I know rooting can help you remove bloat from your device, and many custom roms let you choose what bloat you want but it got my thinking.
For a not very technical, low end user with lots of storage space left, could removing bloat actually make a positive change to how they use their phone like less crashing or more battery life or something? Would it be worth installing a custom ROM like Omega on a less technical family members phone and removing bloat from their phone, would they notice a difference?
Also, does anyone know if omega does anything like that, like I've heard from one person that the omega kernel extends their battery life?
To an average user, the stock rom is just fine. The preinstalled bloat tends to have a pretty minimal impact on battery in most cases, usually it's other tweaks you do once rooted that can help your battery. I just don't like having 3 pages of preinstalled carrier crap, personally. As far as ROMing a family member's phone, I would highly recommend against it unless the stock ROM is now unsupported (older phone) or if it crashes a lot. Even then, I would recommend they upgrade to a new phone before I would ROM their phone. Once you do something like that for someone, you become their 24/7 helpdesk. Any time something happens (or they think something has happened) they will come straight to you.
Just a word from the wise.
I remember when I had my s5 there was stable root options rather quickly but stable root for s7 is taking awhile. Just curious what it is about this phone that's taking a bit? Is it at&t? Samsung security? Lack of Devs?
iscream612 said:
I remember when I had my s5 there was stable root options rather quickly but stable root for s7 is taking awhile. Just curious what it is about this phone that's taking a bit? Is it at&t? Samsung security? Lack of Devs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tbh as long as you don't use xposed and you flash the v15 fix, it runs just as well as stock. Using it on the g930u romantic and I get even better performance and battery life than with stock att rom
As for the time, Samsung has seriously locked this phone down. The normal kernel would not allow any changes to the system, the hash would mismatch. The engineering kernel is more permissive and allows such things. Android vulnerabilities such as towel root are also much more scarce.
dongdong6968 said:
Tbh as long as you don't use xposed and you flash the v15 fix, it runs just as well as stock. Using it on the g930u romantic and I get even better performance and battery life than with stock att rom
As for the time, Samsung has seriously locked this phone down. The normal kernel would not allow any changes to the system, the hash would mismatch. The engineering kernel is more permissive and allows such things. Android vulnerabilities such as towel root are also much more scarce.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why not use xposed?
FreshIce21 said:
why not use xposed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Xposed is what makes it unstable. If you go without Xposed your rom will be ? (plus using the u rom helps)
Before I installed the u rom and rooted, my phone would lose 17% just from being locked in my pocket. Now it's only 8. For 3 hours. Works great.
There's really no point to rooting if xposed and custom ROMs are out of the question IMO
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
my s7 is using U-Firmware but no xposed.. being rooted is good to rid of bloated ware apps, use ADBlock host, using screen off app (it requires rooted), freezing background apps that i dont use them and its fun to goofing around with /system and /data... and i am using iron man boot animations. there is a custom ROM working now on forum.
brianray14 said:
There's really no point to rooting if xposed and custom ROMs are out of the question IMO
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting is still great if the are no custom roms (which there are)( Echoe rom is running smoothly) all it takes is a little research to learn how to mod yourself and little things that you can do to improve your phone yourself. Not knocking anyone that don't know how cause i still don't know a bunch but there is a lot of things you can do yourself to improve the phone experience. (After all, people that build roms are everyday people that learned!)
Obies said:
my s7 is using U-Firmware but no xposed.. being rooted is good to rid of bloated ware apps, use ADBlock host, using screen off app (it requires rooted), freezing background apps that i dont use them and its fun to goofing around with /system and /data... and i am using iron man boot animations. there is a custom ROM working now on forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ran the U FW for a little while but noticed that my battery was getting taxed really bad despite not having any bloat installed so I switched back to stock and it normalized.
Aside from not being able to uninstall the bloatware and change my boot ani, I can do everything you're doing. I have a package disabler (freezing apps), I have a system wide adblocker (adguard) that works perfectly well. Nova has gestures sop I can double tap to lock the screen. I personally have no use for root apps any longer. I can't install a custom kernel so can't over clock the processor, I don't need titanium backup because I'm not going to need to restore my phone after a flash, I'm not sure if viper sound mod works with S7 but I'd certainly want that again.
I'm happy with the phone as is and don't really see the need to modify it in any way aside from the visual customizations and those options are virtually limitless without root also
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 01:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:02 AM ----------
dirtydodge said:
Rooting is still great if the are no custom roms (which there are)( Echoe rom is running smoothly) all it takes is a little research to learn how to mod yourself and little things that you can do to improve your phone yourself. Not knocking anyone that don't know how cause i still don't know a bunch but there is a lot of things you can do yourself to improve the phone experience. (After all, people that build roms are everyday people that learned!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is I'm on at&t with the snapdragon processor so the phone is locked down very tight. If I had the international version, sure, I may screw around with whatever custom ROMs that are out there but I really don't feel the need. My first smartphone was a galaxy S and I didn't even have that for a month before I rooted it and slapped on some custom ROMs. I flashed that phone well over 50 times with either different ROMs or updates that required a clean flash to operate correctly. I owned a galaxy S3 and did the same thing with that phone. Owned an HTC ONE M8 and ran practically all the customs that were available for that phone too so I have had my fun with firmware customization and then some. Sadly, I couldn't go 6 months without the ROMs ****ting the bed because as you said, the ROM cookers are regular ppl too. Memory leaks were always a serious problem so I was basically CONSTANTLY troubleshooting my devices to get them to run optimally. Inevitably, when I really needed my phone for something is when these problems would occur! That got old! I'm perfectly happy with this device as is. It runs exceptionally well without me forever having to mess with it.
Have your fun. There's a lot of neat things to learn and discover and a lot of heart attacks too when you think, crap, I really screwed up this time! How am I gonna get myself out of THIS mess, lol
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
brianray14 said:
I ran the U FW for a little while but noticed that my battery was getting taxed really bad despite not having any bloat installed so I switched back to stock and it normalized.
Aside from not being able to uninstall the bloatware and change my boot ani, I can do everything you're doing. I have a package disabler (freezing apps), I have a system wide adblocker (adguard) that works perfectly well. Nova has gestures sop I can double tap to lock the screen. I personally have no use for root apps any longer. I can't install a custom kernel so can't over clock the processor, I don't need titanium backup because I'm not going to need to restore my phone after a flash, I'm not sure if viper sound mod works with S7 but I'd certainly want that again.
I'm happy with the phone as is and don't really see the need to modify it in any way aside from the visual customizations and those options are virtually limitless without root also
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 01:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:02 AM ----------
The problem is I'm on at&t with the snapdragon processor so the phone is locked down very tight. If I had the international version, sure, I may screw around with whatever custom ROMs that are out there but I really don't feel the need. My first smartphone was a galaxy S and I didn't even have that for a month before I rooted it and slapped on some custom ROMs. I flashed that phone well over 50 times with either different ROMs or updates that required a clean flash to operate correctly. I owned a galaxy S3 and did the same thing with that phone. Owned an HTC ONE M8 and ran practically all the customs that were available for that phone too so I have had my fun with firmware customization and then some. Sadly, I couldn't go 6 months without the ROMs ****ting the bed because as you said, the ROM cookers are regular ppl too. Memory leaks were always a serious problem so I was basically CONSTANTLY troubleshooting my devices to get them to run optimally. Inevitably, when I really needed my phone for something is when these problems would occur! That got old! I'm perfectly happy with this device as is. It runs exceptionally well without me forever having to mess with it.
Have your fun. There's a lot of neat things to learn and discover and a lot of heart attacks too when you think, crap, I really screwed up this time! How am I gonna get myself out of THIS mess, lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct on every thing you mentioned above. I in a lot of ways are like you, i have had my ups and downs with flashing and recovering and what not. That is why i started learning how to do more myself do that i didn't flash a rom with so many things i didn't need or want. I used to run exposed on every rom and every phone for simple things that i thought were "cool" but i didn't really need. Ever since i quit using exposed and stated modding things that i actually use i quit having problems. I do still run roms, but am a lot more cautious on what i flash. But the Echoe rom (without installing exposed) is one if the smoothest roms i have ever ran. Absolutely no issues so far except swipe text does not work in the stock "Internet" App which is fixed in the updated version which i haven't upgraded to since it is still in beta. But all that aside, i still don't mind messing with things on a day to day basis and i still have the time for it.
I have unlocked my bootloader, rooted with Magisk and flashed AsopExtended Rom. Very happy with the performance of my A2017U as it is right now. My question to ya'll is, What would be the pros and cons of returning to complete stock (for OTA updates) or sticking with rooted and custom rom and not being able to receive OTA updates?
whats the question here? Its on you... what you prefer
Lol that depends of your needs - I stick to stock because of audio (mostly) and somehow bcz of camera (as far as I know you can install stock camera app).
That's question is a little bit irrevelant when you was stock and now you are testing custom rom.
So the answer is simply - replay to your question by yourself and with margin to your needs.
Had to test the waters with custom roms on this phone, but was just wanting to hear other peoples thoughts on the subject. I've always tinkered with customizing my phones and enjoy doing so. Would like to hear different points of view and then see if it would make me change my mind. Sometimes custom roms have little bugs that people can or can't live with, and in some cases stock is best for total functionality. Just curious of others opinions.....
amaury48 said:
Had to test the waters with custom roms on this phone, but was just wanting to hear other peoples thoughts on the subject. I've always tinkered with customizing my phones and enjoy doing so. Would like to hear different points of view and then see if it would make me change my mind. Sometimes custom roms have little bugs that people can or can't live with, and in some cases stock is best for total functionality. Just curious of others opinions.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IMHO custom ROMs are littered with bugs, but mostly overlookable. Take the phone bug or storage with SD card bug for example.
Stock works better in every regard (except substratum, damn you mifavor) and with MiFavor 5 this is even truer. But if you like your current ROM there's no reason to go back...
Choose an username... said:
IMHO custom ROMs are littered with bugs, but mostly overlookable. Take the phone bug or storage with SD card bug for example.
Stock works better in every regard (except substratum, damn you mifavor) and with MiFavor 5 this is even truer. But if you like your current ROM there's no reason to go back...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I finally went back to stock B25 via the DrakenFx method to retain root and custom recovery. I came across the phone bug on my custom rom and that helped me make my decision to go back to a stock rom.....
Yep, used custom ROMs from the first week of owning the phone until about a month ago when I went back to B25 with Magisk. Couldn't be happier.
I was about to make a similar thread myself but saw this one. I have been running custom roms since day one but have been considering returning to stock.
A brief summary of the benefits:
Reasons to go with stock:
Fully functional ZTE camera app with no bugs - This is perhaps more important than you might think, ZTE haven't enabled the Camera 2 API which means its very possible we are going to get the best quality and feature-set by sticking with the stock app. If ZTE haven't released their blobs there could very well be reasons to stick with the default camera app...not only that but I like it. You can install the mod, but there are aspects that will never work and some roms and kernels play more nicely with the mod than others.
Dolby Atmos app. Similar to the camera on stock this would just mean less messing about, you can of course get atmos mods in magisk but whether they work as well as the stock ZTE app I am not sure. The strange thing is I have never had the stock ZTE Axon atmos magisk mod to work on a custom rom, even though I have an Axon!
Reliability, no need to worry about force closes or apps not working, everything pretty much just works. So much less stress if you use your phone as a daily driver.
Ease of use, less features makes the phone easier to use. In some cases even when you are a tinkerer like me its sometimes good to be able to forget about continuously tweaking stuff and digging yourself in to a never ending upgrade cycle.
Oreo, it looks like if you stay stock we will see Oreo sooner than custom roms.
Reasons to go custom:
Substratum, oh boy would I miss this going back to stock. The ZTE theme engine is pants compared and I love the work that goes in to my current premium theme.
Battery life, perhaps with the aid of also a custom kernel there are some very nice roms and kernels being worked on which allow you to fully customise and save battery life.
Features, you can set the phone up exactly as you want too, every small detail can be customised. You can choose exactly which rom you like based on the features you use.
Performance, you can get more performance out of a custom rom with custom kernel and find a nicer balance between battery and performance, whichever suits you.
Fun, its fun to flash different roms and get the flashing bug. You learn a lot and get to join in with a fantastic community where people help each other.
Third option, run a debloated custom rom.
Seems to be more and more popular, as an ex Nexus 5 user I loved Cataclysm rom for this very reason. You keep all the features associated with stock with added performance benefits, fixes and less bloat. There is a downside if you plan on keeping atmos as some stock roms seem to strip it away, but it is a nice compromise between the options above. Usually these roms are more reliable as they are based on stock too. If you want a lean rom that just works, this may suit you!
Its such a hard choice and one I still havent decided on, if I have missed anything please let me know!
Background info and summary:
My first smartphone was a ZTE blade 2 and it was a beast for the money, this phone is tremendous too. My GF owns a pixel and apart from the camera this phone trumps it for value no question...for less than half the price.
I have to say though, I do miss the days of my Nexus 5 and the larger mod community, I realise these days have gone now with google devices but perhaps next time I will opt to go to Oneplus just so I can trust a bit more that there will be less caveats going custom as if there is one complaint I have with ZTE it is their unwillingness to release their source code for the little tiny things like the camera api and atmos.
Dodgexander said:
I was about to make a similar thread myself but saw this one. I have been running custom roms since day one but have been considering returning to stock.
A brief summary of the benefits:
Reasons to go with stock:
Fully functional ZTE camera app with no bugs - This is perhaps more important than you might think, ZTE haven't enabled the Camera 2 API which means its very possible we are going to get the best quality and feature-set by sticking with the stock app. If ZTE haven't released their blobs there could very well be reasons to stick with the default camera app...not only that but I like it. You can install the mod, but there are aspects that will never work and some roms and kernels play more nicely with the mod than others.
Dolby Atmos app. Similar to the camera on stock this would just mean less messing about, you can of course get atmos mods in magisk but whether they work as well as the stock ZTE app I am not sure. The strange thing is I have never had the stock ZTE Axon atmos magisk mod to work on a custom rom, even though I have an Axon!
Reliability, no need to worry about force closes or apps not working, everything pretty much just works. So much less stress if you use your phone as a daily driver.
Ease of use, less features makes the phone easier to use. In some cases even when you are a tinkerer like me its sometimes good to be able to forget about continuously tweaking stuff and digging yourself in to a never ending upgrade cycle.
Oreo, it looks like if you stay stock we will see Oreo sooner than custom roms.
Reasons to go custom:
Substratum, oh boy would I miss this going back to stock. The ZTE theme engine is pants compared and I love the work that goes in to my current premium theme.
Battery life, perhaps with the aid of also a custom kernel there are some very nice roms and kernels being worked on which allow you to fully customise and save battery life.
Features, you can set the phone up exactly as you want too, every small detail can be customised. You can choose exactly which rom you like based on the features you use.
Performance, you can get more performance out of a custom rom with custom kernel and find a nicer balance between battery and performance, whichever suits you.
Fun, its fun to flash different roms and get the flashing bug. You learn a lot and get to join in with a fantastic community where people help each other.
Third option, run a debloated custom rom.
Seems to be more and more popular, as an ex Nexus 5 user I loved Cataclysm rom for this very reason. You keep all the features associated with stock with added performance benefits, fixes and less bloat. There is a downside if you plan on keeping atmos as some stock roms seem to strip it away, but it is a nice compromise between the options above. Usually these roms are more reliable as they are based on stock too. If you want a lean rom that just works, this may suit you!
Its such a hard choice and one I still havent decided on, if I have missed anything please let me know!
Background info and summary:
My first smartphone was a ZTE blade 2 and it was a beast for the money, this phone is tremendous too. My GF owns a pixel and apart from the camera this phone trumps it for value no question...for less than half the price.
I have to say though, I do miss the days of my Nexus 5 and the larger mod community, I realise these days have gone now with google devices but perhaps next time I will opt to go to Oneplus just so I can trust a bit more that there will be less caveats going custom as if there is one complaint I have with ZTE it is their unwillingness to release their source code for the little tiny things like the camera api and atmos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some comments about this:
-Stock still has RRO support, so while it is kinda craptastic to use substratum this way, it is doable. I have most of my apps with Swift Dark (the ones that don't force close anyways) and Lawnchair with black theme, on MiFavor 5 which already has a rather black quick settings screen. The result is awesome
While you might be getting more battery life from a custom ROM, I totally disagree on the performance part. Everything works just slower. But yeah, battery-wise I got 7h SOT once which is absolutely bonkers :silly:
If you want a nice modded stock try any MiFavor 5 modded ROM like RDX or ADM Team. Those keep Atmos and use MiFavor 5 B13, which seemingly have a new camera app?
Choose an username... said:
Some comments about this:
-Stock still has RRO support, so while it is kinda craptastic to use substratum this way, it is doable. I have most of my apps with Swift Dark (the ones that don't force close anyways) and Lawnchair with black theme, on MiFavor 5 which already has a rather black quick settings screen. The result is awesome
While you might be getting more battery life from a custom ROM, I totally disagree on the performance part. Everything works just slower. But yeah, battery-wise I got 7h SOT once which is absolutely bonkers :silly:
If you want a nice modded stock try any MiFavor 5 modded ROM like RDX or ADM Team. Those keep Atmos and use MiFavor 5 B13, which seemingly have a new camera app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I will give ADM a try first since RDX seems to exclusively for the A2017 and I own the A2017U.
Frankly when I saw substratum without OMS support before I wasn't impressed but it sounds like it's worth a look.
Performance wise I loved running AOKP. It runs so much faster than resurrection remix and faster than my brief time on stock also.
It's a pain sacrifices have to made somewhere, but I guess you can't argue for the money!
Dodgexander said:
Thanks I will give ADM a try first since RDX seems to exclusively for the A2017 and I own the A2017U.
Frankly when I saw substratum without OMS support before I wasn't impressed but it sounds like it's worth a look.
Performance wise I loved running AOKP. It runs so much faster than resurrection remix and faster than my brief time on stock also.
It's a pain sacrifices have to made somewhere, but I guess you can't argue for the money!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you simply have to flash the univ bootstack and your modem file to install RDX, it just wasn't tested on other phones but the A2017. but yeah, just use ADM Team
If we don't get Oreo, I will root mine, debloat etc and unroot just to keep it stock but lean. Stock camera in Nougat is quite good IMO. Atmos is pants but I will leave it alone.
RobboW said:
If we don't get Oreo, I will root mine, debloat etc and unroot just to keep it stock but lean. Stock camera in Nougat is quite good IMO. Atmos is pants but I will leave it alone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what's the downside of having it rooted?
Some apps don't work and it has to be secure for work use.
RobboW said:
Some apps don't work and it has to be secure for work use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Magisk then...
Choose an username... said:
Some comments about this:
-Stock still has RRO support, so while it is kinda craptastic to use substratum this way, it is doable. I have most of my apps with Swift Dark (the ones that don't force close anyways) and Lawnchair with black theme, on MiFavor 5 which already has a rather black quick settings screen. The result is awesome
While you might be getting more battery life from a custom ROM, I totally disagree on the performance part. Everything works just slower. But yeah, battery-wise I got 7h SOT once which is absolutely bonkers :silly:
If you want a nice modded stock try any MiFavor 5 modded ROM like RDX or ADM Team. Those keep Atmos and use MiFavor 5 B13, which seemingly have a new camera app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just installed adm rom and substratum but can't get any themes to work at all. Substratum appears to work and let's me install them but after a reboot they don't work.
I tested with the Google app, gmail and chrome amongst others. I am using swift black.
I guess it's just a bug with the adm Rom? Magisk is working fine I think.
Dodgexander said:
Just installed adm rom and substratum but can't get any themes to work at all. Substratum appears to work and let's me install them but after a reboot they don't work.
I tested with the Google app, gmail and chrome amongst others. I am using swift black.
I guess it's just a bug with the adm Rom? Magisk is working fine I think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It can't be because I had everything themed on ADM ROM too. Except system ui and that stuff since it can't be themed. no idea why that happens.
Choose an username... said:
It can't be because I had everything themed on ADM ROM too. Except system ui and that stuff since it can't be themed. no idea why that happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Were you using the new release with version 5 of mifavor?
What about systemless host list in magisk enabled to get adaway to work?
Only two things I have changed. I am using A2017U with the b13 bootstack.
Haven't changed anything else so no idea why it isn't working.
Dodgexander said:
Were you using the new release with version 5 of mifavor?
What about systemless host list in magisk enabled to get adaway to work?
Only two things I have changed. I am using A2017U with the b13 bootstack.
Haven't changed anything else so no idea why it isn't working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i was using the old release with version 5 (ADM Team V3)
I would stick with stock unless you are an extreme power user. ZTE fixed 99% of the issues with MiFavor with 7.1.1 and custom ROMs are littered with SO MANY little bugs. MiFavor is extremely stable now. Audio and camera is also much worse on custom.
But hey whatever you prefer.
So as the title says im rly woundering if i should.
Im a big fan of root, but some ppl on here have been reporting worser battery life. As well as losing the updates. Unless you return stock recovery and stuff. What im asking is what is your opinion. And for those with root, has there realy been worse battery or any performence drop ?
Thanks beforehand for your answers?
I'm getting this phone in less than 2 weeks and I always been a custom rom and root user. I will stay stock rom with Magisk, so I can enjoy Youtube without ads and install a host blocker to avoid ads and tracking in my entire phone (works even with Twitch, Google Chrome and games)
Do it! (at your own risk)
I've not noticed battery life drop because of it, if anything Xposed + Amplify have extended it. It's worth it just to have adaway back.
Performance didn't seem to change either.
I didn't enjoy the root experience with magisk though, a bit too buggy with a few things like getting adaway to stick after reboot and xposed would stop being active for no reason so I switched over to SuperSU.
True about updates, but until a major update is released it I can live with not having the incremental ones (as an ex Samsung user I'm not used to getting many updates anyway lol)
the larger battery usage is only at beginning until the phone completly adjusts the optimizations
I got this smartphone two weeks ago, and i'm a bit pissed about MIUI since i feel like it has a lot of garbage apps and the performance of the device is questionable to say the least (also things such as low volume output or issues with official apps like Twitch), so i was wondering how worth it is to get a custom ROM, also which one is recommended.
I don't need anything too crazy, just a clean ROM with good performance and without any issues with apps (i believe that the Twitch issue has to do with the screen ratio, but still).
Thanks
I have it since...march i think. Still stock. Just debloat it with XiaomiADBFastbootTools. The one thing that im missing is youtube vanced. After Q, maybe ill root it.
P.P. If u want something clean , try Pixel expirience. But stock has best battery after debloating.
poyatiesa said:
I got this smartphone two weeks ago, and i'm a bit pissed about MIUI since i feel like it has a lot of garbage apps and the performance of the device is questionable to say the least (also things such as low volume output or issues with official apps like Twitch), so i was wondering how worth it is to get a custom ROM, also which one is recommended.
I don't need anything too crazy, just a clean ROM with good performance and without any issues with apps (i believe that the Twitch issue has to do with the screen ratio, but still).
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If u want a clean rom just debloat you current MIUI Rom if you want Clean AOSP Rom the PE Rom is the best. Ive use MiuiMix before and its really good also SoT is great
zlata said:
I have it since...march i think. Still stock. Just debloat it with XiaomiADBFastbootTools. The one thing that im missing is youtube vanced. After Q, maybe ill root it.
P.P. If u want something clean , try Pixel expirience. But stock has best battery after debloating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You dont need root for youtube vanced. Go to vanced.app and download non-root option.
So, i tested a lot of roms but in the end I reverted back to stock miui, debloated (mainly because custom roms are widevine L3). But now it seems that xiaomi.eu is L1 as well.
Give custom roms a try, you can always go back to locked bootloader with miflash anyway.