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I just got a free Inspire after hating my Craptivate for almost a year. It turns out, AT&T has a few worthwhile customer service people, you just have to lucky.
I am looking to flash a new ROM, I really hate not having Amazon market, and all the associated apps I got used to on my old phone, but seeing as how we just got an OTA update, do you think it would be worthwhile to hold off and see what the Devs make of it first?
I know my way around this stuff somewhat, and I know how to use search and follow instructions, but I really need my phone to be reliable and stable. I always had a great experience with DesignGears' ROMs for the Cappy, and I guess I'm just wondering what the consensus is (if such a thing exists) on a ROM/Kernel that might not have all of the bleeding edge features and whatnot, but is super stable and improves battery life.
I am familiar with the line "If you want a stable phone, leave it alone," and I know that's true, but I hope you understand what I am shooting for here. Thanks for your time, the community here seems generally cordial and helpful, and much more civil than some.
I haven't really heard of anyone complaining about stability on the rather large amount of roms that are available for the Inspire/Desire HD. I've only tried di11igaf's non-sense rom, CyanogenMod release, and am currently running the latest CyanogenMod nightly. They've all been rock solid in my daily use.
I've gone through all the current ROMs for both Desire HD and Inspire and found far more impressive ROMs than not. I'm currently running d.i.l.l.i.g.a.f with Sense and Love it, fast, stable and great battery. LeeDroid's work is also amazing...all of his ROMs (he has several to choose from) his Froyo is known for its exceptional battery compared to others.
I use my phone for work so I completely understand the value of battery and stability.
Good luck with the search!
Cheers!
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA App
Rooted with attn1's hack kit
Running d.i.l.l.i.g.a.f* v2.0 ROM/kernel
I tried several ROMs before I found one I liked. Never once had a stability problem, just a matter of finding a ROM with the features I wanted.
Much like everyone else, I've tried several roms, and my experiences were pretty stable across the board. Currently I've settled on Ultimate Droid since it seems to be the quickest and smoothest experience for me. as far as battery life goes, I can make it through the day with the amount of use I give this phone.
Sent from my roflPhone XD2.0 using the power of Thomas the Train.
I want to start of by saying I mean no disrespect to all the devs/cooks here. I appreciate and love all of their hard work.
Now, after flashing countless amounts of roms/kernels and always having some type of problems like GPS, small mms, random force closes, etc. I went back to complelty stock and wow... My phone is smoother than I ever remembered. My data speeds seem a little faster and GPS locks on faster than ever. Battery life is a LITTLE worse than custom roms but I figure I spend less trying with the screen on trying to get stuff to work so it evens out.
Well I just thought I would share my experience. If you are like me ALWAYS trying to find the perfect Rom/kernel combo that just works, then try stock one more time. It just might surprise you
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
Been reading alot about the whole process of rooting and flashing over the last few days, and I must say I join your conclusion somehow. Instead of seaching for minor improvement that sometimes set you back in other fields, why not just use the Stock options that the producer can stand by.
Even so I can totally understand the willingness to try and make a product better, and understanding it in the best possible way. That beeing said, I hope they still continue the great work with making custom roms to further push the limits of our device.
Hansge.
If you're happy with the factory ROM, then a custom one isn't necessarily better. One of the things I like about Android though is the freedom to use my phone the way I want to, and that includes custom ROMs if one better suits my requirements. It's all about choice.
most people simply want to remove the BLOAT that comes with stock roms so basically once you receive the opportunity to root you simply freeze the BLOAT with titanium backup and keep the stock rom. I personally like AOSP and most phones don't come with AOSP out of the box unless it's a Nexus so I always end up flashing a custom rom. But I can say that I was running CM7 on my Sensation and became sick of the browser freezes and I went back to stock for a few days and LOVED it eventhough I hate HTC Sense LOL it was just nice to have a phone in which EVERYTHING worked as
it was intended
I personally think a custom kernel has more influence on daily use then custom rom. The differnce between zram and no zram where huge for me on gingerbread.
Custom isn't for everyone
The stock ROMs are usually the best option for most users. Pretty much the same as any custom vs. stock situation. My co-worker is using a ROM that blocks all data usage except from the browser. He loves it. His battery lasts two days without effort and he doesn't miss a thing. Personally, I'd go nuts if that was the stock ROM, but it is good for him.
Have to agree that it's really about choice.
If the missing features are ones you never use then you haven't really lost anything.
I had my Sensation running on a custom ROM within hours of buying it and I've never looked back (though that may be to my disadvantage since I have no point of comparison).
xdacbibbs said:
The stock ROMs are usually the best option for most users. Pretty much the same as any custom vs. stock situation. My co-worker is using a ROM that blocks all data usage except from the browser. He loves it. His battery lasts two days without effort and he doesn't miss a thing. Personally, I'd go nuts if that was the stock ROM, but it is good for him.
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You could create a situation like that by rooting and setting up DroidWall.
I too agree with RestInPieces209.
Really love what the cookers here on xda are doing though!
Tried several custom roms and there always were a couple functions that weren't working properly. Now, since one week back on stock and S-on, most stable and complete rom there is. Eagerly waiting for ICS
if it wasnt for these roms... i would get to damn bored of my phone really quickly... would spend a lot of money buying a new phone as soon as im bored with it..
I can bare the small errors i get, fc etc.. as soon as its up to date, new improvements both visually and functionality. i mean, i got beats on my sensation (non XE) it looks good to have, but also better sound. I got original 1.5Ghz dual core instead of downclocked (by HTC) 1.2GHz... i still got approx 30-40hrs of battery. and thats good!
i can only praise custom roms! thanks devs!
edit:
HTC arent dumbasses themselfs - they know how to make a great phone. they make phones they think as many as possible would like - with all their criteria; stability, good battery, performance etc. By trying to fullfill everyones wishes, somethings are being sacrificed ( such as 1.5GHz for better battery).
Thats why custom roms exists, so you can adapt the phone to your needs...
I would agree with the OP so far in terms of my Sensation, but my previous phone (ZTE Blade) was MASSIVELY improved with custom ROMs.
Some people are obsessed with perpetually messing about with their toys, regardless of the benefits/hassles. Almost always men.
Also, I guess that as phones (fancy ones such as the Sensation) get fancier and faster, so the law of diminishing returns applies regarding tweaks.
It boils down to preference really. Installing roms from other phones or customized ones so you can enjoy the full experience of your phone is just a choice. Like I the stock rom on the Sensation but then they came out with the Sensation XE with beats audio and I love to listen quality music. So then that rom was perfect for me.. My .02 cents.
championadam said:
I would agree with the OP so far in terms of my Sensation, but my previous phone (ZTE Blade) was MASSIVELY improved with custom ROMs.
Some people are obsessed with perpetually messing about with their toys, regardless of the benefits/hassles. Almost always men.
Also, I guess that as phones (fancy ones such as the Sensation) get fancier and faster, so the law of diminishing returns applies regarding tweaks.
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I agree. My old phones like the og droid, Eris, D2 global, etc were all improved with roms. But htc did a really good job on the sensation. After flashing the stock Rom and installing 2 ota updates that they have released it is smooth as butter. Even texting this message on my phone seems faster and more accurate than I ever remember.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
Not to mention the legendary HD2... From boring windows 6.5 to android to windows 7.5 mango... That's when I got hooked
Sent from my PG41200 using XDA App
It honestly boils down to pure preference. Specifically for the Sensation, most people like custom ROMS because they hate HTC Sense. So they are willing to deal with FC's and less stable ROMS just so they can never see Sense again
Since I cannot stand the sense ui yes, custom romd are better. I have no issues with cyanogen mod. I suppose I could always use stock rooted and a custom launcher though.
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA App
Custom ROMS are basically for people that want something different on their phone. Stock ROMS are reliable, stable, and provide default phone usage. On the other hand, stock ROMS (depending on what the developer has done to it) can change the way things looks, are, feel, and work. Some also have the capability to make your battery life last longer than the stock ROM. Custom ROMS are better or suck compared to stock ROMS in their own ways. It's just up to you, to decide which ROM fits your needs and expectations. Developers have this thing called a changelog that lists EVERYTHING that they have tweaked, changed, or improved since they created the ROM. It's best to look at and read it, to see if you like what they did to it/changed, or what it makes your phone capable to do. To me, it's all about what you REALLY want on your phone and all about researching the custom ROMS.
Hope I helped even a little. PEACE!
I am a jailbroken iPhone convert. I am loving this phone so far and have heeded the warnings to not mess with the phone too much. My question is, when is it safe to use the roms that are available? Is there that big of a difference in performance? I jailbroke my iPhone to get features Apple wouldn't allow our have. what do I gain with custom roms? Thanks for all that has been done so far and look forward to what its to come.
I don't know of there is a time period to use them but most custom roms freshen up your desktop icons as well most of them improve battery life and add the ability to overclock.
You can gain quite a few features with Custom Roms. Such as overclocking, custom ui's, much better performance (snappier). I highly recommend flashing a custom ROM. Currently CM9 and CM7 are a work in progress and should be released sooner than later, (CM7 is currently in it's testing stage). Also to do all of this you have to root your device. A guide can be found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1327741&highlight=how+to+root Keep in mind many features can be gained once rooted, but as you probably know the warranty is voided.
Thanks for the help so far. The only question still remaining for me is; at what point are these roms considered stable enough for someone new to start using. I have read the warnings and really don't want to have to reinstall everything over and over again because of instability issues. thanks
ed20910 said:
Thanks for the help so far. The only question still remaining for me is; at what point are these roms considered stable enough for someone new to start using. I have read the warnings and really don't want to have to reinstall everything over and over again because of instability issues. thanks
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It really all depends on what you are after.
I will say that even the stock ROM on the Atrix 2 is not that stable, and there are a TON of bugs in it.
All the ROMs that are here are in a beta format and are not even at a 1.0 revision yet. If you are not technical at all, and don't really like playing with your device a lot, and flashing ROMs, to try and get a feature that the stock ROM is missing, then I totally advise against flashing anything. These "ROMS are completely safe and stable enough", but both lfaber06 and are I always trying to "improve" on them, no matter what revision that the ROM is at, as well as requests for new features. That really is why it may seem that people are flashing all the time, not really because of instability.
Since he and I are really the only two devs in here right now, there is not going to be a lot of choice in ROMs and since this phone is still fairly new, everything is still "new" and in beta/alpha. Since you are coming from the iphone, and flashing ROMs is not really something that you do, I say you wait until you find something you really want that is not available in the stock ROM, and has been put into one the ROMs available here, then try flashing that. Until then just hang tight for a while. There are plenty of hacks that can be done to the stock ROM, to fix things, and make that better at this time. Also take some time to learn a little about android and flashing and how it all works, not intimately, or on a very technical level, but that might save your "you know what", if you have an issue during a flash or while running an unfamiliar ROM.
Thank you VERY much. That was the answer I was looking for. I am technical savy, just haven't done much with android so far. I am one that likes to tinker and get the most out of any of my electronics.
i have got a samsung omnia7 and was thinking about using the sammy rainbow custom rom, what are the pro's and cons doing this?
atm i have interop unlocked it but as i am still under warranty was curious of the effects.
advice would be grateful
It varies heavily ROM to ROM. However, there are a few common things.
Advantages:
More device control. With the policy system disabled, you can modify almost anything.
More homebrew apps, and more powerful ones (things like bazaar).
Native homebrew apps and ported WinMo apps.
Install XAPs directly (such as from IE), instead of using a PC.
If you find a bug, you can directly talk to the devs about fixing it (or possibly fix it yourself).
You may get updates before your carrier would provide them normally.
Disadvantages:
Higher risk of bugs since the ROMs get a lot less testing than official ones.
Updates may come later because you have to wait for a custom packaging of the update.
Not all custom ROMs are updatable; you might need to replace it with a new version which means you'll lose all your data.
Turning off the policy system increases your risk of malware if you arent' careful what you install.
Custom ROMs may have malware built in (not saying any of them do, but it's a risk).
Currently, I'd suggest waiting a little while to see where the Samsung ROM scene goes, what bugs are found and how quickly they're fixed, what features are available and how useful they are. However, it's pretty much always possible to go back to a stock ROM (unless you somehow really badly mess up your phone) so if you want to experiment or be an early adopter, go ahead. Otherwise, I think it'll be pretty clear what ROMs are good and where the custom ROM scene is going (support- and feature-wise) within a month or so.
so i would be safer to wait and see what the dev of the roms is going to do in the case of bugs.
thanks
That's my take. Note that I'm a dev working very hard on hacks that works with stock ROMs though - somebody who spends their time developing custom ROMs may well give completley different advice. There are certainly lots of advantages to going with custom ROMs, even at this relatively early point (it helps that a lot of the experience from HTC custom WP7 ROMs carries over to Samsung ROMs as well).
it seems as though the custom roms for omnia 7 are coming on leaps and bounds, what with MIRO's ROM http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1499102
there seems to be very little on the way of bugs with his atm so i think i will give that one a shot. i know i am new at this but if you don't ask then you never find out things right
thanks for your advice and input....much appreciated
Ok, so im moving from the htc sensation XE to the HTC one.
During my time with the sensation, i pretty much put on every rom/kernal/patch etc and the in the end, im posting this from a stock rom.
Why?
Well, i found that not one custom Rom worked 100%. The CM ROMs especially, with poor camera, poor scrolling and poor telephone.
ARHD became unbearable, with FC's and Permission bugs, the Sense 4 ROMs were slow and on and on.
Coming back to stock, after using ROMs which (apparently ) have been super optimised, I don't notice much difference in performance tbh. Battery life is similar, speed is similar etc.
YMMV on this one, but whatever.
In fact, the stock Rom just works
So, fast forward to two more iterations f the smart phone, and I believe the immense power now available should mean that the "optimization" ROMs, CM etc are becoming pointless. There is ample power to run the stock Rom no matter how bloated it is.
Some exceptions would be a slow roll out of updates from your carrier though.
Anyway, after flashing so much, and reverting back to stock, I'm not going to be in a rush to put a custom Rom on the One when it comes.
Even rooting it, I may hold off for a while. I'm just not sure these days what the point is.
Why knacker up the warranty?
Pah!
Different people have different uses/needs. All custom ROMs pretty much worked on my HD2 (although it's an exception since it originally had WinMo) and all of them work smoothly on the N4. Different devices also have different bugs, so you can't base the entire decision on your experience with only one device. As for why you'd want to flash one if you're OK with performance, the answer is that some of them have tonnes of features and UI enhancements. Take PA over stock 4.2.2 for example, or an AOSP based ROM over TouchWiz.
I have been thinking the same for all the reasons mentioned. I would like Titanium and Nandroids and some status bar themes. But, otherwise, for me, custom roms may not offer much. And, they do seem to have their own quirks. The stock roms and better processors now days can stand on their own for most folks. Having flashed hundreds of roms, there has been many occasions were I did something and said "Oh S--T" I am bricked. Luckily I have always been able to recoup. I am looking at the One and S4 and may root after a bit, but may not flash a custom rom. My One S had no issues running with the bloatware. But, who knows after so much flashing it may be hard to stop.
Superpiper1972 said:
Ok, so im moving from the htc sensation XE to the HTC one.
During my time with the sensation, i pretty much put on every rom/kernal/patch etc and the in the end, im posting this from a stock rom.
Why?
Well, i found that not one custom Rom worked 100%. The CM ROMs especially, with poor camera, poor scrolling and poor telephone.
ARHD became unbearable, with FC's and Permission bugs, the Sense 4 ROMs were slow and on and on.
Coming back to stock, after using ROMs which (apparently ) have been super optimised, I don't notice much difference in performance tbh. Battery life is similar, speed is similar etc.
YMMV on this one, but whatever.
In fact, the stock Rom just works
So, fast forward to two more iterations f the smart phone, and I believe the immense power now available should mean that the "optimization" ROMs, CM etc are becoming pointless. There is ample power to run the stock Rom no matter how bloated it is.
Some exceptions would be a slow roll out of updates from your carrier though.
Anyway, after flashing so much, and reverting back to stock, I'm not going to be in a rush to put a custom Rom on the One when it comes.
Even rooting it, I may hold off for a while. I'm just not sure these days what the point is.
Why knacker up the warranty?
Pah!
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This is where alot of people get confused. The point of making a custom rom was never for everyday people to be flashing them, They were for developers to try new things and see what they could make happen. Does this break things? Yeah from time to time but that is all part of learning.
That's all true also DK. It does depend what we want from phone and if we want the risks of flashing. I have done it long enough and maybe just getting old and tired. It takes a lot of time to keep up with the roms and not have to rely on others for all your info. Although XDA was/is a dev forum, it has also benefited in member growth with all the people now interested in flashing.
I think it is more likely with the new phones that some will not see the need to flash a custom rom as much as they wanted/needed to say 3-4 years ago.
Either way it is still a personal choice and more than likely I will still flash whether I need to or not--
rugmankc said:
That's all true also DK. It does depend what we want from phone and if we want the risks of flashing. I have done it long enough and maybe just getting old and tired. It takes a lot of time to keep up with the roms and not have to rely on others for all your info. Although XDA was/is a dev forum, it has also benefited in member growth with all the people now interested in flashing.
I think it is more likely with the new phones that some will not see the need to flash a custom rom as much as they wanted/needed to say 3-4 years ago.
Either way it is still a personal choice and more than likely I will still flash whether I need to or not--
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Oh trust me If it wasnt for the crapware and bloat OEMs added to their devices and the absolute UGLY look to them I may not feel a NEED to flash a custom rom but with the listed things for me it is still very needed. Mainly the UGLY. I can deal with a bit of lag but it better be good looking while it lags lol
agreed--