[General Questions and Answers] Paulus Josefsson:
Hi there, here a newby and his phone

Hi there everybody.

After 2 years using the Armor 2, I doubted long whether I should buy the 3T or the newer 3WT model and allthough I finally choosed the 3WT because of the price difference, I now reckon that I maybe should have rather bought the 3T. Android 8.1, at least on the Armor 2 is solid, logic and Ulefone has through several updates solved the few glitches and hitches its build had when released.

So far, my 3WT works fine, but the system build feels like shabby, sloppy.... and android 9 is not much older than a year, maybe two and it seems to me that it's been some sort of middlestage before android 10.

Unfamiliarities and personal opinions about Android 9 aside, here are some of the funny things this phone does, which I cannot blame other than the OS-build for:

-It mainly refuses to connect to my 5Ghz-Wi-Fi. Sometimes it does, mainly it doesn't... When casually connected, the connection is solid, though, but it mainly shows my 5Ghz network as -disabled-

-It un-deactivates Duo and YouTube apps, which I don't need nor want and cannot unninstall, but deactivate. Nevermind. The system activates them and updates them despite I have disabled all the automatic updates.

-It turns location (which I normally have turned off and I only turn on when needed) on both soft and hard reboot. But it doesn't do it consistently. It mostly turns it on, but once every blue moon, it doesn't.

-Once you activate the walkie talkie, there is no human way to get the notification out of there.

-It rolls back on reboot some defaults to the initial apps. eg: Instead of messages, I use QKSMS. Sometimes, after a reboot, it changes by its own will to set messages as the default app to handle my sms... etc.

-It blocks the developer options all by itself on reboot!!!

-It repeatedly asks for the same freaking updates, even if I installed them a couple days ago.... It feels as it resetted itself to factory settings when it reboots... but, again, not constantly, not consistently, only when it pleases to, without warning. The apps seem to keep the settings I have chosen, but not the freaking OS.

So, my options, after one month of daily usage are the following:

-Send the crap back to china and order the 3WT with android 8.1

-Try to compile my own custom ROM based on Android 8.1 specifically build for this model.

-Try to hack and adapt the stock Rom for the 3WT to this specific model, based on either Android 9 or 10 (which I haven't used yet).

-Try to find a custom rom that either or both solves all the glitches and hitches or allows downgrading to android 8.1, which so far seems the most solid, well thought and functional iteration of Android.

-Lay on the floor in fetal position, roll and suck my thumb.

The worse of all that is that when I can consider myself an over-the-average user of Linux, I am not a developer and I am a complete ignorant when it comes to Android.

I think I'll start trying to learn how to unblock the bootloader and try to get rid of the unwanted system apps.

Any hints, tips, or experience other than the previously referred in the prior pages?

Thank you all for all the patience.

Paul

EDIT: My OS compilation number as shown in the system info: Armor_3WT_RF1_EEA_V01

If I try to update the system, it says that the system is updated and I get following version number: Armor_3WT_RF1_EEA_V01_20191017-1743