/e/ on OP5T - Your experience

Hi folks,

I want to install /e/ on my OP5T and wanted to understand if there are any known issues for this device.

Anyone happy using OP5T with /e/?

Thanks in advance!

Hi @returntrip,

I have installed /e/ on two OP5T devices - both with no difficulty, especially as their boot unlocking procedure is so much easier than on other devices. On my phone I have installed Shelter and a few commercial apps which I use occasionally and work with no problem. There have been a few apps from the App store which have not worked at all, but I have found alternative solutions through F-droid or other repos.

As for the standard system apps installed with /e/ I have used the essential ones since installation several months ago with no problem; some I have replaced such as the Calendar app as the standard one has no decent widget to display the whole month. I have also installed Total Launcher to replace Bliss, as the latter is not very practical to set up as I would like whereas Total Launcher has much more to offer.

I have gone through at least a dozen OTA updates with no problem at all, and my configuration has not been touched by the updated system apps, so I continue using my OP5T as my principal phone without worrying about the underlying system. I have rooted my phone so I make occasional backups with Titanium just in case and have a firewall - AFwall+ - to stop the commercial apps I use from making outside connections when I don’t need to use them.

Some people have complained about the Open Camera app not giving quality photos but I have no criticism of it as I find the quality quite acceptable, though I am no photo purist. If you have an /e/ account it is easy to have them automatically uploaded and so accessible from another computer. Otherwise I sometimes do direct transfer via SFTP to my local LAN. This works as well for any other file transfers I might need. Otherwise I use the wonderful note-taking app Joplin which synchronises automatically with my Nextcloud account and as it uses encryption I can transfer even personal files for travel purposes for example.

The battery life is more than satisfactory compared to other non /e/ phones I’ve used and blocking outside server connections means that I can have up to two or three day’s use without recharging if I use it sparingly - by that I mean keeping browsing to a minimum as I use my desktop for that essentially.

In conclusion, I would have no hesitation in recommending OP5T for use with /e/ as an everyday phone.

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Hi @Grendel thanks for the detailed feedback.

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience. For the time being I am (slowly) testing /e/ on a Moto G Titan, I am making sure that all the closed source apps I need are working as expected. At the same time I am waiting for LOS 17 to be officially released for the OP5T (hoping it happens soon).

So far I think I like the general quickness of this ROM (considering how old is the Titan).

I am not fond of Bliss Launcher (prefer LawnChair but am aware it has some non free elements). I am also confused about the usefulness of the default App Store as it does not seem to carry some app updates which are available on F-droid (was told on Telegram that system apps are updated via OTA). Also some closed source apps are not there at all (Banking apps for sure) and I had to rely on Aurora Store which unfortunately is having issues with its anonymous login (account disabled by Google I believe).

I am sure things will slowly improve. In the meanwhile I will continue testing.