My Experience on Pixel ROM

on


In a nutshell: I was really excited and waiting for a long time to buy the Pixel 5a. But after flashing the PixelExperience ROM on my current Redmi Note 7 Pro phone, I am rethinking whether I should buy it or not.

That's it! I think you should flash it too!

I love DARK MODE everywhere but idk why I fell for the WHITE vibe of this ROM

"Settings"

"Account"

Here's my full experience on this ROM. Give it a read if you have some time.


Why I flashed perfectly working MIUI 12?

A few days ago, I was trying a mobile holder that looked like this:

Ignore iPhone - I hate it, the image is taken directly from Flipkart product image 

So, I clipped my Redmi Note 7 Pro onto that holder, and I was in the middle of something on my laptop. I thought I'd get back to it after a minute or so. You see that four-clip kinda stuff? One of them was accidentally right on the power button of my phone, and I didn't know that. It kept the button pressed for 10-15 seconds. So when I got back, I saw that my phone was continuously restarting, stuck in a boot loop. That was it. My phone had stopped working, and I had to reset it.

Then, I thought, "Why shouldn't I try another ROM?" Because I had to reset it, no matter what, to make it back to normal, and the same goes for changing the ROM.


How did I find about Pixel ROM? 

So, I Googled about the current best free ROMs in the market, and as I expected, articles were suggesting world-famous custom ROMs like CyanogenMod and Lineage OS. Then, I saw there was a ROM that was pure Android, like the one used in Pixel, called "PixelExperience."

I visited their official website, https://download.pixelexperience.org/, and saw that "PixelExperience is an AOSP (Android Open Source Project) based ROM, with Google apps included and all Pixel goodies (launcher, wallpapers, icons, fonts, bootanimation, etc.)." It was very well maintained, free, and provided updates from time to time. 

Then, I searched it on YouTube and saw that many people had tried it, and it was looking quite good (yeah, it was looking quite good, but I didn't know that it would be perfect!). There was a Normal Edition and a Plus Edition - I saw one YouTube video about the difference and finalized to go for the Plus Edition. Basically, the Plus Edition has some more/improved features.

And then I checked for my device on their website to see whether it was available for my phone or not. And yes, it was available, and that too in the stable version + Android 11!


Requirements for flashing PE (PixelExperience) ROM:

  • PC/Laptop with Windows OS.
  • Installation Guide and PE ROM. Don't worry - you'll get the "Installation Guide" and all the necessary download links on their official website. If you're confused in between, search it on YouTube like "flash pixel experience on redmi note 7 pro" (replace "redmi note 7 pro" with your phone model) and follow that tutorial from the scratch.
  • Check for the warranty. My phone was more than 1.5 years old, so I didn't need to check for it. But, in the case of Xiaomi, I googled and found out Xiaomi does not void the warranty if the bootloader is unlocked.
  • Good internet connection with nearly 5 GB of data. (to be on the safe side)
    • 1.5 GB data for the PE ROM.
    • In my case, I got my phone bricked (stopped working), so I had to make the phone work back to normal, and only then could I flash PE ROM. Therefore, I had to first download MIUI 12, which was 2.6 GB in size, and flash it. After that, I flashed PE ROM.
  • You'll need to backup all of your data because it'll be lost in this process.

Should you flash PE?

If your device is listed there, you should definitely try it out. I bet you will love it.

My experience on PE ROM:


I found the PE performance to be smoother than MIUI 12. It really felt like MIUI 12 was throttling the phone, while PE let it flow seamlessly. There are no hang-ups, "app stopped working" messages, or background app killings. 
  • I am a little surprised in terms of "Recent Apps". We all know MIUI is infamous for killing its background apps (you can google about it or can check by yourself using "Don't kill my app!"). And after switching the app, MIUI takes a little time to load that recent app. But in the case of PE, it is just awesome - instant switching! Takes no time to switch and load the recent app. And yes, it is more convenient than MIUI's both app switching methods too.
  • I never have to clear the "Recent Apps" unlike in the case of MIUI; I had to clear the "Recent Apps" if there were 10-12 apps in recents.
  • Taking screenshots is really fast, and PE also allows you to take customized screenshots, meaning you can simply select the portion of the screen you want to capture. There's no need to take the screenshot, then crop it, and then save it.
  • Overall experience improved 100% I can say.
  • No bloatware or ads. Pure Android.
  • No need to sideload Google Services or Google apps. It's already included.
  • No negative points on battery usage—nothing like PE is sucking the battery faster and all.
  • If you think changing ROM will cause a problem in the working of fingerprint and face lock, nothing like that; it works perfectly.
  • No lagging or restarting issues.
  • One of the best benefits: GET UNLIMITED GOOGLE PHOTOS HIGHT QUALITY STORAGE. click me to read more.

NOTE: 
Flashing a PE ROM requires technical knowledge of what you're actually doing, rather than following guides blindly. Know what you are doing. You may end up with a dead phone if you are doing anything carelessly, just for fun. This is just my experience. Any coincidence resulting from this represents solely the outcome of your actions. The author does not hold any responsibility if your phone is dead or bricked.