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.

@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.

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.

This may help:
link text

Hi

I have a Nexus 7 2013 (Flo) currently running Linage OS 17.1. I would quite like to install and try out UT to see what it is like.

Having read the above I am now unsure if I can use the UT installer directly or if I need too to go through the same procedure as @Macadam above?

Thanks Macadam for your detailed description above. If I have to go that route at least I have detailed directions to follow.

Cheers.