I am finally getting around to getting my phone in shape, and I'm looking into the various custom ROMs. There are so many choices, and from where I'm at even trying to interpret the feature list of a single one is overwhelming!! I'm *incredibly* overwhelmed, and have no idea where to start...
So I was wondering - can anyone either direct me to a thread / page on Atrix ROM Comparisons & Reviews, or be so kind as to share there opinions here? Thanks!
- Andy
EDIT: To be clear, I'm not asking which ROM is "the best," as I know that's purely subjective. I'm more looking for feature comparisons - what's the same across different roms, what's different between them, what different roms excel in and wat they slack in, etc.
Just check out the features sectiom of each rom though making a thread like that might be helpful. I am now contemplating making one
sent from my Atrix via XDA premium
I have a feeling most people will agree with me when I say the two best ROMs are The Darkside (moto-blur based) by nottach and Neutrino (cm7 based) by notorious544d. So take a look at those two specifically. As far as features go for most ROMs they're almost the same when comparing moto-blur to another blur based ROM. Same for cm7, although many of them have different performance. Happy flashing
Honestly was going to flash darkside, but instead went with Neutrino GT, and damn..I fell in love with my atrix all over again! I absolutely love the fingerprint scanner that acts as a trackball mod..among everything else.
I love the fact he completely stripped the rom down...too much actually that he added add-ons, but you can pick and choose which ones. Very slick.
I spent quite a few hours last night learning about each of the different ROMs and what was worth checking out. In the end, I ended up coming to the same conclusion: that the two I should check out off the back were Neutrino and DarkSide.
However, I'm also thinking of Ba2tF CM7. I understand that Neutrino is also based off of CM7, but has a lot stripped out of it. I don't think I want stripped down. I'm looking for things that are featurefull, and that matters to me over performance - to explore functionality.
However, at the same time I see that while Neutrino is stripped down CM7, it does have features that Ba2tF doesn't have - like the MIUI camera and the trackball scroll...
You can try CM7 weekly#3 or #4 by atrix dev team. It does have FP scanner support. You can try add the other features you like by yourself if you're handy..
I often use youtube vids to get an idea of a rom to at least get an initial reaction. Personally I like to start with a practical rom, ie battery life, first and get more exotic from there once I get an idea of my needs. In my own experience, darkside had just... Incredibly impressive battery life and acceptable everything else. I'm running ba2tf right now, my first cm7 rom ever, and the performance even without OC is great. Smooth, fast and these cm7 tweaks are fun to play with. I can't mount my external sd card in my car, get browser fc's on the regular but they are niggles for me really. Battery for me, while not absurdly good like Darkside, is still solid. No worries if i forget to plug it in overnight and work the next day.
Having said all that, tomorrow is nerd day and i'm flashing neutrino.
Sent from my A500 using xda premium
FLEXSTRIKER R6 OC'd 1.6gHz of goodness
What is it that's drawing you to try out Neutrino? What does it have over Ba2tF, aside from the MIUI Camera? Is it more that performance & battery life is enhanced by cutting down bloat - or is there something more interesting than that?
I ask because I'm on Neutrino and the lack of various normally default software is bugging me quite a bit. Navigation for instance is broken because the TTS engine doesn't come with it by default, and isn't yet available in a stable package from what I can tell...
phnord said:
I spent quite a few hours last night learning about each of the different ROMs and what was worth checking out. In the end, I ended up coming to the same conclusion: that the two I should check out off the back were Neutrino and DarkSide.
However, I'm also thinking of Ba2tF CM7. I understand that Neutrino is also based off of CM7, but has a lot stripped out of it. I don't think I want stripped down. I'm looking for things that are featurefull, and that matters to me over performance - to explore functionality.
However, at the same time I see that while Neutrino is stripped down CM7, it does have features that Ba2tF doesn't have - like the MIUI camera and the trackball scroll...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
however, i think it was genius to start out stripped, then add whatever add-ons YOU want. Kind of personalizes your ROM a bit, since you cant satisfy everyone.
Related
Hello all,
I was just wondering what your impressions were re, the most stable ROM out now, the one with the least issues. Is there one that seems to be most hassle-free? I'm not nessasarily looking for a lot of bells and whistles...
Thanks!
Used to enjoy Theory's ROMs but felt that every few weeks he'd discontinue a ROM and release a new one. If you want a sense ROM that has a good following, I'm gonna be taking a look at SynergyROM, or if you want a non-sense ROM (AKA AOSP) I'd go CM7 (CynergyMod 7).
I'm aosp fan personally. I've used Cyanogenmod extensively, as well as Omgb. I'm currently running TheROM V4 and it is rock solid stable and very responsive. Not many bells and whistles. Just vanilla gingerbread.
It depends on what you want aosp or sense
For me I'm an aosp girl I'm running cyanogenmod 7 v1.7 loving it and. Ill give the kernel I'm using for battery life
If I don't want aosp anymore I always go to. http://teambamf.net/
I love das bamf! or if not go to http://themikmik.com/forumdisplay.php?1004-HTC-Thunderbolt-Developer-Forum I personal really like chingy's roms
I don't like Droid theory just saying
If you like sense, I really like Chingy's Gingeritis 3D.
Second vote for Gingeritis 3D. Stable and great battery life if you just use better governors.
Definitely the wrong forum, bro.
been rocking cleantheory to shiftsense for the past two weeks. both have been rock solid. DT is stopping development though, so take it for whatever that means. i think at some point all ROMS eventually lose development. hopefully whatever you choose is good enough for your daily driver if you dont like flashing over and over.
ShiftS3ns3 by DroidTho3ry rocks - give it a shot.
I think I'm going to give Gingeritis 3D a try. I'm not a pro at flashing new ROMs... i've only done it once (running BAMF 1.3 now). Is there anything special I should do? Is it just like flashing the BAMF ROM? (can I do it from ROM Manager?)
Thanks!
sushiman79 said:
been rocking cleantheory to shiftsense for the past two weeks. both have been rock solid. DT is stopping development though, so take it for whatever that means. i think at some point all ROMS eventually lose development. hopefully whatever you choose is good enough for your daily driver if you dont like flashing over and over.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DT mentioned that he's taking a break, so hopefully he won't be gone too long. His work is better than stock.. HTC ought to hire him and get out of his way.
If you want Sense ROM, can't go wrong with SkyRaider Preview 2 or ShiftS3NS3.
If you want AOSP based ROM, SHIFTAO5P hasn't given me any problems whatsoever.
If you can live without the 3d, skyraider preview 2 is rock solid.
courtesy of my bolt and tapatalk
FWIW, I have been pretty pleased with the Synergy ROMs and I'd be running one now but...... I was one who fell victim to either the ROM Manager update or the CWM update and now cannot restore any of my backups. I tried various earlier CWMs w/o success and finally un-rooted, installed stock, did the OTA update and I'm back 100% stock.
I mention this because it's relevent to the question..... Battery life is good, the stability is excellent and, once customized to my liking, I really can't see much difference other than the "billions and billions" of crap apps VZW and HTC have added to the phone. If I could get rid of them I'd be just fine with the stock ROM believe it or not!
I'll probably re-root at some point and it's VERY likely I'll go back to the Synergy ROM because it works. I've had rebooting problems with other ROMs I've tried and I'm no longer in a mood to experiment, maybe later?
OK, it's later. I rooted, using Revolutionary, used Titanium backup to remove VZWs crapware and then figured why not? and installed the latest Synergy ROM.
I guess I just can't live with a non-rooted phone for 24 hours..... <sigh>
i keep trying out different roms all the time(sense & aosp based) and find that i'll keep going back to Synergy. it seems the most stable just i having issues with settling with just one rom.
Everyone has a different opinion on what stable is. I think CM7 is plenty stable, but there are those that disagree for whatever logical/illogical reason. Mainly, if you aren't prepared to encounter issues either brought up by your own experimenting or those of the ROM developer, I would stay with what the phone came with and be happy you have a phone that (sort of) works
If you are more brave, then read on.
If you read the comments about most ROMs, there is no such thing as a 100% infallible, will never ever let you down, stable ROM. ROMs are generally bleeding edge and users accept the fact they may have bugs in exchange for the phone doing more than what HTC and verizon allowed them to do. However, ignore most comments, because those are generally just people that screwed something up either knowingly or unknowingly. Like people that go the the hospital (for those that have family members that work at one), not everyone is ready to admit they did something stupid and have it on public display
yareally said:
If you read the comments about most ROMs, there is no such thing as a 100% infallible, will never ever let you down, stable ROM.
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Click to collapse
Skyraider with Ziggy's kernel is EXACTLY this. It has average to good battery life though. Everything works, including it being compatible with call recording and incredicontrol (voltage control app). It also has the notification tweaks that no one has quite duplicated and I have grown to love.
I find Synergy to be an excellent rom as well, but the themes available do not suit me at all. It does support everything with good battery life and also adds HTC Hub which is awesome. It also has DConfig, which I just have not gotten a great benefit from but I guess some might.
The theory sense rom was smooth as silk, and seemed to be a happy medium between the first two I posted.
Chingy's rom is VERY slick, but very vanilla. The fact that it is Odexed makes theming harder I think, but for me that means I cannot replace the HTC browser with the AOSP one, and I HATE THE SENSE BROWSER lol.
ALL AOSP roms seem to have squashed most of the crappy battery issues and get great battery life now. This added to a FAR FAR FAR better bluetooth stack for better use with wireless devices like Jawbone, AND compatability with PS3 hardware make them an awesome choice. The ONLY problem is the lack of reliable network location. This means google maps works perfect, but your web browser can and will put you across the world sometimes, as well as weather apps etc. This rules it out for me for now.
Hope that helps
Shifts3ns3 has been the best for me, while I liked synergy, it had more bugs and seemed much slower to me, shift has the useful 3.0 features without the slowdown of a full sense 3.0 rom
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
Can someone tell me a few differences between unnamed and cm7? I've scoured the Web and narrowed it down between these two mods. I'm looking for features and good battery life. I webbrowse and listen do music a lot.
I'm Hoping there are people who have used both
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using xda premium
re: CM7 or unNamed
crewxp said:
Can someone tell me a few differences between unnamed and cm7? I've scoured the Web and narrowed it down between these two mods. I'm looking for features and good battery life. I webbrowse and listen do music a lot.
I'm Hoping there are people who have used both
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have used and extensivly tested both of them, if you want the
full features of your camera to remain intact you should select
the UnNamed 1.0.4 rom. CM7 lacks many of the features in the
camera part of the phone and it does not give you the full 30fps
framerates while recording videos as well as other issues.
Not only that, but the cosmetic appearance of the camera's lcd screen looks
like some cheapy camera phone and lacks many of the options which are found
in all the stock and custom roms except in CM7.
Hope this helps.
CM7 is good, but still has some rough edges.. I would suggest unnamed as your option being a new Android user. unnamed is based on the stock ROM and enhances on the stock rom. So basically everything works out of the box as it was intended to be
Okay thanks guys! Exactly what I needed. I thought since CNET was bigger, it would be better. good thing I asked!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using xda premium
As stated above there are a lot of difference between the two roms you mentioned above. I would say try them all out as it is very easy. Get a rom working THE WAY YOU LIKE IT, then make a nandroid backup, try out another rom and set it up the way you like it and then make a nandroid backup. Then you can easily go between roms or stick with what you like best. As far as CM7 goes (I have been using CM7 since my captivate) and have found I like it the best. Due to integrated modifications and such it has everything working great. I do see that the camera works well but is not the same as the stock camera as far as settings and the CM7 camcorder (haven't noticed any issues personally) framerates not working as good as stock/stock based roms, and speed dial is not built in. Those are the ONLY things that can use some work in my humble opinion. But if your like me and want to customize easier, switch to different themes on the fly without any problems other than opening up the built in theme Chooser app. For stock roms I always had to wait for the theme developer to update his theme between rom updates due to framework changes, sometimes this would be the same day to a few days in between. Just trying to share some of the benefits CM7 may have. I have also tried different roms as UnNamed rom and they do work really well, the speed and fluidity of the stock based roms is as good as CM7 right now (wasn't the case on my captivate as CM7 worked smoother and faster than stock based roms). Plus CM7 will PROBABLY have ICS working before it is working on the stock roms. There are many things to look at and try out, so that is why I recommend trying them all out and find what you like.
Sent From My KICKASS CM7 AT&T SGS2
Simply put, do you want it to be smooth or not? UnNamed is liquid butter smooth for me, cm wasn't. I have a very picky eye for this kind of thing being a pc gamer
tried both... Preferring CM7 at this point...
Although it's nice that the Stock-based firmwares (unNamed) work 100%, I know that development for CM7 is not far behind, and will soon surpass anything stock-based can offer.
The only real upside to unNamed over CM7 at the moment is the fully working Wifi Hotspot feature. (Which will of course be fixed soon in CM7) as well as the MHL (USB to HDMI adapter)...
Again... Both are good roms. But if you want to get on the Ice-cream truck sooner; go with CM. If you want things working %100 without a lot of trouble... Go with unNamed.
monsieurtalbot said:
tried both... Preferring CM7 at this point...
Although it's nice that the Stock-based firmwares (unNamed) work 100%, I know that development for CM7 is not far behind, and will soon surpass anything stock-based can offer.
The only real upside to unNamed over CM7 at the moment is the fully working Wifi Hotspot feature. (Which will of course be fixed soon in CM7) as well as the MHL (USB to HDMI adapter)...
Again... Both are good roms. But if you want to get on the Ice-cream truck sooner; go with CM. If you want things working %100 without a lot of trouble... Go with unNamed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like CM7 as well however the Camera is one of the main feats of the phone, and if there was a good alternative whether 3rd party or not i would keep CM7 (its still on a NAND backup) but there isnt. Not even the MIUI Camera works (which is kinda nice). Also, the MHL out doesn't work as you mentioned, and battery life is fairly close to one another.
I personally bounce back between serendipity and Cm7, However IF there was a way to run a i9100 rom on our phones, then i would run gingerMOD all the way.
Who has tried what MIUI ROM and which is your best and why? Anything better than MIUI?
Miui is the best, it allows for a much more customizable experience compared to other roms.
I personally have miui.us on my phone. W/the Glitch kernel I'm getting great battery and no lag.
However, I hear many good things about the lithium and prime variations of miui. If you need any tips, help, etc. w/miui check out my guide (link in signature) or PM me.
Sent from my SGH-T959 (Samsung Vibrant)
I used to keep trying MIUI every once in awhile, but could never get used to it. It would seriously last a day then I'd be back on CM. Finally, after being so bored with this phone, I forced myself to use it for at least a week and love it now.
As far as which one to use...I've tried almost all. Lithium, Prime, Galnet, SGSII, stock. My biggest issue with most of these custom builds is all the apps they pack back into their rom. Granted, I can easily remove anything, but it's just an annoyance.
Galnet was by far my favorite. Not themed (blank canvas, if you will) but still had some tweaks and "welcomed" add-ons (MIUI Control).
Unfortunately, my time with this phone is just about up. Been bored with it and the whole cm7/911 issue was it. Probably picking up a SGS2 this weekend.
For me I like the miui.us version the best... I've had zero problems with it so far.
I've tried most of the roms in the development section, and I'm not knocking the dev who are creating some great roms, but I keep coming back to the stock rom. What's so bad about keeping stock. I mean once the roms in the dev section get all the kinks worked out (mms), I'm sure I'll be going to them, but stock so far seems to work really well. My battery life is decent, and everything works. I do like the MUI rom though, just the mms issue, is keeping me from running it as a daily rom. Just thought, I'd give some props to the stock rom.
Its all personal preference. I personally cant stand blur it drives me nuts, CM9 and nearly ever other has working mms(-MIUI for now) and im a huge CM fan ever since I first flashed CM7. Whatever works best for your uses really.
i jus dont like stock roms at all. they have too much bloatware on them i think
My phone is laggy with the stock rom but Im not willing to lose 4G to run something else. Im just holding on till Sprint has a better phone and I can retire the Photon.
same for me. CM and MIUI jus run so much smoother
Maybe I need to try then newer versions out. I'm using launcher pro on my stock and it seems smooth
In my experience, on the Photon you do not need anything other than stock. Stock runs GREAT. Every custom ROM I have tried has issues.
However, most of my other Android phones really needed custom ROMs due to battery or other issues which hampered their performance.
The Photon is the rare phone that works fine as is.
IMO.
ski21 said:
Maybe I need to try then newer versions out. I'm using launcher pro on my stock and it seems smooth
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like stock also but can't help myself cab use some market launchers also on Miui and cm9 just like stock
MIUI/ICS for the Photon
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1536161
Stock:
Laggy/choppy UI (this is a major sales killer. out of the box the lg optimus ui is faster/smoother)
Tons of mostly unused proprietary account services running in the background (BlurOrkut for example)
Mostly useless widgets (When most tap on a clock widget they want it to open the clock app. almost all of the blur widgets do nothing when you tap them)
If you replace the launcher, never use most of the blur services and use third party widgets then stock is a overweight and mostly useless. That being said, if you love blur and it's widgets, use most of those builtin account services then stock is the way to go.
Stock ROM completely lacks the ability to customize everything. Thats what I hate most about it.
I loaded Jokers skinnyV2, and wow, awesome. Fast, smooth and everything is working like stock. I think I found a new daily driver.
I bounce between stock and cm9 stock when I need 4g and cm9 when I want processing and better multi tasking. Not to mention cm9 has more features.
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium
At least once a week I feel convinced that I NEED 4G, camcorder, or mms, so I install one of the modified stock roms. This usually lasts about 30 minutes before I come to my senses and go back to an ICS rom. I've been using Joker's ICS builds since about the fourth day of owning my photon, and running any non ics rom just feels like putting lawn mower wheels on a Ferrari. Giving up a couple features that I would realistically use at most 10 minutes a week in exchange for an infinitely better user experience is a no brainer in my opinion.
I went back to stock about a month ago and could not be happier!!!! I have not had one single issue since (with exception of Sprints Network!) and the Photon is flawless!
BTW: I got butt naked too! OtterBox is off over by my desktop gaming computer I never use! Dont use my 2 laptops eithere. Nor my PS3. I gotta clean this place up!
I hated stock from day one. Its slow. I have tried just about every rom that the photon has to offer. My daily is between cm9 and MIUI. I just cant make up my mind because I like the fact that MIUI has lots of themes but cm9 is just awsome. Im about to try AOKP so ima jump off. cya
Thanks all for the replies. I think I'll try the newer cm9 and mui roms. So far I'm really liking the joker skinnyv2. I'm going to test out the cm9, mui today.
Personally, I think I, and most here, have a few issues.
#1. I rooted and unlocked it.
#2. I had 230+ apps, most I had no clue!
#3. I had 3 launchers i was bouncing back and forth.
#4. Damm thing kept freezing and I had to reboot several times a week!
#5. My Bluetooth headphones were iffy? (if thats a word!)
I put it back to stock, down to maybe 60 apps, stock UI! The 7 Panels with Stock UI I have configured with my most common apps, with screens for Business, Games, Communication, Shopping, my Social accounts.......
The speed, on 3G is amazing and I can quickly check my bank account, lottery, whatever. The only thing I have extra is Weather Toggle Widgit on home screen.
@ 4 or 5 years ago, I got into flashing/rooting/unlocking/ROM's because I wanted my phone to look/be different. With Stock Photon and some time, it is different! Besides, at the end of the day, bottom line is, I need a fully functional working phone!
JMO!
David Out!
I personally run CM7 and the reason being is that I like having the ability to customize every little detail on my phone and as far as I can tell it runs smoother then stock did for me. I will switch over to CM9 once they just get a one more kink worked out, I need to be able to watch Netflix so I'm waiting for the HW acceleration drivers to be added and then I'll be all in.
I just installed MIUI yesterday and from what I see its even MORE customizable than CM7 including three launchers and all the google apps built in. Its also based on ICS just like CM9 is.
being as im new to the photon but not new to droids ive flashed both cm7 and im currently running the latest build of cm9. that being said my phone runs so much smoother with these roms than i was stock. if it wasnt for the great devs we have for these phones and their persistent need to tweak everything i think the droid market would have crashed long ago. but it is personal preference but personally i like my phones to work 90% or more of the time, with stock i could never get the reliabilty like i could with roms.
I'm running MIUI ROM from Th3Bill and loving it (thanks Th3Bill!), the latest release (.29) has transformed my phone - again.
I just have a question though.
I notice the bill releases lots of JB roms (AOKP, Paranoid Android, CNA, MIUI)..
I'm uncertain as to the difference between all of these.
do any work better or worse on the atrix 4g?
Don't get me wrong i'm not doubting TheBill for one microsecond, but am just curious as to why so many roms would be released by one person unless they have some difference between them, or is it just a different look and feel?
I guess i'm just wanting the best JB experience i can get with the ROMS currently available, and short of 'just trying them all', well. i took the lazy route and posted here to ask what fundamental differences there are to an end user perspective.
i understand the underlying release may have features which do not work with the atrix (cam/fp-sensor/tether) and this will be comon accross all ROMS using this underlying release.
thanks.
Gavin.
Best thing to do is probably use each for a day and see which ones have the features you like/need.
I haven't tried cna or pa yet, so I can't comment on their stability. I think since they are all based off the same cm10 that their issues (beyond the common issues of all the roms) are upstream. For example, I don't think any of the roms have camcorder 100 percent working, or native wifi hot spot. The individual roms probably have some smaller bugs that are upstream of th3Bill's work, like I said.
Here's a rough breakdown: miui is very themed/themeable and has some custom features like a cool lock screen, sms pop ups,... You probably know miui already, since you are on it. It's the most different from the rest.
Paranoid android specializes in tabet/phone hybrid ui, tweaking dpi for individual apps without reboot (I think)
Cna is the only jb rom (I think) that has custom lock screen targets yet. I don't know much about it other than that.
I'm on aokp, and I really like it. I like the notification toggles with a brightness bar underneath, and I like the rest of the systemui tweaks.
People can add to this, or correct me if I'm wrong about any of it.
Unfortunately it's a bit time consuming to set up a new rom every day, but there is only 4, so I'm sure you can find the time.... At some point.
I hope that helps a tiny bit. I'm still exploring them myself =)
Sent from my MB860 using xda app-developers app
Thanks for the quick and detailed reply.
Trust me to chose the 'most different' ROM (MIUI)
This is good information to have thank you, and gives me some comfort that i'm not missing out on anything, also that just trying each rom for a day or two is the way to do it.
Cheers for your help, although as my phone is a daily runner, i'll probably stick with what i know now (MIUI).
I may find a cheep atrix to try loading other roms onto soon and perhaps be adventurous with trying other roms on that.
many thanks
Gavin
Miui is definitely my favorite but it feels a little heavy/less responsive compared to aokp/cm10.
I can't comment on cna, or pa because I've never used them.
Aokp/cm10 are great. Fast and smooth and a few of the paid themes lurking around the play store are absolutely stunning, Dream, Lucid, PopStyle all amazing. I use Aokp because of it advanced visual preferences like centered clock, weather under toggles, sliders, lock screen tweaks, on screen nav buttons, stuff like that
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2
I need my phone during the week too, so I usually try one out over the weekend. I definitely can't keep up with th3bill like that hah
Epinter
I´m using Epinter´s CM10 and I´m loving it. I find it very fast and my battery last all day.
I´ve tried MIUI and personally is the one I like the least. AOKP is good also, but not as good as Epinter.
I tried JB roms and my first ROM was CNA. But the provided build during my install had issues and Bill said he might take couple more days. Since it was more related to emails, i have to switch back to other ROM and switched to epinter.
I am on epinter CM10 and its i like it. But even in this ROM, i am having issues with apps like shopkicks not getting loaded.
And few times, when i launch four square app, i will see like slanting colored lines until i reboot.
Also rarely WiFi issues it wont connect and even not possible to disable Wifi until reboot.
But Battery wise i get nearly 1.5 to 2 days with regular use of browsing, 2 emails , texting and phonecalls.