Custom ROMs - sharing a beginner's experience - Galaxy S II General

As a long time Android user and general nerd, I often hear from some of my friends about new and cool custom ROMs. It ranges from "amazing customization" to "blazing speed" and even "far better than anything stock in general".
So this weekend I decided that since my warranty is no longer valid anyway, and Samsung won't be updating the Galaxy S2 GT-i9100 anymore, I can go ahead and try something new and shiny, which could help me with my job.
And thus began my research and tests on Android custom ROMs...and oh boy, that was one hell of an experience.
Everything I heard from people about nearly everything was shattered right then and there.
As a reasonable person, I decided to try some of the more popular ROMs, trying to stick as much as possible to stable builds since everyday use is a big deal for me. So now I present to you, my experience with what I was told are the top-dogs of the custom ROM world and my impressions of each:
Omni 4.4.2
This one actually surprised me in terms of it's video driver. As some might know, a bunch of Gameloft published games always show washed out colors on the Galaxy S2, but when used, this ROM showed the correct colors...quite shocking! ...however, it turned out to be highly unstable with apps crashing left and right all the time and often for no real reason. This ROM is not really advertised as "stable" so I guess that was understandable, so I decided to move on.
MIUI v5
This ROM was just impressive. I absolutely love the UI (and I didn't even try the customization stuff, yet I say that!). It seemed really stable and I almost decided to stick with it...until I found out that 3 apps in particular I very much rely on don't work properly or at all (overlay issues it seems). This got me really disappointed but I figured functionality is more important than looks so once again, I decided to move on.
CyanogenMod 10.3.1
This might be the biggest disappointment for all the wrong reasons. The buildup and hype I got from people about it created in my head "the ultimate ROM"...but after installing it and doing some tests...I have to say, the performance difference was just barely noticeable and i all honesty, not worth the trade for the bugs it also brings (although if it had the video driver from Omni I would've changed my mind). I really wanted to do a fair judgement since I know this is the top-dog of ROMs (or at least in popularity) so I even ran tests on it...and in games, the framerate difference between stock and CM10.3 was just 2-5fps.
Resurrection Remix 4.0.7
This was...let me just say it out loud - the installation for this ROM should be a standard - just incorporate some stuff and have people chose what to get or don't get. Having stock stuff and then 10 additional flashable ZIPs while not really a big issue is just a time-waster for a lot of people in my eyes (although it would've been nice to know more about the modems when it asks you for a choice). Anyway, this ROM's keyboard just refused to work so I got rid of it after 2 flashes.
ReVolt JB 4.5
...keyboard didn't work on this one again, and after another 2 flash attempts, I scrapped it aswell.
At this point I pretty much just gave up and went back to the Samsung stock ROM for my region and was left with an empty feeling that custom ROMs all seem to have at least one or more huge flaws.
All the buildup and "legends" (lacking a better term) weren't even close to what I experienced (except the MIUI...well, UI) and it got me thinking...are custom ROMs meant for everyday users or they were always aimed at people willing to experiment? Personally, I decided that my journey through the custom ROM world has ended here at least for the time being (maybe someday I'll go back to MIUI but who knows), but I wanted to ask, does anyone feel the same way I do? That custom ROMs, while a really cool thing to be able to have is getting overhyped to the point where unless you really know what you're getting into will lead to just disappointment?
I would really like to hear other people's views on this, especially if you're not an expert user.

NeatROM rulez, give it a try.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

I'm using slimbean 2.2. It's seems better them any other ROM.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

Resurrection Remix 4.0.7 worked fine for me. the only problem is the System UI that usually crashes when you messed up on something and it really need some reboot for that. ☺
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Well, with custom roms comes both bugs and extended capacities.
First of all, having a rooted phone gives a lot of new possibilities.
Besides, custom roms give new content, like the latest android updates, which the constructors take time to port to their devices.
At last but not least, custom ROMs often let you.. customize as much as thou wish
I'm personally using Cyanfox (android 4.4), and I'm pretty happy about it
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

You schould try another 4.4.2 custom roms for egz pound rom(the best for me) or beanstalk which is good too
Wysłane z mojego GT-I9100 przy użyciu Tapatalka

warpgamer said:
Well, with custom roms comes both bugs and extended capacities.
First of all, having a rooted phone gives a lot of new possibilities.
Besides, custom roms give new content, like the latest android updates, which the constructors take time to port to their devices.
At last but not least, custom ROMs often let you.. customize as much as thou wish
I'm personally using Cyanfox (android 4.4), and I'm pretty happy about it
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually just root my stock ROM with the SuperSU flashable ZIP-thingie...though I only need it for a firewall ^-^;;
But to me one of the biggest deal-breakers is how all the ROMs I did like don't support MHL (if only MIUI was capable of that )

Since the warranty is gone i'm trying a bunch of roms to sede what nave to offer. So far i've only tried the omnirom and it's pretty good to me, except some minor bugs.
In my opinion you've to choose a stabile ROM if you don't want any problems

im using cm10.1 stable linaro build most nearly perfect rom for me.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

iobling said:
Since the warranty is gone i'm trying a bunch of roms to sede what nave to offer. So far i've only tried the omnirom and it's pretty good to me, except some minor bugs.
In my opinion you've to choose a stabile ROM if you don't want any problems
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dredremon said:
im using cm10.1 stable linaro build most nearly perfect rom for me.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's kind'a the thing, CM 10.3.1 is the one shown as stable and it seems to be...but it's missing features that the stock ROMs offer, and the performance difference is pretty much not noticeable enough to justify it for me.
All the ROMs except Omni were shown as "stable" but as i mentioned in my first post, all seem to have at least 1 big issue.
As a side question...I heard the newest version of MIUI actually had MHL/TV-out support on the S2...anyone know if that's true?

Dorimanx anybody ... ?

I only use my phone for basic stuff.So I just use a stock rom with a custom kernel.That way, everything works and I dont have to read 2000 posts to see what problems to expect.

Stock CM kernel isn't all that great IMO , Try coupling Dorimanx's kernel with CM or any other ROM... Adds a lot of power features with stability. stock Sammy Roms feel very caged and unoptimized thus the need for custom builds. Give it time... It grows on you eventually.
Just my 2cents

theunderling said:
I only use my phone for basic stuff.So I just use a stock rom with a custom kernel.That way, everything works and I dont have to read 2000 posts to see what problems to expect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After 2 years of trying to find a custom ROM that doesn't have one show-topping bug, I feel bad for not just staying with a nicely optimized stock ROM with a tweaked kernel that is 100% dependable when I need it.
So, +1 :good:

Well, I only recently got the S2. Before my S2, I've owned an HTC One V. The stock ROM on that thing was just a mess. It came with 4.0.4 ICS and... you guessed it... no update to JB. So I installed a custom ROM on that one... it improved nearly everything.
So, from my experiences with that device, I thought I could flash the S2 and get the same experience. And... well, not really. I have tried so many ROMs...
The AOSP based ROMs either drain battery like hell or have any other bug which is so impacting that I can't deal with it. For example, the Audio 50% bug. Just one word: Annoying.
SO, I could stay with a Samsung stock ROM, but well, that won't be an option for me. Why not? Simple, on the stock rom, using my phone for an hour, literally ONE HOUR, the thing is completely dead. Battery empty. The only stock rom which gives me two and half an hour of screen on time is the 2.3.3 GB stock. And well, that's a bit old nowadays.
The by far best combination for power, speed, stability and battery life for me is CM10.1 stable with the DorimanX 9.14 kernel. I've tried it once and I find myself going back to it pretty much everytime I flashed any ROM I do not like.
Currently I'm on CM11 unofficial nightly, tomorrow I will see for how long my battery can last. I know, my battery is probably broken, but it's not thicker than normal or something like that. It just drains and I have no idea why.

DerGraf1997 said:
Well, I only recently got the S2. Before my S2, I've owned an HTC One V. The stock ROM on that thing was just a mess. It came with 4.0.4 ICS and... you guessed it... no update to JB. So I installed a custom ROM on that one... it improved nearly everything.
So, from my experiences with that device, I thought I could flash the S2 and get the same experience. And... well, not really. I have tried so many ROMs...
The AOSP based ROMs either drain battery like hell or have any other bug which is so impacting that I can't deal with it. For example, the Audio 50% bug. Just one word: Annoying.
SO, I could stay with a Samsung stock ROM, but well, that won't be an option for me. Why not? Simple, on the stock rom, using my phone for an hour, literally ONE HOUR, the thing is completely dead. Battery empty. The only stock rom which gives me two and half an hour of screen on time is the 2.3.3 GB stock. And well, that's a bit old nowadays.
The by far best combination for power, speed, stability and battery life for me is CM10.1 stable with the DorimanX 9.14 kernel. I've tried it once and I find myself going back to it pretty much everytime I flashed any ROM I do not like.
Currently I'm on CM11 unofficial nightly, tomorrow I will see for how long my battery can last. I know, my battery is probably broken, but it's not thicker than normal or something like that. It just drains and I have no idea why.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get up to 14 days with my battery if it's just on Standby [no actual use] and up to a full day if I play some games on it with the Stock ROM.
Also I wanted to mention that I tried DorimanX 8.43 earlier today and my god, my phone became unstable as hell [still on a stock ROM]...odd.
But yeah, you might want to get a new battery if you get less than 16 hours battery life

Hello. I want share my experience. I moved from stock because i want try 4.2 new features, specially widget on lockscreen.
I first tryied cm 10.2 but battery drained quickly and gaming was so sloooow.I tryied then cm10.2 linaro but experienced 4-5 reboot a day. Now I'm back on cm10.2 hoping that the guy working on exynos drivers will bring good news. In the meanwhile I will try gustavo or apolo kernel that seems the most stable kernels
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

Waiting S4 UI port into i9100G ...

I have found only 2-3 Roms that can be used
I can say that i have installed allmost all posible ROMs. For me every rom whit verson of android above 4.1.2 just didn't work ( i have SD CARD problems in most of the ROM's in other i have encored camera problems or bootloops ) The only ROM working realy good is snapdragon and s4fors2 .
IF ANY ONE KHNOWS HOW TO SOLVE MY SD-CARD PROBLEMS ON ANY ROM WITH ANDROID VERSION ABOVE 4.1.2 PM me PLS

CyanFox Rom is the most stable and worked for me as well. Give it a try!!
For Battery Backup, maybe you can use Voltage Control Pro App, Underclock to 1 GHZ if you are not a hardcore gamer. You can also decrease voltage,more Options over mv are also available in Pro Version, Decreasing Voltage will help lower power consumption of CPU.
You can also install Siyah Latest Kernel and do all of this using S-Tweaks!
Thanks!
@hellco what exactly is your sd card problem?? Can you elaborate??

Related

[Q] CM7 vs. MIUI

As both CM7 and MIUI have really matured over the last weeks and samsung is still not able to get to develop a stable gingerbread version I think its time to have a deeper look into the alternatives. What do you think, what is the best solution for the sgs right now? please also post experiences, but really valuable I guess are only experiences with current CM7 or MIUI versions!
Best
Tobi
Samsung gingerbread is as stable, or more, than CM7/MIUI, meaning none is 100% stable, what is your problem...
Samsung roms are better for now
All of them has a special thing...
Now I am using Gelnet Miui rom and it is fantastic an also stable!
You should try it
cm7 and miui are both very fast, even with lagfix on samsung roms you can see minor lags but...
cm7 and miui have bugs that made me go back to samsung custom rom.
the camera does not work even regular picture looks bad sometimes, battery drain in cm7 is also worst than any bug samsung has, if the camera and the battery does not bother you so you can give it a try.
another reason i go back to samsung rom is the brightness change from the notification bar and the swype left for calls in contacts or logs (very usefull while you are driving).
st379 said:
cm7 and miui are both very fast, even with lagfix on samsung roms you can see minor lags but...
cm7 and miui have bugs that made me go back to samsung custom rom.
the camera does not work even regular picture looks bad sometimes, battery drain in cm7 is also worst than any bug samsung has, if the camera and the battery does not bother you so you can give it a try.
another reason i go back to samsung rom is the brightness change from the notification bar and the swype left for calls in contacts or logs (very usefull while you are driving).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, but may I ask, when you tried out CM7? Ive read, that bettery is now even better lightly than with Sams FW and apparently the camera issues have also been fixed, at least by GALNET...for the swyping contacts i suppose there are alternative contacts apks?
cheers
I've just joined CM7 and have had slightly better battery power and no camera issues at all. I'm really impressed with the whole package. I can't imagine going back to stock ROM. Everything is stable and fast.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
CM7 is very stable on my phone, better than last official ROM, so I keep it.
I installed both of them on my phone. CM7 had radio problem which didnt work (although there are CM7 radio patch which could be flashed). MIUI had a problem with getting network. Kept getting SOS signal only. Tried flashing 2-3 different MIUI roms and all of them had this problem of no network. Think since there are so many custom roms based on official firmware out there, it makes sense to install them over CM7/MIUI.
Glamsen said:
thanks, but may I ask, when you tried out CM7? Ive read, that bettery is now even better lightly than with Sams FW and apparently the camera issues have also been fixed, at least by GALNET...for the swyping contacts i suppose there are alternative contacts apks?
cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you serious? that sounds awesome, if someone could pls confirm that! the last time i tried miui/cm7 i could just survive the day with massive undervolting and custom kernels which was simply put inacceptable for daily use.. using the same voltage settings on stock roms give me more than 3 days, same usage pattern.
dbraaker said:
are you serious? that sounds awesome, if someone could pls confirm that! the last time i tried miui/cm7 i could just survive the day with massive undervolting and custom kernels which was simply put inacceptable for daily use.. using the same voltage settings on stock roms give me more than 3 days, same usage pattern.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using CM7 and battery life has improved but dont expect more than 1 1/2 day,
If battery life is your major concern then stick to the one you are happy with
i don't like that my Android seems like an iPhone... no no.. Miui is not for me, it's just a copy (according to me, design is too similar...)
thank you for the pointless thread, which opens a discussion that leads nowhere!
It is similar to the iphone but just think of it as way more customizeable ; im on miui right now and i couldnt be any more satisyfied; lol its gotten so better that their going to make a miui phone... thas something
Sent from my demonSPEED! Glacier using XDA App
iv been trying out nearly all roms around here
and i can say cm7 is by far the superior rom out there
BUT
besides all the people always telling battery gets better and this might even be the case but the batt is still VERY weak
no comparison to stock rom
I mount the CM7, but now I also had the MIUI, I think the CM7 is better, speed, performance and stability
I tried the latest cm7 nightly a couple weeks ago. It was interesting, but definitely wasnt as smooth and polished as jvq. It also crashed a couple of times. Went back to jvq which I'm happy with for now.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
please add darky on poll
I change rom every week and have found that the best battery is with stock miui from MIUIAndroid.com. However, I never turn on data until I need it. With this after 11 hours medium usage I was still on 80%!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App

Poll: Stock, CM7 or other Custom Rom?

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

[Q] What ROM are you using and why, and how often do you change?

I'm a new Android user and loving all of the options out there in terms of Kernels, ROMS, etc, but I find myself being overwhelmed with all of the options out there. So far I'm pretty set with running franco Kernel (running r20 right now), but I find myself always wanting to try out new ROMs, and I'm hoping that doing all of this switching around isn't going to mess up my device but I just can't nail myself down to a ROM that I'm set with.
I had been running CM 10.1 nightlies, but just recently a couple of days ago I jumped over to MiNCO because of the support for franco Kernel.
Now I find myself looking at the Xylon ROM but am worried that jumping around from ROM to ROM is going to mess with my device.
What ROMs are you guys using, and why are you using them? I find myself that the most important factors for me are battery life/performance, quick toggles, and the power menu.
I havean EVO 4G LTE .. ever since i got the o.g. EVO I was hooked on them. But I use a stock with goodies Rom by flex. Its a great rom has everything I need and its super smooth
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
I generally stick to CyanogenMod. I keep an eye on the changelog and flash new nightlies when things I want are merged.
I've messed with AOKP and MIUI in the past but they're not really for me.
Cyanogenmod 10.1 Jellybro because it has everything I need and is clean code (no dirty hacks). Used to be a fan of aokp but too many dirty code and unicorns for me.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
zephiK said:
clean code (no dirty hacks).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cm is my favourite rom, but thats not really the truth what you say. in order to stuff in tons of devices that normally do not run aosp they have to stretch the base wide open with hacks. this is the hackiest rom in the android scene and it must be, otherwise people out there wouldnt know what android is. thats why cm traditionally never had so much traction on this plattform than on others, simply because uncompromised aosp is leaner and more optimized for android itself and the nexus plattform. on a legacy device i'd always suggest cm, thats obvious. on nexus cm may not be the obvious best choice anymore, because the others are likely faster, more stable, have less daily fallouts, and in some cases have more features, like aokp, if youre the kind of guy that likes that sort of thing. if i flash cm here, its because i like their creative/inventive spirit and would like to support the project overall. flashing is easy though, trying out a couple of em isn't that much of a problem. (-:
Paranoid android. Not even considered any other ROM since I flashed this one. Its just so amazing. I couldn't live without all the colours that change per app, and all the other features it has.
I suggest trying it out now.
Sent from my Nexus 4.
With my previous device, s2, I changed a lot, from RR to AOKP to CM etc etc, I like them all.
On my N4, I'm using stock until a really good-good ROM comes out, I don't have any problems, other than battery, so I don't panic, YET.
calanizzle said:
With my previous device, s2, I changed a lot, from RR to AOKP to CM etc etc, I like them all.
On my N4, I'm using stock until a really good-good ROM comes out, I don't have any problems, other than battery, so I don't panic, YET.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah other than battery issues everything else is a "nice to have" and nothing I "absolutely need"
I've been on xylon w matrix kernel
For battery customization and speed.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
For me its PA rom....Ive tried every rom because I love flashing lol....but this is an honest opinion from experience....I know best rom talk is not allowed but the best to me is PA rom because of one simple reason....other than stock...its perfect!!!! And with that being said I have No issues with it very stable..super fast...alot of features man I can go on and on....if you want your N4 running perfect go PA...there are some other good roms because we have alot of elite devs in here and im sure more are on the way...but to me theres nothing better than super wiping your phone just to make sure its really clean and flashing PA...all you can say is wow after that lol......and now I change roms everytime Moles and his crew update PA....and also flash Franco kernel with this and your N4 will be excellent....
I'm currently on liquidsmooth. I've tried rasbeanjelly, Xylon, codefirex, CM 10.1, MinCo and a few others I can't remember. All were great. I'm really like liquidsmooth. It's a great balance. I flash, sometimes 3 times a day.
Setup: Code FireX w/ Faux beta
CFX is the first non-stock ROM that I decided to try because it uses the Linaro chain and I was pretty curious about the speed.
Long story short, CFX's performance is apparent as soon as you start using the device, it had much needed improvements.
Oh, and did I mention the CFX settings? Synegye's special built in mods allow you to improve your experience even more. For instance I decided to use the 6 signal Wi-Fi/Network, center clock, smaller Nav Bar, as well as dual view. This package, when combined with Faux's kernel presents you with an unbeatable experience on the best Android experience to date.​
Ace42 said:
Setup: Code FireX w/ Faux beta
CFX is the first non-stock ROM that I decided to try because it uses the Linaro chain and I was pretty curious about the speed.
Long story short, CFX's performance is apparent as soon as you start using the device, it had much needed improvements.
Oh, and did I mention the CFX settings? Synegye's special built in mods allow you to improve your experience even more. For instance I decided to use the 6 signal Wi-Fi/Network, center clock, smaller Nav Bar, as well as dual view. This package, when combined with Faux's kernel presents you with an unbeatable experience on the best Android experience to date.​
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That sounds pretty intriguing, I think I just found the next ROM that is going to get flashed on my N4.
Nice discussion. Very interesting.
via Google Nexus 4
For reliability and just the right amount of mods for me it's been CM on any device I've owned 90% of the time. It's the least buggy for me, although of course, there will be the occasional bug along the way. Works beautifully on the the Nexus, although some mods may take longer to merge as other devices have to be taken into account.
Can't think of any "hacks" needed for CM to run on any Nexus, although much hackage needed for it to run on Samsung branded phones, and any other manufacturer that doesn't ship with AOSP and may be slow to release source. The kernel for the GN was less than impressive, but the N4 kernel is great.
Running stock rooted. Going CM 10.1 as soon as I get back home from vacation.
Skickat från min Galaxy Nexus
Stock with Franco kernel and you got the most stable combo ever seriously though. Feels very snappy while battery is great but also is really stable.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
I am flashing between a number of Roms daily. Change between cm 10.1, aokp, paranoid, slimbean, codefire. Currently on paranoid b9. I love the options we have on the nexus. It would be a lot less hassle for me if I don't have to restore my texts everytime. Still I pretty much flash a different ROM daily
kyokeun1234 said:
Stock with Franco kernel and you got the most stable combo ever seriously though. Feels very snappy while battery is great but also is really stable.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
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+1 for stock with Franco.
No stable (official stable) roms out there yet that I like, and since n4 is my primary phone, I need my stability :/.
Probably will switch over to AOKP milestone or CM stable.
On past devices I've run with CyanogenMod (any variation), but on the Nexus line I tend to prefer staying with a stock ROM and a custom kernel (though I'm stock presently) for the sake of cleanliness. CyanogenMod is great, it's built by trusted developers, and all around well known for their great reputation. On the flip side, I tend to stay stock because I need to help other people out often enough that I start to forget which features were added by the CM team and which come with Android itself.

[Q] stock google rom vs LiquidSmooth

Hey,
I just wanted to ask does the custom roms really worth rooting? in comparison to the google stock rom how much faster and more battery efficient are the custom rom that specialize in those fields? (i.e. LiquidSmooth from what I could gather) and how much more/less stable are they from the stock rom?
Thank you.
Experience differs from user to user. The most conclusive way to get an answer is to try it out yourself. For me, PA has been just as fast as the stock ROM and had equally good battery life, but I have had the occasional random reboot. To me that's a miniscule trade-off for the features you get. You won't really get a ROM that's significantly faster than a stock ROM though because the hardware on the phone is good enough that everything feels fast.
tomer90 said:
Hey,
I just wanted to ask does the custom roms really worth rooting? in comparison to the google stock rom how much faster and more battery efficient are the custom rom that specialize in those fields? (i.e. LiquidSmooth from what I could gather) and how much more/less stable are they from the stock rom?
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would recommend you try both and stick with the one that works best for you. Only you can determine which one you like more. The N4 is easy to install a custom rom on (even from stock). Plus with the backup apps out there you don't have to risk losing your data and starting over. No two users are identical and what works for one may not work for another.
For what it's worth, I've flashed back to stock/locked/unrooted because I never came to depend on the features the different roms gave me. I'm getting older and don't have the time to stay current on the different roms and features. All I need for my phone are apps/features that are found in the stock rom and the google store. Battery life is better on a custom rom but it's not worth it to me to continue my "flashaholic" ways. I still get through a day sometimes a day and a half on the stock rom - which is all I need. My use case could be drastically different than yours so don't do what I did unless you know it will work for you.
The developers here do great work and it's a great community so I would recommend you try them all to see which one you like the most.
Good luck.
You need to find the answer yourself.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3 using tapatalk 2
its not about me testing for myself because i'm not looking for features or special stuff i can get along with everything i'm really just looking for the fastest most battery saving ROM, thats it, I play little to almost no games basicly mail and scanning and stuff like that(i'm a student right now) and soon i'll be writing some apps for myself for security purposes so I need something to really milk that Quad Core for all its worth so I also need some CPU tweaking apps(not sure if thats ROM related)
You'll be very happy with Sabermod or Rasbean both close to stock. Sabermod is the only Rom built using the 4.8 chaintool and is very fast. The battery life is also excellent. I recommend those 2 for a close to stock experience with some useful tweaks both fast smooth and solid.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Thank you for your input.
Any other opinions?
and by the way, excuse my ignorance but what does it mean 4.8 chaintool? what makes it faster then the 4.7 or the older ones? and since its really new im guessing, does it mean its less stable then the other ROMS? and when you say excellent battery life, its in comparison to all those other ROMS that aim for max battery life?
Thank you!
If you really want more battery life or smoothness then IMO you should just install a new kernel; Franco's kernel has great battery life but it still has better performance than stock, Trinity kernel is super fast and smooth, and there's loads more options available.
I'm running CM10.1 and Franco kernel and its very stable, barely ever have any sort of bugs or random reboots
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
I run CM10.1. Close to stock, but has a few options that are nice to have especially if you like to customize your phone. There are other Roms that have more options, but to me, what's in CM is enough. It's really up to you.
With that being said, I recently flashed a stock rooted rom and got MUCH better battery life than on CM. I don't know if it was an app I had or what, but stock definitely gave me better battery life. I have tried kernels and Rom combinations, but always come back to CM with every single phone I've had. But, in my experience on the Nexus 4, stock Rom gives me the best battery life.
For me liquidsmooth is brilliant! Extremely fast while having tons of customization options. Pair it with matr1x and it really is a great combo for speed and battery life. This is only my opinion but it works for me. I got over 22000 on antutu with this combination (no overclock) while I think its around 17000 on stock. I also get significantly better battery life compared to stock.
if you really want a bump in battery and performance, i suggest rooting and just install francos kernel.i've tried every rom on this forum and for me i ALWAYS find my way back to stock for me it just feels the most fluid and everything works like it should. like me you dont play games or anything and im no app hoarder.that said stock rom with francos kernel gives me the best of everything including color/gamma tweaks to make your screen look better with his app.
with that said i suggest to check out different kernels
Installing kernel...
paul_viado said:
if you really want a bump in battery and performance, i suggest rooting and just install francos kernel.i've tried every rom on this forum and for me i ALWAYS find my way back to stock for me it just feels the most fluid and everything works like it should. like me you dont play games or anything and im no app hoarder.that said stock rom with francos kernel gives me the best of everything including color/gamma tweaks to make your screen look better with his app.
with that said i suggest to check out different kernels
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Click to collapse
Now, if we install franco's kernel onto the Stock ROM, will this prevent any future Google updates from being installed?
mastewman said:
Now, if we install franco's kernel onto the Stock ROM, will this prevent any future Google updates from being installed?
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Click to collapse
Updates in any form will show up in the forum and no need to simply rely on Google for them. They have recently released an updated kernel which I see being implemented by some rom developers and kernel developers already. Let's understand what we have here guys, a community of constant building additions/updates to our phones. So updates should be the last thing for you to worry about IMO
Also to me OP some of the questions you asked can all be answered with a simple Google Search, not that the answers given here are wrong but you would probably find more in depth and uniformed answers by looking it up.. Quite sure its on a wiki somewhere...
playya said:
Updates in any form will show up in the forum and no need to simply rely on Google for them. They have recently released an updated kernel which I see being implemented by some rom developers and kernel developers already. Let's understand what we have here guys, a community of constant building additions/updates to our phones. So updates should be the last thing for you to worry about IMO
Also to me OP some of the questions you asked can all be answered with a simple Google Search, not that the answers given here are wrong but you would probably find more in depth and uniformed answers by looking it up.. Quite sure its on a wiki somewhere...
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I believe he means Google ota's and yes it can stop you from getting ota's. Any modification to system. Whether you added or removed something will fail. You would have to be on complete stock for it to work. Just download yourself a nexus 4 toolkit. The latest factory image, latest drivers, and make sure you backup your internal storage on your computer. Use the tool to return your phone back to stock. Of course whenever you feel is tge right time to do so.
Jsparta26 said:
I believe he means Google ota's and yes it can stop you from getting ota's. Any modification to system. Whether you added or removed something will fail. You would have to be on complete stock for it to work. Just download yourself a nexus 4 toolkit. The latest factory image, latest drivers, and make sure you backup your internal storage on your computer. Use the tool to return your phone back to stock. Of course whenever you feel is tge right time to do so.
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Click to collapse
Oh no I fully understood what he meant and my point was simply people unroot or stay stock to wait for an update. Whether you are rooted or not the update will find you in some form. Either with a rooted stock rom or a custom rom but rest assure that xda will not let an update happen and its not on everyone's phone :good:

[Q] Which rom is currently the best for nexus 4?

I have switched from HTC One X because I hate its quiet speaker sound and GPS jumping around. So far i am really happy with nexus 4. Currently I have it stock rooted. But Im just wondering if I should flash a Custom Rom because I am currently really happy with stock root. But is there battery improvements .etc. with other roms.
I have my eyes on Cyanmogen and paranoidandroind but I think they both are buggy?
Reload147 said:
I have switched from HTC One X because I hate its quiet speaker sound and GPS jumping around. So far i am really happy with nexus 4. Currently I have it stock rooted. But Im just wondering if I should flash a Custom Rom because I am currently really happy with stock root. But is there battery improvements .etc. with other roms.
I have my eyes on Cyanmogen and paranoidandroind but I think they both are buggy?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is nothing like the best ROM.
For one person best is stock, for another, best is heavily modified.
Personally i use AOKP (milestone1), and for me it's virtually bug free, with healthy dose of improvements over stock, which I got used to on my old One X
basically this is nexus, so pretty much all ROMs are stable
they're built from exactly same source as stock. it's not HTC where published source code won't even compile properly without intense troubleshooting and fixing.
Both roms have been around for a quite along time so bugs are at a minimum level or none at all. Every rom will have a few bugs here and there that's why there are releases to fix them. Both CM 10.1 and PA are pretty stable and prefect for daily use.
If you're happy on stock then there's no need to flash a custom rom. There's no such thing as "the best rom".
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Reload147 said:
I have switched from HTC One X because I hate its quiet speaker sound and GPS jumping around. So far i am really happy with nexus 4. Currently I have it stock rooted. But Im just wondering if I should flash a Custom Rom because I am currently really happy with stock root. But is there battery improvements .etc. with other roms.
I have my eyes on Cyanmogen and paranoidandroind but I think they both are buggy?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
another of this best topics...There's not a thing like "best" rom, what you can find however, it's a rom that fits your needs better than others. If you think the roms you're looking at are buggy, then don't use them, custom roms are always a work on progress unless it's a final version, so deal with it.
Both roms have a complete changelog and you can find what's working and what's not. they bring different things to the table, for me Cyanogen+franco kernel do the trick.
Interesting answers I guess i'll stay stock for a bit longer. I was tempted with custom because battery currently is alright. But just wondered if there was a custom rom with like battery improvements.
Reload147 said:
Interesting answers I guess i'll stay stock for a bit longer. I was tempted with custom because battery currently is alright. But just wondered if there was a custom rom with like battery improvements.
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Click to collapse
Roms don't contribute much in battery life. Kernels do. Go for a custom kernel.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
scream4cheese said:
Roms don't contribute much in battery life. Kernels do. Good for a custom kernel.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
Oh, i didn't know that. I'll look into kernels to flash thanks
Reload147 said:
Oh, i didn't know that. I'll look into kernels to flash thanks
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Click to collapse
a lot (or at least some) of people report, that battery life is much better after re-flashing stock rom. apparently something to do with factory flashing method. after reflash they gained extra few hours between charges.
personally can't say much as i didn't ever boot my nexus on stock, oem unlock was the first thing, and straight after flashing custom.
about kernels - try franco. He's got years of experience with custom kernels for different devices. Plus a lot of new settings to play around (when using with his paid app, but IMO it's worth it) - voltage, frequency, display contrast, gamma etc... tons of useful tweaks.
Kernels alone are worth it for the screen color adjustability. Try a bunch of roms before settling on one, most are plenty stable.
Depends on whether your looking for customization, or performance. Not saying it's the best ROM/Kernel combination, but I use RasSaber with franco.Kernel currently for performance :good:
After trying some different ROM's I settled on SentinelROM: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2233740
It has ROM+kernel tweaks and gives good battery life and performance right out of the box. Plus it's based on CM 10.1 source, but optimized for the Nexus. So for me it was the best of both worlds, and I'm very happy with it. It's very stable fast and gives you 48 hours of battery with moderate use.
I have to say... I was skeptical about rooting my Nexus 4 because I didn't want it to mess up in any way but then I saw ParanoidAndroid3+ and immediately rooted my Nexus. I've been playing around with it and it is awesome. I haven't bumped into any bugs or problems yet. I'm very pleased! :thumbup:
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
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