Samsung Galaxy S5, a device released back in 2014, has stopped receiving the official software updates a long time ago. But that does not mean that the device is dead, thanks to the Android developer community, we have an Android 11 based LineageOS 18.1 available for Samsung Galaxy S5.

LineageOS is the most trusted and most used Custom ROM for Android. It is an AOSP based Custom ROM that focuses on giving a Stock Android experience with some extra essential features. There are many great features in LineageOS 18 and it gives a good performance and battery life. LineageOS also push monthly security patches that ensure the safety of your device.

In this post, you will find the flashing instructions along with Download links for all the stuff you going to need in the way. If this is your first time flashing, then make sure to take a proper backup of your personal files and charge the device to 50% or more for uninterrupted flashing of ROM. And read the XDA thread of the ROM to know more about the ROM.

Download LineageOS 18.0 for Samsung Galaxy S5

Supported device list:

Download the ROM and Recovery

GAPPS

• Visit the XDA Thread of The ROM before flashing
• All Credit to the developer haggertk

About LineageOS

LineageOS is the most used and most trusted Custom ROM out there. It was started as CyanogenMod and known to be the first custom ROM or firmware which was able to make its way to some smartphone as pre-installed default firmware.

LineageOS is based on AOSP code and you will hardly feel a difference from stock Android. There are some third-party apps like Trebuchet, AudioFX, Clock, Dialer. Jelly, Eleven Music Player, Recorder, Snap Camera. All the apps are useful and there are no Ads in them. LineageOS comes without a Google app or GApps, you have to install them after flashing the ROM.

Due to its stability and performance, many other custom ROMs use LineageOS code as their base, some of them are Resurrection Remix and crDroid.

If you want a daily driver with good battery life and performance, then LineageOS is one of the best option for you.

Features of Android 11

Android 11 is the latest Android version you can get right now. Talking about the changes over Android 10, Android 11 brings many changes although UI remains kind of the same. Android 11 is a mature operating system and here are some of the new best features:

Better Notifications

Android 11 improves Notification in a couple of ways. First of all, Notifications are now categorized into three parts: Conversation, Alerting, and Silent.

The conversation category contains all the conversation, chat, messages Notifications and you can also prioritize certain chats over others. As Chats and Text messages can be important, this category stays at the top of the Notification drawer.

Then there are Alerting notifications that are just all notification other than conservations and finally the silent notifications where all notification from the app that is silenced by you are placed.

The second big change to notifications is the new “Notification History” feature. You can now watch all the notifications you received in the last 24 hour time period.

The third change is the mini music player that used to live in the notification section, now lives in the Quick Setting section. The working is still the same, you can swipe to close it and use it just like you used to.

Chat Bubbles

If you use Facebook Messenger, you may be aware of Chat bubbles. It is a small Chat head that appears on top of all other apps so you can quickly send and read messages without changing the Apps. This is a great feature if you chat a lot.

New Screen Recorder

Android 11 comes with a built-in Screen recorder that can be found in the Quick tiles section. Screen recorder is not a new feature considering that there are hundreds of recorder apps already on the Play store and all Custom ROMs come with a native Screen recorder. Anyway, this new feature will make things more simple now.

Smart Device Controls

Smart devices are becoming more common, so Google added a new Smart device control section that allows you to control all of your smart devices from one place.

New Privacy Features

Every Android iteration comes with improved Privacy features and Android 11 is no exception. In Android 10, if you install an App, you can choose to give the app permissions all the time, only when the app is open or not give any permission at all.

Android 11 improves these permissions in a couple of ways. Now, you can give permission to an app only once. So Android will revoke the permission once you are done using the app and closes it. And another feature of Android 11 is the “Auto-reset” of permissions. if you haven’t used an app in a while, then the permissions will be revoked.

How to flash LineageOS 18.0 Custom ROM on Samsung Galaxy S5

Instructions are from the Official XDA thread of ROM

Boot to Lineage Recovery first by fastboot flash boot <recovery_filename>.img

Using Lineage Recovery

• Format the Data by Going in the Wipe Section, this will remove the encryption
• On the device, select “Apply Update”, then “Apply from ADB” to begin to sideload.
• Go to the ADB folder and move Lineage ROM there. Rename it rom.zip
• Open Powershell window by Shift+Right Click on the empty space anywhere on the same folder where rom.zip is stored and open Powershell from the menu
• Sideload the package using the command

adb sideload rom.zip

• To flash GApps, Goto Advance, and Reboot to recovery
• After Rebooting Recovery, Tap on Apply update, then Apply from ADB and sideload the GApps using the aforementioned command. adb sideload gapps.zip

The first boot will take some time so be patient. And that’s it, you have flashed the LineageOS 18.0 Custom ROM for Samsung Galaxy S5.

If you are facing any problem or got a question, leave a comment below.