the spider den

Phones

Created 2025-02-17, edited 2025-02-22

Listen, I'm bad at titles, alright?

This post goes over my experiences with basically all phones I had over the years. From my old and crappy Huawei Y6 to my current Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro (as of writing).

I'll preface all of this by saying that ever since around the beginning of 2023 I've been using nothing but LineageOS as my operating system. As such, my experiences will be relayed purely from the perspective of an LOS user, and also mostly because I really don't remember much about my phones before 2023. I wonder whether it's because of the COVID brain fog, or my brain simply not remembering this because it wasn't important. (tbf i'm not even sure if i managed to get infected with COVID. statistically, i probably did, but still)

If you haven't got a custom operating system on your phone and have got the spare time to set it up, I recommend trying it out. Make sure you educate yourself about custom ROMs, as using one differs greatly from using your default OS. They're absolutely ready for daily use, but you have to put in noticeably more effort into your phone. I'm planning to write a post about this very topic, but I'm not sure when I'll come around to writing it.

With all this out of the way, we can begin.

The Timeline

So far I've had 6 different phones, two of which functioned as my "work phones".

This only includes the Huawei Y6 and any phone that came after it, as anything before the Y6 I.. barely remember, to be completely honest. I think before the Y6 I had a "Lark" smartphone (talk about obscure brands...), then some Samsung smartphone, I think, and before that, many dumbphone Nokias.

Putting these into a timeline based on the approximate times I acquired these phones, we get this:

Huawei Y6

GSMArena page

The myth, the legend, the absolutely, abysmally, horrendously slow piece 'o' shit: the Huawei Y6

I had the SCL-L01 model specifically, which, to my knowledge, is the most ubiquitous one. There are 10 different model names for the Y6, I've yet to see any other phone have as many.

This little nugget was my first real phone. It's insane to think that when Harambe got shot, this thing was still relatively new. It's rockin' a 1.1 GHz quad-core processor, which for the time was hilariously bad, considering that in 2015 you could get phones with CPUs reaching even up to 2.5 GHz, while the average clock rate was somewhere around 1.5 GHz (based on my impressive 30s of half-assed research). At the same time, though, the phone was very cheap on release, with GSMArena estimating the price-on-launch to be around 90 EUR.

Despite the processor, the phone was still good. As long as you didn't clutter it up with random apps and other junk, it ran pretty well. So my dumb self in 2019 of course immediately cluttered it up with random apps and other junk. I replaced the Y6 with the infinitely better Xiaomi Redmi 9 in October 2020, and so for the next 4 years it just sat in my brother's shelf, collecting dust.

Then, in 2024, when I was cleaning the same shelf, I stumbled upon this old relic of the past again. Having been enamored with LineageOS at the time, my first thought was: "Damn, I wonder if I could put LineageOS on this thing". Didn't even take a minute to find a valid Lineage ROM on the web. "Don't download ROMs from unknown sources!! blah blah blah bl--" YEAH WHATEVER!!! this isn't gonna be my daily driver.

What I didn't know was that trying to unlock the bootloader on the Y6 would put me through the fuckin' ringer. I've not yet encountered a harder bootloader to crack since.

If you're out of the loop on custom ROM stuff, the baseline is that installing custom ROMs requires the phone's bootloader to be unlocked. A bootloader is a part of the system responsible for.. well.. booting the system. Most phones have bootloaders locked by default, as to prevent users from modifying them, putting their phones at risk of being bricked or infiltrated by malicious actors. Most manufacturers usually provide ways to unlock the bootloader. Some suck, though, and don't do that, or make it needlessly complicated (looking at you, Samsung...)

At first I tried to be nice - I saw that Huawei had a site that you could plug your IMEI into, and get the bootloader code used in the unlocking process. This is pretty standard for phones of this era, and is actually still really close to how Motorola handles its bootloader unlocking right now, except that now you need to get the unlock data from the bootloader itself. Not as easy as just reading the IMEI off the back, but still pretty easy.

It quickly turned out that the site and its servers responsible for providing the unlock codes have been shut down a couple years ago. With no other nice method in sight, I had to turn to other options, a.k.a. brute force unlockers. Those work on the premise that a Huawei device's bootloader unlock code is generated based on the device's IMEI. The code is 16 digits long, so trying to cycle through every possible 16-digit combination would take millions of years. With the knowledge of the code's inner workings, this time gets theoretically shortened to just a day or two.

Cue 4 days of me doing nothing but trying out various brute force unlockers, none of which actually worked. Even the ones that were allegedly compatible with the SCL-L01 failed to do their job. I didn't give up yet, though, for there was one more method, that was basically a last resort, and that was... a.. paid service...

There was a program that, after paying a pretty low ~25 PLN (~$6) fee, would just.. spit out the code. It sounded too good to be true, honestly, and the thing seemed shady, BUT on their website they did say that they accept refunds, so if they turn out to be a scam, I'll just get my money back! And if I don't I would RAIN DOWN HELL UPON THEM.

And so I took the chances, and installed their program (in a virtual machine, of course). I paid the fee to get the credits required to get the code, pressed "Get the code" or something along these lines, and, sure enough, I got a 16 digit code. Time to test it out...

It worked.

All that work, when I could've just done this. Darn. If you want to unlock your own Huawei phone, the tool is called DC Unlocker. Still, be very careful around it. The tool supports mainly Huawei and ZTE models, but it also has support for a few extremely obscure models (including Asus' incredible Eee PC!)

Anyway, with the bootloader unlocked, it was time to flash LineageOS onto the phone. This, unlike the bootloader, went pretty smoothly, and I had LOS installed on a 2015 phone in just under 15 minutes. I even managed to change the boot screen!

LineageOS significantly improved the performance and battery life of the phone, and upgraded it from Android 5 to Android 7, which makes this phone pretty modern despite its age (god, it feels weird saying that, but it's kinda true. most apps support Android 7 and beyond, nothing before it)

Since then, this phone has served me as a "work phone" of sorts, for receiving calls from my airsoft group and from people wanting to buy my stuff I list on e-commerce sites.

During my first few months in uni it actually saved my ass once, too. See, when you install a custom OS onto your phone, you agree to deal with the consequences this may bring.

Xiaomi Redmi 9

GSMArena page

Bought this one brand new for around 600 PLN (~$150) in October of 2020, only a few months after it was officially released. This was, in fact, the only phone I bought directly from a vendor. Every phone after it was bought second-hand.

For a phone from 2020, especially a Xiaomi phone from 2020, its specs aren't the best, which probably explains the cheap price.

Despite that, its camera is pretty good. When I was picking images for the gallery on this site, I was kinda impressed with how good the photos from this phone looked at times.

Most of this phone's lifetime was spent on the default ROM, actually. I owned it for approx. 3 years, and only its last one or two months, I think, were with Lineage installed.

I still remember how annoying and bloated Xiaomi's ecosystem was. Good God. I think that's the best part of LineageOS - you get to cut out most of the bloat most default operating systems throw at you.

The Redmi 9 still was a solid phone, honestly. you can get them for around $50 used, and they can last you a long time. I only really sold mine because I found another affordable Xiaomi phone with much better specs. If I wasn't so adamant about getting The Phone with the best price-to-quality ratio I would've probably still been rocking this one.

This was also the last phone with an IPS LCD screen that I'd use in a long time. I'll get onto the IPS vs AMOLED rant around the Motorola Edge 30 part of this post.

I also like that the Redmi 9 stands pretty good on peripherals. It's got the good 'ol 3.5mm jack, wireless FM radio, and an SD card slot. The only thing it's missing is an IR blaster.

It's also got a MediaTek processor, which are pretty frowned upon, as they're the cheap option, and usually come with some buggy features as a result, but it allows one to exploit one of those buggy features to unlock the bootloader instantly. The thing with Xiaomi phones is that you usually have to wait 1 to 2 weeks after submitting a bootloader unlock request for Xiaomi to actually let you unlock your bootloader. This is a huge pain in the ass for someone who's impatient about lobotomizing their phone, but with a MediaTek processor I can just launch the exploit and have the bootloader unlocked pretty much instantly.

As always, exploits in the custom ROM community (among many other things) are pretty shady, so make sure to at least run this in a VM.

Oh, I'll also mention that Xiaomi is slowly deprecating their bootloader unlock system. Nowadays, I think you can't get around to unlocking a bootloader without getting at least some sort of archive of the MiUnlock executable. It's only a matter of time before they shut down the servers...

Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite

GSMArena page

The Redmi 9 lasted me a long time. I replaced it with this phone after a whole 3.5 years of continuous use. Snagged this one used for around 300 PLN (~$75)

Funnily enough, the Mi 9 Lite actually released before the Redmi 9, but with a much higher price tag, of course, as it wasn't a "budget-line" smartphone (MSRP is around $350).

Gonna be honest, I picked this phone for its camera and its LOS compatibility. The former turned out to be basically a scam. GSMArena lists the main camera as having a 48 MP resolution, when in reality its actual resolution was 12 MP, and the 48 MP came from its AI-upscaling garbage software. Likewise, its 960fps slow-mo recording feature was just AI frame-interpolated garbage. Its true max framerate turned out to be 240 fps, which is still good, but was a big letdown after learning that the listed speed was a scam. GSM should honestly list the camera's true, raw capabilities alongside the boosted ones

Oh, it also had an AMOLED screen. The rant's still coming up, don't worry.

Despite those letdowns, the phone was still solid, I still remember it fondly. The image quality was visibly better with the Mi 9 Lite... --Oh, lmao, I'm still not done with the letdowns, actually. The phone came with an already burnt in screen ahh... good old AMOLED

The guy selling it to me told me it was his wife's, and that she ALLEGEDLY used it for a month and then stashed it away for like half a year 'cause she didn't like it. Either his wife is so rich she doesn't give a shit about phone conservation or he basically just lied to me to just get this over with and sell the phone. I wouldn't be surprised if it was both.

Regardless... as I said, the phone was still solid, the camera was good despite the aforementioned scam, and it still was pretty good on peripherals! Had the usual, a 3.5mm jack, and an SD card slot, and also a regular FM radio, not wireless, unlike the Redmi 9. Again, no IR blaster. Not that I would have had a use for it anyway.

It also came with an under-display fingerprint reader, which I'm really not a fan of. My personal favorite is the side-mounted reader (which is one of the reasons I was excited about getting the Mi 10T Pro).

I really don't think I can come up with anything else about this phone. Moving on to the next one. Oh God...

Motorola Edge 30

GSMArena page

Absolute piece of crap. Squished it down since it was so long. Not that I would've given it that full-height priviledge anyway.

God, where do I even start. I picked this phone up used in September 2024 for ~500 PLN (~$125), mainly due to the OIS on the main camera and gyro-EIS on the video camera. This is the one thing I'll actually give this phone - the OIS was extremely good, even after being lobotomized and having put LineageOS on it. Haven't seen better OIS since. The EIS on the video camera was also very solid. And that's kinda where the positives end. Onto the negatives:

Number one, AMOLED screen. Let's start the rant, baby! mean words incoming, beware

I hate AMOLED. Maybe on expensive phones it does its job flawlessly, but I have not seen a worse AMOLED screen than on the Edge 30. It came with a burnt screen, of course, but that was barely noticeable. The color quality was ass, though. You'd expect the opposite from AMOLED, but nope. There was this flickering that you could not get rid of, even BEFORE I flashed LOS onto it.

Believe me when I say I don't give a single everloving motherfucking ball-fondling dick-sucking stupid SHIT about the better color quality. IPS LCD is already meant for that. I don't mind that the lowest brightness isn't the mythical 0 nits, IPS already gets pretty goddamn close.

And IPS DOESN'T GODDAMN BURN IN!! Seriously, is AMOLED cheaper, or something? Is it just carried by hype? I don't get it.

That aside, the camera resolution was a scam as always. Standard 13 MP boosted to 50 by something (only in the default OS). At least it didn't spoof its slow-mo speed, which is 120 fps (twice as worse than a phone from 2019, mind you)

And above all, the Edge 30, as it turned out, is notorious for having loose USB-C ports. Lasted maybe a month before it was barely possible to plug it in. At times I was considering beating that plug in with a hammer (if I had a 90° cable, it would've been possible, but would've KO'd my port lol). Any small movement would disconnect the cable. I stopped laying it on my bed when charging in the night, because I'd find it at 30% the next morning. Guess I looked at it wrong when I was sleeping! Oh well!

Oh, and being released in 2022, Motorola went full corpo and started heavily cracking down on peripherals. No 3.5mm jack, no SD card slot, no FM radio. It's a miracle it had NFC. Hell, it's a miracle it had a USB port! Even if a crappy one at that. With that attitude, I thought they'd make this phone one-time use. And good luck getting a version with 256GB storage instead of 128GB.

That's all I had to say about this phone. Replaced it in a record-low 2 months more or less. Here comes the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro!

OH, AND IT HAS AN UNDER-DISPLAY FINGERPRINT SCANNER TO BOOT! WOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro

GSMArena page

This phone was a good palate cleanser after the trainwreck that was... ugh.. the PREVIOUS device. Bought it used for the same price as the Edge 30 in November of 2024

It's embarassing to say, but it took me getting scammed out of 108 MP to realise I've been getting scammed this entire time. I have no clue how I didn't notice that until now. Regardless, the Mi 10T's camera is still really good, with a raw resolution of 27 MP, boosted by AI upscaling garbage. Its also got OIS and EIS, but they're not as good as on the Edge 30.

The slow-mo came as advertised, having a max framerate of 120 fps. Despite being marketed as 5G, mine didn't support it. I doubt it's my SIM card, as it's the same one that I used in the Edge 30, which did give me 5G. I was still content with LTE, though.

Despite being released in 2020, Xiaomi already slashed the peripherals on this one. Similar situation to the Edge 30, but it's got a SIDE-MOUNTED FINGERPRINT SCANNER!! YAY!!

I honestly don't think I can add anything else to this phone. I'm having a lovely time with it, its got a good battery, its sturdy as hell, it's generally solid. I'm hoping I'll get to keep this one around for many years...

Opinions on manufacturers

(18 Feb 23:27) I'll add this one when I recover from my flu. Even typing this was a gauntlet