LG V20 is a fantastic phone. It feels so much better than every other device I've ever owned. Space-age frame with such core ruggedness, great screen, great for it's day camera, sd card, sweet audio.
And! And! Someone managed to unlock the bootloader. So there's a variety of decent roms one can run on it. All aging now, a little bit too old at this point, but this 2016 device was swinging mightily until it became utterly bereft & unsupportable.
It's just so pathetic that we rely on these shitty ass vendor OSes. The v20 is a case study in how amazingly awesome devices are when consumers have any right what-so-ever to maintain & work with their devices. By hook here! One uses the "dirty santa" exploit (with pixelated santa junk) to unlock the blasted thing. And with that it is a semi-modern, loveable device. By community effort. By contributor effort. No thanks to Google nor LG.
But modern phones are more impervious. This 2016 device is one of the last devices that (unintentionally) allowed access. After this, everything slid downhill. Everything went to shit. Android collapsed into a pitiful shitmound. Libre was squeezed out. Consumerism & obsolescence are enforced in firmware now, almost ubiquotously. What a pathetic trash heap Android is. John Deere tractors have nothing on the disposable technology that Android levers against it's users. It's a vile situation. Unlock the bootloaders you frigging jerkwads. This is hell you perpetuate against your users! Stop this madness.
OnePlus ships phones with unlockable bootloaders. They're great!
However, when you unlock your bootloader, you lose access to things that demand devices be trusted by Google. So Netflix no longer even shows up in the Play Store, you can no longer use NFC pay, etc. And ROMs are not what they used to be (though the update process being lighter and quicker is a nice change).
I never used my old xiaomi with anything else than lineage os and I used NFC payments and a bank app all the time with my phone. You're mileage may vary I guess...
Android SafetyNet[1] is supposed to exist to give developers protection against users/"threats".
A very popular Android modification tool Magisk has been waging a long running battle against Android to try & get by SafetyNet & other validations. However the increasing securitization at a hardware level is leaving less & less possibility[2][3] for users to access their devices as they would like.
I can't remember what movie it is, but I keep thinking about some movie with a person trying not to get kidnapped, and the victim being told early on: "if anyone says 'you're safe and secure' don't trust that person", which, sure enough, latter gives way to the believed-good but actually-bad guys driving off with her saying this & her appropriately freaking out. We are secure all right, secure against ourselves. What we are doing- creating ever more perfect anti-user enclaves- is vile. The security world has such a ferociously ruthelessly absolutist view on security, is so ready to declare threads & build bigger moats & walls, but users & freedom keep getting screwed. Such woe.
And! And! Someone managed to unlock the bootloader. So there's a variety of decent roms one can run on it. All aging now, a little bit too old at this point, but this 2016 device was swinging mightily until it became utterly bereft & unsupportable.
It's just so pathetic that we rely on these shitty ass vendor OSes. The v20 is a case study in how amazingly awesome devices are when consumers have any right what-so-ever to maintain & work with their devices. By hook here! One uses the "dirty santa" exploit (with pixelated santa junk) to unlock the blasted thing. And with that it is a semi-modern, loveable device. By community effort. By contributor effort. No thanks to Google nor LG.
But modern phones are more impervious. This 2016 device is one of the last devices that (unintentionally) allowed access. After this, everything slid downhill. Everything went to shit. Android collapsed into a pitiful shitmound. Libre was squeezed out. Consumerism & obsolescence are enforced in firmware now, almost ubiquotously. What a pathetic trash heap Android is. John Deere tractors have nothing on the disposable technology that Android levers against it's users. It's a vile situation. Unlock the bootloaders you frigging jerkwads. This is hell you perpetuate against your users! Stop this madness.