[Q] Thoughts on CM 11 - T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII

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.
Click to expand...
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.

Related

Project Butter

For those of you on Jelly Bean AOSP/AOKP ROMS, is there really a noticeable every day differences between an AOSP JB ROM and SAMMY ROM? I am talking about everyday usages not benchmarks. I am on a Sammy ROM and I don't notice any stuttering or lag when I'm switching through home screens, browsing the web etc. I see people on youtube swiping through the different home screens and app drawers and saying how JB is really smooth but I ask how much smoother can it be. I know that on the Galaxy Nexus hardware may have had a play, but with the GS3 is it really that much better or noticeable?
I just ask because I am not sure if I want to take the risk of installing an AOSP/AOKP Rom and loosing my IMEI.
Yes, I noticed a pretty significant difference. Everything opens up faster and its a smoother experience. Keep in mind though that its still not quite as smooth as can be just yet.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Definitely
There is a difference in how smooth everything switches and transitions. One thing, though, I wouldn't base your decisions off of benchmarks. These are completely useless numbers because of the many variables from device to device. When I was on the stock ROM, it was nice and didn't glitch at all, but tended to be slow at times. ATM I'm running AOKP JB Preview and there's a world of difference. The pages are smoother and apps open and close faster. It really all comes down to preference though. If you can part with TW and the pretty cool sounds/effects of TW, then this is definitely worth it IMO.
Also. I had no problems with my IMEI. My flash counter has been bumped, but devs are currently working on getting a fix for that.
Cutt3r42 said:
There is a difference in how smooth everything switches and transitions. One thing, though, I wouldn't base your decisions off of benchmarks. These are completely useless numbers because of the many variables from device to device. When I was on the stock ROM, it was nice and didn't glitch at all, but tended to be slow at times. ATM I'm running AOKP JB Preview and there's a world of difference. The pages are smoother and apps open and close faster. It really all comes down to preference though. If you can part with TW and the pretty cool sounds/effects of TW, then this is definitely worth it IMO.
Also. I had no problems with my IMEI. My flash counter has been bumped, but devs are currently working on getting a fix for that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There has long long been a fix for the flash counter. Triangle away, check it out in the market.

Why do people prefer switching back to Stock ROM?

I'm not a PRO in Android but still, why do some people say "Stock is the way to go"? Because of stability? Less bugs?
it just works.
Because a group of coders have decided what you can or cannot do; took away your freedom. As such, we are human beings and like being confined within boundaries.
So some people like going back to stock.
If you have chosen android, root and go custom and just muck about and explore and learn; the possibilities are endless
Mike556 said:
I'm not a PRO in Android but still, why do some people say "Stock is the way to go"? Because of stability? Less bugs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
me personally, it isn't worth trading speed and stability for a few extra buttons. but this is all opinions. maybe you should try a few things and form your own opinion of it and not worry about it.
Mike556 said:
I'm not a PRO in Android but still, why do some people say "Stock is the way to go"? Because of stability? Less bugs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because no feature in a custom ROM is worth the time it will take constantly set it up, troubleshoot, endless flashing, and OCD like symptoms.
Stock JB is just too good to mess with it. I unlock and root my devices once I stop getting official updates. I have tried many ROMs, kernels on my GNEX and Nexus 7 and I always go back to stock.
Locked bootloader, no root, encrypted. It just feels good. Plus, if you purchase a new device, all you would have to do is login to your Google account and voila!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Stock ROMs are great, when JB first came out and before there were AOSP builds I rocked a rooted + BB stock image for a few weeks and thought it was great. I was able to fill in a lot of the missing ROM customization with apps (quiet hours, battery %, toggles, etc...). Smooth, fast, and reliable.
At the end of the day however a ROM built from AOSP source with some tweaks on top is the way to go for me.
Because stock is actually a really good stable feature-rich software package.
Stable, fast, no weird scripts nor heavily themed just pure android experience
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
for me, it just worked. Nothing had to be fiddled with and no headaches about small details. Being able to enjoy your device for what it is, is such a great feeling compared to constantly flashing updates and whatnot.
I run TSF shell launcher so no need for UI tweeks and stock is fine although I do mix it up with a Franco kernel.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
I love stock ROMs. I wish more devs would simply tweak and compile straight aosp ROMs instead of cramming them full of features. Variety is a nice novelty but it wears off quickly reboot after reboot and fc after fc.
And on the same note I know its personal preference, but stock android looks so sleek and clean now that all themes seem just plain ugly. And it seems like most devs either include the theme engine or do some theming of the ROM itself. Just too much going on and affects performance/stability in my opinion.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
LAst time i pointed out this fact, that i like stock more than custom rom (on GNEX), i was told to get iCab and to buy Iphone....
I like stock... Rooted, so i can remove search bar (only that). I can customize in perfect way, without obligation to flash constant updates, without getting fc-s, without taking care which kernel fits best etc...

Perofrmance difference between AOSP roms vs Touchwiz roms ?

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 ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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 ?
Click to expand...
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.

For those who moved from TW to AOSP: thoughts?

Got my S4 a couple days ago and flashed AOKP within an hour. I thought the TW bundled with the phone was pretty damn smooth, but AOKP is just insane. It's like something out of a commercial where there's zero lag, but it's not a commercial, it's the actual phone in your hands. When I hit voice search, it pops up INSTANTLY. I've had a couple soft reboots when hitting recent apps from a frozen app, but I'm sure those will be ironed out. I'm not sure the camera pictures I've taken have looked as nice, though. It's hard to tell.
For those of you who made the move from TW to an AOSP-based ROM, what are your thoughts? Has anyone moved back to TW?
I've never used anything but aosp on any phone. Be it cyanogen or aokp or pure aosp.
With my previous HTC devices it was a no brainer to dump Sense ROMs and replace them with anything else. Even my Samsung tablet that came with TW didn't last long but that was because I wanted Jelly Bean on it before the official upgrade came out so TW was gone within 2 days on my tablet. So I've been using aosp for a year and a half without interruption.
When I first turned on my S4 I was shocked at how cluttered everything was. Having been used to aosp I didn't understand how anyone could use this phone as it comes out of the box. There was a new alert every 8 seconds. The notification window was constantly filled with stuff I couldn't have cared less about. Status bar was filled with icons that had no meaning to me. The only feature I thought was really cool was the T Mobile account monitor in the notification window. Everything else was just clutter. Granted, much of that was carrier bloat.
It took me 20 minutes to test all the hardware and make sure the device was not in. Need of an exchange before I rooted it and ever that was kind of painful with the TW interface. I flashed Cyanogen and am not looking back.
Oh, and despite all that about TouchWiz that I didn't like...its about a billion times better than HTC Sense.
I will say that on my unbranded Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet that is WiFi only and there for completely unbranded with no bloat, the pure TouchWiz interface it came with was very nice. It was much less cluttered and more usable. Just not as configurable as aosp.
Sent from your phone. You should be careful where you leave that thing.
I guess its universal AOSP are always smoother to bloated TouchWiz. I personally prefer TW (yes call me crazy ) Either you love TW or you hate it there's no other option TW with all its goodies is lot cooler than what it used to be..
Sent from the state where marijuana is not illegal !
I've also noticed AOSP feels much faster... virtually no lag to be found. One thing that I have noticed though, and it may be something I'm not doing right with my settings, but TW seems to get better battery life than AOSP. I like TW for certain features such as the camera quality and one or two of the gimmicky features; but halo, unbridled speed, and customization possibilities with AOSP makes it a hard decision of which to stay with.
Overall i find most of the touchwiz features just unnecessary bloatware that you really dont need, thats more for showing off that your phone can do it over actually being practical to keep on all the time. I really like the general smoothness of AOKP much better than touchwiz, but in some areas such as the camera, AOKP really lacks in that department compared to the stock camera app, and i find 3D applications don't perform quite as well as they do on Touchwiz either, and i think most of these issues are probably more driver related than anything.
I used aokp on my s2 and loved it because it doesnt have any samsung goodness like s3 and s4 but on this devices I use TW to utilize full function.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda premium
For those of you who uses AOSP/AOKP/w.e else ....what do you use as alternative camera/gallery? What i love about Samsung is their gallery and camera. I have found mods that transfer AOSP camera / gallery to TW but never vice versa.
I tried Aosp roms on my s3 and s4. I always end up back on tw cuz aosp roms are never 100% stable. The last time I actually stayed on aosp was with my Motorola Triumph and that's because the triumph was stuck on froyo and Cm7 was pretty stable.
Sent from Flip's Galaxy S4
Okay, the big question:
Is it possible to use Watch ON (or smart remote, etc) on AOSP/AOKP/Cyanogen/etc? or is this limited to touchwiz only?
As for camera quality, I expect that to start changing for the better once the Nexusized GS4 gets released
adventure_of_link said:
Okay, the big question:
Is it possible to use Watch ON (or smart remote, etc) on AOSP/AOKP/Cyanogen/etc? or is this limited to touchwiz only?
As for camera quality, I expect that to start changing for the better once the Nexusized GS4 gets released
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably TW only
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda app-developers app
adventure_of_link said:
Okay, the big question:
Is it possible to use Watch ON (or smart remote, etc) on AOSP/AOKP/Cyanogen/etc? or is this limited to touchwiz only?
As for camera quality, I expect that to start changing for the better once the Nexusized GS4 gets released
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is in the Play store so I would think so. Try it out and let Us know
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phone: Tmobile Samsung Galaxy s4 m919
Rom: Wicked v2
Kernel: Stock
Radio: Stock
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
YouCreateGaming said:
It is in the Play store so I would think so. Try it out and let Us know
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phone: Tmobile Samsung Galaxy s4 m919
Rom: Wicked v2
Kernel: Stock
Radio: Stock
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty curious about this myself. From what I've heard AOKP/AOSP doesn't have the software to utilize the IR blaster, but I could always be wrong. I use TW , but will almost always run Nova launcher for customization.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2
Skipjacks said:
Probably TW only
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's what I thought. thanks.
Oh well, just another reason why I said once before on how I'm happy with my phone's OS as/is.
adventure_of_link said:
Okay, the big question:
Is it possible to use Watch ON (or smart remote, etc) on AOSP/AOKP/Cyanogen/etc? or is this limited to touchwiz only?
As for camera quality, I expect that to start changing for the better once the Nexusized GS4 gets released
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
According to Cyanogen, the source code for that isn't proprietary. He wants to see what other devs come up with.
Sent from Spaceball One.
blackknightavalon said:
According to Cyanogen, the source code for that isn't proprietary. He wants to see what other devs come up with.
Sent from Spaceball One.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The source code for the software might not be, but I think it is for the IR hardware. I know on the Samsung tablets that have an IR blaster they don't work in CM because the hardware drivers are proprietary.
Sent from your phone. You should be careful where you leave that thing.
Ive been running CM10.1 and just switched to SlimBean. I never once missed the new features of TW. The abilities of AOSP far outweigh them in my opinion.
Tw all the way..
I have no issues or lag... I was a big fan of liquid smooth for a bit but I went back to stock
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda premium
for the people that switched
if u change to custom roms do u get any more space out of the sd card?? also does cyanogyn get better battery than stock cus i have ****ty battery life unrooted atm with stock
the67ace said:
if u change to custom roms do u get any more space out of the sd card?? also does cyanogyn get better battery than stock cus i have ****ty battery life unrooted atm with stock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No to the extra sd space.
Possibly yes to the battery life. It greatly depends on how you set it up and what features you do and don't activate. Also the cm builds are nightly builds, which means any given one of them could have randomly crappy battery life due to a glitch or something. These have been great builds lately but that can always happen with nightlies. That aside though...yes you should get better battery life
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda app-developers app
thanks, i will get a custom rom soon and try it out. this whole thing is just boggling my mind haha. at one point it was draining at around a percent a minute and i just came back from the gym, was listening to music the whole time on my headphones and using voice to control it and in those 45 mins i didnt lose a single percent of battery smh

CM -- Am I being shortsighted?

I'm really stuck between I'm being short sighted and naive, and XDA is just full of people who do things simply because they can. I know my latter argument will sound aggressive, but it's not intended to wound.
I see the CM threads. I see lots and lots of excitement over CM. But I couldn't care less. I come from a phone that HAD to have CM (note 1 / i717). Touchwiz was outdated and horrendous on it. But with the Note 3 + wanam, I really can't come up with any reason to flash CM. The few cases I've seen are being able to do things w/o xposed, but if I already have xposed set up.. what problem am I solving? And beside, with things like Tinted Bar module, I'd be running the framework regardless.
Also, with my i717, touchwiz was (post 4.0) extremely slow. I could see if our touchwiz was slow, but having debloated it myself, I can't imagine things being faster. Again, sorry about the perceived tone, but I completely dismiss all the "wow this is fast!!!!" posts as placebo (as the recent exposure to build.prop fakeness so eloquently demonstrated). We have, arguably, the fastest phone that can be purchased. With the most RAM. What's CM going to do for me switching between Gmail and Chrome? Shave off 50ms? As if my eyes can notice that.
And since I hate, hate, hate on /r/Android when someone posts some "convince me to.." threads, let me be clear, I'm genuinely curious if people have legitimate reasons to be excited about CM. Things I'm simply not aware of or grasping. I get the -- I'm bored and I'll flash because I flash because flash because TWRP because Android -- but beyond that, why? Why are we so bonerific for CM?
Yes we do do things simply because we can and that is a benefit of a open system instead of a closed system like ios. But that is not the sole reason why people get excites for cm. For me now that we got cm that means we will have more Roms and development for our device. Also the reason why I prefer aosp over touchwiz the feel of the device after I customize it. For example I turn off my hardware keys and replace then with softkeys in a setup of phone, back/kill app, home, recent/menu and chrome. Now add halo on top of that and for me I have a much more fluid experience.
i hate touchwiz,i hate the look,the feel,the flow of it. I love the nexus line of phones,but i was a large screen,i have to have an sd card slot,so for me, getting a note, and installing cm on it is my perfect phone. Im not worried about it being faster, this phone is stupid fast. i dont use any touchwiz feature, and i dont want them taking up space. I hate the stock touchwiz pull down,so i love not having to use it. Its just a personal preference to me. I also love the faster updates from having a stock android experience.
I'm kind of in the same camp as OP when it comes to CM. I do get excited about it just cause it means that development is growing for our phones and its always neat when new rom comes out, but every time I flash a CM rom I always end up back on TW because I take a ton of pictures and CM's camera suuuuuuuucks. I also always end up missing S-note. Some phones run way better on CM but like you said, ours are robust enough to run anything.
I have the i717 as well and used CM on it since I got it plus used CM on my TouchPad before that. I like the consistency that using CM on all my devices provides. I don't like TW either, the color scheme is ugly and the stock apps aren't my favorites either. I love the holo theme of AOSP. So why did I bother with the Note 3 when the Nexus 5 has pure AOSP already? I don't see a phone with anemic, limited, non-replaceable storage or battery as a good power user device. I also love the stylus but not for writing as much as using it as a precision cursor for remote desktop. The Note 3 hardware is awesome and I loved my Note 1 with CM so I wanted a Note 3 with CM. I'm also a strong believer in transparency and open source = higher quality code and AOSP ROMs usually reflect that apart from some hacks to interface with proprietary blobs. I like the customization as well and while you can get by with stock firmware and lots of mods it ends up being very hackish and not all free or open source like a proper source built ROM.
Sent from my SM-N900T using xda app-developers app
The joy of the hole thing is you can try anything you want, however, being critical of materials here is really not what XDA is for. Either use the stuff here, contribute to the cause, and learn about development along the way.
and then, there is this thread here too...http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2532873

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