Related
Still debating if to update or not. What does everyone else prefer?
Did you do the official update and lose your unlocked bootloader? Or did you flash a touchwiz ux rom?
Can't speak for everyone else, but I'm liking the TouchWiz UI add-ons.
While I like the touchwiz additions the bugs that have been added alongside of it are really detracting from it being a purely positive addition
I'm not a fan of the design elements of the update, nor do I find the additional features particularly useful. However, the performance and stability improvements are significant enough for me to not consider getting a stock rom flashed 'till it's equally as good. I use my tab a lot for simply browsing, and the improvements in the browser (not counting the ghastly tab colours/design, which I've been forced to remove entirely) are simply brilliant.
As far as the bootloader issue goes - I'd have preferred to keep mine unlocked, like everyone would, but considering you can still install CWM with ease it doesn't seem like an issue right now (at least for my purposes).
ps. A quick search/browse would have revealed at least 1 other big thread addressing this question.
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A
TouchWizz all the way
Hey guys, first post here, but a long time lurker
I purchased my 10.1 wifi tab last night, so of course I instantly went into geek-out mode. I rooted my tab, then I flashed the ROM to a custom version of TW. I used the latest Starburst ROM (based off of the original TW). Here's some things I noticed:
TW is definitely the sexier option, however I felt like I lost the "snapiness" that vanilla Honeycomb had. I've also read that other owners are saying that TW(Starburst) is faster and smoother than vanilla HC. I think tonight once i get home from work I'll try a non-stock kernel to see if that speeds up the ROM.
The other issue I had is more of a personal preference...TW installs a lot of Samsung apps (mail, music, etc.)...I'm trying to keep an open mind, but as of now I prefer the original google apps.
Overall I'd say TW is very well done and you at least owe it to yourself to check it out, whether it be the stock version or a UX version. Just remember nandroid is your friend! Make a backup and then start experimenting so you can find out for yourself
DISCLAIMER: This thread contains NOOB questions!
Hi all,
First of all I guess most of you really dislike these kind of threads. But I am reading xda for 2 months now, searching all over the place for some answers. Probably read almost every guide etc. but I really can't get my head around this amount of information. So here I am with the age old question: Which rom should I install?
I ask this question here because of all the fora I visited xda seems the most knowledgeable.
So here is the situation. I was running Samsung 2.3.4 with launcher pro. But this was all a bit buggy and didn't feel right. So I was really glad to see the 2.3.5 update. I was still thinking this would contain gtalk video chat and ad hoc connection detection. But I was mistaken.
First I thought maybe install the most recent stock version. But as far as I can see this is also still 2.3.5 and doesn't include the previous mentioned features (correct me if I am wrong).
Currently I am this far as I probably "need" a custom wrong but the list seems endless and the one seems better than the other. And I feel a bit lost.
I looked at the following so far: Lite'ning; Oxygenrom; Cyanogen and Villainrom.
Lite'ning rom looks nice and fast but this much blue isn't good for the screen and I hear development is halted so probably not.
Villainrom, I can't find really good video's and I can't find that much info. So no for now.
Oxygenrom looks fast but I also not sure yet.
The best candidate seems to be Cyanogen right now.
So what am I looking for. Besides the two mentioned features above (gtalk video, ad hoc) I am not really sure if I am ready to unlock yet (but if it is necessary). Futhermore I am not really a fan of bugs either (duh) and I don't want to miss any features (FM radio for example). Oh and I am bit of a minimalist when it comes to looks. So that is secondary .
Hopefully I didn't bug you all to much and I am really looking forward to your opinions and experiences (good and bad). And I am still open for suggestions.
Carnelain
PS I haven't really found a "which sellers of jigs are safe" thread. Does anybody know or is it an idea to start one?
Wait for II1 firmware .
jje
If you have to ask these questions, Cyanogen isnt for you (experienced users only)
have a look in the android development forums (original & derivative) for a bigger choice, theres plenty out there.
Futhermore I am not really a fan of bugs either
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
who is?
Sorry what exactly do you mean?
If you have to ask these questions, Cyanogen isnt for you (experienced users only
He means not for users who know little about flashing and roms ,Its the most difficult rom of them all .
You have read the posts but not understood them otherwise you would not be asking your question what rom .
You could go to one of the Rom Kitchens and build your own .
But in your shoes i would read the details on the latest custom roms what they have and whats missing .
Minimal look is stock or MIU .
PS I haven't really found a "which sellers of jigs are safe" thread. Does anybody know or is it an idea to start one?
Safe as in what ??? i dont see reports of unsafe jigs .
jje
I think OP's question is great, there's a lot of info on XDA but I can't find ONE stable/popular/regular thread discussing ROM vs ROM. The which ROM is best thread always pop up but then die after a couple of posts.
I think it would be great if users posted when they switch ROM commenting the switch, and if other users who tried more than 1 ROM posted their experience.
I'm a long time XDA user (Nexus One->Captivate->Nexus S->SGSII), have run a bunch of ROMs and read XDA EVERYDAY (multiple times lol) and read every post in LeoROM, Cognition, JKay and Siyah Threads but still I have the same question as the OP (was about to make a thread about it).
On my SGSII I've only run Cognition (since v1.0 to latest 1.5.1, gone through 2.3.3 and 2.3.4), also gone through all modems till latest KI4 and kernels (ninph, speedmod) till latest Siyah 1.8.
I've been thinking about switching ROM for some weeks now (want 2.3.5!) but couldn't decide, was about to convert to Leomar's ROM but then encountered other ROMs that look good and have a bunch of followers: Cristelko, DlevROM, TouchX Power, and now even more options!: Cyanogen stable out now and Cognition 2.3.5 announced coming soon. I hate being undecided!!! Was really decided on LeoROM, just about to switch, but now found all these other seemingly very good ROMs!
I'm a flash addict, love updating ROM, Modem & Kernel, but I HATE wiping! And I don't like to switch ROMs or update from 2.3.4 to 2.3.5 without wiping. So I want to decide what to flash!!! I'm not going to try all of them (I don't have the time and I hate wiping) so I have to rely on other's opinions, reading a lot (following the changelogs) and then make a definite decision!
So please guys, anybody who has tried more than 1 ROM, can you share your experiences?
To check out the most popuar roms, look at how big the discussion thread is (reply, views).
Also a suggestion can be the one to check "veterans" signature, usually this ppl use the most stable/bugless firmware.
For my personal choice im on Cyanogen but yes, thats not for beginners.
My 2nd choice is the "nandroidbackup" of my Black S2 (check my signature) a lot easier to install and beginners ready
Also Miui is a good choice (and dosnt look like the stock tw rom) but got BT/TV Out bug for now, so if you need a stable bt it's not the choice.
To end my 5 cents, i think it's better for you, try out 3-4 roms and pick the one you feel better with.
I think the choice is pretty individual, some ppl loves a rom that some other really hate and so.
Its very simple their is no best rom its users choice . Your preferred rom may be a themed rom i hate themes .
jje
batista is realy fast and stable and has a pretty fresh look. but i have some batt issues with one of my three SII it should be something else
leomar75's revolution is pretty good and highly themeable
---------- Post added at 10:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:28 PM ----------
insanity ii has pretty good batt live but is too simple for my likes
I don't recommend you flashing CM7 since it's harder than flashing samsung firmware based ROMS. Unless you really want it and then well, it's not that hard anyway.
Anyway, if you have root installing gtalk with video is easy, you just need a root explorer app, I use FIle Expert becasue it's free. Just follow this guide step by step and you're done http://samsunggalaxys2blog.com/sams...1-3-with-video-calling-for-samsung-galaxy-s2/
If you want a custom ROM, maybe you could try checkROM www.checkrom.com since it has good support for themes and stuff. And it is updating and will update with each relevant firmware release. And flashing it is just simple. Well hope it helps.
For last, if you really want to go with CM7, I can say that it's the best ROM I've flashed. I just started with it a couple of days ago and you can feel the smoothness inmediatly which I never had in samsung firmware. Anyway there are some bugs, you loose samsung apps like polaris office which I used a lot, FM radio I think doesn't work for now, and the camera app is worse than the samsung one that comes with the phone. But for me at least it's worth it, the main funcionality is there, bluetooth, wifi, etc.... Well, if you decide to flash it please don't use ROM manager becasue it won't work. I can help you with the steps i did if you want, so pm me if you need it because I probably won't be looking at this thread again.
Good luck!
I have used CM6 for Sony Xperia X10i. But really what I want is something that is lightweight and good battery life. I usually always install Nemus Launcher and a horde of my fav. apps. I am not concern about the themes as I never use the default themes. What I want is the built in SIP for GB over 3G. Can someone recommend a ROM for me to use? I have already rooted my phone.
I'd suggest VillainRom. Its stock, fast, and has the best battery of all KI3 roms in my opinion. It all really depends on what kind of rom what you want!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Just trying out the X-Power ROM ... so far so good...
Thanks spradling for backing up my thread. I must admit I was a bit scared of by the previous replies. Nevertheless been ploughing through more threads and finally gave up on finding an answer. I guess everybody tries at one point and hopes they don't have to start a %*(^& I think I bricked my phone thread.
So which one to try. Well the heck with it cyanogen has the best looking website if they build there rom the same way what could go wrong.
Well a lot let me tell ya. It was a very feverish night and I had to flash my phone for like 20 times before I got it right (see this thread).
Nevertheless it works and it works great. I can seed there are some bugs. For example I had a slow response when waking up the phone but after going back and forth between the minimum cpu (200 to 500 MHz) that was gone.
Gtalk + video works (yay!) but still no ad hoc connection. I did some customization and my phone looks and feels slick now. I haven't tried the fm radio but it probably will not work. And I am missing the touch to focus in the camera app but that can be replaced (stil looking any suggestions).
The only thing that really worries me is the battery life. It shortened drastically but it could be me mishandling the battery.
Nevertheless I a pretty pleased with myself and my phone.
Hopefully this helps somebody
Carnelain
PS thanks for the offer tomascunill but I figured it out
Carnelain said:
Thanks spradling for backing up my thread. I must admit I was a bit scared of by the previous replies. Nevertheless been ploughing through more threads and finally gave up on finding an answer. I guess everybody tries at one point and hopes they don't have to start a %*(^& I think I bricked my phone thread.
So which one to try. Well the heck with it cyanogen has the best looking website if they build there rom the same way what could go wrong.
Well a lot let me tell ya. It was a very feverish night and I had to flash my phone for like 20 times before I got it right (see this thread).
Nevertheless it works and it works great. I can seed there are some bugs. For example I had a slow response when waking up the phone but after going back and forth between the minimum cpu (200 to 500 MHz) that was gone.
Gtalk + video works (yay!) but still no ad hoc connection. I did some customization and my phone looks and feels slick now. I haven't tried the fm radio but it probably will not work. And I am missing the touch to focus in the camera app but that can be replaced (stil looking any suggestions).
The only thing that really worries me is the battery life. It shortened drastically but it could be me mishandling the battery.
Nevertheless I a pretty pleased with myself and my phone.
Hopefully this helps somebody
Carnelain
PS thanks for the offer tomascunill but I figured it out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's an lgCamera app in the market which I found better than the one that comes in CM7, you could try it and see if it works best for you. As for battery life, it seems to be better in the latest nightlies (the latest beeing 87). IF you're in stable version I HIGHLY suggest you to move to the latest nightly since there are lots of thing fixed that in "stable" version are not working right.
Thanks for the advice tomascunill. I tried the camera app and although it has the touch to focus feature I am not really blown away by it. Probably because of the lack of image stabilisation. But I'll find something that suits.
Futhermore I updated to the latest nightly. I wonder what issues are resolved. Does anybody know where to find the change logs? And I was wondering about another thing I installed the stable version because I expected it to be, well..., stable. But a better question might be how unstable are nightly's?
Must say I still like my phone but now the galaxy nexus (I liked nexus prime better) is out I feel like I jumped the gun. Well lets wait and see what cyanogen will do with ICS or what ICS stock looks like.
The best ROM is the one you choose. U need to test many rom to have your own opinion.
My favorite is LeoMar 2.7.1
I prefer stock ROM i mean without too much modifications.
LeoMar is a "stock" ROM that you can easily personnalised.
I use :
SpeedMod [Kernel]
Fly in [Animation]
And some mods.
This rom provides me the best battery life.
you could always flash a odex 2.3.5 ROM - would be mostly stock, have all the sammy apps/widgets etc etc. flash a kernel like siyah2.0 or latest speedmod - you can tweak a little bit, not stray too far from stock, and get better battery life with a custom kernel.
Everyone else here is right - CM7 is nothing like touchwiz and would be a big "leap" away from sammy/TW style interface
- x-power with siyah2.0 is a good combo!
aussois said:
you could always flash a odex 2.3.5 ROM - would be mostly stock, have all the sammy apps/widgets etc etc. flash a kernel like siyah2.0 or latest speedmod - you can tweak a little bit, not stray too far from stock, and get better battery life with a custom kernel.
Everyone else here is right - CM7 is nothing like touchwiz and would be a big "leap" away from sammy/TW style interface
- x-power with siyah2.0 is a good combo!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't get me wrong but I want to get as far away from touchwiz as possible. I probably have the term stock confused. I always thought it meant just android.
Best ROM threads are subjective.....
Best thing to do is take your time to read ROM threads and make a backup of ROM using then flash away find what ROM/Radio suits you best.
On that note thread closed.
Good day friends, first of all I wanted to say thanks to all the devs working hard to bring us all the good stuff for our mobile devices, also hoping for Samsung to bring us the latest ICS build as soon as possible.
I have moved from my old HTC Sensation mobile, and after reading lots and lots of Threads here and searching i concluded I got lost lool...
I need few tips for the following:
1- please refer me to a good GB stable/fast rom I can use as a daily driver.
2-Which ICS rom at the moment I can use as a daily driver??? with less bugs as possible? I hear XXLPH is nice, but everytime i read a thread i find critical bugs. so im lost on which i should flash, thx
1) Go over to the dev sections. Read the first 10 pages/last 10 pages of the thread devoted to a rom you want to try. Try the rom out. Repeat until you've found one that works well for you.
There is no such thing as the "best custom rom for daily usage". You have your phone setup differently to everyone else, you use your phone differently to everyone else and your phone came out of the factory slightly differently to everyone else's.
A rom that runs well for me might not run well for you.
2) Similar to 1. All ICS builds are alphas at the moment due to no sources being available at this time. You will more than likely have problems of one kind or another if you use one of these as a daily. Again, read the thread relating to the ICS build you want to try in order to get a gauge of these.
Welcome to the jungle
fearkillerr said:
Good day friends, first of all I wanted to say thanks to all the devs working hard to bring us all the good stuff for our mobile devices, also hoping for Samsung to bring us the latest ICS build as soon as possible.
I have moved from my old HTC Sensation mobile, and after reading lots and lots of Threads here and searching i concluded I got lost lool...
I need few tips for the following:
1- please refer me to a good GB stable/fast rom I can use as a daily driver.
2-Which ICS rom at the moment I can use as a daily driver??? with less bugs as possible? I hear XXLPH is nice, but everytime i read a thread i find critical bugs. so im lost on which i should flash, thx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well There are several roms you can try with your Samsung Galaxy s2
Well I love CM9 Alpha version . It doesn't have bugs at all
but sadly camcorder isnt working.
Well Here are few roms i had used with my GS2
Villan rom http://http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1198334- This rom had improved my battery power a lot
- Batista Rom http://galaxys2root.com/galaxy-s2-roms/batista-rom-for-galaxy-s2-4500-quadrant1-6ghz-dual-core-overclock/ If you need 4500+ Quardrent and 1.6 overclocked processor for your SGS2 You should try this Actually this is a good rom
I hope This post would helpful for yoy
thx guys, Im trying Resurrection Remix ics v9.3 black edition XXLPH 4.0.3 at the moment, a bit slower than GB, but ill c how it goes and ill try yours then thxx
fearkillerr said:
Good day friends, first of all I wanted to say thanks to all the devs working hard to bring us all the good stuff for our mobile devices, also hoping for Samsung to bring us the latest ICS build as soon as possible.
I have moved from my old HTC Sensation mobile, and after reading lots and lots of Threads here and searching i concluded I got lost lool...
I need few tips for the following:
1- please refer me to a good GB stable/fast rom I can use as a daily driver.
2-Which ICS rom at the moment I can use as a daily driver??? with less bugs as possible? I hear XXLPH is nice, but everytime i read a thread i find critical bugs. so im lost on which i should flash, thx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1- For a start,I would really recommend CheckROM RevoHD™ V6 ROM from here with SpeedMod K2-21 from here for good performance and good battery life, but still, do take sometime to read around in the forums for more info
Good morning or evening to all,
this is my first post on the forum, so please by patient. I am new to the world of custom ROMs and I tried to educate myself by reading the noob guides. However, my questions become more and more widespread, and I am not sure where to try to find the answers.
To be clear: I am NOT asking about 'what ROM is best' and such. I would like to know more about the following:
1) There are CM7 ROMs (Netrino for example), CM9 and CM10 ROMs. As I understand it, because there have been stock files from MOTO, CM& ROMs can have stable kernels, hardware acceleration etc etc. However, if there is no hardware acceleration, how can CM9 ROMs be smoother?
2) In the same vain, how can CM9 and 10 ROMs have kernels? Where they written from scratch? And how can they be faster than stock?
3) Due to my SOD problems, I flashed several ROMs and currently have a CM9 one, which is stable so far. If I go back to a CM7 one, such as Netrino 2.9, what differences would I see? Will the latter be faster or more efficient? Smoother? Or should I just leave it alone, since it works?
4) And to reverse the question, how can a CM10 ROM be smoother, if it does not have hardware acceleration and drivers?
I am sorry about the bombardment. I do not want to waste anybody's time, but some pointers would be helpful. Thanks in advance!
to give you a shorter answer for better understanding:the stock roms are mostly based on android 2.3.6 which is the newest firmware.the roms only differ from the regions and mostly have battery tweaks or connection tweaks etc...
lets go to cm 9 and 10.cm9 is basically android4.0 and cm10 android 4.1.these are faster because they do not have many unnecessary apps like stock roms do.
i hope this explains a bit...
peddarson said:
to give you a shorter answer for better understanding:the stock roms are mostly based on android 2.3.6 which is the newest firmware.the roms only differ from the regions and mostly have battery tweaks or connection tweaks etc...
lets go to cm 9 and 10.cm9 is basically android4.0 and cm10 android 4.1.these are faster because they do not have many unnecessary apps like stock roms do.
i hope this explains a bit...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the answer, peddarson.
Can it be that the only difference between roms is the absence of apps? Then, netrino should be the fastest of them all. And where does the absence of hardware acceleration and drivers factor in?
A few of your questions could be easily answered just by flashing the roms and seeing for yourself. Or Googling.
For example, you keep asking about hardware acceleration without knowing what it does or what it means. If you did, you'd know it plays a much bigger role with how apps function than the UI. The "smoothness" described in CM10 is with the UI and not the apps themselves (hint), while certain programs like the camera app, Chrome, etc. have a tendency to be unstable (hint.) You might be able to piece together that the UI isn't as ha-dependent as you thought. Maybe the visual experience has more to do with the actual software than hardware.
The answer to a few other of your questions is that these ROMs play off an original source and then tweaked to be optimized to the author's liking. Kernels can be overclocked, memory management can be altered, etc. If you want to know specifics, look into what each specific ROM does. It's right there in black and white.
nh777 said:
A few of your questions could be easily answered just by flashing the roms and seeing for yourself. Or Googling.
For example, you keep asking about hardware acceleration without knowing what it does or what it means. If you did, you'd know it plays a much bigger role with how apps function than the UI. The "smoothness" described in CM10 is with the UI and not the apps themselves (hint), while certain programs like the camera app, Chrome, etc. have a tendency to be unstable (hint.) You might be able to piece together that the UI isn't as ha-dependent as you thought. Maybe the visual experience has more to do with the actual software than hardware.
The answer to a few other of your questions is that these ROMs play off an original source and then tweaked to be optimized to the author's liking. Kernels can be overclocked, memory management can be altered, etc. If you want to know specifics, look into what each specific ROM does. It's right there in black and white.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing is that, as I said, I do not want to flash the ROMs (again) and see. I am not interested in learning the specific merits or disadvantages of each. I just want some pointers on what hardware acceleration does, how it synergizes with the UI, how different ROMs come about with or withoit drivers etc. And because I don't know, I ask (hint). Your post, for example, clarified some of these things, sarcasm aside. It would clarify even more if you could provide some links for me to pursue.
Haha. Welcome to XDA. People are quite unforgiving and harsh with noobs, I appologize on their behalf. I am still pretty new myself but for the past 4 months, I have read and learned quite a lot and have flashed many roms.
My first love was actually neutrino. I always seem to crawl back to neutrino rom because it is ridiculously smooth and stable for me. I've seen many people have issues here and there but I really have no complaints about neutrino. I have tried CNA, which is a port by Bill based off of CM10. I was quite impressed with how nicely it ran. The battery life wasn't as good as I'd like and I require a camera so I flashed back to neutrino.
There are two new cm7 based roms that have surfaced recently, Atrix MRom and TopSmarts. I tried MRom and it is quite a nice rom. I wasn't a fan of the Holo Launcher that it uses so now I'm on TopSmarts. This rom has been great for me. Like I said, I always end up back with neutrino but this is quite the contender. It's pretty new and only the first version so it will most likely be updated often.
I'd give a couple cm7 roms a go, if I were you. Just make sure you make a Nandroid backup of your current rom so you can always restore. I feel that Cm7 roms have much better battery life and tend to be more stable. The only issue I have with cm7 is there's no webtop option. Other than that, I couldn't be happier with TopSmarts or Neutrino. Both of the devs are also really friendly and quite helpful.
Hope this helps. If you have any questions, you're welcome to PM me.
Sent from my MB860 using xda app-developers app
ProudGrognard said:
The thing is that, as I said, I do not want to flash the ROMs (again) and see. I am not interested in learning the specific merits or disadvantages of each. I just want some pointers on what hardware acceleration does, how it synergizes with the UI, how different ROMs come about with or withoit drivers etc. And because I don't know, I ask (hint). Your post, for example, clarified some of these things, sarcasm aside. It would clarify even more if you could provide some links for me to pursue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait, what? Then what's this?
"If I go back to a CM7 one, such as Netrino 2.9, what differences would I see? Will the latter be faster or more efficient? Smoother?"
Come on, guy.
Google hardware acceleration and you might find out that, like I suggested with my previous post, it doesn't necessarily have to do with the UI. Sorry, but I'm not spoon-feeding you links that you could have found in less time than making this post.
I've already explained the different ROMs are based on current software and then ported/tweaked. If you looked at the bugs with each ROM, you'd figure out the holes that drivers would fix.
nw21st (Alphabet district, amirite?) had a great suggestion which was that cm7 roms were easily the most stable. Why? Atrix has drivers up to 2.3.6 so nothing's missing. If you're wondering what differences you'll see in cm7 vs cm9 then you aren't using your phone enough, eg, camcorder. That's fine. Loads of people are on cm9/10 and accept the bugs and limitations. But hands down, cm7 ROMs will remain the most stable.
ProudGrognard said:
Good morning or evening to all,
this is my first post on the forum, so please by patient. I am new to the world of custom ROMs and I tried to educate myself by reading the noob guides. However, my questions become more and more widespread, and I am not sure where to try to find the answers.
To be clear: I am NOT asking about 'what ROM is best' and such. I would like to know more about the following:
1) There are CM7 ROMs (Netrino for example), CM9 and CM10 ROMs. As I understand it, because there have been stock files from MOTO, CM& ROMs can have stable kernels, hardware acceleration etc etc. However, if there is no hardware acceleration, how can CM9 ROMs be smoother?
2) In the same vain, how can CM9 and 10 ROMs have kernels? Where they written from scratch? And how can they be faster than stock?
3) Due to my SOD problems, I flashed several ROMs and currently have a CM9 one, which is stable so far. If I go back to a CM7 one, such as Netrino 2.9, what differences would I see? Will the latter be faster or more efficient? Smoother? Or should I just leave it alone, since it works?
4) And to reverse the question, how can a CM10 ROM be smoother, if it does not have hardware acceleration and drivers?
I am sorry about the bombardment. I do not want to waste anybody's time, but some pointers would be helpful. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Optimization, mainly
2) Motorola released the sources of each Atrix kernel (International, EMEA, ATT etc...). Devs can use it to make tweaked, optimized versions
3) By flashing a CM7, you will go back on Gingerbread (GB). CM9 = ICS and CM10 = Jelly Bean (JB). The main differences you can see are the different interfaces (GB looks ugly to me now...) and some apps like Chrome are missing on GB. Also CM7 is super stable, if you want a stable and customizable ROM then you should try it.
4) CM10 had a lot of optimizations all based around apps preloading/compiling (To be verified), also the animations were changed to make it look smoother. Stuffs like scrolling, animations are smoother on ICS/JB than GB because of optimizations too. If you flash CM7 you'd have the same kind of "smooth feeling" because of a high framerate but the apps won't load as fast as with CM9/10.
Personally I use CM10 even if it's not well supported (Not as well as GB) but ICS/JB is coming soon so I'm trying to get used to it for when it officially comes. I consider GB as a legacy OS, there won't be anything really new/innovative on it since Google doesn't develop any new app on it.
So I'll just pick one at random then? Thanks for the help...
There is a thread with links to all the stock firmware releases. But downgrading has been debated if its even possible. The procedure is detailed in a couple different posts from what I've read. I doubt you will be able to run a kk ROM with the a LL bootloader and modem.
Sent from my SM-G900T
There are still Cyanogenmod 11 (KitKat) builds in the unified development section, that's probably your best bet. As mgp53 pointed out it's difficult if not downright impossible to downgrade android versions using the official firmware, if you're already on 5.1.1
thisisapoorusernamechoice said:
There are still Cyanogenmod 11 (KitKat) builds in the unified development section, that's probably your best bet. As mgp53 pointed out it's difficult if not downright impossible to downgrade android versions using the official firmware, if you're already on 5.1.1
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Click to collapse
Thanks so much! I am pouring through it now... might take a bit since I don't see a column for version number http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/unified-development#romList but I'll just sort by latest release and click on every single link manually till I see a 4.x that isn't a buggy PoS. I was originally hoping to steer clear of AOSP/CM because I heard the battery life isn't as good as TW or "superslim" style stripped-down stock fws, but at this point I will take what I can get. I've had terrible luck getting any kind of answers across multiple subforums on this site. Your post was the most useful by far. Thanks again.
Incoming rant...
It really is a shame that 1) the download links on the 600+ Infinity ROM thread are all dead, 2) SlimROM doesn't seem to exist in any meanful/useable state for the s5 even though they have tons of devices including the s3/s4, 3) Sick n Twi5ted for 4.x is a buggy PoS, 4) Liquidsmooth has major missing features such as no camera (You thought releasing a ROM on a 16megapixel flagship device with no camera function was OK enough to start asking for donations and then never got around to adding support for the camera? At least have the decency to put a list of major bugs and missing features in the OP. It is debateably fraudulent to put a donate button where the 'Major Issues' section should be and then not even have a disclaimer.
Users of this site really ought not to have to pour through 60-600 pages to find out major flaws on a ROM. In all the dozens of threads I've sifted through over the past week there was exactly ONE who was up front and honest including a section devoted to missing features/major bugs.
/end_rant
On the bright side, all this madness had led me to seriously consider developing my own ROM and that would probably be a good thing for me in general to learn anyway. Or alternatively I could create a website devoted to archiving older ROMs since there seems to be quite a few that have gone missing here. (think oldversion.com circa 2005)
Whatever I decide to contribute, there certainly is room for a lot of it here.
android6 greatly improved idle battery life, plus you can underclock the cpu if you have root