timmmay:

 

Other than the white back the case looks very similar to my Spigen case.

The back of the case is actually plain (black). When you buy the case you select a skin as well to go with it. The skin sits flush, and to the untrained eye it looks like it's part of the case. I love the black-and-white colour combo. Also, I like that there's no branding, unlike the Spigen case.). The sides are also a soft matte texture and has a nice premium feel to it.

Why did you need root? I rooted phones years back, but later versions of Android are capable enough I haven't felt the need. Also, what does Lineage do that Android doesn't do, other than be less coupled to Google?

I've always rooted my phones, main reason being Titanium Backup, which is great for backing up sideloaded apps (installed via F-Droid etc), and some games and other apps which do not backup to Google for whatever reason. There's also a ton of other root apps I use, such as:

• Bromite Webview - Ad-free, privacy focused, de-Googled webview replacement
• DarQ - Enables dark mode for apps which do not support it 
• DriveDroid - Mounts ISOs and disk images on PCs (your phone appears as a virtual CDROM/USB)
• SD Maid (root access is required to prevent unnecessary apps from running on startup or other triggers)
• WiFi Password Viewer

Custom kernels add some really nice features as well, for me the main reason to install a custom kernel is for Wireguard and NTFS R/W support.

Finally, LineageOS because of the better security, privacy and feature customisations. I like that it doesn't come with any Google bloatware by default. Yes, I can disable all the unwanted apps but, I'd rather start from scratch on a clean slate and only install the Google apps that I actually use. 

There are some handy features such as long-press power button to toggle torch, volume-key cursor control, volume-key screen-off track changing in Spotify etc.

The biggest draw for me is that LineageOS patches security vulnerabilities well in advance before Google do - eg ShellShock, DirtyCOW, KRACK, BlueBorne etc were all addressed 1-2 months before Google could push out a patch. And it's not just security patches, but features updates as well - as a software geek, I want my software to be always on the bleeding edge. :)