Hi,
I'm currently using CM11 which I really like, however with each release it seems to get more and more buggy for me, and my battery life has been awful lately.
My contract is up so a new phone is an option, however I'd like to try to get as much life out of my phone as possible because apart from the camera and battery the phone is pretty much perfect for me.
Are there any other ROMs I should look at? I'm not overly techy so something easy to install and as close to stock as possible would be great, but my main focus would definitely be stability, speed and battery.
Thanks
If you're looking for JB Rom, you can flash the official 4.3 stock Rom.
If you're looking for Kitkat Rom, I can recommend this, very stable and fast:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=52753540
Thank you! Sorry I wasn't very clear with my post, KitKat is a must, and if I'm honest something with a clear and simple upgrade path to Android L with be a huge bonus too.
Blekota S5 Lite is an absolute beast of a rom if you tune it correctly. Since its a touchwiz rom you have to keep the launcher resident in the memory so there's none of that lag. Use boeffla kernel and you'll be coming back to this thread to thank me
Mod Edit
"Best" or "Recommend" ROM / Kernel threads are not allowed on XDA.
Please test these things for yourself. That is the only way you will get an unbiased opinion,
and then, you can decide for yourself if it meets YOUR needs.
Thread Closed
ronnie498
Forum Moderator
First of all, this is not a childish "versus" topic to flame fanboys spirits. I just need some technical understanding of some issues.
So... I've run four or five Lollipop 5.1.1 custom ROMs on my C5303, including CM, AICP, XenonHD, Mokee. All are great and fast and developers made a tremendous job. Not all of them are so friendly with Tangerine kernel (I need a custom kernel for increasing in-calls phone volume), per instance, Mokee hangs and struggle like hell. AICP works well with T-kernel, but with some issues (reported by users), when the device will freeze for a few seconds. XenonHD loves T-kernel - no problem at all!
Still, all of these fantastic custom ROMs , with or without custom kernel, are sluggish compared with stock 4.3 Sony ROM. I've made a nandroid backup in TWRP of my XenonHD - T-Kernel installation and installed Binomical SLIM 4.3 base don stock. Just for the heck of remembering the Sony UI, I intended to restore XenonHD soon after. I'm still on Binomical 4.3. Man, this is FAST! This is a blazing rocket compared with any of the Lollipop ROMs!
On Lollipop ROMs I've had ~ 300 MB free RAM, on stock 4.3 (OK, deodexed and slim) I only have 150 MB, but Sony's ROM is way faster and smoother. It really looks like I have a completely new device in my hand. How is this possible? Why? The hardware drivers? Is X-SP really not able to handle Lollipop in a decent manner?
XDA developers worked so hard to gave us the Lollipop ROMs, and I praise their work, but looks like X-SP best choice is still the old JellyBean 4.3.
Agree.
All lollipop roms are really fast in the beginning but after sometime,it begins to lag and become slow and sluggish.I have tried many lollipop roms but always returned to stock rom.It's been 2-3 months that i'm on stock and didn't flashed any other rom.
dude flash latest cm12.1 nightly nd ull forget stock
4.1.2>4.3>5.1.1
I dont think this, i not know what version you test of aicp and xennon, thes lasts versions of aicp are laggy and xennon has battery drain sometimes, but the others no, all depends of the rom, have lollipops roms laggy and have lollipop fast roms, have kikkat laggy roms and have kitkat fast roms, and the same of all android version, the rom stock have good performance but battery drains, now i in miui 7, performance and battery are awesome
I NEVER had battery drains on stock ROM. Yes, lots of bloatware on official stock , but not battery drains. I also didn't encounter battery drain on any of the Lollipop ROM's I've tried - AICP stable and about 10 version of nightlies, CM, XenonHD latest and Mokee. Yes, those were not so "green" as stock, but nothing so horrible, maybe 10-20% less battery power than stock. The issues regarding battery were on calibration of the battery percentage, per instance it used to go downward normally till 6%, then, bang!, the telephone turned off with 0% battery all of a sudden. Anyway, this is a insignificant issue, I don't care if I'm gonna recharge battery one hour earlier, the real problem that brought me back to 4.3 stock was the PERFORMANCE.
What I can't figure out is how come 300MB free RAM Lollipop is worst than 150 MB RAM JellyBean. Why? Xperia SP can't deal with ART instructions, it's Dalvik-only? I mean, OK, our developers have limited resources and most of them test their code on their own device, they have to be careful and not trying something risky; by contrast, Sony have unlimited resources to develop and tune their ROM. I know that, it's obvious, all my respect to XDA developers. What I'm trying to figure out is what's that bump in the road, what keeps X-SP Lollipop to be blazing fast? It's ART? It's drivers? I't Tangerine kernel, that most of us "married" with LP ROM's?
Thank you guys.
To be honest, you have answered your own question based on your newer question.
It is optimisation, man. 4.3 (or prior), those stock ROMs are made by Sony. Since it is made by Sony, you can expect a very great deal out of it, battery life, performance and all of those sweet things.
Since Sony lied to SP users and abandoned the SP with the last known version 4.3, we have problems on optimising ROMs because of no official blobs to refer to.
It has been until now. Everything is, thanks to the hard work of developers, our Xperia SP can still run newer Android versions while still maintaining the "blaziness" of the ROM.
Needless to say, its optimisations.
As always, you have the rights on which ROM to use, so choose the one that suits you.
Guys, I am thinking of buying Xperia SP to use with Cyanogenmod 12.1 instead of cheap budget phone like Motorola E 4G. Price for me is the same, actually SP is cheaper than Motorola E.
I like SP because fast CPU and GPU ( Adreno 320 ! ) so it's no slouch and it has official CM12.1 support. I don't want to use anything other than latest 12.1 but I'm worried about performance and battery. Is it really that bad ?
I cannot try out the ROMs myself as I have not bought SP yet.
Is any CM12.1 ROM stable, fast and with good battery performance ? I see you have custom kernels for CM12.1 but what is the Linux version - is it 3.10 or above ?
Does SP have heating issues and performance problems ( like so many claim here ) ? Or maybe that appears only after some years of usage ?
What about this screen flickering problem which seems to be present in all CM12.1 ? How bad is it ?
Thanks for your assistance !
"Does SP have heating issues and performance problems ( like so many claim here ) ? Or maybe that appears only after some years of usage ?" It has those issues, but I think it depends on certain devices. Mine for example overheats with any rom, no matter stock or custom, while there are people who never experience those problems. As for stock vs custom it's clear enough that stock is best optimised.
I tested a lot ROMS.
I like the OMNI ROM (Android 4.4.4). It's really fast and stable. Maybe you should try it.
I like also the Xenon HD ROM (Android 5.1.1). It's fast. Not so stable, but still very good..
After a few days it gets a little laggy. I´d liked to know why to. Faced the same problem with AICP.
I've had similar experience as you guys with lollipop custom ROMS. As much as I wanted to like them, after trying few, I have switched back to stock. Lollipop roms look nice, they offer more features and battery life is amazing compared to stock. However, none of the roms are stable enough to be used as a daily driver. After few days every single one of them refused to boot up, forcing my phone into recovery mode, so the only way out was to reflash. It has been a nice experience, but XSP is my one and only phone needed for communication, not a toy, therefore I need something that works and does it reliably. I think I'd just get a nexus or motorola when it's the time to upgrade.
bulanula said:
Guys, I am thinking of buying Xperia SP to use with Cyanogenmod 12.1 instead of cheap budget phone like Motorola E 4G. Price for me is the same, actually SP is cheaper than Motorola E.
I like SP because fast CPU and GPU ( Adreno 320 ! ) so it's no slouch and it has official CM12.1 support. I don't want to use anything other than latest 12.1 but I'm worried about performance and battery. Is it really that bad ?
I cannot try out the ROMs myself as I have not bought SP yet.
Is any CM12.1 ROM stable, fast and with good battery performance ? I see you have custom kernels for CM12.1 but what is the Linux version - is it 3.10 or above ?
Does SP have heating issues and performance problems ( like so many claim here ) ? Or maybe that appears only after some years of usage ?
What about this screen flickering problem which seems to be present in all CM12.1 ? How bad is it ?
Thanks for your assistance !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No heating issues, I mean CPU gets hot sometimes (with not regard of the ROM installed), but it's all at thigh as 60°C. Most Android devices are well in specs on that thermal level.
Performance regarded. CM Vanilla or most of the 5.1.1 custom ROM - it's fast for the day 1, then it gets little sluggish, you'll have to boot to recovery and clear dalvik/art cache to refresh you device. If you don't need kernel level modifications I recommend you to stay with stock FOTA, Tangerine kernel might cause some screen or device freeze and stutter.
Years of usage to get slower performance? LOL We're talking about hours!
Display flickering (or getting yellowish) I guess it's hardware related - some X-SP never experienced it (mine included).
OK. Thanks for your feedback guys. I cannot test myself since I don't have device.
Do you think developer support is strong enough that they will manage to get Android 6 working properly on SP ?
big dilemma
Hi guys,
I have big dilemma what to do. My wife liked to buy the XSP because of the LED lights etc. She uses the phone mostly for calling, texting and music listening. As she has the Deezer premium acc I went in big troubles with XSP because the known bad memory management. More than one year she have bothered with it(and me too . After the 2years waranty ending I have decided to root, UBL and test custom ROMs. First we have tried the lightered stock ArchXperia, which was not helping us. Now she is since August on CM12 nightly. Yes, Deezer works good now, but on the other hand she is missing the stock Sony apps, working LED bar(with music), stock FM radio and generaly dislike the 5.1 Android (she is little bit old school, not likes many new things to learn).
Please, could somebody recommend to me any rom, which is stable, close to stock look (apps incl.) and has good ram management, that Deezer will work good, without memory issues?
Was it maybe wrong, that I have skipped the 4.4.4 Android over?
Many thanks in advance for any kind of tip or idea.
BPavel said:
Hi guys,
I have big dilemma what to do. My wife liked to buy the XSP because of the LED lights etc. She uses the phone mostly for calling, texting and music listening. As she has the Deezer premium acc I went in big troubles with XSP because the known bad memory management. More than one year she have bothered with it(and me too . After the 2years waranty ending I have decided to root, UBL and test custom ROMs. First we have tried the lightered stock ArchXperia, which was not helping us. Now she is since August on CM12 nightly. Yes, Deezer works good now, but on the other hand she is missing the stock Sony apps, working LED bar(with music), stock FM radio and generaly dislike the 5.1 Android (she is little bit old school, not likes many new things to learn).
Please, could somebody recommend to me any rom, which is stable, close to stock look (apps incl.) and has good ram management, that Deezer will work good, without memory issues?
Was it maybe wrong, that I have skipped the 4.4.4 Android over?
Many thanks in advance for any kind of tip or idea.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try a slim stock ROM, just as Binomical, based o stock JB 4.3. .207. It includes Williams kernel and that might do the trick with RAM management.
Yes, thank you, I was thinking about exactly this one... good to have the choice confirmed. Just installed, look forward to try it and test it on my wife
BPavel said:
Yes, thank you, I was thinking about exactly this one... good to have the choice confirmed. Just installed, look forward to try it and test it on my wife
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or maybe you can check out the cm11 last build. Used to be on cm11 for a year with William's kernel and was pretty good. With some apps you can have the disco lights fully functional.
..
I9500 or 9505?
To be honest, the official TW roms are super battery friendly (really don't know why).
I tested my phone an my friends and he had 90% left while I was at ~80% left with half the screen on time.
..
For 9505 you can use a lot kernel. Hulk imperium ael etc. Etc. You can test best life.
But for 9500 we have not much choices we have 1 kernel 9505 is luckier.
I think stock roms good without customizations when we customed battery getting worse again i am not happy about battery.
Edit: yes kitkat was better for 9500 i dont remember 9505 i had sometimes. Then i got 9500.
I get 2hour screen time like kidding
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Touchwiz ROM's definitely, without a doubt for me - they have the most features by miles (not necessarily best battery life)! As for which specific custom T/W rom? There are so many to choose from. The best is to try them all out until you find THE ONE that resonates with YOU - that's half the fun... and it won't cost you a cent (unless you donate something for it!
I don't even want to mention NAMES because I feel it's UNFAIR to promote one ROM over another (especially when their differences are few and far between), but a good indication of a GOOD ROM is normally the amount of posts and views it received in its thread. Read through it and check the comments to make up your mind. Then take that bold step.
Good luck and have fun!
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MuF123 said:
Are there any slimmed down touchwiz roms? I don't want all the bloatware...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Halcyon's v9.1 or quantum rom is pretty good. I've tried quantum rom, aroma installer let's you pick what you want to install as a system app in setup. You can install exactly zero samsung bloatware if you want.
My only problem with it is the sluggish struggle known as touchwiz. It's not too slow, just... slow. CM based roms OTOH fly past it with reckless abandon but seem so fail at battery life.
..
MuF123 said:
edit: those are for exynos :/ I've edited thread name.
**snip**
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I saw S4 and assumed wrongly then. Good luck to you in finding a good rom for 9505.
If i9500 performance is anything to go by, latest CM-based roms (if one of them works for you) are awesome unless they feast on the battery.
You may have options for that though, I think there are more than 1 kernel for 9505. One of them may give good battery life.
I've been trying a lot of different CM12.1 builds on my 9505 lately. As they come, battery life is usually average at best. I greatly improved it by flashing the alucard kernel and undervolting my CPU. I found that I could easily shave off up to 100mV off my CPU at pretty much all frequencies without losing stability. Now my battery lasts a day and a half, which is more than I'd get with any stock ROM. I tried it with Resurrection Remix and got the same results, oly it had more bugs so I switched back to CM.
Hi guys,
I bought a Note 4 one week ago. My previous device was a LG G2.
I'm really happy with my new device. I like the stock rom, I have a better battery life. And I really like the possibilites (SD slot, amovible battery)
But something I noticed is that this phone don't have a big amount of custom ROM or custom Kernel.
Especially for the 910F.
I'm not complaining here, but can someone please explain me Why ?
Ty very much
Kokovitch said:
Hi guys,
I bought a Note 4 one week ago. My previous device was a LG G2.
I'm really happy with my new device. I like the stock rom, I have a better battery life. And I really like the possibilites (SD slot, amovible battery)
But something I noticed is that this phone don't have a big amount of custom ROM or custom Kernel.
Especially for the 910F.
I'm not complaining here, but can someone please explain me Why ?
Ty very much
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? There are more SnapDragon ROMs available than Exynos,
You must be looking in the wrong area. Some of the most talented Devs and Customized ROMs are in the SnapDragon threads.
Agreed, I also had g2 before... There was a sea of development going on there... Note 4 development is negligible in g2's comparison... I also have the f version. I had z3 in between, and that is even worse. I sort of feel disappointed. On g2 there were so many aosp roms, even I think OPPO also had their rom for g2, miui is here also, it was there too. But real difference is in aosp department.
I've been pretty frustrated lately, this stock touchwiz ui is so full on crappy bloatware that it consumes 70% of my ram, even though the full ram is only at 1.67GB, whatever rom I try either the nfc doesn't work or the phone stays very hot and drains the battery quickly!
Can anyone help out on a good rom my S5 G900I?
Help is greatly appreciated.
TIA!
a safe haven said:
I've been pretty frustrated lately, this stock touchwiz ui is so full on crappy bloatware that it consumes 70% of my ram, even though the full ram is only at 1.67GB, whatever rom I try either the nfc doesn't work or the phone stays very hot and drains the battery quickly!
Can anyone help out on a good rom my S5 G900I?
Help is greatly appreciated.
TIA!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't look too much at numbers like RAM and cpu speed. I always ask myself: does it lag? how long does it last? . S5 seems to do ok with those questions even with stock ROM IMHO. Root + right apps/ mods and debloat should boost that even more.
Custom ROMs are always better of course. our G900I unfortunately misses out on the main development scene on XDA with 900F being the global version. Many of these ROMs actually run pretty well on 900I (my fav being phoenix ROM) but as you said the problem with these is that NFC don't work.
There was really only one ROM that I have tried that has been fully functional: Xtrestolite (touchwiz based) is excellent and light while having all features. The only con is that it is a lollipop ROM and few mods. especially theming i found lacking.
In theory omega ROM (touchwiz based) should be good too, but I've never tried. The old lollipop version supports 900I.
Alliance ROM (touchwiz based) looks good too in theory. I could never get it working well with the theming though... but never spent too much time with it. Alot of the mods seemed to rely on a cloud/data base that has been taken down.
Ressurection remix I found great. Every thing works fine. Battery to me is about the same. Its fast. Plenty of mods, theming and features. It is AOSP based. After a fair bit of use, I realised 2 things that differed: 1. camera sucks more 2. can't video call through the calling app. Everything else is just as good or better i reckon. Substratum themes = awesome. I'm currently on RR 5.8.5. It is Nougat 7.1.x . There is also an oreo version of RR but there are no custom kernels for oreo AOSP roms for our device so I'm sticking to nougat for now.
If any further questions or help required, ask away.
edit - there is a smartpack kernel for G900I/ kltedv oreo. However NFC doesnt seem to be working on it and I found oreo RR lacking in performance, stability and features compared with the Nougat versions. It is only in beta, so hopefully this will be ironed out in the near future.
a safe haven said:
I've been pretty frustrated lately, this stock touchwiz ui is so full on crappy bloatware that it consumes 70% of my ram, even though the full ram is only at 1.67GB, whatever rom I try either the nfc doesn't work or the phone stays very hot and drains the battery quickly!
Can anyone help out on a good rom my S5 G900I?
Help is greatly appreciated.
TIA!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LineageOS is officially supported for your device with android 7.1 Nougat. I dont have that specific model but ive never had problems with that os on my s5.