For People High On Android
In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to unlock the bootloader on ANY Xiaomi Android smartphone or tablet. Now, Xiaomi provides bootloader unlocking tool(a Windows program) that will allow you to easily unlock bootloader on ANY Xiaomi Android device. While this process is simple to do, you will still need to do a few steps and this tutorial will help anyone to get it done quickly and easily.
This page is dedicated to best eBay deals on Android smartphones, these are eBay sellers that I have personally bought dozens of phones from and do unboxing videos with:
Here’s Xiaomi Pocophone F1 Unboxing! Xiaomi has launched a $300 Android smartphone with latest Snapdragon 845 processor(just like found on latest Galaxy S9/Note 9/LG G7) witth 6.18-inch 1080P screen(2246×1080 resolution), 6 or 8GB of RAM, 64/128/256GB of storage, 12MP + 5MP back cameras, 20MP front camera(same as Mi8), 4000mAh battery, microSD card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. For what Xiaomi is offering, this may be the deal of the century on a smartphone that has flagship-like specs at budget prices.
Here’s my full review of the Xiaomi Mi8. In my opinion, this is the best budget smartphone I have ever bought and perhaps the best smartphone under $450. It’s got the latest Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB of RAM(or 8GB if you go for the 128GB model), 6.21-inch Super AMOLED screen(that’s bright as any Samsung/LG), fast performance, dual-SIM, and have killer camera(keeps up to Pixel 2 in both daylight/low-light). If you want to save a few bucks this year on a smartphone that pretty much does everything a flagship does, this is it! Of course, Pocophone could be even better, I should have full unboxing/review of that also.
Design
If you are not passing SafetyNet recently or getting the error, “The response is invalid”, there’s a few ways you can fix it and pass SafetyNet check. Earlier this month, Google has updated their SafetyNet protocol with SafetyNet Attestation API, which means that developer of apps must get a private key and also gets a “limit” on how many times they can use the API. In layman’s words, this means that after a certain number of API requests(or people checking SafetyNet on Magisk Manager app), it will give the response, “The response is invalid”. Now, this DOES NOT mean your Android device does not pass SafetyNet. It simply means SafetyNet must be checked using other methods.
For those of you who want to try out the latest Android Pie 9.0 for your Galaxy S9, S9 Plus, or any Android device that has unlocked bootloader and Project Treble support, you can grab any of the Android 9.0 GSI(Generic System Image) ROMs and get it now instead of waiting for Samsung to update their TouchWiz, which most likely will take another 3-6 months. And for those of you in the U.S. with U.S. Snapdragon models, it will be few more months than the international Exynos models as carriers have to re-add their carrier bloatware. Now, these Android 9.0 GSI ROMs are NOT TouchWiz, they are not Samsung firmware but AOSP ROMs(What is AOSP?).
For those of you who want to install Project Treble GSI(Generic System Image) ROM on your Android device with unlocked bootloader, you can use TWRP recovery to install them. The process is actually not entirely different from flashing a regular custom ROM in TWRP, the only difference is that you will be using “Install from image” option instead of the default “Install from zip” option. (If you don’t know what Project Treble is, please see “What is Project Treble for Android”.
What are GSI ROMs?
Google has launched a new way of updating Android OS(Operating System) starting in 2018 called, “Project Treble”. Although Google uses pure “100%” Android OS on their Nexus/Pixel devices such as the Pixel and Pixel 2 smartphones, many manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Huawei, Xiaomi, and others have added their own UI/skin on top. In extreme cases like Samsung, they have added S-Pen features to their Samsung Galaxy Note series and lots of new hardware features not found in the original Android OS. Due to this reason, whenever Google updates their OS from one iteration to another(such as Android 7.0 Nougat to 8.0 Oreo), manufacturers have to re-build the whole OS from ground up, causing months of delay in updates. For example, Android Oreo update for Galaxy S7 probably took around 8 months. This has been a troubling problem as Android OS updates once a year and by the time manufacturers update their software to the latest, they are already at least 6 months behind.
Project Treble mean Faster OTA Updates!
In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to apply OTA(Over-The-Air) update on rooted Pixel Phones(such as Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 3, and Pixel 3 XL) without a computer by using Google’s very own OTA files, which you can actually flash with TWRP recovery. You can also keep root and TWRP after doing the OTA by simply flashing Magisk again and TWRP again. And you can do this ALL without a computer, which makes it simple and you can do it from anywhere in the world.
Today I am going to talk about why rooted Android smartphones are actually more secure, there is a misconception going around where people think a rooted phone is less secure. Well, as a person who has rooted almost every phone he has owned, and I have personally bought about a hundred Android smartphones since 2011, I have NEVER been hacked with a rooted smartphone.
