My adventures with the GS3 - AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III

I traded an iPhone 4S with a gentleman from Kijiji for his Galaxy S3, around the time when the iPhone 5 was announced. Myself being an Apple fanboy since iPhone came out way back in 2007, and since the original 2G model I had since slaved to buy each model every release up to and including the 4S. Upon 5's announcement and press conference, I was underwhelmed, and decided it was time to jump ship, having in my opinion seen Apple beginning its fall from the top. Enter the Galaxy S3.
First thing I did when I finished my routine battery maintenance (this phone was brand new in a sealed box, and the guy traded me for my almost year old 4S.. what a steal!) was try to remember what my username/password was to XDA to see what cool stuff I could do - having an ancient HTC Touch I knew of the community and how awesome it was. My first, and possibly most difficult step was understanding terminology and what advantages of "Rooting" was. After a few weeks of reading and one exchange to Rogers after I bricked my phone (high five for pretending to be an idiot!), I finally felt comfortable with using Odin and the tools. I had no idea what this "Recovery" was, or what CWM was at the time, so a few stupid questions later I figured out how powerful (read: dangerous to idiots like myself) the recovery system was. After a few accidental wipes and another near-brick incident, I grew confident in using CWM Recovery. Time to start flashing ROMs and having fun!
A lengthy stint with a few of the Android ROMs, notably Intergalatic, BlackJelly, while both awesome ROMs, I eventually found that it was a lot of fluff and stuff I didn't need in a phone. Nothing against the ROM developers, they made/make an excellent product, but for me, I wanted something simple, basic.. hey look! over there! It's TASK650! Wow, what a smooth and stable ROM. While it was a rude awakening entering his threads and seeing such a significant amount of hate towards newbs asking questions already answered 10 times over, and receiving hate messages from members who wont be named for myself asking similar questions, I eventually grew to understand and enjoy the ROM for the majority of the time I've had the device.
A few times I dabbled in Paranoid variations, KANG and non-KANG, and even tested out a few of the other Original ASOP ROM's, but significant bugs unrelated to the development teams themselves had me growing more and more frustrated with the device to the point where I was contemplating switching devices all together, or returning to stock.
Well, this morning, March 26th 2013, I decided to go back. After about 3 hours of work, and over-confidence in my abilities to flash back to stock causing a few repeated steps, I managed to get back to stock, rooted, and debloated. I couldn't be happier at the time being. The device does what I want, the battery life is so far pretty damn good, almost on par with ktoonsez's Kernel settings (but still less).
What was the point of this post?
I'm not entirely sure to be honest. I wanted the community to know the story of a former Apple Fanboy. I also wanted everyone new here know that there are a significant amount of over-talented developers here doing awesome work aimed at their own niche group of people. I believe I personally gave every developer and ROM group a fair shot, and I wanted to thank each and everyone mentioned above and any other members who assisted me in my noobish misadventures. I also wanted to get the non-developers in this wonderful community to understand that it's OK being stock, but it's also OK to flash whatever ROM you want, ask your questions, read your FAQs and use Search - it's there for a reason.

Always good to try different platforms. I have done the android, ios and back to android thing. Been tooling around with my iPhone 4 lately as my son is getting it (20 months old) to play learning games on.
I was actually surprised that it still hauls pretty good arse in apps and games
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

Related

You will NOT regret it!!!

Thinking of jumping ship?? Tired of ignoring your reason and rationality? Need help and support? Tired of antiquated Windows?
This is the official Rhodium renouncing thread. I am SOOO happy I switched! Get our life back, get away from Windows!!!
Go away, why are you still here if you have no Rhodium?
You should meet nycny!!!!!!
jcterry said:
You should meet nycny!!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ROFLMAO
EDIT: oh, and I want my money back too...the title of this thread is absolutely 100% untrue, in my case anway
Well, I think it's fantastic you got a phone you enjoy using! Everyone should enjoy using their device. However, this begs the question: Why are you posting in the Rhodium section about how much you hate the phone, when this section is mostly (if not completely) filled with people who like their Rhodiums and like Windows Mobile? It's great you got a device you enjoy, but why are you telling the people who like their Rhodiums?
Just because you didn't have a good experience with the device, and didn't like it, doesn't mean the rest of us feel the same way. Most of the people who bought the Rhodium bought it because they like Windows Mobile, they like the form factor, they like something else about the device, or they don't really care at all. For a poor, suffering Rhodium user who must bear the pains of owning such an awful device, I can say that I'm actually quite happy with it
Don't feed the TROLLS
The torture I must endure with this device
Please delete this post, due to my husband's xbox play-time, and crappy wifi, my laptop lagged so it became a double post...my apologies.
The torture I must endure with this device
DaveTheTytnIIGuy said:
For a poor, suffering Rhodium user who must bear the pains of owning such an awful device, I can say that I'm actually quite happy with it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ROTFLMFAO!!!!
I had the Moto Cliq AND the Samsung Behold 2...both droid based phones, both sucked ass...I went running back to WinMo and am so happy I did. I can go a few days without charging my device...both droid phones I had to charge LITERALLY every 4-5 hours!! I can customize my device, tweak the hell out of it, and if I so choose, run a cooked rom made to my liking...not so with the Cliq or Behold 2 (not saying it won't be able to happen, but back in November, hell no). I too am quite happy, thrilled really, with the horrible device known as the Rhodium!! I guess what they say is true...ignorance is bliss.
BTW, the troll got its ass handed to him when he challenged the 3 billy goats gruff.
My daughter has the Cliq after the G1, and I also have the 3G Hero before buying the Nexus. I went through 2 Nexus and they are identical despite what the tech told me - the speaker blows, I missed more calls with the N1, and the speakerphone is hopelessly poor. I would have loved it but every chance I get I go back to my Tilt 2, especially when I need to sync notes & tasks from outlook.
Having said that, I am somewhat concerned with the HD2 as the HW is quite similar, I can deal with pink center spot from the cam, but the speaker/ringtone level is important to me....
dislike. someone can lock thread. i will admit that there is something to android. and as android dual booting improves i may have it as my primary os on the phone. but as for the hardware, nothing seems to beat my rhodium. i look forward to rhodium android but i wont switch for a nexus one.
I once said "windows mobile sucks" and quickly ditched my mda and scooped up an iphone...i got rid of that crap within two weeks ( no multi-tasking, editing of documents ect).
after trading the iphone on craigslist for a g1, I soon realized android needed some serious growing up to do ( no intergrated exchange support at the time, no editing of documents). I then found myself digging my mda out of the drawer and sliding my sim card back into its warm and familiar slot...
sure, wmo has its quirks, bugs, and annoyances, but living without the wmo goodness is something I shall not do again...
p.s. I'm not forced to use an app store or market place to correct those pesky quirks, bugs, and annoyances either...
What's crazy is that I would hit so many nerves win his thread. Last I knew this was an poen forum. I liked my Rhodium, but there came a time when I could not ignore the fact that the base OS is old as HELL!!!
That said, don't get angry guys, this thread is for those thinking of switching. With so many of you, dedicated and adamant, I am sure they wont be missed. And you may say what you wish, but there comes time where we must become productive, with our phone being a tool, than being a productive tool for our phone. Come on guys? How many hours have we spent tinkering? Lets not get it confused. I loved to do it as well, but to what end?
I believe Android is a reasonable medium. Lets not get offended, lest you show more of your hand than intended. Imagine taking it personally!?!
moSess said:
What's crazy is that I would hit so many nerves win his thread. Last I knew this was an poen forum. I liked my Rhodium, but there came a time when I could not ignore the fact that the base OS is old as HELL!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You posted in a forum full of 'above-and-beyond' winmo users, with acrimonious tone about how you think the OS is horrible for everybody, not just incompatible with your personal needs....and you're surprised to have gotten some charged responses...?? I think the protestants tried that with the catholics once, might want to ask them how that went, before they all realized there was plenty of room here for everybody's preferences, without having to disparage others' *ahem*
I'm guessing you also probably believe you're actually getting that 4MB+ downlink speed on your 3G that you've proudly posted there
Do me a favor, and you have to be honest. Come back in a month and list all of the problems you have had with your new phone along with a list of the problems you had with the Rhodium. Also, list the pros and cons for your new device and the Rhodium. If you're going to renounce the Rhodium (much less in a Rhodium forum) and want to convice others to do the same, at least have some info/data to back it up.
rename the thread atleast. Wasted time waiting to load this thread to read crap i dont care to read. Stupid
Can you list some specific pros and cons?
A Windows Mobile phone is only as useful, or useless, as its owner.
moSess said:
What's crazy is that I would hit so many nerves win his thread. Last I knew this was an poen forum. I liked my Rhodium, but there came a time when I could not ignore the fact that the base OS is old as HELL!!!
That said, don't get angry guys, this thread is for those thinking of switching. With so many of you, dedicated and adamant, I am sure they wont be missed. And you may say what you wish, but there comes time where we must become productive, with our phone being a tool, than being a productive tool for our phone. Come on guys? How many hours have we spent tinkering? Lets not get it confused. I loved to do it as well, but to what end?
I believe Android is a reasonable medium. Lets not get offended, lest you show more of your hand than intended. Imagine taking it personally!?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You dont tinker with your NEXUS? Really?... You dont go through the Android App Store looking for apps that might be cool and useful?
Are you really trying to persuade someone to switch phones? Why do you care? I mean really... what would it benefit you if even one person agreed with you enough to switch phones?
Your just trying to get a rise out of readers here. Be honest... I dont fault you for it... as long as your honest about it.
Threads going nowhere from start...
On that note thread closed.

The Noob Has Finally Gotten Baptized...

"By Jove, Agnes, I believe he's got it...!"
No questions here. I'm new to the Android world, but, I'm starting to get a bit of understanding. I would like to send many thanks to ocnbrze, over at Android Forums - his 'Rooting For Dummies' thread was an inspiration for me - a disabled 50 year old, with a lot of time on his hands. I learned how to root an HTC Evo 4G, through installing - and learning how to use - Revolutionary I/O; then, I was on to other tasks, like wiping Dalvik cache, using Amon_Ra as my primary recovery tool, and, doing the ubiquitous-but-necessary Nandroid backups.
My phone had picked up an errant bit of signature code in my earlier forays into the Android world (I suspect that it was my own mistake, in dealing with a certain third-party developer, who knew that I was a neophyte)... I ended up picking up a "mystery label" that covered nearly all of my useful punctuation keys in Symbol mode - a quaint, old-style label that had the word 'Utopia' emblazoned upon it, and, it made my typing life miserable for three weeks or so.
I figured out that this code-warrior left a few of these keys open to long-press usage - I was able to get a few of my punctuation marks back, but, not all.
Swype isn't my style; though, I'm starting to like creating and using my own gestures when I'm surfing the web. Just by doing a complete cleanup on my Evo's inner workings, I no longer have that "Utopia" artifact bothering me. When I saw the keyboard on my Evo's screen COMPLETELY devoid of the mystery label, I really felt good. I haven't felt good in a long time, due to health reasons. This little achievement really put some wind in my sails, so to speak.
It did, really and truly, feel nice. The old dog learned a few new tricks. Who'da thunk it.
Now, I'm on to flashing ROMs. Wish me luck, fellow denizens of the Android platform - I may be new, but, I'm really no longer a "noob". Call me an Android adolescent.
I just wanted to share a bit of my Android experiences. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. By reading, you're welcoming me into this forum... I hope that everyone here has a great weekend.
Although by reading your post I passively agreed to welcome you to this forum, I would still like to take the time to officially extend to you my formal welcome and offer assistance to you with any Android, most noteably Evo, related issues you may have. I'm glad to see that there are still some old dogs in this world that are open minded, and ambitious, enough to learn some new tricks. Nothing is worse than complacency and a self destructive sense of inability. The board is glad to have you within its ranks and I look forward to seeing you amongst the many threads to come.
I also see that you are a fellow musician! Right on!
Hello -
It's been awhile, but I wanted to check back, and thank you for your kind words. I've recently learned that I have the 'big C', once again... I've been doing great since the first go-around (1994); but, it's not terminal - so I'm fighting to fight another day... I'll be fine, as I'm in good hands. Got a new phone, too (EVO 3D), running CleanROM 2.9.5, and a Tiamat kernel using smartassv2 as the profiled governor for the CPU - I'm running under load at 1.73 gHz on a Snapdragon chipset. I'm well into Tegra territory... this phone smokes! No hassle, man.... I'm having FUN
BBone
Sent from my PG86100 using xda premium
Concordium said:
Although by reading your post I passively agreed to welcome you to this forum, I would still like to take the time to officially extend to you my formal welcome and offer assistance to you with any Android, most noteably Evo, related issues you may have. I'm glad to see that there are still some old dogs in this world that are open minded, and ambitious, enough to learn some new tricks. Nothing is worse than complacency and a self destructive sense of inability. The board is glad to have you within its ranks and I look forward to seeing you amongst the many threads to come.
I also see that you are a fellow musician! Right on!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Old Dogs?? Hell, I'm gonna be 48 this year
WOOF
Sent from my PG86100 using xda premium
HK, here's the deal -
I may be 50 on paper, but, as a full-time musician for 30 years - I'm probably 104 in 'Bar Years'... haha
BB
Sent from my customized PG86100, using xda premium with a liquid salt-cooled Thorium reactor
Hello, once again -
Just wanted to check in, and let you know how I'm coming along. I'm becoming more immersed in Android; my rooted EVO 3D is running CleanROM DE 1.4 (courtesy of www.scottsROMS.com) with a Tiamat E3D kernel; if you haven't already, check out 3C's System Tuner Pro - it's a jack-of-all-trades, master of more app that took my overclocked beast, and gave it the ability to run STABLE at 1.72 ghz, have a 2048 kb SD buffer, be able to clear app cache, and reset all of my data settings at boot, without making the phone enter into a bootloop, or force me into the 'HTC Pull The Battery, Reboot Into Recovery Two-Step'...
I've tried a few of the ICS releases, and Peter Alfonso's is among the nicest so far (see the thread) - my only hope is that there will be more Sense-injection into future guises of ICS (as a guy who uses SPB Shell 3D, you can tell that I'm into 'whiz-bang'). As we speak, my phone SCREAMS, runs smooth and cool, and sucks batteries dry - or, it can be a stately, battery-saving device - it depends upon how the numbers are set up.
I hope that you had a good Holiday season - mine was spent in and out of hospitals - but, otherwise fine (I had another outpatient surgery, last week) - though, I am kind of tired. Any great tips or tricks from you, would always be welcome.
BrotherBone - often imitated, never duplicated
sent by the anointed '3VO', using xda premium

Thanks for the new phone, XDA members.

A few months ago, I was fed up with being three updates behind. I'd made the mistake of buying my GalNex from Verizon. (Obviously, thinking I'd be all "pure Android", "on Googles developer phone", and "get my updates straight from Google.") I know better now and I'll buy my Nexus from Google next time. So, back on topic, the only CFW experience I've had has been with my PSP and Wii. I don't know how many times I've visited, gotten intimidated by the amount of information, and left. One evening, I was especially fed up with Verizon and I hit XDA hard. I read everything I could find, took notes, drew diagrams, and finished up by asking a few questions. A week later, I was on my first custom recovery and ROM...and it felt like a brand new phone. It was faster, smarter, and prettier! Tablet mode even gave me a bigger screen...who would have thought loading a ROM would give me a bigger screen. Haha. (If you've used it, you know what I mean.) I've bounced around between a few different builds but for the last month-or-so, I've stuck with the PA builds.
Anyway, I wanted to thank the dev's and the forum members for contributing your time. I'm in good shape now and I finally feel like I'm getting that Nexus experience I was hoping for.

Why are there not more ROM's?

Serious question, and not one to knock any developer or anyone else, and I am not complaining... But why don't we have more custom ROM's for this device?
I have owned lots of Nexus/Pixel devices in the past, and within a few months of release there were dozens of ROM's available for the device, but for this device there is a couple kernels and a few unofficial or "build it yourself" ROM's and that is it. It just seems very odd that a device so open by design and sold extremely well doesn't have more options. Why?
I admit I haven't had much involvement in the custom ROM community in a few years, and I haven't really felt a need to use a custom ROM in some time as I have been using Moto, Nokia, Nexus, and Pixel devices for the most part for years and just a few tweaks here and there are good enough, but I went to look into other possibilities with my Pixel 3a XL recently and found there just isn't much of anything.
acejavelin said:
Serious question, and not one to knock any developer or anyone else, and I am not complaining... But why don't we have more custom ROM's for this device?
I have owned lots of Nexus/Pixel devices in the past, and within a few months of release there were dozens of ROM's available for the device, but for this device there is a couple kernels and a few unofficial or "build it yourself" ROM's and that is it. It just seems very odd that a device so open by design and sold extremely well doesn't have more options. Why?
I admit I haven't had much involvement in the custom ROM community in a few years, and I haven't really felt a need to use a custom ROM in some time as I have been using Moto, Nokia, Nexus, and Pixel devices for the most part for years and just a few tweaks here and there are good enough, but I went to look into other possibilities with my Pixel 3a XL recently and found there just isn't much of anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think your statement of "I haven't really felt the need to use a custom Rom..." is very telling. We also get monthly updates without jumping through hoops and we have feature sets we all like. Also Google Pay is being used more and more and you need to unlock the bootloader which breaks GP. I mean you can do kernel mods to enable it but it's just not worth it. What would you like that you don't currently have? I can name a few things like modifying location of the clock, changing vibration, things like that. But is it worth not having security updates or hoping the rom dev will update the rom? And then asking for an ETA and getting hammered by users for asking. It's just not worth it and devs have moved on to other money making ventures. Begging for donations doesn't pay the rent.
Bottom line, it's not worth it for rom devs and thus we have just a few. Flashing is not as easy as it used to be with dual slots. I remember just flashing each file and vendor and done. Bootloop, no prob just reflash the image. Not anymore. Now it's "omg your rom bricked my phone". Last thing.. we all have things to do now whereas we were young and stupid years back. Just give me a nice display, good battery, some options, and I'm good. Just some random thoughs.. agree or disagree but simply observations on my part.
There are ROMs not listed on xda available but you have to search them out. But even on that end it's in the range of 3-4 bonito ROMs that I can think of.
I'm guessing we'll see more builds sooner rather than later since 10 just got officially released earlier in the month(plus TWRP isn't available for 10 yet - not that that would stop fastboot flashable ROMs from being built). Also the upcoming release of the pixel 4 should drop prices on the 3aXl which means more people will pick up this device and more ROMs will(most likely) be built. *That's my theory at least...I've seen other devices' development happen that way in the past so that's where I'm coming from.
I also think a combination of factors has slowed development in general across the board: less people buy new phones as often now(our phone is less than 6 months old), and stock android has gotten to the point that just rooting and minor tweaking is good enough for a lot of people. Not me personally - I always use custom ROMs - but for some others all they need is slightly tweaked stock, some theme-ing ability, and a few root apps like adaway or root browser to stay happy.
But anyway, big thanks to those who are building for our device. Y'all have skills that I do not have - which are much appreciated by me & many others.
And that was kind of what I thought... The custom ROM scene, particularly on Google devices is just shrinking. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.
Time will tell as this community moves into 10 development, but I'm guessing things will pick up a bit. Hang in there:good:
Bob nesta said:
There are ROMs not listed on xda available but you have to search them out. But even on that end it's in the range of 3-4 bonito ROMs that I can think of..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For Android 10? Ive seen zero. 10 is very different than Pie and Bonito has a bunch of uniqueness as well. Building 10 for it is no small task and may take a while before you see 10 Roms for it. Even the handful of Rom devs (or teams) that have 10 builds dont have Bonito.
This is very similar to when Shamu came out. It took 2-3 months before custom Roms were working as there were so many changes from Hammerhead and Marshmallow was a very different build vs KitKat. There were also very unique challenges when Marlin came out for the same reasons. I hope to have Velocity up and running in the next few weeks but I wouldnt hold my breath on it as this has been one of the most challenging updates Ive come across and Ive been building Roms for Nexus/Pixel devices since JellyBean.
ctfrommn said:
For Android 10? Ive seen zero. 10 is very different than Pie and Bonito has a bunch of uniqueness as well. Building 10 for it is no small task and may take a while before you see 10 Roms for it. Even the handful of Rom devs (or teams) that have 10 builds dont have Bonito.
This is very similar to when Shamu came out. It took 2-3 months before custom Roms were working as there were so many changes from Hammerhead and Marshmallow was a very different build vs KitKat. There were also very unique challenges when Marlin came out for the same reasons. I hope to have Velocity up and running in the next few weeks but I wouldnt hold my breath on it as this has been one of the most challenging updates Ive come across and Ive been building Roms for Nexus/Pixel devices since JellyBean.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, not for 10. I was referring to pie. I'm pretty sure some of those pie ROMs slowed development down in anticipation for 10, so it's just a slow time right now.
It's cool... I understand a lot of work goes into building, so when/if they come - they come.
One question - does the a/b partitioning and lack of recovery partition make building harder or easier? (This is my first a/b device...just wondering.)
*And thanks for your hard work; I've been lurking on your kernel thread and see how much you've been refining it. Looking forward to your ROM whenever it drops. :good:
Never owned or dev'd for an a/b device except Marlin (Pixel 1) and that was pretty different from this I believe. Lack of recovery only affects how we flash it. The biggest issue right now is getting all the needed vendor/device stuff for it to boot and run right. No idea why this is never fully included with AOSP + posted binaries but it isnt.
The kernel (as always) is much simpler than a full Rom. Im still trying to get my head fully around the nuances for building a Rom for this. Rest assured they will come. Im definitely going to be spending more time on that side now.
---------- Post added at 10:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:40 AM ----------
acejavelin said:
The custom ROM scene, particularly on Google devices is just shrinking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most people that bought the Pixels had little need for a custom Rom. This will change I think with the lower cost of the "a" line. So many people jumped off the Google phone train when the Nexus died and the cost was simply higher than they/I/we wanted to spend for a phone. The "a" line is a lot of what the Nexus line was so I would guess this will bring many back, though OP has done a good job taking and keeping most of them.
Not sure I would agree with that.
The elephant in the room is the activity across this entire forum section; there are few people here compared to another Pixel like the vanilla 3XL, massively less than you'll find over on the OnePlus sections. They're giving the A series credit for Goog seeing an 88% increase in Pixel sales this year but those sales do not appear to be to people like us that frequent this place, if they were, they would be here. I think at least for now this phone sold to ordinary folk, people who have never looked at their phones and wondered if they're truly bricked or just soft-bricked. Can't honestly say I know I'm right here but a look at the activity and available goodies over in OnePlus land is certainly compelling. Less money and bigger numbers along with an unlocked bootloader have attracted plenty of enthusiasts and along with them, development.
The regular 3 has been out a lot longer and development is mature. I also cant say Im definitively right either of course and I 100% agree OP has taken most of the low budget enthusiasts over to their side, especially outside the US.
Either way, it makes no nevermind to me. I will always build for the device I own and choose the device I own very carefully. There will be at least Velocity for the 3a XL its just a matter of how long it takes to get it up and running.
And yes, the lack of activity in this forum is almost shocking to me but last I was here with any regularity was in the Nexus 4/Nexus 5 days which was the wild west of Android development.
Let's not forget to mention the constant free advertising xda does for oneplus as well; that definitely helps their cause.
*And I'll admit it - I fell for it myself: bought a oneplus 7 pro, found that I hate curved displays, and returned it the next day - but the hype on xda fooled me for sure. The 7t pro looks nice, but I'm good - I'm hanging in with my bonito and seeing where things go.
krabman said:
Not sure I would agree with that.
The elephant in the room is the activity across this entire forum section; there are few people here compared to another Pixel like the vanilla 3XL, massively less than you'll find over on the OnePlus sections. They're giving the A series credit for Goog seeing an 88% increase in Pixel sales this year but those sales do not appear to be to people like us that frequent this place, if they were, they would be here. I think at least for now this phone sold to ordinary folk, people who have never looked at their phones and wondered if they're truly bricked or just soft-bricked. Can't honestly say I know I'm right here but a look at the activity and available goodies over in OnePlus land is certainly compelling. Less money and bigger numbers along with an unlocked bootloader have attracted plenty of enthusiasts and along with them, development.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hahaha. "vanilla 3XL" far superior to any 3a. I will go with small a
It doesn't surprise me because I, too, am finding myself comfortable with stock and avoiding all the inconveniences (mainly the merry-go-round of breaking things that check for root)... the only thing I really miss is being able to block ads and titanium backup. But it just isn't bothering me enough to care...
Golf c said:
Hahaha. "vanilla 3XL" far superior to any 3a. I will go with small a
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I owned the 3XL and didn't find it far superior. In fact I took it back and got a 6T while I waited for the next thing. Mainly it was the notch, and redraws in the GUI. In any event I only meant to refer to the regular 3XL or by extension any Pixel.
I guess if I paid @$300-400usd more for a device that has a smaller battery, with the same camera hardware(rear - don't care about the selfie cam), no headphone jack, and had a hideous notch so the OEM can claim "small bezels" - I may also be bitter & lurking in other devices' threads & talking smack(so I could feel better about my purchase...?)
Enjoy your 3xl and your notch... I guess. Congrats. :good:
Anytime you want to contribute to the 3axl community you are totally welcome to. No bitterness here. Otherwise...please go back to your "far superior" 3xl land please. We are not good enough for you here.
Take care.
*Bows down to the "far superior" 3xl owner*:angel:
I'm not going to claim expertise when I say this but I can call out plenty of experience on XDA over the course of many phones: I would not expect this forum section to be getting more active in the future. I'm not saying a ROM wont come but there was never much activity here at any time, it is quite slow now, it continues to get slower. Everything I've seen over my time here tells me that trend will continue. I'm honestly surprised about that because I had thought when I purchased this phone that this section would be moderately active. I was wrong. I don't like saying that and wish it wasn't true but that's how I see it.
I'll be off toward 4XL land soon; I have all the coffee tables a man needs in one life and I like my toys.
krabman said:
I'm not going to claim expertise when I say this but I can call out plenty of experience on XDA over the course of many phones: I would not expect this forum section to be getting more active in the future. I'm not saying a ROM wont come but there was never much activity here at any time, it is quite slow now, it continues to get slower. Everything I've seen over my time here tells me that trend will continue. I'm honestly surprised about that because I had thought when I purchased this phone that this section would be moderately active. I was wrong. I don't like saying that and wish it wasn't true but that's how I see it.
I'll be off toward 4XL land soon; I have all the coffee tables a man needs in one life and I like my toys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean bezzels right not coffee tables. Hahaha
acejavelin said:
Serious question, and not one to knock any developer or anyone else, and I am not complaining... But why don't we have more custom ROM's for this device?
I have owned lots of Nexus/Pixel devices in the past, and within a few months of release there were dozens of ROM's available for the device, but for this device there is a couple kernels and a few unofficial or "build it yourself" ROM's and that is it. It just seems very odd that a device so open by design and sold extremely well doesn't have more options. Why?
I admit I haven't had much involvement in the custom ROM community in a few years, and I haven't really felt a need to use a custom ROM in some time as I have been using Moto, Nokia, Nexus, and Pixel devices for the most part for years and just a few tweaks here and there are good enough, but I went to look into other possibilities with my Pixel 3a XL recently and found there just isn't much of anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I personally have stopped using custom ROMs after switching to a Pixel. Before this, I always was eager to install AOSP-based ROMs on my previous devices (Samsung and LG).
But especially LG is a disappointment software-wise: My LG G5 had a very good battery runtime with the initial ROM, but future updates killed this. Not to speak of non-existing updates and even security patches. My Samsungs were just awful from the start, they were immediately in dire need of AOSP.
On top, updating vendor images always was a PITA.. On my G5, I always had to do a clean flash, get rid of the bloat, flash the GApps etc.
But the Pixels are different. They also can have a bug here and there, but nothing severe. Battery runtime stays good with updates, and security patches always are on time. Updates are easy even when you are rooted.
Hence I just rooted my Pixel 3a XL and called it a day. Since Android 10 with its dark mode, I can even skip Substratum. YMMV of course, but this is how I see it.
I only root for system-wide adblock and HEBF Optimizer. Everything else is stock.
Custom Roms arent all (or even mostly) about features. There is so much more performance (and efficiency) to be had by building vs stock. Development will break loose soon enough. And when it does, then we will see what this device is truly capable of.

Migrate to Lineage or no?

Not as much a "how to" question as it is a "why" question. I used to root and swap ROM's on my older Galaxy phones. Few years ago decided this was becoming too much work to keep updated and the risk of bricking ever-present discouraged keeping that up. Now own two S9's and wondering if moving to Lineage presents a much greater value than keeping them on stock? One of the main reasons to root in the early days was to remove all the bloat and get features not built into stock, but many articles over the past few years suggest stock builds now offer most everything you need, so rooting is a thing of the past.
I know folks out here will be fans of making the change (why else would they be out here of they aren't' "tinkerers?"), but I really want to determine if there are truly compelling, value-add reasons beyond "it's a cool thing to do" to go down this path again, and how much effort it will take to maintain it as I keep my phones much longer than the typical person out here (what can I say, I'm an old fart).
Crickets

Categories

Resources