I'm on stock 4.2.2 at the minute but I've rooted / unlocked the bootloader. What I want to know is which ROM(s) / kernel(s) would be best to improve battery life but also add additional features? I know everyone will have their preferences but there's quite a few ROMs out there and I don't have lots of time to reflash over and over so I'd like to know which ROMs and kernels are generally considered as the best for additional features and battery life.
Thank you.
FTMDan said:
I'm on stock 4.2.2 at the minute but I've rooted / unlocked the bootloader. What I want to know is which ROM(s) / kernel(s) would be best to improve battery life but also add additional features? I know everyone will have their preferences but there's quite a few ROMs out there and I don't have lots of time to reflash over and over so I'd like to know which ROMs and kernels are generally considered as the best for additional features and battery life.
Thank you.
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Lots of good rom`s and kernels available. You have to try them out yourself and keep the one`s you like most
I was thinking of flashing Franco's kernel and staying on stock. How do you find it?
The best ROM and kernel is what YOU like the best. This will be closed in 3 2......
Sent from my Nexus 4
FTMDan said:
I was thinking of flashing Franco's kernel and staying on stock. How do you find it?
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For me it works great. Good batterylife, color/gamma control and performance :good:
While most people will tell you that ytou have to find out for your own because everyone is diffferent. Thats true, however it looks like your are asking for our personal opinion.
Paranoid Android hands down. The most innovative ROM out right now. Other have now started to inlcude some of their features in their roms, so that tells you a lot.
Cyanogen- This WAS the most innovative ROM before PA, its still however the most stable when it comes to bugs and tweaks.
AOKP or Carbon These 2 roms are awesome however Carbon is made from CM i believe with their own twist and tweaks.
Thats my take on it, howver take a look at this article, its a great read on the top Roms and why.
The kernel matters most for battery life. Franco kernel is the best one I've tried for battery life. Stock rom or cyanogenmod seems to be a tiny bit better for battery life but honestly it might just be a placebo effect. What I do like about cyanogenmod is the fact that you can adjust the auto-brightness levels of the screen. So if you want a dimmer version of auto-brightness you can do it and save battery life.
Simple Question. Got Nuclearom on my phone and am quite happy with it. But I am thinking of switching to DarkRom, Candy or AOSPX. What were you experiences, which performed best etc?
For the g model dark ROM does a good job with the Los thread modem, no call bug, viper works and the delta updates are a great feature too. Battery life is good too.
No lags !!!
Oddshotshotbox said:
Simple Question. Got Nuclearom on my phone and am quite happy with it. But I am thinking of switching to DarkRom, Candy or AOSPX. What were you experiences, which performed best etc?
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Nuclea. all of the others had performance problems not even fixable with a custom kernel. Some (Lineage, RR) had terrible GPU handling when I used them, but that was like 5 or 6 months ago, so maybe they ironed that out. Thing is, radioactive kernel has a very nicely tweaked governor (when it doesn't break your touchscreen, that is )
I'd say you should backup your current install on an SD card if you want to try something else, because you might as well want to go back. Most other custom ROMs are carbon copies of each other for some reason. For instance, RR looks like AICP, Nuclea like those but with less tweaks... and the difference is mostly the maintainer and the name (usually even the 'goal' of the ROM is the same, to "provide with the best tweakability and functionality while keeping performance best" or something on the lines).
Choose an username... said:
Nuclea. all of the others had performance problems not even fixable with a custom kernel. Some (Lineage, RR) had terrible GPU handling when I used them, but that was like 5 or 6 months ago, so maybe they ironed that out. Thing is, radioactive kernel has a very nicely tweaked governor (when it doesn't break your touchscreen, that is )
I'd say you should backup your current install on an SD card if you want to try something else, because you might as well want to go back. Most other custom ROMs are carbon copies of each other for some reason. For instance, RR looks like AICP, Nuclea like those but with less tweaks... and the difference is mostly the maintainer and the name (usually even the 'goal' of the ROM is the same, to "provide with the best tweakability and functionality while keeping performance best" or something on the lines).
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Feel you man, Tried Carbon and RR before Nuclea and got disappointed, very slow and buggy in comparison. But DarkPixel looks promising and people are reporting good speeds and more/better features.
Is someone around here who tested DarkPixel with Radioactive Kernel? Or did some other kernel perform better? Or might it even be the best to stick with the Kernel of the ROM? So many options, so few differences :/
coremania said:
For the g model dark ROM does a good job with the Los thread modem, no call bug, viper works and the delta updates are a great feature too. Battery life is good too.
No lags !!!
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Nice to hear that, might try it out. Any Costum Kernel Attempts or nah?
Oddshotshotbox said:
Nice to hear that, might try it out. Any Costum Kernel Attempts or nah?
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No, not necessary, the kernel that comes with rom does perform absolutely fine in my eyes. Only modded a bit with kernel auditor, read ahead, no big changes. Viper aroma 2.94 and lawnchair as launcher, just using the black ui, no substratum. The rom is smooth, lagfree and not overloaded with features. For smooth browsing I use the chromium swe
here from xda. Magisk 14 with unified hosts just work fine.
No saftey pass issue.
This are all personal choices of course, but it gives me a good performance.
Overall I find there's very little differences between all the lineage based roms. I use aokp with llama kernel but I may switch again if I can bothered. I use war mod too.
Used all of those ROMs for some time and finally settled with DarkRom. It is stable, fast, got its own color engine, so I replaced substratum with daily issues and never ending updates. Delta updates is another plus. I "customized" it by adding viper4android, Omniswitch and Phonograph music player and that's it. I play with the kernel, but return to the built in one, which is unbeatable smooth.
Alright, so after ROM-hopping for quite a bit over the past three months, I've got a fairly good idea about the various ROMs for our device, unofficial or otherwise. With Oreo coming out soon, and most Nougat ROMs getting their final builds, I thought this might be a good time to give my impressions. While old-timers might not get much use out of this, I'm hoping this will help out anyone that's recently bought a Z2, or is new to XDA.
INTRODUCTION
So, you got a Z2 and are looking to try a new custom ROM to get away from the horror show that is ZUI. Well, I've got good and bad news for ya.
The good- well, if you're a "normal" user that uses his phone to call, text, browse and game for a bit, most ROMs are gonna please you. Most of them are "stable" at this point, meaning you'll get very few crashes/random restarts unless you go full ham installing esoteric Xposed modules. But if you're new to XDA, you're probably unaware of Xposed anyway.
The bad- Most of them will also have some minor issues, and the only way to know if a ROM is perfect for you is to try it. Everyone has their own use cases/expectations from a ROM and thus will have a different experience than you.
My usage: I do not use Google Apps, except for Maps. Most of the apps I use are free/open source, except a few unavoidable one's like banking apps and WhatsApp. That being said, I've tried most(all?) of these ROMs with both Gapps and no Gapps to get a fair impression. Played a few games too, to test the phone in demanding situtations.
I have divided this guide into categories, roughly based on a users requirements. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Usually, if a ROM has insane performance, battery life tends to suffer. The key, as with all things in life, is finding the right balance. When a category has numerical ratings, I will be using a relative scale out of 10. A 10 does not mean that a ROM is perfect in an area, only that it was the best one that I came across.
With that lengthy, but neccessary introduction out of the way, here's the guide:
CATEGORY A: I want my phone to fly, battery life be damned!
I feel that 3 ROMs fit the bill here:
1. VIperOS by @jneto3000
2. Citrus CAF by @DD3Boh
3. Pure Fusion OS by @devabhi
While Viper has been the smoothest by a tiny margin, all these ROMs have amazing performance, and ran anything I threw at them without a hitch. I never had any UI lags while scrolling in apps. That being said, each does have a drawback. With Viper, I've always had a bit of a delay in the fingerprint scanner, PureFusion has been (slightly) unstable for me, and Citrus CAF hasn't recieved the latest KRACK patches, which makes it a no-go from a security POV.
Overall Ratings:
ROM RATING
Viper 10
Citrus CAF 9.5
PureFusion 9.5
Jaguar 9
LineageOS 8.8
crDroid 8.3
AquariOS 8
CarbonROM 7.8
NOTE: Just because I said, "Battery life be damned", doesn't mean all these ROMs have atrocious battery life. In fact, I got ~6.5 hrs SOT with Citrus CAF + Gapps, which is pretty good.
CATEGORY B: I want a good mix of performance, stability and battery life.
I'm guessing most of you belong to this category. Well you're in luck, because most ROMs for Z2 also belong to this category. You can have your pick amongst:
1. LineageOS by @varotone. Was personally my favorite ROM, extremely stable, lightning fast fingerprint, good performance (lagged a bit in games, but butter smooth for other apps) and good battery life. Unfortunately, it hasn't, and will probably never recieve patches for the KRACK vulnerability, so the more security conscious amongst you might want to avoid it. EDIT: Turns out, we did a get a new build, with the same great performance+battery life, but it does have a slow fingerprint unlock, when the phone has been asleep for a while.
2. Jaguar by @optimumpro. Similar to Lineage, it had frame drops with Games, but was rather smooth otherwise. I used this before Lineage, but my screen-on-time reduced drastically after a couple of weeks . On the flipside, many users have, and continue to report good battery life with it, so take my words with a grain of salt. r17 really improves the GPS performance.
3. crDroid by @Subhrajyoti Sen. Insane battery life. I got ~8.5 hrs of SOT (without Gapps) on my second charge cycle. Began to lag a bit so I switched to Viper, although the latest unofficial build has rectified the performance issues. Haven't tried it myself though.
4. AquariOS by @kenny3fcb. Nothing much to say, just a stable ROM with a good battery life. Hasn't been updated for quite sometime though, so no KRACK or Blueborne vulnerability patches.
CATEGORY C: I want security and longevity
Security conscious? Want frequent updates?
The answer, lads- is Jaguar by @optimumpro, and honestly- it's not even close. I think the only way to find the best ROM for yourself is to find a dev whose priorities/use cases align with yours. And if security is your priority- then @optimumpro is your man.
Damn, I sound like a sales guy.
On a serious note though, while I have little idea what Jaguar's security features like- "hardened bionic" do from a technical standpoint, I can tell you that it's usually the first ROM to incorporate security patches and tweaks, from Google or other sources. The dev takes out the time to respond to most queries, and he's said that the ROM will be maintained and updated till Oreo gets completely stabilized.
It has come to my attention that the dev apparently does not release the source code for Jaguar, so I can no longer recommend Jaguar as a privacy-focused ROM.
CATEGORY D: I want a great battery life
1. crDroid by @Subhrajyoti Sen. The last official build gave me the best overall battery life I've had yet.
2. CarbonROM by @ankit99. Pretty good idle consumption. My battery dropped just 1% overnight. Unfortunately not very stable, and hasn't been updated in a while.
Other noteworthy ROMs
1. AEX by @davidevinavil. While I personally didn't a have a great experience with v4.6 of this ROM, a lot of people have. And the dev has always been active, answering most queries. It's worth trying out the 22nd July build, which is pretty good, but doesn't have any recent security patches.
2.. AEX Unofficial by @Star_king12. While ROM has been discontinued, the dev was very helpful with user queries. Also, the 13th September build gave me some of the best battery life I've had on the Z2. I think he's working on a new ROM, so keep an eye out!
I haven't tried every ROM for the Z2, and I'm sure there are few good ones I've missed. Feel free to point to out any in the comments.
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I'm personally using the last ViperOS build for now, and will continue to do so, if the fingerprint issue doesn't bother me too much. If it does, I might give the latest PureFusion or (unofficial) crDroid builds a try. But by and large, I'm happy with Viper.
I hope this helps some of you.
Nice guide bro! Good work !
I think best nougat rom is viper os I have tried it.It has very good mixture of everything butterysmooth performance I have also played asphalt 8 in it and it doesn't lag
I also used to use Viper OS in My HTC senation XE.. that was the best rom. And full of feature..
what about resurrection remix ? can anyone suggest the best build of RR nougat released till yet?
abhay009 said:
I think best nougat rom is viper os I have tried it.It has very good mixture of everything butterysmooth performance I have also played asphalt 8 in it and it doesn't lag
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What about GPS? Is GPS working, i heard Viper OS has problems with it
vuckovic_stefan said:
What about GPS? Is GPS working, i heard Viper OS has problems with it
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I have no problem GPS is working fine and this have phenomenal battery life this is the best I ever used and it is very stable I think u should try to clean flash again
what about aex roms i think they are also good roms
Heating issue and battery are not that much good on aex roms
abhay009 said:
I have no problem GPS is working fine and this have phenomenal battery life this is the best I ever used and it is very stable I think u should try to clean flash again
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Thanks, tomorow i will get Zuk Z2, i will try first Indian MM and if im not satisfied i will go with Viper.
Nougat stock has some anoying bugs, late notifications, double notifications, wifi hotspot problem etc...
vuckovic_stefan said:
Thanks, tomorow i will get Zuk Z2, i will try first Indian MM and if im not satisfied i will go with Viper.
Nougat stock has some anoying bugs, late notifications, double notifications, wifi hotspot problem etc...
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To temper your expectations, I gotta tell you that some people, including me, do have a problem with the GPS on Viper. It does work, but only when you've locked on via WiFi/mobile data, otherwise it takes an eternity to lock on with GPS only. Also, Viper's fingerprint scanner takes a slightly long time to unlock if the phone's been asleep. But it's still a pretty great ROM.
@n'wah Mention the most bug free stable ROM please !
Best ROM in terms of SOT , performance and stability. I know you might read OP but I just need to know.
Cause some ROMs have been updated so
ashwath230 said:
@n'wah Mention the most bug free stable ROM please !
Best ROM in terms of SOT , performance and stability. I know you might read OP but I just need to know.
Cause some ROMs have been updated so
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I'd say go with the last LineageOS build. I would have never left that ROM if it had recieved KRACK patches.
If you NEED to have the security patch, then I'd say go with the last (official) crDroid build. I didn't find any noteworthy bugs while the phone was on, however there's a rather scary bug with offline charging- the display gets flipped and and the phone refuses to turn on unless you press the power button for a long time. Performance is slightly worse than Lineage though.
Viper is also a good choice if you can live with the slow fingerprint recognition time when the phone is asleep and the GPS issue mentioned above. It's what I'm currently using. Best performance, okay battery life.
Also, if you can wait a couple of days, @miju12 is gonna release a new ROM - DotOS. Maybe he's managed to iron out the bugs that are in other ROMs.
Hope this helps.
n'wah said:
I'd say go with the last LineageOS build. I would have never left that ROM if it had recieved KRACK patches.
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Why the Lineage ROM never became Official? Does it support VoLTE?
Is there a way to install KRACK patch manually over any ROM? I wan't to try Lineage as I am using it on Moto G and it is bug free on it. Also, I believe it does not have the latest camera blobs right? We have to flash it?
saurav_k said:
Why the Lineage ROM never became Official? Does it support VoLTE?
Is there a way to install KRACK patch manually over any ROM? I wan't to try Lineage as I am using it on Moto G and it is bug free on it. Also, I believe it does not have the latest camera blobs right? We have to flash it?
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IIRC to become official, the ROM should pass certain quality tests, be mostly bug-free, sensors should work properly etc. By the time the dev ironed out the bugs, he had to step away from development due to personal reasons. I don't think it has the latest camera blobs, volte should work though.
And it doesn't seem that you can flash a security patch manually, if you find out it is possible, please let us know! I feel a lot of users would return to Citrus CAF and Lineage if they had the security patches.
n'wah said:
IIRC to become official, the ROM should pass certain quality tests, be mostly bug-free, sensors should work properly etc. By the time the dev ironed out the bugs, he had to step away from development due to personal reasons. I don't think it has the latest camera blobs, volte should work though.
And it doesn't seem that you can flash a security patch manually, if you find out it is possible, please let us know! I feel a lot of users would return to Citrus CAF and Lineage if they had the security patches.
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And new ROMS come as official even before masses get to use them (see the DOT OS rom thread). Already official :laugh: no quality control.
vuckovic_stefan said:
Thanks, tomorow i will get Zuk Z2, i will try first Indian MM and if im not satisfied i will go with Viper.
Nougat stock has some anoying bugs, late notifications, double notifications, wifi hotspot problem etc...
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Did you get Your device. And did you get the Nougat update notification or something like that.
saurav_k said:
And new ROMS come as official even before masses get to use them (see the DOT OS rom thread). Already official :laugh: no quality control.
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If you wish to pay me, I will maintain quality control.
miju12 said:
If you wish to pay me, I will maintain quality control.
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Your reply makes no sense in the current context. n'wah replied that "to become official, the ROM should pass certain quality tests" and to which I said a new ROM which is not even used by anyone yet is already official. Where does the question of paying or not paying comes here? I think you took it in the wrong sense.
I am still not clear about how this Official status gets decided? Lineage, AOSGP-X are out for long time but Unofficial and here is a new ROM which had issues with the first build and it is already official !!
I like many other users appreciate your and other developer's work and I am also excited about the new ROM you are coming up with. The discussion here was about the Official / Unofficial status.
saurav_k said:
Your reply makes no sense in the current context. n'wah replied that "to become official, the ROM should pass certain quality tests" and to which I said a new ROM which is not even used by anyone yet is already official. Where does the question of paying or not paying comes here? I think you took it in the wrong sense.
I am still not clear about how this Official status gets decided? Lineage, AOSGP-X are out for long time but Unofficial and here is a new ROM which had issues with the first build and it is already official !!
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Seriously do you think I have done a random build and publish it? Usually I test my builds myself before publishing but this time I was low on data and the previous build was working good so I didn't test and published which was my mistake and I agree for it. I can't speak for other Roms.
just wanna know what custom rom you guys use as daily driver and i wanna know why, also pros and cons
Try them out. To each their own and some may find this topic rude.
Check this out : https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-6/how-to/custom-rom-t3867290/page57
It's OP6 but not much difference as you know.
The spreadsheet on the last page is pretty nice.
dsaldariega said:
just wanna know what custom rom you guys use as daily driver and i wanna know why, also pros and cons
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Treskmod
CAF PE. There's a lot of great stuff outside of XDA.
thedrizzle said:
CAF PE. There's a lot of great stuff outside of XDA.
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CAF PE has fingerprint support for 6T?
For the first time (since OnePlus 5) I've been happy with stock OOS. Even the Oreo base didn't seem as polished but now I can happily say I haven't felt the need to go to a custom ROM.
The only inconvenience is not having full/proper OMS support, so I have to reboot to see built overlays in Substratum. Other than that I have no complaints.
Honestly all these roms, even w/FP support, are not better than stock OOS.
*None are as smooth
*Obviously none are as stable
*Either a rom is jam packed with features you may find useful, but buggy as hell. Or they are stable and powerful, but the only features are to change the time in the status bar.
*No rom has been able to imitate or even out perform OOS gestures, which surprisingly is pretty important for me.
But if I had to pick one it would be Omni Rom. Most balance of all things.
The new official omnirom is great although I couldn't get microg to work. It is the only ROM that screen casting worked for me.
The stock ROM with XXX script is pretty good.
The ROM I used the longest is carbon ROM.
Best is going to be different for each user as not all users require the same options. Right now I am on omni official although microg doesn't work. Using gapps for the first time in three or five years. Kinda odd using Google apps again.