Why bother with unlocking and custom ROMs since MIUI 12? - Redmi Note 8 Pro Questions & Answers

Why bother with unlocking and custom ROMs since MIUI 12? - Redmi Note 8 Pro Questions & Answers

Following several of the threads here there are recurring themes:
1. Endless technical difficulties with the process of unlocking, installing custom recoveries and ROMs, downgrading and bricking.
2. Various features of the RN8P not working properly with Rooted/unlocked/ customs ROMs, such as camera, Netflix, bank apps etc.
3. Endless tinkering with GCam with ambiguous results at best, regarding performance and quality of output.
4. Bricking, etc
5. Loss of OTA ability.
Although I personally have not gone through all of these on this phone, I have done so on previous phones I've had.
I appreciate the abstract principle of "it's my phone and I should be able to do with it what I want!". Yet we don't have these expectations of any other consumer devices that we buy. For instance I don't expect to be able to custom modify my television, watch or refrigerator. We certainly don't demand that the manufacturer make this easy for us to do. "Hey, why doesn't Toyota let me change out the engine for a Chevy?".
Practically speaking, especially in light of the latest android versions and development of MIUI which are so feature rich, customizable and flexible, IMHO there seems to be so little to gained with unlocking versus the risks and endless time wasted related to the above mentioned issues.
With the factory stock ROM you get, without fussing:
1. SafetyCheck (ie pay apps, Netflix) that just works.
2. OTA
3. All built in hardware that just works. No "BT not working in the latest version", etc
4. In MIUI 12-- the excellent stock camera app which has improved photo performance dramatically, eliminates the need for GCam and all of the fussing with that.
5. Minor bugs that you can live with
I welcome comments here with convincing arguments in favor of custom ROMs, other than just enjoying the tinkering, which in my opinion doesn't justify the disadvantages.

My 2 cents!
Inviato dal mio Redmi Note 8 Pro utilizzando Tapatalk

I don't mean to demean anybody's choice.
I'm just trying to understand concrete advantages at this point, if any.

donkyshot said:
Though I do agree this phone works best on stock rom, what's your point?
Custom ROMs are useless and it should be like producer intended? That sounds like iPhone.
The beauty of android and custom ROMs comes with the ability to try and pick your own favourite one and customisation. But indeed with this phone's mediatek chip it's not the best choice for custom ROMs.
Personally miui 12 is working and looking fine by me, I just like rooting and debloating it.
But I highly appreciate all development here on XDA.
If you don't, just ignore all development and enjoy your phone out of the box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Just one simple question: Are you sure that debloating stops the stock rom from constantly sending potentially private data to China?
If you're using Facebook, WhatsApp, GApps and all that stuff it probably won't matter - as you're constantly surveilled anyway and don't seem to care much for privacy - if your data gets sent to China as well.
Can you be sure, custom rom doesn't have backdoors / data leaks by design (call it as you like) installed? Not at all. But with the stock rom I know for sure they are there.

jshames said:
Following several of the threads here there are recurring themes:
1. Endless technical difficulties with the process of unlocking, installing custom recoveries and ROMs, downgrading and bricking.
2. Various features of the RN8P not working properly with Rooted/unlocked/ customs ROMs, such as camera, Netflix, bank apps etc.
3. Endless tinkering with GCam with ambiguous results at best, regarding performance and quality of output.
4. Bricking, etc
5. Loss of OTA ability.
Although I personally have not gone through all of these on this phone, I have done so on previous phones I've had.
I appreciate the abstract principle of "it's my phone and I should be able to do with it what I want!". Yet we don't have these expectations of any other consumer devices that we buy. For instance I don't expect to be able to custom modify my television, watch or refrigerator. We certainly don't demand that the manufacturer make this easy for us to do. "Hey, why doesn't Toyota let me change out the engine for a Chevy?".
Practically speaking, especially in light of the latest android versions and development of MIUI which are so feature rich, customizable and flexible, IMHO there seems to be so little to gained with unlocking versus the risks and endless time wasted related to the above mentioned issues.
With the factory stock ROM you get, without fussing:
1. SafetyCheck (ie pay apps, Netflix) that just works.
2. OTA
3. All built in hardware that just works. No "BT not working in the latest version", etc
4. In MIUI 12-- the excellent stock camera app which has improved photo performance dramatically, eliminates the need for GCam and all of the fussing with that.
5. Minor bugs that you can live with
I welcome comments here with convincing arguments in favor of custom ROMs, other than just enjoying the tinkering, which in my opinion doesn't justify the disadvantages.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. There is no difficulty in unlocking your phone, it takes 168hrs and that's it, be patient. Installing custom recoveries will NOT brick your phone whatsoever, but not following instructions will. The issue with the CFW ROMs is due to MTK processor and lack of monetary motivation for developers that own this phone.
2. My Netflix and banking apps work fine, safety net passes while rooted on a Android 10 GSI ROM.
3. The camera does work, I can record video with EIS (amazing!), shoot 16mb photos, use HDR, astrophotography, and a bunch of other features I don't use. While the camera is a work in progress and did require a lot of testing/comparing, I have everything working, feature wise, that I had on MIUI.
4. Bricking only happens if you don't fully read. MTK processor phones have a lot more "traps" than Qualcomm. Are you going to avoid a classic car because of all the required maintenance on it versus a new car? No. I only ever bricked my phone when working with CFW ROMs. What does that tell you?
5. OTA? Are you're referring to keeping up to date with security updates? The ROM I'm running now has the latest security patch? Or are you saying flashing ROMs is too involved and you rather just tap a button and be done, which is nice too. Xiaomi publicly said they're not issuing updates for this phone next year, so where is your OTA then?
Yet we don't have these expectations of any other consumer devices that we buy. For instance I don't expect to be able to custom modify my television, watch or refrigerator. We certainly don't demand that the manufacturer make this easy for us to do. "Hey, why doesn't Toyota let me change out the engine for a Chevy?".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're comparing apples to oranges here. A refrigerator is not a smart device, and while a TV can be considered smart, there's nothing to upgrade or remove. Do you run stock Windows on your home computer or do you replace the OS with something better with less bugs? And in fact, I do swap engines from different cars into my car. Upgrading parts and wiring and software for the same car.
At the end of the day, if you want to flash ROMs and have ZERO chance of bricking, go with a GSI ROM. Zero bloatware/spyware, no notification issues, no battery drain, and infinite customizability. Start with Quack and go from there. If you want something that works with zero effort, stay stock.

XNyle said:
Just one simple question: Are you sure that debloating stops the stock rom from constantly sending potentially private data to China?
If you're using Facebook, WhatsApp, GApps and all that stuff it probably won't matter - as you're constantly surveilled anyway and don't seem to care much for privacy - if your data gets sent to China as well.
Can you be sure, custom rom doesn't have backdoors / data leaks by design (call it as you like) installed? Not at all. But with the stock rom I know for sure they are there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can never be sure, on any rom.
Bloatware is not all about safety or privacy, it's more about removing unnecessary files to save memory and disk space.
For instance, my root storage on miui 12 is just over 70%, where it used to be somewhere over 90%.
Ram optimised is 3 GB out of 6.
Besides removing, freezing apps is helping too.

OK, I understand you have dealt with the negative side of the equation, in terms of overcoming the obstacles. But what are the actual benefits?
In the past stock ROMs are stock android were fairly restrictive. This is no longer the case. Can you give a few examples of things you can do with a CFW that are exclusive?
wang1chung said:
1. There is no difficulty in unlocking your phone, it takes 168hrs and that's it, be patient. Installing custom recoveries will NOT brick your phone whatsoever, but not following instructions will. The issue with the CFW ROMs is due to MTK processor and lack of monetary motivation for developers that own this phone.
2. My Netflix and banking apps work fine, safety net passes while rooted on a Android 10 GSI ROM.
3. The camera does work, I can record video with EIS (amazing!), shoot 16mb photos, use HDR, astrophotography, and a bunch of other features I don't use. While the camera is a work in progress and did require a lot of testing/comparing, I have everything working, feature wise, that I had on MIUI.
4. Bricking only happens if you don't fully read. MTK processor phones have a lot more "traps" than Qualcomm. Are you going to avoid a classic car because of all the required maintenance on it versus a new car? No. I only ever bricked my phone when working with CFW ROMs. What does that tell you?
5. OTA? Are you're referring to keeping up to date with security updates? The ROM I'm running now has the latest security patch? Or are you saying flashing ROMs is too involved and you rather just tap a button and be done, which is nice too. Xiaomi publicly said they're not issuing updates for this phone next year, so where is your OTA then?
You're comparing apples to oranges here. A refrigerator is not a smart device, and while a TV can be considered smart, there's nothing to upgrade or remove. Do you run stock Windows on your home computer or do you replace the OS with something better with less bugs? And in fact, I do swap engines from different cars into my car. Upgrading parts and wiring and software for the same car.
At the end of the day, if you want to flash ROMs and have ZERO chance of bricking, go with a GSI ROM. Zero bloatware/spyware, no notification issues, no battery drain, and infinite customizability. Start with Quack and go from there. If you want something that works with zero effort, stay stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

jshames said:
OK, I understand you have dealt with the negative side of the equation, in terms of overcoming the obstacles. But what are the actual benefits?
In the past stock ROMs are stock android were fairly restrictive. This is no longer the case. Can you give a few examples of things you can do with a CFW that are exclusive?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To clarify, you don't need to be rooted to use non-stock ROMs, and CFW ROMs are not GSI ROMs. Also, using root with the stock ROM works just fine, but then you don't know what else is going on behind the scenes, no matter how much you disable.
I guess I mainly use root for backing up apps/OS/partitions in the event of a brick or data loss. Certain stock apps you can't remove without root, should you choose to remain on the stock ROM. Have you ever spent hours setting up your phone/apps and then lost your data? Doesn't happen with a rooted phone as you can backup both apps (with data) and even the entire ROM with settings. This allows you to test new ROMs, new tweaks, all while easily returning to your previous save state with no ill effects and within minutes. Click a button, get a coffee and it's done. I tested 6 different ROMs and then returned to my current, all within an hour. While I don't necessarily keep the tweaks and ROMs I test, they do shed light on features that I never knew I wanted or even just inspire me to go down new rabbit holes.
On multiple occasions I have been locked out of my phone after an OS update or tweak . Without root, only option is a factory reset and loss of your OS settings. With root, fixed within minutes. Forgot your password on your back up phone, no problem with root.
I think with data harvesting being so popular/rampant, more and more people will leave spyware infested ROMs for vanilla AOSP ROMs.

jshames said:
Following several of the threads here there are recurring themes:
1. Endless technical difficulties with the process of unlocking, installing custom recoveries and ROMs, downgrading and bricking.
2. Various features of the RN8P not working properly with Rooted/unlocked/ customs ROMs, such as camera, Netflix, bank apps etc.
3. Endless tinkering with GCam with ambiguous results at best, regarding performance and quality of output.
4. Bricking, etc
5. Loss of OTA ability.
Although I personally have not gone through all of these on this phone, I have done so on previous phones I've had.
I appreciate the abstract principle of "it's my phone and I should be able to do with it what I want!". Yet we don't have these expectations of any other consumer devices that we buy. For instance I don't expect to be able to custom modify my television, watch or refrigerator. We certainly don't demand that the manufacturer make this easy for us to do. "Hey, why doesn't Toyota let me change out the engine for a Chevy?".
Practically speaking, especially in light of the latest android versions and development of MIUI which are so feature rich, customizable and flexible, IMHO there seems to be so little to gained with unlocking versus the risks and endless time wasted related to the above mentioned issues.
With the factory stock ROM you get, without fussing:
1. SafetyCheck (ie pay apps, Netflix) that just works.
2. OTA
3. All built in hardware that just works. No "BT not working in the latest version", etc
4. In MIUI 12-- the excellent stock camera app which has improved photo performance dramatically, eliminates the need for GCam and all of the fussing with that.
5. Minor bugs that you can live with
I welcome comments here with convincing arguments in favor of custom ROMs, other than just enjoying the tinkering, which in my opinion doesn't justify the disadvantages.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get your point, this is an MTK device, technical difficulties are obvious, but now its easy to switch to custom ROM without downgrading from Android 10, moreover steps are pretty simple if you get it right, not too different than other devices, bricking was already solved with the leaked Preloader and LK, moreover if it weren't for Xiaomi putting Authentication in EDL the device was unbrickable without any hassle, though I get what you want to say, the device gets hard-bricked on most stupid things.
I guess you haven't tried out the CFW 2 and newer builds, they've fixed offline charging, Netflix 1080p and other things, and I personally never had problems with camera, ANX works fine and GCam too, photo quality is obviously better on GCam but 4k video recording is amazing too.
Every device's Custom firmware and ROMs comes with specific difficulties, if you're willing to look beyond this and appreciate how you're going to get Android version updates even after official support ends, the stock, beautiful feel, better performance and battery then I think you're gonna understand why Custom ROMs for this device is so important!
Peace
And by the way I love tinkering with anything that has an processor and runs Linux hehe :silly:

jshames said:
Following several of the threads here there are recurring themes:
1. Endless technical difficulties with the process of unlocking, installing custom recoveries and ROMs, downgrading and bricking.
2. Various features of the RN8P not working properly with Rooted/unlocked/ customs ROMs, such as camera, Netflix, bank apps etc.
3. Endless tinkering with GCam with ambiguous results at best, regarding performance and quality of output.
4. Bricking, etc
5. Loss of OTA ability.
Although I personally have not gone through all of these on this phone, I have done so on previous phones I've had.
I appreciate the abstract principle of "it's my phone and I should be able to do with it what I want!". Yet we don't have these expectations of any other consumer devices that we buy. For instance I don't expect to be able to custom modify my television, watch or refrigerator. We certainly don't demand that the manufacturer make this easy for us to do. "Hey, why doesn't Toyota let me change out the engine for a Chevy?".
Practically speaking, especially in light of the latest android versions and development of MIUI which are so feature rich, customizable and flexible, IMHO there seems to be so little to gained with unlocking versus the risks and endless time wasted related to the above mentioned issues.
With the factory stock ROM you get, without fussing:
1. SafetyCheck (ie pay apps, Netflix) that just works.
2. OTA
3. All built in hardware that just works. No "BT not working in the latest version", etc
4. In MIUI 12-- the excellent stock camera app which has improved photo performance dramatically, eliminates the need for GCam and all of the fussing with that.
5. Minor bugs that you can live with
I welcome comments here with convincing arguments in favor of custom ROMs, other than just enjoying the tinkering, which in my opinion doesn't justify the disadvantages.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you know what you talking about , did you try by your self some of Custom Roms ,spend some time modifying it, tweaks..
every single stuff that you have on MIUI that working, from first rom that come out with 80% we are now on 99 % of stuff that is working, especially NFC, that for me working on My Bootleggers ROM , with Gcam Bural 8 and 64mp working, Astrophotography that is better than MIUI pro mode that you need to searching for best ISO and SEC to get the best star pic, Gcam do that by self,set congif and make amazing photo.. then, XML modules.. thats another long story..
also , full customization of system , Customization of UI , so many options, so many ideas that developers with hard work and great work modify it..
Some of the features that are included on this ROM are:
Code:
* QS Rows and Colums
* Volume Keys: Wake up, skip tracks and switch according to rotation
* Show song album cover, visualizer and battery info on Lockscreen
* Power Menu Items
* Battery LED light settings
* Suspend Actions: Make your device disable GPS and switch to 2G when you're not using it
* AppOps: Manage your apps permissions in an advanced way
* Recent Styles: Dig the new Pie Quickstep recents, go back to the classic layout or use the Android Go layout
* Network icons: Show or hide the cross, switch between 4G or LTE
and the most import thing is NO BLOATWARE !
No Xiaomi application that you force you too use and the second most import thing is NO GOOGLE SERVICES that drain your battery..
you have,smooth ,fast , stable ROM and free hands to make you to look like you want to ,to make it like you want..
this is mine, one week without single crash of any app or random reboot, that is one of thing that blown my mind.. unofficial ROM that is amazing ..
https://youtu.be/Nc7eHRUYGkI

I get it guys.
There are many technical advantages which allow useful tweaks.
All I am saying is that for the typical user, who uses his device for internet, phone, email and Play Store apps, the ability to use these tweaks are not worth the trouble (unlike in the past, when the gap between stock Roms and customs Roms was HUGE).
You cannot tell me that it's easy-- there are scattered threads with advice all over the place, for all kinds of different setups (like what version of MIUI and phone you have, that require searching and putting together multiple posts and threads, figuring out what is up to date, in to figure out what to do, to avoid bricking and other bugs.
This is not criticism of anybody here or the developers. This is just the situation.
I think that some of the highly advanced users here, who perhaps spend hours a day on these forums or in development, have an easier time technically. I must admit that besides Xiaomi's 168 hr wait, the process looks daunting and risky. On this forum, is there a single unified guide that is up to date and reliably takes you through the whole process, even if I already have MIUI 12 installed?

The only point for me is Android update + security patch update in custom ROM.

jshames said:
Following several of the threads here there are recurring themes:
1. Endless technical difficulties with the process of unlocking, installing custom recoveries and ROMs, downgrading and bricking.
2. Various features of the RN8P not working properly with Rooted/unlocked/ customs ROMs, such as camera, Netflix, bank apps etc.
3. Endless tinkering with GCam with ambiguous results at best, regarding performance and quality of output.
4. Bricking, etc
5. Loss of OTA ability.
Although I personally have not gone through all of these on this phone, I have done so on previous phones I've had.
I appreciate the abstract principle of "it's my phone and I should be able to do with it what I want!". Yet we don't have these expectations of any other consumer devices that we buy. For instance I don't expect to be able to custom modify my television, watch or refrigerator. We certainly don't demand that the manufacturer make this easy for us to do. "Hey, why doesn't Toyota let me change out the engine for a Chevy?".
Practically speaking, especially in light of the latest android versions and development of MIUI which are so feature rich, customizable and flexible, IMHO there seems to be so little to gained with unlocking versus the risks and endless time wasted related to the above mentioned issues.
With the factory stock ROM you get, without fussing:
1. SafetyCheck (ie pay apps, Netflix) that just works.
2. OTA
3. All built in hardware that just works. No "BT not working in the latest version", etc
4. In MIUI 12-- the excellent stock camera app which has improved photo performance dramatically, eliminates the need for GCam and all of the fussing with that.
5. Minor bugs that you can live with
I welcome comments here with convincing arguments in favor of custom ROMs, other than just enjoying the tinkering, which in my opinion doesn't justify the disadvantages.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try and directly answer + add my own stuff.
1. Endless technical difficulties with the process of unlocking, installing custom recoveries and ROMs, downgrading and bricking.
With CFW (Custom Firmware) you can be even safer on custom ROMs, as unbricking will no longer need a Mi Authorised Account. Some users have reported their devices bricking just from updating from MIUI to MIUI, which gave me another reason.
2. Various features of the RN8P not working properly with Rooted/unlocked/ customs ROMs, such as camera, Netflix, bank apps etc.
Camera works even better on custom ROMs, thanks to buffer fix module (can be applied to rooted MIUI). Magisk hide + magisk props will mostly have you covered in terms of banking apps. Netflix is a weird issue, as you either have it crash or Widevine L3 but it works so
3. Endless tinkering with GCam with ambiguous results at best, regarding performance and quality of output.
Nope, not at all. Stock cam was absolutely trash (80% of scenarios) and speaking from an XML creator's point of view, it's just us that has to do the tinkering. You just have to update and pick which XML you prefer. I haven't even bothered to download ANX cam, as GCAM already works well enough for me.
4. Bricking, etc
CFW has you covered here, even when going from A10. Just flash LR TWRP 3.1.1 or 3.3.1 and flash CFW + CFW ROM via recovery and safe.
5. Loss of OTA ability.
Honestly, I don't trust OTAs on MIUI after hearing people were bricked by doing that.
I went to custom ROMs for a peace of mind solution to...
- Better battery.
- Better support.
- Freedom with magisk.
- Trying out new features.
- Less bloatware with NikGapps Omni.
- Sometimes better performance.
So far, I've never felt the need to go back to MIUI.

Stock (global) ROM on my RN8P did not support (or allow) call recording. flashed Indonesia ROM to get that.
I still want to root the phone in order to:
* Backup apps including data with Super Backup
* Add folder shortcuts (for call recordings) to home screen
If there is a way to accomplish these without rooting, I'd love to know how.

Related

Going back to Stock ROM - Done!

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
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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).

Looking for info. Solid Rom suggestions only.

Got me a Z5p E6853 over a year ago.
Stock rom is ok, a bit laggy but runs well enough. over time it gets stale and I looked around for Custom roms.
Tried a few, mainly the AOSP roms on this Forum and the Z5 fourm. found some bug or another that didn't sit well with me. custom stock roms causes a display failure on my device for some reason at random times, sometimes more than once a day, others will run for weeks without a problem. happens at the oddest times too so no way to pin down the cause. (plus all the devs from those roms have moved on so little point in requesting help for them)
So my main question is. other than going back to full stock. (with the possibility of xposed in the future) - What are the current best roms for function and Camera.
Stock roms take advantange of the DRM keys saved on your device. AOSP roms don't from what I can understand. is there a Lineage or AOSP type rom that has a better camera than stock?
what have the users here experienced to be their best combination of rom, with long term stability / Camera quality being top priority.
I don't normally ask Questions here, I usually lurk and help people with problems with flashing and such. but my current experiece with the Z5p has been a bit poor. and I would like to use this phone to its full potential. I just don't see that yet with whats currently available. I may have missed an old rom, or some patch fix that someone mentioned somewhere, but i've been reading the threads for the past few months looking for something that stands out.
I feel like I've bought into a dud of a phone. and my only real option is to just go back to normal stock and pass the phone onto a relative and buy a better phone.

Hey there. I used to have an HTC One M9 (I now have the Z5 Premium (E6853))and the best decision I've ever made with that phone is to keep the stock rom, but root it (preferably with magisk). For me this had the best stability with all the perks of rooting it as you could still flash kernels, and use the millions of root apps that boost your phone and clean out bloatware. Maybe just do some exploring into apps that'll completely change the behaviour of your phone, rather than the OS. What I have found in my rom flashing addict days is that the ROMs themselves really only change a couple of things and device performance is never one of them. If you're looking for massive customisation options a custom rom can help, but you should also check out Substratum. I hope it all goes well!
P.S. - I find Lineage OS is probably the most stable custom rom out there but who knows every custom rom can be a real hit and/or miss.

bump

Note II AT&T Rom choice - Advice

Hello all,
I may get teased a little bit for this one - but I am a bit of a traditionalist. Even as an IT guy, I tend to shy away from custom, enhanced or otherwise modified ISOs of windows. Not because I am afraid of them... I just like the "stock" look. I would like to stick to the same thing on my phone.
I am still running the stock version of my ATT firmware, 4.x.x. I like it just fine, and it suits my needs for the most part - (Other than the ATT bloatware that crashes constantly for several minutes upon reboot)
However, my device is beginning to slow down and I find myself using Chrome more and more because the older stock browser does not seem to want to render some sites very well. I expect it is only a matter of time before I start running into "sorry, you cannot run this app" type of issues.
So on to my questions....
1. Will upgrading to 6.x or 7.x improve the performance on my device?
2. If so, I see there are a ton of apps to choose from. Is there one specifically that is "less modified" or at least enables some sort of "gotta-have-it" functionality?
3. Can you elaborate on why you chose to move from the stock rom? I understand there are alot of "testers" on this forum who like to play with things. However, my phone is used heavily for work purposes. Simplicity and Stability remain key drivers for me.

Changing to a custom ROM may improve some areas of performance while decreasing in others such as battery life, camera, and stability.
By apps, I assume you mean roms. I can't make any recommendations as I have not had a note 2 for a few years but I have found that custom ROMs based off a stock rom are pretty stable. I always like to start with a very bare-bones ROM and add functionality via apps as needed.
I have moved to custom ROMs in the past when apps won't run on the phone's stock rom.

I've run my note 2 on DN3 for a number of years. You can still find a link to the thread in this forum and you will need to root your n2.
Not hard. 1 advantage is you can remove the bloat and it's still a rom that runs well on our device since it was built for our device in it's prime.
If you have any questions send a PM. Happy to help.
wisem2540 said:
Hello all,
I may get teased a little bit for this one - but I am a bit of a traditionalist. Even as an IT guy, I tend to shy away from custom, enhanced or otherwise modified ISOs of windows. Not because I am afraid of them... I just like the "stock" look. I would like to stick to the same thing on my phone.
I am still running the stock version of my ATT firmware, 4.x.x. I like it just fine, and it suits my needs for the most part - (Other than the ATT bloatware that crashes constantly for several minutes upon reboot)
However, my device is beginning to slow down and I find myself using Chrome more and more because the older stock browser does not seem to want to render some sites very well. I expect it is only a matter of time before I start running into "sorry, you cannot run this app" type of issues.
So on to my questions....
1. Will upgrading to 6.x or 7.x improve the performance on my device?
2. If so, I see there are a ton of apps to choose from. Is there one specifically that is "less modified" or at least enables some sort of "gotta-have-it" functionality?
3. Can you elaborate on why you chose to move from the stock rom? I understand there are alot of "testers" on this forum who like to play with things. However, my phone is used heavily for work purposes. Simplicity and Stability remain key drivers for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

About to get this phone and have a few questions.

Hello all. just looking for some wise advice.
1: I see a lot of talk about rooting the phone. Is the just for the installation of a custom ROM, or for better functionality? I don't need cool heavy metal ROM surfaces my desktop is all black with all buttons hidden.
2: I saw no mention of bloatware, but generally speaking, how pure of an android experience is this? Can I simply uninstall whatever programs I want?
3: Any comments on the voice activation and and ease of use?
I basically need a gutsy daily driver, with good photo capabilities, (I also take photos at night as a part of my security job at a factory, and sometimes the photos for california License plates which are white reflect a lot of light and blur out on my Motorola Moto X pure), that I can give commands to while I am driving to take pictures and make calls, and check messages.
Is this the phone ror me?
Thanks!

1)Stock Rom behave as good as any custom rom. Most of the time people root their phone to have extra permission they may need to run apps that need it
2)You can remove every single piece of bloatware using ADB, no root needed
3)Works fine and is quite fast
Photos on stock rom are not Flagship level but neither crap.

For good photo capabilities I suggest you to use google camera with camera2 api enabled. The best way to achieve this is with magisk I think since with it you can hide root from various apps too while be able to enable camera2 api. But beware you should be on a firmware that a patch is available to make gcam working with it (library things.. Xiaomi changes things there a lot).
Or maybe you'd prefer a china based miui rom since the stock cam quality is better on china firmware. But for that prefer roms like xiaomi eu (because the stock china miui is in chinese and apps are default chinese apps)

Rooting this phone, what's the point?

As the title asks, whats the point of rooting this phone? It doesn't help that unlocking bootloader isn't free, it doesn't have a lot of roms/kernels for it either? And in a performance stand point, would those kernels/roms improve performance even? Hence this is on stock android, youd automatically assume its optimisation would be A+, tho, not for this phone in terms of ram management, but what about CPU and GOU performance? Ive asked on kernel posts and none have answered, leading me wondering, and I'm obviously no pro and just want to really know what's going on with "improved gpu effeciency" sort of updates to kernels, like, i get what it means, but in what way? Does if give more fps to games or something? . Granted that rooting gives you more freedom to do anything, but theres a big draw regarding to privacy, which is no problem to me, of course, but some apps like bank apps disable access to rooted devices, does exposed work for pie or is it still in development?
Tldr
All I'm asking is it worthit?
Do roms improve performance?
Do the kernels improve performance regarding games and such?(on my good ol phone the zenfone 2 it did, quite a lot)
Is exposed fully working for pie?

I've not bothered to unlock this phone. I will, however, say that even if the custom roms only have comparable performance, it would be worth it just to be rid of the Evenwell task killer Nokia allowed to be bundled into the stock rom, as long as the custom roms are problem free.

I just unlocked cuz it's cool to have root, themes etc. Regarding roms look here
Plenty of development for treble enabled devises.
Downside I guess is when u got twrp installed one will no longer recieve system updates untill one installs custom rim.
You right, root gives you more freedom that stock on any phone ever made will never provide, sadly.
Sent from my Nokia 6.1 using XDA Labs

I am unlocked since July 2018. Sadly, custom roms are not bug-free and I was lacking important features for day-to-day usage (alot of issues with treble roms and hotspot for instance, which is mandatory for me since it is my only internet access point). Every time I try roms (aospex/treble) I finally come back to stock because at least, almost everything I need is working.
Imo, it would be better to stay on stock. Magisk (+xposed if you want this specific module) is working on Pie. You just gotta uninstall Magisk partly before applying Nokia's OTAs (but as of now, with the improved system-as-root support, it may not even be necessary in a few updates, who knows).
Btw, you still get otas when unlocked, + never flash twrp and just boot the image using fastboot when needed, that way you'll avoid lots of trouble

If you have to ask about it then just don't do it

I couldn't imagine how bored I'd get with my 6.1 without root. No themes, no modules, no way to downgrade etc

Develop Bugs

welcome