Hi everyone, I've been lurking on XDA for the last month or so but didn't post much because frankly, my aptitude in the device's inner workings is pretty much zero I've been reading threads pretty much non stop to learn as much as possible but did not see a thread where there is a centralized location where users can give their experience/short reviews on the current ROMs they are using. As a person who had no prior knowledge of Android, I'll just say that it can be an overwhelming amount of knowledge for one person to take in a short amount of time and a thread like this would have been a great help IMO. Obviously, feel free to disagree lol.
In this thread please specify the ROM/kernel/modem you are currently using, brief description how you use the device and a quick review to notate known bugs, and your user experience for the ROM. Please restrain any vague useless comments such as "THIS ROM SUCKS!!" or "THIS ROM IS GARBAGE!!!!"
A quick preface of my background with phones before I begin my review:
I've only started to become interested in rooting my phone because I saw the ICS iteration we were going to receive for our phones and I was underwhelmed and disappointed in the fact that the stock ICS was altered SO much. I read, read, read and researched as much as possible before I even thought about flashing anything and thanks to the helpful members of this community and the incredible Devs, it's safe to say it's been an eye opening experience the last few weeks. Thank you to all the Devs and the members!! Anyway, on to my review.
Current ROM: MIJJz BLEND ICS "THE GOODNESS"
Kernel: FD02
Modem: FD16
Previous ROM:Calkulin's E4GT v3.0 [ EL29 l Fast l Tweaked l Battery Saver Script ]
Known Bugs: Notification Sound (All ICS based ROMs), occasional "acore.process" error which relates to contacts and Google+ (not really an issue), Rebooting while on 4G (I actually never had this issue, but read that it was a known bug)
How I use the phone: I unplug the phone from the charger around 7 AM and while I commute to work (1 hr 30 minute round trip) I stream the music on my phone via bluetooth in my car. I have 3 email accounts setup, 2 on push and one refreshed every hour, and usually only talk on the phone around 20 minutes a day, send and receive about 20 texts. I keep track of the stock market fairly often, check emails frequently (send/receive around 50), and occasionally play games or browse on the web. I'm usually connected to Wifi during work hours and will have about 1 hr of screen time by the time I come home and basically just play around with the phone until it dies before I go to bed and plug it in for the night.
User Review of the ROM: As I notated above, there are really no serious bugs that will hinder a user from using the device as their daily driver. All critical functions such as 3G/4G, voice, SMS/MMS, Camera, Video, GPS (especially with the new modem) work flawlessly. As I also stated above, I was using Calkulin's GB ROM which is fantastic but I just REALLY wanted the stock ICS on my phone... And boy am I glad. This ROM gives you all the functionality of the stock ICS experience such as the dynamic widgets, better multitasking, face unlock etc while not compromising the fluidity of the GB ROM I was previously using. The blue theme looks fantastic, browser works great and I really the love app drawer and the folder aesthetics in ICS. Another important detail for beginners which may be important is that this ROM is very easy/intuitive to flash if you follow the instructions. With other ICS ROMs that are available such as C9 or AOKP, there is higher margin of error of doing something wrong to possibly brick your phone and for a starter like me, it was a critical component in choosing this ROM (outside the fact it had the least amount of known bugs from reading at the time).
The only drawback (and it's not really a drawback because it's due to the leaked ICS kernels) you will have is unfortunately the battery life. On the previous ROM, based on the use I mentioned above, I will have about 50%+ battery remaining by the time I get home but with this ICS ROM, I'll be lucky if I have 30% remaining before I get home around 7 PM. Still solid, but if you're a heavier user than I am, you will probably need a mid day charge. Also, not a drawback but an FYI which I noticed that may come in future releases but not available currently:
- No visual notification of unread texts/emails on the icons
- Can't customize notification toggles (Please correct me if I'm wrong)
Overall, this ROM is incredible and just want to thank Mijj and the team for creating this. I may try C9 or AOKP in the future when the offical source is out, but this ROM will be my daily driver until that day
Current ROM: Venum's Anakonda
Kernel: FD16
Modem: FD16
Previous ROM: sfhub's one-click FD05
Known Bugs: Notification Sound (All ICS based ROMs). If I pay attention and don't exit out of phone or messaging app then I don't have this problem.
How I use the phone: Unless I'm testing out the battery my phone goes on the charger every night and typically sits on a charger on my desk during work. I'm a general use kind of user. I make a few calls, send lots of text, futz around on the web from time to time and check my social sites and email several times throughout the day. I rarely stream music or videos since I'm almost always near a computer for those activities but have used Netflix when I was trying to kill the battery (it didn't work, battery survived lol).
User Review of the ROM: I love this ROM. It's very smooth and the themes available for it offer me a wide variety of looks. I seriously haven't encountered any issues with it. I've tried Calkulin's battery saver ROMs and Agat63's most current ROM with no major issues in either. I'm still green when it comes to Nandroiding and restoring so I'm going lite on installed apps until I decide I'm where I'm going to stay for a good while. At some point, hopefully in the near future, I'm going to try Nocturnal Venum but I'm giving it time to settle and honestly, just really enjoying Anakonda so I'm in no rush to change.
Major props to all the Devs who work so hard to give us the many options we have available to keep our phones fresh and exciting.
Has topic been done before? Sorry if this is a repeat.
Waiting to get off work and to a computer before responding...
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5
Current ROM: Agat63 tFD16 0.1.0
Kernel: FD16 Stock
Modem: FD16
Previous ROM: Agat63 tFD10 0.1.1
Known Bugs: Notification Sound (All ICS based ROMs). Themed Gtalk won't install.
How I use the phone: Mainly Plume, Gtalk, and G+ for group huddles. Also music player at work. Occasional GameBoy or Movies.
User Review of the ROM: Between the smoothness and Tiffany84's ICS theme, this is my locked in setup. Odexing makes it fly and I don't want any other theme. I look for stability and speed in a rom and have nothing to complain about until source drops and little ICS things go away, but that's hardly a concern. I do miss HBO GO, but now it's on Xbox Live.
Thanks for the responses! I'll close this thread if no more people are interested.
Related
Excuse my ignorance, I am new to android. I get that everyone loves them some CM, but what about it makes it special over any other ROM? Thanks.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
It has a ton of extra options/customizations. That's what I like a out it. The rest is....meh..about the same.
Bada Bing Bada Boom!
not really true duce cyanogen is different because its not made by any of the cell manufacturers and has all there bloat and customizations removed. it is the closest you can get to a nexux device on a standard android phone.
The most important thing is its the most popular AOSP ROM. So even if you don't run it (which I don't) you have to respect the fact that you can truly own your hardware without any cell phone provider interference. That and its for the community by the community is impressive.
Ah, so it's like ultimate stock, so it doesnt put tweaked ROMs like calkulin's or phantomhacker's out of business then?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
drksilenc said:
not really true duce cyanogen is different because its not made by any of the cell manufacturers and has all there bloat and customizations removed. it is the closest you can get to a nexux device on a standard android phone.
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Click to collapse
I know what CM is, ran it for quite some time myself. It's nice and I respect everything about it.
I put it lightly I guess, which is pretty much the same (more of a true android experience that is clear).
As far as daily driver it offers more at customization, options, themes, and mods. No need to get defensive about CM...... Some like it more and some less. >"Personally"< with the way the et4g runs ATM, and the roms we have, I'm not worried about it. If a stable version with working gps, no f/c, and extreme battery drainage ever gets released for this phone , it's definitely worth using. Or at least try it out.
Bada Bing Bada Boom!
JoeBruin32 said:
Ah, so it's like ultimate stock, so it doesnt put tweaked ROMs like calkulin's or phantomhacker's out of business then?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it does not. It's a personal preference. Definitely worth trying out for sure.
Bada Bing Bada Boom!
Agreed, usually the folks that run CM tend to be on the Diva side of things, at least my experience on the OG Evo, but its nice to know that there are high end alternatives to what the carriers provide (CM/MIUI)
its a rom built on the theory of the old warcraft cheat code: make it so
Well,I like the real miui rom
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Cyanogenmod is based off of stock Android. Some Cyanogenmod features:
- Lockscreen Gestures - launch apps & activities from the lock screen
- Phone Goggles - Lets you filter what goes in and out of your phone
- OpenVPN
- Incognito Mode - private browsing
- DSP Manger - Amazing audio compressor & equalizer for great sound
- Theme Support - CM7 comes stock with 2 or 3 themes, and has the T-Mobile Theme Chooser app integrated. You can download theme packages from XDA & Android Market to re-skin your phone. So, instead of having to flash themes you can install them like APKs.
- Its fast and clean - No bloatware, and has great battery life.
Its also very customizable. For instance, you can set the toggles in your status bar to what ever order you would like, and there are a huge amount to choose from. I personally throw up music back/play/forward toggles, brightness, 2g/3g/4g toggle, and so on. It also features multiple lock screen styles to choose from.
Read more here: http://www.cyanogenmod.com/about
^ those are true but none of those are original, you can do most of that without rooting and all of it on a stock root.
I used cm roms for half a year at least on my Evo, compared to stock I would crash every week, I would have to restart my phone every other day because my keyboard would disappear, you have to deal with rom bloatware which is at least a lot lighter than carrier bloatware, and they never included the simple user fixes I wanted like screen res fix so stuff didn't look blurry and pixely or user profiles on common apps.
now I'm on midnight rom (a more stock rom than cm) on E4gT and it's running infinitely better than cm7.1 was on my evo. it's only crashed on me twice in a month, the customization is basically the same as even roms have a standard of what's included now, and the only thing worse is no built in wifi.
the main appeal of CM roms is getting system upgrades before they're released. they've released ICS roms for phones already, i'm waiting for the e4gt rom. besides that, all the people you see praising CM roms are android fanboys
xvsanx said:
^ those are true but none of those are original, you can do most of that without rooting and all of it on a stock root.
I used cm roms for half a year at least on my Evo, compared to stock I would crash every week, I would have to restart my phone every other day because my keyboard would disappear, you have to deal with rom bloatware which is at least a lot lighter than carrier bloatware, and they never included the simple user fixes I wanted like screen res fix so stuff didn't look blurry and pixely or user profiles on common apps.
now I'm on midnight rom (a more stock rom than cm) on E4gT and it's running infinitely better than cm7.1 was on my evo. it's only crashed on me twice in a month, the customization is basically the same as even roms have a standard of what's included now, and the only thing worse is no built in wifi.
the main appeal of CM roms is getting system upgrades before they're released. they've released ICS roms for phones already, i'm waiting for the e4gt rom. besides that, all the people you see praising CM roms are android fanboys
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Did you never upgrade your version of CM? Especially if you are running a nightly build, there are likely to be bugs. Run a stable and there is a solid chance you won't ever have issues. This applies to the EVO and any other phone that supports CM7. Call me a fanboy if you'd like, there is obviously reasoning behind my love for Cyanogenmod.
realizing the "official" ICS update may never come (at least for a long time), I have played around with a few ROMs so far - both ICS-based and GB. For some reason, each and every ROM I have tried offers some kind of glitch - at least on my phone - sometimes the phone won't boot back up, some ROMS won't connect to certain T-Mobile services, etc.
While I certainly realize that the DEVs work feverishly to cook these things (which I definitely appreciate), does anyone out there have any recommendations for a pretty solid ICS ROM for the T989?
I have been on Darkside Beta 5 for over a week, in my opinion it is very stable, no call echo and the rotation is clean. There is the Wi-fi issue, but then again every ROM has that problem.
Everyone will have different opinion's but it is my preferred ROM.
Darkside UCLE2 Beta 6 is the least buggy out of all of them from what I have experienced. If u want GB then Digital Warfare is by far the best for battery and overall smooth operations. Since I use my GS2 for work day in and day out - I prefer to just run Digital Warfare 2.7..
Beta 6 like the last guy said. We'll get official sometime, but it won't be as good as tdj's
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Yes DARKSIDE.UCLE2::[BETA06] soon to be 7 install today with Blaze radio nothing went wrong and even tried that lc8 just for fun both work where i live can turn 4g on and off fast nice even install S voice from the Gs3
Questions go in the Q&A section
terrapin69 said:
realizing the "official" ICS update may never come (at least for a long time), I have played around with a few ROMs so far - both ICS-based and GB. For some reason, each and every ROM I have tried offers some kind of glitch - at least on my phone - sometimes the phone won't boot back up, some ROMS won't connect to certain T-Mobile services, etc.
While I certainly realize that the DEVs work feverishly to cook these things (which I definitely appreciate), does anyone out there have any recommendations for a pretty solid ICS ROM for the T989?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Official ICS is coming in 9 days bro, be careful saying "never"
First – I know this forum is not the right place for this post but as a new member I am not allowed to post in T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II Android Development
Appreciate it if anyone could help or offer links….
Background – Recently rooted my T989 for six reasons:
1. Remove (or freeze) T-Mobile and Samsung bloatware with Titanium
2. Ability to create complete a backup of the phone with ROM Manager and quality backups of each individual app with Titanium
3. Save power effectively/efficiently with Juice Defender
4. OC the CPU (I now know rooting the native phone ROM is not sufficient to OC CPU)
5. Finally I was pissed the Samsung (Kies)/T-Mobile upgrade from gingerbread to ICS (4.0.3) basically did NOTHING to improve my user experience/enjoyment of the phone.
6. Change USB packet size with SD Speed (After many benchmarks and actual UBS transfers to/from a desktop it is clear changing USB packet size for groups of files larger than 1MB is basically useless on my phone/SD card)
Use Profile - At least weekly… I use the phone to:
1. watch various codec files and streaming online video (via HDMI) – App MX Player and Dolphin
2. email (various email providers) – App Mail Droid
3. play mp3s (through phone speaker or Bluetooth) – App Poweramp
4. play games (on and off line) – App various
5. social networking – App Facebook and others
6. use mapping programs in conjunction with GPS – App Google Maps and Sygic
7. monitor/check car performance/sensors with OBD II software connected via Bluetooth – App Torque and others
8. take and modify pictures/video – App native Camera and others
9. Web surf – App Dolphin
10. reference phone sensors (tilt, acceleration, magnetic) – App various
11. reference offline technical material like ElectroDroid, handyCalc, and Universal Converter
12. move large files (like a thumb drive) with USB between Windows computers (The only physical mod I have done to the phone is addition of a 64GB SD Card)
13. provide an alarm clock – App native Clock
14. Finally and most important Creation/Modification of MS Office files (via HDMI with Bluetooth mouse and keyboard connected) – App Kingsoft Office and OfficeSuite Pro
Questions –
1. Is there any way to OC the CPU without installing a new ROM? (not interested in underclocking or CPU sleeping apps)
2. Can I just install a new kernel to OC the CPU? (It looks like “yes” when I read the Kernels section links of “[REF] Your One-Stop-Shop for rooting, roms, kernels and themes![UPDATED!][7/31]”. BUT I’m no UNIX / Linux expert and don’t want to screw the phone up)
3. Will installing ROM DARKSIDE.EVOLUTION.3 provide me with any significant user benefits over my base rooted Samsung ROM? If yes, can you provide a link to benefits? Will I loose capabilities?
4. Other performance modification suggestions would be appreciated.
Tks in advance
To start this definitely would be where you post this, either here or q&a section. This would not be OK to post in the development section as it is purely for development.
Now to address your question, there are a few ROMs out there (including my own)that def do enhance performance and allow overclocking. The most important thing to remember is to Read Read Read before doing anything to make sure everything is done right. And Google has many answers and YouTube has many flashing tutorials, just a tip happy flashing
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app
Yes you could just flash a new kernel and oc. I'd recommend tdj's dark side. Then again, why don't you just flash a rom? I mean you already rooted your phone (which to me is the most unnerving part). Just make you sure you have the correct version of cwm and wipe cache (or using tdj's super wipe/cache wipe) as needed per kernel/rom/radio(yes, you might to flash a new radio) and you'd be good to go.
I was on dark side rom with the kernel for a while and it seems like it has better battery life over cm9 rc2 which is what's on my phone right now. And since the dark side was based on the official release it is pretty much bug free.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app
I agree with ptmr3, research and ask questions. Thats exactly what i did before i did anything to my phone. Yes it maybe a scary process thinking about flashing and the possibility of flashing the wrong zip and bricking. But as long as you research, you'll be ok.
They pretty much answered your questions, but feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I got a pretty good knowledge on most things here and i like to help other members out when possible.
Thanks
God I was meaning to make this type of thread but I got lazy I wanted to heavily discuss Darkside Rom. I have flashed it about 3 times. Once with the latest version and 2 with the previous. I really liked it. ICS is amazing and the Kernel gave me a bit more battery than usual (20 hours moderate use)
When I first flashed darkside it was a bit laggy even after wiping cache, data, davlik cache 3 times before running darkside then running the rom that has darkside included... It would crash very often when I had poweramp open. When it played the music would cut off terribly into static with actions such as pulling down the drawer or opening folders/menu. Twitter would crash as well and gmail would be laggy and sometimes give me a bit of a green screen I know I am being a bit picky, but still that bugs me.. Everything else was awesome though.
Things improved with the latest version, but after a while the power amp bugs persisted as well as the slight crashes with twitter and gmail (even though I performed fresh installs of all these apps) Jeez it was so good I ignored the few and rare times it got buggy. But then I noticed that after a while when my battery hit low the time would change the phone would state a totally different time. Like 2 pm. It wouldn't improve until I charged it to 100% and reboot....
It makes me sad I really wanted to stay with ICS...
I am going to try CM 9 but I really liked darkside. Might also try AOKP as well... I never bothered fixing permissions with TDJ's darkside cache wipe Do you believe that would help? I never had rebooting issues and I never really flashed anything on my phone but Darkside.... I did flash a CM nightly inbetween the previous and newer version of Darkside.
Anyone can recommend me any help? I am back to gingerbread it runs smoothly but ICS is just amazing... :\
Also please recommend me some kernels for either gingerbread stock or an ICS rom so I can have better performance and battery life.
I know I wrote a lot but thank you so much guys.
iSchadenfreude said:
God I was meaning to make this type of thread but I got lazy I wanted to heavily discuss Darkside Rom. I have flashed it about 3 times. Once with the latest version and 2 with the previous. I really liked it. ICS is amazing and the Kernel gave me a bit more battery than usual (20 hours moderate use)
When I first flashed darkside it was a bit laggy even after wiping cache, data, davlik cache 3 times before running darkside then running the rom that has darkside included... It would crash very often when I had poweramp open. When it played the music would cut off terribly into static with actions such as pulling down the drawer or opening folders/menu. Twitter would crash as well and gmail would be laggy and sometimes give me a bit of a green screen I know I am being a bit picky, but still that bugs me.. Everything else was awesome though.
Things improved with the latest version, but after a while the power amp bugs persisted as well as the slight crashes with twitter and gmail (even though I performed fresh installs of all these apps) Jeez it was so good I ignored the few and rare times it got buggy. But then I noticed that after a while when my battery hit low the time would change the phone would state a totally different time. Like 2 pm. It wouldn't improve until I charged it to 100% and reboot....
It makes me sad I really wanted to stay with ICS...
I am going to try CM 9 but I really liked darkside. Might also try AOKP as well... I never bothered fixing permissions with TDJ's darkside cache wipe Do you believe that would help? I never had rebooting issues and I never really flashed anything on my phone but Darkside.... I did flash a CM nightly inbetween the previous and newer version of Darkside.
Anyone can recommend me any help? I am back to gingerbread it runs smoothly but ICS is just amazing... :\
Also please recommend me some kernels for either gingerbread stock or an ICS rom so I can have better performance and battery life.
I know I wrote a lot but thank you so much guys.
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Click to collapse
Hey did you use any tools to restore like Titanium Backup whenever you put the new or updated versions of the roms on your phone?
I am sure this topic has been beaten to death already but I still wanted to share my experience with custom ROMs and finally going back to the STOCK ROM. If beginners want to try out Custom ROMs, may be they can read this beginner's post.
First the ritual - Android community is great. ROM developers are great minds at work! Thanks for doing all the hard work and showing me whats in the Custom ROM world.
I started out with simple rooting of my phone to get tethering (cheap on my part but I think I pay more than what my carrier offers). After rooting, custom ROM was just so tempting. So I tried a few - CM, AOKP, Carbon. Honestly, out of all, CM10.0 was the most stable for me. Things I loved:
1. Battery Life - Can't say enough. There is so much junk that runs in background on STOCK ROMs.
2. 4.2.2 JB - Better than 4.1.2 but then, not by miles.
3. Ability to flash ROMs over the weekends You know it.
4. Utilities like Titanium backup and others that needed Root access.
5. Tether - super like.
Things I hated:
1. Force closures - OMG I couldn't understand how the STOCK ROMs are so robust or Is it that the Apps are tested on Stock ROMs very well that they don't crash. Countless failures for Instagram, Email, Camera, BT etc.
2. Camera functionality - I give 10 out of 10 to Samsung in creating great camera app. I am a heavy smartphone camera user. The 4.2.2 camera app was so laggy on my GS3. The user interface sucked (circle). No meter mode. Bad panorama mode, HDR mode and worst low light photos.
3. On one of the custom ROMs, I had horrible issues with making and receiving phone calls (Yes it can go that bad).
4. Bluetooth pairing with devices. BT crashed a lot while music was interrupted with incoming calls.
All in all, I am now happy that I am back to the STOCK ROM with This Link Many thanks to the Member.
There is a lot of excitement and good things about the Custom ROMs but if you are like me who is not a super power user, there is a lot to consider before jumping.
Happy Monday!
In CM 10.1, the FC issues were fixed for me. This applies for most current AOSP roms. I have not had any issues with camera lag either. I will admit that the stock camera is more robust with options but there are third party apps that help minimize the feeling of loss.
Regarding testing, this is what goes on here. The difference is you see the testing phases while you do not with the manufacturer. In addition, many of the drivers and hardware info is proprietary so developing drivers that are stable can be a hit and miss affair.
On the same note, not every phone and user is the same and the experience will be different for each. ROMs will possibly work differently across the same models of phone due to minor variations in quality which are nearly impossible to catch during the manufacturing process due to nearly microscopic differences.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747
aybarrap1 said:
In CM 10.1, the FC issues were fixed for me. This applies for most current AOSP roms. I have not had any issues with camera lag either. I will admit that the stock camera is more robust with options but there are third party apps that help minimize the feeling of loss.
Regarding testing, this is what goes on here. The difference is you see the testing phases while you do not with the manufacturer. In addition, many of the drivers and hardware info is proprietary so developing drivers that are stable can be a hit and miss affair.
On the same note, not every phone and user is the same and the experience will be different for each. ROMs will possibly work differently across the same models of phone due to minor variations in quality which are nearly impossible to catch during the manufacturing process due to nearly microscopic differences.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747
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Click to collapse
Totally agree with the slight variations in experiences with Custom ROMs. But for some reason, my jump to 10.1 was not smooth with FCs and I quickly made a u-turn to 10.0 and then ultimately to the STOCK ROM. Camera Apps like Camera Zoom are very good and they do provide more options like Metering and time lapse (missing in STOCK), they are still not complete (simple example - I can't enable Panorama from CamerZoom). Nevertheless, the experience can be really amazing when things work out but really frustrating when they don't. STOCK has its problems like I am missing my Solid Battery life today :crying:
I think I'm about to go back to stock as well. While I love all the extra features that custom roms offer, all the tinkering and occasional bugginess can take away from the overall experience. At least for me, anyways.
I also had been doing it long enough that I felt really comfortable with all the flashing that I was doing, but would still make the occasional mistake (look at the hilarity I posted in the stupid questions thread today). I'm thinking I'll play it safe, at least for now, before I do something I regret.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app
newmind02 said:
I think I'm about to go back to stock as well. While I love all the extra features that custom roms offer, all the tinkering and occasional bugginess can take away from the overall experience. At least for me, anyways.
I also had been doing it long enough that I felt really comfortable with all the flashing that I was doing, but would still make the occasional mistake (look at the hilarity I posted in the stupid questions thread today). I'm thinking I'll play it safe, at least for now, before I do something I regret.
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Click to collapse
It is in my opinion that even the stock roms have bugs. At seemingly random times, my alarm clocks on my AT&T S3 just didn't work when running stock. I was almost late for work 3 days in a row because of it (my alarm is set to repeat 5 times a week every week at the exact same time. I never turn it off). In addition, I get the occasional random battery drop that seems to have something to do with the switch between H+ and LTE when on a phone call.
I stuck with the stock rom for a while but now that AOSP roms are stable, I have switched. Whatever bugs are present do not affect me or they are so minor I work around it. It really comes down to what you find to be acceptable for you.
As far as being comfortable and making mistakes, I have done it as well. Being a flashing fiend has made me overconfident a few times and I botched several installs. Luckily I have been so busy of late, that my flashing desire has been on hold.
Never had any force closes.
Never had any lag
Never had any problems on custom Roms.
If you're experiencing and lag, force closes, you're MORE than likely doing something wrong on your end.
This phone doesn't lag. It should lag whatsoever. 1.5Ghz and 2Gs of ram does not create lag.
Touchwiz runs a LOT more stuff in the background.
Just follow instructions on how to flash, what to flash, and what to tweak. And I can guarantee you an awesome experience.
The camera as well. Just took some amazing lightning shots with 4.2.2 camera, on burst mode with 20 pictures taken in less then 3 seconds. No lag what's so ever.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
jayRokk said:
Never had any force closes.
Never had any lag
Never had any problems on custom Roms.
If you're experiencing and lag, force closes, you're MORE than likely doing something wrong on your end.
This phone doesn't lag. It should lag whatsoever. 1.5Ghz and 2Gs of ram does not create lag.
Touchwiz runs a LOT more stuff in the background.
Just follow instructions on how to flash, what to flash, and what to tweak. And I can guarantee you an awesome experience.
The camera as well. Just took some amazing lightning shots with 4.2.2 camera, on burst mode with 20 pictures taken in less then 3 seconds. No lag what's so ever.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I concur
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747
techmine said:
I am sure this topic has been beaten to death already but I still wanted to share my experience with custom ROMs and finally going back to the STOCK ROM. If beginners want to try out Custom ROMs, may be they can read this beginner's post.
First the ritual - Android community is great. ROM developers are great minds at work! Thanks for doing all the hard work and showing me whats in the Custom ROM world.
I started out with simple rooting of my phone to get tethering (cheap on my part but I think I pay more than what my carrier offers). After rooting, custom ROM was just so tempting. So I tried a few - CM, AOKP, Carbon. Honestly, out of all, CM10.0 was the most stable for me. Things I loved:
1. Battery Life - Can't say enough. There is so much junk that runs in background on STOCK ROMs.
2. 4.2.2 JB - Better than 4.1.2 but then, not by miles.
3. Ability to flash ROMs over the weekends You know it.
4. Utilities like Titanium backup and others that needed Root access.
5. Tether - super like.
Things I hated:
1. Force closures - OMG I couldn't understand how the STOCK ROMs are so robust or Is it that the Apps are tested on Stock ROMs very well that they don't crash. Countless failures for Instagram, Email, Camera, BT etc.
2. Camera functionality - I give 10 out of 10 to Samsung in creating great camera app. I am a heavy smartphone camera user. The 4.2.2 camera app was so laggy on my GS3. The user interface sucked (circle). No meter mode. Bad panorama mode, HDR mode and worst low light photos.
3. On one of the custom ROMs, I had horrible issues with making and receiving phone calls (Yes it can go that bad).
4. Bluetooth pairing with devices. BT crashed a lot while music was interrupted with incoming calls.
All in all, I am now happy that I am back to the STOCK ROM with This Link Many thanks to the Member.
There is a lot of excitement and good things about the Custom ROMs but if you are like me who is not a super power user, there is a lot to consider before jumping.
Happy Monday!
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I tend to go back and forth between CM10.1 and Stock.
The biggest thing CM misses for me is the camera. Call me a fanboy but I really like what Samsung did to their camera optimizations in TW.
That being said, I don't like TW very much but a custom launcher and a few minor tweaks can make TW tolerable.
For apps running in the background I highly recommend Greenify for keeping apps dormant when you're not using them.
Titanium Backup also has a feature called Freeze that basically does the same thing as Greenify except it takes the app and prevents it from being used at all.
This is good for apps that you never use that come preloaded on the GS3 (AT&T and Samsung bloatware).
I know everyone hates which rom is the best, but i seriously have trouble finding or narrowing down my results. here's the deal.
I tried wanam, CM, phoenix, asylum, and maybe one or 2 others
Only ones i liked were the stock Samsung, and the Alliance, and Omega.
Alliance was my favorite, but something relating to the notification panel kept crashing. i put up with it for a while, but it started getting annoying.
I liked Omega, but i felt like it was too "intense" as in short battery life and stuff.
Here's what i want:
Reliable .. rock solid no crashes
Preferably debloated
NOT AOSP
Not updated too much. Alliance got one major update every few month. I'm busy so i can't update my phone every week or every day.
Can be downgraded from Asylum without loss of imei. (I'm ok with full wipes) but i heard issues relating to new modems and downgrading.
second most important stuff:
battery life
easy to use
a lot of "basic" functionality/mods (like call recording, no sms in call log, etc)
Preferably 4.3
Mind you I'm not a heavy modder. just basic phone use. (phone, sms, Facebook, instagram, etc).
Also i like a to install kernals to boost speaker volume. (don't care about OC or UC)
Hi!
Not everybody hates this question Actually from what you wrote, I can direct you to the one ROM that meets all you need: DN3 v2.
But I have a thing to ask in reply: please read the OP carefully before trying the ROM, we wouldn't like you to get mad at anybody if something goes south. Anyway, the DN3 is sweet, smooth, with good battery life and has all the bells and whistles of Note 3. You'll love it.
P.S. You might wanna back up your current ROM, just in case...