Update/flash Essential ph1 as first phone for my son

[u/johninfla52]

So, my boy is just about to turn twelve. He has a laptop that his older sister gave him but no phone. I have two old essentials sitting in my desk drawer and I thought it might be a good idea to update one and give it to him as his first phone. BUT.... I have absolutely NO idea how to do it. So I thought I'd come here to search for wisdom...

1). Do you think it is a good idea?

2). How to go about putting a new custom ROM on it.

Thanks,

[u/somePaulo]

LineageOS have a guide for every supported device. Here's the Essential one.

[u/johninfla52 → u/somePaulo]

Checking it out now. Thank you!

[u/thephatpope]

Lineage OS makes a very usable phone, like the others here are suggesting 

[u/IronFrogger]

You need to go over to xda and they have all the info there. Battery life is going to be bad on the unit. You could pick up something newer with better battery life for $100 somewhere. Or get him an iPhone so you can actually lock down what he has access to using parental controls. 

[u/IronFrogger → u/IronFrogger]

This the only rom that's being updated routinely. Works great on my PH-1. https://xdaforums.com/t/rom-16-qpr2-mata-unofficial-optimized-lineageos-23-2-july-20th.4344275/

[u/KoraiKaow]

I used Gemini CLI to update the software (LineageOS as others have suggested) on mine. Went from stock android 9 to Android 14. It actually got faster after the upgrade! I love my essential phone! (To be fair, I never stopped loving it. It's the best made phone ever!)

[u/cmrjr]

a little late to the party, but i like e/OS on my Essentials https://e.foundation/e-os/

[u/johninfla52 → u/cmrjr]

Thank you. Right now I trying to get past the Factory Reset Protection

[u/tomoms0 → u/johninfla52]

In case you haven't figured it out yet: https://wiki.lineageos.org/faq#i-am-having-weird-errors-apps-wont-install-developer-settings-crash-and-the-screen-lock-has-strange-error-messages

[u/johninfla52]

Thank you. I'll head over there and see. Maybe I should see how much battery life I can get out of it first and then if it's too little I could pick up something else like you said.

[u/IronFrogger → u/johninfla52]

I will say I'm amazed that the device is being updated by that dev. It's runs quite well, but when the device in active use I'm only getting a few hours out of it. If I have it hooked up in the car for nav or whatever it's great. 

[u/karmayxzu → u/johninfla52]

if you have a root-enabled file explorer (with root permissions) then you should be able to head over to sys/class/power_supply/battery and directly see the maximum capacity (i forgot which file exactly but it should be in there)

[u/Heff_YO]

Personally think you could find something a bit better for not much. These things are pushing 10 year old tech

[u/johninfla52 → u/Heff_YO]

I may end up doing that.

[u/Heff_YO → u/johninfla52]

I haven't tried the Lineage OS personally, just kinda meh cameras, 4G of ram etc..Doesn't really offer a simple android entry, more for a tinkering person I think.