[LG V20 Guides, News, & Discussion] br0adband:
So, I ordered an H918 from an eBay seller a few days ago, it'll be here mid-next week. Yeah, I know, it's older but dammit it's the removable battery and other aspects that still make it a great device for someone like me. Sure, the audio is fantastic, the screen should be OK - the one I bought was stated as having HEAVY FAIR USAGE so I expect the body of it to be pretty banged up in terms of cosmetic issues, dents, scratches. They didn't say what the condition of the screen/display glass is so I can only hope, they simply say it has signs of very heavy usage and that it's 100% functional so I'll find out soon enough - they do have a 30 day return window (15% restocking fee unless it's defective which of course it would be if I decide to return it <hint, hint>).

Anyway, so I've spent the past 2-3 days reading up as much as I can before I get into this. I grabbed the 10p KDZ file for safe keeping (I really wish the people sharing such files would use MD5/SHA1 checksums and post those along with the links to the files so we can check to make sure things are fine after the download of multi-gigabyte sized files, but that's another thread altogether). Been reading up on all the ins and outs with the H918, the rooting potential for Nougat builds, yes I know Oreo has no root yet and I just read yesterday someone chatted with T-Mobile or LG support and were told the H918 should be getting Oreo official in the next week or so (meaning the very end of September). I've never used a device with Oreo on it so far so I'm not even sure I'll want it.

I've been reading reports from some folks with Oreo on other variants saying it turned their V20 into an almost new different device, and of course other people saying it's crap and ruined their device so there's no way to know for sure till the H918 gets it - it's a given that the H918 will get Oreo, but for now it's still the waiting game from T-Mobile.

As long as the one I ordered works I'm good I suppose. I don't even care all that much about rooting except for one or two things, but I was interested in putting LineageOS on it at least for testing purposes so I've been reading up on all that as well (meaning 14.1 as again I don't have any experience with Oreo so far and probably not all that interested).

I ordered a half-decent camo styled case for it (rip off Slim Armor it looks like), screen protectors (presuming the glass isn't damaged so badly that a protector won't bubble up or just look terrible on it), and a new battery (no idea what the manufacturing date on it will be till it gets here). I have a Quick Charger available but I still don't like doing that to batteries so I'll just keep using my trusty Samsung 2A charger and do it the slow way. I'd love to get the LG battery cradle and order another battery but the pricing on that simple piece of white plastic is utterly ridiculous so, nope, not gonna do it.

As I'm late to the V20 party I suppose I'll say I'm grateful to those that have provided support up to this point with keeping it alive, I'll also say I'm sad that many of them, including runningnak3d seem to be moving on to newer more capable devices (can't say I blame them considering LG being so damned slow - 2 years of Nougat and then Oreo at EOL for the V20, geezus, that's pretty damned bad to be honest).

I hope I'll be able to make something good out of this device. The days of getting custom ROMs like LineageOS on carrier hardware is getting worse all the time. I just wish I had a device like a V20 - with all the features it has, the removable battery, microSD, good/great camera (I still say the camera assembly in the G4 is the best ever but that's just me), outstanding audio features, etc - that allowed for easy custom ROMs like LineageOS or whatever without having to jump through all the hoops.

If OnePlus would make a device with a removable battery and a microSD slot, I'd be all over it day one (and I've never purchased a new smartphone, I always buy used), but of course they'll never ever do such a smart thing unfortunately.

My hope is that I can get LineageOS 14.1 on it working smoothly with a decent kernel that gives me some more capable control over things, while still being as close to 100% functional as possible without any major hassles or problems. If I can do that I'm good. I was never a big huge fan of the second screen (had a V10 for a while as well and kept it turned off), nor a big huge fan of the 32-bit DAC either. I did appreciate the AOP mics for live recording, however, so I'd guess those are still functional with LOS but I guess I'll find out. My ears aren't what they used to be and since I transcoded my entire 2300+ CD collection to Opus 128 Kbps a few years ago, that's good enough for me. :)

Battery life will be a concern I suppose, but I owned a Samsung Galaxy S7 Active a few years back, Snapdragon 820 powered, and I was getting just shy of 2 full days of battery life with how I use my devices. I know some folks say the V20 is fantastic in that respect and just as many say it sucks so again I'll find out when I get the device and get started with it. I can't imagine it's that bad with a custom kernel and some of the thermal configuration adjustments - and yes I do plan to redo the thermal paste as well, that's near the top of the to-do list.

Anyway, too long post coming to a close: I'll see what happens. I owned a Sprint V20 for a short period of time just over a year ago, and I was able to use it with T-Mobile (my carrier of choice) without many issues but of course it being so tightly locked down (at that time) I didn't choose to keep it. The H918 offers at least more potential for experimenting so again, thanks to those of you that have done things in terms of development to make it better whenever possible.