Pixel Experience (Android 11) on the Samsung Galaxy S6

Having recently installed Pixel Experience on the Redmi Note 4X, I might as well do the same for the Samsung Galaxy S6.

Checked out the ROMs on XDA Developers for S6 (zerofltexx) and settled on the Pixel Experience (Android 11). Not the newest one, but most of the stuff works. Latest build was released July 2021, but if you trawl through thread, famemanoan posted a newer build - August 2022.

For that, you'll need a new OrangeFox recovery. First things first, copy the recovery zip and ROM to the phone's root directory.

To flash OrangeFox recovery:

1. boot to recovery by pressing Home+VolUp+Power
2. flash the OrangeFox recovery zip
3. phone will auto-reboot to recovery

To flash the ROM:

1. ROM install instructions say to wipe cache, system and vendor partitions
2. However, OrangeFox wiki says to NEVER wipe system
3. As a compromise, I only wiped dalvik cache, cache, and data. Format data. Boot to recovery.
4. After reboot, the files on the internal storage are gone, so no ROM to flash. Good thing MTP is enabled (and works), so I was able to re-copy the ROM to /sdcard. Whew!
5. Flash ROM
6. Boot to recovery
7. Wipe cache again. Format data again.
8. Boot to system.

Checked Google Photos, and this ROM is able to upload unlimited photos in Storage Saver quality. Not bad!

Pixel Experience (Android 13) on the Redmi Note 4X

The wife hasn't been using the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X (mido) ever since she got the Samsung Galaxy S10. I upgraded it to LineageOS 18.1 (Android 11) a long time ago and haven't been used since. Was planning to sell the phone, so it's time to upgrade again.

Even though there is updated / latest LineageOS for mido, I decided to go with Pixel Experience because I've never tried that ROM before. And since there is official support for mido, why not?

On XDA Developers, this is the official thread for Pixel Experience (Android 13) for mido: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/rom-official-stable-13-mido-pixelexperience-aosp.4423487/

You can download the ROM here: https://get.pixelexperience.org/mido

Recommended custom recovery here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/nranjan-17/files/RETROFIT%20OrangeFox/OrangeFox-R11.1-A12-RETROFIT-Unofficial-mido.zip/download

Install guide here: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NRanjan-17/Pixel-Experience-Releases/main/RETROFIT_GUIDE.md

Pixel Experience website itself has a wiki and install notes for mido.

In any case, basic steps are below.

1) Flash RETROFIT recovery

• Reboot to your existing recovery (VolUp + Power)
• Wipe cache, data, system, vendor and Format Data
• Flash the RETROFIT Supported Recovery zip
• Reboot to Recovery (If flashing OrangeFox, it will be automatically rebooted to OrangeFox Recovery)

2) Wipe and format device

• After you flash and boot into the new OrangeFox recovery, format data and reboot to the recovery again. 
• Now, wipe all the partitions (i.e. cache, metadata, data, internal storage). Wiping Internal might throw an error because of missing /data/media/ which is okay, reboot to recovery again.  
• This format data and wiping of other partitions is required only once every clean flash.
• NB : encryption is now enabled by default and that is why a clean flash would cost you a data format.

3) Flash Pixel Experience ROM

• Flash the ROM
• Format data 
• Reboot to system (it may show no os installed ignore it, if it doesn't boot then flash the ROM again and reboot to system)

As far as I can tell, that Xiaomi phone became a Pixel device, except for the Camera app.

With Google Photos, it detects the handset as a Pixel and allows unlimited photo/video uploads at original quality. Bonus!