This unassuming little guy means the world to me .The Alcatel (TCL) 5044Y was a low end device when it came out 7 years ago, costing only £30 new. By the time it reached my hands it was looking pretty trashed. Due to it's low value I was not afraid to experiment with it, and I used it to teach myself a hell of a lot about Android development.
Initially I used it as a test device while following the Google Codelabs. Along the way I got pretty fed up with the bloated stock ROM, but noone had developed anything for it. Presumably because it was such a low end unpopular device. This made me decide I wanted to try and port some stuff for it (Given there was no kernel source available). First I managed to get Phillz recovery working, then I moved on to TWRP. My successes with the custom recoverys made me decide to move on to porting a custom ROM. After many many hours of reading logs and lib swapping I eventually managed to produce a stable ROM.
I still used this device for things that required, or at least were easier with root access (I don't root my daily driver nowadays because I CBA to play cat and mouse getting my banking apps to work). Sadly a couple of months ago the micro USB started to go so it was time for it to retire.
It's literally worthless in terms of monetary value, but it got me back into development after years of thinking it was pointless trying because I'd never be any good.
TLDR: It's old, it's slow, it looks like junk, it's on its last legs, but it helped me learn more than I ever thought I could, so I could never part with it.
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That is a VERY COOL STORY. It's also what this thread is about. Awesome stuff complete with pics!!!