Related
CM6.1 or MIUI (probably Rod's).
I do like the look of MIUI but I'd rather have the fastest, most stable setup and one with the greatest functionality.
These are both looking very good indeed these days.
So which one and why?
try them both a decide for yourself that's what its all about...you r just gonna get back and forth comments/bickering asking a question like that in here..try searching next time
Enomther's The Official.
Stock, all sorts of optional features, easiest method ever for enabling apps2ext, and stable
how can u go wrong
You won't get many replies.
WHY?
Everyone will most likely tell you to just try it yourself.
Every ROM in my sig has proven to be stable. I like to try different ones out.
As long as you are rooted, and have a custom recovery installed, nothing is stopping you from doing a nandroid backup and playing with a new ROM.
"fastest, most stable setup and one with the greatest functionality."
That's all up to you. What you may consider "greatest functionality" may be bloat to someone else.
Personally, I really liked MIUI by Rodriquez.
ksc6000 said:
Enomther's The Official.
Stock, all sorts of optional features, easiest method ever for enabling apps2ext, and stable
how can u go wrong
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried that ROM myself for a couple of days during the week. Love the FM Radio and features. But stable? Meh. I suffered apps closing/crashing unexpectedly throughout the day. Stable it wasn't.
If you want super stable, then GEO's ROM is superb. Only downside is no FM Radio.
Just my personal experience.
why not cm 6 R2 ? (or nightlys)
If you want my personal opinion (other than 'try them out for yourself), MIUI is great because of all of the interface tweaks. The lockscreen is gorgeous, the theming capability is awesome, and the settings UI is awesome.
I've been more than pleased with Kang-o-rama 1.0 b1. It's a build of CM6 RC1 with a handful of graphical niceties and solid Apps2ext functionality. The support the author provides is incredible as well. I try a lot of other ROMs, but that's the one I keep coming back to.
But as the others have said, try them all and make up your own damn mind. What one person loves about a ROM might be another person's pet peeve.
cpm said:
Tried that ROM myself for a couple of days during the week. Love the FM Radio and features. But stable? Meh. I suffered apps closing/crashing unexpectedly throughout the day. Stable it wasn't.
If you want super stable, then GEO's ROM is superb. Only downside is no FM Radio.
Just my personal experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Geo's ROM's are great, I had one for quite a while. I don't know why you're getting issues with Enom's ROM, but it is very very stable. That's the reason people who use it, use it over CM. My uptime on my phone gets up to 100 hours without any force closes or issues, and even then it's me, I'm just flashing something else or changing a feature which requires reboot.
Geo's roms have been light, fast & very stable for me!
codesplice said:
I've been more than pleased with Kang-o-rama 1.0 b1. It's a build of CM6 RC1 with a handful of graphical niceties and solid Apps2ext functionality. The support the author provides is incredible as well. I try a lot of other ROMs, but that's the one I keep coming back to.
But as the others have said, try them all and make up your own damn mind. What one person loves about a ROM might be another person's pet peeve.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I love Kang-o-rama
Well I tried the MIUI one (Rod's) and it just rebooted on me for no reason today.
Looks like it's CM6.1 next for me.
I was using Geo's then I got a message saying it wanted to do an update, then failed, but I could not get rid of that message.
Perhaps I should have got a Desire as I do like Sense, but the Sense ROM for the N1 was not stable IMO.
I'm using Rod's MIUIMOD 1.9.1(with wildmonks kernel) and never had a single reboot or stability problem.
Also, i've tried Enomther and MicroMOD's(also the Desire SuperHybrid) ROMs, and they were stable for me.
If all were unstable in your case, then maybe you're doing something wrong.
Did you for example wipe three times from recovery before flashing a completely different ROM?
In the past i've also had stability problems when using titanium backup to restore settings, so keep that in mind.
Also, you could try to use different kernel with somewhat higher voltage ( wildmonks for example http://wildmonks.whoisthedrizzle.com/kernel/2.6.35/112610/Custom_Kernels/ ).
Most ROM"s use kernel which are slightly under-volted to increase battery life(1050mv is the default stock kernel voltage if I remember correctly), but some devices don't like the lower voltages.
Should be clear, I never tried the ones you mentioned, it was the NXsense one I tried - it had a few silly little bugs but nothing major, just enough to be somewhat annoying.
Yes I do wipe, and am using the wildmonks kernel now.
I'm using stock MIUI with english pack and in my opinion...is more stable and smoother than CM 6.1... I check out CM rom yesterday and the ADW launcher still sucks..and Launcher Pro haven't adjust very well with some of the new effects and setting that CM have put in...my opinion MIUI stock..(not Rods Rom) with english pack...way better for now...and if you are a Launcher Pro fan...works awesome with MIUI....just my opinion
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
IMHO:
MIUI, although a great show of design/function ingenuity, is a toy. It's a pretty, flashy toy. It's filled with stuff, and design is confusing. Everything's all over the place, there's too many features (yeah, I know, crazy) and too much stuff going on.
CM6.1, besides being more stable (majority would agree), it's android as google meant it. It's pristine, clean and just looking at it makes u feel confident in its stability. It's simple, yet advanced. Fast, yet reliable.
I definitely recommend CM over MIUI, but, of course, it's all individual prefs.
SamUserInterface said:
If you want my personal opinion (other than 'try them out for yourself), MIUI is great because of all of the interface tweaks. The lockscreen is gorgeous, the theming capability is awesome, and the settings UI is awesome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why is the theming awesome? I have yet to see a MIUI theme that themed the whole ROM. The ugly dialer, MMS and Contacts app are always left out. Most of the themes are just icons and wallpaper.
As to the UI if it is so great why do most use Launcher Pro with it. To me... JMHO it looks like Windows 3.1 with a splash of color
DarkDvr said:
IMHO:
MIUI, although a great show of design/function ingenuity, is a toy. It's a pretty, flashy toy. It's filled with stuff, and design is confusing. Everything's all over the place, there's too many features (yeah, I know, crazy) and too much stuff going on.
CM6.1, besides being more stable (majority would agree), it's android as google meant it. It's pristine, clean and just looking at it makes u feel confident in its stability. It's simple, yet advanced. Fast, yet reliable.
I definitely recommend CM over MIUI, but, of course, it's all individual prefs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup!
Windows 3.1 with a bunch of apps that look like the team never had a meeting
Definitely enomther's the official.
Tried CM, was ok, a tad unstable at times and I'm not a nightly person. If you want a rom to use for at least a month, don't use something that doesn't have a Final build and has to undergo nightly revisions. I got sick of having to flash CM everytime a nightly comes out.
I dislike MIUI. Enough said. Up to personal preference. Really dislike the iphoney crap.
If you want a somewhat stable sense rom, I recommend Evil's NXSense.
Like most others here have said, you gotta try them out to decide.
I originally tried a bunch of Roms and didn't like all the "bloat". I settled on Geo's rom because it basically is a pre-rooted and ready to go stock rom with some little bonuses.
After a while I tried MIUI's because of the newer UI. I quickly lost interest with the quirky lockscreen, phone, and messaging apps. I used Launcher Pro as I hate the cluttered iPhone desktop. Dialer Oned out the phone from the same lack of dial-by name and quirky facebook intergration. I tried Stock MIUI and Rods (I liked Rods).
Then I settled on CM6.1 which had the nice customizable dropdown menu toggles, taskbar color modifications, and additional features that were available.
Since I've seen the new MIUI theming capabilities but I don't think I'm quite ready to switch from CM's. I use the nightlies now and I'm now using a lot of the tweaks that I know I will ultimately regret on other roms.
But this is the perk of a Nexus. I just download and keep a bunch of roms on my phone's SD card... able to switch to whatever in minutes. Thus don't be afraid to do the same.
Also what I've learned is that no matter what rom you use, once you install Dialer One and Launcher Pro... they all feel the same aside from the little perks one may offer over the other.
Is there any true bugless/very minimally bugged ROM out there? Tried CM6, CM6, Evervolv, and some others. I'm talking something that can be fully fixed if there are bugs in it, or is there a ROM that will basically be a stock evo with the sprint garbage removed from it, i was wondering maybe I could stick a savagedzen kernel on it and get some better speed from it as well with bettery battery life. I know there is a fresh evo but I don't think that this ROM gets rid of the junkware sprint puts on? Since quadrant scores and the like are mostly useless I'm beginning to even wonder, are you "truly" getting any more speed out of a custom ROM over stock without getting bugs?
Right now I'm on CM7, everything is wonderful, of course except for the bugs. The random 3g -> 1x for no reason, making the internet not even usable. The random mini-lockups/terrible lag that I can get, etc are all just too annoying to deal with when they pop up. It's irritating when I go to my friends and say "here check this out, this thing has more battery life and as fast a he-...oh well actually my internet on it is bugging out right now and the lockscreen I have to really quick reboot for etc etc." What's the point of speed if these sort of things happen, you know? All of the flashiness of gingerbread is starting to urk me with all the bugs it brings, I haven't tried a froyo mod except for myns, I don't remember what kind of bugs I had in that, if any. What's the best way to go from here? Maybe give CM6 a try again and put SZen kernel on it?(I only ever tried it with stock) Thanks for any opinions/sorry for the mini text wall.
Newsflash: CM7 is buggy, and has always been buggy, hence the ever updated releases.
If you want a ROM that's as close to 100% stable as you can find, try the bigger Sense ROM's....
Are there any very stable AOSP ROMs? Especially gingerbread? Or do these only truly become stable when the real releases are out for the phones? Because If that's not the case, why not just run stock, you know? What's the real benefit? The only reason I rooted in the very beginning was to get rid of the junk Sprint has attached in the beginning. I don't mind sense. However ever since I've rooted I've been on a speed/battery hunt thinking I could get something majorly different. Is it even worth it? What is CM6 like with savagedzen for instance? Because that's what I'm thinking of trying next. Or are all AOSP going to have pretty hefty bugs with them one way or another due to the nature of them?
So far the new ports of the Shift roms are solid as a rock. Misfits for stock. Kings for some ultra themed ones and Zone23 for blue.
Give them a try you won't regret disappointed.
Try Misfits Speedy Port. Pretty stable with Sense 2.1. I'm making a rom based on that one that is stripped down, but not allowed to post dev forums yet
iwantyourskulls said:
Try Misfits Speedy Port. Pretty stable with Sense 2.1. I'm making a rom based on that one that is stripped down, but not allowed to post dev forums yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you gaining over a stock evo, though. Compared to this?
Years ago the phones were slow and bloated. You could install custom ROMs and actually notice an increase in speed.
With the phones coming out now they are already fast and if you root to look for a speed increase you might not notice much. You will notice all the bloatware gone though.
For a stable ROM I would look for a 2.2 Calk ROM or ones like that. They may not have been updated in awhile but that's because there isn't much to add or change. Everything works.
What about myns?
A drop of Chuck Norris's semen was placed on Android OS. We now have CyanogenMod.
See I don't understand why the call them "release [clients?]", and then release a "full version", even when the full version is still buggy with devices. I stayed away from CM7 for that exact reason until they finally got the full version up. Once I stuck it on i was enjoying it so much but the bugs are just too annoying to deal with anymore. Can't even show off with it because of them popping up at the dumbest times and then it's like yeah so much for that awesome phone hack. I might go try myn's again or CM6, not sure. I just want the stock apps gone, and I want a stable environment. Speed is nice too. Being unique is nice, when it doesn't have huge drawbacks.
Crossrocker said:
What about myns?
A drop of Chuck Norris's semen was placed on Android OS. We now have CyanogenMod.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The more and more I think about it I don't remember having too many issues with myn's, so I may try that out again. Not sure. Is there any way to get that gingerbread lock off/on animation? That is something I'm really after, along with the gingerbread keyboard too.
On the sense side, I've found Koni's elite series III to be flawless...I'm currently running ava's ginger sense and haven't had any real issues with it either... can't go wrong with either of those.. just my two cents..
Sent by way of carrier pigeon
No smart phone to date is bug free. Cm7 stable is best in my opinion and that 3g/1x bug you speak of isn't a bug but cm7 actually giving you the accurate data speed in the area you are in.
What recovery are u using amon 2.3 wipes fix most issue.when flashing like crazy I haven't had any issues with the roms . Sense or cm7 work fine. Try Elite 3 , Kings out of this world. Um to many to list. Always do a full wipe when flashing new roms.
chandlerw88 said:
No smart phone to date is bug free. Cm7 stable is best in my opinion and that 3g/1x bug you speak of isn't a bug but cm7 actually giving you the accurate data speed in the area you are in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know there isn't a "bug free" ROM or phone. But in terms of crippling bugs, CM7 at the moment for me is horrifying when I'm trying to show it to others especially.
As for the 3g/1x bug it is very real, and it's the worst. I get 1x for no reason inside my house and outside on occasion, it will then switch back to 3g if I restart the phone, or wait [sometimes an absurdly long time] until it fixes itself. I've not had that issue with any other ROMs, stock evo, gingerbread ROMs, or anything of the like. I've reflashed completely fresh with and without the GPS fix, with savagedzen and stock - no difference. Maybe it's just my phone, regardless though, there are so many people asking for help on different areas of CM7 it makes me not want to bother because it is not a truly stable rom for Evo for a lot of people. The battery charger bug I can deal with, mine lags to high hell when it's on the charger - that's something I can fix within an instant and not have it bother me. As for the 3g/1x, the random app mini freezes, the lockscreen not wanting to come on sometimes unless I hold down the button much longer until I restart, and other things of the sort, i cannot. It's not worth the flashy menus, and really the battery life is nothing near a froyo ROM, not even close. (I don't expect it to be).
reaper24 said:
What recovery are u using amon 2.3 wipes fix most issue.when flashing like crazy I haven't had any issues with the roms . Sense or cm7 work fine. Try Elite 3 , Kings out of this world. Um to many to list. Always do a full wipe when flashing new roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use amon 2.3 as well, and I always full wipe after storing a backup on my comp (complete full wipe)
I played with my friend's stock unrooted evo yesterday and no joke, the thing randomly rebooted in my hands while doing nothing special at all.
With that said, any rom here is more stable than stock, but try SavageMod 1.2.1, most stable 2.3.3 I've tried.
I have to endorse Koni's. I ran it for over a month, until I flashed Giger today to pay with 'til Koni releases v.IV
It's not overly themed, perfectly smooth and everything I needed to work did fine, and not one FC the entire time I ran it.
The setup in my sig is how I had it set up. The only difference now, of course, is the ROM
I like sinister for stability, its V4 now and I can't think of a single issue with it.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
c1o5ry1991 said:
The more and more I think about it I don't remember having too many issues with myn's, so I may try that out again. Not sure. Is there any way to get that gingerbread lock off/on animation? That is something I'm really after, along with the gingerbread keyboard too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always like ava's ROMs for fast and stable - Z4 isn't quite their yet, but give Z3 a shot.
No GB on/off animation mod as of yet, but you can add the GB keyboard to any ROM. There a quite a few diff ones from the themes and apps forum.
Gotta jump in here for some input...
If you just strictly want Sense, I was always a Myn Warm Two Point Two guy.
If you can't live without the screen off animation, Deck's Gingerbread is by far the way to go. Yes, it is built from CM7 to an extent but Deck really does a great job taking care of problems. There is a stable 1.0 and beta 1.2(x). Everyone likes CM7 because its popular and known, but honestly after using CM7 for awhile and then jumping to Deck's rom I will never look back.
If you want to remove the bloat from a stock sprint rom don't forget that you can always just do it by removing the apk's from your system with root explorer or through ADB.
How to through ADB:
--adb remount
--adb shell
-- cd /system/app
--ls
-- Once all the apps show up, you just type: rm <insert the apk name here.apk>
--reboot your phone and BAMMMMM!
Got the idea from a post by a dev who thought that we wouldn't need the custom roms so much now that we have CM for the Atrix.
I slightly disagree with that and could bet a 5er that there's more people on other custom roms than on CM, at least for the Atrix and due to its "special" features.
(If I'm wrong the 5er will go to XDA)
EDIT: Seemingly (though numbers cannot always be trusted..) I was wrong. 10€ donated to XDA!
Stock ROM with BLUR frozen. I was having way too many problems with CM7 (like the pattern lock suddenly changed to pin lock on me, but I had no PIN set. ) I love CM7, but will wait to try it again when its finished. Plus the fingerprint scanner and webtop are just too useful to give up for me.
I definately would like to see a vanilla AOSP build.
Of course with the ability to retain fingerprint scanner and webtop functionality.
I just put CM7 on and i'm loving it. alien build 4 was cool and I'd love to have webtop back but it's not that important to me. My fingerprint scanner had been broken for a while and I don't know how to fix it so CM7 seems right fir me now
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Stock rooted. As a change of pace from my sgs2.
Sent from AT&T Galaxy S2
Definitely stock rooted/with most of motoblur frozen. Pciture sync is about the only thing i like about it.
But I don't like the look of stock gingerbread (or at least 'adw's stock' look on CM7, assuming the touchpad's CM7 has the same look as most CM7 releases - just too basic!)
I voted CM7 because thats the best rom availible today in terms of speed and features, but there's so much more that can be done with an AOSP code base. We need more non-blur ROMs before I would consider anything other than CM to be worth while.
Definitely CM7 but With Swype. CM7 is not final yet and it it's by far the smoothest ROM I have used on any phone. The camera ideas improved a lot flute some weird resin as my photos are no longer people, which was the czar with the stick ROMs. The only thing I Miss right note is the ability to use fingerprint scanner but one can't have everything in life....and patience is a virtue.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Give every rom a try, you will see that always you go back to CM7.
Most stable, fastest and top customization ability.
ofek said:
Give every rom a try, you will see that always you go back to CM7.
Most stable, fastest and top customization ability.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man, it's so different user by user.. I've tried CM7 three times in the last 2 months but I keep going away from it; battery is worse than on other roms to start with, go figure?! And it's not as "snappy" as other roms either. Stability is for me equal on all the roms I tried.
Will definitely try the next release as well though..
P. S. Check the attached, on The DarkSide. Battery started from 95%. OC'd to 1,3 Ghz and on constant browsing, market, XDA app through wifi. Can you get that on cm7, basically 4,5 hrs of screen time on a bit more than half a charge..?
Vangelis13 said:
Man, it's so different user by user.. I've tried CM7 three times in the last 2 months but I keep going away from it; battery is worse than on other roms to start with, go figure?! And it's not as "snappy" as other roms either. Stability is for me equal on all the roms I tried.
Will definitely try the next release as well though..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. I was starting to like CM7 on the atrix until it randomly changed the lock screen on me. I also had terrible battery life. I loved CM on the G-Tablet, and I love it on my friend's Droid X. I'm sure once the team is done I'll love it on the Atrix too.
Darkside V2.1, pretty stable and fast. Love the look on my SGS2 friend's face when my phone CF benchmarks better than his.
...Though I suspect it wont last long.
I'm on alien just because I haven't wanted to re-setup everything on my phone...once CM hits RC status I'll be on that for sure.
I'm still rockin stock Froyo be wise of the battery life reported on other options.
I'll probably make the jump to ICS if the version is stable...
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
well stock was great before 2.3.4 update as far as the battery goes, the best up to date custom rom IMO is Homebase, next would be ninja's latest, but in this poll i would have to go with the CM7 beta, it's been flawless so far(3 days of testing) and i finally got my original battery life back(30+ hours) along with CM's features that i miss from my G1 days when CM first started....
CM7 is my daily driver, but I use the Darkside when I want to do webtop(or just want a change lol)
I have both as nandroid backups on my SD so all i have to do is backup my texts and any new apps i installed and flash between them..15 minutes to change at the most
I voted other rom though, since I still like having the option to do webtop
CM7 all the way. I don't need that BS fingerprint scanner or webtop. It's all useless to me.
Stock, rooted.
MUST HAVE WEBTOP.
the only way to future proof our atrix (at least for a year or two)
is to totally reject this ignoranamous
notion that cm7 or any rom is the end all be all rom
for our devices yes it is a great totally
custom ground up build i respect the time and effert that all the people took to build it ;
with that said we do need other roms too for the fact that maybe there are certain aspects that are not impemented into cm7 and cant be
i implore all the rom creators for the time they spend away from there familys to work on this "hobby"
futhermore yes we do need roms or Oc kernals for it ;
but should we expect it No.
alienv4 fauxv2.0/1.3+custom xfdesktop/xfce4-panel
Vangelis13 said:
Man, it's so different user by user.. I've tried CM7 three times in the last 2 months but I keep going away from it; battery is worse than on other roms to start with, go figure?! And it's not as "snappy" as other roms either. Stability is for me equal on all the roms I tried.
Will definitely try the next release as well though..
P. S. Check the attached, on The DarkSide. Battery started from 95%. OC'd to 1,3 Ghz and on constant browsing, market, XDA app through wifi. Can you get that on cm7, basically 4,5 hrs of screen time on a bit more than half a charge..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seriously??? i've been through every rom, and CM7 has great battery life, along with Ninja and Homebase. Then again the problem may not be the rom, maybe your battery needs to be re-calibrated. That was the problem when i would go from rom to rom. For example i would flash ninja and have amazing battery life, then i tried homebase when it first was released, which the battery was also great, then after a while i went back to ninja and the battery life was horrible(barely got to 8 hours). After i did the steps to re-calibrate my battery, it was just as strong as it was on the day the phone was released(30+ hours), so that may have been the problem
I am on superclean.05 GB rom and stock rooted kernel. Very happy with it, but I have never had a non touchwiz rom on my phone.
For a while I have been wondering what is it like to be on the other side, so I am wondering what rom would you recommend in MIUI or CM7.
Stability is important for me, I dont want to flash something that will FC left and right, or have features like wifi or gps, etc that do not work.
If you guys can recommend me a ROM and even better provide the links that would be awesome.
Thanks in advanced.
I loved both MIUI and CM7, both were faster then Superclean right now, also the interface I like a lot better then TW, BUT suffered two major issues that prevented me from using the phone.
Could no longer use the speakerphone, since all people on other end said there is a bad echo, and I use my speakerphone a lot.
Also would lose data connection a lot of times, and only fix was to restart phone
I would love to go back to them, but for now I am sticking with superclean and probably be the last rom I go to until I get a new phone.
This rom is great, and is what the phone should have been a year ago when I got it.
I enjoy Miui for the customization....It takes a bit getting used to and finding everything that works for you...Basically you can skin the lock screen, the pull down, home screen and even SMS client. I like the camera better on this than asop too.
CM7 is nice and straight forward, if you like everything to look stock, this is the way to go.
tannor said:
I loved both MIUI and CM7, both were faster then Superclean right now, also the interface I like a lot better then TW, BUT suffered two major issues that prevented me from using the phone.
Could no longer use the speakerphone, since all people on other end said there is a bad echo, and I use my speakerphone a lot.
Also would lose data connection a lot of times, and only fix was to restart phone
I would love to go back to them, but for now I am sticking with superclean and probably be the last rom I go to until I get a new phone.
This rom is great, and is what the phone should have been a year ago when I got it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did notice the same data issues when I first got this phone a little bit ago and (immediately) started running AOSP roms. But the data issues have all but disappeared for me, with the one issue that occasionally happens being the radio getting stuck on 1x after sending/receiving SMS. I'm not sure if it's more kernel or rom related, but users have reported vastly improved data connectivity with the latest Glitch test kernels. I'm using RickS MIUI by the way.
You can't really go wrong with CM7 or MIUI, I used CM7 for a long time on my incredible before switching to MIUI. They're both very functional, customizable, and awesome roms, but the ¡amazing! theming capabilities of MIUI are really hard to give up for me.
MIUI is actually based on CM7, so like everyone else is saying both ROMs are extremely responsive and quick. Your decision will mostly be made on the UI and the features you want. Both highly customizable and easy to learn.
Try them both for a week. They are free after all!
My month with a factory unlocked Galaxy S2
Bought this in mint condition from a friend for about half price with only 1 hour of use, an unwanted upgrade. Came with 2.3.4 as expected, so hooked up to Kies; no update at the time. As is my wont, I used the phone for a few days to get to grips with TouchWiz (TW) and the phone generally. All quite reasonable, no stability issues and TW is not bad by any means.
My thoughts and trials so far then:
Hardware
Well made, light and thin. Slippery, so a black rubbery skin bought and fitted and I popped a spare 8GB microSD card in, not that the phone needs it for my purposes.
Only criticism is the OLED screen, I'm used to higher resolution (Moto and Sony) and 800x480 looks rather "cheapo" in terms of detail on a screen this large, but no deal breaker. What I do find somewhat at odds with the price of the phone is the slight but noticeable shading and colour tints across the screen at low brightness levels and on some backgrounds. Plus, the screen's legibility outside on a bright day is no better than more run of the mill LCD screens. (I mean cheaper!)
My first GB update
I generally root phones straight after flashing a new firmware version, if it isn't already. I had already successfully rooted the original stock 2.3.4 firmware with Zergrush 4 and debloated that ROM.
I was keen to try a later GB version before trying ICS, and I found 2.3.6 for "Open Europe" on Sammobile and downloaded it. I had already tried Kies, so the USB drivers were present and working. I uninstalled Kies on the PC but left the USB drivers alone. Kies and Odin are not good bedfellows. I did a full factory reset on the phone and erased everything, allowed it to reboot and then powered off, got in to download mode and flashed XXKL1 (which is an engineering version and deodexed it seems). Rooted it via Zergrush 4, deleted known bloat and renamed possible bloat to xxx.bak to clean the ROM for my own usage, and deleted that very annoying start-up sound. Downloaded all the apps I normally use (about 22 of them), including the excellent CPU Spy to check for deep sleep.
I used/charged the phone over the next couple of days to let the OS bed in. No problems encountered at all, and a very pleasing battery life of 30+ hours of light use, with syncing and GPS, 3G, WiFi always on and occasional BT. Magic! Only thing I did is change the Modem to LPR - the KI3 Modem that came with the ROM is not quite as good at holding weak signals. Only just though...
My first ICS update
So, good phone, stable and very usable ROM in 2.3.6. Time had come to try this new ICS thing. Downloaded the LPQ version and installed it, after a full wipe, via Odin. Not impressed by all the automatic installation rubbish at first boot... Rooted via a hot boot CWM and SU/Busybox successfully and did all the same debloating and app installation as GB 2.3.6. Spent some time getting orientated and used to the new menus and so on.
Over the next day or so, I let the ROM settle and began using the ROM - I changed the Modem to LPR as LPQ was not as good, perception wise. ROM was stable and usable, didn't really look or feel much different from 2.3.6 and was worse on battery - I would say 18 hours at best with the same usage pattern.
Absolutely hate the new Exchange thing for live.com email.... real pain usability wise and battery unfriendly.
My second ICS update
So, not overly impressed with LPQ, although it was usable, I decided to try LP7, the UK generic one. Went through the same process as above, and again swapped the Modem from LPS (awful!) to LPR.
No obvious differences at all. Battery life was as poor, but it was usable.
My first CM trial - CM9
So, somewhat disillusioned by Samsung's ICS implementation, I decide to look around for another "mature" ROM. CM9 fitted the bill (I have used CM6 before on another phone) and was smack bang up to date in terms of kernel, AOSP and G Apps. After my usual clean deck start, installed fine, 23/04 build.
At first, I was quite impressed as I could configure more and to my liking. The ROM was stable and I set the phone up with the usual Apps and deleted some useless stuff (like GenieWidget).
Swapped Modem out to LPR - bit of a theme going on here...
I liked the fact that the Spirit FM radio worked (so bought the Pro version as it is that good). The ROM is very usable and never got bogged down, BUT, for reasons I never fully determined, the battery life would start OK and then decline faster during the day. I never saw more than 12 hours life, again using as per my normal pattern and after a few days to settle. There appeared to be various background activities going on that were preventing deep sleep sometimes, but BBS was not really showing me what. Note that I only use BBS as a last resort as it can increase battery use...
No other real problems, but the soft key backlights wouldn't play with NoLED and were somewhat counter-intuitive. A bit trivial, but a mess.
My second CM trial - CM7
I like GB, it is mature and well understood, so CM7 RC 2 was therefore of some appeal. It had been developed over months and must therefore be fairly sorted. Surely.
Installed without issue on a cleaned platform as usual, including G Apps. Did the usual debloat and installed the usual Apps from the Market/Play, and some that were missing, like GMail. LPR modem was already there, Hooray! Spent rather longer fiddling with the settings in CM7 than CM9 since they were less obvious at first, to me anyway.
Switched off and put the phone on wall charge overnight and was rather shocked to find the phone was noticeably warm and displaying "Kernel Panic" in the morning. The phone had only charged by about 5% in total (to 64%). Worry Worry. I put the phone on USB charge until 100% without incident.
Started to use the phone as normal, the phone UI and operation was very good, fluid even. But, first problem I had was in the car. I paired BT fine, as usual, and made a phone call. After the call, I couldn't end the call on the car or phone - it had locked up. Oh dear.
Later, I tried the FM Radio during my daily walk - doesn't work, so why is it there? I tried Spirit FM - no way would it work. Oh dear.
The following day, I noticed that the battery life was amazing! I had never seen this phone sip juice like this. Deep sleep was always easily achieved. That was until the afternoon. I noticed that the battery level was declining at a much higher rate than earlier. I hadn't done anything different, so BBS was called in again. Nothing obvious shown but I kept seeing the GPS icon winking at me from the Notification bar, and continually. I always keep GPS on, but for some reason on this ROM, no GPS signal meant the ROM just kept trying. I played with various settings like Location etc. and managed to stop this odd behaviour, but this was too silly. I use a Smartphone for all the smart features. This wasn't very smart at all.
CM7 was my biggest disappointment of all the above ROM trials. It was the lightest and most promising, and yet the least reliable or functional. Which is a huge shame...
Today...
I'm now back on KL1 2.3.6, and it just works fine - day after day.
The future for me?
I would really like to use CM9 (or CM7 for that matter). They represent a number of ideals for me, including the open nature of development, the collaboration, a pioneering spirit and giving users a choice and a superb base to build on. I am no developer - I can split and modify kernels to a point, I can rehash ROMs with or without adb, I can amend frameworks. But little more.
Reserved for "tips and hints"
Avoiding problems
Always data reset and wipe before doing anything major from one ROM to another, or follow the installation guide for any specific differences in approach.
Avoid Titanium Backup like the plague - it invariably leads to functional issues later if you cross flash. Use Google and/or airdroid for everything, it all just works. So many friends and other forums I contribute to have had too many backup issues to count. Go clean. Forget about Google paranoia.
ES File Explorer is very useful and recommended.
Don't bother "calibrating" the battery - it's an outdated practice and useless. Just use the phone normally, and anyone who claims the battery life is "great" 1 hour after flashing a newly announced ROM is a fool. Likewise NEVER fully discharge a Li-Ion battery. Just keep topping it up. See here: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_charge_when_to_charge_table
Thoughts
Newer ROMs are rarely better ROMs. Better means different things to different folk of course.
ICS ROM core LPQ to LP8 are largely all the same, just variants of the same thing for different markets. Some users believe they perform differently.
Custom kernels and ROMs are always work in progress and should be treated as such. Check out the number of revisions. Some kernel cookers are (welcome) enthusiastic amateurs that assume more is better and cram "fixes" in that the professional salaried software engineers have mysteriously missed. If you only need your stock kernel to be insecure, learn how to make it so. You are running Linux on your box, right?
Deodexing is not a means to improve performance, on the contrary.
Undervolting is a mythical beast
I bought a phone with an FM radio because I want to use it!
And I totally agree. to all of it. Tried all iterations of almost all roms available. For some reason keep going to my VR 3.0 nandroid back up.
Except CM9, I don't really think there is any real development going on. Most are just cooked up roms OR stuff taken from the CM9 tree and implemented OR so called fixes that have actually broken something else OR just debloated rooted official firmware (that AFAIK is pretty easy to do with the fantastic dsixda's kitchen or on a rooted rom).
Now fanboy's may flame as much as they wish to, but seriously a stable CM9 (hopefully..!) or a VR 4.0 is all I am willing to wait for.
Till such time VR 3.0 it is.
LenAsh said:
Reserved for "tips and hints"
Newer ROMs are rarely better ROMs. Better means different things to different folk of course.
ICS ROM core LPQ to LP8 are largely all the same, just variants of the same thing for different markets. Some users believe they perform differently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't agree with your final thought. Different ics rooms have really different feels. E.g. Look at scrolling from lpq to lp7.....and there are numerous others as well. If u want more specific thoughts and feedback, just browse through different ics threads in this section..
omeryounos said:
I don't agree with your final thought. Different ics rooms have really different feels. E.g. Look at scrolling from lpq to lp7.....and there are numerous others as well. If u want more specific thoughts and feedback, just browse through different ics threads in this section..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... I have browsed through the sections, and tried various "revisions" or versions of Samsung ICS today while jotting this lot down, and my view, honestly, is there is no real difference. That isn't to say there isn't, I just can't see or feel it. I do accept that playing with 3 ROMs in a few hours is less than ideal. And a drag!
I suppose if someone could deconstruct the ROMs properly and thoroughly...
Anyway, thanks for your thoughts, appreciated.
Very nice review! +1
Keep up the good work
I broadly agree with the OP.
ICS/AOSP/AOKP/CM9 have improved over the last few weeks, but I'm back on GB, and will probably stay with it until I get the SGS3.
May be subjective, but for me the GB stock browser, camera and dialler are streets ahead of what the rest can offer. Scrolling is smoother too. And I like/need a radio.
B3311 said:
I broadly agree with the OP.
ICS/AOSP/AOKP/CM9 have improved over the last few weeks, but I'm back on GB, and will probably stay with it until I get the SGS3.
May be subjective, but for me the GB stock browser, camera and dialler are streets ahead of what the rest can offer. Scrolling is smoother too. And I like/need a radio.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like you and the OP only tried the AOSP/AOKP roms? Give the roms based on the latest official a try.
The dialer is still as good as always (unchanged), camera is actually improved with higher bitrate recording and the ics stock browser...is untouchable at the moment in my opinion. (Granted I use "ICS Browser+" from the market which uses the best ui in a browser I've encountered)
I currently use Dynamic's ICS rom and it would be extremely difficult for me to go back to GB at this point.
Sigurd02 said:
Seems like you and the OP only tried the AOSP/AOKP roms? Give the roms based on the latest official a try.
The dialer is still as good as always (unchanged), camera is actually improved with higher bitrate recording and the ics stock browser...is untouchable at the moment in my opinion. (Granted I use "ICS Browser+" from the market which uses the best ui in a browser I've encountered)
I currently use Dynamic's ICS rom and it would be extremely difficult for me to go back to GB at this point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I agree that in terms of loading websites, ics default browser is a little bit faster, scrolling and pinch and zooming is much smoother with stock gb browser. Also the dialer is worse on ics as it has removed the contacts section which means I have to put both the dialer and contacts shortcut on the dock.
I'm using Wanamlite v11.1, Siyahkernel v3.1, and Apex Launcher.
A winning combination in my opinion, that is now at least as good as the best GB ROMs in terms of battery life. 7 hours standby with 30 minutes screen time and i'm still on 87%.
In terms of fluidity and performance I think ICS /w Apex beats GB handsdown.
Thanks for the recommendation, but I avoid ROM mix ups, I can do that myself. The ones I have looked at have had some very dubious scripts and additions. I usually look at build.prop first, and generally find all sorts of hybrid attempts at adding stuff that is completely wrong. Lines taken from websites, other phones and so on.
LenAsh said:
Thanks for the recommendation, but I avoid ROM mix ups, I can do that myself. The ones I have looked at have had some very dubious scripts and additions. I usually look at build.prop first, and generally find all sorts of hybrid attempts at adding stuff that is completely wrong. Lines taken from websites, other phones and so on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends, it was like you say in Gingerbread days, not with ICS WanamLite nor Dynamic, only tried these + CM9
I am using Dynamic 1.4 LP9, it is as smooth and fast as CM9, but everything working because it is Samsung based
I tried the included NEAK and Speedmod kernels, similar performance and very good battery life, only 3% drain overnight, I dont play with processor tweaking
Sigurd02 said:
Seems like you and the OP only tried the AOSP/AOKP roms? Give the roms based on the latest official a try.
The dialer is still as good as always (unchanged), camera is actually improved with higher bitrate recording and the ics stock browser...is untouchable at the moment in my opinion. (Granted I use "ICS Browser+" from the market which uses the best ui in a browser I've encountered)
I currently use Dynamic's ICS rom and it would be extremely difficult for me to go back to GB at this point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dialer is laggy if you compare it with GB. CM9 variants have slightly more response dialers but overall, GB dialer is way more responsive. There is a small but noticeable lag when pressing a key and the time it takes to register on ICS (CM9 & stock).
Camera recording with stereo voice recording...! Seriously how many people do shoot video with a phone's camera? For facebook uploads mono audio is just fine..
Browser is a definitive improvement yes, and the desktop mode is welcome but browser mods have been available on GB since long.
It is not that ICS is bad. It is actually very good, but the way it has been implemented on S2 is downright ridiculous...! And not one stable vanilla build isn't really helping..
kranti2064 said:
For some reason keep going to my VR 3.0 nandroid back up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is something I have been contemplating for quite some time now, quite possibly the last month. The only real thing stopping me is that for some reason alot of games (eg dead space and modern combat 3) don't seem to like it when i change roms, and even though all the ingame data is there, sometimes it decides I have to re-download.
I do miss it alot though.. and also red pill kernel
I might end up doing a backup of current my CM9 and take the plunge sometime soon. I've been using CM9 since around feb and lately I think my interest has plateaued and now I'm just beginning to get frustrated with little lags that are popping up more frequently (probably due for a wipe mind you!). The only thing about villiam rom is the bloody touch wiz launcher.. I just don't like messing with the launcher roms were made for either.
kranti2064 said:
Camera recording with stereo voice recording...! Seriously how many people do shoot video with a phone's camera? For facebook uploads mono audio is just fine..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mass lols to be had at the fact that a majority of the time they would be played on the device through the mono loudspeaker too
I also go back for GB..becoz i feel that ics so laggy at dialer,and PES2012 freeze and cant play on ics..but in GB all working great..
Daripada galaxy s2 non-G
melorib said:
Depends, it was like you say in Gingerbread days, not with ICS WanamLite nor Dynamic, only tried these + CM9
I am using Dynamic 1.4 LP9, it is as smooth and fast as CM9, but everything working because it is Samsung based
I tried the included NEAK and Speedmod kernels, similar performance and very good battery life, only 3% drain overnight, I dont play with processor tweaking
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kranti2064 said:
And I totally agree. to all of it. Tried all iterations of almost all roms available. For some reason keep going to my VR 3.0 nandroid back up.
Except CM9, I don't really think there is any real development going on. Most are just cooked up roms OR stuff taken from the CM9 tree and implemented OR so called fixes that have actually broken something else OR just debloated rooted official firmware (that AFAIK is pretty easy to do with the fantastic dsixda's kitchen or on a rooted rom).
Now fanboy's may flame as much as they wish to, but seriously a stable CM9 (hopefully..!) or a VR 4.0 is all I am willing to wait for.
Till such time VR 3.0 it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Currently trying ninphetamine kernel (as per VR3 - thanks for the heads up) on my fave stock KL1 more for interest than anything. Seems OK, no obvious difference from stock running as is apart from it being insecure, need a couple of days to evaluate in real life use.
Bloody good post. I've been using CM9 since the video recording bug was solved, and thats probably the longest I've used any ROM on the SGS2, I really like AOSP but the problem is it does still have quite a few bugs, and isn't quite as fast or as battery friendly as I remember the likes of Hyperdroid v6 being.
This makes me tempted to go back to GB. For me, it is still the ultimate for a daily driver. But I'm lazy so I'll probably stick with CM9.
kranti2064 said:
Dialer is laggy if you compare it with GB. CM9 variants have slightly more response dialers but overall, GB dialer is way more responsive. There is a small but noticeable lag when pressing a key and the time it takes to register on ICS (CM9 & stock).
Camera recording with stereo voice recording...! Seriously how many people do shoot video with a phone's camera? For facebook uploads mono audio is just fine..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ICS dialer laggy , doesn't happen to me on stock LP9 or Dynamic based on LP9 and CM9 is as smooth as they come. Whilst mono audio is fine for you I quite like having stereo audio. Choice, not limitations my friend
tameracingdriver said:
Bloody good post. I've been using CM9 since the video recording bug was solved, and thats probably the longest I've used any ROM on the SGS2, I really like AOSP but the problem is it does still have quite a few bugs, and isn't quite as fast or as battery friendly as I remember the likes of Hyperdroid v6 being.
This makes me tempted to go back to GB. For me, it is still the ultimate for a daily driver. But I'm lazy so I'll probably stick with CM9.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers for that - I would definitely recommend the 2.3.6 KL1 off Sammobile if you want a solid GB.
Dude, if you have not tried CheckRom RevoHD V6, then you have not tried the BEST gingerbread rom for sgs2.
This is why I can not use ICS (yet). Checkrom is just too perfect of a Rom.
Try it, tweak it to your liking, use it for a week or 3 then try and go back to stock.
CheckRom XDA thread