Getting my Samsung GS10 to behave

[GreyGeek]

I've mourned the passing of my Redmi Note 7 smartphone and fought with my replacement, a Samsung GS10, which I would never buy on my own given the experience I've had with it, but one never declines a gift from the #1 son and his wife.

Any how, I've finally got it to behave.
First, I deleted my Google account.
Second, I deactivated and disabled Google Play and other Google services. That sped up the phone considerably and reduced the rate of power drainage so that instead of lasting only 4-5 hours my battery now last 8-10 hours.
Third, and most important, I installed F-droid, the open source store for Android apps.

Many of the older apps from F-droid that I installed gave a warning about being made for "older versions of Android" and may not work on Android 10. I've encountered only one or two that didn't work. I'm especially pleased with K-9 Mail, the calendar from simplemobiltools, RPN (a calculator),

I still can't unlock the GS10 phone, nor can I install two sims, or replace the OS, features which were part of the Note 7 out of the box. But now, at least, I can live with the GS10 until I return to a GSM service.

[claydoh]

check an app's github or home page, I see often that they don't always send the latest versions to f-droid. Sometimes it can be behind by a LOT. Unfortunately some projects focus on the play store for releasing, and f-droid can lag behind.



I wonder if there is something off with the phone? Even the post-mod 8-10 hours battery life seems way too low. But that could just be me, even my 'old' LG V30 gets early 24 hours still, and my current V60 gets 40+ hours, as long as I am not traveling heavily or watching a lot of video. Heck my ancient leather clad LG G4 still gets nearly 6 hours on its removable battery. Could just be a battery size thing, though.


The s10 should be rootable, and bootloader-unlockable, though how involved that may be I cannot say. It will of course depend on the specific variant you have.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/c/s...laxy-s10.8507/

[GreyGeek]

I have activated the developer functions but all attempts to do a UICC unlock the phone are met with a rejection popup stating that "your device is locked to your carrier" (Sprint). This is after a long period of "The network is preparing your services. Please wait..." Then it states "SIM restricted. Your device is configured to use your carrier's network only. To use another carrier's SIM card, please contact customer service."

Before my conversion to f-droid I'd often watch a Youtube video by letting it run in the silent mode, i.e., I wouldn't actually click on it to start it playing. 10 minutes of watching would consume 10% of the power. After f-droid 10 minutes of watching consumes 4-5% of the power.

Having used the Redmi Note 7 with Android Pie (9.0) I learned how a well integrated Android worked. For example, when I installed an app only one icon of it appeared on the phone. I could position that icon anywhere. On the GS10 when I move an app to the "home account" a copy of it remains where it was first installed. If I delete either one it deletes both. Answering the phone while it is locked is a pain. Bixby constantly gets in the way with its EULA even though I have it disabled. Some samsung apps cannot be uninstalled. Samsung's Contacts app is a piece of junk so I installed a better one from f-droid. BUT, I can't remove the Samsung app and disabling it doesn't stop the GS10 from asking me every time I want to import a contact to choose which Contact app I want to use. I could go on, but just writing about it is depressing.