Third-party ROM brings Android 11 to Galaxy S8 and Note 8

Damien Wilde | Apr 15 2021 - 1:46 am PT

After another third-party ROM brought Android 11 to the Galaxy Note 9 and S9, it’s the turn of the Galaxy S8 and Note 8.

The only downside is that due to the inherent differences between the Exynos and Snapdragon variants, only those with Galaxy S8 and Note 8 models that pack Samsung’s own chipset can even run this Android 11-based ROM. While that is a shame, the big bonus here is that the vast majority of global markets shipped the Exynos variant, it does mean that North American Note 8 or S8 owners are out of luck.

XDA notes that the Project Sakura custom ROM is now fully compatible with the Galaxy S8 and Note 8. It’s based upon the fairly plain LineageOS 18.1, so while the experience doesn’t bring any further One UI 3.0 features, you’ll have something closer to the Pixel experience on these now three-year-old smartphones — provided you’re happy to root and sideload the ROM at all.

We say that this Android 11-based ROM is fully “compatible” with the Galaxy S8 and Note 8, but it does have a few issues and problems that you might have to deal with. The mobile data hotspot feature simply doesn’t work, while there are other Wi-Fi direct issues too according to XDA. Other problems persist given that this is an early fan project but we’re sure things will get ironed out over time.

Normally we’d suggest steering clear of a third-party ROM for your main smartphone, but given the age of the Galaxy S8 and Note 8, this is currently the only way for you to get a taste of Android 11 on the aging hardware. That said, proceed with caution if you would like to give it a try.