Database Users

[POLL] Which is the smoothest one?

I have been using Wolf's GB ROM for 10 days now.
It is not only really smoother than stock SE GB rom, but also so stable. Really, it was a child's play for me to install it (actually it was also my first custom ROM) just like using a stock rom..
Now,
I'm happy with this rom at the moment but i want to try a couple more roms. I'm a little bit obsessed about smoothness of the phone.
Which one would you chose as the smoothest if you have to?
Please answer the poll if you have tried at least two of them..
Further reviews, ups and downs and advices are accepted..
1. Wolfs TW Gingerbread ROM
2. Blue Sparks
3. VMOD V5
4. ThGo2
5. Cyanogenmod

First of all, you forgot T.E.A.M. ROM in the poll.
phobias1903 said:
Really, it was a child's play for me to install it (actually it was also my first custom ROM) just like using a stock rom..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the case with all custom ROMs, installing them is as simple as flashing one or two zips in recovery.
I find that installing a custom ROM is actually simpler than flashing stock with SEUS/PC Companion/FlashTool.
phobias1903 said:
Now,
I'm happy with this rom at the moment but i want to try a couple more roms. I'm a little bit obsessed about smoothness of the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my humble opinion, which is based on experience since I myself am working on tweaking stock SE ROM for the past 4 months or so, a stock-based ROM is, at the end of the day, a modified but still stock ROM.
Granted there are the popular "tweaks" which are basically scripts that run on startup to optimise mostly the internal Android task killer and/or some kernel parameters, etc. The very core of the ROM, in most, if not all, cases remains the same. That way, my advice is to find a ROM that combines an acceptable by your personal taste level of "smoothness" (which is a purely relevant term, as it cannot be measured accurately), graphical enviroment and features.
Each user will probably give you a different answer because user experience may differ due to countless factors (apps installed, general way and purpose of using the phone). Gamers would mostly prefer a "stripped" ROM with minimal apps to leave them with space and memory for intense gaming. IMers (people using the phone mainly to communicate by mail, SMS, instant-messaging) will most of the times not notice performance improvements between ROMs because said apps are generally light-weight.
For a totally different experience, for example, Cyanogen could very well be your answer.
It is by default much smoother to SE ROMs, alas there might be things missing or not working at all, along with certain inconveniences.
So, it all comes down to what you want to do with your phone and what you feel is better. As with everything in life, obsession is never a good thing. At the end of the day, you want to be using your phone and not flashing it and setting it up from scratch every other day, right? And, let me say, that a poll will never help you as much as flashing and using the ROMs yourself.
Good luck!

Agreed...
cyanogen is great because it uses minimal system resources. It is a nice light, basic alternative, and therefore is quite fast.

As usual Iris explained it so well that a further answer isn´t really neccesary
Just a few summarised words; When you prefer a ROm where everything is working choose a ROM based on stock because just there everything is working especially the camera. Just there you have the Sony Ericcson camera app where you have features that aren´t available in real Custom ROMS.
In this case I can recommend you T.E.A.M Rom. It is very fast, beautiful and the support is awesome. But yeah....Iris mentioned that, too
When your priority isn´t the camera but best battery life and smoothness I can recommend you Tatsuo´s CM7 ROM running with his own kernel.

And where is MIUI? I happy with this ROM

iridaki said:
First of all, you forgot T.E.A.M. ROM in the poll.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely!
iridaki said:
At the end of the day, you want to be using your phone and not flashing it and setting it up from scratch every other day, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uhm, ... wrong. I want to flash and set it up every other day, sometimes even 2-3 times a day
Admitted, my desire to flash is greatly reduced since I use T.E.A.M ROM. But FXP046 will be a definite go for me and hell, I LOVE to play with many different ROMs. I have to admit that I reduced the apps I always install to a minimum and only install more apps if I plan to stay a little longer (--> T.E.A.M).
So, seeing it from this point of view, I make the worst out of my smartphone because I rarely can use its full potential. But who cares, flashing is fun

Considerations......

Hi to all, i premise that i love stock look and i want my GNote look like a GNote, not another phone, so i'm not intersted to roms with too much visual mods.
I come from a Galaxy S2 from day1 and i flashed it with many many roms and every time i flashed new rom it was full of modded apk and tricks very usefull. Now i switched to a Note and i'm very happy with it but after tried some cooked roms i came to the conclusion that IN MY OPINION no roms can offer more than a rooted stock rom maybe with jkay mods and unused apps removed or freezed with Titanium. Why i say this? Simply because latest Notes cooked Rom doesn't offer what is important for me and i think for other users: browser with user agent in settings, phone without ascending ringtone and noise filter off by default etc. In major cooked rom i read in description: tweaked this tweaked that but i see no real speed improvement in comparison to a (rooted) stock rom where all GNote app works and not like i read in cooked rom's comment: "this app doesnt work properly, my phone suffer random reboots, that app give me fc, after some day my phone become laggy etc. So, after tried many cooked roms now i think that with a rooted odexed kl4 with jkay mod my phone isn't less smooth than a "cooked rom equipped" one except for quadrant or other benchmarks results that are only numbers and doesn't give you a real result of how smooth is your device in daily use.
With these considerations i don't want to offend nobody and developer's hard work (i'm not developer and i admire their ability) i want only know if i'm the only one to think that and (if not) to advise developers about what users would like to see in future cooked rom.
Let me know what you think and before to say you don't agree with me try stock kl4 to compare.

That's what I think also, and that's what I did.
Stock la4 with jkay mod and removed a **** load of built in apps with titanium.
My phone flies and is smooth as butter, battery life awesome, no bugs, no crashes, nothing wrong.
Pure experience...
I miss roms like the ones developed by RMK40 for the HTC Desire Z, they were pure stock and just enhanced with tweaks needed to make them perfect, no frankeinstein bizarre stuff.
When I read things like: "libraries from ICS" I'm like, WTF !!!
It's like fitting your car with parts from another car...
It might be a little faster, but could be much less reliable.
Anyway, I recognise those devs are very talented, as there is no way I could do it myself, but it's just against my religion to mix libraries from different systems.
Like the sony bravia mod... what a POS !!!

There are only two good reasons to use a custom ROM for me: Power Menu and latest firmware. So I use Sheep ROM, the least modded one.

Viamonte said:
There are only two good reasons to use a custom ROM for me: Power Menu and latest firmware. So I use Sheep ROM, the least modded one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Power menu is also customizable with jkay on stock kl4 i also use it
(I hitted "thanks" instead of "quote" in your post )

Same here l, I love Stock looks and feels, I always stay away from ROMs that have there own graphics in, like RocketROM. I am using Cassie LA3 V6.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

GB to ICS and back - mini review

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

bored with ics with no greate feature

my excitement died out as soon as i got the new ics update, thought it would have some better features , rather i got face unlock not working in dark and some new settings to play with , tried to fiddle with new settings but the excitement just is dying i was expecting some features like camera app from unlock, taking photos from recording and some extra bit of features which would help me in my day to day life
i dont use the formula match do u in your day to day life use formula match, and shape match..?? s note is a good app but...
i am not a expert user and am afraid to flash new roms because of bugs

Same here. Not much stock features in ICS because of TW.

Here too. Not happy with the ICS upgrade. Nothing much and a horrible battery life in return.

Yep totally agree I had a better experience on my x10 with an ics Rom...there's so much more they could have achieved with such a good device..and for the battery that's another story...bak to gb for me..
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

prophet_in said:
my excitement died out as soon as i got the new ics update, thought it would have some better features , rather i got face unlock not working in dark and some new settings to play with , tried to fiddle with new settings but the excitement just is dying i was expecting some features like camera app from unlock, taking photos from recording and some extra bit of features which would help me in my day to day life
i dont use the formula match do u in your day to day life use formula match, and shape match..?? s note is a good app but...
i am not a expert user and am afraid to flash new roms because of bugs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I felt the same as you, all the ICS custom ROMS are plain and boring, i found it laggy and unstable with too many FCS but when I came across ParanoidAndroid, I could not go back to GB With the tablet mode enabled, i feel like my device is on a whole new level.
Give it a go! Battery life is excellent, restored all apps from Google Play Store from 45% now down to 37% with over 10 Apps restored including its settings etc..
Love the smoothness of this ROM!

The only thing I was interested in was gpu, and multicore support throughout, thats made such a massive difference o the device. All the other features of ics, you can get by installing a different launcher. Pretty much every new android update there's normally only a handful of features that you can't get already by downloading app from the play store, and rooting. Thats the beauty of android apple users always say android is fragmantated because we don't get the updates, but what tey don't realise is most often features google implement are taken from custom roms, launchers, apps or rooting and using a mod created on here. At android you don't need the new os if you want new features.

i was hoping for the same ICS as the galaxy nexus has
i have been trying apex launcher as its quite close to the ics on the nexus
but a few things i dont like - cannot edit apps to where i want
only by date install, title etc
the stock ics using TW is pretty similar to the GB one i used
shame really

Lets start another whining thread, we didn't have enough of those already

The answer to everyone's problems: CM9. flash it and never look back

We must have a new section in the GALAXY Note forum for those who expected a kitchen sink alongwith the ICE Cream Sandwich update.

omersak said:
The answer to everyone's problems: CM9. flash it and never look back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear omersak,
Totally agreed... Try paranoid v0.2 with thor kernel v0.9 and enjoy hbyrid phone/tablet mode + overclocking cpu/gpu... i easily get 55 fps in nenamark2...
Kind regards...
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

thanks for sharing your views , about cm9 but then i am not very used to android and i think there may be more who are afraid for the brick bug..... and the system of warranty here in india is very bad specially samsung they would atleast take 15 to 20 days and finally repair and not replace or instant swap

Paranoid Android 0.2, Thor Kernel, changed clocks and voltages.
Chrome Browser. Spell Check. GPU Rendering. I don't miss S-Pen at all.
I too was a little unimpressed with ICS at first. Then Paranoid Android came and I could never go back.

Sorry, but the problem with the open source ROMs for this and other phones is that you lose hardware functionality (camera / FM radio / S-Pen, for example). And I'm not buying a $700 device to then install an operating system that does not allow me to use all it's hardware.
omersak said:
The answer to everyone's problems: CM9. flash it and never look back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Come on guys its not iOS ! Flash a rom, change your launcher ... customize to your liking. There are some awesome TW based ICS roms like kingdroid, criskelo etc that let you use all the functionality of FM, SPEN etc, If you want to try out something other than TW then there are AOSP/AOKP roms and CM9 based roms.
Follow instructions and you will be safe even with the brick bug around.

hope someone tells the samsung guys that the need to work on interfaces like sony or htc where we get a better user interface then on the note which is nore efficient

Try trebuchet (i think thats how you spell it)
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA

omersak said:
The answer to everyone's problems: CM9. flash it and never look back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's to true ,even paranoid is a very good choice (also based on CM9)
vcespon said:
Sorry, but the problem with the open source ROMs for this and other phones is that you lose hardware functionality (camera / FM radio / S-Pen, for example). And I'm not buying a $700 device to then install an operating system that does not allow me to use all it's hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
clearly you haven't tried cm9 yet ,you don't loose any of the things you just mentioned
camera is working perfectly ,1080p video recording as well.
FM-radio ,not out of the box but there is a workaround I believe (I never use FM so I haven't tried it)
S-pen is working perfectly ,you just need to install free note from the market to replace Smemo.
the only thing really not working at the moment is MHL ,and that too will get a fix in the near future .

MR.change said:
S-pen is working perfectly ,you just need to install free note from the market to replace Smemo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it have Palm rejection?

Too much wining about ICS....
Ok, what did you people expected from it?? Whole new UI, faster, newer and better apps?? The whole android has guidelines, on GB people complained about this and that ICS is just an enhanced version of GB.....
Samsung could have made a new TW, i second that. And if it wasn't for "the bug" i know many of you would have already flashed a rom if it wasn't for that.
You can still flash and if you're careful you don't end up with a bricked note.
Come on look ate android versions before this, don't you all see improvements??
In my opinion android OS has com a very long way in a very short time. I don't want to make comparissons but IOS (apple) is using the same layout for years and although people are complaining they still don't change it !!! Look at symbian: i don't like it at all, things are not going well with it... If you just take a look at other OS'S you'll see that android is the one that evolved the most..
If you can customize it fully (with rom or apps) why the wining about it ???
Battery life on this kind of devices has and will be always the problem, we just have to accept that we have to charge it according to our use, once a day is acceptable (we do sleep don't we???) and there is no reason to turn the phone off during the charging process.......
I for one don't have many problems with ICS, i hust have to manage the battery life during the day according to my needs. I always have two chargers and a car charger so if i need to charge for an hour (or two) there is no problem.
Use it and don't make such a big problem of it.....
Ok, start the flaming or just say "thanks"
becosemsaida

Best rom for xperia sp discussion

For users-
Hello everyone. xperia sp is old device with old functionality.
ram management is bad, shows 300 ram used while other phone with 1 gb ram dont have this issues.
touch issues and many other you people knows well.
there are a lot developers for xperia sp but which rom should i need to flash is a big question for me still now .
i am an old user of this phone.
this thread is a discussion thread welcomes all users share there experience or tweaks which they think should help each other.
please be friendly and help each other. this is only way to survive with this phone.
For Developers-
Hello Developers. we all love your work and this thread if you all take positively is for helipng the new users to not getting lost here.
i hope all will support.
please remember one thing before posting.
discussion is more about stability & features.

Hi
Please try all the ROMs, and eventually you will find the one that sorts out best for you. Mileage is vary for every person, and the "stability" is kind of a subjective placebo now, since the ROMs have been really mature thanks to the contributions of the developers in this marvellous forum. Basically what I am trying to say is that, it is now dependant on the user on how it feels about the particular ROM he/she is running..
I am a user of this device since December 2013.. It has been a really long journey, and I managed settle on a comforting setup.
This thread shouldn't be created under the Development subforum, but the General subforum instead.
Here, look at what i have in the attachments

Please avoid spamming in the development section :/

Hey there!,
There's always a lot of talk about the 'best ROM' and which one that is, and I get that question a lot via pm, meaning you're not alone on this one but I have a simple answer to that:
There's no such thing called the best ROM. Each ROM has different customization features, optimizations, etc. And the thing is, some people like customization and some like a stock feel. Also a few devices respond differently to different ROMs as well (strangely), some are fast and some are slow and horrible. If there was a 'best ROM', then other ROMs wouldn't exist.
In conclusion, if you want the best ROM, you're going to have to try a bunch of them and see which tailors to your needs the most.
Cheers
NOTE: You might want to contact a moderator and take down this thread or move it to General before Devs come running with pitchforks!

i won't repeat any talk from above because it's clear
no offense @Sam spancer but i reported this thread to moderator to move it to the general section
thanks for ur understanding
edit: thanks for the mod it has been moved (now it's in the right place)

Android Dev place is ze best place for things that are irrelevant. I'm probably going down along with this post because I can't do much these days

You know what the best rom is: multirom, so you can have them all!!

Arno is very correct!

Dear sp users this thread is for help. We should share what we experiencing with the rom.we have so for a person who is new here or want.to install a rom for daily use can have an idea about what to flash now. Thread will have rating feature also later.
Instead of critisizing or telling anything irrelevant does not help to any one.in any manner.
Guys instead of pasting that long messege is you would have said which rom.you.using and.how.satisfied.you are with that. Shared a little experience with other roms whould have helpd yet to a person who is about to.flash some thing.
If we do like this everyone.will be benifitted.

I stumbled upon this thread and it reminded me....that I'm yet to find "the perfect rom" for my xperia sp. I have this phone since April 8th, 2014. It's not the perfect phone, but I still love it as much as I did in day 1, plus it covers all my needs the way I want, so it's my daily driver, and it'll keep being so for a long time. Anyways, I've tried a.i.c.p. 10 (July 18th, 2015 being the best build of those I've used), which was fantastic. The multitasking is exceptional, the ram management is great (I'd say almost on par with the stock 4.1.2 - around 400+ mb of free ram), it was stupidly fast, super stable and also it had great built-in customization (imagine something like a built-in xposed framework or dirty unicorns' "dirty tweaks"). I was using this rom for around 3 months and was very pleased.
After around 3 months, I realised I miss the led bar's functionality level the stock firmwares offer (like, while making a call, if the display is on, the 3 leds will illuminate according to the theme color accent, also when recieving a call and the phone rings the leds illuminate again, etc.), so I reverted back to the stock 4.3, where I had begun with. However, after some time of using it, the stock 4.3 seemed somewhat....sluggish. I'd rooted it, removed all of the bloatware and was running a custom kernel (williams to be exact), so I was looking for a replacement. Having in mind that I didn't want to lose the functionality level of the led bar of the stock firmwares, so I looked for something based on that.
After a long time searching and trying out, I flashed the "original pure stock v3" rom, which is essentialy a quite trimmed-down version of the stock 4.3. I also made a Hatsune Miku theme as I admired (and I still do) the Japan-exclusive "xperia feat. Hatsune Miku" (here's a video about this phone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T751VmtMHPo) and its goodies, flashed a zip I found on xda that contained all the wallpapers (and the wallpaper changer that changes the phone's wallpaper everytime the phone is being unlocked), and also flashed williams kernel so I can have a better level of customization over my phone, and I was good to go. It was a better version of the stock 4.3, but still. Deep down I felt something missing......
Then I found the existenz ultra rom, which I found charming, and wanted to make my own version of the "xperia feat. Hatsune Miku" based on that. Flashed it, made the appropriate mods, and off I went again. This rom is actually stock 4.3-based, but with lots of xperia z2 goodies, so it's like having an xperia z2 with a led bar (which is working perfectly, the job done on that rom is quite good). After adjusting the ram management via the kernel adiutor and taking advice from a thread I found on these forums (if anyone's interested, take a look here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2751559), and of course, making the mods I wanted (mostly what I already described in the previous paragraph), I was in peace for quite some time....the ram management is around 300+/350+ mb free, so it's good I guess.
I'm currently rocking the existenz ultra, but I still feel something missing. I thought about reverting back to the stock 4.1.2 and its superb ram management (since I'm starting to have performance & compatibility issues with ppsspp - no idea if it's the app's fault or it's something else), but I'm not sure about that. I just don't know what to do anymore. The phone itself is awesome, but I've yet to find the appropriate rom to combine its hardware with. I'm looking for something that has the exact same led bar functionality of the stock firmwares, but also must be fast, smooth and that lets lots of ram free to take advantage of. If anyone has a suggestion, feel free to suggest. As for now, I guess I won't find peace until I find this "perfect rom".....anyway, these are my experiences with the phone. Hope I can actually help someone.

|>/\nte said:
I stumbled upon this thread and it reminded me....that I'm yet to find "the perfect rom" for my xperia sp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find my story with the SP just like yours, tryied many different roms and mods for this phone, finally the best 4.3 version for my SP I've found was the leaked version from Doomlord (don't know why, I've runed .207, 205, 266 etc, they all was lagging too much after a week or so. About "best rom thing" don't really know if its the best, but with RR[bugfree] 5.0.2, I was having 595mb free on ram at boot, and after a day of usage it stays in 535mb free. Unfortunately the rom itself lacks of a good optimizations, I am no developer not even close to one and I admire a lot what they do since the days with my galaxy i5500. If I have the knowledge I would take a closer look on that rom.

|>/\nte said:
I'm looking for something that has the exact same led bar functionality of the stock firmwares.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From my personal experience that started in February 2014 (the month I rooted my phone) and ended in June 2015 (the month in which I made the definitive switch to CM based ROMs), and given what you said in the part of your post I quoted, I'd suggest you eXistenZ. Under the hood, it's Android 4.3, but all the userspace features and apps have been ported from Kitkat, and, last but not least, it's rock solid. All the ported apps and things you'll find there are completely stable. Also next month I might bring to new life the stock kernel by modding it a bit so users that decide to go back to stock will have much better performance and RAM management.

Tomoms said:
From my personal experience that started in February 2014 (the month I rooted my phone) and ended in June 2015 (the month in which I made the definitive switch to CM based ROMs), and given what you said in the part of your post I quoted, I'd suggest you eXistenZ. Under the hood, it's Android 4.3, but all the userspace features and apps have been ported from Kitkat, and, last but not least, it's rock solid. All the ported apps and things you'll find there are completely stable. Also next month I might bring to new life the stock kernel by modding it a bit so users that decide to go back to stock will have much better performance and RAM management.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have free time and you're willing to do this, consider doing it, and you could also retrain good battery life too with this kernel you might make. Also, I'm currently running eXistenZ 4, but do you know if the black version is still based on 12.1.A.0.266 build? As far as I know it's based on that, and 12.1.A.0.266 is the worst build of all the ones that this phone had received.

|>/\nte said:
If you have free time and you're willing to do this, consider doing it. Also, I'm currently running eXistenZ 4, but do you KNOE if the black version is still based on 12.1.A.0.266 build? As far as I know it's based on that, and 12.1.A.0.266 is the worst build of all the ones that this phone had received.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got no idea. But I'd suggest you to stay with the normal eXistenZ 4 you have already installed.

thanks for share
to start my story is also same
i started with flashing stock roms , stock roms are stable a lot. when we do a action it completes always in stock. but fastness and performance problem is always there no matter it is custom stock or pure stock.
i have used existenz, neildownx pure xperia and many more.
i still flash some time stock but i get annoyed by bad performance in 2 days , what i love in stock is battery and stableness.
now about custom i used mateoo cm11, bagy all rom, slim i love but except cm11 no one is stable.
i love slim but its not syalltable and problems it has are not acceptable.
cm12 or 13 i actually dont prefer.
used adrian cm13 rro
good but i didnt find it as a daily driver. tgere are some bugs in it.
many times i faced a situation when i am using custom rom and i am with frnds about to take photo and camera not opening at all.
system ui crash, whenever this happen i get very anniyed and flash stock.
i never flashed or used stock 4.1
can any one tell me how it is.
i dont care about frleatures or look. everything can be achievlved by xposed. what i ant it a stable blazing fast dailydriver rom .
currently i love cm11 latest by bagyuse and i live his work

Sam spancer said:
thanks for share
to start my story is also same
i started with flashing stock roms , stock roms are stable a lot. when we do a action it completes always in stock. but fastness and performance problem is always there no matter it is custom stock or pure stock.
i have used existenz, neildownx pure xperia and many more.
i still flash some time stock but i get annoyed by bad performance in 2 days , what i love in stock is battery and stableness.
now about custom i used mateoo cm11, bagy all rom, slim i love but except cm11 no one is stable.
i love slim but its not syalltable and problems it has are not acceptable.
cm12 or 13 i actually dont prefer.
used adrian cm13 rro
good but i didnt find it as a daily driver. tgere are some bugs in it.
many times i faced a situation when i am using custom rom and i am with frnds about to take photo and camera not opening at all.
system ui crash, whenever this happen i get very anniyed and flash stock.
i never flashed or used stock 4.1
can any one tell me how it is.
i dont care about frleatures or look. everything can be achievlved by xposed. what i ant it a stable blazing fast dailydriver rom .
currently i love cm11 latest by bagyuse and i live his work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The stock 4.1.2 is dated, BUT: it has superb RAM management (you easily get 400-430 MB of free RAM - it's on par with KitKat and lollipop aosp-based ROMs), it's pretty fast and rock solid of course. If you're interested in great multitasking you can take a look at that. Bear in mind though that being a now dated version of Android some apps might not be compatible with it. Developers are starting to abandon these versions of Android but I suppose you'll be fine about that. If you want to try something different, give it a shot.

i don't know about doomlord leaked rom,, can anyone provide a link?
also currently I am using bagyuse cm11 latest.. smooth bt slow when one or two app I open, battery not best.
more suggestions for roms needed. also we should compare that stock or custom we should use.

I've been using Carbon LP with Helium kernel for a while. It's the best rom I've ever used so far, and the least problematic one. Fast, stable, bugfree. I've used lots of roms but almost every one of them had problems. But after 3 months of usage, carbon is still in a perfect state and it's fast as it's supposed to be. I strongly recommend that one.

i wanted a rom with all xperia features , and got one from a Brazilian .. the rom is fast and stock modified.. works at best level for me

electro_nik said:
i wanted a rom with all xperia features , and got one from a Brazilian .. the rom is fast and stock modified.. works at best level for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you link that rom?