Okay, I might be pre-biased, but I have heard about Sony firmware being exceptionally buggy even after many updates. (By all means, this is not Sony-exclusive problem.)
Can people still using the stock firmware confirm whether it is acceptable for daily use? How often do you reboot the phone?
I was actually planning on buying the phone with the suspicion that I will have to install LineageOS right away. Is there any experince of running LineageOS on it? Do all the nice features, like 4k screen, work?
lockywolf said:
Okay, I might be pre-biased, but I have heard about Sony firmware being exceptionally buggy even after many updates. (By all means, this is not Sony-exclusive problem.)
Can people still using the stock firmware confirm whether it is acceptable for daily use? How often do you reboot the phone?
I was actually planning on buying the phone with the suspicion that I will have to install LineageOS right away. Is there any experince of running LineageOS on it? Do all the nice features, like 4k screen, work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there, I hope you're doing okay
Answering your question, yes, upgrading from a stock rom to a custom rom will make your experience a lot better. not only in performance, in battery , and customization
and even better if you root + stock rom, that's it. your phone value will increase because not only can you experience the latest Android 13 but you can also do multitasking work very smoothly
Also, battery consumption will be reduced twice, and you can customize it starting from the icons, status bar, and lockscreen. Not only that, you can also install root modules
i mean, you can also use xiaomi camera app on your sony phone camera
think about it with sony camera and xiaomi camera software
If you can do everything, i will consider not buying a new phone rather than saving that money and investing it to make more money and buy an iPhone, but still, Android is better
I hope you liked my reply
Please like it and follow me. I will be very apreciative. Thank you so much
lockywolf said:
Okay, I might be pre-biased, but I have heard about Sony firmware being exceptionally buggy even after many updates. (By all means, this is not Sony-exclusive problem.)
Can people still using the stock firmware confirm whether it is acceptable for daily use? How often do you reboot the phone?
I was actually planning on buying the phone with the suspicion that I will have to install LineageOS right away. Is there any experince of running LineageOS on it? Do all the nice features, like 4k screen, work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bro and also, there are more roms than lineagos, so think about it
follow this forum
Sony Xperia 1
The Sony Xperia 1 is a 6.5" phone with a 1644x3840p display. The Snapdragon 855 chipset is paired with 6GB of RAM and 64/128GB of storage. The main camera is 12+12+12MP and the selfie camera is 8MP. The battery has a 3330mAh capacity.
forum.xda-developers.com
It makes no sense to install a custom ROM on a phone like the Xperia 1 close to launch. All the unique features of the phone (mainly the cameras) are locked behind the Sony custom API that is used by the stock apps running on the Sony app framework.
So at the very least you will need a Magisk module that ports over the latest version of the app framework to any generic ROM, and then install the stock (camera) apps.
Personally, I find the stock ROM close enough to AOSP that I haven't felt a need to install any custom ROM for the past 5 years now. When you install a custom ROM you are simply trading Sony bugs for things like missing implementations, partial hardware support etc.
There is nothing buggy. It's close to the os pixels launch with, their custom version of AOSP.
Just has a few more apps for camera stuff.
As an owner of the major flagship devices, this is the best all around experience and the best camera.
I recently had a Xiaomi 13 pro and thought it'd camera was best, nah this beats it and the os is leagues better. I have a pixel 7 pro also and I honestly won't ever use it again in comparison and I have the best roms I could build for it.
And as the others have said lineage is not an immediate thing anyone should just flash, and it's one of a gazillion roms and definitely not the first ROM I would flash...
Related
Hi!
I have been a heavy user of custom ROMs for more than three years now on all my Android devices. Lately, although I have a phone that not so long ago was still Samsung's flagship (the galaxy S4, I9505), the pictures I get with it really suck. A couple weeks ago, the phone could not detect my SIM card (pure hardware issue), so I re-installed the stock firmware and took it to the repair shop to get the warranty repair. They fixed it and I got my phone back. Just to make sure it was working fine, I decided to use the stock ROM for a while, and oh surprise: the camera takes much better pics in low light conditions or indoor than the same camera with any custom ROM app (usually AOSP-based, AOKP or CM-based). I tried to download the Google camera, and the low light pictures really suck. Then I tried a bunch of camera apps from the Play store, but I invariably got similar results to what I got with my custom ROMs.
That got me thinking. I'm no dev nor programmer, so I won't get technical, but it seems to me that there can be two reasons for the samsung app to work better:
- Either it has access to (proprietary) hardware drivers that other camera apps cannot access, and therefore it can get everything out of the camera hardware
- Or Samsung (which is not known to be great for its software) has developed a great camera software.
I would think it's something along the lines of the first reason. So does that mean I am either stuck with a ROM I cannot stand (Touchwiz is awful, has always been, and may always be) and a decent camera, or a decent ROM but a camera that is kind of useless when I'm indoor?
If so, how are the cameras on other similar phones (I'm thinking Nexus 5, Sony Xperia, etc.), running on custom ROMs compared to the stock camera apps? Is there also a noticeable difference, or is it just with Samsung?
I understood that you cannot run the Samsung camera apk on a custom ROM (even one on a Samsung phone), because the camera relies on some kind of Samsung proprietary framework.
Does this mean I should be looking for a phone that is running not only on open source software, but also open source hardware, does that even exist?
Anyone has noticed something similar? Am I the only one to be bothered by this?
I'll post here a couple pics taken in the same ambient light conditions. One with the Samsung camera (Auto setting), one with Google camera, and one with another camera app from the market (don't remember which one, but I tested about 15 of them and their results were quite similar).
Anyway, even if you don' have a solution to the problem but can point me to information that could help me understand how to choose my next phone, I would really appreciate. Thanks!
Cheers,
Fa
fabecoool said:
Hi!
I have been a heavy user of custom ROMs for more than three years now on all my Android devices. Lately, although I have a phone that not so long ago was still Samsung's flagship (the galaxy S4, I9505), the pictures I get with it really suck. A couple weeks ago, the phone could not detect my SIM card (pure hardware issue), so I re-installed the stock firmware and took it to the repair shop to get the warranty repair. They fixed it and I got my phone back. Just to make sure it was working fine, I decided to use the stock ROM for a while, and oh surprise: the camera takes much better pics in low light conditions or indoor than the same camera with any custom ROM app (usually AOSP-based, AOKP or CM-based). I tried to download the Google camera, and the low light pictures really suck. Then I tried a bunch of camera apps from the Play store, but I invariably got similar results to what I got with my custom ROMs.
That got me thinking. I'm no dev nor programmer, so I won't get technical, but it seems to me that there can be two reasons for the samsung app to work better:
- Either it has access to (proprietary) hardware drivers that other camera apps cannot access, and therefore it can get everything out of the camera hardware
- Or Samsung (which is not known to be great for its software) has developed a great camera software.
I would think it's something along the lines of the first reason. So does that mean I am either stuck with a ROM I cannot stand (Touchwiz is awful, has always been, and may always be) and a decent camera, or a decent ROM but a camera that is kind of useless when I'm indoor?
If so, how are the cameras on other similar phones (I'm thinking Nexus 5, Sony Xperia, etc.), running on custom ROMs compared to the stock camera apps? Is there also a noticeable difference, or is it just with Samsung?
I understood that you cannot run the Samsung camera apk on a custom ROM (even one on a Samsung phone), because the camera relies on some kind of Samsung proprietary framework.
Does this mean I should be looking for a phone that is running not only on open source software, but also open source hardware, does that even exist?
Anyone has noticed something similar? Am I the only one to be bothered by this?
I'll post here a couple pics taken in the same ambient light conditions. One with the Samsung camera (Auto setting), one with Google camera, and one with another camera app from the market (don't remember which one, but I tested about 15 of them and their results were quite similar).
Anyway, even if you don' have a solution to the problem but can point me to information that could help me understand how to choose my next phone, I would really appreciate. Thanks!
Cheers,
Fa
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So here come the pics. Of course XDA compresses them, but you'll get the idea.
Fa
That is the example difference between things that are built for the device over using open-source options. Software will always be better from the OEM. You see the same thing with HTC and Sony devices. Take the m7 and m8. They have great cameras as long as you use HTC Sense. Other wise all you get is a basic 4 mpx camera that sucks. If you want one that works the same no matter the rom then get a nexus. This is something OEM are doing to make people want to use their software
Thanks @zelendel,
A Nexus could be an option, but the screen size of the Nexus 5 was already too large for me (and so is my current phone, the Galaxy S4), so there's no way I'm getting a Nexus 6 (plus it's prohibitively expensive, at least here in Europe). When will Google make a Nexus mini or compact? That would rock, especially if they go the Sony way (not compromising too much on hardware features). The only downside of Nexus phone is their lack of MicroSD card slot, but that's off topic.
Anyway, what about the Google Edition phones? As I understand, they have the same hardware as their OEM counterpart (don't they?), but instead of running on proprietary stock ROMs, they ship with a pure Vanilla Android. Does this mean they ship with a camera that sucks, or is there some kind of tweak included to get the most of the camera with those editions, too? If so, would flashing that ROM help (if I can get my hands on it)? Unfortunately it seems the whole Google Edition concept has not gained a lot of traction (maybe because of the unavailability of the handsets in many places, maybe thanks to the OEM who did not play fair game and rather managed to get their crappy proprietary stock versions in the hands of customers), so I'm trying not to get too excited about this either.
I guess I will have to go to my local phone shop, spend time there with different devices and see if some of them have less heavily customized skins than TouchWiz. That means I'll no longer go for a Samsung, which have been my only devices so far. The end of an era...
fabecoool said:
Thanks @zelendel,
A Nexus could be an option, but the screen size of the Nexus 5 was already too large for me (and so is my current phone, the Galaxy S4), so there's no way I'm getting a Nexus 6 (plus it's prohibitively expensive, at least here in Europe). When will Google make a Nexus mini or compact? That would rock, especially if they go the Sony way (not compromising too much on hardware features). The only downside of Nexus phone is their lack of MicroSD card slot, but that's off topic.
Anyway, what about the Google Edition phones? As I understand, they have the same hardware as their OEM counterpart (don't they?), but instead of running on proprietary stock ROMs, they ship with a pure Vanilla Android. Does this mean they ship with a camera that sucks, or is there some kind of tweak included to get the most of the camera with those editions, too? If so, would flashing that ROM help (if I can get my hands on it)? Unfortunately it seems the whole Google Edition concept has not gained a lot of traction (maybe because of the unavailability of the handsets in many places, maybe thanks to the OEM who did not play fair game and rather managed to get their crappy proprietary stock versions in the hands of customers), so I'm trying not to get too excited about this either.
I guess I will have to go to my local phone shop, spend time there with different devices and see if some of them have less heavily customized skins than TouchWiz. That means I'll no longer go for a Samsung, which have been my only devices so far. The end of an era...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The GPE device dont come with stock android completely. I have a GPE HTC M7 and the gpe software has some of the closed sourced drivers and such for things like Beats audio and the camera. As I run pure AOSP I wind up with a 4mpx camera that really sucks. While i agree alot of the newer devices have huge screens that make it almost pointless for me. The m7 is not bad at about 5in. But then again it doesnt have an SD card slot but comes with 32gb of storage which I think is plenty for my use. Part of me misses my old samsung devices but I made the mistake once of getting the one with the Samsungs chip and not the snapdragon which killed development.
zelendel said:
The GPE device dont come with stock android completely. I have a GPE HTC M7 and the gpe software has some of the closed sourced drivers and such for things like Beats audio and the camera. As I run pure AOSP I wind up with a 4mpx camera that really sucks. While i agree alot of the newer devices have huge screens that make it almost pointless for me. The m7 is not bad at about 5in. But then again it doesnt have an SD card slot but comes with 32gb of storage which I think is plenty for my use. Part of me misses my old samsung devices but I made the mistake once of getting the one with the Samsungs chip and not the snapdragon which killed development.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright! Well, if I could find the GPE edition for my phone (I9505), then I would get all the camera features and none of the TouchWiz crap, which would already be quite an improvement over what I have now (complete TW stock). I guess another possibility would be to flash a stock based ROM that is rooted and from which I could remove all the bloatware...
OK, the hunt is on for a new ROM!
Cheers!
Fa
fabecoool said:
Alright! Well, if I could find the GPE edition for my phone (I9505), then I would get all the camera features and none of the TouchWiz crap, which would already be quite an improvement over what I have now (complete TW stock). I guess another possibility would be to flash a stock based ROM that is rooted and from which I could remove all the bloatware...
OK, the hunt is on for a new ROM!
Cheers!
Fa
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want all the features of the camera then yes I would run a stock de bloated rom. I used to run Samsung devices and you can remove most things which will give you the camera app which has all the best features.
I'm in a dilemma between Moto G4 Plus and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.
In every single detail I like Redmi Note 4 better except for camera and Software. The camera difference is not an issue for me but software is.
1. Moto provides stock android which I love very much due to its simplicity and stability.
2. I find MIUI annoying.
So, I'd like to know if there is a stable ROM that can give me stock android experience on Redmi Note 4. If there is such a ROM,
1. How stable is it? Can it be at par with the software experience stock android on Moto G provides?
2. Performance of the ROM compared to factory
dev_ant said:
I'm in a dilemma between Moto G4 Plus and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.
In every single detail I like Redmi Note 4 better except for camera and Software. The camera difference is not an issue for me but software is.
1. Moto provides stock android which I love very much due to its simplicity and stability.
2. I find MIUI annoying.
So, I'd like to know if there is a stable ROM that can give me stock android experience on Redmi Note 4. If there is such a ROM,
1. How stable is it? Can it be at par with the software experience stock android on Moto G provides?
2. Performance of the ROM compared to factory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try Lineage AEX, RR, AICP (last three are official)
minor bugs are there: yello flash light, slow motion camera not working but lightweight faster AOSP stick rom.
I have not tried yet Slim (official) also better!
Every custom ROM will give you bugs and a decrease in camera quality.
You can try a debloated version of MIUI from xiaomi.eu with a custom launcher like Nova.
Here is how it looks my phone
I had the same reservation about switching to a Miui phone.
However, I run stock Miui rom with Nova Launcher and could not be happier.
Stock rom provides stability and no deterioration to camera, Nova provides stock Android experience.
My personal experience suggests that no custom built rom is bug free. Try to use the rom provided originally by the manufacturer and modify it to suit to your needs by changing the launcher. I toggle between Google and Nova launcher as per mood. However you need to suitable turn on the auto wake functions for some widgets like the digital clock (need to download separately), notification badges etc.
Yes I do wish that Xiaomi should give the option of choosing either a stock android rom or its Miui rom. My personal preference would be the simple, but effective stock android rom (I base this on the experience of Moto g3 I had previously. In retrospect I am amazed the way motorola has integrated the software and hardware so effectively. Despite of high ram and octa core processor, I am disappointed by the software + hardware performance of the note 4, even my wife complains about the software and speed of the MI Max she has after shifting from the Moto X Play)
Problem like yellow flash, slow motion DOES exist on MIUI rom...
The latest stable MIUI rom is very problematic for so many users, many find gps sucks, battery sucks, device lags, etc after the update...
I never got this issue when using AospExt, LOS or PA.
for me... MIUI sucks, period...
I would not buy xiaomi device if there is no option for other ROMs like LOS, RR, PA, etc...
Noter2017 said:
Every custom ROM will give you bugs and a decrease in camera quality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bugs? seriously ? I have like 0 bug with LOS
And try using google camera instead
i have to agree, tried a lot of roms, most of them have mobile data problems to me (not working) now im on miui 9 and erased a lot of crap, and it works great, battery is amazing, im getting every notification so no problem there, and camera is working fast. in custom roms camera is terrible to be honest,
dev_ant said:
I'm in a dilemma between Moto G4 Plus and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.
In every single detail I like Redmi Note 4 better except for camera and Software. The camera difference is not an issue for me but software is.
1. Moto provides stock android which I love very much due to its simplicity and stability.
2. I find MIUI annoying.
So, I'd like to know if there is a stable ROM that can give me stock android experience on Redmi Note 4. If there is such a ROM,
1. How stable is it? Can it be at par with the software experience stock android on Moto G provides?
2. Performance of the ROM compared to factory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used Moto G before and really love vanilla android provided by Motorola. The moment I got my RN4, I try to adapt with MIUI. However, I'm getting a lot of gps issues while using it. I end up switching to Slim rom which give me almost the same experience that I had with my old Moto G.
Plus note, no gps issue when using Slim rom. Working as expected.
The advantage of redmi note4x is that it's a good battery. The battery capacity of 4000 mah is very large. And the qualcomm snapdragon 625 processor is a 14nm process, so the heating life is really strong. But there are drawbacks: the camera and the level of photography are not mediocre; Screen quality is general. Using long eyes can make you feel uncomfortable. I don't know if that's the case, but at least my phone is. Finally, the MIUI system is very bloated. If you like native android, I suggest you buy the MOTO. But note4x is a cost-effective option
schlagg said:
bugs? seriously ? I have like 0 bug with LOS
And try using google camera instead
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you are on a rom which doesn't have yellow flash problem?
Ekril said:
So you are on a rom which doesn't have yellow flash problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not a bug for me.
I'm not focused on this. Photos and videos quality are sufficient for an occasional use.
gedggd said:
i have to agree, tried a lot of roms, most of them have mobile data problems to me (not working) now im on miui 9 and erased a lot of crap, and it works great, battery is amazing, im getting every notification so no problem there, and camera is working fast. in custom roms camera is terrible to be honest,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you get every notifications?
I clean flashed the last global rom and I have feeling, that I still dont get all the notifications instantly.
Whatsapp/Messenger works, but apps like eBay, forums etc. seem not to work every time.
Have you made any changes to apps, or you made some battery saver modifications or something?
chorba69 said:
How do you get every notifications?
I clean flashed the last global rom and I have feeling, that I still dont get all the notifications instantly.
Whatsapp/Messenger works, but apps like eBay, forums etc. seem not to work every time.
Have you made any changes to apps, or you made some battery saver modifications or something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well i wiped everything, then flashed miui9 latest beta, rooted, installed titaniub backup, deleted all the miui crap, like mi cloud, mi account, and so on.. and im using it right now, i dont feel like im missing notifications (im not using ebay app or forum apps...), battery is great, im happy
Yes, yes, it's possible to love a phone. Heck, you sleep next to it, don't you? Rate this thread to indicate your love for the Lenovo Zuk Z2 Pro, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Lenovo Zuk Z2 Pro is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
Overclocking it makes everything even more considerable keeping up with newer phones but still so beautiful
IP certification would be perfect
I'm gonna post this here; I sent this originally as a private message since someone was asking about buying a Z2 Pro, and I figured a "here's kinda how it is as of September 2017" roundup might be useful for others looking at buying one, or trying to decide between the Pro and Plus.
So I own a Z2 Pro, and after several months of trying various options for custom and factory ROMs for it, and then getting a regular Z2 Plus for my wife, and setting THAT up...
Frankly, if I were going to get one now, I'd get the Z2 Plus Z2132 instead. Bigger battery, MUCH better custom ROM community with more stable & official builds, official TWRP, better-supported camera... to me, the extra $150 for the Pro has only meant more headaches trying to get something stable to work as a daily driver with regular security updates - and the AMOLED screen, UFS vs eMMC internal storage speed, and supposedly better camera haven't really ended up being as much of a difference as I thought. Yeah there's more storage & RAM, but... for daily use, at least on Nougat, 4GB RAM / 64GB storage is still plenty.
ZUI (factory firmware) issues:
Long story short, the official ZUI is an annoying mess for me, even with root (I use Magisk so I can have root utilities like Titanium Backup but still keep playing Pokemon Go with my wife)... the dialer and settings and built-in calendar app and lots of things still have Chinese showing up around the edges even when the system is set to English. Trying to disable built-in apps and use Google Dialer & Contacts doesn't quite work right, you can't actually install something like OpenGapps but have to piecemeal it together with packages from apkmirror or similar, and Google contact sync stops every week or two without warning - since I need contact, calendar, and email sync to work for business purposes, that's a show-stopper for me.
Seems like the Plus gets updates to ZUI before the Pro does, by a couple weeks.
Custom ROM issues:
The Pro camera really only looks & performs great under ZUI. It's not Camera2 HAL compatible and, unless Lenovo decides to pursue that with their own sources, never will support fancy HDR+ modes or zero shutter lag with Google Camera apps. AEX recent builds are starting to get really close to stock ZUI quality, since they imported & shimmed the ZUI camera blobs somehow, but some others like Mokee might still accidentally mechanically jam your camera trying to enable OIS. Ouch.
The U-Health app on stock ZUI is the only thing that can talk to the heart rate/blood-oxygen sensor on the back of the phone under the flash. Nobody has got U-Health working under a custom ROM since it requires the ZUI framework and integration with Lenovo's user login ecosystem. But the step sensor is apparently generic and supported by Google Fit, so if you just want to see if you're hitting 10K steps per day, you're all set. All the other sensors (gyro, orientation, proximity, magnetic, GPS/GLONASS, pressure, gravity, etc.) seem to work fine in custom ROMs.
You'll hear a lot about the "blue LED of death" - that's a hard freeze, the screen goes blank and the notification LED goes blue (with a 50% duty cycle, which looks different than just being "on"). You can restart from there by holding the power button for 8-10 seconds, so don't panic. Unfortunately, it seems to be reeeeeally easy to hard freeze the phone by doing some things with Bluetooth, or entering/exiting deep sleep (like if I have a clock alarm and a calendar reminder or two that would all go off simultaneously, and it's plugged in to charge, trying to wake itself up and play all those notifications at the same time has actually made it freeze instead and I've slept through an alarm that never went off) or other stuff that involves switching CPU states too much... I don't know. It seems like, at the end of the day, the stock (ZUI) thermal-engine.conf might have something to do with it... it sets super-low limits for temperatures, and the CPU ends up throttling, and it'll try to crash out perhaps as a safety measure instead of getting too hot... or maybe the constant state-switching leads to instability. Anyway, it's not too hot. They're just being super-conservative. Not sure. You can pull a different thermal config that'll ease up a lot, get you better benchmarks, and still isn't actually putting the hardware at risk.
Custom ROMs:
LineageOS 14 - there isn't a current build. I mean, there IS, and theoretically work is still being done on it, by a couple different people (long story and some drama involved there...) but there's no daily driver with working sound and no progress reports being made in XDA forums.
Mokee 7 - continues to be a thing (based on LineageOS sources), but... I don't know, it's all nightlies in terms of stability (at least when I tried it). Everything mostly works, it's just crashy. Wouldn't recommend. However, the maintainer is a guy whose name you'll see a lot: SY/Siyang. He's basically THE guy on the Lenovo Chinese forums responsible for building Z2 Pro ports of various custom/aftermarket ROMs like Resurrection Remix, AICP, Flyme, MIUI, HydrogenOS, etc. Apparently being a kernel developer means you know how to play around. But that's all it really is; playing around - he doesn't actively maintain any of them, just kinda builds them & throws them out there, but isn't in it to do active bug fixes. He also includes 3-4 packages of Chinese bloatware that involve some kind of adware/affiliate marketing to try and make some money - I don't begrudge him that, and you can disable/freeze them, but it's still not "clean".
MIUI/Flyme/HydrogenOS - I think they're all Android 6 (MM) based, so I haven't looked into them. Built by Siyang.
AICP - Built by Siyang. This was actually pretty good, but it crashed out on me with an alarm set twice and I was late for work. Ditched.
Resurrection Remix - Built by Siyang. This was also pretty good, but the 5.8.4 builds have problems. 5.8.3 was best, but got blue LED a couple times and ditched it too, not interested in moving backward in security patches.
...which brings us to AEX (AOSP Extended) - this is the only working Nougat ROM being actively developed & maintained for the Z2 Pro as of this writing that's stable for daily driver use, but it's REALLY good. @davidevinavil has done a fantastic job and is very responsive on the XDA forums. Since he's just using the same thermal-engine.conf as ZUI it doesn't score as high as possible on benchmarks, but you can grab the one from void23's kernel and use that (void hasn't updated his kernel for AEX 4.6 yet and doesn't seem to plan to with the release of Oreo "real soon now", so I don't recommend actually using his kernel anymore).
Works well with Magisk (for root, root hiding, and making Google Play Store like your weird-ass Chinese OEM phone, etc.), supports OMS/substratum themes, has current security patches, generally non-crashy, and camera quality is pretty good (both the built-in camera app, and with Open Camera and CameraNextModV7). F2FS support for /data & /cache might work, but the dev doesn't use those (even though, in theory, it makes a notable difference since the Pro has UFS instead of eMMC 5.2 storage) so plan on using ext4 for everything. Haven't tried device encryption yet, but if I were going to, it would be on this one.
Custom Kernels:
Void kernel - Void23 did some nice work based on AEX 4.5, and some people successfully use it with other ROMs as well. It works best with most current AEX 4.5, but from the reading I've done I wouldn't use it with 4.6. However, you can grab his thermal-engine.conf file from his installer package, and put it into /system/etc/ of a clean AEX 4.6 install and that'll give you a little more headroom before CPU/GPU/chipset throttling occurs.
TWRP:
There's a few, but @davidevinavil has the only 3.1.1 release, and it works the best as far as I can tell. There's a 3.1.0 release on the zukfans.eu German language forum (reasons...) that mostly works well but sometimes can't install some ROMs, and a Chinese release of 3.1.0 by wzsx150 that seems to work best for installing all the Lenovo forum ports by Siyang plus has a few extra goodies (like rebooting directly to EDL/port 9008 mode for QPST/QFIL flashing). As much as I'd love to have my /data partition encrypted, I haven't bothered testing lately. I'm guessing best compatibility would be using AEX and @davidevinavil's TWRP, but haven't actually tested. Again, F2FS is hit or miss.
But you know what's even better about @davidevinavil and AEX for the Z2 Pro? It's essentially a port of his work on AEX for the Z2 Plus! And on the Z2 Plus, it's only one of many actively supported and maintained custom ROMs! And there's an unofficial EAS-enabled version of AEX on that phone, so that bigger battery will go even farther!
So yeah. I like being able to quickly run a nandroid backup & restore and all, and have more room for video files & music, but as far as actual daily driver quality of life... not sure if the extra $150+ is worth it for the Pro, especially when you have the same CPU/GPU and bigger battery on the Plus. The every-so-slightly nicer camera seems to actually be a problem that delays getting working custom ROMs, and the other differences don't translate into noticeable daily quality of life improvements for me - I mean it's not like the plus is SLOW by any stretch. But it's got more RAM & storage, and USB 3 transfer speed, so if you use it as a glorified thumb drive a lot, or tend to load up lots of movies/music, then maybe it's worth it. And the AMOLED screen is pretty.
Oh, and there's a LOT more protective cases for the Z2 (plus) than the Z2 Pro.
So there you go. If you have any other questions about daily life with a Z2 Pro, feel free to ask me!
---------- Post added at 02:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:09 PM ----------
It's fast, and it's working pretty well for me, but it took a LOT to get to where it's actually a reliable daily driver for work.
I have owned mine for 15 months and paid $400. If I broke it right now I would buy another one for the $260 it is selling at.
Got it 25 months so far, since October '17, bought 215€. In my eyes, it is like a the OnePlus 3 6/128 of its time, except the silly multilanguage chinese "stock" rom in which I have stucked yet (a modified MM version). I was about buying a new phone and change battery, root-rom-kernel etc at this one, and just change battery, root-rom-kernel etc this one. Decided to stay because even at 50€ more , it's impossible to find anything else equipped with just OIS, 6 GB ram, amoled, UFS, though I'd expected to be able to buy much more, such as >=8 ram, cooling, macro & wide, as we are two years after.
Sooo no. One more year will be good enough with it. That's the only (main) device I have kept for more than 10 months What more could I want? :angel: :highfive: :victory:
Out of all of the devices out there that support LineageOS, the Z5 Compact looks the most appealing to me, because of the good audio quality, nice design/build, and reasonable size.
But is it foolish to purchase a Z5C with the intention of using it to run a custom ROMs?
Are people here using custom ROMs purely as a stopgap until they can get a newer phone that supports Oreo? I don't need or want the latest, greatest hardware, but ever since buying my first smartphone (a Nexus) I've become accustomed to using the latest software. Is the Z5 Compact a dead end in that regard? Or is it likely that I'll be using Android P and Q on this device in the next couple of years?
"But Strobelite, if you're worried about being able to use the latest version of Android, why don't you just get something by Motorola? Those have a healthy, active developer community. Or, you could just be a normal person, and buy a new phone."
If it runs GApps, I won't use it
Audio quality is important to me
The Motorola phones are ugly, in my opinion
Hi, since a few weeks I'm running on LineageOS 14.1 with my z5 Compact and I don't miss the stock rom at all. I didn't test all features yet (e.g. MHL), but I'm very satisfied until now. It's stable (didn't encounter any random reboot), fast and battery life is ok for me (I use Amplify and Greenify with xposed).
I only can recommend this and if you want to run without GApps, this is the way to go. I'm using Yalp store and it's even faster updating my apps than the original Play store.
Phone has FM Radio, SD card slot, fast and accurate GPS and enough power (LOS doesn't seem to run as hot as the stock rom (you can choose between performance profiles), so it's another plus for me).
Just try it and see if it works for you.
The only thing that annoyed me is the camera, the quality is just bad and sometimes it doesn't focus (or too late)
If you dont miss the camera then yes.
Strobelite said:
But is it foolish to purchase a Z5C with the intention of using it to run a custom ROMs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can understand your problem but of course it is imo.
Z5 line has never been widely supported by developers and the Compact is the one with less roms now. You can imagine what kind of future it would have.
Luckily in the past we had great guys who made stock rom root/mods/DRM restoration but the AOSP scene is completely different. As always you lose some features with non-stock roms, usually Camera quality (because you lose closed source vendor optimizations/software) and minor ones.
There will be probably 1 or 2 roms for future android versions (thanks to projects like SLim rom, PAC, Resurrection,...) but there are already few mantainers, especially for the Z5c, and some aosp roms are also unofficially maintained by one person...
Sony lost people (and developers) appeal after the Z3 line and this gets reflected in custom rom support for the newer Xperia lines. If you really want the latest OS on your phone for the next 4 years you should go for something else imo.
Z5c is still great device, refined materials and with good battery but don't expect a forum support like Samsungs, Huaweis,... Unfortunately the old days where flagship phones were < 4,5" are gone.
Maybe you already know it but GSMarena has a great phone-finder search engine which can help you refine your search for compact products.
I am getting a Poco F1 in the mail this week. I've been reading and seeing videos about how great the custom ROMS are like Lineage OS and Pixel Experience but they also "break" working features like WiFi hotspot and IR Face unlock (i think now working?) that i use. Also it's a lot of time and hassle and the only REAL benefit i'm reading is the "stock" experience and maybe the Camera works better on the customs ROMS? questions...
1) Is IR Face unlock working on any ROM? if so, what one?
2) how much better is the Camera on Lineage/Pixel vs. Stock Miui?
3) Am i missing anything else? what other benefits are there to installing a custom ROM?
Cheex18 said:
I am getting a Poco F1 in the mail this week. I've been reading and seeing videos about how great the custom ROMS are like Lineage OS and Pixel Experience but they also "break" working features like WiFi hotspot and IR Face unlock (i think now working?) that i use. Also it's a lot of time and hassle and the only REAL benefit i'm reading is the "stock" experience and maybe the Camera works better on the customs ROMS? questions...
1) Is IR Face unlock working on any ROM? if so, what one?
2) how much better is the Camera on Lineage/Pixel vs. Stock Miui?
3) Am i missing anything else? what other benefits are there to installing a custom ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.) I think I found some ROM that supports IR Face unlock find it somewhere here https://forum.xda-developers.com/poco-f1/development But some ROM uses Google Face unlock feature (idk if it uses the source code of the IR face unlock by xiaomi)
2.) They said that google camera port for MIUI changed the game but camera on other roms, I don't know. I think they have same results as google camera port for MIUI
3.) Customization and less restrictions. (Official custom roms offers OTA updates, nightly updates, etc.) But you can stay stock, I think it is fine. Just flash some mods and tweaks and MIUI will be good and fast.
1) All roms I've tried use google face unlock feature. It works just as fast. The only downside to that is that these roms don't have an option to turn on the screen when you pick up the device or take it out of your pocket. You have to press the power button, unlike in MIUI where you can just pick up your phone, have it recognize your face and be unlocked in half a second.
2) Gcam is a MUST. It's a game changer. You can have it in MIUI or in any custom rom, so I don't think you necessarily have to switch from stock to custom. I think your device has to be rooted to use Gcam, though I'm not 100% sure about that.
3) While I was waiting for Xiaomi to let me unlock my phone, I tried to use the latest MIUI as my daily driver. I just couldn't stand not having a clean, aosp-based rom on my phone. You will lose features for sure, but I think it's worth it. MIUI has... to much stuff? I don't know how to put it.
CheyTac-12 said:
1) All roms I've tried use google face unlock feature. It works just as fast. The only downside to that is that these roms don't have an option to turn on the screen when you pick up the device or take it out of your pocket. You have to press the power button, unlike in MIUI where you can just pick up your phone, have it recognize your face and be unlocked in half a second.
2) Gcam is a MUST. It's a game changer. You can have it in MIUI or in any custom rom, so I don't think you necessarily have to switch from stock to custom. I think your device has to be rooted to use Gcam, though I'm not 100% sure about that.
3) While I was waiting for Xiaomi to let me unlock my phone, I tried to use the latest MIUI as my daily driver. I just couldn't stand not having a clean, aosp-based rom on my phone. You will lose features for sure, but I think it's worth it. MIUI has... to much stuff? I don't know how to put it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the replied guys i really appreciate it, do you know if WiFi hotspot is working on Lineage or Pixel EXP ? i use that for work and require it from time to time.
Cheex18 said:
I am getting a Poco F1 in the mail this week. I've been reading and seeing videos about how great the custom ROMS are like Lineage OS and Pixel Experience but they also "break" working features like WiFi hotspot and IR Face unlock (i think now working?) that i use. Also it's a lot of time and hassle and the only REAL benefit i'm reading is the "stock" experience and maybe the Camera works better on the customs ROMS? questions...
1) Is IR Face unlock working on any ROM? if so, what one?
2) how much better is the Camera on Lineage/Pixel vs. Stock Miui?
3) Am i missing anything else? what other benefits are there to installing a custom ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the only drawback of using custom rom is battery backup which is not an issue if u are going to flash franco..... and there is slight fps drop in custom roms..... what i tested is i get 59.79 avg fps and in custom i get 59.12 which can be anything from server lagging or anything.... but u should flash custom rom..... if u gonna use poco...... the camera is pixel 3 camera i will suggest any day...... it can compete with op6t with gcam.... and in miui what i heard "they limit the camera performance to balance out with much higher premiums like mi 8"....... ir works in lineage....