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So, despite weeks of rock-solid performance from Inspired Ace, I got bored over the weekend and decided to install CM7, since people talk a lot about getting such great battery life from it, and because it appears to be kind of the "gold standard" in the Android community.
I gotta say, I'm not impressed. I really miss how intuitive Sense was, not to mention the excellent functionality of many of its components that AOSP-based stuff just doesn't have. 2 examples: the clock app and the dialer app. There are more, but that's not the point of the thread.
I figured that since there are so many people running AOSP/CM7 over a Sense-based ROM that there must be something I'm overlooking, so I wanted to hear from some folks what it is they love about non-sense roms. Is it the aesthetics? Are there functions in CM7 you really like/need and can't get with Sense?
Please don't say "It's personal preference." That is obvious. What I'm looking for is the reason someone prefers one to the other.
It slows the phone down. Plain and simple. I personally like sense but its boring after awhile. So I load Go Launcher and widget launcher. Plus I prefer GO SMS and GO Contacts/Dialer so in the end sense just ends up as bloat.
I know I like to be different from everyone else...someone asks to look at my phone, I let them, but they don't say much because its standard android. When I am running AOSP people are curious how this and that on a phone with native stock Froyo.
Why be the same to the millions of other android users? People who rooted their phone want to make it known to everyone who looks at their phone and make them look twice.
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA Premium App
Its too slow and boaty.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA App
For me, its about customibility and usefulness. After all, being able to customize is what makes Android great. I do not like the sense launcher because I want to be able to customize it to a configuration that is actually useful. Aosp or miui type of notification panels have more convenient options that I actually use. The sms of sense is plain and boring. Sense isn't all that bad, but once you start exploring what's out there, it opens your eyes to bigger and better things.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA App
I love Sense, always have, it's one of the more eye-candy oriented Android skins. I remember waiting patiently and then being so saddened when the Sense port to the Galaxy S line died away.
That being said, I always keep either LauncherPro ar ADW EX on the phone so that I can run the super clean Ultralinx themes that I like as well. Sense is great, variety is better.
So the idea is that instead of having Sense do everything it does and hogging resources, you just find single app replacements for things you like about it?
I tried Go Dialer/Contacts and it's awesome! Everything I loved about Sense dialer!
I also started messing around more with CyanogenMod Settings and found some really cool stuff, like the lock screen settings. I'd like to find a way to get the Sense look back in the notification bar, like the wifi/cell bars. Any ideas?
I can't stand the Sense dialer. It's ridiculous that I have to press 4 times just to get to my favorites.
I liked Sense 2.5 on my old AT&T Tilt 2 (Windows Mobile) very much. When I switched to the HTC Inspire I felt that something was missing and that there was not much Sense past the clck and weather widget.
Using SPB Shell 3D now.
Sense has gotten a lot better with all the revisions. That said its still pretty bloated and slows down the speed of updates to a snails pace compared to CM.
Agreed with all above. I always install Launcher Pro anyway so I loose all the sense stuff anyway. My only problem with cm7 and why I'm not running it now is that I love the htc music player. People say, oh there is some just like it on the market, but I'm sorry this is the first phone I have owned were right out of the box you turn srs sound on and whammo instant awesome sounding music lol
Other than that, after awhile away from sense with a different launder you really start to not miss sense. Its one of the best, if not the best stock launcher out there but really the eye candy only lasted a bit with me. Sense is really laggy with a few widgets open also.
Sent From My HTC Inspire 4G @ 1.3Ghz | [ROM] HONEYSENSE HD V2.2 | [KERNEL] LeeDrOiD v3.1.2 >EPIC!<
Thanks in advance for any help you fine chaps may (or may not!) provide.
Been lurking for quite a while. My brother rooted and put Cyanogen on my MyTouch3G about a year ago, and now that I'm on Senny for 60 days, I've about had it with the clutter and bloatware that came with the phone.
What I'm looking for:
- A sleek, sexy look. This will probably involve installing the ICS theme at some point.
- Minimalist. Seriously. I use like 20-25 apps. Maybe. If I don't use it, get it the hell off my phone.
- Good Camera. My phone is my social line. I take pictures of my cat, record idiots in the parking lot, and use it like a mirror all the frakkin time.
- Good Performance. Shouldn't need to be stated on a forum like this, but yes.
- Good Battery Life. Alas, the Stock Battery life has much to be desired of on the Sensation, but much can be fixed through a 1730 battery and judicious Modding.
What I'm not Looking for:
- The 2009 Android Look. Seriously. We're beyond that. Lockscreen Widgets, beautiful status bars, I need it, I want it. It's why I pay for a nice phone.
- So Barebones that I have to call a Bishop and pray to 7 saints in order to find settings or get to commonly used features.
Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to part ways with HTC Sense. It's certainly a beautiful program. (I love the lock ring. I've embraced it and loved it since the first day. Goodbye, ring.) Unfortunately, many of you claim (and some others yet prove) that the Sense is a leech upon the Android system and needs to be purged. Up onto the altar now Sense. Yes. You. Shoo. Time for the sacrifice.
With that in mind, I've been recommended to use:
Reverted (The expansion on Xboarder's Mod). Looks interesting enough to try.
On the forums I've seen and have interest in:
HyperSensation
Cyanogen7 Basic
The drawbacks to the first is that it's still pretty deep in development it seems (Reverted, despite Xboarder's being pretty complete.) I also have heard that ADW Launcher has issues on it.
I'm intrigued by HyperSensation, but am not too keen on the theming styles for it.
I have experience with Cyanogen, but again, it's just the base that most people work from. Not the best necessarily, but stable and reliable.
Does anyone have any recommendations, thoughts, or advice, regarding a ROM that may suit my interests, or thoughts to persuade or dissuade me from my current three interests? I do this mostly to save time - I work in Retail at the moment, and being the Christmas season, I have little time to be fiddling around every night installing a different ROM.
Last, but not least. If I do find myself having to install different ROM's repeatedly, what's the best way to backup and restore my essential data between wipes? Can Titanium Free do everything I need?
Many thanks again, ladies, gentlemen, and newly self aware mechanical constructs!
I'd love to recommend one of the Sense ROMs but you said you are done with them. Perhaps a half-way point is to install one and then "de-sense" it. You get some of the better parts of things but have a lighter look and feel. In the dev section there are a number of ways to lighten the ROMs or you could just start flashing things like crazy Sense or not and see what sticks. I have two HTC Sensation 4Gs thanks to a mistake with tmobile so one runs CM7 alpha 10 and the other is now running InsertCoin (today). I've pretty much given in to the fact that the very first app I install is titanium backup and then I restore my apps. I also do nandroid backups very often so I have a known place to get back to.
My advice fwiw. Just start flashing, testing, removing, re-installing. Just go crazy with the new Sense ROMs and CM7. Something will stick unless you are like some of the rest of us and just want to flash things at some regular pace
I do like some of the Sense ROMs though. The Energy Sense ROM is very nice and I like Insert Coin and ARHD quite a bit. CM7 wins me over though and I still have a G2/Vision phone which has a CM7 nightly on it which I swap the simcard to every so often because I like that phone too.
Give 'em all a try and then come back in some days or a week. Then all of the developers will release new stuff. Its an agonizing circle of downloading, reading, fixing, wishing.
And I enjoy every minute of it.
I suppose my next question would be, what is the limit to which I can Mod an existing ROM.
Say for instance I wanted to use basic CM7 or Reverted's Mod, but install Amaze Cam, a new SMS Mod, and an ICS theme on top of that.
Is that possible? Or would it change the ROM / make it unusable?
I highly suggest Coredroid 2.7 That's what i have and it has the looks that no other rom has.. it's fast and isn't overloaded.. It's a beauty.. Atleast go look at it =D http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1195902
I don't believe you can have the Amaze Cam without Sense and it's worth noting that CM7 on Sensation is reported to have some camera issues (which can perhaps be eased with different cam mods/apps). I can't verify this, although I use CM7 and like it very much, I've never once used the camera, it's simply not one of the features I really need on my handheld.
If you want "the most toys" but without the sense bloat, you are probably best getting one of the Sense based ROMs that has a lot of the sense interface removed. ARHD is highly used and comes well recommended, so you could try that.
See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1098849 and look for post #4 for the de-sensed version.
Is it possible to theme Sense-based ROM's to look like ICS at all?
Edit: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=19451428
Is there any reason that Theme from Desire wouldn't work on Sensation?
Tromador said:
I don't believe you can have the Amaze Cam without Sense and it's worth noting that CM7 on Sensation is reported to have some camera issues (which can perhaps be eased with different cam mods/apps). I can't verify this, although I use CM7 and like it very much, I've never once used the camera, it's simply not one of the features I really need on my handheld.
If you want "the most toys" but without the sense bloat, you are probably best getting one of the Sense based ROMs that has a lot of the sense interface removed. ARHD is highly used and comes well recommended, so you could try that.
See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1098849 and look for post #4 for the de-sensed version.
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I would echo the ARHD recommendation. You can kill of Sense if you like, but it is pretty clean even with it.
- Computerslayer
I jump back and forth between ARHD, InsertCoin and P3D, though less of that last one lately. They're all Sense-based, but you can rid yourself of many Sense things by just using a custom Launcher, like GoLauncher. That way you can still have a functional camera (likely an issue, I hear, in CM7), and keep the lock screen.
Also, I know you said Titanium Backup Free would do the job, but if you do fork over the $6 for the premium version, all the restore installs are silent... that is, you don't need to click "INSTALL" and "DONE" for each one. The apps and their data are installed in the background. It's the best $6 I've ever spent on an app.
Hm Reverted or any of the other CM-based builds sound like what you're looking for except for the camera part since they all use the ****ty aosp camera.
Miui is pretty solid, but Scott and TD are still working on porting the miui cam. But until then, it also has the ****ty aosp cam. But until ics becomes reality for us, this is what I'm waiting for.
In the meantime, I desensed AHRD with this script and it's actually pretty decent. Plus you get to keep the lockscreen and sense cam. If you really wanted an ics look, you could replace the included Launcher Pro with ICS Launcher. Don't get confused with the term "desense" though. Sense is still there. Scripts like these just get rid of Rosie and delete all of the HTC widgets and extras.
So I really enjoy cm7 but for me, the lack of sense just kills it..
Is it possible to have both of them in one rom somehow?
No
Why would you want to? The whole reason to go to Cyanogenmod is to get away from Sense.
If you like Sense then go with something like Endymion.
If you like a stripped-back ROM then go for Cyanogen.
If you want a non-sense with eye-candy then go for MIUI which you can customise to your heart's content.
I like the equalizer, lockscreen gestures.. things that normal sense rom doesnt have.
Unfortunately it is very difficult to get everything you want in one ROM and it would slow it down too much if you could.
Have a look at MIUI and see if that floats your boat
Thats disappointing..
Doenloading the MIUI, thanks.
I currently am running Shnizlon's sense 4 rom and it is fantastic but I recently decided to possibly try out other Rom's as well. CM9 is a rom I always see coming up as a topic in reading these posts. What are the advantages or disadvantages in using CM9? Do you think sense 4 is better? All opinions are welcome!!!
Also, I have the 3.32 firmware radio upgrade currently on my sensation. If I choose to switch over to CM9, would I need to do anything specificto switch over to it or can I just flash the rom in recovery mode like any other rom?
Thanks in advance.
I'm a CM guy. I like it because of it's stock Android roots, along with a large amount of customization settings. It's light on resources but big on performance.
Potential downsides are that it's not based on hTC's software, so none of their proprietary stuff (I view this as a plus, but others may not, my brother included).
Thanks for the feedback Rusty.
Sent from my Sensation using XDA
depends on whether you like sense or stock. i prefer stock, a lot of people like the aesthetic of sense. totally up to you
also cm9 is still under pretty heavy development, i don't know if it's as stable as something based on any of the htc ruu's
there's a post somewhere around here that lists many of the popular sensation roms on this forum. differences basically boil down to sense3.6/4 vs aosp-ness
i'm currently using VI 4.0.2 (and am enjoying it) but also used kristof's hypersensation (which i loved, but i was really anxious to try ics).
CM9 is really stable, battery is good, but it does vary.
It has been my daily since camera was working and that's about a month or two
Have either of you tried the new sense 4 layout ??? It's pretty fantastic and snappy not to mention simple yet beautiful. I highly recommend it. Vanilla android is cool, nothing against it. Just trying to weigh the pros and cons. Guess I'll just have to give it a test run.
Sent from my Sensation 4G using XDA
I was like 8 weeks on Insertcoin Sense 3.6 ROM, then I switched to the InsertCoin Sense 4.0 ROM (wasn't called CoinDroid at that time), and after 2 weeks I switched back to Sense 3.6 again, cause Sense 4 was a bit buggy and not always as smooth as it should be.
After about 2 weeks I wanted changes - and tried AOKP (thanks to Bluewall, otherwise I wouldn't even try it)... It's awesome!
Okay Cyanogenmod is also a very nice ROM, but it hasn't as much Tweaks as AOKP...
Right now I'm thinking about to switch to CM9 again because it has some new nice fixes inside...
My first Android Phone was the HTC Legend, but Sense wasn't really that nice on it... So I switched over to CM6, later CM7 and loved it.
I'm still in love with Cyanogenmod
The first impression counts...
After having sense 3 days, i immediatly looked for antoher kind of ROM.
Indeed, sense is good looking but full of little bugs and so slow.... (even if our developpers are making amazing work about that on sense based ROMS)
CM9 based ROMS bring you a minimalist view (compared to sense) but so much more efficient, with a lot of little customisable settings (for grid of screen, locked to 4x4 for sense, up to 5x6 for CM9's launcher)
To be short : CM9 bring you a stable a fast ROM, with minimalist icon/theme, with a lot of little addon (customize color of text, edit toggles, dock item (1 or 3 or 5) etc...)
CM9 does have a few issues that are annoying but it is mostly stable. My biggest issue with it is the volume sometimes get really low and you have to restart it to fix it.
If you want an alternative to Coindroid and CM9, try HyperNonSense 2.5. Its fast and very stable. Based on Sense but with most of it removed which makes it fast and looks like Cm9.
You know, it's not very polite to compare ROMs
But if you comparing vanilla Android to Sense - there is many different points you should cover - some cases vanilla is way better, some cases Sense is just awesome.
For short - vanilla Android ROMs have just much more customizations and Sense gives much prettier (if you like sense style) and easier to use widgets and other apps.
I was using Sense 3.6 (4.0 had too many bugs then) for few months and I loved it! But when I tried vanilla ROM (AOKP build 31 to be precise) I fell in love one more time! This ROM is so minimalistic, fast and smooth no lag whatsoever (which I was facing in Sense ROMS). But after few months of usage I'm missing few things from Sense:
Sense Clock is very easy to use and maybe prettiest widget.
Friend Stream (and fb contacts sync) is very usefull and I haven't found apps doing that well.
Calendar widget - month view on homescreen is awesome.
So now I want Sense Clock and Sense Friend Stream but with minimalistic (Vanilla) Contacts, Phone, Messaging apps :/
P.S. If anyone wanna compare my homescreens on Sense 3.6 and AOKP ROM -
http://pinterest.com/pin/119134352612707582/
http://mycolorscreen.com/2012/05/08/htc-sensation-aokp-m5-with-green/
Bomberlt said:
You know, it's not very polite to compare ROMs
But if you comparing vanilla Android to Sense - there is many different points you should cover - some cases vanilla is way better, some cases Sense is just awesome.
For short - vanilla Android ROMs have just much more customizations and Sense gives much prettier (if you like sense style) and easier to use widgets and other apps.
I was using Sense 3.6 (4.0 had too many bugs then) for few months and I loved it! But when I tried vanilla ROM (AOKP build 31 to be precise) I fell in love one more time! This ROM is so minimalistic, fast and smooth no lag whatsoever (which I was facing in Sense ROMS). But after few months of usage I'm missing few things from Sense:
Sense Clock is very easy to use and maybe prettiest widget.
Friend Stream (and fb contacts sync) is very usefull and I haven't found apps doing that well.
Calendar widget - month view on homescreen is awesome.
So now I want Sense Clock and Sense Friend Stream but with minimalistic (Vanilla) Contacts, Phone, Messaging apps :/
P.S. If anyone wanna compare my homescreens on Sense 3.6 and AOKP ROM -
http://pinterest.com/pin/119134352612707582/
http://mycolorscreen.com/2012/05/08/htc-sensation-aokp-m5-with-green/
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Click to collapse
Thank you for your feedback. I wouldn't necessarily say I was comparing them saying one was better than another. I was simply asking what are some of the advantages of vanilla over sense since I am very new to this. Nonetheless I appreciate your input greatly.
Sent from my Sensation 4G using XDA
I have always wanted to try other roms and I did, quite a few of them actually. People kept telling me how much they hated Sense and in a way I get them, but on the other hand, sense has some great apps and widgets, which actaully brings me to my question.
Is there a Desensed rom with the sense widgets still existing, or maybe even an AOSP rom ?
I know it sounds like a stupid question, but sometimes I just wish I could have CM and my sense calendar or dialer.
Sense bogs the phones resources.....even if it is snappy, it could be better, and that is AOSP.
For me I'm using sense until a bug free version of AOSP is available...
- Bluetooth
- audio routing
- etc.
i switched from sense to infamous to opensensation and i will stay with opensensation. i love the speed and the feel of cm9. with the sense rom i always had annoying little lags and it didnt felt smooth.
cm9 isnt perfect, like the others mentioned before, but its worth to give it a try.
i can live with the "bugs" and enjoy the smoothness
Zwenk said:
i switched from sense to infamous to opensensation and i will stay with opensensation. i love the speed and the feel of cm9. with the sense rom i always had annoying little lags and it didnt felt smooth.
cm9 isnt perfect, like the others mentioned before, but its worth to give it a try.
i can live with the "bugs" and enjoy the smoothness
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I really wanted to use cm9 but the non smoothness is what drove me back to ARHD and VI. I read a lot about how smooth it is, but for me VI is significantly smoother
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium
fr0zenblood75 said:
I really wanted to use cm9 but the non smoothness is what drove me back to ARHD and VI. I read a lot about how smooth it is, but for me VI is significantly smoother
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium
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Man don't take it bad but you're talking about a stock rooted rom and a senseless one.
This thread is about a Sense 4.0 and an AOSP...
I like much more CM9, farm more customizable.
Sense 4.0 right now doesn't suit me... Battery drains a lot compared to Sense 3.6 and much work still has to be done to make it equal smooth compared to a good Sense 3.6
Sense 4 vs. CM9? AOKP WINS XD
more stock felling, lighter, faster, I think is more stable, too...
i was a coindroid user, but in games it was not good, still laggy at 1.7 ghz...
now on aokp with nova launcher at 1.2 I play games perfectly and the UI is ****in' smooth...flash it, you won't regret
I love aosp but im a flashaholic so it gets boring really fast i like fancy animations and such but i prefer aosp looks and feels ...
Sent From My Sexy Sensation.
CM is not lightweight by any stretch of the imagination.
It does lag as much as sense do. If not more.
CM phone book is ****e. Which is the biggest downside for me. A PHONE's PHONE book should be the most important thing in a PHONE.
On the other hand I love CM because MIUI is based on CM
There is no 'CM' phonebook, it's AOSP, so blame Google if you don't like it.
That said, I'm not finding it laggy.
So I've tried a few roms like viper and revolution. I liked Viper overall but I ended up having a ton of conflicts with it from data and wifi connection issues, and at one point it froze up my entire phone, no matter how many times i restarted it would load up and do nothing. I liked the rom and all the customization but in the end it just wasn't for me. Revolution HD just feels like the stock rom and just doesn't have alot of customization and I feel like it eats through my battery pretty quickly. I'm looking for a battery friendly rom, that's very customizable, and is light weight, no bloatware. I like to multi-task on my phone a lot so any suggestions would be great. I want to keep sense so it needs to be a sense rom. I always tried elgancia and just didn't like the themes and looks at all.
Zhenpo said:
So I've tried a few roms like viper and revolution. I liked Viper overall but I ended up having a ton of conflicts with it from data and wifi connection issues, and at one point it froze up my entire phone, no matter how many times i restarted it would load up and do nothing. I liked the rom and all the customization but in the end it just wasn't for me. Revolution HD just feels like the stock rom and just doesn't have alot of customization and I feel like it eats through my battery pretty quickly. I'm looking for a battery friendly rom, that's very customizable, and is light weight, no bloatware. I like to multi-task on my phone a lot so any suggestions would be great. I want to keep sense so it needs to be a sense rom. I always tried elgancia and just didn't like the themes and looks at all.
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Well... it really depends what you're looking for.. customization ca be achieved with launchers and themes... Go for HyperNonSense, it's ICS based, very battery friendly, completely stripped down so you can add whatever you want and make it look with whatever you like More lightweight.. I think it's impossible lol.
Hello my dear friend! I have my sensation for more than 1 year now and i`m still loving it! From my experience i`m telling you though I love sense ui you should let it behind! (Sense 5 is another story but it`s still not available). I am recommend you SuperXE build-3, it`s based on jelly bean 4.2.2 it`s very stable its the stock version from galaxy nexus, you will need to flas the gapps to (gmail, maps...etc), you will encounter some problems with the camera, nothing to big, (all j. Bean roms have the same problem) but you will be very happy with the battery life, amazing speed and stability.
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE using xda app-developers app
if you like sense roms, ivicask made new one, as stock as it can be with sense 4.1m look for it in development section, its great...
Questions asking for the best ROM are not allowed. Closed