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I am going to buy a phone soon and I would rather buy an Android than an iPhone. However, I do not want to run any Google software on the phone, and I am planning on installing one of the custom ROMs LineageOS or /e/ (which is based on LineageOS).

How high is the risk of bricking the phone by installing one of these custom ROMs? Just to be clear, I do not plan on rooting the phone and I will install the phone on a supported device, probably the OnePlus 5.

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  • Possible duplicate of Bootloader/BIOS, flashing ROM and correlated risks. Why Android devices are more brickable than PCs? – Irfan Latif Mar 14 '19 at 18:16
  • That depends on the phone. If it officially supports "unlocking" (OEM unlock) you can install a matching custom recovery for your device. From that point on it is rather hard to brick the phone by installing a well maintained custom ROM. – Robert Mar 14 '19 at 18:50
  • I don’t think my question is a duplicate of the other one because I am asking about how likely it is that the device will get bricked, rather than why this could happen. – user440774 Mar 14 '19 at 18:55
  • @Robert Thank you for your response. I am not sure if it does officially support unlocking, or how to tell if it does, because I am new to this kind of stuff. These are the directions for installing /e/ on a OnePlus 5. gitlab.e.foundation/e/wiki/en/wikis/device/cheeseburger/install – user440774 Mar 14 '19 at 18:59
  • Every where you read fastboot oem unlock the device needs to support unlocking. If the manual is specific for a certain device this usually indicates that this device can be unlocked. – Robert Mar 14 '19 at 19:03

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