Resurrect your old Android phone - aggregated list of 1100+ devices and what OS you can install on them

A small project to help out anyone trying to keep their old devices functional.

I wrote a script to scrape pages of some popular alternative OS projects (such as postmarketOS and LineageOS), and put them into a single list. I'll try to automate and keep this up-to-date. Any additional OS suggestions and comments are welcome!

200 points · 17 comments · view on lemmy.world

17 Comments

Agent641@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 1y (5 replies)

The battery in my old phone looks like the Goodyear blimp, should I still proceed?

Yaky@slrpnk.net · 29 pts · 1y (3 replies)

You might end up needing postmortemOS

On a serious note, you can run without a battery

bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 1y (1 reply)

I cut and sanded a piece of flooring to fit into the battery compartment.

I was not expecting this reading the article. Looks like the phone's from the 70s

Albbi@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 1y

kalkulat@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y

Good stuff!! I might have missed the thermistor part.

DarkFox@pawb.social · 21 pts · 1y

Yes, but make sure to film it.

douglasg14b@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1y (2 replies)

The issue isn't really the OS in many cases.

The barrier is getting a battery replacement. Which many devices make exceptionally difficult, to the point where buying a new cheap phone is nearly equivalent in price as paying someone to tear down your phone and rebuild it to swap the battery

rimu@piefed.social · 1 pts · 1y (1 reply)

My previous phone was chosen specifically because it had an easily replaceable battery. However by the time I needed to replace it the manufacturer (Samsung) had stopped making those batteries and the only ones available were fake ones on Amazon that didn't hold a charge. Meh.

douglasg14b@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y

A strategy you could employ is to buy the battery early.

Keep it at about 30-50% change, and refrigerated. You're talking < 2-3% capacity loss per year, probably much lower since the temperature is so low.

Meaning the battery is effectively new when you go to swap it.

rhythmisaprancer@moist.catsweat.com · 6 pts · 1y

Amazing post, thanks!

DudeImMacGyver@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 1y

Thanks

jared@mander.xyz · 4 pts · 1y

Nice work. It's been years since I've messed with any custom roms but that may have to change.

falseprophet@fedia.io · 3 pts · 1y

And the answer is still none.