+

I decided to change my phone to a newer hardware. While changing hardware, I +would have to do a little dance of devices:

+
    +
  • Move whatever I have in my phone to another device
    • +
  • Do a factory reset on my current phone
    • +
  • Give it to my wife
    • +
  • Get her phone and do a factory reset before sending it for a battery change
    • +
+

That means I would need a third device while I don’t have my new hardware. For +that, I have a very old Nexus 5 phone and decided to try it out.

+

I was doing it for a few reasons:

+
    +
  1. The device was still working, so why not?
    2. +
  2. How would it be to use a 10 years old phone nowadays?
    3. +
  3. How updated can I make this device?
    4. +
  4. Feeling a bit nostalgic about installing custom android ROMs 😂
    5. +
+

So… why not? 🙂

+

Preparing the hardware

+

A few months before, I bought a new battery and case for it on Aliexpress. It +was cheap enough to worth it. My plan is to give this phone to my children when +needed. If they drop and and it breaks, it’s fine (it’s a 10yo anyway).

+

The new case already gave the phone a fresh new look. +The new battery gives the phone half a day of life if I’m being careful about the power consumption

+

I decided to open it and clean the inside with isopropyl alcohol, just to be +sure buttons would not be sticky. Which was already a symptom.

+

After that, the phone looked new.

+

Preparing the software

+

I was running a very weird custom Android, but the good news is that it was +already prepared for custom ROMs.

+

The first step is to factory reset it and go for the new Android. I’m not going +to repeat the whole process here and instead will recommend this great article +a friend mine +wrote. +I just followed what is written there and it was done.

+

In summary, for the curious but lazy:

+
    +
  • Install an updated version of TWRP that can repartition the phone
    • +
  • Repartition the phone (much easier than what I expected)
    • +
  • Download the most updated version of Android for this phone +
      +
    • Turns out the only one I found is an image a random guy is kindly +maintaining for years. Sill supports Andorid 11 and works great.
      • +
    +
    • +
  • Install it as you do with any custom ROM
    • +
+

That’s it! Nexus 5 works as it should.

+

How is it to use an old phone like that?

+

You have to be patient with the oldie. 😅

+

It works most of the time, but it’s not very powerful for the current word. You +have to do most things very slowly for it to catch up.

+

I was mostly relying on the power saving feature of Android to avoid greedy +apps to wake up and consume power quickly. By doing that, I could keep the +phone on for more than half a day. The problem comes when I disable the power +saving and all apps decide to do their thing at the same time. It usually +takes a few minutes to the phone to be responsible again. 😅

+

You have to learn to deal with “unresponsible apps”. Most of the time, it’s not +a problem, it’s just the hardware being too slow to respond. You have to tap +“wait” instead of closing the apps.

+

I used this phone during a trip to a different country. It was a bit risky, but +also an interesting experience. I just needed it to work for a few days, and it +did not disappoint. :)

+

For science

+

This was the perfect opportunity to see how much a phone can still be useful +after years and it turns out this phone was very useful if you’re in right +mood.

+

It’s not recommended to use it as a primary phone, but certainly a usable phone +in case you need it temporarily or for some very specific task.

+

I also used this opportunity to test Todoist under these circunstances. The +team asked to test certain features we are developing to see how it’s going to +work under stress like that. The results were interesting.

+

Hardware problems

+

Let’s be real, it’s a 10yo device. Of course I will have hardware problems at +some point.

+

It’s quite common for the Nexus 5 to have a button stuck. Sometimes it’s the +power button, which makes the phone to keep rebooting. Sometimes it’s the +volume button, which makes the phone always start in safe mode (power + volume +down goes to recovery).

+

Everything worked well enough during my trip (thankfully!), but the device +started showing problems with the volume down button when I arrived at home. +This effectively made the device unusable, as it was in safe mode all the time.

+

The solution for that is to change the +button +(video), but I don’t have a +replacement here (yet!). My solution was simple:

+
+

Who needs a volume down button anyway? 😂

+
+

After trying may different ideas, I had to remove the button and everything was +back working.

+

For a while… now the other two buttons are showing the same problems, so I +will have to wait for the replacement buttons to arrive so I can fix the phone +before giving it to my children as a playing device.

+

Conclusion

+

Don’t throw your devices away, they can still be useful after 10 years! If +you’re up for the task, it can be useful and fun! Enjoy!

+ +