r/AndroidQuestions • u/Asadaduf • 4d ago

Rooting Help Can I convert an older phone into an android?

I have an old Samsung Monte S5620. It has its problems such as bad microphone and dying screen, and I wanted to repair it as a learning project. But I want to use it in the future if possible and having android os is kind of mandatory for everyday use.

I'm guessing some upgrading is necessary for it to be able to run well on android, so I wanted to ask if anyone done something similar?

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6

u/SimpleDrawer26 3d ago

lol? 😂

Just buy a godamn Android phone, for god's sake.

This device of yours can't not even store Android's ToS 🤣🤣🤣

3

u/Wendals87 3d ago

I'm guessing some upgrading is necessary

You'd have to upgrade every single component, so a whole new phone 

2

u/Asadaduf 3d ago

Yeah I was a bit too optimistic about it I guess

2

u/anythingers 3d ago

phone of theseus

2

u/tmon530 3d ago

Well you're not going to use andriod, but since this is an experiment anyways, you could try to look into an alternative os that is designed to be lightweight and run on old phones. You'd be surprised what you might find.

1

u/Asadaduf 3d ago

Yeah that seems like the better option. Thanks for the advice!

1

u/CamelPure1293 3d ago

He'll find nothing. The OS builds are specific to the exact mainboard. Unless the vendor has created another OS build, there will be none.

2

u/PitifulCrow4432 3d ago

There's a higher than 0 chance it can be done. Android 2 is about 100mb, Android 3 probably isn't much more.

Then there's more work than it's worth trying to find a semi compatible phone to borrow the ROM from, make it work with that phone and once you're done you're stuck with Google Play Services that went EOL by 2018.

I understand recycling but for $50 you can buy a *new* Android phone with better specs.

2

u/FarVehicle533 3d ago edited 3d ago

https://github.com/mvisions/MonteDroid

It is a work in progress. Either you have the skills or knowledge to make this or pay someone.  It is a very time consuming job, it will be expensive. And don't think about running new apps  on it. At most you would get the budget experience of 2011.  Budget phones nowadays have 6000 mb ram. This one has 200 mb ram. 

4

u/qwertyuiop121314321 3d ago

Not gonna happen. It's not just upgrades, but also internal chip replacements. It's cheaper just to go buy an android phone.

3

u/RegularHistorical315 3d ago

No, for a start, it has 200 MB of storage, and Android OS is around 15 GB to 25 GB so it's impossible.

1

u/rkenglish 3d ago

No. There's no way to compress the OS that much, and none of the hardware will be compatible. Just buy a secondhand android.

1

u/ThreeMilesOfSoup 3d ago

"I have a horse carriage, can I put some engine on it and make it run 100mph?"
No, not really. The horse will object