Which is arguably the best phone for ROMs?
This post is born from another discussion we have currently on tildes about the benefits of LineageOS. Please, check it out if you wanna discuss about the benefits of the custom ROM scene.
Here, instead, I ask primarily about hardware, not about software. Although, as always, they later intersect.
My question comes from my search for a new phone, I have been rocking a Moto G5 Plus since 2018 (it was released in 2017 and I bought it second-hand) and my experience has been great overall. I knew that I could root this phone so that I did in September 2018 and from there I haven't gone back to stock ever since. Mistakes aside, the experience has been great overall and has nourish my interest in computing. But, this phone is 3 and a half years old and I definitely notice it. One, due to the wear and second the 2GB of RAM my model had (XT1680). I'm in no hurry in a change though, I think I could use it for some more years and I can say that thanks to an amazing community that still supports this phone. (Seriously, I am using Android 10 with the latest patch, unthinkable!).
Nevertheless, as a thought experiment, or as a backup plan, or useful for anyone interested in being part of custom ROMs, I would like to ask you guys which do you think are the most dev-friendly phone in the market right now?
The criteria would be:
- It has a unlockable bootloader.
- The kernel has been released and is available.
- Has a community that constantly supports it.
It doesn't have 2GB of RAM
Please, write any phone you have the idea that has a modding scene. I'm afraid that some will not be available in my country, but I want to make it as international possible so I insist, write any phone that has that criteria. And feedback for the english will also be appreciated.
If you want to cut out Android entirely and go pure super-hacker-man, you may want to go with the PinePhone from Pine64. It runs community Linux distros and is about as open as you could possibly have in this day and age. It does have proprietary blobs, but that's something you'll have to put up with if you don't want to pay $700 for a Librem, per this review.
This looks amazing, honestly. You gotta love the niche products that sadly are only posible in the U.S. market. A phone without whatsapp here is ghost, but I would love to buy one just to play with. Sadly, it only can be a companion phone for me, yet a very interesing one. Thanks for letting me know.
Yeah, your best bet for that would be another phone entirely, unless you want to chance Anbox compatibility, or someone homebrewing an Android ROM for the phone, which is supposed to be ready to go, but requires some doing.
For as long as ROMs have been a thing, devs traditionally support "The Google Phone" first (and often only The Google Phone)
When I say Google Phone, I mean the device you can purchase directly from the Google Play Store's "Devices" page. In the past, this was the "Nexus" line of phones since rebranded as the "Pixel" phones.
For absolute best compatibility with the largest number of ROMs, I recommend getting a Pixel device 1-2 generations old. You can find a refurbished Pixel 2 XL for roughly $150 that's compatibile with every ROM that's actively being developed.
If you want the luxury of the Pixel 4a ($350), you may need to settle with one of the more established ROMs (or just AOSP, depending on why you want it)
This is what drove me off the track. When I came back from my period where I avoided smartphones entirely, my best option for avoiding Google appeared to be directly paying Google and everything else came with a bunch of caveats or uncertain support. So I figured just getting an iPhone made more sense if privacy and avoiding Google are my main concerns and I don't have the cash to be swapping out phones all the time.
/e/ might be the way to go if support is important to you, since they at least have a warranty and promise support.
I have used their fork of SearchX and it was pretty good, although I don't like their idea of operating system. But thanks for the advice!.
Thanks to the response. Pixel actually aren't very known here and I would freak out people telling them I have a GoogleTM phone, although I have done some searches and yes there are people selling them at second hand even in this places. Though I like having an audio jack. Oh and the Pixel 4a is almost $800 here, so no thanks for now.
The Pixel lineup of phones is strictly the best option as far as custom rom coverage, hardware compatibility, and cost / features ratio goes. Although LineageOS supports quite a number of phones from a variety of companies, and swathes more are supported by random developers on XDA, many are often marred with hardware / software compatibility issues. Another benefit of Pixel phones is that they can be used with GrapheneOS, a security-focused forkish of Android.
As far as companies in general go, Sony and OnePlus have been pretty friendly with the rom community, Sony in particular - their Open Devices Program is fantastic, and the reason why their phones generally have extensive support, although still not to the scale of the Pixels. Try to avoid Samsung at all costs. Most of their devices past the S7 have locked bootloaders, and the ones that don't vary based on the chipset.
Pixel and OnePlus aren't known around here and OnePlus is significantly higher than any budget I have.
Though it has been easier to find Pixels vendors so I will have consideration on them and if I find a bargain, I will rush to buy it.
What I didn't knew was Sony. I had a Sony phone before, the Xperia E1. It was shitty but I have fond memories with it, especially cause it was one of my earliest phones, yet I didn't knew they supported Open Devices. The last I knew from Sony devices is that unlocking their bootloaders meant a dead camera and I kinda said no no and move on.
The US S7 has a locked bootloader, also, so if you want to replace the firmware, you have to get the international version—which is strictly okay for use in the US. Consequently, support is very poor. It's a shame, because the hardware is pretty good (too big, like literally every other Android phone on the market god dammit, but otherwise fast and comfortable to use), but if you really want to put custom firmware on a Samsung, look elsewhere. My understanding is that the S5 is actually still very widely supported.
(Source: been there, done that, got the T-shirt, wore it out. Builds are strictly unofficial and wireless band support in the US is sufficient to function, but I had weird connectivity glitches. I'm on an Xperia XZ2 Compact now, which is the physically smallest phone with official LineageOS support.)
If the primary concern is ROM support, then I'd definitely say one of the earlier Pixels, though the 3A probably has pretty decent support now. Lots of people own them, Google makes their phones pretty dev friendly, and the people who make ROMs often like techier devices (back when Nexus was a thing). Galaxy S has historically also been a safe het, partially due to the sheer number of people that own them.
In terms of best total support on a phone, I believe the all time record belongs to the Samsung Galaxy S2, released in 2011. Iirc, it can run everything from Gingerbread (Android 2.3) to Android 10. Absolutely insane in the world of smartphones, this thing literally runs a more modern version of Android than many phones in 2017 and 2018 that never got custom ROMs can.
Well, Pixels aren't known around here and I am happy to say that I found some that still sell them refurbished.
Samsung is probably the leader in my market and there lots of them around, yet with Knox and bootloader Samsung appears to be a pain in the ass, so no thanks.
Wow! That must be a Guiness Record. That actually is a lovely fact that I will use in a techier conversation. Thanks for letting me know.
Everyone here has mentioned Google devices here, so I'm proposing an alternative: some Xiaomi phones.
I would particularly recommend the Poco(phone) sub-brand if it's available in your region. (I only have experience with the F1, and it's really good for the price IMO. I don't know as much about the newer models.)
The stock ROMs of them are terrible, and you have to wait a bit (ranging from a few days in Poco devices to a maybe a month or two on other devices) for the bootloader unlock to happen, but after that, there are a lot of ROM options to try.
Aside from that, I would recommend you search phones first, and check XDA forums to see how well the dev community is second.
Finally, I would recommend you get a device shipping with Android 11. Assuming a competent brand and a not-entirely-cheap model, you'll get at least 2 years of official updates (which will also effect the quality of any updated ROMs) and after that, a good developer community might take it 2-3 versions further, letting you use your phone for around 4, maybe 5 years assuming no hardware issues.
(Also avoid Huawei. Aside from the whole US ban mess, they killed the bootloader unlocking support a couple years ago, so you'll have to resort to paying a shady 3rd party or bruteforcing the unlock code to get anything at all)
Yes! Xiaomi is known here and even in the Reddit of my country was the running joke of the best brand. I have an eye on the Mi Ax series, because it runs Android One, closer to stock (btw should I look for others phones that are part of Android One, like Nokia?). I will certainly see what they have to offer when I buy one. They even have official stores here!
I haven't thought of searching the latest phone tho', I looks like betting when buying a new phone and waiting others to open it, although now I have knowledge of some brands so it should be easier.
Indeed, avoid Huawei. Had one and I hated every single transistor. Never more.