Phones Can you get stock android on note 4?

[stonyboys]

Hi everyone it's time for me to get a new phone. I can't live without a physical home button so Samsung seems to be my only choice. But the only problem is samsungs touchwiz (in my opinion) looks terrible. I'm sure many people are fine with it but I'm coming from an iPhone so aesthetically, everything has to be on point (love the look of iOS).

However I've seen lollipop and it's looking really nice. Also my friends nexuses are really fast and snappy. So my question is can you get stock android on a samsung phone? I've heard of ROMs, are these always available and are they glitchy at all?

Also is there any functionality lost with using stock android on a samsung?

 

[MRU]

You will lose ALL note 4 features such as S-Pen, Smart Stay, Smart Aware, Air View, Air Command, Action Memo & S-Note support, S-Health & its hardware support (heartbeat reader), you lose the Finger Print scanner etc.. You lose a lot.

You also lose your warranty, meaning if something goes wrong a month into you flashing a rom, you have basically banjaxed yourself - especially if they are tracking the KNOX security flag.

I would suggest you look at a Nexus 6 or Moto X 2014

 

[BullittMustang]

I installed nova launcher on my S5 and it is great. It's only an app, so no loss of any warranty and really makes the phone much better. imo

 

[Dontazemebro]

You can but is it worth it?

 

[stonyboys]

Ah I see so definitely not worth it... Nexus 6 is way too big and moto x doesn't have that home button that I love.

Does nova launcher skin everything such as messages app, browser, etc?

 

[spinedoc77]

I thought there were AOSP roms which had the Samsung stuff added back in? I'm not sure, but I could have sworn I read about them. IMO you are taking a step backwards if you need the stylus functionality, if you don't' then I suppose it doesn't matter.

 

[mattopotamus]

Ah I see so definitely not worth it... Nexus 6 is way too big and moto x doesn't have that home button that I love.

Does nova launcher skin everything such as messages app, browser, etc?

No. Nova only skins the home pages and app drawer. It cannot change the setting menu, pull down menu, messaging, browser, etc. The dialer app and everything else remains touchwiz.

If you need the functionality of the note 4, you will have to suck it up and live with touchwiz. If you want pure android on a large phone, the N6 is the way to go.

As others said, there are ROMs that allow a pure android feel with the s-pen features. Doing this will void your warranty though.

 

[stonyboys]

Is it the kind of warranty voiding like jail breaking an iPhone, where you can just restore to normal iOS and they'll be none the wiser?

Or do they actually know?

 

[Ccrew]

Buy the Developer edition of the Note 4 and have at it. It's the Note that will allow you to modify without a warranty voiding event causing you pain.

 

[Dontazemebro]

Is it the kind of warranty voiding like jail breaking an iPhone, where you can just restore to normal iOS and they'll be none the wiser?

Or do they actually know?

Honestly, if you wish to restore your phone back to stock like you bought it. There will normally be a step by step tutorial somewhere in the development section. A Samsung device will likely be one of the easiest devices to develop for so this shouldn't be a problem.

Edit - this last part might not be entirely so. I'm basing this off my past knowledge of the Verizon branded Note 3 where root was possible without tripping Knox and still restoring your device back to stock. Just didn't want to cause any confusion.

 

[MRU]

Ah I see so definitely not worth it... Nexus 6 is way too big and moto x doesn't have that home button that I love.

Does nova launcher skin everything such as messages app, browser, etc?

No it doesn't skin apps, just the launcher.

On bright side the new Lollipop update does give very stock looking material design overhaul to dialer, contacts, messages etc...

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Is it the kind of warranty voiding like jail breaking an iPhone, where you can just restore to normal iOS and they'll be none the wiser?

Or do they actually know?

No....

If you flash ROMs this trips a hardware trigger Samsung have baked in called Knox. Once the Knox flag has been tripped you potentially lose hardware support. I say potentially because there are instances of people getting hardware fixed despite Knox flag being tripped, however there are also many many cases of service being refused.

Currently there is no way of avoiding triggering the Knox flag if you flash ROMs or currently root even, and there is NO way to reset it.

 

[TimelessOne]

Ah I see so definitely not worth it... Nexus 6 is way too big and moto x doesn't have that home button that I love.

Does nova launcher skin everything such as messages app, browser, etc?

Nova launcher or any launcher just messes with the home screens and app drawer.
As for the apps well you can replace those with anything else you would like. Google puts pretty much all of there stock apps on the play store so you can just download those, set those as default and use those.

Now the setting menu and lock screen ect you can not do anything about those short of flashing a rom that cost you all the other features.

As for Google basic. I have been using the Google launcher and good stock apps for a while. Both nexus 5 and gs4

 

[Ccrew]

[/COLOR]

Currently there is no way of avoiding triggering the Knox flag if you flash ROMs or currently root even

Not true. You can flash ROM's all day on a Note, what you can't touch is the bootloader. And no one for sure know other than Samsung whether it's a hardware trigger (ie: efuse) it's simply believed that it is. Chainfire who's one of the foremost Note guru's has stated all that himself.

 

[MRU]

[/COLOR]

Not true. You can flash ROM's all day on a Note, what you can't touch is the bootloader. And no one for sure know other than Samsung whether it's a hardware trigger (ie: efuse) it's simply believed that it is. Chainfire who's one of the foremost Note guru's has stated all that himself.

Proof of statement ? Has anyone flashed a rom yet without tripping Knox on a Note 4 ?

Likewise any way of rooting without tripping Knox on the Note 4 because Chainfire does.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/orig-development/sm-n910-cf-auto-root-t2897428

 

[mrex]

installing nova launcher to replace touchwiz home -launcher may give you probably better overal experience. i dont know how much time people spend browsing menus and hating touchwiz, but changing the launcher was enough for me. however, i didnt hate tw, i just wanted to have something new...

atleast something good to try. there is a free version of nova launcher to see how it looks like and what you can do with it. and a paid version if you like it and want to get few more options. there are also other launchers, several...

installing nova doesnt break your device/warranty. it just replace touchwiz home -launcher. and after installing nova, you can always choose which launcher you want to use: nova or tw home.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.launcher