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lemm.ee refugee since 2025-06-15 (brachypelmasmithi@lemm.ee),
been on lemm.ee since 2023-08-19, with 15 posts and 110 comments

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Joined 4 months ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2025

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  • The codename is a single word unique to a particular device model. Phones can get released under more than one name (example: Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite on the global market, Xiaomi Mi CC9 in China), and so codenames exist to prevent confusion (for both the Mi 9 Lite and the CC9 the codename will be the same - pyxis - since they’re the same device)

    This is a table with all the devices from the Note 13 series and their codenames (middle column)

    From what I could gather there really are no official ROMs for any model from the series, but there are plenty of unofficial ones. Unofficial ROMs can be dangerous to run so you really don’t want to install one on your daily driver.

    Your only option in that case imo is to buy a phone with better custom ROM support. Xiaomi phones have always been excellent for custom ROMs since they give you very good hardware for a very low price (if you buy them second hand that is).

    The only drawback is that unlocking the bootloader (which is a necessary step on almost all phones in order to be able to install a custom ROM) on a Xiaomi device is very annoying and tedious, requiring you to go through Xiaomi’s janky servers, outdated tools, and the infamous 7-day (at least) waiting period.

    As a point of reference, I currently run a Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro. I bought it used for ~500 PLN ($120 more or less). Compared to the Note 13 Pro 5G it’s certainly weaker. (which I assume is what you have since there doesn’t seem to be a non-Pro 5G model nevermind I’m blind and stupid, but I’ll leave the comparison as is)

    Abridged specs for the Mi 10T Pro are as follows:

    • 144 Hz IPS LCD screen
    • Chunkier in all dimensions than the Note 13 Pro
    • Heavier too
    • No SD slot (same as Note 13 Pro)
    • 128 or 256 GB of storage, depending on model
    • No headphone jack
    • Triple rear camera array (wide-angle, ultrawide, macro)
    • Main camera is optically stabilised
    • Main camera’s raw resolution is a little over 27 MP (the advertised 108 MP is achieved by proprietary Xiaomi software)
    • 5000 mAh battery, 33W charge rate
    • 563k AnTuTu benchmark score (good CPU)

    And the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G for comparison:

    • 120 Hz AMOLED screen
    • No SD slot
    • 128 to 512 GB of storage, depending on model
    • Headphone jack present
    • Triple rear camera array (wide-angle, ultrawide, macro)
    • Main camera is optically stabilised
    • Main camera has a software-assisted resolution of 200 MP - I assume the raw resolution is 50 MP at most (which is extremely good)
    • 5100 mAh battery, 67W charge rate
    • 523k AnTuTu benchmark score (gsmarena doesn’t list the score for AnTuTu v8, which was used for the Mi 10T Pro - this phone was tested on v9, so the score comparison isn’t perfectly accurate)

    So the Mi 10T Pro is visibly worse, but not by all that much (unless you love headphone jacks), and yet in part because it’s an older model (released 2020 as opposed to 2024), it’s supported officially by LineageOS, and that’s the OS I’m currently running on my own Mi 10T Pro.

    With that in mind, installing a custom ROM is a very technical process, so it might seem really daunting at first (and that’s because it kinda is), but after your first flash things get way easier. I definitely do not regret switching to custom ROMs and if anything I kinda can’t live without one now, seeing all the bloat and adware on modern OSes.



  • A bit late to the party here, but today I flashed Ubuntu Touch onto a Xiaomi Poco X3, and it’s… well, it’s rough.

    All the base functionality seems to be there, calls should work (not sure because I didn’t test them extensively), sms works, location/gps works, nfc is supported, camera is… passable, battery life is certainly, and noticeably worse but that’s a given - when on standby, the battery goes down roughly 8% every 5 hours, so approx. 27% per day on standby.

    While I’m really glad to see how much Linux phone development sped up, they are still nowhere near daily driver status - even the phones built with Linux support in mind are not faring well from what I’ve seen. Even then, I’m keeping this Poco X3 because Android’s days seem to be numbered.









  • aye, i’ve only played with mtk chipsets with lancelot (redmi 9) and one other phone i can’t remember (it was an oldie, released around 2016 - i think it was the redmi note 4?)

    generally from what i remember (this was a good couple years ago) the mtk exploit lets you pretty painlessly unlock most mediatek xiaomi phones, and should still work just fine to this day - haven’t really seen anything change in the mediatek sphere lately. ironically in contrast to you i remember looking out specifically for mediatek devices because of this exploit (and purely because it skipped the waiting time, otherwise mtk phones should unlock just like qualcomm ones (though according to the xiaomi unlock wall of shame (linked in Kroko’s comment) phones with unisoc chipsets are not unlockable, but at the same time i have yet to see a unisoc xiaomi phone)).

    i remember the particular tool i used but no matter what i try i can’t find it anywhere anymore. even then you can still find many exploit tools and guides on the web. after a quick search i found the ‘main’ mtkclient tool (this one), and guides on xiaomiui and droidwin (i recommend going with droidwin, since i trust it, and it uses the main tool i linked, while xiaomiui gives you a tool from a random sharepoint server, which is… uh… yknow)

    i also unlock all xiaomi stuff through a virtual machine, and i recommend you do the same, since stuff around unlocking xiaomi phones is often very sketch (that, and also it usually leaves tons of junk on your pc you’ll never use again). virtualbox offers the simplest way to do this, though if you’re running something like QEMU/KVM everything should still be possible.

    also i’ve noticed that modern xiaomi phones use qualcomm chipsets exclusively, so if you want to aim for mediatek phones, you’ll only be able to find low-performance ones. if you want an mtk xiaomi phone, i can recommend the redmi 9 - i’ve used it for 4 years before i switched, and it’s a very feature rich phone with decent performance (200k score on AnTuTu v8, while something more modern, like the Mi 10T Pro i’m currently using has a score of over 550k), currently runs for $40-80 on the used market (at least on my end), and is officially supported by LineageOS (nevermind, it’s officially discontinued, but it still receives updates from time to time, and you can still build the ROM yourself and install it)












  • Not really a weird dream other than the fact that it happened at all, considering I’ve rarely been getting any dreams recently.

    Dreamt about waking up to see the new university timetable be only days starting from 6 AM, except for Monday which started at 4 AM.

    I was honestly so used to bullshit like this I didn’t even realise I was dreaming and had a panic attack inside of the dream.

    From my past dreams, however, I remember having a machete duel to the death with Thanos. I don’t remember who won.