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After my main phones power button gave up on life with no spare ribbon cables available. I found myself in the abyss of new phone paralysis and the drawer of shattered dreams for a stand-in. Cool starry bra eh!
Draw opened revealed an e-waste plastic morass of forgotten and unloved tech. Amongst the detritus was a unassuming curiosity dating back to 2016. A Jiayu S3+ with Andorid 5.1. The start of a design aesthetic that was an attempt to compete with iphones of the day.
The battery charged within 10 mins. A good indication it's original capacity had long since escaped into the ether! A quick search and a battery arrived in the post 2 days later. My partner loved this phone back in the day (a two sim phone in the UK was not common at the time) but whilst snappy in operation, there are so many little things, I've got used to in more modern phones it was not a fun experience! I modernised it a little with more modern apps (most are unsupported now and the phone had basic AOSP apps by default) and sideloaded things (whatsapp, Aurora store etc) but it was still annoying (msg app no inline reply) and a bit buggy in places.
A quick research showed I could update it with LinageOS, Oreo 8.1 & 7.1.2. I have quite fond memories of Android 7/Nougat, that's as far back as I go with Android. Speed tests show Android 7.1.2 is generally faster than 8.1 and the chipset of this phone did not allow for the best most updated rom available (Resurrection Remix) and 8.1 has a video recoding bug. So 7.1.2 is the best bet and something I remembered being solid if a bit austere.
Well what a difference the custom rom (madOS 7.1.2) was better than I remember Android 7.1 to be. Slicker, nicer looking (choice of launchers Pixel and madOS) and very customisable. With some added extras not allowed in official versions of the OS. Some apps don't have the latest versions but older versions of Brave (from 2025) work great and the New Pipe app for youtube does youtubby things.
So what did I learn if anything from this complete waste of time:
1) You don't have to login to your Android OS to use your phone
2) You don't have to use Google Play (or login) to install apps. Aurora, Uptodown, F-Droid (there are others) and sideloading i.e. USB from your PC
3) All of the above has been made incrementally more difficult by google to create a walled garden
4) Some features have been completely removed from newer versions
5) Due to the modular nature of Android you can modernise older versions with modern apps and older versions of modernish apps
6) Pie Controls/LMT. Whilst on the face of it seem archaic. I found to be really useful/a bit of a revelation. The implementation in this custom rom was very slick, transparent, sizable, configurable primary and seconadary buttons with double tap and long press functions.
I think I've found my limit at Android 6/Marshmallow (7 being a polished version of 6 with spilt screen). I wouldn't go any further back. There's too many modern features most people would miss. Gritting my teeth, but just adding googles keylogger Gboard to older versions makes it feel slicker/more modern!
I got my first android back in 2010 I think, an Orange San Fransisco, a rebranded ZTE Blade if memory serves. £99.
Over the years I flirted with no brand Chinese phones, custom roms etc but now I just want something reliable, runs banking apps ok and has a really nice camera. I like a big screen too as I rarely boot up the PC these days.
That's basically resulted in me having Pixels for years now, though I always buy them a generation behind and secondhand.
Very small iterative changes to mobiles these days and I don't upgrade often as there isn't much difference. Not sold on folding screens yet.
My favourite bit of mobile related tech in ages has been my budget smart watch actually, an Amazfit Bip 6, great little bit of tech and the most reliable smart watch I've ever owned. Reliable as in not needing rebooting due to BT disconnects or other small but annoying issues.
I just want something reliable, runs banking apps ok and has a really nice camera. I like a big screen too as I rarely boot up the PC these days.
I think you have pretty much summed up what the vast majority of people want from a mobile phone!
Anyway after the pointless fun this turned out to be! When I'm in the mood and get around to it, I like giving old stuff a new lease of life 😆
Next up I've decided to resurrect a Xiaomi Pocofone F1 (think it has 8.1 Oreo on it) with a shattered screen (from the same drawer of doom) which apparently can be updated to Android 16, once I've glued a new screen in, battery seems ok. Sticking with the older version vibe. I think I'm going to plump for 11 r76, because I believe it was the last version of the older UI that retained options removed from following versions and is still usable today.
I started with a HTC Hero and have been on Android ever since. I like Apple hardware but the OS feels like it's for kids.
I used to love flashing different custom ROMs and playing around with different kernels, and later all the Xposed stuff. I soft bricked many a phone undervolting and overclocking them! The fun stopped when manufacturers started locking bootloaders and banking apps stopped working on rooted devices, even with Magisk. I think the Huawei P20 was the first phone I couldn't root and I've had Knox blocked Samsungs since then. It's too much effort for too little gain now. The Google Nexus 5 and 7 were probably peak Android era for me, but I never quite gelled with the Pixels as they always seemed let drown by the processor.
I do still use a custom launcher (Lawnchair) so I can at least change the look and feel of the OS, and hide any crap I can't uninstall.
Drawer. For ****'s sake.
Interesting tale, rampant illiteracy aside. 😁 My first Android phone I think was the original Samsung Galaxy running Android 1.5. It was diabolically crap. I still have a tablet running... 7 or 8 I think, I'd have to check; that's great, so long as you knobble how many background tasks it's allowed to run.