Android Looking for a phone...

[SomeGamer]

...which:

1. is easily customizable
2. can restore to stock without leaving a trace
3. has flagship specs
4. is compatible with European LTE bands and charger with wall plugs
5. doesn't leak personal data to Chinese servers

Thanks a lot, been scouring the internet for days with little luck.

 

[migles]

is compatible with European LTE bands and charger with wall plugs

is there any phone nowadays that is special and doesn't use the usb specs (5v)? and requires a special charger?
several phones don't even sell with chargers anymore because of this

 

[SomeGamer]

is there any phone nowadays that is special and doesn't use the usb specs (5v)? and requires a special charger?
several phones don't even sell with chargers anymore because of this

Yeah, almost every phone has its own quick charging solution which only works with its own charger.

 

[migles]

Yeah, almost every phone has its own quick charging solution which only works with its own charger.

not really? you can use any charger you want..
but if you want to use that quick charging function (totally optional) then yes, you need a "special" charger compatible with that specification. if you use a normal charger it still works normally

 

[SomeGamer]

not really? you can use any charger you want..
but if you want to use that quick charging function (totally optional) then yes, you need a "special" charger compatible with that specification. if you use a normal charger it still works normally

True, but a quick charger can make a night and day difference. (Or is it just me who doesn't like charging anything overnight?)

 

[CMDreamer]

I'd build it myself if I were you, so it has all the features you seek.

There are three main "levels" on cellphone industry:

-Low level. Where cell phones have only the minimum necessary to function, and most of the time they barely do. The price is very reduced.
-Middle level. Where the cell phones have one or two features that the upper level do, but not all of them. The price is somewhat high, but not ridiculously.
-High level. Cell phones on this level have the best features, like big screens, high amounts of RAM and internal storage, better cameras, and details only found on this level, like useless curved screens, notch, and such. The price is the highest of them all, and sometimes people buy them only to use WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. LOL

What you're seeking has features of the three levels so you might not have success finding it.

 

[SomeGamer]

What you're seeking has features of the three levels so you might not have success finding it.

You mean small screen and flagship specs?

 

[CMDreamer]

You mean small screen and flagship specs?

Precisely...

Now comes to my mind Android Go (Oreo Go, or something like that). Might get you something closer to what you want on near future.

 

[SomeGamer]

Precisely...

Edited that criteria out then, thanks.

Now comes to my mind Android Go (Oreo Go, or something like that). Might get you something closer to what you want on near future.

Ew, that's for low end phones, isn't it?

 

[Yepi69]

Xiaomi.
In fact, I'm picking up a Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus this week, beast of a phone for its price.
What kind of budget do you have?

 

[horokeusama]

I'd recomend some recent Xiaomi phones, specially Redmi 5 plus.

 

[SomeGamer]

Xiaomi.
In fact, I'm picking up a Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus this week, beast of a phone for its price.
What kind of budget do you have?

I'd recomend some recent Xiaomi phones, specially Redmi 5 plus.

I'm kinda afraid to touch anything Xiaomi, doesn't that leak a lot of data? Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[Yepi69]

I'm kinda afraid to touch anything Xiaomi, doesn't that leak a lot of data? Thanks for the suggestion though.

No, if anything Xiaomi is kicking ass to other companies.
Unlocking the bootloader and changing ROMs is encouraged too since they provide the tools and also the ROMs on their own forums.
Also, it has Mi Cloud, which you can't even unlock it without extra hardware (think of this as Android's iCloud) meaning that its well protected, a simple ROM flash won't wipe it nor deleting its entire partitions, its well encrypted.

 

[horokeusama]

I'm kinda afraid to touch anything Xiaomi, doesn't that leak a lot of data? Thanks for the suggestion though.

Well, its a chinese manufacturer, so you can probably guess that their ROM shares some of your user routines, but I tend to believe that nothing crucial is shared. If you're still afraid of this to happen, you can check if there's a custom rom for it.

 

[Sakitoshi]

...which:

1. is easily customizable
2. can restore to stock without leaving a trace
3. has flagship specs
4. is compatible with European LTE bands and charger with wall plugs
5. doesn't leak personal data to Chinese servers

Thanks a lot, been scouring the internet for days with little luck.

go for a sony xperia
1. have a huge community dedicated to customization.
2. just use flashtool with a stock ftf image and your phone will be completely restored.
3. generally speaking sony phones have above average specs, but here you can literally go for a flagship phone, an old one, those still perform great.
4. most phones support a wide variety of bands and some others have 2 versions, you have to take a look in that area. about chargers, I don't know about more modern xperias, but mine works with any charger with high enough amps (I have a generic chinese charger with 3 usbs, 2 amps) if you are charging it with a magnetic charging cable/cradle (the magnetic cable or cradle are pretty cheap on ebay, I myself bought an adapter and converts any micro usb cable into a magnetic cable).
5. I don't know about that, but if you suspect about something you can always freeze/disable apps.

I have a sony xperia z3 compact since 2015 and is still going strong.
you could probably find a z5 for a reasonable price.

 

[Yepi69]

go for a sony xperia
1. have a huge community dedicated to customization.
2. just use flashtool with a stock ftf image and your phone will be completely restored.
3. generally speaking sony phones have above average specs, but here you can literally go for a flagship phone, an old one, those still perform great.
4. most phones support a wide variety of bands and some others have 2 versions, you have to take a look in that area. about chargers, I don't know about more modern xperias, but mine works with any charger with high enough amps (I have a generic chinese charger with 3 usbs, 2 amps) if you are charging it with a magnetic charging cable/cradle (the magnetic cable or cradle are pretty cheap on ebay, I myself bought an adapter and converts any micro usb cable into a magnetic cable).
5. I don't know about that, but if you suspect about something you can always freeze/disable apps.

I have a sony xperia z3 compact since 2015 and is still going strong.
you could probably find a z5 for a reasonable price.

Although from my experience, picking up a Sony smartphone that allows you to unlock the bootloader is a hit or miss.
I've had 2 Xperia phones before and both of them did not allow me to unlock the bootloader the official way, even Sony said they weren't able to unlock it (tho some people had the same models as me and they were able to unlock it the official way)

In another note, Xiaomi does not come with a quick charger adapter, however it is fully compatible with Quick Charge should you get a Quick Charge certified charger or not.

 

[ken28]

go for a sony xperia
2. just use flashtool with a stock ftf image and your phone will be completely restored.

The xperia ZX wants to have a talk with you. once you flashed a non sony image/stock image your drm key will be gone and not even flashing stock again will bring them back to you.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

on topic maybe nokia 7?

 

[Viorlu]

I have brought a Nexus 5x 1 month ago, to modify and stuff.

And it works pretty well has lots of support on Android Modding Forums.

Also have a lot of tutorials on how to make your own custom rom, Right now I'm building my own lineage rom with a custom kernel for personal use.

only issue is the usb c to usb c cable, had to buy another one to connect it to my MacBook Pro late 2014 edition

 

[Sakitoshi]

Although from my experience, picking up a Sony smartphone that allows you to unlock the bootloader is a hit or miss.
I've had 2 Xperia phones before and both of them did not allow me to unlock the bootloader the official way, even Sony said they weren't able to unlock it (tho some people had the same models as me and they were able to unlock it the official way)

rule of thumb has always been:
phone is bought from sony = bootloader can be unlocked
phone is bought from a phone company = bootloader cannot be unlocked

either way, you can still customize pretty much anything except the kernel. that means no cyanogenmod, but stock based images are way better IMHO.

The xperia ZX wants to have a talk with you. once you flashed a non sony image/stock image your drm key will be gone and not even flashing stock again will bring them back to you.

unlocking the bootloader wipes the drm keys, but you can backup the drm keys before unlocking the bootloader and restore them afterwards.
and to be honest, those drm keys aren't used for anything useful anyways.

 

[ken28]

unlocking the bootloader wipes the drm keys, but you can backup the drm keys before unlocking the bootloader and restore them afterwards.
and to be honest, those drm keys aren't used for anything useful anyways.

you can? last time i checked it wasnt posisble but then again that was quite a while ago.