Hi guys,
can you help me understanding the main pros/cons for going with Samsung JB or an AOSP rom on the Galaxy S3?
I've tried searching the forum but without luck, anyone got a thread link where this is covered?
My first Samsung (S3) phone is on its way by mail, and I'm trying to decide which type of rom to choose.
Off course I see the obvious stuff like:
Open vs Closed source
Stock vs Custom UI
But, except for the above; why should I choose an optimized (de-odexed, de-bloated etc. etc.) Samsung JB rom over an AOSP rom?
From what I can understand custom kernels also exists for both rom types, so that wouldn't be an argument right?
I'm not familiar with the current HW support in AOSP rom's for the S3. Generally this has been where roms for my HTC phones have differed in the past. What's the status with the S3, do AOSP support most of the stuff or is there still some way to go?
Please shed some light for me :fingers-crossed:
And please don't compare specific rom's against each others. I'm trying to understand this at higher level, I will off course test several rom's and make up my own mind about what specific rom release is best suited for me.
Samsung roms will have all the things mentioned in the ads such as direct call, smart stay, multi window etc. Aosp won't have these as they are samsungs additions. Samsung will have touchwiz launcher as default, which comes with a lot of samsung only widgets. Aosp will have vanilla launcher (with some extra functions and tweaks).
Sammy roms generally have better camera than aosp. Aosp is considered to have better battery usage although I can't really tell from my experience of using both types.
Deodexed means it's easier to develop themes for, as the external odex files are repackaged into the apks directly. But it will take a while longer when booting, as odex files are meant to speed up this process. As for the actual usage, not much difference.
Debloated means getting rid of bloatware that come with your phone, sich as chaton, google talk etc. There will be quite a lot of apps that you don't use but will be present and wasting your phone resources. Debloating is done by some developers but you can do most of ot yourself as long as you're rooted.
Hope this clears things. But these are all general, as you wished it to be. Some aosp will have different launcher options etc, so will sammy roms. As for what you go with, I'll leave it up to you.
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Thanks
xcly said:
Samsung roms will have ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot xcly, this clears up some stuff for me
You say that Sammy roms have better camera, what about the rest of the HW support on AOSP? The rest of the stuff (GPS, Accel, Gyro etc.) works ok?
From what I can gather from your post (and reading around) the choice boils down to two main points for me
HW support
Kernel (stability and performance, ofwhich battery performance is derived)
I don't care much for the 'Samsung features' (direct call, smart stay, multi window etc.) and the launcher can always be customized.
Additionally my previous experience is that the continious devlopment done on AOSP (with nightlies etc.) gives a nice feeling of continous improvement that you miss from manufacturer roms. For manufacturer roms you're relying on manufacturer relase schedules and leaks. But off course, one can argue that there is continous development through hacking, back-porting and kernel improvements for these roms as well..
Ultimately I think Ill just have to try out the most popular roms of both types before I'm able to decide what type I go with as a daily driver.
As for kernels most of then support both aosp and sammy so don't worry about it too much. Gps wifi and the lot work well on both as well.
Samsung didn't release any source code for its processor so aosp roms can never realise the full potential. Never had any trouble using aosp so I wouldn't say there is a huge difference, but I guess some advanced users will miss the hw side of things..
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Simple to say
TouchWiz UI and pure Android UI.
Other things basically are very similar
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Haha nice. All my words in a single sentence
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Here is some personal feeling about them.
As you can see from my signature that I had Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus before, and after I lost my GNex, I tried to buy a Nexus 4, but it kinda like mission impossible as it's serious outta supply, so I was forced to make compromise and go with Galaxy S III, which is very nice phone through some thing I don't like such as hardware button and soft key (because GNex uses virtual button on screen which is completely customizable ).
I have been using AOSP ROM for over a year (well, it's outta options actually as they are Google's sons but Samsung didn't make a ROM for them even they are manufactured by Samsung , and 3 month with Sammy ROM.
Even I got my S3, the first thing I have done is flash AOSP ROM and get my feeling about GNex back, but unfortunately due to some reasons, I couldn't make it become GNex-like and realize it is something fool, so I tried Sammy stock ROM.
My first feeling about it is a little prettier than AOSP ( through there's countless themes for AOSP, I am just talking about default theme ) and some Sammy features are very interesting and attractive. (IMHO, I'd say it is more user-friendly to users ) which is why I decided to stay with it , but after all these times, I didn't actually use these features much except multi windows and slide to dial...
OK, sorry for my non sense words and my bad English just can exactly express what I trying to say...
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FoxHound rom is all you need.
crDroid is the most stable Sammy Tom out there with the option of having an AOSP theme & not installing all the bloatware that Samsung Roms are notorious for.
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don't turn this thread into a best rom one
A quick follow up question
Just a quick follow up question regarding HW support:
Whats the status for AOSP roms regarding MHL, does it work?
I recently saw a video where a guy paired his phone with a PS3 controller and played games on his HD TV. Would this possible on non-Sammy roms?
Can't help you much on that. Never tried mhl on my s3, aosp or otherwise. You're better off asking/searching in cm thread. If it works on cm, it'd probably work on other aosp roms too.
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Pedro80 said:
Just a quick follow up question regarding HW support:
Whats the status for AOSP roms regarding MHL, does it work?
I recently saw a video where a guy paired his phone with a PS3 controller and played games on his HD TV. Would this possible on non-Sammy roms?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to read the relevant rom threads or logically ask in those threads .
jje
Related
Hi all,
First of all, I'm amazed and gobsmacked at how much work all the devs put into their respective ROM's, it's amazing the effort and hard work ppl put in. Passion is alive and well on XDA
Now, to business. I have my Galaxy SII, a Galaxy S, and an Acer Iconia A500. I've flashed them all with their respective ICS. I would think (and hope) that probably out of all of them, the SII has the biggest dev base and most power. The ICS ROMs for the A500 and S are almost perfect. They run completely vanilla with no or almost no bloat, they look and behave the same (icons for network activity inside the bars for example, contacts app looks the same) and have had no hiccups whatsoever.
Come the SII, the only ROMs I've seen are cooked from Samsung sources with their phone and contacts apps, they crash and reboot and if it weren't that I have gone past the point of no return in regard to effort I'd have gone back to Gingerbread days ago.
Is anyone out there developing a completely vanilla "Google" rom that isn't themed to look like ICS, but actually uses the ICS apps etc. I can't understand how the Iconia and SI can have this while the SII seemingly doesn't.
Can anyone open my eyes on this? I'd love to get something as stable onto my SII as I have with my other devices, ICS is brilliant to use on them...and barely bearable on my beloved SII.
Cheers
<:3)~
Ummmm correct me if I am wrong but that's exactly what the CM team are trying yo to do....
And you can already download and install that, so long as you are happy with the bugs at present.
Unless you meant something else???
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You miss reading the cm9 thread. Check it out....its still alpha.
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I'm more curious about the fact I would have thought the SII having a bigger user and dev base...certainly more than the A500 I thought it would have the most stable and mature code base - yet it seems the opposite is true.
I've been running 4.0.3 on my SI for weeks now and its never bugged out. Installed the A500...and Oh wow its like a brand new tablet!! I wonder is it because of Exynos or some other reason we can't have the same stability and performance right now.
Sent from my Acer Iconia A500 using Tapatalk
Your ignorance and disrespect is pretty bad (even if you don't mean it). I think you should do some reading for a while and get yourself acquainted with what's involved.
I didn't ask this to be dissed by someone...I'm sure even you would agree the development cycle and challenges for all three devices would be similar given they all use different processors. So is it easier to compile for the A8 and Tegra than the A9?
I have been looking and downloading a number of ROMs...and if someone has created a ROM in a similar vein to Thor's on the A500 and Onecosmic's on the SI, well I'd be grateful for the heads up...in fact I'm just about to download and test the Pure ROM I just spied over in dev...so see how that goes. Still I'd be happy for someones *constructive* input.
Of course I'm claiming ignorance...if I knew I wouldn't ask...geez lol
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It's a wonder no one bothers doing a straight AOSP compile for any device, really. CyanogenMod comes the closest. There are a few people who played with doing a straight AOSP, but they base it off CM's work and strip out the extras.
When I wanted the AOSP experience with Gapps, I installed CM7 on my SGS and installed the stock Gingerbread launcher. It was the closest I got.
Trebuchet is basically the stock ICS launcher with features added, so it won't be so bad. You can also replace it with the stock launcher as well.
Try Airbus 360s ics rom that's aosp and is fantastic he should be releasing beta 2 tonight.
sent from my iPhone 4S.
haha I bet that confused ya
You're question is a bit noob so don't expect much answers.
Here is a short one to sum it for you:
AOSP - Pure android base without modification.
CM - almost pure with modifications.
STOCK - Hardware Manufacturer (eg. Samsung's) "official originated" release.
Stock - can have it all. CAUSE - Samsung has sources and support/docs for ALL hardware API of the device.
CM/STOCK - While there are some changes BOTH use the same origin.
To sum it, for proper functionality BOTH use SAME kernel/libs base.
So if some hardware functionality broken in one it'll be broken in other =
If CM9 haz no h/w decoding === APPLIES for AOSP.
Another thing to keep in mind, CM9 currently is in the process of adding CM features so current builds are very close to AOSP with functionality.
SUM IT UP:
if (CM9 != working) AOSP.isNotWorking()!
ttg said:
if (CM9 != working) AOSP.isNotWorking()!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a piece of horrible code, dude
Hi. I wa going to start testing the cm nightly but I still think ol' sammy has done some good stuff in their android release so... yeah I would like to keep stuff like "put phone to ear when smsing " and other stuff.
Now to my q. Wasn't there a project somewhere trying to port all apps from different manufacturer's so they could be included in aosp roms? Though it had something to do with cyanogenmod but Im maybe wrong...
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Not sure about that but they will all rely on frameworks from each specific device so I don't see that project being feasible.
I won't be going to aosp just yet. The unused touchwiz overhead is not so much that I want to lose Samsung features
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A search would have told you no. It is not going to happen. CM only uses open source coded apps and non of the Samsung apps are. So if you want an AOSP based rom you will have to be willing to lose the Samsung apps and features.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk 2
Check out this thread, its a sgs3 pack for the galaxy nexus.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1669190
Tried it, works quite fine, however some strange rendering with touchwiz (think cause its targeted for the nexus, which has on screen navigation buttons)
I think you mean the openDESIGN project which aims to rewrite popular features from scratch to unify great features from different manufacturers in Cyanogenmod.
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I think its a bit of a waste to goto CM9 only to put back all the bloatware.. And there ate still issues with CM9 for the s3
I persoanlly have gone for one of the other roms, that is deodexed etc, so that it can be modified to an extent, whilst keeping a lot of its usefulness
It runs a little better than stock, seem to have slightly better battery life, and some custom mods that i want
I am itching to try cm9.. I did install paranoid rom, but i think its a little early yet for someone that needs some things to work right.. Cm7 on the nexus s was good.. When cm9 is that good it will get installed on my phone
First off I just need to know the difference of the 2 I've flashed roms for several years now but I've really ever had this ? Answered for me we all known touchwiz roms are much bigger than Aosp roms so is the space that's not being used by Aosp roms is it available to the user Like almost 600mb that's not being used by this rom ?
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Basically it doesnt have the touchwiz skin at all. Its plain android. It also means no s-pen support (its implemented now in the official nightlies however rudementary).
As far as the usuable space, thats a good question. It may not necessarily use it but I dont think its available to the user.
At one point AOSP was about speed and fluidity (albeit still that way) but with the power of this phone its pretty fluid on Touchwiz or AOSP.
For me its always boiled down to whether or not ill be using the pen. I dont use it often, I flash to AOSP and find myself missing features of touchwiz and flashing back. My best suggestion is to go through that exercise and make the decision for yourself.
Yeah beans 17 gives you just the look of Aosp but the Guts of Touchwiz it would be nice to have a Rom that had the mixture of the 2
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My concern is the camera app. Samsung does an awesome job with the camera software. I've always heard, and also confirmed this during my brief fling with the Galaxy Nexus. How are photos on the N2 using the AOSP software?
Beans is a good mixture and hes an awesome dev to boot. He listens to users and includes features they want to see.
The camera app in AOSP quite frankly is s**t. Its finicky, doesnt like low light conditions and is prone to force closing (no fault to the devs as they have been given zero information to build from, its incredible theyve even gotten it to where it is). I dont use my camera alot so I forgot about that.
littleguevara said:
Basically it doesnt have the touchwiz skin at all. Its plain android. It also means no s-pen support (its implemented now in the official nightlies however rudementary).
As far as the usuable space, thats a good question. It may not necessarily use it but I dont think its available to the user.
At one point AOSP was about speed and fluidity (albeit still that way) but with the power of this phone its pretty fluid on Touchwiz or AOSP.
For me its always boiled down to whether or not ill be using the pen. I dont use it often, I flash to AOSP and find myself missing features of touchwiz and flashing back. My best suggestion is to go through that exercise and make the decision for yourself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While there is very little S-pen support in AOSP roms people can always get GMD Spen Control from the Play Store and that will give them a lot of the S-pen functionality back.
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AOSP: pure, straight, unmolested raw Google code. What goes on a Nexus.
TW: Samsung's proprietary skin/software that they build on top of stock android. Hence the size difference. Sense is HTC's version.
Littleguevara is spot on about the camera. That's why I stick with TW. And my battery, GPS and overall stability is better. Now if I had a Nexus 4....
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OK I spent eight hours yesterday figuring out how to root my phone.... Success... I was finally able to figure it out.. Thanks for all the tutorials and posts that helped me do it...
I would love some direction in how to find some cool and neat and SAFE AND STABLE Roms to flash.. Is there a site with roms to choose from?? Any help or suggestions is appreciated....
Thank you again everybody
Just look in the android development section in the international forums. Viper rom is really nice, so is Arhd.
Sent from my HTC One
I second ARHD. It depends whether you like sense and want to keep it without all the bloatware, or try something more pure android. I know Google edition ROM is out now, but I like sense too much to try it. Heres some links to arhd and ge.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2183023
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2356654
Ok great thanks for the help.... I just got home from work and can't wait to spend the rest of the day flashing different roms.. Lol. What fun! This is a thousand times better than jail breaking... I was never able to flash different firm wares on an iPhone... This is a thousand times better
Pro tip: almost all roms on here are stable and safe unless they have alpha or beta in the title
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Nick281051 said:
Pro tip: almost all roms on here are stable and safe unless they have alpha or beta in the title
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta
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Thank you for the "pro tip." I love this place.. I'm running a GPE rom and having fun... I think I want to flash something I can theme with a lot of choices... I'll look around and see if I can find a rom around here that people are theming... Thanks again
OJsakila said:
Thank you for the "pro tip." I love this place.. I'm running a GPE rom and having fun... I think I want to flash something I can theme with a lot of choices... I'll look around and see if I can find a rom around here that people are theming... Thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For maximum themeing capabilities you can go with any of the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) based roms like Cyanogenmod (CM) AOKP, Vanilla rootbox, Slimbean, etc. They all support custom theming with hundreds uf not thousands of downloadable comaptible theme files in the Google Play store.
They are much more customizable than the GPe roms as well. But be warned, what you gain in customizability and cool factor you may tradeoff in optimal function of the phone features itself, namely camera, sound, call audio quality and BT call/streaming audio reliability.
The reason is because GPe and vanilla android 4.2.2 may look identical on the surface, but are different underneath. The GPe of the One runs on a stock Sense OS heavily modified to look and work like vanilla Android IU, but the underlying OS framework works best with the HTC hardware. While AOSP roms have hardware compatibility issues. You'll see this is a regular issue on those threads. I was using CM until the GPe roms were released. I loved the user options on CM and AOKP but was frustrated by terrible call quality and unstable BT connections. I switched to one of the GPe based roms and I gave up some cool features, but my phone works too well as a phone now to switch back.
Most people using GPe based roms are hoping the developers will adopt and incorporate the cool custom ideas from CM based roms like UI options, themes, adjustable control tile toggles, navigation bar mods, etc.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
kayone73 said:
For maximum themeing capabilities you can go with any of the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) based roms like Cyanogenmod (CM) AOKP, Vanilla rootbox, Slimbean, etc. They all support custom theming with hundreds uf not thousands of downloadable comaptible theme files in the Google Play store.
They are much more customizable than the GPe roms as well. But be warned, what you gain in customizability and cool factor you may tradeoff in optimal function of the phone features itself, namely camera, sound, call audio quality and BT call/streaming audio reliability.
The reason is because GPe and vanilla android 4.2.2 may look identical on the surface, but are different underneath. The GPe of the One runs on a stock Sense OS heavily modified to look and work like vanilla Android IU, but the underlying OS framework works best with the HTC hardware. While AOSP roms have hardware compatibility issues. You'll see this is a regular issue on those threads. I was using CM until the GPe roms were released. I loved the user options on CM and AOKP but was frustrated by terrible call quality and unstable BT connections. I switched to one of the GPe based roms and I gave up some cool features, but my phone works too well as a phone now to switch back.
Most people using GPe based roms are hoping the developers will adopt and incorporate the cool custom ideas from CM based roms like UI options, themes, adjustable control tile toggles, navigation bar mods, etc.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Sense version isn't heavily modified to look like Vanilla, its heavily modified to look like Sense. All carriers start with vanilla.
As for the features--because there's a Google Play Edition (GPE). The GPE devices run vanilla android--what we call AOSP, after the Android Open Source Project...which is the project Google created in order to "Open Source" Android, make it available to everyone, and provide for a "Google Experience".
The Google Experience" comes stock on the Google Play Edition devices, and guarantees that the device comes the way Android is/was intended to be, and is designed far better in terms of functionality and usability than the Firmware(s) created by Samsung, HTC, and other manufacturers, which add additional software to run on top of the Google Experience software in order to differentiate themselves from one another, and be able to say that their phones are better. In reality their software might look better and have a few extra features, but it's slower, can take years to update, and in the end, is often more restrictive.
Because these devices require Google certification, all features are required to be in working order. And because Android is so modular, you're guaranteed to have all the drivers, libraries, etc. you need to use all the base hardware available on the device. This means that beats audio, Wifi , Bluetooth, GPS, 3d, Sound, etc. Will all work. The only thing that won't work is the IR blaster on top of the device (for turning your device into a universal remote control to change channels with on your TV, blue ray player, etc. ), and since updates come from the manufacturer and not Google, it's believed that an update may enable this in the future.
By the way, Engadget did a side by side during their review, and stated that picture quality wasn't any better on the Sense version---which means that you'll get great photos on both devices.
That's the reality. Some have made some wild speculations, and have come to some wild conclusions (entirely subjective and disproved), but this all comes from extremely authoritative reviewers...people who are given devices and whos career depends on spending a ton of time analysing these devices, and getting it right.
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Jamesyboy said:
The Sense version isn't heavily modified to look like Vanilla, its heavily modified to look like Sense. All carriers start with vanilla.
As for the features--because there's a Google Play Edition (GPE). The GPE devices run vanilla android--what we call AOSP, after the Android Open Source Project...which is the project Google created in order to "Open Source" Android, make it available to everyone, and provide for a "Google Experience".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks but you're misinterpreting what I was saying.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
CleanROM 3.0 <stock look and feel with added performance and perks
Just so I understand this correctly, if we need to get S-OFF to flash ROMs such as Viper due to it being 1.28, correct?
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nope s-off is not needed. If you still can, obtain the unlock key from HTCDEV.com and use that to unlock your bootloader (this will wipe your phone completely), install a custom recovery such as CWM or TWRP, then install either superuser or supersu for the root
Then flash away
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU7vi388dMk
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRkAHw_GmIs
Thank you so much! So what exactly does S-OFF allow you to do besides customizing the bootloader?
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tanner4137 said:
Thank you so much! So what exactly does S-OFF allow you to do besides customizing the bootloader?
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Restore your phone completely back to pre-rooted stock condition with the stock Sense ruu. Just like when you got it from the store.
Also is required if you want to reflash/update the phone firmware (which will completely wipe out phone data just like unlocking the bootloader).
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
kayone73 said:
Restore your phone completely back to pre-rooted stock condition with the stock Sense ruu. Just like when you got it from the store.
Also is required if you want to reflash/update the phone firmware (which will completely wipe out phone data just like unlocking the bootloader).
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And do we need to update the firmware to install any of these ROMs?
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tanner4137 said:
And do we need to update the firmware to install any of these ROMs?
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NO.
Stop being so fixated on updating your firmware. Read more and ask fewer questions.
Sent from my HTC One
This is a question about custom ROMs...it's the first time I'm really looking for one, and before anyone suggests CM - that is useless to me due to lack of functioning MHL.
So I'm looking for a ROM that has all the phone features functional (as in "in a usable for daily life degree").
I'm an Android game/app reviewer and I've been looking at apps for screen recording, but seeing how none of them allow for a reasonable experience on a Galaxy S2, I'll stick with external capture...and since I can't afford any better device right now, I thought I'd turn to custom ROMs for a while.
...so any suggestions?
[btw, I'm using the Galaxy S2 GT-i9100 international variant]
Not gonna recommend a cusROM as that's against XDA rules....but as a general answer, have you looked at the 'hybrid' ROMs?..... Samsung based but without the bloat and with the added customizability of aosp/aokp.
If MHL is a Sammy standard, then they *should* include it
This might be my S2, or it might be my W...but it's definitely CM
keithross39 said:
Not gonna recommend a cusROM as that's against XDA rules....but as a general answer, have you looked at the 'hybrid' ROMs?..... Samsung based but without the bloat and with the added customizability of aosp/aokp.
If MHL is a Sammy standard, then they *should* include it
This might be my S2, or it might be my W...but it's definitely CM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technically, my question is about something pretty much no ROM developer ever addressed so it shouldn't be against the rules o_o
Anyway, is there any "list" topic of place where I can find hybrid roms only?
Look for alliance rom or biftor rom or neat rom ect ect. Sammy based roms are hybrid roms.