ROM recommendations - Verizon Samsung Galaxy S 4

Hello, I'm still relatively new here and have recently rooted my S4! After a lot of trouble I finally got my phone rooted and am turning to you all for advice. I originally rooted for a few reasons: my battery life on kitkat has been atrocious and from what I've read I am not the only one with this problem. I had heard from multiple friends that rooting and flashing a custom ROM helps improve battery life. Another reason was to remove all the stupid bloatware that my carrier installed on my phone. Lastly, I thoroughly enjoy customizing my UI and understand that having root access allows a lot more customization in this area.
So my question is, what ROM is best for these characteristics from your experience? I want long battery life, currently it's about 10 hours per charge . I also want a slick UI that i can further customize and make my own.
I'm running 4.4.2 on my Verizon S4 with rooted NK1 if that helps and am willing to upgrade to any firmware, I don't mind staying or leaving kitkat.

Related

Any real advantage of ROM'ing?

On my Desire I did it so I could get rid of all the operator rubbish and take screen shots, on my S2 its unbranded, unlocked, and can take screen shots out of the box.
It seems allot of peeps out there just flash roms for the sake of flashing, curiosity I guess. But I am getting the feeling very few actually take the time to read up on what any particular custom rom actually aims to do, thinking every rom is a silver bullet.
Official roms are a good solid middle ground where things like stability and battery life are the denominators. Some custom roms aims for a more elaborate GUI while others go for overclocking or perhaps fast adhoc bug fixes, again there are no silver bullets here, they all tackle different needs.
If you plan to try out custom or unofficial roms I suggest you read up on a few things like:
If it will impact your warranty
Do you know how to get back to stock
How do you get Samsung official updates after custom flash
What are my needs and what rom match them
I have tried out a few roms myself on a plethora of Android phones and always ended up back on stock roms. The only exeption was my old Galasy I7500 that never got a official rom above Cupcake and when Google started implementing features in Maps and Gmail that was only supported by Donut and above I was forced to go AOSP.
I agree their is currently very little performance difference between stock and custom roms .
Debrand yes via Stock Samsung rom but custom rom your choice read the posts in each rom to get an idea .
Saying that i run a Frankenstein rom with bits from here there and everywhere .
jje
For Stock ROM vs Custom ROM from stock derivative, there is overclocking and under-volting Kernels. So there can be a performance increase and lower power consumption depending on what the setting is.
Another difference is that there are certain "bloated" apps removed, or "better" apps pre-installed.
Such derivative roms are Lite'ning, Skyrom, etc.
As for Stock ROM vs Custom ROM (Non-Stock Derivatives), this is no longer a Samsung ROM, so there are no or little Samsung features and apps.
Non-Derivative ROMs are like CyanogenMod 7, etc.
The real advantage is that most of custom roms are more battery friendly then a stock one, makes your phone faster and very offen fix stock bugs.
HotlipsH said:
It seems allot of peeps out there just flash roms for the sake of flashing, curiosity I guess. But I am getting the feeling very few actually take the time to read up on what any particular custom rom actually aims to do, thinking every rom is a silver bullet.
Official roms are a good solid middle ground where things like stability and battery life are the denominators. Some custom roms aims for a more elaborate GUI while others go for overclocking or perhaps fast adhoc bug fixes, again there are no silver bullets here, they all tackle different needs.
If you plan to try out custom or unofficial roms I suggest you read up on a few things like:
If it will impact your warranty
Do you know how to get back to stock
How do you get Samsung official updates after custom flash
What are my needs and what rom match them
I have tried out a few roms myself on a plethora of Android phones and always ended up back on stock roms. The only exeption was my old Galasy I7500 that never got a official rom above Cupcake and when Google started implementing features in Maps and Gmail that was only supported by Donut and above I was forced to go AOSP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would agree with this myself.I have just answered a thread somewhere else where someone wants to root & flash their new phone & they haven't even got it yet.I say "Have a play for a couple of weeks" Change some of the apps for one's from the Market & give it a chance.You might just stay with the stock rom.I know I did.
JJEgan said:
I agree their is currently very little performance difference between stock and custom roms .
Debrand yes via Stock Samsung rom but custom rom your choice read the posts in each rom to get an idea .
Saying that i run a Frankenstein rom with bits from here there and everywhere .
jje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't agree with this at all, more often than not you will get substantially better battery life on custom ROM's as opposed to stock,not hearsay this is fact, not to mention more speed and less lag,etc,etc the limitations and possibilities are endless.
LiFE1688 said:
For Stock ROM vs Custom ROM from stock derivative, there is overclocking and under-volting Kernels. So there can be a performance increase and lower power consumption depending on what the setting is.
Another difference is that there are certain "bloated" apps removed, or "better" apps pre-installed.
Such derivative roms are Lite'ning, Skyrom, etc.
As for Stock ROM vs Custom ROM (Non-Stock Derivatives), this is no longer a Samsung ROM, so there are no or little Samsung features and apps.
Non-Derivative ROMs are like CyanogenMod 7, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
endorsed....
jonny68 said:
I don't agree with this at all, more often than not you will get substantially better battery life on custom ROM's as opposed to stock,not hearsay this is fact, not to mention more speed and less lag,etc,etc the limitations and possibilities are endless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your view mine and based upon my testing is their is not much difference .If their was you would not have so many complaining in each rom thread about poor battery life .
Much better battery life and the majority would be running that rom only .
Possibilities may well be endless but at present no significant improvement such as their was on SGS1 .
Thats my view others as usual will agree and others will disagree .
jje
Although I flashed my Touch HD and HD 2 like crazy on SGS II it does not make much sense.
Only if You want to have a special theme You fell in love of it makes sense ............
For me: I start flashing when Darkedge-Theme is available for CM and CM is really flawless ....................
JJEgan said:
Your view mine and based upon my testing is their is not much difference .If their was you would not have so many complaining in each rom thread about poor battery life .
Much better battery life and the majority would be running that rom only .
Possibilities may well be endless but at present no significant improvement such as their was on SGS1 .
Thats my view others as usual will agree and others will disagree .
jje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well on the stock ROM i was lucky to get 15/16 hours battery life, on custom ROM's (for example Cognition 1.15) the highest i got was 28 hours 57 minutes, that is a serious difference in battery life, this is with pretty much the same usage - internet,calls,texts and music,people are always going to have issues with battery life regardless but if they follow some procedures good battery life can be achieved, installing Juice Defender ultimate should be their first step, of course your entitled to your opinion
I flash custom rom because the homebutton lagfix (reacts instant now) and removing all the text messages from my log. Looks really messed up with all those sms. And ofcourse theming
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
jonny68 said:
Well on the stock ROM i was lucky to get 15/16 hours battery life, on custom ROM's (for example Cognition 1.15) the highest i got was 28 hours 57 minutes, that is a serious difference in battery life, this is with pretty much the same usage - internet,calls,texts and music,people are always going to have issues with battery life regardless but if they follow some procedures good battery life can be achieved, installing Juice Defender ultimate should be their first step, of course your entitled to your opinion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry not opinion fact stock rom for me had good battery life increase in battery life with Villain rom Cognition rom and varying kernels gave no noticeable boost to battery life .Thats the principle reason i answered the question with my views .
However that does not stop me from running custom roms , Frankenstein/ further customized . Nor should it stop anyone experimenting with such .
Personal view re battery life is that correct procedure regarding the apps that can be deleted frozen and good battery management will be better than flashing a custom ron just to gain a hoped for better battery life .Thats why many that are running custom roms are totally disappointed as they are approaching the problem from the wrong end to start with in regards battery drain .
But i am sure with two contrasting points of view the OP is now better informed than they where .
jje
Tá mo bhríste trí thine!
I forgot another reason.
Most phone manufacturers including Samsung and HTC, have a 18 mths support life, once the full 18 mths are up, there are no more upgrades or official rom releases from the manufacturer.
As for Telco branded phones, roms updates almost never appears unless there is some major issues with the shipped rom.
Custom ROMs just keeps coming out almost every night. They release fixes faster than manufacturers and you don't feel forsaken like waiting for a rom released by your telco.

Rooting....

Nice to see the thread dealing with rooting, I am just wondering how the battery life is when rooted. I rooted my SG2 and it was great not having to worry about charging every 6 hrs, in fact I was getting well over a day.
I am thinking of rooting although this SG3 seems to be pretty good with the battery, hence my interest in how the battery is when rooted.
Thanks
sr
....well it really depends on what you do with the phone once rooted???
Rooting in itself will do NOTHING to change battery life, all it does is allow you to run apps that require root.
If you were to flash a new kernel or use root apps that adjust things like cpu speed etc then battery life can be affected, but otherwise it will act like an unrooted phone.

[Q] Getting S3 soon; I have some questions needing answering

1) I've heard on numerous occasions that the phone feels rather fragile... however, I'm curious as to whether it feeling fragile attributes to it being fragile. What I mean is, just how 'fragile' is the phone. I was planning on getting a case for the phone ASAP, even ordered one, but I want to know if it's as needed as I think it is. Would a fall from 4 feet or higher crack the screen or cause some internal damage? I ordered a 3 layer ballistic casing for mine, but I'm thinking of getting a screen protector as well. I rarely drop my phone, as I take good care of my phones. My old phone, the HTC Evo Shift 4G, hasn't a crack or chip on it, but it seems that newer phones are breaking rather easily now. Most older models of phones (bulky ones) I've seen don't even have a crack on it, yet a lot of newer ones I see do have at least one.
2) Battery Life: I've heard that the battery life for the S3 out of box has very bad battery life. 9 Hours talk time is rather low, isn't? The HTC One has almost twice that I think? What's up with that? Would you recommend an extended battery to offset this problem? Would I be needing a new case if that would be the case? How long do you guys go on the standard battery? Has rooting helped significantly? I'm no stranger to rooting devices. , as my old phone lasts literally 2 - 3x as long as it used to due to tweaking and optimizations. If you recommend an extended battery, of what size do you recommend?
3) Rooting: I know there are numerous rooting guides, but there's one called "CF-Auto-Root", but it says it keeps it as close to stock as possible. Would it be possible to go from there to flashing ROMs and custom recovery, or should I just try the other more advanced method? Also, how satisfied are you guys about the amount of mods produced by the community? I know my old phone only has a select few ROMs that actually work efficiently, limiting my amount of choices greatly. Do you recommend any ROMs and/or kernels? Do you overclock/underclock your phone, would there be a need to with a phone this powerful?
That is all, thanks in advance!
Hello there mate, The S3 is rather a thin phone, but its all down to the way you treat the phone, I am very heavy handed, but got myself a nice cover/screen protector, and no problems at all, except fingerprints lol
The battery life is very good, ignore what you heard or read from other places, its how you use the phone, basically, I charge the phone overnight, unplug about 7am, have the phone with wifi permanently (and when wifi not available its on HSPDA network), I browse using opera about 2 hours max, text about 50 odd messages a day and the odd call, and my little boy plays the odd game...by 7pm, the phone still has 55-65% battery, the battery is superb, my last androids (galaxy s2, xperia arc) would be down to 30% by 7pm
basically rooting, first download odin, a stock firmware and chainfires stock kernal (read the forums for this), flash the firmware using odin, then chainfires kernal (cant remember if this includes clockwork mod recovery or not - otherwise you will have to add a recovery), once you have recovery installed, you can install custom roms and other kernals.
In my opinion (might not be opinion of others) you really dont need to under or overclock, its a powerful enough phone as it is, the 4.1.2 roms are the most stable roms, 4.2.2 and 4.3 roms are good, but as they are based on leaked roms, not everthing is perfect, but it will be.
The rom situation, there are many roms, my opinion again the best 3 roms (based on 4.1.2 are ultimarom, android revolution HD and omega roms, they offer a big choice on what you can have in your rom.
anyway if you want to know more, just send me a message mate

[Q] Best Performance & Battery life Rom for S4

Hey guys, I have a Canadian Glalaxy S4 SGH-M919V from Wind Mobile. On 4.2.2. Since I bought the phone, the battery was dying pretty quick, with the new updates to 4.1... and now 4.2.2, the battery dies much quicker and performance is just awful, the phone freezes a lot, won't unlock for a minute or so after freezing. The developers have promised the battery fix with each new update, but they keep making it worst and slower with no promised battery fix, and this is not how S4 should work, the system is powerful enough to run quick without freezing and battery should last long, but after using it for 1 hour a day, I have to charge it every night.
-So my question is, which custom rom is the fastest and has a good battery life for M919V. I would like to have all features still working, wifi tethering.... -Also would I have to flash modem to fix any problems like 4G not working when calling and when screen is locked? What is the best Lerner for my phone and what do I need to do/install to have everything working without any problems. Thanks guys, waiting on your replies. Tired of my S4 being slow and dying quick...
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Update: rooted my phone with Odin and cf-auto root
Still want to know what rom I should install for good battery and performance

[Q] Any custom ROM for battery hogging Galaxy Tab 3 8.0?

I have the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 (WiFi) running KitKat 4.4.2 and every time I want to use it, the battery is low even though I left it at 100%. I've been trying to improve it for quite a while now. I rooted it and removed everything I could find on the lists that's safe to remove, turned off everything I don't really need, and I have Better Battery Stats and Wakelock Detector on it as well as No Bloatware and Titanium Backup. Also removed many apps that I had installed myself that seemed to be using the battery a lot. I turn off sync and WiFi when I'm not using the tablet. My efforts have improved it but it's still not good. I've done all I know to do, and I'm at the point where I'd install a custom ROM if I could find one for it. I've done some searching and haven't found any. Can anyone tell me if there is a custom ROM that will work for this tablet? Or perhaps I can "downgrade" it back to Jellybean (which it originally came with) if I can find out where to get that ROM for it someplace (I'd prefer a custom ROM though). Any ideas?
Thanks much.

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