Sense 4.5 First Noticable Change Log, and personal thoughts on some roms - Sprint HTC EVO 4G LTE

o.o well hi guys. I decided since nowhere on the internet can i find anything about improvements made to sense 4.5 over 4.1 and there are roms being made...id try to list some of the ones i have noticed, cause noone else will. Now yes, i say improvments, and i however mean over-all differences that have been made, i have an htc evo 4g lte and decided id try out the newly released and since greatly improved sense 4.5 rom available for my device. I would also like to note before i continue that any article or blog related to this, and some other roms, for OTHER DEVICES only list sense 4.5 as snappy, or quicker. Any why yes they are *shocked* but why whats missing where should i go to find this information
-Note: I will warn you that some of the changes i list may be rom-related however i have attempted to probe around and do some homework before posting the ones that are sense 4.5 related, and not related soley to the rom and changes that were made. However since you likely have a htc evo 4g lte i am sure you will like to hear a little about the rom as even on their main forum, very little is shown about the rom as "they forgot" so i will attempt to include information i have found about the rom aswell to give you a better idea of what you are getting yourself into.
I have gone through many roms for this device and find them all to be ho-hum or "not great improvements to stock" and here is why and ill list the roms i have used and give you my +'s and -'s for each rom. yes if you would like to skip this, go ahead as that matters anout as much to me as you do, just scroll untill you see if you skipped.
1. The Viper 4g rom.
Now here is a rom i throughly enjoyed and the only one out of ALLL the rest that i made a nandroid backup to return to incase i didnt like the rest of them. The +'s to this rom include battery life, performance, and customization. Three things you dont usually expect to see all in one package. I admit that this is not the most professional looking rom out there however with enough tweaks to the included graphics the rom turns out to be the second best one i have tried so far. Because of the viper configuration done through the terminal this rom has the best battery life i have seen for a rom that i have used. It lowers the processor power down to pre-configured levels when the screen is off and when used in conjunction with the evilz kernal (not for the overclocking, but for the underclocking during lockscreen) you can set the processor to run at 192MHZ and use a single core while in lockscreen. Giving me an over-all idle battery life of about 6-7 days. and regular use battery life (determined by using the phone and immediately locking it afterwords) of about a day and a half. I then set the processor to 1.7GHZ maz and 192mhz min on the power saver governer while the phone is not asleep or in lockscreen and i have a phone that will not fail to do what i ask, even if what i ask it is to live. Making me absolutely love this rom. However i have found that most customization that has been added into this rom, graphics, and even ability wise is quite lacking. I also notice that these same customization options are found in the charmeleon rom for this very device, ultimately leading me to not even attempt trying a rom that supported pokemon as while i do enjoy the games, i simply want a professional looking device that i can configure as well and this put me at a loss for the charmealon rom, the viper rom was my second option for this kind of configuration and it atleast made the device look as though it was not made for a 5-12 year old so i decided to go with it.
2. The Mean ICS rom.
This rom was cool for one reason and i used it for a very small amount of time for this reason alone, when compared to the Viper rom, this rom has less customization options, a kernal that could not be overclocked as well as the kernal i was running on viper (i do understand that this was my doing, but why settle for less. And a kernal that while it had power saving options, those options are found on almost every rom out there and are not nearly as innovative as the viper roms power management settings. The reason that i thought this rom was cool for the very brief time i was using it, was the boot animation. If comming from the Viper 4g rom, id stick with Viper and throw in a new kernal...
3.Cyanogen Mod 10- Nightlies rom.
I adored this rom, however because of the various failures of the rom i was forced to give it up. The camera in jelly bean is terrible (cuts off parts of pictures i want) and will suddenly without reason take completely black pictures, to add to that the roms launcher would crash repeatidly making me feal as if my phone was about to mess up perm every time this happened especially when doing something like flashing my recovery to my boot in order to restore a previous rom, make changes to my boot partition, or change kernals to allow for further customization options for my processor. That and the fact that i missed sense widgets made me need to give up this rom untill it is in its final stages.
4.Freevo Rom
This rom was interesting as it was basically the jelly bean rom, on ics for me. No lag anywhere, no bloatwhere, the only thing that made me leave this rom was that i had found a more interesting rom, and the fact i could not use sense widgets. Also i am not a fan of how android looks regularly, forcing me to continuously look for a sense rom.
5.Blahh blahh jewel rom.
I apologize to the dev but for some reason i am having a hard time remembering the name of this rom. This rom included in it the attempt to blend the xperia experience with the sense experience. I have to say it did so quite well as the apps that were designed specifically for the xperia came out running well on the device, however the speed of said device was deminished for a reason i cannot fully explain. When running absolutely nothing on the phone, i was lagging switching between panels on my homescreen. I am searching for good battery life, good performance, sense, and jelly bean like responsiveness. SO this rom was already out of my sight and i had to switch roms, i may come back to this rom at a later date but i am throughly enjoying the rom i am currently using, the only upgrade i see in sight is when they move this sense 4.5 rom into jelly bean.
6. Super LTE bareback rom
I used this rom specifically because of the data throttle code removal listed in the changelog and the 7000 quad measured for the bareback version of this rom. I liked the speed i was getting however i missed the sense widgets i had grown to love before throwing a rom on my phone and decided to switch to the sense version at a later time.
7. UR evo Rom.
This rom i loved for a few reasons and almost didnt switch from it. Those reasons were, better camera (not 4.5 camera, just better), everything worked, alright battery life, power saver settings, update me smartphone app (for themeing purposes), and all sound enhancer profiles and setting i have read were originally included in 4.1 before the new RUU. The phone was everything i wanted it to be but it still wasnt quick enough, there was just something missing from it for me, maybe it was the config but i felt this same effect while using the VIPER rom so that couldnt be it. So ofcourse the search continues. I ended up using this rom as a daily for a week.
8. Super LTE Rom
For the very brief amount of time i used this rom, i ABSOLUTELY ADORED IT. it was a god rom for me and set up exactly the way i wanted it. it still had the missing factor though and i decided that this thing i was missing was what i gained from Jelly bean in Cyanogen mod 10, So i continued the search, searching for working jelly bean roms. Now this was a hard search at the time.
9. Paranoid Android LTE rom.
All i can say in relation to this rom was WOW. Paranoid android had the same (if less) issues that Cyanogen mod 10 had but made up for it with the unique customization that comes bundled into the rom. Allowing you to change dpi settings per app and their attempt to mix phone dpi with their "tablet mode" to create hybrid, and phablet mode was unreal. Along with their tablet mode which did its best to turn your phone into a tablet with phone capabilities. If this rom had my sense widgets i loved, i would never have left it. Jelly bean with less problems with Cyanogen mod 10 and more configuration with all the responsiveness and battery life of jelly bean? then add Rosie and you have got yourself the best phone i can think of. But saddly rosie was not included in this jelly bean rom nor was sense or my sense widgets or apps that i love (i actually use car alot) SO eventually this rom out grew its worth as i was missing something from sense that could only be on sense. I also want to note for anyone thinking of using this rom that it also comes with all of cyanogen mod 10's settings bundled in aswell.
10. FINALLY and surprisingly number 10... >.> i might be missing a few. The SENSE 4.5 ICS rom.
To set the record straight, I did not want to use this rom i am currently using. I looked at it and went, eh its kinda cool-ish. but what could make sense 4.5 better than 4.1? i looked and looked and looked. You know what i found? it was smoother...and it had a cool camera. SO i searched some blogs, and through xda a bit. i found, cool camera. Much smoother (in almost the same words, including snappy). I searched the forum that the rom was in, and all related posts for the rom. I found less than smoother and camera... To put in quite a small amount of words, curiosity had got the best of me. I searched on bing, google, blackle, ask, yahoo (as some search engines contain different resultes, now that some are complying to the DMCA and other laws (google, yahoo) i was forced to believe that somewhere the info was left off so i searched bing (which does not currently comply with the DMCA in terms of results given so i must assume it also does not comply with a law prohibiting this information to be shown in search results) and i found ZILTCH. i went to youtube, and heard the same upsetting thing i had been hearing the entire time (not much changes in sense 4.5, its a bit quicker and the camera has alot of improvements)....This set me off a little bit and i refused to look at my phone no matter how much it pleaded for 30-45 minutes before comming back to it and saying, alright, lets give this a shot. I read some of the information relating to the rom to see what features i would be loosing and found that it was similar to a mixture between the Viper rom and the UR evo rom in terms of features present. Such as the Sound enhancer settings and music box options and blah blah blah. So i would be getting sense and my sound options i loved from Ur Evo, as well as theming options for Rosie. I took it i wouldnt be loosing much and downloaded the rom for installation. Enabled the HTC dumlock allowing me to access the boot partion from inside TWRP recovery and went forward with the installation. It was a nice, clean installation, i dont mind putting time into things that might pay off so i decided it was worth it, and did the standard, factory reset, clear cache, clear dalvic, and wipe system. WITHOUT performing a nandroid incase it messed up. IT went through with everything, i wiped dalvic and cache and rebooted. The device booted with the HTC ONE boot up and loaded more quickly than it did from previous 4.1 roms. And upon completing setup, i felt i had a jelly bean device in my hands. with sense 4.5.
If you skipped-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------if you skipped-------------------------------------------
Noticable differences from sense 4.1
1. Noticable keyboard lag removal in stressful situations.
2. Complete keyboard lag removal in browser.
3. Internet "tabs" button labled with number of currently open tabs.
4. Slight Widget animation Removal.
-Notes: This was first noticed while swyping up on the weather 4x4 widget, which usually displayed a stream of clouds. it now displays a single cloud, moving further away from you, or closer to you, determined by the direction of the swype on the widget.
5. Noticable homescreen/rosie lag removal (noticable to the degree of jelly bean)
-Notes: Confirmed not part of rom! Smooth settings for Rosie (flattening settings...this is a fast phone, why take away from it) are not yet stable on this rom and have, because of this fact, not yet been enabled, nor do you have the ability to enable them in options. I have also personally confirmed that the widgets have not been pre-flattened.
6. Improved keyboard type location recognition and integration.
-Notes: Previously in 4.1 the keyboard when pressing new message through the widget it would present you with the standard new message screen, now it asks for the name of contact/contacts and upon pressing enter key sends you to the message part of the message. I find this to be a minor improvement.
7. Multitasking has been improved a very small degree.
-Notes: The slight delay if you leave an app on accident, before the app is destroyed and awaits reconstruction via a tap in the recent apps panel, seems to be increased by about 4-5 seconds over 4.1.
8. Multitasking improvement
-Notes: a mod has been floating around for this device enableing unlimited recent apps panels in recent apps, this seems to have been implemented inside of Sense 4.5 however i am unable to confirm if this is rom related. However due to the fact that apps are reconstructed on request after destruction through the recent apps panel still, i cannot confirm that the entire mod was implemented which leads me to believe that this is a sense 4.5 improvement over 4.1, and not an implemented mod.
9. Quick settings re-implementation and improvement
-Notes: i am saddly again unable to fully see this as a sense 4.5 upgrade as 4.1 roms have re-implemented quick settings via roms aswell. However i noticed a difference response through quick settings, you no longer have to click the on/off/whatever button itself to enable or disable the option, rather click on the entire rectangular portion that contains both the button, description, and icon. This being a much larger area over 4.1 allows you to more quickly access quick settings which i have found usefull when using the flashlight application.
10. New HTC Navigation App - HTC Locations.
-This app has been implemented in HTC's Car application, replacing google navigation. While google navigation still comes on the device, it is no longer used as the primary for HTC car, a mod is required to adjust this inside of the rom itself, otherwise it will be a challenge to replace as many of the mods for sense 4.1 no longer work correctly on sense 4.5. I had to change it back to google navigation, and then to co-pilot live premium usa after i got that app and definately paid for it....It seems like a promising app but it is not quite functional yet as on a test it displayed a wendys was 57 miles away from my location, as the closest wendys to me. Google Navigation showed me one within 2 miles. Best to avoid this one if you are in florida.
11. Rotation Issues Noticed in google navigation that i have never before seen, untested in other apps.
-Notes: I realize this could be the rom, or the fact that sense 4.5 is still getting its problems worked out causing this issue, or the fact that sense 4.5 is not on ics but on an accidental rotation of google navigation i realized that google navigation will go from portrait, to landscape, and back to portrait, but when putting it into landscape the second time, will freeze and no notification will present itself. This required a manual force close of the app whilst driving and surrounded by 3 cops, you can immagine the frustration.
12. Contact menu upon opening from messages application has changed.
-Notes the area where the picture for the contact is, is smaller, and seems to be in a different format.
13. Overall lag removal (switching between apps, opening apps, closing apps, and super user rights, browser tab switching, browser operation) comprable to Jelly Bean, even under stressfull situation (many unclosable apps open, gps, browser...blah blah) this thing will not lag, and i believe that has something to do with the new kernal implmented in sense 4.5, and the fact that sense 4.5 was being designed for jelly bean.
14. LANDSCAPE ROSIE
-I realize that alot of roms have already implemented this as a feature with different formats, and app drawer configurations, but i have confirmed that this is not in fact part of the rom (the option is greyed out in config menu, rom dev states options greyed out in said menu require more testing before implementation, thus are not available at this time)
16. Blue Notification Line surrounds foreground active text box when entering text (i do not recognize this from stock, or 4.1 roms i have used)
17. HTC notes application
-Notes: I am unsure whether or not this application existed on my phone before doing all of my rom craziness, however i am sure that this app was not previously in any of the roms i have used leading me to believe that this was not in my phone originally and i have confirmed that this was not added in my the dev (other than the fact he through sense 4.5 on my phone)
18. Better looking folder icons
-Notes: i am un-themed as of right now, even through skins and themes do exist on this rom, so i must note that i am running what is supposed to be stock, and the folder icon seems sharper, clearer, not as rounded, and a darker black than it was previously on unthemed stock 4.1 viper, or mean rom.
19. HTC camera improvements....ugh
-Notes: to the casual user on first glance the first usable thing you will notice is the fact you no longer have to go through a menu to switch to the front facing camers. I will also add that a default self timer has been defaulted on the font facing camera and you may click anywhere on the screen other than capture video to take a picture. I will also add that tap-to-focus has recieved an improvement. the camera will focus and upon completion of focus will immediately take the picture. I will also add that the quality of the camera has been slightly improved. other than that i can offer you a google search for the rest of the more techy information relating to the camera, as while i use it alot, i tend to not mess with the settings to much, just switch from front facing, to rear facing, use hdr, and panorama. The things i thought to note were the features i use and i have.
20. Flipboard app included in 4.5
-Notes: i will admit i had noooo clue what flipboard was before i signed up for it, but now that i have it, i use it daily so i must note its existance in sense 4.5. I do not believe this app was added in through the rom but i may be mistaken. This is basically just a social newspaper that displays information you are interested in, in a way similar to stumble apon.
21. Google NOW
-Notes: google now has been included in this rom as it is included in sense 4.5, i am unsure if this had to be modded in to work with ics or not but it is there and usable, you should know what google now is if you have ever used jelly bean, but it is basically the jelly bean search function, and the jelly bean general voice search and information function, its like a very basic siri for android. Better ones exist on the market or google play and I would tell you to get "Assistant" Which has a much better text to speech engine built in and will perform the same basic functions as google now with better features included for free.
22. Data throttling code removal (getting 1MB/s down on 3 bars 3g service from sprint, previously on Viper 4g and Ur Evo i was getting top 350MB/s) -Notes: this could be because of the rom however as i have stated most of the mods that previously worked on sense 4.1 do not work on sense 4.5 so i can not conclusively count out the idea that this is a sense 4.5 feature. It would be nice if it was so i offer it as such.
I will continue to update this thread as i get more information relating to sense 4.5, i have had this on my phone for a day now and all seems to be working well. For those interested about rom features the forgot to mention
In quick settings you will notice a button called chubbz and soc23 tweaks button that is similar in function to the Viper 4g tweaks and Charmealeon <---spelling? feature in each of those roms and has a list of tweaks for sense 4.5 that seems as long or longer than the ones listed in the previously listed roms. Also a themeing feature is present however i cannot confirm that any of it is working yet as the only feature of it i have got working is the ability to change overall system-wide font.
All sound enhance options have been re-enabled.
the speed of the device, even though its on ICS is comprable to jelly bean (not over-estimating, maybe understating)
the camera...is cool i guess? not really something to write home about, some cool new features
Anyways thank you for reading everyone, im going to go watch one of the 10 movies i bought and definately paid for over the last 3 hours with some family and i hope you enjoyed, as i said i will continue to update with more related information about sense 4.5 and features that may have been missed.
:cyclops:

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Talk about an epic first post..."hey guys" would of sufficed lol ..and did I miss it what was your favorite Rom ? Assuming chubbz and sacs..whos thread was locked for some reason . Was thinking of trying it out..but mean has been great for me

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Wow, this was thorough. I've been on & off with the 4.5 Rom (v3) due to JavaScript + Stock Browser closing problems but after reading this, I'm more interested in trying out a few of the other ROMs you've mentioned.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium

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I thanked that just cause you took the time to type that all out. Hot damn.

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You forgot Fresh rom. It is IMO the best sense rom out off them all.

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U wanna write a paper for me ? I was the one who went to the skip section
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app

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firmbiz94 said:
Talk about an epic first post..."hey guys" would of sufficed lol ..and did I miss it what was your favorite Rom ? Assuming chubbz and sacs..whos thread was locked for some reason . Was thinking of trying it out..but mean has been great for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well first off thank you for your comment, and i went to look at mean rom ics's thread today and they have made some interesting improvements that i might be willing to look at soon. Im not really sure why the thread was locked, im sure its original forum hasnt been locked but i very well could be wrong. And while i may have hinted twards the idea that the Sense 4.5 ICS rom was my favorite, i would actually have to say that i have a few favorites based on the things i am looking for. the Sense 4.5 ICS rom is just something that has all of what i want in one semi-not yet done, package. But interestingly enough i did not indeed state this in OP my favorite rom, and its hard to pick just one but ill give it a go.
Jelly Bean: Paranoid Android : this rom is using Cyanogen mod 10 as a base, and then mixing in paranoid android, and it does it so well, i was shocked every time i turned on my phone.
Sense 4.1: Super LTE : This rom has a few things i have never seen in other roms, and almost all the things i have seen in other roms, WHILE boasting faster and smoother usability than other roms. The only thing this rom is lacking is Battery life, in that aspect, Viper 4g ICS can not be beaten.
Sense 4.5: Sense 4.5 ICS rom.
-The reason i like this rom so much is simply because it has everything i want, Battery life, Performance, Sound enhancing settings, Sony Bravia Image and video rendering engine, Customization, Personalization, themeing options (when i figure out how they work) and Jelly bean like touch response and lag removal. However, I cant state this rom as an over-all favorite as while it has everything, it is not complete yet. What i need is this exact rom on an error removed Jelly Bean before i can throw it up as my favorite. Or AT LEAST have the rotation FC issue worked out but, even with its problems, it is still currently the rom that fits what i am looking for the best at this moment.
Thank you again! sorry i get chatty when it comes to roms.

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You still havnt tried Fresh

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jspsuperman said:
You still havnt tried Fresh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hah sorry about that i actually am just about ready to leave this rom as it isnt quite ready to use as a daily driver yet so i may end up looking at it again however i do remember trying an older version of fresh evo and i did like it from what i could see of it but i was looking at the time for something dramatically different and that simply wasnt it for me. I will look to see if any new improvements have been made to the rom before i install the new version of Paranoid android back onto my device and hopefully the gs3 camera included with cyanogen mod 10 as long as it still works well enough.
I do apologize for not getting back to you sooner however, as i am sort of hating the fact i am limited to 5 minutes per post Anyways for the time-being i will attempt leaving sense again, however i will attempt to check out and look at the new versions of fresh evo and see if improvements have been made, hopefully the data throttle removal has been implemented recently, i will also look at the mean rom as i have seen alot of improvements from the time i originally tried the rom
ALSO i must note the fact that i was originally getting these roms from a reviewer who was supplying me with out-dated rom packages, leading me to believe that during my first run through these roms i was using v 1.0.0 and now that many updates have been applied i will attempt to check them all out at least one more time before passing final judgement on them. Honestly, i hope to god a new rom comes along that blows me out of the water the way paranoid android did the first time i used the rom on a different device, and then again on my lte. I have also during my night tonight found that the viper 4g ics rom has been updated and i am happy to see some of the problems i noticed corrected and will attempt again soon.
To put simply, I will attempt re-trying all of these roms a second time and see what they have to offer me. And i will post a new thread with reviews relating to said roms as soon as i get the chance, likely by the end of next week.
For those more interested in this rom i will be updating with a list of features included in this rom that i did not before mention AND an updated list of noticed sense 4.5 over-all changes.
Ill let you know what i think of the fresh evo rom when i get back from testing it out over this next week. Thank you very much for reading, and i hope you have a wonderful night.

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His review on the Sense 4.5 ROM is pretty much spot on. It's the best ROM i've used so far for this phone. Only thing i can knock it for is when you're connected to 4G and the icon changes to something completely different while handling data. I don't agree with it..but I enjoy it.
And another thing. Idk if it's just me..but I remember on the OG Evo when the DHD was released with a newer version of Sense and devs ported it over. Didn't their color scheme revolve around blue? I'm noticing a lot of blue in this ROM ex: Most bullets are blue. Loading bars are blue. Focused text boxes are blue. My incoming and outgoing texts are even a shade of blue. Anything focused is blue! Which, if I can remember correctly, is exactly how it was for the DHD's version of sense. If that's true..do they only change the color scheme for our Sprint version? Or do they change the scheme for all US phones? Just me thinking out loud...

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Sure it isn't cernel?
Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge