Stock VS custom ROM - A discussion - E 2015 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm a serious and long term tester of custom ROMs for various devices, but more recently the 1st gen (Condor) and 2nd gen (Surnia) moto e.
I'm looking for your experiences, comments, tips and tricks of stock firmware (lollipop and marshmallow) verses the many custom ROMs available for the 2nd gen moto e.
Tell me what you find the best ROM.
What's the most stable? Has the best battery life?
What ROM can you make lots of modifications without affecting performance?
What's the worst ROMs? What ROMs have the most bugs?
This is not a post asking for your opinions so I can go out to find the best ROM, personally I have found what I consider the best ROM/set up/configuration for my E2 and am looking to see if other users agree with me.
Many thanks
Sent from my XT1524 using XDA-Developers mobile app

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I personally fell in love with the Stock ROM on my XT1521 it has the best performance and is extremely stable. Some may have had issues because they flashed the stock ROM on some other device rather than the device this ROM was made for. Though it has been reported that the UK version has started to receive the 6.0 update. I request everybody to downgrade to the 5.0.2 stock ROM and update to 6.0 through the OTA update.
Again this is my experience and don't bash me for this.
Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

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ayush rao said:
I personally fell in love with the Stock ROM on my XT1521 it has the best performance and is extremely stable. Some may have had issues because they flashed the stock ROM on some other device rather than the device this ROM was made for. Though it has been reported that the UK version has started to receive the 6.0 update. I request everybody to downgrade to the 5.0.2 stock ROM and update to 6.0 through the OTA update.
Again this is my experience and don't bash me for this.
Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I won't bash you, your reply is exactly the reply I wanted.
Personally, I'm having better luck right now with the stock rom, but my personal preference is the last build of CM12.1 (17th April security update)
3 day battery life, very fast and the most stable my moto e has ever been.
Less luck with my 1st gen moto e, currently running CM13, it's laggy and very unstable
Sent from my KAZAM Trooper 455 using XDA-Developers mobile app

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ivan39 said:
I won't bash you, your reply is exactly the reply I wanted.
Personally, I'm having better luck right now with the stock rom, but my personal preference is the last build of CM12.1 (17th April security update)
3 day battery life, very fast and the most stable my moto e has ever been.
Less luck with my 1st gen moto e, currently running CM13, it's laggy and very unstable
Sent from my KAZAM Trooper 455 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did u get the official 6.0 update???
Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

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ayush rao said:
Did u get the official 6.0 update???
Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I just flashed it from the firmware thread here, only after cm13 played hell with me!
Sent from my XT1524 using XDA-Developers mobile app

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ivan39 said:
No, I just flashed it from the firmware thread here, only after cm13 played hell with me!
Sent from my XT1524 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just try and flash the 5.0.2 Stock ROM for ur model no. and see if u received the 6.0 update cause someone posted that they received it. Also in the past when I tried the stock ROM designed for another model I didn't get great performance but when I flashed the stock ROM designed for my model no. I got the desired performance.
Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

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ayush rao said:
Just try and flash the 5.0.2 Stock ROM for ur model no. and see if u received the 6.0 update cause someone posted that they received it. Also in the past when I tried the stock ROM designed for another model I didn't get great performance but when I flashed the stock ROM designed for my model no. I got the desired performance.
Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I apologise for not explaining this fully, meaning you made a completely unnecessary and incorrect reply (only because I gave you incomplete information)
So let me explain fully.
My moto e had issues around the 05/04 build of CM13.
After an upgrade from 04/04 to 05/04 via "dirty" flash (only wiping dalvik and cache) the moto e "hung" and got stuck on the "splash" screen and would not boot.
Returning to twrp to wipe system/data/internal storage was futile, it still would not boot past the Motorola boot logo.
Several people suggested I return my moto e to stock, so I duly returned it to stock BY FLASHING THE EU RETAIL 5.0.2 FIRMWARE FOR XT1524-(the variant of moto e I have)
This was completely unsuccessful as although I returned to stock, I left the bootloader unlocked and re rooted and reflashed twrp as soon as I had successfully returned the device to stock.
After booting into 5.0.2 I checked everything was fully working but found the device to be very slow, extremely laggy and stuttery.
Further research suggested UK users who had manually flashed the 5.1.1 update (you must remember UK has NEVER been offered the 5.1.1 update, as Motorola announced in December 2015 UK was skipping 5.1.1 to go straight to 6.0) got the OTA update after successfully flashing said 5.1.1 EU firmware.
This was again unsuccessful, with the device not quite as slow and laggy as 5.0.2 but now was running a firmware it should NOT have ever received.
Concerned this was my issue and sceptical of the advice I had received about the 5.1.1 firmware, I flashed the EU retail 6.0 stock ROM
I found it
Slow
Battery intensive
Laggy and stuttery, there was no fluidity, the screen movements were at best "jerky"
Ringtone volume reduced to the point I missed incoming calls.
Random reboots.
One point I must make to you and anyone else reading this is to
NEVER FLASH FIRMWARE FOR ANOTHER DEVICE OR FLASH INCOMPATIBLE/FIRMWARE NOT DESIGNED FOR YOUR DEVICE.
That is a very big no no and should not be attempted for any reason.
For example, if I flashed firmware for an XT1521 on my XT1524, I would permanently brick my device.
Same if I flashed XT1527 or XT1523 firmware.
No one should be attempting to flash incompatible firmware.
And to someone who messaged me asking if he could flash a "no carrier" firmware from an XT1526 on to an XT1524 to make this a no carrier unlocked device is simply "NO!"
Flashing a no carrier firmware on a carrier locked device will brick it.
Flashing XT1526 firmware on an XT1524 will brick it.
There may not seem much difference between these variants of devices but I'm told they are quite different, that's why they are numbered in such a way to make them different to the continents for which they are designed for.
This is not my opinion, this is fact, openly found here on XDA and read many times after people have knowingly flashed the wrong firmware on the wrong device and suffered a permanent brick!
I'm pretty sure most of my problems came from flashing 5.0.2 and 5.1.1, and since I had upgraded to 6.0.1 running CM13, I simply made the problem worse but not downgrading modem/bootloader.
I hope this explains my situation fully, but I've found the last security update to CM12.1 (17/04) the most stable custom ROM available for Surnia although I am now back and happy finally with CM13.
Regards.
Sent from my XT1524 using XDA-Developers mobile app

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Cm13 22/04 is very good, just as good as CM12.1 17/04 that I came from (clean install, not using any mods other than squid kernel)

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Do not use open gapps with CM13, squid has posted various warnings over the past several days to avoid using them as they have broken cm13.

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I'm using caf 6.0.1 rom, before I was using aosp 5.1.1 with squid kernel and imo those are the best roms. Sure they don't have any custom features but they don't have every day updates (like cm) too so everything is pretty much polished with decent package of gapps. Both roms are fully stable and basically bug free. I wouldn't change my caf for any other rom.
@ivan39 you're not right. I remember that when there was no 5.1 update in Europe you could easily flash us firmware on Xt1524 changing only one radio file. BTW bugs that you had on stock 6.0 are probably caused by bad flash/not clean flash or something. It's impossible that stock firmware causes random reboots.

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Thanks for that, I did not know its possible to flash US firmware on XT1524, so I stand corrected and hanging head in shame.....
Really, thanks for the info, something else I've learned.
Ref 6.0 stock, I assumed a bad flash, reflashed 3 times over 3 days, made no difference.
Agree with everything you said and will definitely look at the roms you mentioned

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have you made full wipe after flash?

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iks8 said:
have you made full wipe after flash?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes.
Stock 6.0 wasn't for me.
Back on Cm13

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ivan39 said:
I'm a serious and long term tester of custom ROMs for various devices, but more recently the 1st gen (Condor) and 2nd gen (Surnia) moto e.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all, thanks for your contributions towards the device and the community, Moto E is an underdog but potent device which can really use a helping hand from enthusiasts like us
ivan39 said:
I'm looking for your experiences, comments, tips and tricks of stock firmware (lollipop and marshmallow) verses the many custom ROMs available for the 2nd gen moto e.
Tell me what you find the best ROM.
What's the most stable? Has the best battery life?
What ROM can you make lots of modifications without affecting performance?
What's the worst ROMs? What ROMs have the most bugs?
This is not a post asking for your opinions so I can go out to find the best ROM, personally I have found what I consider the best ROM/set up/configuration for my E2 and am looking to see if other users agree with me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock vs Custom ROMs (CM in my case)
My device originally came with Android 5.0, but by that time CM 12.1 (5.1 based) was already available. The jump from Stock 5.0 to CM 12.1 was NOT very exciting. There was an immediate performance drop at the cost of added features. I moved back and forth between Stock and CM just to realise that CM 12.1 RAM usage was way higher than Stock 5.0 RAM usage. I stuck to CM 12.1 due to the extra features and over time, learnet to live with the performance drop.
A few months back, I thought of giving Stock ROM another try, and by that time Stock 5.1 had arrived. Going back to Stock 5.1, to my surprise, I found that the snappiness of Stock 5.0 was gone. I realised that between 5.0 and 5.1, something fundamental changed at Stock ROM/Kernel level and now the Stock 5.1 RAM usage was equal to CM 12.1 RAM usage. That also explained my initial experience, where CM 12.1 RAM overhead was simply because of AOSP 5.1 changes, and not CM additions. At this point, it was only sensible to stick to CM 12.1 as performance drop from Stock 5.1 was minimal.
Recently I tried Stock 6.0, but IMHO it feels rushed, it exists only for the sake of existing. Moreover, I can not believe Motorola/Lenovo can be serious about the software of their lowest-end nearing-end-of-life phone. They had to release 6.0 only to avoid lawsuits for false update promises (made in advertising and on retail boxes).
A final point: I'd prefer CM over Stock any given day simply because of community involvement in development, testing and bug fixing. Being Open Source and hugely popular, CM bugs are reported and fixed much much faster than AOSP bugs. You might say that AOSP is also Open Source, but it's only one way. You can fork, but they don't accept changes back. Overall, I have HUGE trust in CM community than AOSP/OEMs which are only concerned about making more and more money.
Choosing between various Custom ROMs
Most Custom ROMs are developed only in following 2 ways:
AOSP/CAF based
CM based (which is itself AOSP/CAF based)
Type 1 ROMs simply can not match the community involvement and release frequency of CM. Most ROMs I've seen fade away after 1-2 months of updates/support while CM keeps going forever. I see added features only as extra bits that has to be maintained. Moreover, most of the extra features of Type 1 ROMs are already in CM, or available as Xposed modules, or available as root-supported apps. So these ROMs don't bring anything extra to table.
Type 2 ROMs also fail to match the release frequency and long time updates/support offered by CM. Moreover, the added features are also questionable for the same reasons as stated above.
A valid point for considering any custom ROM except CM would either be totally reskinned ROMs, or the ones which are based on other AOSP forks (MIUI etc.). Personally, I fail to see the point of reskinned ROMs. Once you start installing Play Store Apps, you'll quickly realise that Play Store Apps are based on Material (AOSP) UI guidelines. Hence, you'll end up with a system where user apps looks/behave completely different from System apps. That's too much of an eyesore for me.
Some say that ROM X is much faster that CM, but I'm yet to see such a ROM. Benchmarks aside, I've tried almost all ROMs available in our forums and their real world performance is more of the same. For a ROM X claiming to be faster than CM, I'd be very interested to see which code changes have resulted in such a gain and if so, why they haven't been added to CM already.
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So that's what I think. Let me know what do you guys think. Thanks for raising such a discussion
---------- Post added at 04:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:15 PM ----------
ivan39 said:
last build of CM12.1 (17th April security update)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=surnia only shows last 5 builds, where can I download this one? I'm still on 0324 build

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gameSTICKER said:
First of all, thanks for your contributions towards the device and the community, Moto E is an underdog but potent device which can really use a helping hand from enthusiasts like us
Stock vs Custom ROMs (CM in my case)
My device originally came with Android 5.0, but by that time CM 12.1 (5.1 based) was already available. The jump from Stock 5.0 to CM 12.1 was NOT very exciting. There was an immediate performance drop at the cost of added features. I moved back and forth between Stock and CM just to realise that CM 12.1 RAM usage was way higher than Stock 5.0 RAM usage. I stuck to CM 12.1 due to the extra features and over time, learnet to live with the performance drop.
A few months back, I thought of giving Stock ROM another try, and by that time Stock 5.1 had arrived. Going back to Stock 5.1, to my surprise, I found that the snappiness of Stock 5.0 was gone. I realised that between 5.0 and 5.1, something fundamental changed at Stock ROM/Kernel level and now the Stock 5.1 RAM usage was equal to CM 12.1 RAM usage. That also explained my initial experience, where CM 12.1 RAM overhead was simply because of AOSP 5.1 changes, and not CM additions. At this point, it was only sensible to stick to CM 12.1 as performance drop from Stock 5.1 was minimal.
Recently I tried Stock 6.0, but IMHO it feels rushed, it exists only for the sake of existing. Moreover, I can not believe Motorola/Lenovo can be serious about the software of their lowest-end nearing-end-of-life phone. They had to release 6.0 only to avoid lawsuits for false update promises (made in advertising and on retail boxes).
A final point: I'd prefer CM over Stock any given day simply because of community involvement in development, testing and bug fixing. Being Open Source and hugely popular, CM bugs are reported and fixed much much faster than AOSP bugs. You might say that AOSP is also Open Source, but it's only one way. You can fork, but they don't accept changes back. Overall, I have HUGE trust in CM community than AOSP/OEMs which are only concerned about making more and more money.
Choosing between various Custom ROMs
Most Custom ROMs are developed only in following 2 ways:
AOSP/CAF based
CM based (which is itself AOSP/CAF based)
Type 1 ROMs simply can not match the community involvement and release frequency of CM. Most ROMs I've seen fade away after 1-2 months of updates/support while CM keeps going forever. I see added features only as extra bits that has to be maintained. Moreover, most of the extra features of Type 1 ROMs are already in CM, or available as Xposed modules, or available as root-supported apps. So these ROMs don't bring anything extra to table.
Type 2 ROMs also fail to match the release frequency and long time updates/support offered by CM. Moreover, the added features are also questionable for the same reasons as stated above.
A valid point for considering any custom ROM except CM would either be totally reskinned ROMs, or the ones which are based on other AOSP forks (MIUI etc.). Personally, I fail to see the point of reskinned ROMs. Once you start installing Play Store Apps, you'll quickly realise that Play Store Apps are based on Material (AOSP) UI guidelines. Hence, you'll end up with a system where user apps looks/behave completely different from System apps. That's too much of an eyesore for me.
Some say that ROM X is much faster that CM, but I'm yet to see such a ROM. Benchmarks aside, I've tried almost all ROMs available in our forums and their real world performance is more of the same. For a ROM X claiming to be faster than CM, I'd be very interested to see which code changes have resulted in such a gain and if so, why they haven't been added to CM already.
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So that's what I think. Let me know what do you guys think. Thanks for raising such a discussion
---------- Post added at 04:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:15 PM ----------
https://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=surnia only shows last 5 builds, where can I download this one? I'm still on 0324 build
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have a look on the cm12.1 thread, I'll post you a link
CM12.1-unoffical-20160417

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Wow, thanks for such a detailed reply, I really appreciate you taking the time to offer your experiences!
Stock 6.0 in my experience was awful, I hated it, and can say nothing good about it, even though many users have disagreed with me or told me I'm wrong or did not install it properly.......yeah.....right.......
CM13 is better than it has been of late but just lacks a bit of "polish"
Its way more stable now but it still seems to have "hizzy" fits for no reason, or go totally bonkers for no obvious reason......
Let me take time to say I have been using xposed and various customisation yo make my moto e more like the android n developer preview, and these mods where just a little bit too much for it, it would run fast, fine with no issues for 24-36 hours and then just give up and take over 20 minutes to load a web page or drop a call I was making several times before connecting on the third or four attempt.
Things were better when these mods were removed, but still not learning my lesson, I started experimenting with various launchers and lockscreens just because I love to customise my phone.
Again, this has not helped in my quest to find the ultimate user experience for my E2.
CM12.1
I've found this the most stable, fluid and "fastest" ROM of all.
I agree no ROM is faster than another, but everything just happens a bit faster in the ROM than others.
This ROM is my back up, fail safe and emergency, if I get a bad nightly with CM13 or CM13 misbehaves, I just drop back.
In my experience the difference in looks and behaviour between CM12.1 and CM13 is negligible.
The only difference I see is the adaptive storage in CM13.
Other ROMs.
I found resurrection remix a very good ROM, again, it would work flawlessly for several days and then just go stupid, in the end I gave up using it because it was no better or worse than CM13 (being CM13 based)
No other ROM I tested came close to CM but I have to mention Tipsy OS as a very good rom!
I have a 1st gen moto e that was my original personal daily driver until my work phone (given to me by my employers-A Sony Xperia M2) updated to lollipop and the touchscreen failed.
So my E1 took on the duty of becoming my work phone, I had to get it unlocked from Tesco to take my work Vodafone sim, but at a small cost.
My wife brought me the E2 last December as an early Christmas present (I suspect because it had £20 off the retail price hahaha) and I lost no time modding it, unlocking the bootloader, flashing twrp and installing CM12.1 within the first 24 hours of getting it home.
The E2 is way better than the E1 but the E1 copes with damp and dusty conditions at work, runs CM13 by squid flawlessly and even though its nowhere near as fast or fluid as the E2, it just copes with CM13.
The E2 copes better with anything you throw at it. I'm not a fan overlayed ROMs either but I'm running Xpirits excellent port of sense 7 and blinkfeed on my E2, and its totally fine.
I just wish the ringtone was louder on the E2, I have modded mp3s with various apps but I find them too distorted to use as ringtones.

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Blinkfeed/sense 7 port by Xpirit on my moto E 2nd gen [emoji41]

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Here my take on this subject:
I feel as if the moto e is better now with running cm13 on mine. Stock wasn't bad, just I never been a big fan of xposed(shocker I know) and the longevity of the phone increases for me as I can run the latest android os thanks to the hard work of the devs.
Now I haven't flashed another rom except stock MM. but I feel very contempt for now with cm13 and how it performs for my needs with this phone. Last part off topic:
I also feel as if this could be the last moto e from Motorola(lenova whatever blah) and I also feel like that the moto g will just come in cheaper models that will replace the e. So this phone could be the last of a solid running android phone with stock android under 5inch that's actually worth the money!
Sent from my XT1526 using XDA-Developers mobile app

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For me, nothing beats stock 6.0 with squid kernel. I've tried CM13 but the battery life wasnt even similar to stock 6.0 (yes, also with squid kernel installed). I dont play games, i only care about battery life and stock 6.0 is the best for that (at least for me).
pd: CM12.1 and stock 5.1.1 are great too if i install squid kernel + xposed + greenify + powernap. Stock 6.0 doesnt need so much work to give me great battery life.

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903tex said:
Here my take on this subject:
I feel as if the moto e is better now with running cm13 on mine. Stock wasn't bad, just I never been a big fan of xposed(shocker I know) and the longevity of the phone increases for me as I can run the latest android os thanks to the hard work of the devs.
Now I haven't flashed another rom except stock MM. but I feel very contempt for now with cm13 and how it performs for my needs with this phone. Last part off topic:
I also feel as if this could be the last moto e from Motorola(lenova whatever blah) and I also feel like that the moto g will just come in cheaper models that will replace the e. So this phone could be the last of a solid running android phone with stock android under 5inch that's actually worth the money!
Sent from my XT1526 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always use the Stock ROM since I faced serious issues with CM13 (But that's another story). I think the official firmware is much more stable compared to CM13, moreover it has Moto display and the audio effects EQ I can't live without. There will be a next Moto e (that's what the rumours suggest. Search Motorola affinity on the web) though it has been reported that it will feature a mediatek chip. This means ROM development will be slow and there will never be official CM13 on that device.(Since Cyanogenmod officially support only snapdragon chips).
Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk