Custom rom for Poco F3

unatomic · October 22, 2021

Hey Android community,

I am mainly looking for recommendations for a custom rom for my Xiaomi Poco F3 (EU if it matters).

The dream rom for me:

-Simple GUI

-Rock stable

-No bloatware/unnecessary features

-Good battery life

-Must have google apps/play store

My list of Roms based on information I gathered and sorted by my priorities is the following:

-AOSP

-Hentai OS

-Lineage OS

What are your suggestions, comments, hands-on experience with any Rom specifically for Poco F3?

The reason I want to get a custom Rom is to get rid of some bloatware and bugs of MIUI12, get some more battery life and lose the privacy concerns. Apart from that, is it worth it to get a custom rom to have a more stable phone and control over it?

I came here to look for a suggestion for custom Roms and a flashing guide but fortunately I found a very helpful pinned guide for the latter!

So... I have not flashed a custom rom for 2-3 years, as I have used a Lineage OS on my Huawei P9 back then. I will read the pinned guide and huge respect to the author. However, I know it is not something extremely simple but is there a TL;DR version of that?

OhioYJ · October 23, 2021

23 hours ago, unatomic said:

My list of Roms based on information I gathered and sorted by my priorities is the following:

-AOSP

-Hentai OS

-Lineage OS

I always run Lineage. In fact I don't buy a device that can't run it. AOSP is will be the bare Android experience, no customization. No experience at all, or even heard of Hentai OS. Lineage tends to have more privacy features than some ROMs, sometimes less customization features than others. I will admit some of their privacy features have been reduced over the years, but it's still more than other ROMs in most cases, and that's most important to me. It's got enough customization for me.

Assuming this is your phone. Lineage is official for your device. This makes it the clear choice in my opinion at least if nothing else as one for you to try first. Being official means you'll get an update every week, and it's likely to continue getting support.

Downloads Here.

Install Instructions Here (Again Assuming that was the correct device above).

Lineage thread on XDA, a great place to ask questions. It's an external link, but XDA really is a great resource for phones and tablets and that thread is for Poco 3 users running Lineage. It's started by one of the maintainers of the Lineage build for that device.

Gapps <-- Recommendations from Lineage. I'm still using the 12 April build of MindTheGapps on most of my devices as I've had some issues with the setup wizard on newer builds. Setup wizard pulls in your backup, so fresh installs are pretty annoying if this doesn't work.

Generally with all custom ROMs at this point, root is required to pass safety net if you need that. So be aware of that. I use Magisk, MagiskHide Props Config, then depending on the device you may also need SafetyNet Fix as well.

unatomic · October 24, 2021

That was a pretty awesome response!

Well the phone model was slightly off... I have the F3 not the X3 but do not worry! I will not hang you till death...

https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/alioth

From this link I get the download link and instructions from the above page, obviously. Lineage is a valid candidate and because I have the privilege of time to test it for a week, I think I am set.

I would like to confirm that there is still no Gapps store included in any rom (not only lineage) and I will have to install it afterwards based on the instructions.

OhioYJ · October 25, 2021

10 hours ago, unatomic said:

Well the phone model was slightly off... I have the F3 not the X3 but do not worry! I will not hang you till death...

Well crap... Pretty close. I have a bunch of devices running Lineage, no Xiaomi though. You are correct, no official build Lineage build include Gapps. It's actually pretty rare for even for an unofficial build to include them. You will flash Gapps afterwards (assuming you want them).