Android 12L comes to Galaxy S5 via unofficial LineageOS 19.1 port

Damien Wilde | Apr 8 2022 - 2:41 am PT

Another week, another unofficial port of LineageOS 19.1 adding support for practically ancient smartphones. This time it’s the turn of the Samsung Galaxy S5, which is getting the very latest build of Android 12L courtesy of an unofficial build of the popular third-party ROM.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen a number of classic Samsung Galaxy devices including the Galaxy S9 and Note 9 receive third-party ROM support via unofficial means. However, the Galaxy S5 is the oldest such device to now gain Android 12L via the work of developer khalvat and the LineageOS team (via XDA).

This is an experimental build of Android 12L specifically tailored to the Snapdragon 801-powered Galaxy S5. While it’s not stable, it could certainly breathe some new life into the 2014 flagship, which was ahead of its time in a number of ways. The developers also offer a few distinct builds for the Snapdragon model. As XDA notes, you can grab unique builds for the “klte” (SM-G900F/M/R4/R7/T/V/W8), “kltechn” (SM-G9006V/8V), and the “klteduos” (SM-G900FD/MD) variants.

Of course, as with any custom ROM, we’d suggest treading carefully, but it’s highly unlikely that many of you out there are using the Galaxy S5 as your sole or main device at this point of 2022. Given that hardware and software support has long since ended, this is a great way to rejuvenate the Galaxy S5 and get a taste of Android 12L on the former flagship. It’s also a testament to the work done by those willing to keep older Android hardware alive long after the OEM has forgotten about prior releases.

If you have an old Galaxy S5 lying around and want to try LineageOS 19.1 for yourself, you can find full instructions on how to flash on your device alongside download links right here.