This article is currently an experimental machine translation and may contain errors. If anything is unclear, please refer to the original Chinese version. I am continuously working to improve the translation.
Preface
Recently, my main daily driver—the LG G8 (alphalm)—started acting up. Since some of its drivers are closed-source and there’s no perfect near-AOSP ROM available, it became a bit of a hassle to use, so I ended up selling it on Xianyu (a Chinese secondhand marketplace). Later, I inherited a retired Redmi Note 10 Pro (chopin) from my parents and decided to make it my new primary phone. I’m pretty reliant on Google’s ecosystem and prefer a stock Android experience, so naturally, the first thing I did was to flash a custom ROM. 0w0
About the Redmi Note 10 Pro
Although this post was originally meant to focus on my tweaks for a near-AOSP setup, let me briefly digress and talk about this new device.
The Note 10 Pro is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1100, a chip whose performance slightly surpasses the Snapdragon 865 in benchmarks. It should be more than capable for my needs for quite some time—assuming nothing goes wrong, it might just be my phone for years to come. Compared to my older devices or e-waste phones, it’s quite a breath of fresh air: Dimensity 1100, 120Hz high refresh rate, 5G, 67W fast charging, a 5000mAh battery, plus IR blaster and NFC—all of which offer noticeable improvements in daily use.
Interestingly, MediaTek chips before the Dimensity 1200 had a bootrom vulnerability that allows bypassing authentication. This means you can forcibly unlock the bootloader regardless of Xiaomi’s restrictions, and even enter MediaTek’s deep flash mode to back up critical partitions like the NVRAM. In other words, you can tinker freely without much fear of bricking. (Later MediaTek devices, however, are more painful—easier to brick and harder to revive, with service centers often opting to just replace the entire motherboard.)
But here’s the catch: before getting the phone, I searched XDA using its name and found an international version with the same name but using a Qualcomm SoC (codenamed sweet). I was excited to see multiple official ROMs available—only to realize later that it was a completely different device. Xiaomi’s naming scheme is truly… confusing.
Phones with nearly identical names across regions but different specs
Due to the well-known difficulties in MediaTek ROM development, there’s actually no officially supported custom ROM for this device. The unofficial near-AOSP builds I found on CoolAPK (a Chinese Android forum) came with some annoying bugs after flashing.
Flashing a GSI
Just because a device lacks native near-AOSP support doesn’t mean you’re stuck with the stock ROM. Google introduced Project Treble, which includes the concept of a Generic System Image (GSI). Originally designed to simplify system updates for OEMs, it also turned out to be a blessing for custom ROM enthusiasts.
Project Treble
For more technical details, check out this blog post, which explains it clearly.
That said, GSI isn’t a magic bullet—some hardware-specific issues may still arise. After flashing, you might encounter critical bugs like non-functional Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or SIM cards. Fortunately, on my Note 10 Pro, after enabling some hardware-specific workarounds included in the GSI, everything worked almost flawlessly—better, in fact, than the unofficial builds on CoolAPK.
There are many different GSI flavors out there. I’ve tried a few, and currently settled on crDroid—it offers decent customization while staying clean and stable. This is just a personal recommendation; feel free to experiment and find the one that suits you best. If you’d like to try GSI without permanently flashing, check out DSU Sideloader, which lets you run GSI “painlessly” via Device System Update.
Optimizing the Near-AOSP Experience
Here’s a quick look at my home screen. While I can’t show the silky-smooth animations directly, the 120Hz refresh rate truly makes the stock Android experience buttery smooth.
Phone home screen
Magisk and LSPosed
The modern successors to SuperSu and Xposed—basically the opening incantation for any serious Android tinkering. These tools come in handy later for various mods.
File Manager
Google’s built-in Files app is functional but limited. I highly recommend MiXplorer, which is feature-rich and fully compatible with Android 13.
Camera
The stock camera app produces underwhelming photos. While the Note 10 Pro’s camera isn’t its strongest point, Google Camera (GCam) delivers significantly better results. Paired with Google Photos and crDroid’s built-in Pixel spoofing feature, I get unlimited, full-resolution photo backup with AI-powered album organization. (If your ROM doesn’t support spoofing, you can use the Pixelify-Google-Photos module.)
Background App Suppression
Most Chinese apps don’t use FCM, and the China Push Alliance (a unified push initiative) has effectively collapsed. As a result, domestic apps aggressively run in the background to collect user data and push ads, often waking each other up—leading to battery drain and lag.
Near-AOSP systems don’t handle this well out of the box, so third-party tools are essential.
I used to use Ice Box, but now I prefer Thanox.
(Psst: Thanox is paid, but there’s an open-source tool called NFG Multi Crack that can bypass licensing for many apps, including Thanox.)
Storage Cleanup
Many Chinese apps insist on requesting broad file access and dump countless junk folders into the root of your SD card for caching or ad tracking.
It’s messy and annoying. I use a simple Magisk module to clean these up—brutally effective.
Magisk module for cleaning junk folders
Auto-fill SMS Verification Codes
A small but delightful module that automatically inputs received SMS verification codes wherever the text field has focus.
System Updates
Not exactly an optimization, but one of the big perks of using GSI is getting the latest Android versions and security patches as soon as they’re released.
Staying updated means continuously enjoying Google’s latest features and improvements.
AdAway
Blocks ads by modifying the system hosts file.
ChromeXT
Uses LSPosed to hook into the stock Chrome app, enabling mobile DevTools and even Tampermonkey-like extensions.
YouTube AdAway
Dedicated ad blocker for YouTube.
These are some of the tools and tweaks I personally use—stable, practical, and effective. I don’t have the need or desire to dive into unstable or questionable tweaks like overclocking, scheduler tuning, thermal control, or audio “enhancements.”
I’ve been using various near-AOSP ROMs as daily drivers for a while now, and with proper setup, they can be both smooth and reliable.
All resources mentioned here can be found on GitHub, XDA, or CoolAPK, with relatively trustworthy sources. So, happy hacking and DIY!
This article is licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
Author: lyc8503, Article link: https://blog.lyc8503.net/en/post/android-aosp/
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Feel free to comment in English below o/