Best reasons to root the Z5 compact? - Xperia Z5 Compact Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

TLDR, what makes it worthwile?
I'm a regular XDA user and I rooted all the phones I ever owned, both to try out new unofficial features, to stay up to date with older hardware and to unlock some vendor limitations. My S8 has a lot of reasons to be rooted, but a friend who owns a Z5C asked me what he would gain by rooting his. A quick browse here left me a little perplex, since I did not find anything life-changing, at least for a non power-user like him. Could you give me some insight as to the reasons why you rooted your Z5C, and what you added to make it better than stock, unrooted?
Thank you very much!

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[Q] ROM support?

Hey guys, I recently got the xperia Z2 over the HTC One M8 to test out before I commit to buying it and having looked on XDA, I can't help but get feeling his phone won't have a great ammount of ROM support from most developers, at least not for a while. Am I wrong in thinking so? I also read somewhere that rooting or unlocking triggers some DRM stuff and things like x-reality stop working. Is this true? If so, what's the point? I though Sony was trying to be more developer friendly? If anyone could answer some of these questions I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm not asking for an ETA on ROMs just that I don't see a massive Sony market in the US and so I feel like it will be lacking in terms of choice. If that is the case and especially if i cannot convert to a GPE equvialent or something then at this point would the HTC one M8 be a better choice?
I also got the Z2 because i liked the phone way better then S5 and M8 but am also worried about developer support. I also got Z which now has quit some support but still not as much as i was used to have on my HTC's.
Phone had a lot of dificulties at launch, late release and stuff, its not even worldwide available yet, but yeah, development wont be as active as s5 or m8, but i prefer quality over quantity, so what if s5 has 10 exactly same roms with different name, you will get all major roms since its one of the currently big 3 phones.
Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk 2
Devzz said:
Hey guys, I recently got the xperia Z2 over the HTC One M8 to test out before I commit to buying it and having looked on XDA, I can't help but get feeling his phone won't have a great ammount of ROM support from most developers, at least not for a while. Am I wrong in thinking so? I also read somewhere that rooting or unlocking triggers some DRM stuff and things like x-reality stop working. Is this true? If so, what's the point? I though Sony was trying to be more developer friendly? If anyone could answer some of these questions I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm not asking for an ETA on ROMs just that I don't see a massive Sony market in the US and so I feel like it will be lacking in terms of choice. If that is the case and especially if i cannot convert to a GPE equvialent or something then at this point would the HTC one M8 be a better choice?
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You're wrong, I will soon build a rom for the Xperia Z2
Yeah exactly. I am more worried about the DRM stuff and the fact that I do like stock android so I may want to convert to GPE; in your opinion, is the ROM scene for the M8 worth swapping this phone for?
Thanks niaboc! but do you truthfully think I should wait and do you think there will be a good enough amount of mods etc? Also what about the DRM stuff?
niaboc79 said:
You're wrong, I will soon build a rom for the Xperia Z2
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This is great news! I've been missing your Existenz Roms from my Z! :laugh:
No argument there, the phone did have launch issues definitely. I understand your quality over quantity issue but 3 ROMs I need without fail are PA, Slimkat and a Google play edition; especially the GPE. Do you think that will happen truthfully? On the M8 it already has and its a matter of flashing it now really. I feel like if I choose the Z2 and wait and the experience isn't good then I may be disappointed quite a lot no matter how great the phone is and I'm worried about that seeing as it is an expensive investment!
Drm seems to be a problem of past. I unlocked bootloader, lost drm keys, and only thing i lost is music and video unlimitted service, which i wasnt using anyways. Its your choice, we cannot see future and tell how many roms gonna be here compared to m8, but im sure its gonna be plenty for my needs. I bought z2 and m8, and they both are briliant, but as you can see im using z2 now, while my father got m8. Only real advantage in m8 for me was feeling you get holding it, that shape is amazingly comfortable.
Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk 2
Devzz said:
Yeah exactly. I am more worried about the DRM stuff and the fact that I do like stock android so I may want to convert to GPE; in your opinion, is the ROM scene for the M8 worth swapping this phone for?
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I am choosing a phone for his design and hardware...
What's the point to have 300 roms who are nearly identicals.
Envoyé de mon D6503 en utilisant Tapatalk
Hmm. You make a good point and I will definitely take that into account. Others are reporting loss of x-reality and features like that which I don't want to be restricted on if I root and unlock my boot loader. As for the M8 you're right it does have an incredible body but the Z2 in white looks so amazing!
Fair enough! I have this phone till the 26th so if it looks good by then, I may keep it! The DRM stuff, I dunno I'll have to deal with it I guess! Thanks!

Another Frustrating Phone?

Hey all. So I'm picking up a brand new G4 in the morning. I've not owned a G4, and have been on the Galaxy 6 for about a year and a half. Buying that phone was the biggest mistake I've made, it got me so out of touch with the Android world because there never was a decent root method that I was able to obtain in my opinion. I see a ton of different threads on here about Tools, Themes, Apps, etc and of course ROMs for the G4. I won't have the G4 long, only until my contract is up in October, then I'm cutting ties with Big Red and going global. However, until then, I am hoping that maybe I can get root on this phone and unlock some of its potential. I have looked around a few times now, but really the only thing I can find is the KDZ images, is that correct? Is this simply because we can't unlock the bootloader? Or maybe there is something I'm completely overlooking? If I'm missing something, or if there's any info you can give me on what I'm in store for, please let me know. I really miss my custom Android devices so much, I'm just not a person that has the financial means to go out and get a new phone every time these talented developers can't find a good root.
Thanks for any responses, I've missed you XDA.
Trust me though, I'm saving up already and going to grab a Huawei more than likely when I finally divorce from this 15 year partner that to me is now, Big Dead.
>Bootloader can be unlocked on the int h815 eur version only. >An easy root method is available if you are on LP. >There is some hope for custom roms with FISH, already functional TWRP for LP locked devices, read the dev section.
nkirk said:
>Bootloader can be unlocked on the int h815 eur version only. >An easy root method is available if you are on LP. >There is some hope for custom roms with FISH, already functional TWRP for LP locked devices, read the dev section.
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T-Mobile H811 can also be unlocked.

To Root or Not To Root

i am buying a new phone, the S8+ to be exact, and there have been a lot of new developments (problems) when it comes to rooting your device. i've been rooting my smartphone devices for over 10 years because i love the freedom it brings (er, brought). Now i read things like Netflix, Snapchat, and AndroidPay not working on rooted devices. So i am wondering what people's experiences have been like. Any regrets? Are the trade-offs worth it to you? Is it worth being able to uninstall bloatware and install custom ROMs if a lot of other features and apps will stop working? i know most of this is personal preference but would like to know more about what other people have experienced.
billybag said:
i am buying a new phone, the S8+ to be exact, and there have been a lot of new developments (problems) when it comes to rooting your device. i've been rooting my smartphone devices for over 10 years because i love the freedom it brings (er, brought). Now i read things like Netflix, Snapchat, and AndroidPay not working on rooted devices. So i am wondering what people's experiences have been like. Any regrets? Are the trade-offs worth it to you? Is it worth being able to uninstall bloatware and install custom ROMs if a lot of other features and apps will stop working? i know most of this is personal preference but would like to know more about what other people have experienced.
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First and foremost, if you plan on getting a US variant, meaning it will have a SD835 in it, Root is unlikely to come soon for it, This doesn't mean it won't happen, just not soon. Now if we're talking international, the ones that ship with an Exynos in it, they're rootable now.
Now, with that out the way let's get into the questions you've asked. There will indeed be a selection of apps that will not work when rooted these days because of "SafetyNet" check failure. Some of the biggest would be Snapchat and Android pay, However they will work with the assistance of Magisk which will allow SafetyNet to pass it's check, Same goes for most apps that fail to work because of root presence.
Heading back to what I first mentioned now, Rooting a Samsung device of recent years comes with some pretty notable cons to it, These would include loss of KNOX, I'm not sure what your stance on security is but if security is a concern to you, losing KNOX is not good. Another big and notable con is you will lose all Samsung pay support permanently, Actually to be honest both of the latter are permanently lost once rooted. If these things aren't a concern for you then by all means root away.
On to other things now, Rooting these days doesn't present as many attractive things as it use to, especially on a Samsung device. Most OEMS have given alternatives to many of the things a user couldn't do without root before. Currently there is no Xposed on Nougat and above, it's being worked on but there is no foreseeable date that can be given on when it will be completed.
So all in all, Until root is achieved for the Snapdragon variants, I'd hold off on a purchase of an S8. If we're talking Exynos variants then by all means get one, as I've said they're rootable right now. But don't let that be the ray of sunshine, though they're rootable, They're in infact an Exynos and Samsung is unwilling to provide source code to their Exynos chipsets. Which basically means to you that custom ROMs will be limited to rehashes of the stock ROMs with a couple mods if possible, AOSP such as Lineage and others like it are next to impossible to happen on Exynos without​ a source code to work from. It has been done before but the resulting roms took a long time to develop and either were extremely buggy or were just simply not usable for daily use.
I'm pretty sure I've hopefully covered every aspect I could but if you've got any more questions I'll surely answer them.
I apologise for this being so long lol.
Perfect. Thank you, this helped a lot.
billybag said:
Perfect. Thank you, this helped a lot.
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Glad I could help, Again sorry it was a lengthy response but it was necessary to cover all of it.

custom rom for oppo find x

hii, I first want to apologize for my bad english, it isn't my native language. secondly i wanted to ask if anybody here knows if lineageos or anything like these custom (nearly stock) roms is going to be available for the oppo find x and how long it would take before they will be released. I'm considering buying a OPX and i am pretty new to buying chinese phones, I heard a lot of complaints about not getting a notification of whatsapp or anything like this, I really don't like the idea that I would have to open whatsapp every time to see if i got a notification or not.
thanks for your help.
maikonor said:
hii, I first want to apologize for my bad english, it isn't my native language. secondly i wanted to ask if anybody here knows if lineageos or anything like these custom (nearly stock) roms is going to be available for the oppo find x and how long it would take before they will be released. I'm considering buying a OPX and i am pretty new to buying chinese phones, I heard a lot of complaints about not getting a notification of whatsapp or anything like this, I really don't like the idea that I would have to open whatsapp every time to see if i got a notification or not.
thanks for your help.
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No apologies needed,make yourself at home @maikonor ........... :good:
While I can't speak regarding Whatsapp,you can get timely notifications for email/other SMS/MMS messaging apps,but,a lot of digging around in the settings is involved. Nothing beyond most users expertise,it's just a lot of redundancy & repitition,but,once set-up,my notifications come through just fine.
As for development,it's not unheard of on Oppo devices,but,is it possible with this phone ? IDK if the current firmware/software will support it.
If the promise of root/ROMs is a must,it's probably gonna be a while before development takes grip,if it ever does.
I'm hoping once the phone becomes available in more markets (international release/ROM),we'll begin to see some hint of what the future holds.
KOLIOSIS said:
No apologies needed,make yourself at home @maikonor ........... :good:
While I can't speak regarding Whatsapp,you can get timely notifications for email/other SMS/MMS messaging apps,but,a lot of digging around in the settings is involved. Nothing beyond most users expertise,it's just a lot of redundancy & repitition,but,once set-up,my notifications come through just fine.
As for development,it's not unheard of on Oppo devices,but,is it possible with this phone ? IDK if the current firmware/software will support it.
If the promise of root/ROMs is a must,it's probably gonna be a while before development takes grip,if it ever does.
I'm hoping once the phone becomes available in more markets (international release/ROM),we'll begin to see some hint of what the future holds.
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thanks for your reply, root/custom ROM is not a must for me if, I (in the netherlands) at least can change my home launcher.
Hey buddy, This is my second OPPO variant. From my previous experience on R11P, it was pretty nasty. Nothing was released from OPPO to support unlocking or Root the device. However, with Find X, OPPO has launched globally. It might change its perspectives regarding playing around with the systems. who knows. I hope they do, I love flashing ROMs, lolz!
xstormli said:
Hey buddy, This is my second OPPO variant. From my previous experience on R11P, it was pretty nasty. Nothing was released from OPPO to support unlocking or Root the device. However, with Find X, OPPO has launched globally. It might change its perspectives regarding playing around with the systems. who knows. I hope they do, I love flashing ROMs, lolz!
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Thanks for your reply, I hope they do change perspective and otherwise I will buy an oneplus 6.
The Find 7 was unlocked and they provided a rudimentary support for unlocking and rooting, this is the last vairiant that I'm aware of that saw wide release. Realistically that's all we need to obtain root, which is pretty easy via magisk. The Chinese launcher restrictions wont exist on the international handsets, those are for the Chinese market only and you'll be able to use the phone pretty much as normal in the Android world. It's all about whether or not the bootloader is unlocked. If yes we should be able to get root ourselves without special skills. From there it's just a matter of whether anyone with skills decides to pick up the phone and develop for it and then you've got TWRP and possibly a rom or two to play with.
I hope Oppo could release international version of the Find X rom
The chinese rom is pretty much unusable in North America
If it's like OPPO's other phones from the last few years, it will have a locked bootloader with fastboot removed and they won't release any kernel source.
Chinese OPPO fans tell you,It is very hard to request a root access or source code from OPPO,or just wait a loooong time:crying:,OPPO has always been like this,and sorry about my bad English,i want say more but i do not known how to
Explain in eglish(+_+)
Hard to do in China, there are rules there prohibiting that very thing and even when those don't apply Chinese companies are rightfully afraid to do something their dictator doesn't want because their executives would like to remain among the living. Chinese leaders are pragmatists however who enjoy the riches they deny the masses which means their products need to sell on a global market so they can keep enjoying all the things their populace is denied. The last product Oppo released in the world market was bootloader unlocked and they provided support for rooting. This does not mean the same will happen now but have no doubt they are well aware that their practices with Chinese phones will kill any hope at all of selling in the international market. Something to think about; One+ is owned by Oppo. They are unlocked and fully supported.

Is the P20 lite worth it for 160€?

I'll have the chance to buy this phone for 160€. Normally I investigate around if the community enjoys the phone if there's development for it in custom roms and what's the status on the bootloader but it's getting complicated.
From what I've heard, Huawei stopped offering the chance for unlocking the bootloader for its phones, it is still possible with this one? If yes, completely? Can we do whatever we want or are we limited? I've browsed and seen treble support for it, is it working well? If you are using a P20lite with a treble rom, what works and what doesn't for you?
I'll still be looking for info to my own questions and even more but if you have some spare minutes, own the phone and have the answers I'm looking for, care to help please?
If it's worth it? For that price and as of right now, definitely yes. It's a well built phone for the price, the glass on the back is a bit bad of course in terms of durability but allows for better network possibilities which plastic does not. In terms of ROMS and recoveries the phone already has them which at this time is amazing, although development always depend on the true developers that stay up to date and that give their best to keep projects up to date.
Boot loader is a problem as of right now for those who have no key to unlock it. There is some paid software that can do it like Funky Huawei and others...Although I think Huawei might change it or find a better solution to developers trying to develop some ROMS to their phones. Huawei only does this because of security since Android is full of vulnerabilities and they are not risking to lose against other companies like Apple.
Once you have a boot loader unlock code, yup you are free to do anything on your phone
As for the treble ROM's, in my humble opinion I think they have a lot to evolve right now due to bugs (talking in general, not only for our device), I think they are good alternatives to normal ROM's though, simpler to install and smoother.
What works and doesn't work you can see it at github, I can give you a link for a treble ROM created by phhusson developer at github https://github.com/phhusson/treble_experimentations/releases/tag/v108, look on the issues tab if you have any issues yourself. I personally love his work.
Resuming, it's still a perfect deal since the phone only launched a few months ago at 400 euros.
Although if you want full control of your phone and at the same time receive a lot of updates I honestly recommend Nokia - Android One phones
You probably already know but, don't let Chinese phones fool you, their build quality sucks, they might have more a bit powerful but after 1 or 2 years it's dead
Cheers,
AS

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