My new handset: Samsung Galaxy S4 mini

My trusty old Samsung Galaxy S running Cyanogenmod is beginning to show its age. The main shortcoming of the device is it’s RAM - 384 MB is on the low side for running a current Android version.

So I was looking for a modern device that would run Cyanogenmod. A Galaxy S4 would have been my first choice but I definitely don’t like the form factor - it’s a good deal larger than the old Galaxy S. The new device should really be about the same size as the old one. I ended up with a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini which has similar specs to the “big” S4 but is the same size as the old Galaxy S. Oh, and of course Cyanogenmod is supported, too :-)

So I got the device fairly cheap by extending my existing mobile contract. Before I installed CM on the device, I only booted the stock firmware once to obtain IP address, IMEI etc. After that, I did the rooting process as described on the CM device page. Rooting went fairly smooth using the steps described there.

I did a full backup of the old device using Titanium Backup and put the backup folder onto the removable SD card. After the SD card was moved to the S4 mini, I was able to restore almost everything.

So far I’m pretty pleased with the experience: things run a lot smoother than on the old device (surprise, surprise). I have yet to find a good use case for the new gadgets like NFC.