Some notes are confusing: financial apps could update your phone? How. Chinese firmware? What is even that.
There are multiples in that sentence
- Chinese require their phones to be rootable, which includes the Qualcomms. I don't know if they force updates or not, but probably.
- With the Note 3, I could root it without breaking KNOX. I was forced off it when CDMA went away. With the Note 9 U, U1 there was no root in sight for a long time and with no certainty that it would ever be possible. With the Note 9 and the original 8.1 Android I had my call recording. With the newly released Android 9 I lost half of the conversation so I flashed back to the latest 8.1. However, if you explicitly told U in the settings not to update, it will not respect that and force updates to Verizon firmware in the middle of the night. That's when I learned that with U1 I could disable updates with ADB because U1 exposes parameters that U versions does not. That was good new for me and for my clients who were attorneys and accountants and my own company where we bill for time an the conversations become our working documents. My Note 9 is not rooted and I have perfect call recording with ACR Pro.
You just keep rooting any phone you get.. As for knox, i can't care less it's triggered... Financial apps work for me, if not, -> i'd hide the root, if this doesn't work, -> i'd not use the apps or change the financial institution.
Because travel and living abroad is about to become a dominant part of my existence, its impact on credit card apps and financial transactions become a lot bigger duck in my pond. What I lose and what I still have are the things I need to know to make a good decision on my next phone. The hoops I need to jump through to hide from the play store and wireless providers' malware also becomes a much more of an issue to deal with going forward. I could root the Note 9 but then at some point I will have to deal with app compatibility issues and probably at a time when I won't have time.
Hardware other:
- Every other country is much less restrictive on the hardware they allow on their networks than the US. You can usually trick the system but I don't want to deal with it so it will be the U series. They even balk at the U1.
- Even if the Note 20, S22, and S23 are equal from a capability perspective, I also know that not every new version is better for my purposes. I went with the Note 9 because the Note 8 burned through the battery while my Note 9 will go almost 3 very long days of normal use. There will times when I'm not near electricity. The Note 10 had Android 9 which meant no call recording and not root. I need to learn things such as if the Note 20 Ultra or S23 Ultra are superior to the S22 ultra etc. since battery size does not necessarily translate into battery life. My hope to connect with people on this forum that have up-to-date knowledge of the current winners and losers for my use case since it has been ~2018-2019 since I've immersed myself in this area.
...After rooting, no more OTA annoyances, and no updates are forced. Google and OnePlus will be the same, but you'll get unforced OTA updates as they're root friendly. I don't use ACR, native app is way more comfy.
As mentioned, the last time I had to root was my Note 3. I liked the complete control of root and used it. However, what I miss most about root is the confidence of having a proper backup. Without it, there is no way to restore it back the way you had it after investing many tweaks adding up to many hours getting it where it became perfect for your uses.
This spells out what I'm after.
