[walrus01]

a not insignificant portion of generic weird mediatek chipset android phones come rooted from the manufacturer, because the OS is built with a root/developer configuration. This also helps malware like this spread on the sub-$80 android phones sold to non technically sophisticated users in the developing world.

[cptskippy]

I remember reading something about mediatek based phones saving on the BOM by utilizing virtualization on a single SoC to run the baseband RTOS and the Smartphone OS.

[arcticbull]

That’s actually kind of brilliant.

[londons_explore]

Until you get bugs like "3D games lag when in fast moving car due to constant cell handovers" and "4G doesn't work at the same time as playing a 1080p60 video, so netflix/youtube are broken unless on wifi".

[arcticbull]

Sure but the phones $80. Getting to that price point requires some compromises. You’d think they’d also set the baseband VM at highest QOS.

[himlion]

I'm currently using a Xiaomi Redmi Go that was a bit less than that and I think it's remarkable how few compromises it has.

[scarface74]

That’s a fair compromise to make a smart phone more affordable.