The smartphone industry is known for being fast-paced, with new devices coming out one after the other. With all the rapid releases and the shiny new hardware, people often forget that devices that have already been launched do not necessarily become unusable just because their successors have been released. Regarding the obvious lack of official software updates in the long run, we are constantly impressed by some of the feats pulled off by third-party developers in our forums. While Android 11 is the latest Android dessert, Android 10 is still a new thing for some legacy devices. The latest device that joined the Android 10 family is Honor 5X, which has just received an unofficial port of LineageOS 17.1.
For users of the Honor 5x (code-name: "kiwi") who are still using this humble device from 2016, there is absolutely no chance that Huawei/Honor will bring over Android 10 to this phone that was launched with Android 5.1 Lollipop and upgraded to Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The software in this phone predates the Project Treble times by several years, so you can’t just flash a GSI on it. Your best bet for trying out new releases would be to unlock the bootloader, flash a compatible custom recovery and load up a custom ROM. Luckily, thanks to the efforts of XDA Senior Member BadDaemon, the Honor 5X community can have a taste of Android 10 on their smartphones in the form of LineageOS 17.1.
A custom ROM is a great way to breathe new life into an Android smartphone, especially ones as old as the Honor 5X. Often it is the case that a custom ROM runs better than the stock ROM on your phone can, so it's at the very least worth giving a try. Visit the thread linked below for the download link and instructions on how to flash the unofficial LineageOS 17.1 build for the device.