Newbie Trying UBports UT
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Now I am retired with a bit more time, and although I’m not very technically minded, I thought I would set myself a project to try UT on a phone to see how good it was and how close to a daily driver it could be.
Following the general advice on the web site I looked for a cheap Nexus 5 for sale on eBay. I managed to buy one with a badly cracked screen but working for £18 (25$) but the battery wasn’t so good these days with only 60% capacity still but it all worked. I fitted a cheap tempered glass screen protector to hold the screen together and a cheap gel case to further protect the phone. I checked that it was running the latest version of Android then unlocked the bootloader using the Nexus Root Toolkit which was very straight forward.
Having had issues in the past installing custom roms on Android phones, I was surprised after having one server connection error for it just installed, no errors, no complications, it was just there and worked. It had not automatically recognised a Nexus 5 but that wasn’t a problem to set manually. I was surprised with no setting up how slick and professional it was to use on a smartphone of this age and specification.
I’ve started working through the alternatives to the Android apps I daily use, and installing them to see how well I can manage with them.
The processes I followed have been well documented. I posted this to show how you can very cheaply try out UT on a smartphone, effectively recycle old hardware before committing yourself to going to it full time with more expense. I think very soon I will be using this as my daily driver and I have the option of replacing the screen and battery to make it more robust for dtd use or spending a bit more for a more modern device to install UT.
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@brianrh Welcome Brian! It's great to hear that your installation worked so smoothly. And your method of getting a cheap older phone appeals to me greatly because it's also my method. I use an Oneplus One as a daily driver. I don't think any more modern device will give me a better experience.
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@brianrh Cheers for this i was having problems installing but reading yours explained a few things for me. Also how are you finding it im excited to try it out
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@brianrh said in Newbie Trying UBports UT:
I have the option of replacing the screen and battery to make it more robust
For battery, polarcell seems to be a good option for N5 as i understood reading this forum.
And my old MX4 is my daily smartphone since almost 6 years now, and i intend to keep it as long as possible, as it is still working great, and uTouch does not need so much power ^^
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@l-00548 Glad it was useful as that was what I hoped might help others with the same interest in getting a cheap means of trying UBports UT.
I am still extremely pleased with this OS and I am now looking at apps that do the same as the ones I use on my Android phone. I am also re-assessing the apps I have on my Android phone and if I actually need to have them.
I know that GPS works on my Nexus 5 but even after to trying uNav and Pure Maps several times, it is still takes several minutes to get "locked on".
Occassionally some things seem a bit laggy and then when doing other things the phone seems very smooth and slick. It may be that this what you get from 8 year old hardware even with a lightweight OS.
So I continue to look for and try apps for my day to day use. I am currently looking for a new password manager as the Bitwarden app, which I already use on my laptop and Android phone, doesn't seem properly to work in the UT app or web app.
