draw on.
Anyone rooted a phone recently?
Well rooting Samsung phones with odin(flashing twrp from odin) is the simplest way in todays date.
1) I'm hoping someone can advise pls! I'm a very light user mostly for wsapp and sometimes maps/gps when walking (no gaming and occasionally watch youtube videos) so was hoping to find something £40-£50.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M20-Pro-...var=564119885073&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649
There are others I'm looking at but they don't mention anything about the processor (sometimes it'll mention the number of cores but no name)? The specs seem way better than even xiaomi phones for the same money, I know there's gonna be no support updates etc. how important is that? Couldn't I just search for a custom ROM, try to upgrade to higher android version etc? Would it be difficult/impossible to find roms for an unbranded phone?
Also I've read that there's a possibility they could just be sneaky re-brands so potentially could be getting a xiaomi etc. phone for less?
2) I'm also considering paying a bit more if unbranded is a no-go. Xiaomi Redmi 7 3GB/32GB around £100 vs Xiaomi Mi Play 4GB/64GB if it's £6 more?
I like the extra ram and storage for only £6 more but the battery seems better on R7 and larger screen
MTK devices
supashaka said:
1) I'm hoping someone can advise pls! I'm a very light user mostly for wsapp and sometimes maps/gps when walking (no gaming and occasionally watch youtube videos) so was hoping to find something £40-£50.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M20-Pro-...var=564119885073&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649
There are others I'm looking at but they don't mention anything about the processor (sometimes it'll mention the number of cores but no name)? The specs seem way better than even xiaomi phones for the same money, I know there's gonna be no support updates etc. how important is that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seen some advertisements (on wish.com or Ali Express) for devices with no apparent name brand that mention having 10 core processors, dual sim, Android 9 and more. These are all MTK devices which pose difficulties if you want to flash a ROM into them to upgrade or change something. RCA tablets are MTK devices and I, along with many others have spent a lot of time just trying to gain access to such devices. It's been done. However, it has been more than difficult as of yet to find any compatible ROMs and these devices are extremely picky when it comes to using other ROMs. For those of us that are currently still working on it, we have yet to find anything compatible. That's not saying they are bad devices, they are actually pretty good I've had mine (the RCA Maven, Viking and Galileo) for years with little problems.
Casper Young said:
I've seen some advertisements (on wish.com or Ali Express) for devices with no apparent name brand that mention having 10 core processors, dual sim, Android 9 and more. These are all MTK devices which pose difficulties if you want to flash a ROM into them to upgrade or change something. RCA tablets are MTK devices and I, along with many others have spent a lot of time just trying to gain access to such devices. It's been done. However, it has been more than difficult as of yet to find any compatible ROMs and these devices are extremely picky when it comes to using other ROMs. For those of us that are currently still working on it, we have yet to find anything compatible. That's not saying they are bad devices, they are actually pretty good I've had mine (the RCA Maven, Viking and Galileo) for years with little problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. Any MTK processor devices are difficult/unlikey to have custom roms or tweak/upgrade in any way?
MTK devices
supashaka said:
Thanks for the reply. Any MTK processor devices are difficult/unlikey to have custom roms or tweak/upgrade in any way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Theoretically there should be, but many here would rather work on the newest devices most of which are not MTK (Media Tek). They're not built like Samsungs and if you open one up the whole motherboard is the size of today's phones or roughly one quarter the size of the tablet which could be the reason they're so cheap. The only thing I've been able to flash into mine is the original stock firmware, anything else led to bricking. And recovering from a brick is difficult the SP Flash tool is nothing like the Odin3 we use for Samsungs.
Casper Young said:
Theoretically there should be, but many here would rather work on the newest devices most of which are not MTK (Media Tek). They're not built like Samsungs and if you open one up the whole motherboard is the size of today's phones or roughly one quarter the size of the tablet which could be the reason they're so cheap. The only thing I've been able to flash into mine is the original stock firmware, anything else led to bricking. And recovering from a brick is difficult the SP Flash tool is nothing like the Odin3 we use for Samsungs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have also bought uhans u300 and took a look at the Development & Support topic here, there's absolutely no way to upgrade it from Android 6.0?
hi,
is there any website where we can compare majority of phones ?
or perhaps there is a forum thread/website better suited for this topic?
i am looking for a low cost phone with below requirements.
alot of phones do meet these specs but especially when looking for a rootable device its becomes a pita ;
alot (indy?) sites have a "how to root" guide that look more like click bait as very few other sources confirm this.
thanks,
<required>
rootable android phone
(any) camera
microphone jack
video: >=720p
expansion : (µSD) card slot
ram : >=2Gb
lowcost (<150E)
for sale in EU
<bonus >
custom OS available
2nd sim slot
removable battery
If you are looking to save some cash, the POCO X3 is best choice, IMO. It's easy to unlock, and there's a healthy modding community for Xiaomi devices that makes it a great choice.
jwoegerbauer said:
If you are looking to save some cash, the POCO X3 is best choice, IMO. It's easy to unlock, and there's a healthy modding community for Xiaomi devices that makes it a great choice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, this one is a bit above the foreseen budget but will check it out
nuggetty said:
hi,
is there any website where we can compare majority of phones ?
or perhaps there is a forum thread/website better suited for this topic?
i am looking for a low cost phone with below requirements.
alot of phones do meet these specs but especially when looking for a rootable device its becomes a pita ;
alot (indy?) sites have a "how to root" guide that look more like click bait as very few other sources confirm this.
thanks,
<required>
rootable android phone
(any) camera
microphone jack
video: >=720p
expansion : (µSD) card slot
ram : >=2Gb
lowcost (<150E)
for sale in EU
<bonus >
custom OS available
2nd sim slot
removable battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to XDA!
You can search in here for your desired device, also you can go to pdadb.net for a full comparison between devices.
Enjoy