Everybody is talking about the Google Pixel 5, for better or for worse. It’s Google’s latest flagship, and as such comes with the “stock” Android experience, the bootloader is easily unlockable (at least on the carrier unlocked variant), and flashing anything via Fastboot is no hassle. Thanks to the quick availability of the kernel source, it was fairly easy to predict that the aftermarket development madness would start afterward—and surprise, surprise, we were all right. The first custom ROM for Pixel 5 has now been released, and XDA Senior Member kdrag0n is the developer who delivers the goods to the community.
Dubbed as "ProtonAOSP", the custom ROM seems to be pretty much stable for the most part. The underlying layer still based on AOSP 11, but it also manages to provide serious privacy-minded capabilities you won’t find on Google’s stock software. The additional goodies are geared towards stability and performance, so it's perfect for those who want to take advantage of all the features that the Pixel 5 offers, but with a bit more customizability.
Here are all the features offered by ProtonAOSP:
- Better performance and battery life than stock
- Refined UI: typography, colors, tweaks, frosted glass blur, custom dark theme
- Modern default settings: navigation, sounds, safe volume off, etc.
- Better screenshots: instant key combination, preview dismisses when taking new screenshot
- Privacy: microG support, quick settings security, internet & sensor permissions, camera & microphone indicators, minor hardening from GrapheneOS
- Usable default apps: clock, calculator, contacts, messaging, phone apps from LineageOS with custom UI tweaks
- Power user convenience: memory usage in Settings, advanced settings expanded by default
- Performance: Vulkan UI rendering, reduced APEX overhead, optimized memory pinning, responsive animations
- Reduced system notification clutter and annoying prompts
In terms of bugs, the developer notes that Wi-Fi calling is broken on some carriers and a handful of Pixel-exclusive features are missing. Interestingly, you should be able to pass SafetyNet without Magisk.
If you are lucky enough to already have a Google Pixel 5, you can start playing around with it. Just make sure to read every instruction carefully to avoid bricking your brand new device. You’ll also need to completely wipe your internal storage before flashing the ROM, so be sure to take a full backup of your important data beforehand.