Last year, I bought a Metro locked Oneplus Nord N30 5G (CPH2513/CPH2515) for $60 during a very slick deal.

However, this phone was completely unusable due to it is haunted with tons of bloatware and spyware. So I decided to let it sit in a drawer for 180 days and then see what I can do with it.

A few days ago, I unlocked it by simply go to About Phone then click Unlock.

I am awaring of the Root Guide and not interested in playing with root on any stock ROM. Unless something like lineageOS with TWRP can be installed in some day.

Now, what is needed is to eliminate all sorts of haunted evilness that cursed by the vendor Metro.

The first thing to do is to go Settings - Apps - App management and uninstall/disable those craps AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.

Then install and open Oxygen Updater. It will prompt a notice saying “this device is not supported” and that is fine.

Go to Settings - Update method - Stable (full), and enable Advanced mode.

Go back to Update and now it’s able to download the lastest firmware zip file from OnePlus. In my case, it automatically selected CPH2513_14.0.0.201(EX01) which has 5.15 GB.

After the file has been downloaded, click Install , it will show a list of guides.

Follow the first guide “Via OnePlus-provided local update APK (all regions)”. Be careful not be tricked by the big blue advertisment “Install” button.

Install from one of the OPLocalUpdate APKs that are provided by the guide. Find a version of com.oneplus.opbackup from apkmirror if needed.

Open up this original System Update from the app drawer, tap the Gear icon at the top right corner, tap the 5.40 GB firmware file, then INSTALL NOW.

After installation finished, it will require a reboot. Now, no more Metro haunted boot splash animation!

After boot up, go back to App management and do another sweep off for any newly added or leftover garbages.

Of course, by now I can’t do as clean as how rooted phones are, but it’s a perfect phone for those apps which do not work on rooted nor degoogled phones.

On Oneplus Nord N30 5G, the built-in security and privacy protection of stock OxygenOS 14 is good enough for my use case, or threat model, so cheers!