Updated version with dragons included now available here
With a collab on the horizon, it's not unreasonable to expect quite a few new players making their way to our little spot of the internet, looking to start a new game. I've already seen a few guides on here myself, but I think there's a lot of potential to further explain the top picks of each element. Look at this as an extensive list of who's worth your while if you're just starting out.
I will be doing this by weapon type, not element, I think you'll be able to more easily find what you're looking for that way.
Limited adventurers will be marked with a †, meaning they're only available during certain events (should they ever return), while Gala adventurers will be marked with a ★. You can mainly ignore the limited adventurers for the time being as you will not be able to summon them while rerolling and most of them won't be available again for a while. They're mainly names to come back to, should they ever be summonable again.
Adventurers that need a mana spiral to really shine will be marked with a ∆. These adventurers require a lot of investment to become really great and should therefore remain long-term projects for the time being. I will be listing a lot of them, but don't let that discourage you, there's still a lot of adventurers that perform well without a spiral. Maybe set your sights on one or two of them and start saving up materials for a later date.
If you can't find an adventurer you want to play, feel free to ask about them. Maybe I forgot about them, maybe they just barely didn't make the cut or maybe they just don't perform the best. If however you like a character that's not on the list, don't let that stop you from building them! All adventurers can clear all content that matters (aka legend is a different story) of their respective element.
Edit: Look at the bottom for a compact reroll list with all limited/spiral adventurers removed (with a few exceptions).
SWORDS
(Flame) Euden ∆ – A great dragon-centric adventurer that can dish out big damage once spiraled. Big advantages include inflicting burn and having easy access to dispel. Viable up to legend, a safe pick all around, investment costs hold him back somewhat.
(Flame) Marth † ∆ – Once the very best of his element, Marth has somewhat fallen in more recent days. He is however still an immensely formidable pick and his Last Boost ability is nothing to scoff at. Viable up to Legend, but very high investment costs and highly limited.
(Flame) Naveed ∆ – Easy access to dispel and powerful skills. Very similar to Euden, just slightly more powerful and expensive. Viable up to Legend.
(Water) Summer Celliera ∆ – A powerful adventurer with great hybrid dps/buffer potential. Reliable doublebuffer and bog inflictor. Viable up to Master, high investment.
(Wind) Templar Hope – One of the best supports in the game, phenomenal doublebuff enabler and easily obtainable at 4*. Viable up to Master, low investment, optimal for co-op play if you don't have a reliable dps.
(Wind) Gala Ranzal ★ – Very powerful adventurer with good survivability. Slightly gimmicky but generally easy to use. Viable up to Master.
(Wind) Gala Leif ★ – Pretty much the same as Gala Ranzal. Might be a bit more challenging to learn, but powerful all around. Viable up to Master.
(Light) Pecorine – Top Light DPS, a force to be reckoned with. Gains massive amounts of damage from her force strike, therefore somewhat more challenging to learn than other adventurers. Viable up to Master.
(Light) Gala Euden ★ – Very powerful dragon-centric adventurer with support functionality. Requires less skill than Pecorine with a similar output. Viable up to Master.
(Shadow) Gala Alex ★ – Very potent skill-based adventurer, albeit very challenging to new players from my experience. Big advantages are the ability to inflict poison and dispel. It's very important for G!Alex players to know how and when to trigger these effects in endgame content and many players rely on her to do that job if she's around. Therefore I'd suggest spending time to practice playing her before taking her to the big fights. Viable up to Master.
BLADES
(Flame) Mikoto ∆ – Strong adventurer with slight dragon reliance. Powerful if played correctly. Viable up to Master, high investment. Can be played in Legend, but much more challenging than playing with other adventurers.
(Wind) Tobias – The best strength buffer in the game. He can't compete with T!Hope in terms of utility, but he is still very useful in all wind content. His buff is however element-specific, so keep that in mind when running him. Viable up to Master.
(Light) Gala Luca ★ – Very powerful adventurer with great DPS potential. Viable up to Master.
(Shadow) Durant/Natalie – I'm naming both at the same time because the same applies to both. Their damage ceilings are incredibly high at the cost of terrible survivability. They require a lot of skill to be played effectively and I'd discourage you from playing them until you're very comfortable with the game's mechanics. They are technically viable up to Master, but you rarely see them there due to their high risk playstyle.
DAGGERS
(Flame) Yuya ∆ – A rising star and quite honestly a surprise to everyone. Powerful skills, support utility, a great pick overall. Viable up to Legend, high investment, easily accessible.
(Flame) Ezelith ∆ – One of flame's top dpsers and a force to be reckoned with. Powerful skills, as well as a defense down make her a really popular pick for endgame content. Viable up to Legend.
(Flame) Gala Laxi ★ – A very potent dagger with great consistent damage throughout. Struggles somewhat in Legend Volk if you happen to reach Berserk phase, but outside of that, performs admirably.
(Wind) Su Fang † ∆ – Free unit obtained from the Skyborne Spectacle event. Currently not obtainable, but reruns/event compendium may change that. Thanks to his Therion's Bane ability, he's one of the best DPS adventurers for Ciella's Wrath. Outside of that, he's still good, just not the top of the pack. Viable up to Master.
(Light) Mitsuhide † – Although not at the top of the DPS charts anymore, she's still one of the most reliable paralysis inflictors in the game. Since most top light DPS don't inflict paralysis, that's a valuable asset to bring to the table.
(Shadow) Bellina – High damage output, very challenging to play unless run in a pack of other Bellinas with a Grace. Popular for a slow but safe Master Kai Yan strategy. Biggest plus is the easy access to dispel. Viable up to Master.
(Shadow) Delphi ∆ – The raid support king. Reliable personal DPS, incredible poison enabler and great defense debuffing utility, extraordinarily useful for raid battles. Struggles a bit more in 4-adventurer-content, but is still rather powerful there. Viable up to Master.
AXES
(Water) Karina ∆ – One of the best units in the entire game. Investment-heavy but more than worth it. Doublebuff comps turn Karina into a literal beast mowing down everything in her path. Basically dominates water right now, you'll have more luck running Karina than any other adventurer. Viable up to Master.
(Water) Gala Elisanne ★ – A great support axe with both offensive and defensive utility. Usually finds her spot in non-Karina comps. Viable up to Master.
(Wind) Lin You ∆ – Top wind DPS, big damage all around. All in all a very solid pick. Viable up to Master, high investment.
(Wind) Kimono Luca – Very similar to Lin You, except he also has healing and defensive utility as well as dispel. Long skill animations and force strikes make him more challenging to play but if you know a fight well, Luca is your friend. No spiral also makes him much cheaper than Lin You. Viable up to Master.
(Shadow) Summer Patia – Strong hybrid DPS/support with poison and def down utility. Has the tendency to burn through poison resistance relatively fast, which is not a problem for her since she has countermeasures in her kit, but it might be problematic for her teammates. Viable up to Master.
(Shadow) Curran ∆ – High personal DPS. Reliant on poison from another source to reliably get the most out of both of his skills, but otherwise powerful all around, even providing def debuff utility. Viable up to Master.
LANCES
(Flame) Emma – Best flame support in the game. Low investment, quickly endgame viable and overall a great pick for endgame newbies trying to co-op. Viable up to Legend.
(Flame) Gala Mym ★ – Top flame DPS. Dragon-centric adventurer with unique dragon form that can dish out massive damage. Incredibly powerful, incredibly reliable. Viable up to Legend.
(Water) Elisanne (∆) – Great buffer, especially useful in the earlygame. Drops off later but can still clear endgame content. Spiral isn't necessary for her to be great. Viable up to Master.
(Water) Xainfried ∆ – Great dragon-centric DPS with slight support utility. One of the preferred adventurers in non-Karina comps. Viable up to Master.
(Shadow) Forte – Powerful dragon-centric adventurer with one of shadow's highest potential DPS outputs. Heavily poison reliant, but very easy to play and cheap to invest in. Viable up to Master.
(Shadow) Patia ∆ – One of the best supports in the entire game. Basically shadow T!Hope. Next to Karina probably the adventurer worth spiraling the most. Viable up to Master.
Sleeper pick: (Water) Jakob – Cheap to invest in and in all aspects water's best doublebuffer thanks in part to his S2 and big utility. Speeds up Karina comps in Expert A&O by ~30%. Basically a budget version of Patia/T!Hope. Also extremely useful for safe solo clears. Sleeper pick, therefore not generally recognized as meta.
BOWS
(Water) Hunter Sarisse † – Water's top personal DPS. Generally outshone by Karina comps, but one of the preferred adventurers outside of them. FS gimmick is easily digestible and learnable. Viable up to Master.
(Wind) Meene – Great wind DPS. Not at the top, but still a powerful pick for all wind content. Viable up to Master.
(Wind) Louise ∆ – Good wind DPS. Listed here because doublebuff comps make her jump to the top of the list with no issue. Very powerful in the right environment. Viable up to Master.
WANDS
(Flame) Seimei † – Powerful summoner with lots of utility including dispel and def down. Also has big overdrive dps, making him really useful for Legend Volk. Somewhat tricky to learn, but still relatively easy to play.
(Flame) Student Maribelle – High potential DPS, unfortunately reliant on full HP, making her unfit for Legend Volk. Otherwise viable up to Master.
(Wind) Noelle – Albeit a less powerful version of Tobias, she's still very much a viable pick, especially for new players. She's cheap to invest in and sacrifices only a little bit of DPS compared to her premium counterpart.
(Wind) Dragonyule Xainfried † ∆ – An unusual hybrid buffer, but nonetheless a good one considering his potential for massive dragonform DPS. Not a priority pick, but definitely worth looking into if you like him. His coability set is also one of the best in wind, so that's maybe also something you want to consider. Viable up to Master.
(Wind) Summer Sinoa – A powerful hybrid DPS with poison utility. Not much to say here, just an all around solid pick. Viable up to Master.
(Light) Chitose † – Light's best support. Basically the Emma/Noelle of light. Cheap to invest in, easy to play, perfect for a newcomer if you managed to get him from the New Year's banner. Viable up to Master.
(Shadow) Gala Cleo ★ – A solid hybrid buffer pick with good personal DPS. Her buff zone placing might need a bit of practice but other than that she's rather straightforward. Not as omnipresent as she used to be but still very good. Viable up to Master.
(Shadow) Veronica † ∆ – Top Shadow DPS. Reliant on low HP and therefore somewhat risky to play but the damage output in return is beyond massive. Viable up to Master.
STAVES
(Flame) Halloween Lowen † – Big healing, a defense buff and max HP increase are among the few things that make Halloween Lowen the most coveted healer for flame content. He's an extremely reliable healer all around.
(Flame) Valentine's Hildegarde ∆ – V!Hilde is the more offensively oriented variant of H!Lowen with her energy stacks and dispel. Generally less preferred but no less viable, she can clear all flame content without too much trouble.
(Flame) Yukata Cassandra – While not providing as much healing as her peers, making playing her a bit more challenging, Y!Cass brings great offensive utility to the table in the form of overdamage. A skilled staff player can use her to get a bit more speed out of their clears. Viable up to Legend, though she has a much easier time with Master.
(Water) Dragonyule Lily † – Healers have a tough time in an element so saturated with doublebuffs, but if one healer can peek through that, then it's DY!Lily. Her overdamage and Strength buffs equip her to not only deal respectable personal damage but also buff her companions to do the same themselves.
(Wind) Lowen ∆ – Wind's safest healer option is, again, Lowen. His kit does all you need a healer kit to do and he does it well. A very popular pick for auto Ciella teams.
(Wind) Akasha – If you're looking for a more buff-oriented healer, Akasha can grant that wish. Her S2 can help with a lot of people's skill desires and in general, she can provide lots of buffs to everyone. Since she lacks in defensive utility, she's usually less preferred than Lowen or T!Hope however.
(Light) Gala Zena ★ – Basically the light healer. Great personal DPS makes her stand out from the standard healer crowd, making her a pick that can be both a tender healer and a ruthless damage dealer (I'm sorry). Viable up to Master.
(Shadow) Grace – Grace is Dragalia's most busted healer. Her central gimmick is not healing hurt adventurers but rather preventing they get hurt in the first place. And she does it so well that she can do it in basically every element. Pair that with a massive def buff and dispel utility and you've got a healer you don't want to miss out on.
Honorable mentions: Cleo ∆, Summer Verica and Heinwald ∆ for being great shadow healers that are just massively overshadowed by Grace's presence.
MANACASTERS
(Flame) Gala Leonidas ★ – An incredible dpser with good odps as well as scorchrend utility. Almost a must have for Legend Volk. Can take you from the very beginning to the very end.
(Water) Lapis/Yoshitsune † – Both great dpsers with similar damage outputs despite different playstyles. Generally outshone by Karina comps but popular picks outside of them. Viable up to Master.
(Wind) Formal Joachim – Not a top DPS unit but a reliable poison and stormlash inflictor with good dps to back it up.
(Light) Ilia – Good DPSer with flashburn utility and good damage upkeep even while dodging. Viable up to Master.
Most likely: (Shadow) Gala Chelle ★ – Very promising kit, seems very fs reliant to get the most out of her kit, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Might become a Gala Leonidas situation where you definitely want her to be run in Legend Kai Yan for safefaster clears.
REROLL LIST
Adventurers marked in bold are basically essential. You will absolutely want these. Adventurers marked in cursive are really nice to have, but not absolutely necessary. 4☆ adventurerd are signified, since they're easier to obtain and it's therefore not the end of the world if you don't get them in your 50 summons. There's also two spiral adventurers on here, just because their spirals turn them into some of the absolute best units in the game.

• Templar Hope (4☆), Gala Ranzal, Gala Leif, Pecorine, Gala Euden
• Tobias, Gala Luca
• Gala Laxi, Bellina
• Karina ∆ (4☆), Gala Elisanne, Kimono Luca, Summer Patia
• Emma (4☆), Gala Mym, Forte, Patia ∆(4☆), (Jakob*)
• Meene
• Noelle (4☆), Summer Sinoa, Gala Cleo
• Yukata Cassandra, Gala Zena, Grace
• Gala Leonidas, Formal Joachim, Ilia, Gala Chelle

*Don't reroll for Jakob, he's so common that if you don't get him on your first 50 rolls, you'll probably get him within your next 50
And that's it. If you think I've missed anyone, or that someone doesn't deserve to be on the list, feel free to tell me!

HI THERE! I’ve re-created this list, cleaned up some mess and placed many links to their respective sections. This list contains only FOSS apps and most of the links provided here will take you to GITHUB, GITLAB, F-DROID and PLAYSTORE.
I'll be adding some hearts beside each application
💖--App is active and is being updated frequently
💚--App is active but updates are a little slow. (Not THAT slow and definitely not dead)
💔--App is abandoned/dead. (Why are dead apps here? Answer: There are some humans out there who love to dig out a corpse and examine it😸)
💛--This link will take you to Playstore
💜--This app...is...uhhh...its either abandoned or the updates are slow as a sloth. IDK what's happing with these apps. (Sometimes its hard for me to point out the app if its abandoned because of the updates....some apps receive updates after a very long time and are not dead. The devs should archive the repo if they're not gonna continue developing it further)
These hearts will be added beside each username
💙--The user who suggested that particular app
❤--The DEV of that particular app
🌟SUGGESTIONS TO MORE FOSS APPS ARE WELCOME, when sharing the link for a FOSS app, place the colored heart beside it. I don’t wanna end up placing the wrong colored heart🌟
🌟If any application has a wrong heart beside it OR any link is incorrect OR any app is placed at the wrong section OR if any app goes closed source or turns shady then please do let me know. I'll fix/remove/correct it asap🌟
🌟One more thing...the apps under the sections are listed randomly. Neither of the apps in these sections are ranked from best to worst🌟
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
BROWSERS

1. BROMITE💖
   
2. CHROMIUM💖---u/BreakingGilead 💙
   
3. ICE RAVEN💚, this is a fork of the firefox browser with extra ad-ons
   
4. FENIX💖, Fenix is the all-new Firefox for Android browser, based on GeckoView and Mozilla Android Components.
   
5. FOSS BROWSER💜
   
6. SMART COOKIE WEB💖
   
7. DUCKDUCKGO💖
   
8. UN GOOGLED CHROMIUM💖
   
9. KIWI BROWSER💖 ---u/thebottle 💙
   
10. PRIVACY BROWSER💚---u/Sirbesto 💙
    
11. TOR BROWSER💖💛--- u/yaboyjb311 💙
    
12. LIGHTNING BROWSER💔---u/dtoxic 💙
    

APP STORES

1. F-DROID💚, and its clients. Like FOXY DROID💚
   
2. AURORA STORE and AURORA DROID💚, this link will take you to auroraoss download section from where you can download both Aurora store(Playstore client without google tracking) and aurora droid(F-droid client).
   

F-DROID REPO

1. IzzyOnDroid- u/nlygamz 💙

FIREWALL AND AD BLOCKERS

1. NETGUARD💖
   
2. ADAWAY💖
   
3. BLOKADA💖
   
4. AFWall +💚
   
5. RETHINK DNS+FIREWALL💚,
   
6. DNS66💚 ---u/Jac0b_0 💙
   
7. PERSONAL DNS FILTER💖---u/Infinityseeker 💙
   

AUTOMATION

1. EASER💜

CALCULATORS

1. NCALC+💔, this calculator has everything, from a scientific calculator to converters. Also a simple dark and light mode
   
2. CALCULATOR ++💔
   
3. NCALC LIBRE💔, open source calculator with various functions---u/644c656f6e 💙
   
4. MICRO MATHEMATICS💖, Extended visual calculator---u/realmain 💙
   

CALENDARS and CAMERA

1. ETAR💚
   
2. SIMPLE CALENDAR💚
   
3. OPEN CAMERA💚
   
4. SIMPLE CAMERA💚
   
5. HEDGECAM 2💜💛
   
6. FREEDCAM💚, camera app which try to enable stuff that is forgotten by the manufacturers---u/sawgrim 💙
   

SOCIAL MEDIA CLIENTS

1. SLIDE FOR REDDIT💚
   
2. INFINITY FOR REDDIT💚 - u/Hostilenemy ❤️
   
3. TWIDERE FOR TWITTER💚
   
4. BARINSTA FOR INSTAGRAM💚, previously known as Instagrabber ---u/austinhuang ❤
   
5. FROST FOR FACEBOOK💚
   
6. REDDITORIA FOR REDDIT💚💛
   
7. TUSKY💚, an android client for Mastodon
   
8. RED READER💚 for reddit---u/Kangburra 💙
   
9. DAWN FOR REDDIT 💚---u/felixalguzman 💙
   
10. TWIRE💖, open source twitch client---u/winterberryco 💙
    
11. SHITTER💚, twitter client---u/sawgrim 💙
    
12. FEDILAB💚, Fedilab is a multi-accounts client for Mastodon, Pleroma, Peertube, GNU Social, Friendica and Pixelfed---u/sawgrim 💙
    

DOCUMENT READERS AND EDITORS

1. LIBRERA READER 💜
   
2. MuPDF VIEWER💜
   
3. COLLABORA OFFICE 💖💛
   
4. BOOK READER💖
   
5. ONLY OFFICE, a free and open source office and productiviy suite- u/uaos 💙
   
6. PDF VIEWER💚, a secure pdf viewer that does not require any permissions---u/sawgrim 💙
   
7. KOREADER💖, an ebook reader supporting pdf, epub, fb2 and many other formats--- u/emacsomancer 💙
   
8. FB READER💖💛 an E-Book reader---u/BreakingGilead💙
   

FILE MANAGERS

1. AMAZE💚
   
2. DIR💔
   
3. MATERIAL FILES💚
   
4. GHOST COMMANDER💚💛
   

OFFLINE FILE SHARING
TREBLE SHOT💔
FLASHLIGHTS
SIMPLE FLASHLIGHT💚
FLASHY💜
Dont worry, these flashlights dont ask or seek for funny permissions
GALLERY

1. LEAFPIC💔
   
2. SIMPLE GALLERY💖
   
3. CAMERA ROLL💔
   
4. STINGLE PHOTOS💚💛, a gallery which can store your images and videos on cloud. Yep, somewhat like google photos
   
5. PHIMP ME💜💛, a gallery with some advanced photo editing features, careful...this app can be unstable at times--- u/Petomeansfart 💙
   

KEYBOARDS

1. HACKER’S KEYBOARD💔
   
2. BEHE KEYBOARD💔, this one is good for programmers
   
3. SIMPLE KEYBOARD💚
   
4. OPEN BOARD💚
   
5. ANYSOFT KEYBOARD playstore link💚💛
   
6. IRREGULAR EXPRESSIONS💚 ---u/mfllc ❤
   
7. FLORIS KEYBOARD💖, Its in its alpha stage and has a lot of customizations--- u/sawgrim 💙
   

LAUNCHERS

1. LAUNCHAIR💔
   
2. KISS LAUNCHER💚
   
3. PAPER LAUNCHER💔
   
4. OPEN LAUNCHER💜
   
5. ROOTLESS PIXEL LAUNCHER💔
   
6. POSIDON LAUNCHER💚
   
7. BLISS LAUNCHER💜
   
8. EMERALD LAUNCHER💚
   
9. ESSENTIAL LAUNCHER💔
   
10. OLAUNCHER💖---u/AimHrimKleem
    
11. SHADE LAUNCHER💚💛---u/AimHrimKleem
    
12. SLIM LAUNCHER💚 ---u/cameos 💙
    
13. BALD PHONE💚, this launcher is for elderly people ---u/cameos 💙
    
14. LIBRECHAIR💔, launchair fork with non-foss part removed (alpha)---u/krypt8x 💙
    
15. TINY BIT LAUNCHER💖 a kiss launcher fork---u/Sirbesto 💙
    
16. LAWNDESK💜, a launcher without an app drawer based on Launchair---u/Blackberry_Brave 💙
    
17. BIT LAUNCHER💜---u/binarydiary 💙
    
18. SENTIEN LAUNCHER💖, a minimal fork of kiss launcher---u/ndeaaaaaaa💙
    

MAILS

1. K-9 MAIL💚
   
2. FAIR EMAIL💖
   
3. PROTON MAIL💚💛
   
4. TUTANOTA💚--- u/Kosty4
   
5. CRIPTEXT💚💛---u/prvnpete 💙
   
6. CTEMPLAR💚💛---u/prvnpete 💙
   
7. SIMPLE LOGIN💚💛, This is an anti-spam Email Hero. ---u/MAXIMUS-1 💙
   

MAPS AND NAVIGATION

1. OSMAND💚
   
2. TRANSPORTR💚
   
3. PRIVATE LOCATION💔
   
4. POSITIONAL💖, a gps and a time information app with some fluid animations and a minimal UI--- u/Hamza417 ❤
   
5. OPEN MULTIMAPS💚, a simple client to view maps from OpenStreetMaps---u/sawgrim. 💙
   
6. TRIAL SENSE💖, navigation app with unique survival toolkits---u/_Abesti_ 💙
   

MEDIA FRONTENDS

1. NEWPIPE💖
   
2. SKY TUBE💜
   
3. SONG TUBE💖, an App made in Flutter to Download Media from YouTube--- u/sawgrim 💙
   

MEDIA

1. TUBELAB💖, a peertube client---u/sawgrim💙
   
2. THORIUM💚, a peertube client---u/sawgrim💙
   
3. KODI💚---u/MuntasimF💙
   
4. STREMIO💖, Stremio💛---u/prvnpete💙
   
5. JELLYFIN---u/krypt8x💙
   
6. MPV💚, a video player
   
7. VLC💖, its a media player
   
8. SHOWLY💖, is modern, slick, open-sourced Android TV Shows Tracker---u/Some012345💙
   

MESSAGING

1. CONVERSATIONS💚
   
2. PIX ART MESSENGER💚
   
3. TELEGRAM💚💛
   
4. WIRE💚
   
5. SIGNAL💖💛
   
6. TELEGRAM FOSS💚, an unoffical FOSS version of telegram with those proprietary garbage removed---u/samyak039💙
   
7. FORKGRAM💖, a telegram client with some extra features and google stuffs removed
   
8. SESSION MESSENGER💚, is an end-to-end encrypted messenger that removes sensitive metadata collection.---u/sawgrim💙
   

SMS

1. SILENCE💔, a fork of signal
   
2. QK SMS💚
   
3. SIMPLE SMS💚
   

MUSIC PLAYERS

1. ODYSSEY💚
   
2. VANILLA MUSIC💜
   
3. PHONOGRAPH💚
   
4. VINYL MUSIC PLAYER💚
   
5. MUSIC PLAYER GO💖 --- u/enricodortenzio ❤️
   
6. METRO💚, this is the fork of Retro music player with the pro versions unlocked ---u/MuntasimF ❤️
   
7. TIMBER💔 ---u/Confident_Love 💙
   
8. TIMBER X💜---u/Confident_Love 💙
   
9. CANAREE💜---u/Confident_Love 💙
   
10. SHUTTLE💜---u/Confident_Love 💙
    
11. PULSE MUSIC💚---u/WhiCCX5
    

PODCAST

1. ANTENNA POD💚
   
2. AUDIO ANCHOR💚
   
3. ESCAPE POD💚
   
4. TSACDOP💚💛---u/MarblesinthePan 💙
   

NOTE TAKING APPS

1. OMNI NOTES💔
   
2. SCARLET NOTES💜
   
3. CARNET💚
   
4. SIMPLE NOTES💚
   
5. NOTEBUDDY💔
   
6. MARKOR💚
   
7. UNOTE💔
   
8. JOPLIN💖---u/thebottle 💙 and u/IAMAHobbitAMA 💙
   
9. STANDARD NOTES💖---u/krypt8x 💙
   
10. SILENT NOTES💛💚---u/ychtyandr💙
    

TO-DO LISTS

1. MINIMAL TODO💔
   
2. TO DO LIST💔
   
3. OPEN TASKS💔
   
4. TASK. ORG💖
   
5. 1LIST💚
   

PASSWORD MANAGERS

1. KEEPASS DX💚
   
2. BIT WARDEN💚💛
   
3. KEEPASS2 ANDROID💚---u/_Samii_ 💙
   
4. MASTER PASSWORD💔--- u/masterblaster0 💙
   

PASSWORD AUTHENTICATOR

1. FREE OTP💔
   
2. AEGIS💚
   
3. andOTP💚---u/superpippo17 💙
   

GAMES

1. SOLITAIRE💖---u/urcosmo 💙
   
2. OPEN GEMMY💔💛---u/urcosmo 💙
   
3. XEONJIA💚---u/sawgrim 💙
   
4. LEMUDROID💖💛, Lemuroid is an open-source emulator based on Libretro---u/sawgrim 💙
   
5. LICHESS💖---Deuzivaldo 💙
   
6. MOONLIGHT💖 Game streaming client for pcs with Nvidia GPU---u/ReenigneArcher💙
   

WALLPAPER

1. MUZEI💚, A live wallpaper app for android
   
2. VECTORIFY DA HOME💖💛, a very minimal wallpaper app to customize your homescreen. u/enricodortenzio ❤️
   
3. RYWALL💚---u/t-ryder203x ❤️
   
4. GALLERYWALL💚 is for refreshing wallpaper with random pictures from the free Pixabay service with a scheduled period---u/01egme💙
   

WEATHER

1. FORCASTIE💚
   
2. GEOMETRIC WEATHER💛💜 ---u/xenyz 💙
   

VPN

1. PROTON VPN💛💖
   
2. WIREGUARD💚, an open source vpn ---u/thebottle 💙
   
3. MULLAD VPN💖 ---u/BreakingGilead 💙
   
4. OPEN VPN💚---u/BreakingGilead 💙
   

SCANNER

1. BINARY EYE💚, its an open source barcode scanner
   
2. QR and BARCODE SCANNER💚
   
3. QR SCANNER💚---u/Boob_Preski 💙
   
4. CLEAR SCAN💛---u/zcraber💙
   
5. OPEN SCAN💛💖---u/zcraber💙
   
6. OPEN NOTE SCANNER💚---u/zcraber
   

APPS THAT SAVE BATTERY, ENCRYPTS, HIDES AND LOCKS PERSONAL STUFFS OR EVEN INFORM/ALERT THE USER ABOUT IN-APP TRACKERS OR OTHER FISHY STUFFS COMES HERE 👇

1. RUN IN BACKGROUND PERMISSION SETTER💔, to stop background apps from running. REQUIRES ROOT
   
2. SUPERFREEZZ💚, to freeze apps from running in background. NO NEED ROOT
   
3. APP LOCK💔
   
4. WARDEN💚 it helps detect in app trackers--- u/rak-rak 💙
   
5. APP MANAGER💚, an app for managing other downloaded apps. Also it detects in app trackers.
   
6. CRYPTEE💚, encrypted storage for photos, files etc---u/krypt8x 💙
   
7. DROWSER💚, app killer, Requires ROOT---u/sawgrim 💙
   
8. VIGILANTE💖, Android security (camera/microphone indicator dots)---u/FunkyMuse ❤️
   
9. TRUSTNOTIFY💛💔, this app will hide the notifications on the lockscreen. Source---u/sawgrim 💙
   
10. PHOTOK💚,a free photo-safe vault---u/sawgrim💙
    
11. OBSCURA CAM💔, metadata remover and media face-scrubber---u/_Abesti_ 💙
    
12. EDS LITE💔 creates encrypted containers that compatible with Veracrypt, LUKS, EncFs---u/_Abesti_ 💙
    
13. PIXELKNOT💔, is a steganography app---u/_Abesti_ 💙
    
14. LOCKER💔 to control the numbers of time you need for failed unlock and wipe system---u/_Abesti_ 💙
    
15. ORBOT💖💛 is a free proxy app that empowers other apps to use the internet more securely ---u/zmoliu 💙
    
16. URL SANITIZER💜Just an easy tool to remove those tracking GET queries for a little more privacy---u/Some012345💙
    

DOWNLOAD MANAGERS AND TORRENTS

1. DOWNLOAD NAVI💚, this is a download manager
   
2. ARIA2 APP💛💚, this too is an open source download manager
   
3. LIBRETORRENT 💛💜, for torrenting
   
4. TRANSDROID💜, a torrent client---u/thebottle 💙
   

RSS

1. SPARSS💚, to sync RSS without a server using DecSync---u/rat_tat_2_e 💙
   
2. FEED READER💔, Modern desktop application designed to complement existing web-based RSS accounts---u/rat_tat_2_e 💙
   
3. FLYM💚, Flym News Reader is a light Android feed reader (RSS/Atom) ---u/Born_Science 💙
   
4. FEEDER💖 is a no-nonsense RSS/Atom/JSON feed reader app for Android---u/Some012345💙
   
5. READROPS💚 is a multi-services RSS client for Android. Its name is composed of "Read" and "drops", where drops are information drops in an ocean of news---u/Some012345💙
   
6. HANDY NEWS READER 💚 is a light and modern Android feed reader, based on Flym News Reader---u/Some012345💙
   

REMINDERS AND TRACKERS

1. LOOP HABIT TRACKER💖, for creating and maintaining long-term positive habits ---u/winterberryco 💙
   
2. RxDROID💜, reminds you of your medication schedules---u/winterberryco 💙
   
3. PERIODICAL💚, period calendar for ladies---u/winterberryco 💙
   
4. DRIP💜, period tracker with password protection---u/winterberryco 💙
   
5. LOG28💚, a simple no-frills period tracker---u/winterberryco 💙
   
6. FITO TRACK💚, a fitness tracker for android---u/sawgrim 💙
   
7. MONEY WALLET💚, to help you track your expenses---u/ORO8ORO 💙
   
8. OPEN TRACKER💖, a sports tracker that completely respects your privacy---u/struds 💙
   
9. TRINSPECT💜,app to help you be organized, develop new habits and see the time left for your life---u/sawgrim💙
   
10. GO TO SLEEP💜 it will remind you to go to sleep....until you do so
    

CONVERTERS

1. UNIT CONVERTER ULTIMATE💔, A simple and easy to use unit converter---u/Turbo7890 💙
   
2. IMAGES-TO-PDF💔, this app can convert images to a pdf file---u/sawgrim 💙
   

ANDROID OPEN SOURCE PROJECT (AOSP)

1. AOSP DIALER site: cs android---u/LuckyLeague💙
   
2. AOSP CONTACTS site: cs android---u/LuckyLeague💙
   
3. AOSP GALLERY site: cs android---u/LuckyLeague💙
   
4. AOSP MESSAGING site: cs android---u/LuckyLeague💙
   
5. AOSP LAUNCHER 3 site: cs android---u/LuckyLeague💙
   

COMICS

1. TACHIYOMI💚, an open source manga and comics reader
   
2. TACHIYOMI J2K💚, a fork of tachiyomi with extra features and enhancements---u/sawgrim 💙
   

RELATED TO NOTIFICATIONS

1. MINDFUL NOTIFIER💖 displays a notification reminder at user configurable intervals
   
2. PINNIT💚, P!N 💔, NOTIFICATION NOTES 💔, create notes and pin them as notifications.
   
3. NOTIFICATION LOG💚, logs system notifications
   
4. FIT NOTIFICATIONS💚, Enable all notifications for fitbit devices
   
5. NOTIFICATION CRON💚, scheduling recurring notifications on your phone
   
6. SPEEDOMETER💚, display your current speed as a notification in your status bar
   
7. CALENDAR NOTIFICATION💔, advanced calendar notifications
   
8. HEADS UP NOTIFICATIONS 💜, heads up notifications for your device
   
9. AC DISPLAY💔, handle new notifications with ease
   
10. HEADS UP💔, floating notifications
    
11. QUICK TILES💚, enable some extra stuffs/tiles in the notification tray
    

MISCELLANEOUS

1. NEXT CLOUD💚, its an android client to access the next cloud server
   
2. SHELTER💚, This helps in isolating big brother apps, using multiple accounts.
   
3. SNIPPET💔💛, its like an auto-text app
   
4. KDE CONNECT💚, to connect and share files, clipboard, etc between pc and android---u/thebottle 💙
   
5. WALLABAG💚, save web pages and read them later offline---u/thebottle 💙
   
6. TERMUX💚, android terminal---u/thebottle💙
   
7. VOICE💜, a minimal audio book player ---u/celiomsj💙
   
8. DEC SYNC💚, It lets you create local CalDAV and CardDav accounts (for Calendar and Contacts) and sync them to a local directory.---u/rat_tat_2_e💙
   
9. RADICALE💜, storage plug-in for DecSync---u/rat_tat_2_e💙
   
10. EVOLUTION💜 plugin for DecSync---u/rat_tat_2_e💙
    
11. DSUB💜---u/ladfrombrad💙
    
12. JITSI MEET💚, a zoom alternative---u/krypt8x💙
    
13. SYNCTHING💚, p2p encrypted cross-device file sync service ---u/krypt8x💙
    
14. YET ANOTHER CALL BLOCKER💚---u/sawgrim💙
    
15. OandBackupX💚, a backup manager for android---u/sawgrim💙
    
16. PRIMITIVE FTPD💖, open source ftp server---u/ThrowAway237s💙
    
17. TESSERCUBE💜, Communicate via OpenPGP in any app--- u/NormieMcNormerson💙
    
18. TEXTFAIRY💚, an OCR app---u/sawgrim💙
    
19. FEED WATCHER💖, a feed scanner app for android---u/sawgrim💙
    
20. GADGET BRIDGE💚, A free and cloudless replacement for your gadget vendors' closed source Android applications---u/sawgrim💙
    
21. IMAGEPIPE💚, Reduces image size and removes exif-tags when sharing images on android devices---u/sawgrim💙
    
22. EASYOPENLINK💚, Android app which makes it easy to open links from text documents via the share function---u/sawgrim💙
    
23. TAPTAP💚, Port of the double tap on back of device feature from Android 11 to any Android 7.0+ device---u/sawgrim💙
    
24. ISLAND💚---u/Zzappazz💙
    
25. TAILSCALE💚,Tailscale is a WireGuard-based app that makes secure, private networks easy for teams of any scale---u/sawgrim💙
    
26. SCALEWAY MANAGER💚, Scaleway Manager is an IONIC application that use Scaleway API to manage your servers---u/sawgrim💙
    
27. ISMYWEBSITEUP💚,Handy tool to make sure your website is up, and alert you whenever it is down---u/sawgrim💙
    
28. AUDIO HEADQUARTER💖, is a tool to control Android application volume individually---u/sawgrim💙
    
29. INTRA💜, An experimental tool that allows you to test new DNS-over-HTTPS services on Android---u/binarydiary💙
    
30. HOMEBERRY💜, is an Android remote control app for your Raspberry PI---u/sawgrim💙
    
31. ANONADDY💚, is a free and unlimited Email alias app---u/_Abesti_💙
    
32. SURVIVAL MANUAL💜, Survival Manual based on the Army Field Manual---u/Turbo7890💙
    
33. VANCED💖, VANCED MANAGER AND MICROG REPO---u/PugLife43vr 💙 (note: Youtube Vanced itself isnt an open source project)
    
34. WLAN SCANNER💚 is an Android App for analysing the WiFi networks in range---u/fitcfitcfatc 💙
    
35. KEYBOARD BUTTON MAPPER 💖💛 app that can map a single or multiple key events to a custom action.---u/das-dude ❤
    

🔴🔵⚫⚪🔴🔵⚫⚪🔴🔵⚫⚪🔴🔵⚫⚪🔴🔵⚫⚪🔴⚫
SIMPLE MOBILE TOOLS💖💛-- Tibbbi❤️ almost all the mostly used applications ranging from Dialer to Gallery is available, they’re all available for free in Fdroid . The playstore version unlocks more and also supports the dev---u/kobeislegend 💙
A friend of mine made a list as well that contains open source applications, there are some apps here in his list which isn’t available in my post. And instead of listing them one by one here’s the LINK to his list, it will lead you to github. This is him: u/Petomeansfart

Brevity is not my strong suit. No one is going to read this whole thing, but as long as one person reads at least one section of this, I'll be happy. Feel free to skip ahead to a section you specifically want to read a comparison about, if you don't want to read the whole thing. I recommend the Performance and Gaming sections.
Firstly, here is a Dropbox folder of photos, screenshots, gameplay footage, (no camera videos yet) for the things I will be referring to.
Secondly, I am no phone reviewer. I buy phones once every 3-4 years, until this time where I jumped the gun to switch to a Pixel, so I have only used 5 phones in my life (mostly midrange) and don't have too much to compare to.
Thirdly, this is long enough to have an outline, so feel free to jump to read something that interests you if you don't want to read the whole thing:

1. Introduction
2. Dimensions
3. Haptics
4. Display
5. Fingerprint sensor
6. Speakers
7. Microphone
8. Battery
9. General software and features
10. Default Launcher
11. Always On Display
12. Performance
13. Gaming
14. Camera
15. Dual Screen
16. Conclusion
17. tl;dr

---

Introduction

Hi /GooglePixel I picked up a LG G8X as about 4 months ago when my Moto Z Play died on me, and the LG G8X seemed to have everything I wanted in a phone at the great price of $500 CAD (at the time – the phone’s even cheaper now!). Snapdragon 855, 4000 mAh battery with positive battery reviews, AMOLED display, wide angle camera, 128gb storage + expandable, headphone jack, front-facing fingerprint scanner (in this case, in-screen). I also could have bought a separate dual screen if I wanted.
Unfortunately, after having used it for 4 months, I started feeling wary of the phone. I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it or not, but I felt the performance felt faster than the MZP definitely, but not… remarkably faster than this 4 year old midrange phone with a Snapdragon 625? The phone was heavier than I’d like and was actually straining my wrist with prolonged usage (weak wrists I guess), the standby time at my home was draining about 2%/hour, recently opened apps and websites seemed to require refreshes frequently, and most frustratingly of all, the “previous app” gesture was completely busted to the point I just use the Recent Apps page to go to my previously used apps.
For Boxing Week in Canada, lots of carriers had the Pixel 4a 5G for $260. This is the phone I would have bought if it had been out when my MZP died, so I decided to pick it up. If I didn’t like it, I’d have 15 days to return it. If I did like it more than the LG G8X, I’d try to sell my LG G8X. My fears were that the Pixel would have worse performance with its midrange SD765 (especially compared to the LG G8X's SD 855, 2019's fastest Android processor), possibly worse battery, I’d miss the expandable storage, and most importantly… that I wouldn’t be able to sell the LG G8X at a reasonable price to recoup the costs.
So here is an ludicrously in-depth, very long-winded comparison between the two phones, based on my personal experiences with them. Keep in mind the LG G8X is a 4 month old phone so in some ways may have deteriorated in terms of performance and battery. I guess you could say it’s a bit unfair to compare a brand new days-old phone with a 4 month old phone, but I guess it could also be said that it’s a bit unfair to compare a SD 855 phone with a SD 765 phone. That being said, I haven’t noticed an appreciable decline in performance or battery on the LG.
So, which came out on top? (Spoiler: surprisingly, despite its “worse specs” on paper, the Pixel won out in nearly every regard, completely creamed the LG in memory management, is basically the same in terms of app and website opening speeds, even games better.)
---

Dimensions

Perhaps a dumb reason, but one of the main reasons I was thinking of switching away from the LG G8X is the weight. I didn’t realize how much of a difference 27g would make, but my wrist gets tired using the LG G8X after a while, whereas my wrist does not with the Pixel nearly as much. In terms of the length and width, though the LG is bigger, it doesn’t feel much bigger to use (outside of the weight).
Some people like huge phones, and good for them! For me, the Pixel’s lighter profile wins out by far.
---

Hardware

Power buttons for both phones are on the right side. Pixel has volume also on the right, which makes taking screenshots a pain. LG has the volume buttons on the left, much more convenient for screenshots. LG also has a useful Google Assistant physical button on the right below the volume buttons, which is not remappable. Pixel has a matte plastic back with a camera bump, the LG G8X has a glass back that is completely flush with the camera. In theory this sounds nice for the LG G8X, but I suspect the glass contributes to the weight of the phone. This is an incredibly slippery phone! The weight of the charging cord is often enough to pull this slippery guy off a tabletop. Can be solved with a case.
LG wins here. The glass feels more premium, and the buttons are a lot nicer. The flush nature of the device is really nice.
---

Haptics

Not something I care too much about honestly. I had read some review somewhere saying the LG haptics were bad, but I didn’t mind it at all at the time. Similar to the MZP. Now that I have the Pixel though, I think I see what they mean. The LG feels …tinnier? than the Pixel. The first time I received a notification on the Pixel I almost jumped out of my seat at how full and robust the vibration was.
Pixel wins here, I think. Maybe. But I don’t really care much for haptics so it’s a non-issue for me.
---

Display

LG G8X has a slightly bigger screen at 6.4” vs 6.2”. In practice I can’t really tell the difference. In terms of image quality, I am no expert at distinguishing this. Pixel appears a bit brighter than the LG G8X at max brightness. Pixel appears a bit darker than the LG G8X at minimum brightness. Honestly not a huge difference either way. At low brightness, the LG has a bit of a “black smear” effect that I notice while scrolling that isn’t as evident on the Pixel. Colours, I don’t know. Reds and whites look more natural on the Pixel otherwise hard for me to tell much of a difference. However, LG gives you a lot of flexibility in playing around with the colours of the display and stuff and I’m sure you could get it to look the way you want. The Pixel only offers 3 colour options. Finally, the status bar on the Pixel is HUGE and feels like they could’ve saved a lot of space if they cut it down. Thus for many apps the LG G8X feels significantly more spacious because of the status bar – the Pixel’s status bar is, from what I can visually estimate, literally twice as tall as the LG’s. Auto brightness: LG G8X is way better. Smooth gradation, whereas Pixel is abrupt.
Overall I think the Pixel is maybe a tad nicer on default settings, but I’ll give it to LG G8X for the flexibility with adjusting the screen colours however you want, as well as the extra real estate afforded by the much smaller status bar (and of course bigger screen).
---

Fingerprint sensor

LG G8X fingerprint is frustratingly inaccurate. I am only successfully like 60-70% of the time with my thumbs. Sometimes it’s fantastic, other times I cannot get it to work 5 times in a row and I need to enter the passcode manually. I can’t seem to recreate the conditions where it doesn’t work. That being said, I really like having front-facing fingerprint scanners: my phone is often sitting on my desk, and it’s really nice to be able to check things on my phone without having to lift up the phone or entering a passcode. Also, when my phone is on my desk, I unlock my phone with my index finger which is a lot more accurate than when I use my thumb, I guess because the index finger has such a smaller surface area. Thus that frustration with inaccuracy isn’t as big of an issue when my phone is on my desk, but it’s still generally much slower than a regular fingerprint reader.
The Pixel fingerprint reader on the other hand works ridiculously well (maybe because of the index finger thing? Though my old thumb Moto Z Play was also a lot quicker and more reliable than the LG G8X), and is much quicker in recognizing the fingerprint. There is also a “Swipe down on fingerprint reader” gesture to bring down notification panel. I constantly get false positives when I accidentally rest my finger on the sensor, so I’ve turned it off. The fingerprint reader is incredibly shallow to the point where I sometimes don’t know where it is because it’s hard to feel. As a result, sometimes I need to search for it a bit, and other times I accidentally turn it on without even noticing that I activated the fingerprint sensor. Both problems could be solved with a case (which I don’t have yet)
Overall it’s a tossup for me. I like the reliability and speed of the Pixel’s, but I like the front-facing sensor on the LG for when I have the phone laying on my desk (which is a lot of the time).
---

Speakers

I can’t tell. They both sound different. The max volumes are very similar in volume. The Pixel has a much quieter, almost imperceptible min volume. The Pixel 4a 5G sounds more… spacious? Maybe echoey. The LG G8X’s speakers sound more… precise? There is an obvious difference in the two sounds, which sounds “better” might be an obvious difference to others but I can’t tell. I have to assume that the LG G8X’s headphone jack audio is much better than the Pixels with the HI-Fi Quad DAC thing, but I don’t have any high end headphones so I can’t test it really. The LG G8X has some fancy “DTS:X 3D Surround” effects, which all sound terrible always, so I never leave them on. LG G8X has an equalizer, Pixel does not. Audio for both come out of the bottom right “speaker grille” and the earpiece speaker grille. For both phone the bottom speaker is louder than the earpiece, but the Pixel’s speakers are closer in volume than the LG G8X’s: block the bottom speaker, and the audio is greatly diminished.
I think the LG wins this one with the audio options and flexibility? There’s probably something fundamentally different between the speakers on the two phones but I really I can’t tell which I prefer. People had a lot of complaints about the Pixel 5 speakers, I have no clue if the 4a 5G have the same problems.
---

Microphone

Take a listen for yourself. I read a very relevant CBC report with both phones about 15 cm away from my face. I also recorded my laptop playing some music, about 30cm away from the phones. I think the Pixel maybe takes in more sound, but as a result also has more background noise than the LG. On the contrary the LG sounds tinnier to me.
Overall I still think I like the Pixel better, but again take a listen yourself!
---

Battery

The Pixel has a 3800 mAh battery, the LG has a 4000 mAh battery. That being said, there are obviously many other factors contributing to battery life (processor, cell signal, etc). If I just use both phones nonstop, they both have great SOT. Both get about 8-9 hours for me of SOT uninterrupted. It’s the standby time that the Pixel excels at though. Overnight drain is <1%/h on the Pixel whereas it’s about 1.5% on my LG. Standby drain while out and about is about 1%/h on the Pixel whereas it’s about 2%/h on the LG. It’s unfortunately the standby drain that turns the LG G8X from a true 2 day phone to a not-quite-fully-2 day phone. (Also keep in mind cell signal plays a big role in battery drain – the signal in my area isn’t super great. I’m sure the drain for others isn’t as bad as the 2%/h I’m experiencing, but you might live in an area with better reception!)
Both phones have great battery life. I will give this one to the 4a 5G for the great standby time. I’ve included screenshots of my (very phone heavy) holiday break battery life, as per Accubattery. I may continue to add Pixel battery life screenshots as the days go by.
---

General software and special features

Mostly just going to list features here, bear with me. Pixel has the huge advantage of having day 1 Android updates for 3 years. LG G8X has maybe 1 update left in it, if at all? Both phones have double tap to wake. LG has double tap the status bar to sleep, which is very nice. Pixel has call screening with the phone, Now Playing song recognition. Notifications are basically identical. LG G8X technically has a 1 handed/Reachability mode, but it has worked a grand total of 2 times for me despite trying it countless times. Would have been nice. The Pixel’s “Recent apps” screen has a Screenshot button and a Select (text) option. I don’t find the screenshot button very useful at all as I can just take a screenshot with the (admittedly uncomfortable) Power button + Volume Down combo. Select text I have not used yet but I could see being useful. The LG has an, in my opinion, much more useful set of frequently used icons on the bottom. Not customizable, but pretty true to what I use frequently. I use the feature very often. In addition to split screen apps, LG also gives you the option for a “pop up window”, Windows style, that you can drag around the screen, which could be useful for multitasking I guess but I’m still not sure in what use cases you’d have multiple windows-style windows open (they don’t work on the dual screen).
LG apps
LG has a bunch of bloatware that I never use and I disabled right away. I haven’t tested out the Whale browser at all. LG has its own LG Health app which I did not check out. It has an FM Radio which could be useful. There is a screenshot tool/app which could be useful, but I just use the regular screenshot shortcut. (Speaking about screenshots: Android 11 brought with it screenshots that are instantly taken as soon as you press Power + volume down, which is fantastic on the Pixel. On the LG, you still have to hold the buttons for a second or two. That being said, it is very annoying taking screenshots on the Pixel due to the volume and power buttons being on the same side. Android 11 also removed the ability to take a screenshot by holding the power button, which could have been great.) LG also has a pretty robust “HD Audio Recorder” app with lots of flexibility, but doesn’t do the transcribing that the Google audio recorder does (Which you can download though to the LG via apk). LG G8X has 2 apps you can assign to each bottom corner of the lock screen, which is where I put my GCam. Both phones have double tap power button to turn on camera shortcuts. LG also has a “Context Awareness” feature, which lets you adjust your sound profile, Bluetooth, wifi settings automatically based on your location. Also lets you find your parking spot. Neat in theory, but I didn’t use it much for concerns about battery drain (did not test to see if it really drained much). LG has a “Floating bar” you can turn on, which is a little tab which gives you shortcuts to apps that you can set, audio controls, screen capture, quick contacts. I could see this being really useful! I didn’t realize til just now writing this that we could set our own apps though, so I haven’t tested it to see if I’d actually use it. Finally, the G8X has a desktop mode, which I unfortunately don’t have access to. I can imagine this being useful in certain situations.
LG's previous app gesture
One big complaint that I have a big reason I was tempted to ditch the LG. The “previous app” gesture is completely busted on the LG. I won’t talk about it much here as I’ve already documented it elsewhere. In short, it’s completely unreliable and only works the way you’d expect it to work like 30% of the time. It is infuriating and makes me want to chuck out the windows at times. I’ve stopped using the gesture entirely and just open the Recent Tabs instead, which over time adds up a decent amount of time. The Pixel has no such problem. Generally the LG is also buggier than the Pixel, with jankier animations, turning off out of nowhere, sometimes getting stuck on the Recent Apps screen, completely going unresponsive at times – the latter three problems being quite rare, but they’ve happened.
Pixel power menus
Emergency info, power off, restart, Google Pay, Google Home devices. No longer has screenshot. LG power menu: Power off, power off and restart. Pixel definitely wins here.
Volume menus
Pixel has media volume slider, notifications toggle, Live Transcribe, and a shortcut to an audio settings overlay. LG has a context-sensitive volume slider (media volume slider when there’s audio playing, call volume during a call, notification volume otherwise), and a drop-down menu for individually controlling the different types of volumes. If you don’t want a context-sensitive slider, you can also set it to by default open just the one type. Pixel wins here for me: though the context sensitive slider can be useful, Live Transcribe is a pretty neat feature. Pixel also lets me control both notifications (Toggle) and media volume slider within one tap, whereas the LG only lets me change (in one tap) whichever context sensitive option is available at the time, otherwise I’d have to open the menu.
Overall, LG has a lot of features crammed in, but I rarely if ever use any of them. They are functionally bloatware for me. LG does have some genuinely useful software quirks like double tap status bar to sleep, the Floating Bar (I guess), and the lock screen shortcuts, but I have never been so aggravated with a phone before in my life with the previous app gesture and other bugs that I have to give Google the win here. (Also, reliable frequent software updates, less bloatware, and other useful features like Call Screening, Live Transcribe, Now Playing). The caveat is I haven’t used the Pixel long enough to see the bugs present in the Pixel.
---

Default launchers

Google uses the Pixel Launcher. Very minimal flexibility, but it is pretty slick to use with great animations. Google search bar on the bottom, At A Glance (temperature, date, calendar events) at the top, Google feed to the left. You can’t adjust icon packs or grid size. App drawer showing frequently used apps at the top, and the rest of the apps in alphabetical order in a scrolling pile/list. LG has their own launcher with more flexibility (screen swipe effect, icon shape, grid size, option for left swipe to be Google feed or LG’s whatever feed). Unfortunately LG’s app drawer is truly horrendous, a horizontally moving multipaged mess that doesn’t automatically sort (if you add an app, you need to manually sort alphabetically to get them all alphabetical again). I never know which page I am on (there is an indicator at the bottom, but still) and thus it takes me far longer than it should to find an app I’m looking for. Just give me a scrolly bar!
Either way, both launchers aren’t great (except for animations -they’re both slick) and you should really use some 3rd party launcher instead. I use Microsoft Launcher personally, which has some janky animations but lots of great functionality. Nova of course is another popular option with even more customization.
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Always On Display

Pixel Always On Display displays 5 notification icons, time, date, weather, battery. No customization. LG G8X lets you customize the home screen quite a bit (you can add your own images, change aspects of the format, displays time, date, battery but only displays 3 notification icons. Has quick icons you can swipe to access to eg. turn on flashlight, change songs, etc. The Pixel’s is dimmer than the LG’s, which I think I prefer. The LG’s is very bright at night when I’m trying to sleep. Finally, picking up the Pixel will wake it up and bring it to the lock screen. Picking up the LG does nothing.
Kind of a toss up. At first I was leaning toward the LG for its flexibility, but the Pixel’s 5 notification icons are frankly more useful to me. I also like the dimmer AOD of the Pixel. If you’ve got the Dual Screen, you’re almost never even going to see the AOD on the LG.
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Performance

Okay, so I realize that “opening apps and web pages in quick succession” is not something anyone ever does in real life. That being said, I think there is a little bit of merit to it.
Another reason I was thinking of switching away from the LG G8X was that this supposedly high end Snapdragon 855 didn’t feel nearly as quick or snappy as I thought it would. A definite improvement from my Moto Z Play, but also not quite the blazing fast speed I was expecting? So I did a ridiculously unscientific speed test between the two. Keep in mind the following caveats:
- MY LG G8X is 4 months old
- LG G8X has 111gb used of 128gb, Pixel has 75.14gb used of 128gb.
- Apps are close to parity but not quite
- I love reading about tech, but have not myself owned too many products. I am not a professional reviewer by any means, and have never really owned any high end phones (I had an iPhone 4 when it came out, the next “highest end” phone I’ve owned would be this LG G8X). So eg. with displays, I’m not the best at judging.
- I only got the dual screen a day before I got the Pixel, so most of my LG G8X impressions are from Dual Screen use. I’ve also used the Dual Screen for a bit since getting it, so I do have thoughts in its own section.
- I did comparisons in two different scenarios: 1st scenario, both phones were restarted, full battery. 2nd run, both phones had been on and used over a period of about 48 hours without turning them off. LG G8X was at 70% and Pixel was at 100%. Pixel was used generally much more than the LG phone was all day. The reason for doing it both after a fresh restart and after a few days on is that I had noticed that my LG seemed to perform worse after several days, and seemed to be better after a fresh restart.
1st run
With both phones freshly restarted and at the same battery percentage, geeeeeeeeeeeeeenerally the LG G8X was faster at opening apps than the Pixel. But honestly not as frequently as I was expecting. The LG G8X was generally able to open more intensive apps a bit faster than the Pixel. I’ve attached the “stats” here. In short, the LG was able to open 12 apps less than half a second faster than the Pixel, whereas the Pixel was able to open 9 apps less than half a second faster than the LG. The LG was able to open 8 apps more than half a second faster than the Pixel, and the Pixel was able to open 6 apps more than half a second faster than the LG. The phones opened 7 websites equally quickly. In terms of websites, the LG was able to open 23 websites faster than the Pixel, and the Pixel was able to open 9 websites slightly faster than the LG. They opened 3 websites at the same speed.
The most egregious thing here was the Pixel completely smoked the LG in terms of keeping app and websites in memory. It wasn’t even remotely close. Even before I got the Pixel I had noticed my LG seemed to be dropping apps quickly, but it wasn’t clear how quick it was until I directly compared these two phones. On my first run, after loading tons of Chrome tabs, both phones had to reload 80 days (the most recent app). After that, the LG continued to consistently reload apps, whereas the Pixel was able to load at least 7 apps without having to reload before I stopped testing.
2nd run
At this point I had both phones on for about 48 hours and had used my Pixel for about 3 hours that day (then charged to 100%) and then used my LG for about 2 hours right before testing it (battery about 70% when I started testing). I cleared all the apps from memory. I have no clue if the battery difference contributed or what, but the results completely flipped around, and quite dramatically. The Pixel was able to open apps slightly faster by <0.5s than the LG with 38 apps. The LG was slightly faster by >0.5s than the Pixel with 10 apps. The Pixel was noticeably >0.5s faster than the LG with 8 apps, and the LG was noticeably faster >0.5s than the Pixel with 6 apps. They were equally fast at opening 17 apps.
Really striking results. I rarely turn off my phone, which is maybe why I’ve been feeling my LG gets sluggish pretty easily? Clear something about keeping the LG on for periods of time causes… stuff… to build up, and the Pixel completely smoked the LG in terms of app opening on the second run. That being said, the <0.5s speed advantages really are quite miniscule, could very much be due to margin of error from my tapping, and of course there are always a million variables impacting how quickly an app opens up. But still, the Pixel is no slouch with its SD 765.
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Gaming

I also ran the Dolphin emulator on The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. Both phones performed equally well, hitting 29-30 fps for Wind Waker and 59-60fps for Fire Emblem consistently. Genshin Impact ran a bit smoother on the LG than the LG (and the default setting for LG was “Medium” graphics, while for the Pixel was “Low”.) Both phones had lots of frame drops. I’ve included some screen recordings of Genshin Impact, both ran at medium settings, as well as the Dolphin games at default settings, using each respective phone’s default screen recorders. I’m not sure why the LG recording is such miserable quality (and muted), they both visually looked the same while actually playing the game. Similarly, I have no clue why the Pixel recording made the voices all echoey, they sound fine normally. Similarly, with the Dolphin emulator, normally Wind Waker is able to hold 29-30 pretty well, I suspect also running the screen recorder simultaneously caused it to drop frames. I repeated the Dolphin emulation after resetting the phone, and I still got frame rate drops. But uh, yeah, the Pixel also held its framerate better with the screen recorder than the LG did (normally they’re both good at holding the framerate).
Using Dolphin to emulate Xenoblade was a completely different story. Through the opening sequence, both phones (and my laptop) hiccupped at the same places. That being said, outside of those hiccup spots in cutscenes (and one area with a larger concentration of enemies), the Pixel 4a 5G was mostly able to maintain 30fps. Exploring Colony 9 was a smooth 30fps throughout the city. The LG G8X hiccupped in those cutscenes, but in other places where the Pixel was 30fps, the LG G8X was chugging along at 15-25fps. Most notably this occurred while exploring Colony 9. I have no clue what’s going on here, I didn’t actually expect the Pixel to perform so well here, or the LG G8X to perform so poorly. I tried walking around Colony 9 again when my phone cooled down a bit and it performed better, but quickly tanked back down to ~20fps within 15 seconds. I suspect LG throttles its phone pretty hard?
Overall, shockingly, I have to give the Pixel the win here. It’s no comparison. You can check out the gameplay vids yourself. I don’t know if I have a lemon of an LG G8X or what. If anyone else is able to emulate Xenoblade on their LG G8X, let me know how it performs for you. Is my phone a lemon? Or did LG just optimize their phone extremely poorly? (ALSO Apologies for the terrible resolution for the LG recorder, I didn’t realize you could change the resolution to full HD til my rerecording after the phone had cooled down).
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Camera

I thought the LG’s camera was fantastic coming from the Moto Z Play. Then I got the Pixel! GCam does help, but unfortunately you can’t set it to the double-tap-power button shortcut. The LG camera app does have some merits (lots of flexibility in image settings if you have the time to tweak settings to take a photo), but for a quick point and shoot it just doesn’t compare to the Pixel a lot of the time. That being said, I feel the LG actually sometimes takes more accurate photos? If I take a photo of something drab and dull, the LG captures it pretty accurately, whereas the Pixel takes a far nicer looking photo but doesn’t look like the drab reality. The Pixel though also takes much nicer, realistic photos of nice vibrant things, whereas the LG’s photos look more washed out. For day shots, or shots facing light, the… dynamic range? Is that what it’s called? For the Pixel is far better than the Pixel. The LG will blow out eg. the details in clouds (ie. Clouds will just appear white and uniform), while the Pixel will preserve the detail and colour of the clouds. For night shots, the LG actually takes better non-Night mode night shots than the Pixel. But the Pixel’s Night Mode absolutely smokes LG’s Night Mode, no questions asked. LG with GCam’s Night Sight helps a lot though. The LG’s selfie camera focuses off into the distance instead of your face so is functionally useless. Finally, I don’t take videos so won’t really comment on it. LG’s wide camera is a lot wider than the Pixel’s, which is a plus for LG.
Overall, the Pixel has a better camera but the LG isn’t too shabby, and sometimes takes nicer shots than the Pixel. Non-Night mode shots are actually better on the LG, but usually Pixel’s night mode turns out better looking. I’ll let the photos do the talking, where I have comparison shots between the LG (with the LG cam as well as the GCam), vs. the Pixel. I’m a lot more interested in shots with challenging lighting, thus the weird dark shots. Unfortunately the weather isn’t great here so no nice outdoor shots. Also unfortunately I have now noticed that a lot of them are blurrier than I’d like – I am too lazy to change them now! I may add more photos to the albums later.
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Dual screen

I just picked this up a day before the Pixel came in. I was pretty excited for it because there are definitely times where I want to multitask, or where I’ve got split screen open trying to copy some text from what window to the other but the keyboard pops up and blocks my view.
Unfortunately, the dual screen implementation feels far more half-hearted than that of what I’m hearing about the Surface Duo. The two screens feel more like two separate machines with a tenuous link, than like two parts of the same unit. At the same time, the 2nd screen doesn’t have the same functionality as the main screen: you can’t split screen it, you can’t change the launcher, the home screen is not continuous at all with the main screen’s home screen, and when you throw one screen’s contents over to the other screen, it often feels like a mystery what will occupy the screen whose contents you just threw over to the other screen.
Using one screen as a keyboard for the other screen in theory sounds really neat, but it only works with the LG keyboard, which has an embarrassingly tiny dictionary with terrible autocorrect suggestions. Even when it works with the LG keyboard, when you tap in a text field on the top screen, the phone does this janky animation where the keyboard first shows up on the top screen before jumping down to the bottom screen. If you tap on a text field on the bottom screen, it won’t by default push the bottom screen contents up and open the keyboard on the bottom screen (which could be what some people want, I guess).
Very, very, very few apps make good use of the dual screens, even with the 3rd party Wide Mode app which forces any app into Wide Mode (which just turns apps into Tablet Mode rather than giving unique content to each screen). The LG Whale browser seems to be the best app to make use of the dual screen (you can open links in one screen on the other screen) – that being said, I’d much rather use other browsers. Chrome does a reasonable job, and you can open taps from one screen in the other screen. I can’t find a way to get Youtube to open a video on one screen and me scrolling through comments/searching through other videos on the other screen.
Overall something I really wish they would have incorporated was, say, opening a link in one app and the internet browser automatically opening in the other screen, or at least giving me the option to open in the other screen! Say, a friend sends me a link to a website and then I open the website in the opposite screen automatically and then continue talking to my friend on the first screen. Not a feature that is currently implemented.
The LG Gamepad mode seems like a great idea: the top screen acts as the screen, the bottom screen acts as the gamepad. Supposedly the games will detect it as a native gamepad. Unfortunately, it was not compatible with Stadia, Xbox GamePass Streaming, or Dolphin Emulator. It was compatible with Final Fantasy V and PPSSPP. Games like Genshin Impact, a game without controller support absolutely begging for it, work really well with it as you can also create a custom gamepad with buttons that correspond to tapping areas on the game screen. I was most looking forward to it working with Stadia, Gamepass and the emulators though (I don’t play too many native Android games) so I definitely am pretty bummed.
My biggest complaint though is there just simply is no easy way to type with the dual screen vertical. Though I’d like to make use of the dual screen features sometimes for the occasional time I want to multitask, I sadly discovered the few times I would use the dual screen to its potential does not warrant having the carry this colossal phone around with its incredibly uncomfortable typing position. The obvious solution would be to have a “wide mode” split keyboard, which actually does appear if you Wide Mode an app and then use the keyboard. But from what I can tell, there is no way to “wide mode” a keyboard when you’re using the dual screens as, well, dual screens. On single screen phones I usually type with two hands, whereas I can’t type with one hand on this phone because the keyboard only shows up on one screen, and the other screen is in the way. On this phone, the only way to type is to hold the phone with one hand, and use a finger on the other hand to peck at or swipe the keys.
Overall, I think I like a dual screen in theory, but LG didn’t execute it very well at all. Instead of feeling like an extension of the main screen, it feels like its entirely own entity and doesn’t always flow well with the main screen. The absolute paucity of apps making use of the dual screen to its full potential is unfortunate. The biggest culprit is that typing in dual screen vertical mode (The way I use it most frequently) is extremely uncomfortable. All these drawbacks don’t make keeping the dual screen on worthwhile, as someone who only occasionally requires the dual screen.
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Conclusion

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! This wound up being nearly 7000 words… wasn’t expecting it to be, like, even a quarter that long. I'll be happy if even one person reads through 50% of this.
I think the Pixel demonstrates that spec sheets really are not everything. Either that, or I got a lemon of an LG G8X (not outside the realm of possibility). With the caveat of the LG having much more fuller storage and being used for 4 more months, despite the LG’s supposedly better chip, performance is objectively pretty similar between the two phones in terms of app opening and opening websites. The Pixel was actually beating out the LG pretty consistently after both phones were used for 48 hours. Both phones run Genshin Impact kind of miserably, and run Gamecube games on Dolphin without a hitch. The Pixel was significantly better than the LG in emulating the Wii. The Pixel consistently destroyed the LG in terms of memory management. The Pixel’s smaller battery capacity of 3800 mAh outlasted the LG’s 4000 mAh battery, even when the LG was brand new. The camera in the Pixel is far better than the LG. The software experience of the Pixel is smoother and less buggy (and certainly less frustrating). The fingerprint sensor is a tossup for me. The audio is maybe better in the LG, but I can’t really tell. Screens are similar. The LG does “feel” more premium, but I do prefer the lightness of the Pixel. The one definitely advantage the LG has over the Pixel is the expandable storage.
Needless to say, I think I am going to keep the Pixel. I didn’t want to leave the LG G8X community behind though without giving a good reason to do so, and I hope this 6000+ word document with accompanying Dropbox folder of photos, screenshots, and screen recordings explain why I did so, and also demonstrate that spec sheets aren’t everything. I’ll probably try to sell the LG G8X + Dual Screen, but taking a look at how long these phones stay on Facebook Marketplace/eBay, I’m not very hopeful I’ll be able to sell it at even a fraction of what I bought it for. Anyway, thanks for reading.
I spent way too much time on this.
Also I haven’t proofread this, so I’m sure there are mistakes abound.
Also I really need to get working on actually important stuff. Thanks for reading!
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Much needed tl;dr (Which is still long):

- Spec sheets are not everything.
- Was getting tired of LG G8X's weight, previous app gesture being busted, standby drain, general glitchiness, slower performance than expected, so I picked up a Pixel 4a 5G.
- Did lots of tests which you can check out in the Dropbox
- I subjectively like Pixel's camera, speakers, microphone, default screen colour balance, software cleanliness better.
- Really surprisingly, my specific days-old Pixel 4a 5G outperforms my 4 month old LG G8X in app opening and website opening (unless I freshly restart both phones). REALLY surprisingly, my Pixel ran circles around the LG in Wii emulation, and was equally competent at Gamecube emulation and Genshin Impact
- I will be keeping the Pixel. I will try to sell the LG G8X but am not hopeful. I will miss LG G8X's expandable storage but not much else.

So there was that awesome Reddit thread with a bunch of ADHD'ers sharing real tips that have changed their life.
I thought it was a great change from most advice on the internet which is written by non-ADHD'ers (and it's painfully obvious that it is).
I read through the 700+ comments and paraphrased, merged and categorised all the tips.
​
The 131 tips are split into the following categories:

• General
• Cleaning
• Memory
• Time Blindness
• Distractions
• Getting Things Done
• Emotional Dysregulation
• Sleep
• Relationships
• Work
• School
• Executive Function
• Nutrition/Medication

General

• Pack things the day before so you don’t forget ~ (u/digi-cow)
• Don’t drink alcohol. Causes brain fog and it can negatively interact with medications. Alcohol can even cause ADHD-like symptoms in non-ADHD people ~ (u/HiTechTek, u/beatadhd)
• Do Cardio before you need to do stuff that requires sitting. It helps you focus. ~ (u/robertaloblaw, u/beatadhd)
• Use text-to-speech generators to help you read webpages/books ~ (u/elliptical_orbit)
• Keep things at eye level (Especially notes/todo lists) ~ (u/asmugone)
• Be stupidly early to places just in case you forget something ~ (u/asmugone)
• Stretch once in awhile. ~ (u/theweirdo_nextdoor)
• Take a deep breath. ~ (u/theweirdo_nextdoor)
• Take a cold shower in the morning or turn it cold just for 30-60 seconds at the end of your shower. Wakes you up, gets your blood flowing and gets you out of the shower. ~ (u/Juan_Creamsicle, u/beatadhd)
• Get a therapist if you can. ~ (u/fineandnormal)
• If you aren’t diagnosed: Actually get a diagnosis and a therapeutic programme that works for you. Don’t spend more time wondering - you’ll still feel like an imposter afterwards, don’t worry… ~ (u/Little_Blue_Shed)
• Most important for me has been telling myself all I need to do is floss. Usually you'll end up chaining the rest of your night routine tasks like brushing onto that. ~ (u/amazona_auropalliata)
• Buy a whiteboard to sketch out things when your mind starts going into overdrive. ~ (u/bkmilli)

​

🌟 My Favourite: Enjoy the journey more than the destination, don’t be in a hurry to finish something you are doing, but always at least do something small everyday. Life is not a race, rather, it is an accumulation of smaller improvements to oneself. ~ (u/ksettle)
People are in such a rush these days… You can’t expect to become a superhuman overnight. Focus on sustainability first and enjoy the journey.

Cleaning

• Have a designated spot for every single item (Put it in the same place every time) ~ (u/BrownShoeJenny)
• Have a “misc” basket in each room. If you’re truly unable to put something away, put it in the basket. Have a designated period of time, once a week, when your sole priority is to put everything away, all at once. ~ (u/lexid22)
• Whenever you lose something that you “put away,” start keeping it in the first place you looked for it. ~ (u/FullDisclosureDaemon)
• In order to not get overwhelmed when cleaning, remember there are only 5 things you need to tackle: Trash, Laundry, Dishes, Putting things back that have a place, Put things in a pile that don’t have a place. ~ (u/mmc09)
• If you’re moving from one room to another, take the item with you that needs to go to the other room. It’s already on your way and it’s one less thing cluttering your room. ~ (u/SweetTeaBags)
• If you can afford it: Get a cleaning person; It takes them 3 hours to do what you can do in 3 weeks. While they are there, use them as an accountability buddy and sort out your misc tasks like paying bills. ~ (u/swarleyknope)
• Embrace chaos. Let your brain get distracted when you’re cleaning. Cleaning dishes and stop spare trash? It’s fine go clean that and then get back to the dishes ~ (u/DobbythehouseElff)
• Have a dedicated playlist for cleaning. High tempo songs help keep you moving. ~ (u/DobbythehouseElff)
• Do chores before you go to bed. No matter what your routine is, you have to go to bed at some point. You can “habit-chain” cleaning into going to bed. ~ (u/bkmilli)

​

🌟 My Favourite: Listen to podcasts/audiobooks when doing chores. My excitement to listen to a new episode of my favorite podcast motivates me to do boring stuff like dishes or laundry. (I personally listen to podcasts) ~ (u/dani-tp)
Cleaning became so easy once I started using a “side” to stimulate my brain. I’m mostly watching TV shows when I clean right now (this also works for cooking!) .

Memory

• Having a tablet like an iPad Pro is helpful for keeping colorful notes. Avoids issues losing notebooks ~ (u/zombiessalad)
• Park in the same place every time when you go to a common place. You won’t forget where you park that way ~ (u/gibbousboi)
• Keep a spare house key in your car and one outside your house. ~ (u/GoodGuyVik)
• Keep important items in visible and convenient locations. e.g: Take pills when you eat? Keep your bottle beside your table where you eat. ~ (u/girlabout2fallasleep)
• Get a Tile. Bluetooth GPS trackers that are a game changer for ADHD people that lose keys/wallets. ~ (u/fizzzzzpop)
• Tape your most often made recipes to the inside of your kitchen cabinet doors. ~ (Unknown)
• Three point check when you close the front door: Phone, wallet, keys ~ (u/cowboyhugbees)
• Use voice assistants. “Remind me to do X tomorrow at Y time” ~ (u/theviciousfish)
• Use the mind palace memory exercise to help solve retention issues. ~ (u/asmugone)
• Keep forgetting your lunch? Put your keys on it. That way you can’t leave without your lunch ~ (u/Therealdickbut, u/Maktube, u/mismanager)
• If you need to remember to bring something with you the next day, place it right in front of the exit door so you HAVE to touch it before you leave the house. If it’s something in the fridge, put a sticky note on the exit door’s handle. ~ (u/lexid22)
• Buy multiple items that you use often. Setup multiple chargers at work/home (so you have a spare if you lose one). e.g. buy 10 different lip balms so you can always find it when you need it. ~ (u/redbananass)
• Have convenient, labeled spaces for things. It’s hard to forget your phone when you ALWAYS put it beside your charger. (Use a cheap labelmaker!) ~ (u/TotallyLegitEstoc, u/nathanb131)
• Get a tracking tool like Tile and put it on things you lose regularly. (Keys/Wallet) ~ (u/3GrilledJalapenos)
• Have rules for placement of the important things in your life. (it’s too hard to do it for everything) ~ (u/nathanb131)
• Create a second brain for yourself - in whatever way is most appealing to you. (I personally use Notion) ~ (u/significanttoday)
• If you want to remember something, put an object out-of-place whilst thinking about what you want to remember. ~ (u/VectorGambiteer)
• Count your steps as you walk into a new room. It’ll help you remember why you entered that room. It gives you something to focus on but it’s not too much that you’ll get distracted. (This is similar to many forms of counting meditations too) ~ (u/bethknowsbest)
• Use a bowl to throw your keys, badges, and wallet into when you get home. That way you can’t leave without ALL the stuff you need. ~ (u/pockunit)
• ALWAYS have a bag with the essentials. On mine a have my keys, charger, papers and even tooth brush. If I’m going out, I do not waste time searching for everything. Just search for a bag. ~ (u/sdjrp)
• Make a calendar entry for every scheduled thing religiously unless it’s routine like a 9-5 job. Make the calendar entry immediately while making the appointment. Do this for parties, birthdays, dates, finals, med refills, trash night, etc. ~ (u/percyjeandavenger)

​

🌟 My Favourite: Use Spaced Repetition to study for your exams, remember things about people in your life, and literally everything you can possibly make a flashcard for. ~ (u/beatadhd)
Is it narcisstic to put my own tip as a favourite? Well who cares, it works! Spaced repetition is fantastic and honestly feels like cheating*. There are a lot of free tools out there which work great. I’m currently using my own private tool* 😉

Time Blindness

• Set your phone clock 10-15 mins fast on purpose ~ (u/Anonredditthoughts)
• Put appointments in your calendar 10-20 minutes earlier than the actual appointment ~ (u/Alyscupcakes)
• A schedule is only as good as the alarms and info you put in ~ (u/asmugone)
• Set timers for activites you hyperfocus on. BUT set the timer for X minutes less than the task takes. (Give yourself time to wrap up whatever you’re working on) Additional Protip: Use this on a watch rather than your phone to avoid getting distracted. A basic watch/smart watch will save your life. ~ (u/dinamyte519)
• Download an app on your phone that chimes and buzzes every half an hour during your awake time. Keeps you aware of how much time has passed. ~ (u/Frosty172)
• Track your time. Every morning, write out a todo list by hand and track the time taken for each task. (Write down the time whenever you take a break or switch tasks) - I personally use Toggl to track my time ~ (u/ImprovedMeyerLemon)

​

🌟 My Favourite: Get an electric toothbrush with a timer. ADHD people have time blindness and it’ll make sure you brush for at least two minutes. ~ (u/insaxon)
Yes. Two minutes can feel like two hours for me. Or I’ll brush for 20 seconds and think five minutes has passed. I can’t trust my brain, so I started using an electric toothbrush with a timer

Distractions

• Disable all your notifications on your phone except for essential apps (Texting, Voicemail, Calendar) ~ (u/kee_kee)
• Use website blockers for distracting websites (I use Cold Turkey, Freedom and News Feed removers for social media + Youtube) ~ (u/elliptical_orbit)
• Get a good pair of noise-cancelling headphones + non-distracting music/audio ~ (u/elliptical_orbit, u/michaeltheobnoxious)
• If you can’t stop yourself from answering that text/email/IM right away but don’t actually have time to deal with it, tell the person you’ll respond when you get a minute. ~ (u/theweirdo_nextdoor)
• Your brain focuses better after some exercise. Cardio works best ~ (u/unofficialuser112)

​

🌟 My Favourite: Use a noise-cancelling headset and listen to music/white noise/brown noise. Enables hyperfocus and blocks out distractions (“I don’t regret getting diagnosed late, but I do regret getting noise cancelling headphones that late in life.”) ~ (u/rn7889)
Stop scrolling right now and go buy the noise-cancelling headset. A noise-cancelling headset + some noise like music/brown noise is essential if you have ADHD. Feel free to thank me later once your life changes.
If the headset isn't in your budget: Brown noise + earphones will get you 80% of the way there.

Getting Things Done

• If you have an Android: Put a widget from your todo list app on your home screen so it’s the first thing you see ~ (u/kee_kee)
• Break tasks down into as many smaller tasks as you need for it to feel manageable. ~ (u/theweirdo_nextdoor)
• Learn to plan around transitions. It’s easier to start things if you chain them with another task that is ending. ~ (u/lexid22)
• Use the pomodoro technique for everything. It’s great having a break to look forward to. ~ (u/ontapeina_sthrnaccnt)
• Remember that something is better than nothing. If you only get 26% of a task done then it’s further than if you never started. It’s better to do little bits of every task rather than procrastinating. ~ (u/xxxistentialist)
• Attach numbers to events. e.g: Going to bed (3) - Brush, Floss, Mouthwash. ~ (u/Frosty172)
• Lie to yourself. I’ll tell myself that I’m just going to unload one dish from the dishwasher. Once I’ve started, I’ll at least unload a few, and maybe clean the whole kitchen. ~ (u/coffeeclichehere)
• Decide what you’re going to do each day beforehand, preferably while your meds are at their workingest. Make sure it’s only 1 thing. ~ (u/optimisticaspie)
• Understand that FUTURE YOU IS STILL YOU. If you think you’ll do something later, understand that future you is still you. Future you isn’t more likely to muster up the desire to do the work. f you don’t have the motivation to do it in the next 24 hours then future you probably won’t either. ~ (u/Moon_In_Scorpio)
• When you need to transition between tasks, pretend that you are talking to a friend who is having issues with something. Give yourself a nudge and remind yourself it’s time to switch tasks/get started. (Detach yourself from the task) ~ (u/Gerryislandgirl)
• When you take breaks, make sure your break isn’t too interesting. That way you won’t get absorbed in your break. Just clean during your break or something like that. ~ (u/Treppenwitz_shitz)
• Gamify things and set a limited amount of time to accomplish something. e.g: Brew your coffee and get as many chores done as you can before the coffee is finished brewing. ~ (u/strngrsstpngstngrs)
• Write TODO lists as a brain dump. And then order them in importance or the order you want to do them in. That way you don’t pause while writing down tasks. ~ (u/strngrsstpngstngrs)
• Don’t be afraid to stimulate yourself if you need it. Listen to a podcast or music to get yourself to do something. ~ (u/fineandnormal)
• Reward yourself when you get things done. Positive Reinforcement is good and you’ll feel like getting more things done. ~ (u/prince-ali-but-short)
• Change your environment and work from a place where there are fewer distractions. e.g: Cafe/library. You’ll get more stuff done ~ (u/humbled_lightbringer)
• Set a time to do work, and a time to relax; that way you don’t feel guilty about relaxing during the time you set aside for yourself. ~ (u/talking_face)
• Change your alarm sounds/timer sounds frequently, but use alarms and timers as much as possible. ~ (u/Little_Blue_Shed)
• Treat timers and alarms like non-negotiable laws. When the timer goes off, doesn’t matter what you were doing seconds ago, it’s time to go. Half showered, wet hair, one eye done, whatever it is, you’re out the door. ~ (Unknown)

🌟 My Favourite: Body doubling - if you need to do some work that requires focus without much fun, have someone in the room with you. They could be working too, or not. Just having them there makes everything just a little more interesting and a little more accountable. ~ (u/Creebjeez)
I feel like a lot of people are missing some sort of accountability system in their lives. I don’t do body doubling but I use Beeminder to keep me accountable.

Emotional Dysregulation

• Brain dump in a notebook by your bed every night. ~ (u/ALyscupcakes)
• Don’t feel bad about sucking at school/work. You’ll get better as you learn more strategies for coping with ADHD. Things get better ~ (u/astrozork321)
• Use writing/journaling as cognitive therapy to defuse emotional history ~ (u/Tman1307)
• Remind yourself that the world won’t end if a few things fall behind. ~ (u/theweirdo_nextdoor)
• Write a reverse todo-list. Write down the things you have accomplished for the day. That way you won’t feel overwhelmed and it’ll make you feel better. ~ (u/SuspiciousEchidna)
• You’re allowed to let things go. Forget irrelevant things and forgive yourself. Ignore the awkward thing you did last week. Life will move on. ~ (u/bitetheboxer, u/optimisticaspie)
• Forgive yourself for your limits. ~ (u/3GrilledJalapenos)
• Meditation. Active breaks for people that struggle to take breaks. Use a meditation app when you’re starting. Like Headspace ~ (u/Juan_Creamsicle)
• Start working on letting go of shame. It depresses your motivation and only makes things worse. You wouldn’t shame someone in a wheelchair for not getting things done, your difficulty is in your brain instead of your legs but it’s no less real. ~ (u/percyjeandavenger)
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy + meditation ~ (u/beatadhd)

🌟 My Favourite: You’re allowed to let things go. Forget irrelevant things and forgive yourself. Ignore the awkward thing you did last week. Life will move on. ~ (u/bitetheboxer, u/optimisticaspie)
Stop hating yourself. Don’t look at the future. Don’t look at the past. Look at the present. I used to always hate myself for being so unproductive. I realised how pointless that was and I started to focus on improving myself in the present.

Sleep

• Put your phone on the other side of the room and make your alarm super loud. Gets you out off bed and will make you turn it off so you don’t wake other people up. ~ (u/Valendr0s)
• If you’re having trouble getting out of bed then set a timer on your phone for 5 minutes and chuck it across the room. It’ll force you to get up and turn it off. ~ (u/PMDicksInTinyClothes)
• Buy 2 bright lamps and 2 timers. Set them up to turn on automatically 5-15min before you want your alarm to go off in the morning. The lights help your body know its daytime ~ (u/lexid22)
• Change your thermostat so the temperature goes down an hour before bedtime and gets warmer 30 minutes before you wake up. The cooler temperatures get your body to sleep and the warmer temperatures help you wake up ~ (u/lexid22)
• Use a reminder app for starting your bedtime routine, not just your bedtime. (And have a bedtime routine) ~ (u/3GrilledJalapenos)
• Try setup meetings/commitments early in the morning. They'll force you to get out of bed ~ (u/beatadhd)

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🌟 My Favourite: Set two alarms when you get up in the morning. One to get out of bed and one for your medication. e.g: 5:30 AM wake up and take medication and then fall back to bed. By your 6AM alarm you’ll have waken up and your meds will have kicked in ~ (u/BizzarduousTask)
What a great lifehack. I’ve been doing this the past few days (except I don’t wake up at 6AM) - it works pretty well. Also I throw my phone on the other side of the room so it forces me to get out of bed.

Relationships

• It’s okay to be in a room with people and just let people breathe. You don’t need to fill the silence. ~ (u/asmugone)
• When having a conversation or learning something, repeat every word the person says in your head. It’ll help you not drift off as much. It also makes it so you’ll interrupt people less. ~ (u/TheNocturne)
• Try to avoid the word 'but' when faced with a conflict. Instead try be constructive towards arguments/discussions with the word 'and'. ~ (u/beatadhd)

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🌟 My Favourite: For maintaining eye contact: Imagine a red dot on someone’s nose for intense focus. Bridge of the nose for paying attention. ~ (u/asmugone)
Haven’t tried this one but I used to have trouble with eye contact a few years ago so this stood out to me. I’m pretty good with eye contact now, but I’ll be trying it over the next few weeks anyway.

Work

• If you hate your job. Make a job switch. It’ll help you make positive changes in your life. ~ (u/Mooberry_)
• Find a job that works WITH your system. If you can’t wake up and be functional in the morning then stop trying. Find a job that doesn’t need you to wake up in the morning. Stop beating yourself up over things your brains isn’t designed for ~ (u/obxunseeker)
• Be self-employed and start a business. “No matter where I worked or what I did, I was constantly watching the clock, hating every single second of it. On Saturday I worked 27 straight hours to finish a job on time and it was still less painful than working an 8 hour shift as an employee. Those 27 hours disappeared and left me feeling gratified because I made someone’s house beautiful and I got to see how happy I made her the first time she saw her new home.” ~ (u/jake7697)
• When promising a timescale to a client, double or triple the amount of time that you initially think it will take. That way worst case scenario, you will finish it on deadline and meet expectations or best case, finish before and exceed expectations. ~ (u/Somewhereonabike)
• The moment you know you aren’t going to make a deadline, let the client know and again give them an overestimate of time for new deadline. People are always understanding and appreciative for this quick communication. ~ (u/Somewhereonabike)
• Reply to emails and messages when you read them. 99% of the time, days and weeks will go by if you tell yourself that you’ll reply later on… ~ (u/Somewhereonabike)
• Be honest about your limitations and own your shit. Most people have no idea how much adhd affects so many things and therefore can’t understand our inability to do basic things at times. Especially if you come across as smart and creative, they can misplace our struggles for laziness and lack of care. If you fuck up own it, explain why and apologise. It doesn’t have to be long winded but it is important to state how you aim to rectify the situation and again. ~ (u/Somewhereonabike)
• Stop comparing your output and motivation to others and embrace a slower, more considered, creative one. You are not other people. You are you. Trying to jam your freeform, 12 sided shape into the round hole is painful and won’t work. You don’t need a hole, you need self acceptance. ~ (u/Somewhereonabike)

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🌟 My Favourite: Learn to say no to taking on things that you know may cause you stress and excess pressure just because it’s money. It is not worth it, just put the boundaries that will save your mental health in the first place and you won’t have to deal with the fallout later. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. ~ (u/Somewhereonabike)
God yes… ADHD people have a dangerous habit of overcommitting to stuff. Personally I think I just forget that I’m already working on X, Y and Z. Sustainability is important - don’t overcommit.

School

• Use Active Recall + Spaced Repetition to study for all your exams. I've seen countless people go from C's to straight A's after adopting them ~ (u/beatadhd)
• If you're finding it difficult to start assignments early then ONLY read + annotate the assignment brief early and go take a break after that. Your subconscious should process the information and it'll be easier to start later on. ~ (u/beatadhd)
• It’s better to turn in an assignment that is 75% done. It’ll drag your grades down less than if you never turned it in ~ (u/bitetheboxer)
• Print out lectures and powerpoints in advance (ask the teacher for them). That way you won’t need to listen and write at the same time. You can annotate the printed versions instead. ~ (u/strngrsstpngstngrs)

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🌟 My Favourite: Visit your school's inclusivity and disability team. They will hopefully have policies for helping people with ADHD ~ (u/beatadhd)
This is something I never took advantage of while at University, but I probably should have. A few assignment extensions when my meds stopped working would have saved me from countless all nighters…

Executive Function

• Setup a morning routine + a reset routine. A reset routine is something you do when you're feeling super unfocused. Mine consists of meditation, exercise, journaling, playing music and making some tea. ~ (u/beatadhd)
• If it takes less than ten minutes to do the task, just do it immediately. ~ (u/Zzazu)
• Have a uniform for work, social and casual scenarios. Don’t mix your work clothes with your casual clothes. ~ (u/3GrilledJalapenos)
• If you start to feel frustrated for no reason, eat something and keep yourself hydrated. (Self-care flowchart) ~ (u/enjakuro)
• it’s better to half-ass most things than it is to not do them at all. ~ (u/coffeclichehere)
• Set alarms using music rather than the default alarm sounds. It’ll help you get going. (And music releases norepinephrine in your brain!) ~ (u/redditraptor6)
• Make yourself kits for common repeated household tasks. e.g: Cleaning Kit, Package mailing kit… Reduces the friction needed to get started on a task ~ (u/sonjavalentine)
• Refine your routine and rituals to reduce the overall time it takes to get them ready. Reduce the friction needed to start your morning routine. e.g: Prepare a filled pot of coffee the night before. ~ (u/lazyoracle)
• Set just a few non-negotiable standards and laws for yourself. Pick those that improve your life the most. e.g: No phone in bed at night or in the morning. Not even a quick email check. And read your goals every morning. ~ (u/AllsFarrin)
• When you’re trying to get started on a task: Write down the steps you’ve already done and the steps you plan to do next. Helps a lot with spaghetti thoughts ~ (u/qui_gone_Gym)
• Drink a big glass of water when you know you are going to have to start doing a thing in a bit. When you inevitably have to go pee, start after you wash your hands. You are already up and your brain already had to switch gears. Use it as momentum. ~ (u/percyjeandavenger)

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🌟 My Favourite: On tough days. Use the 1-thing theory. Just try and accomplish just one-thing for that day. e.g. Clean the kitchen. ~ (u/soggysocks63, u/GoodGuyVik)
A bit less life-hacky compared to the others but I’ve found that getting started is a lot easier when you only have a single priority.

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Nutrition/Medication

• If you are Vitamin D deficient then take Vitamin D supplements (see a doctor first). It’ll help your mood and energy levels. ~ (u/ImprovedMeyerLemon)
• Eat lots of protein and stay hydrated. ~ (u/chlordane_zero)
• Figure out if you're deficient in anything and try fix those things. This includes getting a food allergy test, figuring out deficiencies and eating a healthy diet. ~ (u/beatadhd)

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🌟 My Favourite: Use a 7-day pill organiser with AM/PM slots and put your medication and supplements there. ~ (u/ImprovedMeyerLemon)
I know a lot of people have issues with remembering if they took their medication. This is an easy, simple and cheap fix.

INTRODUCTION
I have successfully rooted the Lenovo Tab M8. I would like to document this root, how I did it, and what I learned from it on this subreddit in order to give back to you folks for helping me in the past. This is going to be an in-depth guide which will hopefully help you understand the rooting process better, and help you troubleshoot if things go wrong. This guide is very detailed and overwhelming, but if you pay attention and read through it, I guarantee you'll be satisfied because you'll be able to not only root, but know what you're doing. This way, you don't have to go making all the mistakes yourself like I did.
Before you begin, I hope you have at least some experience with Linux, and the more general computer knowledge you have, the better. I try to make this guide n00b friendly, but it goes into a lot of nerdy detail. I also hope you're comfortable with command-line utilities and paths. If you don't know something, I have a list of helpful resources in the appendix. I was a n00b once too, and I can honestly say that this experience has turned me from a novice rooter to an actual rooter.
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The Tablet
My device is a Lenovo Tab M8. More specifically it's a TB 8505fs I got at Walmart for 100 bucks. Pretty sure this is the identical model right here: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/tablets/android-tablets/lenovo-tab-series/Lenovo-TB-8505/p/ZZITZTATB58
This thing is a pretty good buy. It's the perfect size for E-books, can still fit in a large pocket, has good stats for its price, and has a great battery life. Here are some of the stats you can obtain from the above link:
CPU: MediaTek Helio A22 Tab, Quad-Core, 2.0 GHz
32 Gigs storage, 2GB RAM. The stats are decent, especially considering the thing doesn't come with too much bloatware, so it's not weighed down very much. Nevertheless, I wanted to root it primarily for the educational experience, but also in order to De-Google this device.
Android OS: 10, upgraded from 9 against my will before I could root it. Upon doing some research I believe the root process is the same, although your stock ROM might be different.
The OS I was using was Linux Mint, although the process is the same on Windows except for how you download ADB.
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PREPARATIONS
This tablet is great cuz you don't need to do anything special to root it. Its bootloader is unlockable by default. It's the usual process to unlock: just tap your build number to unlock manufacturer options and then make sure you enable USB debugging and OEM unlocking. Now, you can use adb to get into the bootloader, or you can use the hardware shortcut to enter the bootloader which is the usual power button + volume down key hold. You don't have to actually unlock the bootloader with fastboot yet, because I'll explain that later.
First, make sure you have ADB and fastboot installed. If you're on Windows you have to download it, so here's an official updated link for Windows, as suggested by comments: https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools
A better alternative is to use Linux; I did this entirely on Linux Mint. If you are on Linux, you can use your distro's package manager (in this case apt since Mint is Debian based, use sudo apt-get install adb and sudo apt-get install fastboot to download your tools from verified repos.
Next, get on your Lenovo tablet and download Magisk Manager. Here's a link to it, complete with downloads and information. I recommend reading it.The official GH link is https://topjohnwu.github.io/Magisk/
IF YOU ARE DOING THE "NO PHONE HOME GOOGLE" CHALLENGE WHERE YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR LENOVO OFFLINE THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE ROOT PROCESS, YOU CAN INSTALL ANY apk VIA YOUR COMPUTER BY USING THE COMMAND adb -d install [package_name.apk] (the -d flag is for direct USB connection, refer to fastboot and adb guide posted at the appendix)
NOTE ABOUT SP FLASH TOOL: There is another way to root devices such as this one with MediaTek (MTK) chipsets using SP Flash Tool. Here is a link to it if you need, but we won't be using this method, as it's mainly useful if you cannot unlock/enter fastboot, which does not apply to the Lenovo M8. https://spflashtool.com/ Also in order to use this tool, you need the stock ROM and the scatter file for the device.
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THE STOCK ROM
Anyway, the most important thing you'll need in order to root your tablet is a stock ROM. You can find a variety of stock ROMs right here, but make sure it matches your build number: https://firmwarefile.com/lenovo-tab-m8-tb-8505f
NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU DOWNLOAD YOUR STOCK ROM FOLDER ONTO YOUR ANDROID DEVICE FIRST, not onto your computer. If you download it onto your computer, transfer it to the device.
Alternatively, you may google your build number and try to locate your stock ROM that way. The stock ROM is the most important thing. It should contain boot.img, system.img, recovery.img, user-data.img, vbmeta.img, and a scatter file as well as a whole bunch of other things. Make sure your stock ROM directory has all that, and that it has your build number in there somewhere.
"What are the .img 'image files'?" you may ask. Those are partitions that you can flash with fastboot. For this guide you'll only need boot.img and vbmeta.img, but in the highly likely event that you end up in a bootloop, having these partitions can help you get OUT of a bootloop.
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THE ROOT PROCESS
I chose the Magisk Manager patched boot image root method. It's pretty simple actually. Before proceeding, make sure you are all set with the preparation step. The general idea behind this root is that Magisk patches a boot image, which you flash to the boot partition. This custom Magisk image contains your su binary and custom kernel. If you haven't installed Magisk Manager yet, you should do it on your device. You should know how to install an apk file. At this point, you should also have your stock rom downloaded on your device, preferably placed somewhere you can easily access it like the Downloads directory.
"What is the su binary?" you may ask...
su is the switch user binary in Linux, which allows you to take actions as the root account. Getting "su" on Android is the same as rooting. On an unrooted Android, it's not that you don't have permission to use the "su" binary; the su binary doesn't exist at all! Thus, if you want root, you gotta add it.
"What is Magisk?" a n00b might ask...
Magisk is a lot of things, but in this context it is a way to root your device without alerting the fascist Google safety net which will discriminate against your device just because it was rooted. Additionally, Magisk Manager will control which apps can use root once you have the su binary added. Indeed, Magisk was made by ingenious Russian hackers. :)
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Patching your boot.img with Magisk
This part's simple. On your tablet, enter Magisk Manager and click Magisk, install, select and patch a file, then navigate to wherever your stock ROM directory is that you should have saved in Downloads probably, and find boot.img. This will make Magisk Manager patch boot.img, and create a custom boot.img that is named something along the lines of magisk_patched_boot.img. IT DOES NOT OVERWRITE YOUR STOCK BOOT.IMG, AND THAT'S A GOOD THING. I'LL EXPLAIN WHY IN THE RECOVERY/RESCUE SECTION. At any rate, if this is successful, your patched boot image is now in the same directory as the rest of your images. If you would like to know exactly what it's called, check the Magisk logs. If you're asking what the patched boot image is, you should read about how the boot image loads the kernel and the ramdisk. This patched one loads the su binary. If that doesn't make sense to you, don't worry about it.
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Extracting your ROM directory
Now that you have your stock ROM directory, with the patched magisk boot.img in it, you need to transfer it to your computer. This is because fastboot works with image files which are on your PC, and not on your Android. There are a lot of ways as I'm sure you know to transfer a file from Android to PC: you can use Google Drive for instance, or a standard USB media connection. Unfortunately, Linux doesn't usually support direct USB communication for media transfer, so I recommend doing this using adb if you're on Linux. This is how you'd do it with ADB:

1. Connect your Lenovo to your computer with a microUSB cable
2. Ensure USB debugging is turned on in dev. settings, and that your device appears when you use the command adb devices -l . It will probably say "unauthorized" and that's OK. If it says that, just open up your Lenovo and hit "accept this computer's RSA key"
3. Open up a shell using the command adb -d shell this is a Linux shell by the way, so I hope you know some basic Linux commands. If you don't you shouldn't be rooting. See appendix for a small guide. If you're too scared to use Linux, use a different method to transfer your stock ROM directory to your computer.
4. Find your downloads directory, or wherever your stock ROM folder is. It should be inside your sdcard directory. Once you have the directory filepath, use adb -d pull [path-to-directory] to copy the directory to your current working directory in Linux.
5. None of these steps are necessary if you're on Windows where you can just enable USB file transfer, or if you transfer the directory some other way like via internet or SD card. You can get creative here, it doesn't really matter. The end result must be that you have your stock ROM directory, together with the patched boot image, on your computer disk somewhere.

NOTE: to use adb or fastboot on Windows, you must open CMD in the directory where you have them installed. This is probably where your stock ROM image is going to be pulled.
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Unlocking your bootloader
This step is pretty straightforward, and can be done at any point once you get into developer mode and hit "enable OEM unlock." This must be done before flashing your patched image, however. At this point you probably have your patched boot.img together with your stock images inside your stock ROM directory, on your computer's hard drive. If you don't, refer to the guide above. Alternatively, you can unlock your bootloader first. It doesn't matter.
In order to unlock the bootloader, you need to get into fastboot mode. For a reference of fastboot commands, check the appendix. You can get into fastboot either by powering the device off and using the hardware key shortcut (power+vol down hold) or by connecting your tablet via USB and using the adb -d reboot fastboot command.
At this point, your Lenovo's screen should be black, and it should say FASTBOOT MODE at the bottom. This is good. You can use the fastboot devices command to see if your device is being seen. If not, you might need drivers, but I didn't have to install drivers on my Linux Mint machine. In order to unlock your bootloader, you must now use this command: fastboot flashing unlock. Your tablet will prompt you for confirmation. Accept it and wait for the success message. When you reboot your device again, for instance with the command fastboot reboot , you should see the message "ORANGE STATE, YOUR DEVICE HAS BEEN UNLOCKED AND CANNOT BE TRUSTED." That's a good thing, it means progress.
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Flashing the patched boot.img
This is the part where you actually overwrite your boot partition on your tablet. Beware, this is also the part where you're most likely to enter a bootloop, although I will explain how to get out of said bootloop in the rescue/recovery section. So, get your device into fastboot mode again. This can be done with adb -d reboot fastboot or through the hardware shortcut.
Once your device is in fastboot mode, navigate your computer to your stock ROM directory. If you're on Windows, I suggest putting your stock ROM directory into the same directory as your ADB and fastboot. Fastboot flash syntax is: fastboot flash [partition_name] [path_to_image_file_on_local_machine]
In order to flash our custom patched boot.img, we must first disable the verified boot verification. IF YOU DON'T DO THIS, YOU'LL END UP IN A BOOTLOOP! If you forget the --disable-verification flag, you will end up in a bootloop! I warned you! More info on VBMeta here: https://source.android.com/security/verifiedboot
Disable verified boot by using this command: fastboot flash vbmeta --disable-verification ./vbmeta.img where ./vbmeta.img is the path to your vbmeta.img file. It may be a little different, for instance if you're on Windows you use backslashes \ and not forward slashes / to separate directories, so if you're in your fastboot folder it would be something more like fastboot flash vbmeta --disable-verification .\stock_rom_folder\vbmeta.img. Seriously though, I hope you know how relative and absolute paths work, for your own good. From here on out, I will assume you know how to use paths. If you don't, you should brush up on the basics before rooting.
Now that you've flashed vbmeta with the --disable-verification flag, you can flash your boot partition. Use this command: fastboot flash boot ./magisk_patched_boot.img where ./boot.img is the path to your PATCHED boot.img. Watch out, you have a plain boot.img which is stock, and you don't want to flash that one, even though if you do it's no big deal; you just have to flash your custom boot.img afterwards. Also, if for some reason this doesn't work, the original post I read actually flashed the patched_boot.img twice: once BEFORE flashing vbmeta.img with --disable-verification, and once AFTER. However, they said that only flashing it AFTER is required. I flashed it twice, once before and once after, and it worked. The key is that you flash your custom boot image AFTER you flash vbmeta.img with --disable-verification. This is because Android Verified Boot (AVB) will not allow you to boot from your patched boot image if you allow it to verify it cryptographically, as it lacks the key. Check the verified boot link above for more info on that.
At this point, if everything went well, you can use fastboot reboot to boot your Android. It might take a while longer than usual, but once you boot, you should be rooted.
NOTE: Both adb and fastboot are tab-friendly. If you know how to use tab-autocomplete, it can help a lot as you're doing all this.
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I HAVE ROOT, WHAT SHOULD I DO NOW?
If you followed the above guide, you should be able to give and revoke application root permissions using the Magisk Manager app you installed earlier. Google Play Store should still be usable. At this point, I would check if you actually have root on your device. There are a lot of ways to do this, but a safe one would be to connect your tablet via USB to your computer and open a shell with adb -d shell, and try to use the command su to switch user. It should lag a little and not let you, but you should get a pop-up question on your tablet asking if you want to grant the program "Shell" root permissions. Go ahead and do it, this is a safe program. It's your Android's internal shell. Now you have root privileges when you connect an ADB shell. Try using su again, and it should work. Alternatively, download any app that asks for root permissions and see if it works. Careful though, giving any app root permissions is a good way to get into all kinds of trouble. Many times you think you're the one hacking, but you end up being the one who gets hacked.
Now that you have root, you can go wild. The limits are up to your imagination and skill. I went about getting rid of every piece of Google spyware and adware on my tablet. I also installed hardware-identifier spoofing apps which allow me to change my MAC, my bluetooth MAC, and my IMEI. These are powerful privacy measures; so powerful that the mods of this subreddit might not even like that I mentioned them. It's not illegal, and it's fair game, mods! This tablet can't accept a SIM card!
BEFORE YOU GO CRAZY, please read my recovery section. For the love of god, back up your data before you proceed with doing anything to the system partition, or giving anything besides Shell root access!
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RESCUE/RECOVERY
I'm stuck in a bootloop!
So you bootlooped. No big deal. I bootlooped multiple times and figured out how to rescue my device, and now I'll pass that knowledge on to you. It's an enriching experience to be honest. Here's the bad news: this Lenovo does not support TWRP custom recovery, and to my knowledge it doesn't actually have a recovery partition that you can access. In other words, adb -d reboot recovery sends you into fastboot mode.
Here's the good news: if you have your stock ROM, then you just have to flash the stock copy of whatever partition you think you messed up. Don't forget, the fastboot flash syntax is: fastboot flash [partition_name] [path_to_image_file_on_local_machine] so for instance in order to reset my system partition to stock, I would do fastboot flash system ./system.img , assuming I'm already in my ROM directory on my PC.
I made this nice mini-guide which tells you which partition you probably messed up, depending on your action, and what resetting said partition will do. When in doubt, you can flash all of the following:
boot partition
If you're flashing the stock boot.img on your device, it's probably because you are in a bootloop that doesn't even get to the lock screen of your device. If something is the matter with your boot partition, you should only see the Red Lenovo Logo, and it should NOT do the normal boot thing it does where it cycles through a bunch of images with random people doing exciting things which have nothing to do at all with the tablet such as BMXing. The major reasons for needing to flash boot.img are:

1. Downloading the stock ROM for the wrong build. In this case, only flashing the boot.img from the correct build will revive your device. I hope you saved or wrote down your build somewhere.
2. Forgetting to flash the vbmeta partition with the --disable-verification flag before flashing your magisk_patched_boot.img will send you into a bootloop, as I warned you before. If you forgot to do this, then you can just flash vbmeta.img with the flag shown above, and then flash your patched boot.img again. You do not need to touch vbmeta if you're flashing the stock boot.img
3. Completely resetting the device. Keep in mind to lock the bootloader again, you must use the command fastboot flashing lock

fastboot flash boot ./boot.img is how you flash stock boot partition
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system partition
If you're flashing the stock system.img, it means you've irreparably messed up your system partition. This can happen if you remove the wrong system app or package, or if you otherwise mess with the system files. This type of bootloop may appear almost exactly like the bootloop from a bad boot.img, but it can be characterized by your device trying to boot, but then going into fastboot mode.
By the way, system apps/packages are things like Google Play Services; the ones you can't remove on an unrooted Android. Removing these can be good for battery and to remove Google's spying, but it can send you into a bootloop so fast it'll make your head spin. This is why I recommend to back up your system.img (see below) before every attempt of messing with it. One wrong move and you have to start over. In fact, if you're an inexperienced rooter, I don't recommend messing with any system app until you read about the Android system and Google what each app/package you want to mess with does. With that being said, you can make a flashable backup image of your current system.img if you use the dd command. More info on that below in the backup options section.
fastboot flash system ./system.img is how you flash stock system partition. This will restore all system apps and services. It may fail to rescue the device unless you also flash the user-data partition, depending on how badly you messed up.
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user-data partition
This is probably the most common bootloop. It's usually characterized by getting to your lock screen from boot, and the device shutting off. This happened to me because I installed an app from the Play Store which listed trackers on my device and could uninstall system apps, but people on the comment section were saying it caused bootloops. The device worked fine until I tried to reboot it, lol.
Flashing a stock user-data.img means you lose all your data. However, if your data isn't backed up, it's probably gone already unless you're a digital forensics expert and know secrets that I don't. This is why I advocate backing up your data, and discuss several ways of doing that in the following section:
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[CUSTOM IMAGES AND BACKUPS]
"I have root, but I am afraid of going into a bootloop and losing all my data!"
Smart. If you don't have that concern, you should. I lost all my data a few times because I didn't back it up. Here, I'll discuss backup options so you don't have to start all over from square one. Much like most things in life, serious failure with a rooted device is best addressed BEFORE it actually happens, by using a backup! Here are some viable backup options, together with their use cases and information:

1. Backing up user-data via USB on Windows: If you know how to connect your device to your Windows computer for data transfer, then you can back up the data on your user-data partition without doing anything fancy. This only works for the user-data partition, and does not create a flashable image.
2. Backing up via adb backup is great, and allows restoring with adb restore. I'm not going to post about this in-depth, but if you're interested I suggest looking these commands and their syntax up. It's all in the man pages.
3. Using a partition managebackup app. This is a risky idea because the app itself could have ads, or could bootloop your device. I don't recommend this method very much, especially for noobs. It may seem easy, but it's a good way to eat shit. Normally rooters flash TWRP to their recovery partition to do this, but this device doesn't support TWRP to my knowledge so we have to cope.
4. [EXPERTS ONLY] Use dd to manually back up your partition. Watch out! This is the hardest, most dangerous, but also most rewarding way. They call dd disk destroyer for a reason! One false move and you're going back to square 1! You need to know your partition layout and you may need to unmount your partition! If you know which dev is which partition (there are utilities for this in Linux), you may do something like this: dd if=/dev/mtd/mtd1 of=/sdcard/recovery.img bs=4096 to backup your recovery image, assuming your recovery partition is in /dev/mtd/mtd1

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"Please help, I messed up so bad I can't even get into fastboot and I have a bootloop!"
This is the point where you have to use SP Flash tool to unfuck your device. I've never fucked it up that bad, but I hear you can still rescue it if you use that tool.
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That's it! If you enjoyed this, give me a like or something. I'm starting a Youtube channel too where I'll show you how this is all done. Oh, I'm not responsible for you messing your device up. That's on you. Oh, if you want me to do a root guide for your device, I only do MTK (MediaTek) chipsets, and my next guide will be for the Alcatel A30 where I'll be rooting it with the SP flash tool scatter file method. But do feel free to ask me to do some other device, I might just make a guide about it.
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A little about me
I'm a computer science student with a passion for hacking and Android rooting. I've rooted many devices before, but this was my first one where I actually knew what I was doing. It's one thing to follow instructions or use a one-click-root security exploit app, but it's a whole other thing to do your own research and actually understand the process. One day I hope to work in the mobile security industry, but if I end up somewhere else, I feel like Android will always be a hobby of mine. I feel like rooting sets you free from the tracking device in your pocket. It is a way to keep private information like where you are at all times and what you do on your phone private, and to get rid of the "it's your phone but it's actually ours to do with as we please" mentality of Google. You don't have to agree with me here, but that's what motivates me.
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appendix
Fastboot and ADB command guide: https://www.androidjungles.com/adb-fastboot-commands/ (keep in mind, on Linux you can just use adb --help and fastboot --help as well as the manpages to see detailed information)
ADB and fastboot download (FOR WINDOWS): https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools
Basic Linux commands: https://maker.pro/linux/tutorial/basic-linux-commands-for-beginners
Creating backups of partition images (DO NOT COPY-PASTE DD COMMANDS. IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY NOT, THEN DON'T F*CKING USE DD) and read the manpage, please!
https://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/how-to-backup-your-android-phones-boot-recovery-and-system-partition-images/
https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/203891/how-to-take-full-image-backup-of-partitions-or-emmc (pay attention, this is not for the same type of device, though it mentions MTK devices.)
dd syntax: dd if=[path to input file] of=[path to output file]
Verified Boot Information (For those who want to become L33t Haxxors): https://source.android.com/security/verifiedboot
Stock ROM download page (but you can find your own or ask me in comments, but provide build number pls): https://firmwarefile.com/lenovo-tab-m8-tb-8505f
Magisk Manager Download: https://magiskmanager.com/ or on GH https://topjohnwu.github.io/Magisk/