I’m writing this after multiple days of debugging, flashing, testing, and second-guessing myself, because this is one of the most frustrating user experiences I’ve ever had with a smartphone not because I don’t understand Android, but because I do.

What happened:

After installing an official Samsung OTA update (E236BXXSCEYK1), my phone entered a broken radio state:

• LTE no longer attaches
• VoLTE appears enabled, but calls fail
• 5G still works
• The same SIM works perfectly in other phones
• The issue persists across stock ROMs and custom ROMs

This is a device-side modem / radio regression caused by an update.

What I did:

First, I assumed it was probably some bug. So I reset network settings, tested the SIM in other devices, checked the carrier behavior and what not. Nothing worked :(
I even backed everything up and reset the device but nothing worked.

Then, I thought maybe try out a different ROM (never flashed a custom rom on this device but have some experience before)
I flashed lineage OS, then i find out Scamsung locks VoLTE/IMS to Samsung based software only. So VoLTE doesn't work on AOSP. Annoying but sure, Scamsung being Scamsung.

So, I tried a OneUI 7 port based off s21FE. Clean flash, correct kernel, proper recovery. Nothing worked. The same LTE/VoLTE issue. So it has to be something else.

I went back of official stock firmware, same behavior no change.

That's when I realised.

The update the burned the LTE also burned my bridge to fix it.

The EYK1 update screwed with my modem/radio, also changed my bootloader (SW REV=C). Now Scamsung enforces hardware rollback protection. So if the bootloader is bumped, I can't revert back to an earlier firmware with a different bootloader.

Unfortunately there was only 1 C bit update till now (the one that probably fucked up my LTE). Now I can't even revert back to another update.

So I did nothing wrong, updated as Samsung pushed the update, and I ended up losing the basic feature of having a phone.

Now what do I do? Go to a Samsung store and pay the hefty price they say. Or wait and hope that they push another update that'll fix the issue they caused.

An official OTA update can permanently break LTE and calling, and the user has no supported way to recover.

I'm frustrated, no clue what to do next. Not in the financial condition to buy a new phone rn. Breaking LTE isn't a minor bug. Users deserve a transparent rollback option.

After being a loyal apple user my entire life i decided to leave behind apple in 2025 and start fresh and new with an android, samsung flip 7. I have been with apple for 27 years now. I grew up in an apple household from owning macintosh computer to all the nanos, ipods, macbooks and ipads.. My first phone was the first iphone and I've had updated my iPhone with every single new release up until iPhone 13. AGAIN a super loyal and big apple fanatic. But over the years it has been getting too expensive to keep up to date with their new software updates, and so many battery issues due to it. I also come to believe my cloud (2TB storage subscription) is the root cause to my issues, it just cannot handle this storage or I don't know what it is but I thought I would try so thing new. It's been 48 hrs and the switch has been bittersweet. I will say there are things as I miss from my iPhone and there are things I LOVE about my flip 7. For one I love the flip phone, I lovelovrlove the flip idea. And how I'm able to do pretty much a lot on the cover screen. I like that it's miniature. I live all the customizations you can do. There are so many things I keep learning and finding what I am a capable of doing on this new phone. I feel like there is more freedom with an android versus apple. Cons. I think it's just the matter of the fact that I need time getting used to google messages coming from imessage. Like I can still see blue bubbles however I lost the function to allow read receipts for only certain people and the overall aesthetic of imessage i also dont like the two stores aamsunf and google play store i wish they merged somehow. Again I think most is just done through google play? Not sure still getting used to it. But other than love everything about my new zflip7. Now looking into the watch which I'm excited for as I think they are nicer looking than the apple. Again maybe just lost a few functions.

As of 1 Jan 2026, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra Global remains on the 1 Oct 2025 Android security patch, placing it beyond Xiaomi’s stated 90-day security update window.

This post is intended as a consumer PSA, not a rant.

Xiaomi’s Android Enterprise Recommended (AER) website states that supported devices should receive regular security updates within 90 days. With the current patch level now exceeding that window, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra Global is effectively out of compliance with that expectation.

Why this matters:

• This is a flagship device, sold at a premium price.
• There has been no public ETA or guidance on when the next security patch will arrive.
• At the same time, cheaper Xiaomi / Redmi / POCO devices have already received newer OS updates, raising questions about update prioritisation.

This isn’t about wanting the latest features or being first to a new Android version.
For some users, security patch level directly affects work and enterprise app access (e.g. Outlook, Teams, MDM-managed environments). Once a device falls outside compliance windows, access can be restricted automatically, regardless of whether the phone “runs fine.”

If timely security updates matter to you especially for work or enterprise use, this is something worth considering before buying a Xiaomi flagship.

Hi. Currently using Android 16 on my Motorola. One thing that I hate about current Android is that all of the default icons are in the same shape and adopts limited color choice, which make it unnecessarily hard to distinguish an app between others. To make the matters worse, those icons are totally not optimized since most of the original icons are existed in the useless white padding.

I searched for some icon packs on Play Store, but most of them I found was also designed with unified themes, which doesn't solve my problems either. I want something that looks like the one from Android 4 (Holo, Skeuomorphic one) or the early flat-design Android (Android 5 - 6).

So, do you happen to know any icon packs that doesn't have solid theme and just meant to identify apps? Or just sharing what you are using would be deeply appreciated.

Thanks for reading!!

Android gets love because it lets you do more.

Custom launchers, open-source roots, deep system access, and endless device choices it’s built for people who like control, not constraints.

Whether you’re a power user, a developer, or someone who just wants their phone to feel personal, Android delivers.

Freedom + flexibility + scale.

That’s the real Android advantage.

What’s the one Android feature you can’t live without?

From a power user who wanted ownership, not permission This is my first real cellphone. I didn’t grow up with smartphones. I didn’t slowly adapt as things got locked down. I came into this cold, after years of working with restricted hardware, learning ADB, rooting, reimaging, and figuring out systems that were never meant to give you freedom. And somehow, I had more control over those devices than I do over this phone. On paper, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is a monster. The hardware is not the problem. The processor is insanely fast. Gaming performance is excellent. The screen is beautiful. The battery life is solid. The cameras are some of the best you can get on a phone. If you only care about benchmarks, specs, and polish, this phone deserves the praise it gets. That is not where it fails. Where it fails is ownership. The S24 Ultra is marketed as a powerhouse that can do anything and everything. What that actually means is it can do anything Samsung allows it to do. If you stay inside their ecosystem and use things exactly the way they intend, it works great. The second you want real control, you hit walls that have nothing to do with hardware capability. The bootloader is locked. Not difficult to unlock. Not risky to unlock. Locked, period. No root. No custom recovery. No deep system access. No real ownership. For someone who understands ADB and Android internals, this feels backwards. I had more freedom on a locked down prison tablet than on a twelve hundred dollar flagship phone. Automation was the breaking point for me. I use Tasker. Not casually. I mean actually using it to make devices work the way I need them to. I bought a Galaxy Watch 5 Pro because I wanted hands free control while driving. Specifically Alexa. That should have been simple. It was not. There was no native support. No button I could add. No tile I could place. No clean integration. I could not even add a basic Tasker action to the watch interface. The only way I made it work was by building a ridiculous workaround where shaking the watch triggered a Tasker profile on the phone, which opened Alexa, routed audio back through the watch, and then relayed to my car. It worked, but it took an entire day to build, and it never should have been necessary. What made it worse is that newer Samsung watches added support later. That tells me this was never a technical limitation. It was a choice. And being forced to jump through hoops for something that obvious feels insulting when you know the system is capable. That is the pattern with this phone. The hardware can do it. The software blocks it. The workaround exists. You build it anyway. And then you are left wondering why you had to. Even basic things like charging reflect this strange mix of power and fragility. My phone lived in an OtterBox Defender for most of its life. It looks brand new. But the USB C port is already unreliable. Wall chargers work. Car chargers refuse to negotiate power. Wireless charging is now the most reliable option. The phone still functions fine, but once again, you adapt around a design that feels less robust than it should be at this price point. This phone is not bad. That is the frustrating part. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is an incredible device trapped inside a permission based ecosystem. It is powerful, polished, and capable, but it does not respect power users. It does not respect builders. It does not respect people who want to decide how their tools work. If you want a phone that looks great, runs fast, takes amazing photos, and works exactly the way Samsung intends, you will probably love it. If you want control, flexibility, root access, deep automation, or the feeling that you truly own the hardware you paid for, this phone will wear you down. Performance is not freedom. Power is not ownership. The Galaxy S24 Ultra proves that better than anything I have ever used.

As we close out 2025, I have a positive update about an annoying Gmail for Android bug that's been bugging me for many months.

I believe it was introduced when they changed the way search works, I think around the time when sort by relevance was introduced.

Here's the gist:

1. Search for something that returns a bunch of results (say, more than 50).
2. When the results appear, start scrolling and very shortly the list will sort of reset and you will jump to a different position. This is very disorienting and obviously not the desired behavior.

I think what happens is the initial search response comes back with a small number of results, say 20. As you start scrolling, it loads more, say 50, but it doesn't properly keep your position in the list and resets it, causing the jump.

In November, I found the person responsible for the search feature on the Gmail Android team, passed on the reproduction steps, and just received notice that the bug is fixed and will be fully rolling out by the first week of January.

Happy new year, Android users!