LineageOS 21 breathes new life into 5 more aging phones

While few manufacturers have yet followed Samsung and Google’s lead in long-term Android update support, dedicated geeks have turned to the open-source LineageOS for years, to bring newer software versions to phones long past their prime. That’s the case today with five additional devices, including a couple that are especially popular worldwide (via 9to5Google).

Based on Android 14, LineageOS 21 delivers a markedly different experience than any manufacturer’s implementations, along with a reasonably customizable launcher that a lot of such Android flavors can’t quite match. In particular, Xiaomi and its value-focused Redmi sub-brand typically issue highly bespoke Android interfaces, and while they’re not objectively bad, they’re a world away from more widely praised setups such as OneUI.

LineageOS comes in the form of custom ROMs for supported devices — that is, a snapshot of the entire operating system that you flash (install) to internal storage. It typically arrives with the relatively major caveat that you can’t use Google Play Apps, since it’s not officially certified by Google, but merely based on the Android Open Source Project source code. Securely implemented tools like banking apps are among the most sorely missed from custom Android software.

Nonetheless, it is actually possible to use Play Store apps. You’ll need to first determine which version of the GApps suite is compatible with your device’s LineageOS ROM. After flashing the ROM and installing GApps, a tool called Magisk helps overcome Google’s SafetyNet verification, which normally prevents secure-access apps from working on a custom ROM. Those two steps aren’t orders of magnitude more difficult than simply flashing the LineageOS ROM, but you will need to do a little more research on your model to get it just right.

The news comes roughly a month after the custom Android 14 implementation hit the ground running for an additional 8 phones from Motorola, Xiaomi, and LG. The revelation also serves to reinforce the facts that phone modding is alive and well, and manufacturers might see well-deserved praise for extending Android support. After all, LineageOS tends to work swimmingly on older devices, so the phones’ makers don’t have much excuse.

Find the list of newly supported phones and links to their repositories below, or search for your device on the LineageOS Wiki.

• Samsung Galaxy A71
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro
• Redmi K60 Pro
• OnePlus Nord N10
• Realme 10 Pro 5G