In the past years, the world of Android smartphones has gone through big changes. From the general mobile OS alternative for any kind of smartphone, Android quickly became a leading name in this particular segment. If you’re out of Apple’s ecosystem, Android is all that matters. It’s an OS that serves a myriad of smartphones from different brands, and thanks to its open-source nature, every brand has the right and the capability to change it and shape it according to its needs. Android’s open nature has been a great differentiator for mid-range smartphones that didn’t have the same level of software support as costlier flagships. This is slightly better nowadays, but it was very bad, like five to six years ago. It has been hard for brands to support many devices, and the old ones eventually were dropped, even if their hardware was still capable of handling modern tasks. In this regard, I present you guys an old Redmi Note 7 that I had lying in my desk. Thanks to the world of custom ROMs, I was able to bring it back to the world of living with Android 16 and make it decent as a backup driver.
The Redmi Note 7 – A Legendary Device from… 2019
The market of smartphones evolves fast, and sometimes, it’s hard to keep up. While some users will be catching new phones every year, others have to keep up with their devices for two, three, or even five years. The Redmi Note 7 with codename Lavender was unveiled in February 2019. The device marked a lot of changes for the Redmi Note lineup. It dropped the old micro USB port and finally embraced the USB Type-C standard. It also brought, for the first time, the waterdrop notch design. And it left Xiaomi’s favorite Snapdragon 625 for the Snapdragon 660. These specs may not sound interesting in 2025, but they were notable for a mid-range phone back in 2019.
Another highlight in the Redmi Note 7 was the 48MP camera. This device marked the return of high megapixel cameras, even though its 48MP shots were achieved by pixel-binning, it was an interesting feat for a device of its price category. Other specifications included a compact 6.3-inch LCD screen with a 60Hz refresh rate and 1080p resolution. It also had a 4000mAh battery with 10W charging (Yeah man, these were hard times for charging). It was also the first Redmi Note phone to use a glass rear design, leaving the metal/plastic finish behind. It was also the first Redmi Note phone to be available in colorful gradient variants.
The Redmi Note 7 launched officially with MIUI 11 and Android 9 and received just one major update to Android 10 and MIUI 12. The device received a couple of minor updates and security tweaks. Unfortunately, one major update was everything it got. These were different times, and support for mid-range phones was just poor.
My Story with the Redmi Note 7 and How It Came Back to the World of Living
I acquired this device around 2020 for my wife, and it has served her well since then. While there are other colorful designs like the Nebula Red and Violet units, I got a boring black variant (black is cool in some designs, but when you have plenty of nice colors, the black is the simplest, I’m sorry). The device ran Android 10 by the time with MIUI 12. It worked well for some time, but after a couple of years, it started to feel laggy, and MIUI started to show the usual signs of aging. The phone was still good for my wife, and she didn’t want to replace it… But when the screen got damaged, it was inevitable.
The Redmi Note 7 was put in my shelf to be forgotten in the past with a broken screen and some old dreams… This year, I’ve found it in an old smartphone box, and I thought: Hey! What about bringing this device back to life? It was perfectly possible, and surprisingly, it would still be a good backup smartphone.
I brought a replacement screen from a Chinese brand called Aumook. It’s hard or perhaps impossible to find an original display for this device at this time. And honestly, you have to be careful with the quality. While this one isn’t on par with the original, it’s good to acceptable. Viewing angles could be better. Yeah, but again, this is made for fun.
Getting It Ready For 2025
The second step was to acquire a replacement battery. You can try your luck to find an original battery for this smartphone (code BN44), but the chances are you will get a counterfeit battery with a small capacity. We all know that 4,000mAh is just OK for 2025’s standards; anything below it would be a pain. So after some research, I’ve discovered a Chinese battery brand called NOHON. It makes batteries for Xiaomi phones and other brands, and their quality is great. I’ve acquired this battery, and the phone suddenly became fresh and new with a battery that could last the whole day with standard use and no gaming.
Yeah, I’ve converted my boring black unit to this fancy glossy and fingerprint-magnet Nebula Red Color Option.
After getting a good screen and a new battery, there was still a very annoying barrier – Android 10 and MIUI 12. You may not know, but there is a strong community of custom ROM developers that does a brave job keeping old phones like this updated. While the brands officially left them behind years ago, there are still many devices getting custom ROM updates every month. This is the case of the Redmi Note 7 that still has an active community of developers. The community of this device already has around 7,000 members actively talking about this phone and working to get the latest Android running on it. Surprisingly, it was quite simple to find Android 16 ROMs for it. These ROMs are still a work in progress, and Android 16 is yet to become fully stable, even though Google is still working on it through the QPR program. But As Far as I’ve tried, there are Android 16 ROMs stable enough for daily usage – as long as you keep this device’s limitations in mind.
Unlocking the Bootloader and Flashing a Custom Recovery
If you’re considering flashing a custom ROM in an old smartphone like this, there are some steps to consider. You will need to unlock the phone’s bootloader. While this is slowly becoming a complicated step for some brands, the process was simple with the Redmi Note 7.
Nowadays, Xiaomi has several restrictions for unlocking the bootloader on HyperOS devices. Firstly, you need to acquire Mi Community Approval in your account. You have the right to unlock just one HyperOS phone every year. If you unlock one, then you will have to wait another year to unlock another device with your Mi Account.
Fortunately, things were easier in the MIUI days. Xiaomi already applied some restrictions back in 2018, but so far, the biggest challenge we have had has to wait up to 168 hours before getting the device locked. Since this phone was bound to my account since the beginning and was quite old, the unlocking process was instant with Xiaomi’s Mi Unlock Tool.
With the bootloader unlocked, the memory was wiped. I used a tool called “ADB” and flashed a custom recovery “Orangefox Recovery” based on the TeamWin’s Recovery project. It was easy to find one recovery suitable for the Lavender via the official website. The device is still supported, and I strongly believe that it’s due to the huge community of users.
Flashing the Android 16
With the custom Recovery Installed, the next step was to flash the Android 16 ROM. I’ve tried a couple of ROMs like EvolutionX, InfinityX, and YAAP. Then, I’ve stopped in a ROM called Mistify. The flashing process is explained in the Note 7 community on Telegram, and so far, it has been simple and functional. I flashed a small package of Google Apps from the NikGapps project —just the basics —and the phone was ready to be configured. After installing my basic-use apps, a custom launcher, and custom icons, the device was ready.
The device ran AOSP’s Android 16 perfectly well. Apart from some limitations, it feels perfectly fine for a smartphone from 2019. Honestly, it should be faster than some low-end smartphones launched this year. It was fast to launch apps, and multitasking works decently for a phone with 4GB of RAM. Despite the 60Hz display, the UI is smooth and the experience is great.
Obviously, not everything is perfect. I noticed a couple of freezes during my usage, but this is probably related to the ROM that isn’t finished or considered as “stable” at this point. The camera isn’t the best in 2025, but we can remedy it using GCAM. However, we won’t get the same camera experience of modern mid-range smartphones like my POCO X7 Pro. But in the end, I can say that the change was worth it.
After doing this process, I was able to revive this old phone and make it suitable for basic use. It’s a good backup phone when I need one, it’s decent, and after one week using it as a daily driver, I feel served.
I’m certainly not the most hard-core smartphone user. I don’t take photos all the time, and I’m not even a gamer. But the phone served me quite well. And if you’re interested, I was able to run the mobile port of Hollow Knight nicely in this hardware.
Why Custom ROMs Are Important and Why Google Shouldn’t Be Locking Android
While this process can be irrelevant for some users, it shows how Custom ROMs and the developers have been performing a valid job in keeping old devices alive. It’s not like the hardware of some old phones isn’t capable of handling modern Android; the brands simply don’t want or can’t keep updating all devices for long years.
The big threat to this community is that Google keeps increasing the challenges with every Android release. Nowadays, it’s hard to keep these ROMs usable due to the Play Store certification process. If one device doesn’t pass through Google Integrity checks, it won’t be capable of running some basic apps like WhatsApp. This has been increasing the work of these developers, who need to ensure the device will be able to pass Google’s integrity checks. Sometimes this involves spoofing the phone’s identity to mimic Pixel devices to flashing modules to simulate a locked bootloader. The challenges have increased a lot in recent years. Don’t tell me, security is important, and increasing it is valid. But sometimes, some changes sound like they are made to limit certain things like… third-party Android development.
Google states that all these changes come in favor of security. The company probably is right, but limiting the strength of the custom ROM community is one of the casualties. Unfortunately, locking Android slowly removes one of its biggest strengths. Funnily, some companies have been playing nice with the electronic waste theme, but leaving these devices to die with old hardware and unsupported software is just a big electronic waste. Things are worse when you own a device from a brand that does not allow you to unlock the bootloader. You’re basically locked to the latest update provided for your smartphone. Security? Sometimes this sounds like programmed obsolescence.
The Experience of Reviving an Old Phone
So far, that was my experience in reviving an old phone. It still shows the power of the community that tries to survive amidst the dark times. There were better days with ROMs like Paranoid Android, Ressurrection Remix, but the ones that remain are valid enough to bring joy for those who can’t replace their phones or just want to extract the best of functional hardware.
If you would like see more articles like this one, let us know in the comments section. And maybe next time, I’ll try a bigger challenge like reviving my old Redmi 5 Plus with a modern Android 16 release.
