this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026
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While cleaning, I found an old Redmi 12 phone that's still in perfect condition. Anyone know what fun things I could do with it? Thinking about experimenting software wise, repurposing it for other things etc. Any ideas?

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[–] ptz@dubvee.org 22 points 6 days ago (3 children)
  • Termux has lots of possibilities
  • Pair it with a Meshtastic node and make it a dedicated communicator
  • I run HomeAssistant and Emby and have several old smartphones to work with, so one lives in each room and act as remotes for those
  • Setup Asterisk and make a VoIP system using old smartphones and SIP clients as handsets
  • Check if PostmarketOS supports it. I haven't used it, but it basically turns your phone into a Linux machine if I understand correctly
  • Use it as your "ugh, I have to use an app for [THIS]?!" phone. Basically things that require an app for setup or one-off apps you can't avoid using.
  • Make your own little portable Library of Alexandria. Install Kiwix and download a bunch of ZIMs from their library. If you've got at least 130 GB to work with, you can even fit the entire Wikipedia dump with images and have that locally.
[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 4 points 6 days ago

ugh, I have to use an app for [THIS]?!"

I had to do this just the other day. Hospital wanted to use a third party stuff for a sleep monitor. Talk about an invasive app!

Fine, you go on this phone that was never used by me, that's been wiped and had lineage installed.

[–] pet1t@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Thanks! Lots to check out here. It's 128GB tho, so the entire Wikipedia dump will sadly not be possible ... hahaha The "useful useless app" phone might be the way to go. Other than that I was also thinking about using it as a dedicated (offline) media player

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Wikipedia dump from kiwix is 111gb and there are smaller versions with only popular articles or specific languages

https://library.kiwix.org/#lang=eng&category=wikipedia

Full Wikipedia without photos or video is about half the size.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I use the web version rather than the app, but I want to say the app can store the library on the SD card if you have one of sufficient size lying around and if the Redmi has the slot for one. But as someone else said, there are smaller versions you can download if you can't fit the full one.

Not trying to push Kiwix on you, but I just can't emphasize enough how handy it is to have offline Wikipedia always on hand.

[–] clif@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

I second Meshtastic. I haven't checked since the Android app rebuild but the old version worked on my Galaxy S5