The last achievement of the boys of XDA Developers has just caused us a strong attack of nostalgia. While some manufacturers claim hardware problems to bring the latest version of their operating systems to mobiles launched last year, the developers of the well-known website have managed to bring Android 10 to mobiles launched almost a decade ago .
Nowadays almost all smartphones that are worthy of having a competent support service behind their backs have secured two operating system updates. The most recent (and confusing) example we have in the Samsung Galaxy S8 , launched almost 3 years ago to the market with Android 7.0 Nougat and having already received Android 8.0 Oreo and Android 9 Pie. The support center claimed in its day that it would receive Android 10 but it is something that seems more a mistake of a brand worker than a success of the company.
Mid-range phones and cheap phones often receive only one year of support and in the case of some cheap phones, they do not receive any kind of update as manufacturers of these types of devices have no incentive to implement version updates. of Android these phones.
This is where the ROMs cooked by the developers come in
Samsung Galaxy S II and Note 3 with Android 10
Developer communities help users make their phones enjoy a much longer life than initially raised by manufacturers. They manage to bring Android updates and customization layers that make them work better and more efficiently long after the brand has finished all support.
Now these developers have been able to bring a version as current as Android 10 to mobiles that have been on the market for almost 10 years . The example we have today is the creation of a custom ROM of LineageOS 17.1 based on the latest Google operating system for the Samsung Galaxy S II and the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, launched in 2011 and 2013 respectively.
Of course, the a ROM of LineageOS 17.1 for the Galaxy S II is not very useful as it is specifically declared as unstable and not suitable for daily use. The Note 3 looks better because it allows you to make and receive calls at the same time as to use messaging applications and social networks.
And the famous “hardware limitations”?
These days we have attended the complaints of thousands of users that brands like Huawei are not going to take Android 10, via EMUI 10 , to smartphones launched less than a year ago as are the members of the Y range. The firm alleges hardware problems of these computers, which is, on paper, limited to run Android 10 fluently.
The boys of XDA Developers have shown that with some work it is possible to take new software to mobile phones with ridiculous hardware, even if the operation is weighed down. However, surely in 2015 mobile phones, for example, Android 10 could run without major problems.
What really happens is that the BSP (board support package) of the phone stops receiving support from the chip manufacturer and does not compensate to take software reviews to mobile phones that have already completed their commercial journey. To this we must add what is more important, that brands have to convince consumers to buy their latest flagships.
Source>XDA Developers