In a world where many believe “bigger is better” when it comes to phones, this device is definitely not buying the story.
The Unihertz Atom XL comes with Android 10, and there is an unofficial LineageOS ROM posted on XDA, that is currently being maintained. The vendor has made available Stock ROM releases as well.
This phone is unusual for the four-inch screen, which is rare these days. It also has a built-in FM radio that actually works, and comes in a rugged form factor. I held on to my S4 mini as long as I could, but it is starting to really struggle.
It would be great to have /e/ running on this device, as I currently have been unable to sync any information on ecloud.global, which has limited its effectiveness as a daily driver.
I used to have a Uniherz Jelly Pro and always wanted a degoogled ROM on it. One day it bricked itself, maybe I had destabilised something by rooting it a few years before that happened, but actually the self-bricking happened while using it as a usb tethered modem so it might have been a mechanical trigger. The Uniherz Jelly Pro is a wee bit too small to be practical, although I had several spare batteries for it and that made it practical. This is the whole Uniherz range :
I would personally much like to get a Uniherz Jelly 2 or Atom if e was available for it. The Atom XL is at 4" already quite big. Since my Uniherz Jelly bricked itself, I replaced it with something else, a Palm Pepito, but it has standard Android on it. Screen size is 3.3" Have also got a thread on the forum about it:
Interesting to see there’s a LOS ROM for the Atom XL.
Something else about that phone, it doesn’t just have an FM radio… it can also transmit on 70 centimeter band! As an amateur radio operator, this is a nice feature.
If we get /e/ on this device, I might be tempted to sell my Razer Phone and get an Atom XL instead. I don’t see mobile games really improving much, as they continue to do P2W microtransactions and other garbage… so my use for a gaming device wouldn’t be as high priority. Older, non-predatory games would still play fine on the Atom XL.
