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Hello
Im a proud owner of DesireZ, got it from my provider for free, and I could not possibly think of a better phone than this. On stock clock - it runs high graphic games, and it runs smooth. I really cant imagine what would someone do with announced Exynos 2Ghz on SGS3, apart from resolution requirements. But than again, everything above ~250ppi is just retarded, by my standards. This HTC phone is perfect for me.
so, my question is -
1. need to replace stock rom with something good
2. need fully working phone (camera also, so no ICS for me, I guess )
3. need info on Sense version that doesnt cause bugs and problems, cause I have read lots of topics with people complaining. (lagging after couple of hours, need restart and so on)
4. CM, or ICS, or some pre-tunned Gingerbread .. ?
As I have done this before with some similar devices, please link the following to me:
1. root instructions
2. backup instructions
3. best OS by my requirements (smoothness, no bugs, and pre-installed OC software are priority)
and that's it
Im sorry in advance, cause there will surely be someone that says - use search, but Im making it like this cause regular visitors of site can find that with much more ease than I could. Appreciate help in advance.
Welcome to the DZ/G2 forums!
The procedure of using gfree to root and carrier unlock your DZ is in my signature. Depending on your current installed version of ROM, you may or may not have to downgrade your phone.
The most stable versions of ROMs that I have personally tried are the following.
Virtuous Sense: The closest stock DZ ROM you can get with optimizations and tweaks. It's been debloated of carrier crap and has an OC kernel up to 1.5GHz if I am not mistaken. The best GB Sense experience you can get IMO.
Virtuous G-Lite: The closest stock G2 ROM you can get with optimizations and tweaks. Debloated of T-Mobile's carrier crap and also OC-able to about 1.5GHz. Very light weight and able to go out 2-3 days on the stock battery on a single charge depending on usage. I would, however, recommend ditching LauncherPRO in favor of GOLauncherEX though.
Thanks man!
It is not carrier locked, cause supply stock of Serbian Telekom was only few and they didnt bother, it is a plain simple out-of-the-factory Desire Z.
If I choose G-lite, can I flash my regular DesireZ, are there limitations between G2/DZ .. ?
Does OC-ing to, lets say - 1.2Ghz shorten battery life ?
I like this G-lite, as I am aware of the fact that Android generally drains much more than other OSes, as I had HTC Blackstone. 4 days on WM6.5, 1 day on Android.
If you want a Sense 3.5 ROM, but a bit refreshed, I've been using Android Revolution for a few days and it's amazingly smooth compared to the other 3.5 ones.
I would HIGHLY recommend G2 Slim. It's the latest t-mobile release of gingerbread for the G2, but it has nearly everything unnecessary removed and it has the best battery life out of ALL the ROMs on our devices.
It's a very smooth ROM with all features working, it is a bit basic but there's nothing you can't really fix with apps from the market. It's very very fast, has ridiculous amounts of free RAM, it's great with multitasking and it's even very quick when it comes to app performance.
Virtuous G-Lite is basically the same as G2 Slim, except it's much faster. It seems like the extra speed of G-Lite comes at the cost of battery life though. That said, the battery life on both of those ROMs is amazing, so you can't go wrong with either of them.
Otherwise, if you're looking for something different and a little bit fun, try out the latest gingerbread release of MIUI . You will fall in love with the theming abilities of that ROM.
Get miui, looks good, and just works. ... MIUI Android (GB)
I would highly recommend AOSP, be it G2Slim or EliteMod.
Sense and MIUI can be fun to play with, but they're just toys IMO and like to eat your RAM and battery life. They do each offer some pretty kickin' features that AOSP doesn't but I still prefer the base experience as it offers the most stability, battery-life, and overall smoothness.
Happy to hear you like the phone, I'm going on a year and a month now and I still love it! I have nothing but praises for this thing, the flash even almost survived me! But alas I have to replace it after one too many accidental hits of the Torch quick setting.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using XDA Premium HD via my tethered HTC Vision
buxtahuda said:
I would highly recommend AOSP, be it G2Slim or EliteMod.
Sense and MIUI can be fun to play with, but they're just toys IMO and like to eat your RAM and battery life. They do each offer some pretty kickin' features that AOSP doesn't but I still prefer the base experience as it offers the most stability, battery-life, and overall smoothness.
Happy to hear you like the phone, I'm going on a year and a month now and I still love it! I have nothing but praises for this thing, the flash even almost survived me! But alas I have to replace it after one too many accidental hits of the Torch quick setting.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using XDA Premium HD via my tethered HTC Vision
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Click to collapse
I agree with this, G2 Slim and Virtuous G-lite are both fantastic AOSP ROMs that you should try out.
I like how you all automatically assume that I know the "AOSP" abreviation, but google helped me on that one
played last night with all OS-es you recommended, and in the process I made a routine with flashing so now I know what im doing, and this is hard - in terms of what to choose It is now that I actually see the potential of this phone. XDA support for this device is just awesome, one of the most supported devices generally.
@buxtahuda - had a lots of smartphones before this one, all lost due to failures:
HD2 - was crappy in terms of assemble, got loose and had really bad plastic. When I opened it it was clear that HTC assembly was not good at that time
iPhone 3g - after 6 months of usage without protection and pocket time, it looked like it had a fight with Optimus Prime.
SGS1 - fell from 2 feet and the scene looked like I dropped i light bulb - into 100 pieces. even Cornig Gorilla glass that has only one flaw - side pressure, managed to crack
DesireZ is on a whole another level. I actually managed to drop it 5th day of usage because I replaced bundle headphones (that's the only thing that sucks) and didnt have cable-control, and trying to change a song while running on high-cardio excercise (weight loss process). It fell down also having momentum cause of running and it tubmled for 4-5 meters:
still cant find where are the scratches. really, I placed it under a magnifying glass and I cant find where are the scratches from f'in concrete! awesome materials and assembly by HTC
Rooting your phone, getting S-OFF to install other Roms
Hello and have fun with your Desire Z!
Full instructions for HTC Desire Z and T-Mobile G2 Root and FULL S-OFF can be found on http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=HTC_Vision#Rooting_the_G2
When you need support for getting S-OFF you can join the IRC channel #G2ROOT on freenode. Browser access on webchat.freenode.net . After joining the IRC webchat you can change to channel #G2ROOT using the command "/join #G2ROOT".
My favorite ROMs for the HTC Desire Z are:
* Virtuous Affinity 2.05: A little bit slow, but great experience
* Virtuous G-Lite 2.0.1: Very fast, some special software might have issues
* CyanogenMod 7.1: Great overall ROM, respectable speed and stable.
Try the ROMs and decide for yourself!
For backing up applications I recommend using Titanium Backup (Pro), for backing up your system you can use ClockworkRecovery and RomManager.
When you want to install more than one ROM on your phone at the same time then try BootManager (from Google Play). Might not work with all ROMs but is really good to try things!
Good Luck.
Congrats on your new phone! The Desire Z is starting to show its age, but considering the developer base and the fact that you got it for free, I'd say you got a pretty good deal.
Personally, I like MIUI and CyanogenMod 7. CM7 is a classic, and everyone loves it for the degree to which it preserves stock Android, while adding on a few improvements here and there. MIUI, on the other hand, gives you a complete re-imagining of the Android interface, and it can be great to use. I find myself alternating between the two every couple months, actually. That's the beauty of the Desire Z, though: the widespread developer support means you get that kind of flexibility!
I agree that Cyanogenmod 7 is fantastic but for me, i could NEVER eliminate the constant battery drain issues that i had with it no matter what. I'd still recommend it to newcomers but i think simpler ROMs like G-lite or G2 Slim are much better.
I generally like to have a clean and consistent looking UI on any ROM that i use and CM7's styling seemed to always take a way from the stock gingerbread feel that i was looking for. That's my opinion.
Right now, i'm using Virtuous G-lite and now i know what it's like to have a really really fast phone xD.
As far as Sense ROMs go, my experience showed me that Virtuous Affinity 2.05.0 was the fastest and most stable out of all the Sense 3.* ROMs.
After many tries, I decided to stay on G-lite mainly cause of the battery, but I would also like to give a chance to Virtuous Sense, cause it seemed (for a hour of usage) like a pretty decent ROM.
MIUI reppeled me with the iPhony look, that's sometnig I want to avoid in the future, even if it has only a fraction to do with rotten Apple.
The best option would be, if anyone ever creates it, ICS based system with the "strip-down" settings like G-lite. that I would like very much
Anyways, this phone is Awesome. I did not have a hype like this with any other phone, and as I stated, I had them all shortly after release (HD2, SGS1, iPhone 3G). The only thing that's bothering me is metal back-cover which I guess will be all bumpy in the future (I hate putting my phone in covers and skins) But I guess I could recreate it out of metal, since I am good with power tools and fine cutting of stuff, and like to do that kind of projects
I just picked up my brand new Note 2 in white from ATT this week, running on Straight Talk. Rooted it before I took the plastic stickers off it, easiest and fastest root ever for me, and I am not a smart techie guy.
Anyways, I wanted to first try out a stock Touchwiz ROM, and found a very popular ROM here, installed it, and then installed Nova launcher with Jellybean theme, and I also installed a few ismc mods to give the phoen a pretty close to stock AOSP Nexus look, while still keeping the good Touchwiz S-Pen apps and widgets.
My last few phones have been One X running CM10, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus-S, Nexus-One. As you see, I am a fan of the pure vanilla look and feel. But it seems to me, that Jellybean has really made non Nexus phones really good, and with a launcher like Nova, and themed like Jellybean, it is darn close to the real nexus deal to me.
My question.
What are the performance numbers or at least your personal feel and opinion if you have used both on the Note 2 ? How does a good AOSP ROM, like CM10.1 run on the Note 2, compared to a stock Touchwiz ROM like cleanROM or JediX. Does the feel feel faster & smoother on AOSP over Touchwiz ? Battery life I am sure better on Tocuhwiz ?
Thanks
Running on JellyBeer, which uses CM10.1 as the base, it feels so much faster than stock. In fact, the battery life is also much much better.
I have to say I am pretty happy with cleanROM and my themes + Nova. Looks just like a Nexus now.
I do love AOSP, and sure it would be faster than Touchwiz ROM's, but I think I will hold off on those till next month, just reading there are few little bugs or minor issues still in these AOSP ROM's. I think another few weeks or month they be ironed out, and good to go.
I would switch to AOSP if its like crazy faster performance over Touchwiz ? If benchmark shows like night and day faster. Is it ?
Zorachus said:
I have to say I am pretty happy with cleanROM and my themes + Nova. Looks just like a Nexus now.
I do love AOSP, and sure it would be faster than Touchwiz ROM's, but I think I will hold off on those till next month, just reading there are few little bugs or minor issues still in these AOSP ROM's. I think another few weeks or month they be ironed out, and good to go.
I would switch to AOSP if its like crazy faster performance over Touchwiz ? If benchmark shows like night and day faster. Is it ?
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I wouldn't call out timelines, but I guarantee you that in a matter of a little over a week, the developers made giant strides to how it is now, which is near perfect. Sure, there's minor bugs, but nothing people can't live with. They're very minor, and most people who complain about certain supposed quirks either complain just to complain (I see them as people who can never be pleased), or haven't explored their settings long enough to realize what they're complaining about, whether something seems missing to them or isn't adjusted to the way they want, is right in front of them.
You are tempting me to try out AOSP Sorry I didn't mean to put a timeline out there, I am sure the good ones are stable and good enough as daily's.
I really am tempted by all these AOSP ROM's. But then with AOSP I lose the S-Pen features. Are the AOSP that much faster and smoother than Touchwiz ROM's, or not really ? Right now with Nova launcher mods + themes my phone looks almost like a Nexus already, is it worth it going to full AOSP ?
Zorachus said:
You are tempting me to try out AOSP Sorry I didn't mean to put a timeline out there, I am sure the good ones are stable and good enough as daily's.
I really am tempted by all these AOSP ROM's. But then with AOSP I lose the S-Pen features. Are the AOSP that much faster and smoother than Touchwiz ROM's, or not really ? Right now with Nova launcher mods + themes my phone looks almost like a Nexus already, is it worth it going to full AOSP ?
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Click to collapse
As I recall, some of the ROMs have Nova Launcher included. I'm not sure how a Nexus looks, but I would say it's not too different.
And yes, as I said before, AOSP (and even AOKP) is faster than stock. It's because it gets rid of the bloatware. As for S-Pen features, it depends on you and what you like. Apparently airview and the like won't be available unless someone ports it over, but S Notes can be replicated with another app.
Why not do a nandroid backup and flash a CM10.1 ROM and take it for a spin. You can always go back to your backup. I prefer running CM10.1. simple powerful interface and great performance. Touchwiz is to bulky and if you want spen apps pypirus is a great option
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app
I get better battery life and performance out of TW ROMs. I'm running JediX9 with the provided kernel with amazing results. Plus it has the spen features.
I try CM10.1 once in a while and always go back to Jedi.
Sent from my SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app
My biggest gripe on CM right now is audio. Incall audio and speaker volume are poor opposed to TW. I talk on the phone quite a bit and I can tell the difference noticeably. It will get ironed out, and I will be on CM for good.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2
I'm running the asylum aosp ROM and I'm having the best performance of any ROM I've tried to date, but on both in benchmark and subjective feel. I do find myself missing touch work tremendously though with some of its features. But I so love that my group messages workwwithout having to install a crappy third party messaging app.
As far as battery life, for me, the difference is negligible.
So had my note 2 for a couple of months now, and love it. I'm using stock (but rooted) 4.1.1.
I've got Apex launcher and most icons and stuff skinned to AOSP, though I miss some of the AOSP apps and the look and feel around the device of AOSP.
What would I miss if I left touchwiz? The rom needs to be *rock solid* stable as well - I'm only moving if it feels as smooth as stock!
Suggestions?
from my experience:
Stock advantages:
better Camera, Camcorder with slow motion video, everything regarding Spen that is going beyond simple gestures, Spen software even though you can get replacements for that (like Papyrus instead of SNote), Allshare Cast and working MHL and HDMI output through dock, multiwindow
AOSP advantages:
faster Speed, newer Android version including its features (for 4.2.2 you get lockscreen widgets for example), open community with many innovative design ideas like PIE Navigation or PA hybrid engine and the like, AOSP look (if that's your thing, it is for me), a lot less bloatware -> choose what you want to install
They are both as stable as anything you can get in terms of ROMs. In the end it's a question of what features you want to have, if you can live without the Samsung exclusive stuff or not.
+1 mrruin
I love aosp roms but im sticking to Tw rom just for the sake of camera features. .
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app
Which is the most stable AOSP rom? Carbon looks nice though there's no bug list or tracker that I can find?
Also just found my device has the SDS chip so not going to be doing anything while I'm still in warranty
Imo liquid smooth is the best.U can also try slim bean 3 !
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app
In general I find battery life a lot better on stock roms rather than AOSP.
Honestly, you'd miss a hell lot. It would just be another phone with massive screen with AOSP. I mean sure, you get the stock android experience and all that jazz, but on Note II, I would highly recommend sticking to TW based roms.
You'd miss: A hell lot of SPen features (like Airview), Multitasking, Motion, Camera app, S Note, other apps like Polaris Office if you use that. And from my experience, far more bug free than AOSP roms - again, that's purely my experience, might be way off here.
Just get a good AOSP themed TW based ROM and AOSP apps. I'm using Project AOSP now, AllianceROM is good too, from what I hear.
I like Touchwiz based roms on this phone a lot more, not back in the s1 and s2 days, cm was way better, but now Samsung finally got there act together.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317
best aosp for me - carbon ... they got nightly version as well haha
best tw based - ARHD or Wanam or Monxdified (cant go wrong with any of them)
best mix of both world - project aosp
I can confirm alliance ROM. I'm running it on a Verizon note 2 and it is the business! Keep coming back to it even during my own confusion on if I should run aosp or touchwiz
Sent From My Inverted Novella Rom VZW Note 2
I love aosp's thats what im using on my nexus 4, lol like i have a choice
_____________________
Via GT-N71OO using XDA_Elite_App
Personally I think you should stick to stock. All the hardware works properly then, especially the camera which has always been a problem with the open source ROMS. You DO end up with more memory and less "blo
In fact jonatton has already said it all clearly.
I'm a firm believer in the statement "My phone with custom ASOP runs so much faster, now that half the features don't work properly!!"
ASOP was a good choice on a lot of older phones where the stock ui was too heavy for the hardware. The Note II is not one of those phones. It's such a mighty beast that nothing much can really slow it down. Has anyone actually been able to fill the ram up yet? Not me that's for sure.
Sent from the mighty Note II
I have to agree that the Note 2 is a better phone running Touchwiz based ROMs. When I initially rooted my phone I went with the Note-orious Prime ROM with the Note2 Core kernel. I then decided to try another ROM so I ran my Note 2 on Pacman, Paranoid Android 3.
Sure the Paranoid ROM was amazing in its customization and had a buttery smoothness, but thats it.
I lost all pen features, s-voice which actually works brilliantly for me. I had random weird system issues. The camera sucked. Lost all voice command capabilities.
The other day I had enough, flipped back to Note-orious Prime and now wont look back.
The way I look at it is that it isnt bloatware if you actually use it.
EDIT: to add I also had atrocious battery life with the paranoid rom compared to the touchwiz.
Interesting thread.
I also might start off with a TW based ROM.
Sent from my Note II
+1 .....yup ....you are right ....hardware support is must ....im ARHD v17 ..best rom ever...few days ago posted the same post but some, so called critc's who think they are Developers ....did not like it at all :banghead:
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
Been messing around with note 2 roms, and I too must say that stock tw feels best for me. I thought I don't care much for Sammy stock bloatware, but as I installed AOSP roms I started to miss my s note, air view, s Pen gestures etc. Now I tend to stick with tw based. Love phoenix, bobcat, arhd, wanamlite and assassin.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2
to add on to what's already been said I've actually been bouncing back & fourth from AOSP to TW & I've ran into a little issue that has me staying with TW for permanent although I love the DPI options you get on AOSP the most important feature for me was that my Beats headphones would barely work on Aosp I'd always get complaints from people saying they could barely hear me..never happens on TW though..
*Yawn* Another best ROM thread
Thread closed.
Could anyone running "stock" CM 11 on their T-Mo S3 comment on the experience? Is battery usage better/worse/the same as the stock TW 4.3 ROM? Any issues with screen auto-brightness, sensors, etc? Are there any stock Samsung apps that you miss?
I'm on the fence right now- I've been stock & unrooted since I got my S3 almost 2 years ago, but now starting to get the itch to move away from all the Samsung bloat. I know there are some little things I will miss about the Samsung version of some apps like email, but having a more uniform and less junked-up experience is appealing. I know I could root & get rid of the bloat too...
Just curious as to folks' impressions- I've used CM 7-10 in the past and enjoyed it...
Thanks in advance!
Quiet out there! Well, I've run across some reports of camera issues, but that's about the only negative I see with CM11 vs. TouchWiz so far. Oh, and losing WIFI calling, which has never been a big deal to me, but I do like having the option.
Everyone has their own preferences. Personally I am a TW guy. But there's plenty of folks on both sides. Great thing is you can try it and if you don't like it, just flash back to stock based.
Yup just try it, its nice, but up to personal preference.. I think camera and WiFi calling is one of the only downsides. I didn't experience much trouble with camera it was very stable, just that the touchwiz camera app is much better and takes superior photos IMO, also has more options.. You could always try a 3rd party camera app of course, so again its personal preference
DocHoliday77 said:
Everyone has their own preferences. Personally I am a TW guy. But there's plenty of folks on both sides. Great thing is you can try it and if you don't like it, just flash back to stock based.
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Click to collapse
Me too. I like the camera, color point is a neat feature that no other camera seems to offers, I find the launcher works well and flows nice. I keep trying other ROM's with 1534534534543 features that I don't really ever use or need and come back to the stock ROM. Running 4.4.2 from my carrier, rooted with towelroot, KT kernel for power tweaking, can uninstall all the bloat I want and I'm good.
It's a choice, but sometimes, there are too many choices. XXX Rom has all the best (our option of the best) features of A,B,C,D,E,F,G. Ya, well our rom YYY has all the best features of A,B,C,D,E,F,G and H. Ooooo. Does it really matter? lol. I like being able to update my Gapps when I want, not have to run a special version.
XDA did a test a while ago against the Linaro toolchain compiles vs gcc and found no real difference in speed of apps or battery life. XDA or some other Android site did a test of ART vs dalvik, not a huge difference, ART performing worse in some cases. Same with all the build.prop tweaks that others tout. In reality and in testing, most don't do anything, or worse in some cases.
There is too many, I guess rumors out there about Android that everyone jumps on like "tweaks", "compile flags", "odex vs deodex" that keep going around, and don't seem to change anything other than offer bugs. Hard to find a custom ROM that isn't updated all the time to fix this issues or reports of random reboots, etc, all the time in the threads.
To each their own, but in reality, I don't think there is much difference between all the different ROM's. All small, small, variations on a theme. And half the difference or added in things, not many people use anyways.
I bought my G3 used in like new condition, rooted it, and installed TWRP. Couldn't stand the stock ROM (spoiled by years of using phones on AOSP, I guess) and spent a day poking around. Tried several AOSP/CM ROMs and think I'm happy on Euphoria.
The only reason I care about stock is probably the only reason anyone cares about stock on the G3: the camera. I tried debloated stock and Cloudy and didn't care for either. I'm running the Lenovo SNAPit Camera (LSC) with modded settings/libs/whatever and it's fine, but still less than I expected from the G3's fantastic camera. We all know the stock camera won't ever come to AOSP/CM, so I think my only option is to go back to stock if I care that much (and it may turn out that I don't).
And so my question: what's the best way to make stock look like AOSP? Bonus points for added functionality that comes from CM. So...Xposed? I could keep installing new ROMs and playing around, but making a quick thread seems to the best way to save myself literally hours of wasted time.
TIA!
You can put lipstick on a pig.
Install Nova, pick a newer icon theme, install a better SMS app,
Install Xposed and G3Tweaks, then experiment with any number of modules, making a nandroid and clearing caches at every step....
At best it's a "Sorta."
I came from the same perspective, more or less, willing to give up any number of things for that glorious laser shark proprietary camera. But every other aspect of the ROM seemed to fight me at every step until I got tired of the resistance and went to AOSP.
You're right, we may never get the LG stock camera app on an AOSP ROM, so if you really want to run AOSP, perhaps find an alternative camera that you do like (I laughed at the AOSP camera, too). In addition to the Lenovo port, there is a Motorola port, M9 port (I'm working on fixing it for the G3), and some really nice stuff like Snap Camera and Focus in the Market.
Although I sometimes miss the simplicity and accuracy of the stock camera, when I booted into my stock nandroid the other day and played with it again, I found it very limiting, too. All in all, I found that trading that cam to get back the functionality and customization that I expect on my Android devices was worth it.