This post is somehow a follow-up to my previous one, where I asked for advice on which budget smartphone to buy as a secondary work phone—just for basic tasks like work calls. Obviously with /e/ OS, to tell Google where to shove it.
Your suggestions (thanks for those!) focused on choosing phones officially supported by /e/ OS for more stable and long-lasting support.
However, due to the attractive prices on the used market, I’ve been eyeing the Razer Phone 2, which is only community-supported, not officially.
What does this actually mean? I assume updates will be less frequent, which is to be expected, but generally speaking, would the phone still be reliable? Especially considering it would only be used for simple work communications, nothing mission-critical.
In general, this also applies to other smartphones supported by /e/ OS only at the community level and not officially.
Builds with the latest development code are called Community builds. They are provided as best effort, without any guarantee and may include known and significant bugs.
The Official tag means these builds benefited from a comprehensive testing cycle before release and this version can be used as a daily driver.
All Community and Official builds go out OTA or Over The Air to supported devices.
Unofficial builds are made by users from our community . Use these builds at your own risk
Custom builds are made by users and may have modifications made by the builder. Use these builds at your own risk
These builds are currently only available on the Murena smartphones
Murena smartphone are phones purchase through the murena Shop
Are built based on source code from the Community build branch which has been released and tested
This build undergoes additional and longer testing cycles
Builds are made by /e/OS using the /e/OS build infrastructure and signed by /e/OS official keys
Official builds have a maintainer
Get regular OTA updates
Users can also download the official builds and manually install them if they so desire
Builds format are IMG files with a build script to help with the installation.
Release Frequency: Monthly or bimonthly
Earlier referred to as stable builds
Build Naming format:
builds on Android 14 and startjng from v2.8 : IMG-e-2.8-a14-20250219469961-official-FP4.zip
builds on Android 14 and previous OS version with /e/OS version below v2.8 : IMG-e-2.7-u-20250109460370-official-FP4.zip
Builds are made by /e/OS using the /e/OS build infrastructure and signed by /e/OS dev keys
Includes the latest /e/OS development code for the device
Is released after testing but may still contain non critical bugs
Get regular OTA updates
Available for download on /e/OS websites
Release Frequency: Monthly if possible
Earlier referred to as dev builds
Build Naming format:
builds on Android 14 and startjng from v2.8 : IMG-e-2.8-a14-20250221470208-community-FP4.zip
builds on Android 14 and previous OS version with /e/OS version below v2.8 :IMG-e-2.7-u-20250110460550-community-FP4.zip
Builds are made by /e/OS using the /e/OS build infrastructure and signed by Android test keys
Builds are made to test some new features or an upgrade
May or may not get regular OTA updates
These builds are only accessible to testing team members
Are not available for download on /e/OS websites
Release Frequency: Depending on testing requirement
Build Naming format:
IMG-e-2.9-beta.2-s-20250311475460-community-GS290.zip
IMG-e-2.9-beta.2-s-20250310475253-official-one.zip
Builds are made by /e/OS or external users
Builds are not supported by /e/OS
Made using /e/OS sources code with no modifications in any form
At times may not have a maintainer as in made by a user who does not own the device
Do not receive OTA updates
Available for download on /e/OS websites and are tagged as “UNOFFICIAL”
Release Frequency: Monthly or biMonthly
Build Naming format: e-0.7-n-2020021341116-UNOFFICIAL-mata.zip
Install these builds at your own risk
Builds are made by /e/OS or external users
The build may have possible changes to /e/OS sources and include code developed for specific device support
Builds are not supported by /e/OS
Will not be publicly available for download on /e/OS websites
Install these builds at your own risk
Release Frequency: Dependent on the client or ROM Builder
Build Naming format: Format to be set by client or ROM Builder
Naming format explanation:
Depends on the convention followed by the custom ROM builder