Author: @IcedRaktajino@startrek.website get all strobe-y.

What's the battery life like?

Honestly, I don't know yet. It's packing a 3,000 mAh battery which is tiny for a smartphone, but with the e-ink display sipping power, it evens out.

This early on, where I'm still setting it up and just seeing what it can do, I'm probably using more battery than I would under normal usage.

That said, I've been trying to use it "correctly" and have seen pretty decent battery life. Using it as an e-reader, for example, it only draws power when I turn a page (minus any Android background tasks). With the backlight off, I've read 5 or 6 long chapters with the battery only going down a percent or two (which is comparable to my Kobo).

Bottom line is: The less the screen changes, the longer the battery will last. I don't know if it'l get days of battery life with actual usage, but I've never obsessed over that; as long as it gets me through the day with normal usage, and so far, that's what I'm seeing (plus some).

Is it your daily driver?

Not yet. I'm still putting it through its paces, getting to know it, customizing it, etc. Unless my primary device meets a catastrophic end, it usually takes me 1-2 weeks to "provision" a successor. For now, I have my second line SIM card in it, so it's something of a secondary device at present. I also really like the S22 Flip I have now, so parting with it is going to be difficult.

Is there anything you hate about it?

I've got a few gripes and have noticed some quirks with the Minimal-specific software, but nothing I truly hate. If I had to choose one thing, and this might just be an Android thing nowadays and not specific to this device, it's that you can no longer configure a long-press of the power button to turn on the flashlight. All my other phones had that, or something similar, but this one does not. The closest I've come is mapping a long-press of the "symbol" button to toggle the flashlight, but due to not being rooted, that only works if the screen is on.

Can the bootloader be unlocked / Can it be rooted?

No idea yet. The developer option to enable OEM unlocking is available, but that may not mean much. I have not (yet) tried to actully issue the fastboot oem unlock command to see if the bootloader is capable of being unlocked or if it requires a code from the manufacturer. AFAIK, all non-shady rooting methods these days rely on unlocking the bootloader first.

Minimal has stated that they do not yet support 3rd party ROMs, but they do seem like they are open to it down the line (take that with a grain of salt, naturally).

I'm pretty conservative when it comes to modding my phones and never attempt anything without recovery tools and images on-hand. Right now, I do not have access to a stock image to restore if something should go wrong.