Questions before buying a preinstalled /e/ S9 phone

/e/OS Devices Samsung
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1

Hello, I just have tree questions before buying a preinstalled /e/ Samsung galaxy S9 smartphone.

  1. On witch version of Android is /e/ based ? Android Pie ? Will this phone have the android 10 update ? How long will the phone receive updates ?

  2. Does the fingerprint sensor work properly ? Same question for the camera, the GPS and the Bluetooth.

  3. Does the dex work (HDMI connection with the USB-C connector) ? And Linux for dex ?

Thanks in advance for your answers :grinning:

2

@rhunault please can you help @quadcopterman with some of the responses for the S9.

3

Hi,

Thank you for your interest!

  1. The /e/ image for the Galaxy S9 is based on Android Oreo. At the moment, we didnā€™t planned any upgrade to a future Android version.
  2. For the moment, everything is working. We donā€™t have issue reported about those elements.
  3. About Dex, we have not tested but it should not work as it seems to be a Samsung proprietary feature.

I hope I answered well at your questions. If not, feel free to tell me!
Have a good day,

Romain

3 Likes
4

Thank you for your answers

Ok, so /e/ is based on Oreo :slightly_frowning_face:. I hope there will be some updates to Pie (and Android 10) in the future.

Ok :+1: I heard problems with the Bluetooth but I think that was for the S7ā€¦
Is the NFC working fine ?

Ok, the dex isnā€™t working, but if we connect an HDMI cable trough the USB-C connector, do we have an image ? (screen mirroring)

5

Yes, there was an issue on some Galaxy S7 with the Bluetooth. A fix will be published very soon.

About Dex, I didnā€™t test yet and I donā€™t have this kind of cable ATM. I looked on internet about a compatibility with other alternative ROM, but I donā€™t find anything interesting yet.

Romain

6

I appreciate your honesty about this.
It does make me wonder though, what the incentive of buying a preinstalled /e/ S9 phone is, if there are no plans of upgrading it to a future Android version. It seems to me that because of that, they might be even more shortlived than an S9 running on Samsungs official software (currently Pie). As someone who has been stuck on an older Android version before and because of that had problems with apps not being supported, I kind of worry about being in the same place soon enough, as I currently also have an S9 running on /e/.
May I ask why there are no plans to upgrade the S9 to Pie?

7

I think this response will have to be re phrased - there will be OS upgrades but not immediately. We are releasing upgrades tin small batchesā€¦ You can read some more here.

You can also request for an OS upgrade here

1 Like
8

Ok, cool, thanks :slight_smile:
The announcement mentioned only Lineage OS 16 supported devices (which the S9 isnā€™t) and the comment from @rhunault seemed to confirm my fear, that the S9 wouldnā€™t receive an upgrade. But Iā€™m happy to hear that there are plans to upgrade the S9 eventually, even if they are not immediate. So thanks for clarifying this.

9

Upgrade is a specific update which could make the device temporary unusable (especially if the vendor partition is not up-to-date). So for us it means some developments and a lot of tests to be sure that everything will go. Also, Pie is not supported officially on the Galaxy S9 by LOS team, which means some other devs and tests (or only tests if another team already worked on).

From the other side, Oreo is working well today on S9. This Android version is still supported by AOSP, so there is security patch published monthly. So itā€™s not a priority to work on this upgrade now, but itā€™s not closed for the future.

10

For how long ?

There is an unofficial build of LOS 16 for the S9. Is it possible (in the future, if this build is stable) to make a /e/ Pie based on that for the S9 ?

I want to buy a S9 but I donā€™t want to not receive any updates after six monthsā€¦

1 Like
11

Each Android version is supported at least 3 years. So we will support security patches for the S9 with /e/OS ā€œoreoā€ until January 1, 2021. It let us time to think about a migration to Pie.

2 Likes
12

Ok thank you for all your answers. I wanted to buy one yesterday but it was out of stock :slightly_frowning_face:
Iā€™ll wait until itā€™s back in stock.

One last question : is the NFC working fine ?

13

Hi,
since android 10 (Q) there would be a hidden desktop mode compatible with smartphones that have with video output support over USB-C?
To see if the functionality is still present on /e/.

https://nexdock.com/lapdock-for-smartphones/

14

Good day, did you find an answer to the question if /e/OS supports a secondary screen like on Samsung DEX? also Huawei has that feature now activated but it is in baby shoes, I wonder how the /e/OS support could be used for external keyboard, secondary screen and running apps on the secondary screen, for DEX it very good on Android 10, for Huawei it worked so soā€¦ now i am asking about eOS S = Android 12ā€¦ any experience?