It hadn't been remembered in a long time
One day I opened a drawer and there it was: a Galaxy S8, stored away for about six years. I hadn't touched it since — I'd already bought an S23 Ultra, and the S8 stayed there as a backup phone. Strictly for emergencies. Outdated system, frozen in time.
Then I thought: let me install a fresh system on it and see what I can change.
It was a flagship once. Even though it launched some eight years ago, it still has a shine to it. It still works. It still serves some purpose.
Flashing a ROM after eight years
I went after a ROM swap — something I hadn't done in a very, very long time. And the surprise: nothing had changed. The process is the same. The only real difficulty is finding a project that's still maintained for an old phone. But there was one, sitting at Android 14.
And just the act of taking a Galaxy S8, pulling it out of 2018 and bringing it into the present — working on equal footing with recently released phones — was refreshing to me.
Technology advances, evolves, moves on. But the things left behind don't die — they carry on. And we need to keep that line of communication open with these devices, so we can extend their use.
I like to treat the electronics I own as durable goods: something that genuinely stays with me, and that over time I can use in a different way.
The S8 came back to life and entered my daily routine. Not as a main phone — that's not realistic: it's slow, the battery has seen better days. But for a secondary role, running clean Android, it works. And it was an experiment I'd been meaning to do for a while: a different project, a small, good-looking phone to carry around. Done.
And I pushed it further: I tested how far this S8 still goes as a TV device, with a modified interface. I logged it all in what the Galaxy S8 can still do.
The Goofish find
With the subject back on my radar, I started digging for a deeper project. And then, browsing Goofish — a Chinese second-hand marketplace — I stumbled onto it out of nowhere: a modified Galaxy Z Flip 5.
There was that initial barrier of figuring out how the platform works, but it all worked out. And what they were doing was this: taking Z Flip 5 units that no longer worked (dead screen, defects) and turning them into Android boxes — like a TV box, at a very low price. The 512 GB version with 12 GB of RAM was going, at the source, for roughly US$ 85.
A Galaxy Flip, with a flagship processor, working in a whole new form, at that price? For me, it's worth it. Very much worth it. I talked to the shop and placed the order — I told that story in detail in this note.
Why not a regular TV box?
Because I'd been researching a new TV box for a long time and couldn't find a model I liked. They're all built strictly for media consumption — someone hopping between streaming apps, and that's it.
My use went deeper into the system. I was going to use the system itself on the television, and I needed a freedom no TV box would give me.
The Flip on the television
The TV box that arrived was practically a screenless phone, rethought:
- HDMI output
- Three USB ports
- Charging over USB-C
- A cooler installed
When I turned it on, there was a Chinese system waiting — the same One UI, but with a launcher on top that I was never going to use. So I reshaped it my way: installed another launcher, added my apps, granted the necessary permissions.
Because not everything comes pre-adjusted. It's a phone learning to live as a TV, so you have to push it to behave that way:
- Force landscape orientation
- Never lock the screen, no password
- Turn off DeX
- A few other tweaks to run straight on the TV over HDMI
And suddenly, there I was, using a Galaxy Z Flip 5 on my television. I aligned my expectations with what it delivers, and I've been excited about bending it further to my taste.
An interesting reminder
Never underestimate Android.
What they do, quite literally, is take an Android phone that no longer works — being sold for parts money, the shell of a screenless Flip — and wire up its ports over USB-C. HDMI, USB, external power. The only thing missing is the cooler, and a cooler you can rig at home.
Next in line, the S21 FE went to the test bench too.
Thinking: let me apply these ideas here. Since then I've been busy making a phone plugged into the TV genuinely work in daily life.
It's not unusual to see an S21 FE with a green-tinted screen, a cracked display, left unused. Come resale time it's worth very little — fixing the screen doesn't pay off, so it sells for scrap-level prices. A phone that's still fast, still powerful, with a good battery. And we give it a new direction: living on the television, paired with a controller, running emulators. My PS5 controller works perfectly.
It's about making things last and avoiding waste
When I think about what's inside one of these phones — a powerful processor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, sensors, a flashlight, a camera — the amount of technology packed in there is enormous. The possibilities inside that device are very inviting.
Wasting all of that for pocket change is just unnecessary. It can be reused at home, it can become something new, and it turns out great.
Where I am now
That's the research keeping me busy lately: understanding how to give my equipment a better use, how we push back a little against planned obsolescence and make our devices last longer in everyday life.
And that's it. Cheers!
If the old Galaxy in your drawer still works, the built-in route to putting it on a TV is DeX — the whole thing is covered in the Samsung DeX complete guide.
Frequently asked questions
Is it worth reusing an old Android phone? Yes. Even old devices have hardware capable of useful roles — a TV box, a home server, a security camera, a dedicated media player — keeping them out of e-waste and saving you the cost of buying new gear.
What can you do with an old Android phone sitting in a drawer? The most useful roles include turning it into a TV box, a security camera, a file server, a dedicated car GPS, a music hub or a home-automation device. Many of them go further with a lightweight ROM like LineageOS.
Does installing a ROM like LineageOS make an old phone faster? In most cases, yes. It strips out the factory apps and runs a leaner build of Android, which tends to bring back fluidity to devices that had slowed down on their original system.
Do I need technical knowledge to reuse the device? It depends on the use. A security camera or a media player just needs an app. Advanced uses, like flashing a custom ROM or setting up a server, take a few technical steps — but they're approachable with a good tutorial.