Re: Alternate OS for LG V20?

On 6/12/25 4:08 PM, VanguardLH wrote:

AJL <noemail@none.com> wrote:
>

I don't miss my phone breaking into 3 pieces (battery, battery cover, phone)
 when dropped so really don't mind having an internal battery.

>
I've always had a case on my phones.  Not those thin decorative tin foil
covers, but a carbon-fiber back and TPU liner to survive falls.  Unless
the phone managed to pop out of the armor case on a fall, it would be
impossible to fall into pieces. 

However, one issue I've run into
lithium batteries in phones is them getting pregnant.  They outgas, and
sometimes that makes the lithium battery swell.  I'll notice capacity
(up time) has diminished, remove the phone from the armor case, open the
back (which I notice is already bulging out), and find a pregnant
battery.

The wife's iPhone's battery swelled up and popped open its case one time.
 There was no apparent external reason. Funny thing was that the phone still
 worked and was useable if you were careful. So I left it running and kept
 it on a metal cookie platter (in case of fire) until the new battery
 arrived in the mail.

An easy test if not visually apparent is to put the battery on
a flat table to see if you can spin it.  If it spins, it is bulging.  Go
buy a replacement battery.  Easy to swap.  Put back in the armor case.
>
In addition, an armor case provide much better tactile retention of the
phone.  They have been making smart phones more slick, like using glass
instead of metal, and thinner.

Yup. That's my phone. Slick slippery thin case. I also keep a cover on mine
 for a better grip. Also when dropped on flat surfaces the case keeps the
 screen from contact. Saved my butt many times I'm sure...

They are getting easier to slip out of
your grip.  Almost every delivery person I see come to my door has a
cracked screen where I see their screen as their punching in and taking
a photo on making the delivery, or have me sign on their phone.  I
haven't had any cracked screens ever although I admit to occasionally
whacking the phone on a table when I got severely pissed.  >
I've been quite surprised the screen has not cracked from all those
smacks.  After 7 years of my abuse, the only damage to my old phone is a
bent back plate, but I just bought a replacement ($10) which will better
attach to the phone with no gaps or bent-out edges to snag.  No matter
how much I bent the old one, I couldn't get the back plate to form
correctly and perfectly flat to the phone.  It would attach, but too
easily pop off (and the battery drop out) on a drop.  However, while
inside the armor case, nothing came apart on a drop or smack.  I don't
use those decorative cases, or the ones that are just silicone, but the
type that has a rigid back half, the silicone TPU, and a front bezel
that snaps onto the back half.  Without the armor case, I have fumbled
the shiny, smooth, slippery bare phone too often.  Maybe my dexterity
has deteriorated with age, and the armor case helps to grab the phone.
>

And I think for many folks when the battery fails the phone is
obsolete anyway. It certainly will be so in my case...

>
That was the phrase I couldn't remember: planned obsolescence.  Yeah,
lots of users don't even buy phones, or get them very cheap, but
bundling the deal with a carrier.  So, they're used to swapping out or
trading in their phones about every 3 years, on average.  I'm not
average.  I'm also not nomophobic.  All this 2FA security theater is
premised on smart phone dependency, like the thing is grafted to its
owner.

If I get a 2FA request I didn't make I know someone has my password and is
 trying it out and I should change things quick. That's another advantage of
 2FA I forgot to mention to micky.

Only because my old Android 8 is getting abandoned by apps with higher
minimal OS requirements am I now considering replacing my 7 year phone
(which was released 9 years ago).  I could manage without 5G, and
survive on just 4G (not even 4G LTE).  Twould be nice to have a faster
chipset and CPU, and more RAM, but then I don't leave apps running nor
run many at the same time.  I use web browsers that actually have an
Exit (unload) option instead of left loaded in memory in the background
awaiting for whenever the OS decides it needs the memory for a newly
loaded app (Android is just so rude regarding unloads all to pretend the
platform is faster than it really is), but then I don't leave the web
browser, or any other program, running on my desktop, either.  There is
64 GB internal storage, and I added a 128 GB uSD card, yet over the 7
years only used half the internal RAM, and nothing on the uSD card.  I
had offline maps stored on the uSD for awhile (for the Here[WeGo] map
app), which ate up 60 GB, but even then I had lots of storage space left
over.  In looking at new phones, I'm not sure I want to pay the extra
$150+ to go from 256 GB to 512 GB.  While I use a smart phone, I'm not
an avid fan of them.  Seems more of technology trying to create a void
to then fill it rather than of it filling an existing void.

I find the stuff on my phone very handy. I'm going to a grandkid's birthday
 party at an address I don't know. The phone takes me there. Text access to
 45 grandkids around the country. Want to know something? Ask it. Want to
 know where the wife is? Map shows me. Want to know what I'm doing next
 week? Check the wife's calender. Great local music with earphones.
 Worldwide internet radio station access. Etc etc etc...
I got my ham ticket in 1956 and am fluent in morse code. To think I used to
 impress people by talking to someone in Europe.

If I could get Android 12, or up, on my old smart phone, I wouldn't be
looking at a replacement.  However, the likelihood of that happening,
and having full support of all hardware with no conflicts or newly
created deficiencies, seems dismal.  I'm also getting old enough where I
shy away from doing it all myself.  I stopped changing my engine oil and
filter eons ago, and instead pay someone else to do that drudge work
hence why I'm likely to look at getting a new phone instead of trying to
beat the old phone on an anvil to reshape it.  And I'll be putting an
armor case on the new phone, too, but not a screen protector (I found
those have more friction, even the glass ones, than the glass screen on
the phone, and there are still some apps you have to swipe in from the
side to get at their menu, but screen protectors don't go to the very
edge of screens, or a wee bit beyond, so they interfere with side
swiping).

Yup. I think a new phone is in my near future too...