The Problem

• Why did I abandon Samsungs own OS and switch to a custom ROM such as crDroid? 

Well that is a very good quesiton - the first and the most noticable thing even by a normal user is the amount of lag.

That Samsung released back in 2021 and it stopped receiving updates long ago. Since then the OS has gotten really laggy and basic tasks such as using the device for social media and work has gotten unbearably worse.     

• Bloatware

I am sure you know what I mean. Why would a company decide which apps I would maybe want to use? LinkedIn? Leave it to me to decice, I might want to use it on my pc only. Facebook? I don’t use Facebook anymore. Too many cringy posts and also it is bloated with AI videos. Random games? Sure I might install a game or two but leave it to me to decide what type of games I want to play at least. I don’t want to be some boomer that wants to get to level 900 on candy crush saga.

• All of this bloat makes the device lag even when I haven’t STARTED using it yet.

Another thing that is obvious is the lack of updates. That particular Samsung stopped receiving updates in October last year(2025) including security updates.

Before & After Performance

As I mentioned before the phone was lagging a lot with the stock ROM. App launch times were slow, scrolling wasn’t smooth, battery lasted around 2-3 hours before dying and smoothness overall was not great.

After I installed crDroid

It’s like a breath a fresh air. Everything runs smoothly, apps launch incredibly fast, battery is amazing(will give detailed info) and the OS looks much better. It really reminds me of my pixel cause it kind of runs the same stock android. The thing that stands out the most of course is customization but I will give more detail about this in a bit.

Battery

• Much better than before - lasts me the whole day and it feels like I slapped a brand new battery in the phone.

I did a test recently by using google maps + spotify + light gaming the whole day. The battery lasted a surprising 8 hours. Compare that to 2-3 hours. Much more than a 100% increase which is more than enough for me lol. Then I tested the battery with normal day-to-day apps - some camera usage, calls, social media, spotify and so on. I managed to squeeze around 12 hours in total including the next day. I would’ve never managed to have that many hours of usage on the stock ROM(4-5 hours at most).

Customization

The customization compared to OneUI 6.1 is miles ahead. You can basically tweak anything. From the lock screen, to the touch animations, AOD, volume controls, fonts, notifications, live wallpapers, apps dock, status bar settings and much more which you can check out here. It really feels like you are in control of the device when it comes to customization.

De-bloating

Self explanatory. Literally only the essential apps are installed upon first time installation. Camera, File manager, Calls, Contacts, browser, clock, dolby atmos, matlog, music, settings, a calculator and a calendar.

Daily Driver Reality

Unfortunately every good thing has its clerks and cons. This is the category where the phone has the most flaws.

• Camera quality
  • The camera quality is overall decent and there is no post processing but if you are running the OS on a flagship device then maybe you are going to miss some of the features which are missing by default.
• Banking apps
  • Not all banking apps are supported. I live in Bulgaria and only a very small number of the banking apps are supported but that is not the OSs fault. It’s just pure security regulations of the bank.
• NFC payments
  • It works but I haven’t tested it. There is a setting to toggle it on and off whenever one wants.
• Call Quality
  • It’s decent but I found it to be better on the original ROM.

Installation experience:

I did brick the device a couple of times but that was because I was installing the wrong ROM. The one I first tried to flash was for A52 only(not S) so I had to install the original OS and try again. Other than that I haven’t had any further issues. The official documentation gives a pretty straight forward explanation and the steps are easy to follow.

• One thing to avoid:
  • Pay close attention to the specific model requirements to avoid bricking your device. For some it takes a long while to fix.

Who should try this ?

Budget buyers:

• People that get a cheap phone and want it to run faster. It really does make a difference.

Privacy Enthusiasts

• You can’t go wrong here. There are no apps that collect data and you can also disable stuff like the microphone, camera and gps tracking.

Hobbyists

• If you just want to try installing a custom ROM on an old device then definitely give crDroid a change. It’s really easy to install and its definitely worth the knowledge that you are going to acquire.

Would I recommend it? For what use cases?

If you want to give your old device a breath of fresh air then yes I definitely recommend it. If you want your phone to run faster and have a battery usage yes I definitely recommend it. If you want a debloated ROM that is very customizable and privacy respecting then yes I definitely recommend it.

• I wouldn’t recommend it if you plan to use it as your main device since it just too much of a hassle to get some stuff to work properly and you will probably have to get it running after a while again.
• I also wouldn’t recommend it if you plan on using the device for NFC card payments and banking apps.