The Nokia Lumia 525 is a smartphone with a 4 inch, 800 x 480 pixel IPS display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of storage. It was released in early 2014 and shipped with Windows Phone 8.

While Microsoft rolled out a software update that allowed the Lumia 525 to run Windows 8.1, it’s one of a number of phones that never received an update to Windows 10 Mobile.

But that doesn’t mean it can’t run recent software: xda-developers forum member banmeifyouwant has posted a few videos showing one of Nokia’s last Windows phones running Android 6.0.1.

lumia 525 android

The Windows phone software and UEFI firmware has been removed and replaced with the LK bootloader, TWRP custom recovery, and a port of CyanogenMod 13, which is a custom version of Android 6.0.

As of August 19th, sound, the modem, and WiFi weren’t fully working, and there are some other issues. But Android boots, the display works, and the touchscreen is functional.

Banmeifyouwant says the software can be adjusted to work on the Nokia Lumia 520 as well, which is basically the same phone, but with 512MB of RAM instead of 1GB. And it may theoretically be possible to load Android on other Nokia and Microsoft Lumia devices… but the software he’s using will only work on the Lumia 520 and 525 for now.

Honestly, if you’re looking for a cheap Android phone today you’re probably better off spending $60 on a Blu R1 HD. But if you’ve got a Lumia 520/525 collecting dust, it’s nice to know that you might be able to breathe new life into it soon.

via Hacker News

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16 replies on “Lumia 525 hacked to run Android 6.0 instead of Windows Phone 8.1”

  1. I have a Lumia 930 and I would like to have Android instead of Windows Phone. Is there a chance to do all this? And how? Do you really have to be a hacker to do that? I hope you answer me, thank you.

  2. I hope at some point Android can be run on all (recent) versions of Windows Phones. With <1% of the market it is only a matter of time before Microsoft leaves the phone market, leaving their customers abandoned (again).

  3. “Honestly, if you’re looking for a cheap Android phone today you’re probably better off spending $60 on a Blu R1 HD.” – that’s limited to those living in USA if I’m not mistaken !

    I logged into my Amazon.com account, but said not available for my location. I logged into m yAmazon UK account and all it had were tons of accessories for the model, not the phone !

    1. You might be able to buy some Chinese phones that here in the US won’t work on our frequencies though. I’d check gearbest.com if you’re really interested in low end android phones.

      1. I wouldn’t trust Gearbest! Their support and returns are atrocious! I bought two of the same items from them. One was awesome and the other had a different OS. It was crazy. How can the same item be different?

  4. Best Buy is currently offering a Cricket Lumia 640 for only $30. The 640 will upgrade to Win 10.

    1. Do you happen to know if it has to be activated to update?

      In other words, could I buy one and update it over WiFi?

      1. I’m not totally sure. I bought an AT&T GoPhone 640 (AT&T owns Cricket), but never activated it with AT&T. I use it with Consumer Cellular instead and have no data plan. My 640 updated to Win 10, so I assume that it was done over WiFi.

      2. It does not have to be activated to be updated. You can download the insider program app to get the “Release Preview” updates. Basically, those are OS and firmware updates that don’t require carrier approval.

        1. Is Windows 10 better? I have heard that you lose Panoramic scroll

          1. What is panoramic scroll?

            I think it is better. Not perfect, mind you, but marginally better. Cortana is worse. The OS is slower (On the 640 level phones). Other than that, though, it’s more fully featured. The notification center is better, EDGE is better (marginally), Photo app is better, it looks better, etc. Maps are better (marginally).

          2. BTW, this all applies to the Anniversary Update. I recommend you upgrade straight to that. Regular Windows 10 on the Lumia 640 was not so great.

  5. That’s nice… but I’m not sure I’d like to see run Android on 512MB of RAM. However gimped WP 8.1 is, at least it runs tolerably on the 520.

  6. “But Android boots, the display works, and the touchscreen is functional.”
    So it’s already more useful than Window Mobile! 😉

Comments are closed.