During covid, I spent time looking into dumb phones, as I wanted to avoid all the tracking nonsense. Qin was a brand that stuck out. They had Android feature phones, but they were a bit too limited in power.

A few years later, and with the government pushing for digital ID, there is a lot of interest in dumb phones again.

Qin F22 Pro

Qin is a sub brand of Xiaomi. They do budget feature phones of varying specifications. When I bought mine, the F22 Pro was the top spec candy bar phone offered.

Installing a clean ROM

Make sure to make backups of your phone, as you may end up in trouble without it, follow this guide to make your backup and put it somewhere safe.  Don't worry about the ROM listed there, it's not the most up to date.

Download the ROM here and follow the guide to install it on your phone. When you think you phone it working, check you haven't lost your IMEI number.

Summary

I had a great time playing with my F22 Pro.  I broke it many times, but it's working just fine now.

It brought back old memories of my first Android, the ZTE Blade. I bought it, unlocked it in the first 10 minutes, flashed a custom ROM that night. The old android days were fun before we needed a phone to do everything, we could play and erase our phones.