Hey all. The good lady needs to upgrade her phone. However it's been hard enough even getting her on a smartphone. She is adamant that my old Samsung J5 will do, doesn't want to buy a new one, so my question is would it be safer dropping a customROM on it as it only runs 6.0.1 at the moment? I feel the answer is a yes, I mean she doesn't do banking with it or anything that secure anyway. Just whatsapp, photos and browsing. Any recommendations if it is a yes appreciated (remember, simple is good in this case). Cheers all.
I would try to get it on at least 8.0, which looks doable on all the variants (2015,2016,2017), just be sure to get the right ROM. Looks like VoLTE, bluetooth and NFC are common things that need to be tweaked or just outright don't work, so keep that in mind. As always, xda is the place to find all the relevent bits: https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-j5
Cheers, yeah I think that's the best course. I think 8.0 is the oldest version that has had security updates AFAIK. Will give xda a goosey. TBH while i do that i may continue the "why don't we get you a a good value new one" approach. I would just buy her one but i'd get told off
Might also be worth looking at used market for yesteryears flagships such as a pixel 2(xl) or oneplus 5, as they're still receiving updates and probably outperform most new value phones in the same price bracket.
TBH if the J5 isn't going to be used i think i'll be picking up an Android One phone for her. It's more about longevity than performance for her phone. Thanks though, this has helped clarify a few things for me in my head
