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[Q] just got the Nexus S 4G. should i stick with stock?

Hey everyone, i just upgraded to a Nexus S 4G this morning from the ol samsung transform, and i was planning on applying cyanogen but then i messed with the phone a bit, did root and restored a couple of my game apps...it seems to work with very nice speed, only serious issues ive noticed are just with the signal, sensitivity of keyboard, and i havnt had time to see battery life yet..
But i was wondering, since the stock rom is so clean and fast, why are we putting on different roms like cyanogen?
More importantly, as far as kernel, whats the best kernel right now for nexus 4g? im running stock kernel, but naturally and ideally id like even more speed(not sure what id use it for, but always nice), better battery life, and better data signals..
ive been reading about overclocked kernels a little bit and such, so basically im wondering about what you guys would say to all this? should i change rom &/Or kernel? to what? why? does overclocking at 1.4ghz like these kernels say have any negative side effects? things like that.
Thanks for your response!
~ Master Ramy

Master Ramy said:
Hey everyone, i just upgraded to a Nexus S 4G this morning from the ol samsung transform, and i was planning on applying cyanogen but then i messed with the phone a bit, did root and restored a couple of my game apps...it seems to work with very nice speed, only serious issues ive noticed are just with the signal, sensitivity of keyboard, and i havnt had time to see battery life yet..
But i was wondering, since the stock rom is so clean and fast, why are we putting on different roms like cyanogen?
More importantly, as far as kernel, whats the best kernel right now for nexus 4g? im running stock kernel, but naturally and ideally id like even more speed(not sure what id use it for, but always nice), better battery life, and better data signals..
ive been reading about overclocked kernels a little bit and such, so basically im wondering about what you guys would say to all this? should i change rom &/Or kernel? to what? why? does overclocking at 1.4ghz like these kernels say have any negative side effects? things like that.
Thanks for your response!
~ Master Ramy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are quite a lot of things that can be changed by flashing a custom ROM. Cyanogen is reported to be more responsive than stock android, and a slight improvement on battery life and performance. Also, with other ROMs like MIUI you can completely change the entire GUI basically. The lockscreen becomes changeable by one click in the themes app. I've also noticed a slight improvement in battery life/performance and responsiveness.
Also, with regards to kernels, they add extra features (like voodoo sound, BLN notifications, UV'ing, OC'ing, etc). Now if you're looking to overclock your CPU AND save on battery life then that is probably not going to happen. If you OC the CPU you'll as a result draw more battery power when it reaches it's peak. Hence why I went with the TEUV88 kernel. This kernel undervolts the CPU yet manages to give me the same performance as the stock kernel. It runs extremely nicely and the battery lasts me about 24-30 hours on moderate usage where as before I was getting around 16.
Hope this helps.
Edit:: note that both undervolting and overclocking can be dangerous for any phone. The kernel developers put their kernels through testing though to ensure they are stable enough for most people (I hope anyways). But be aware that it is possible to damage the hardware be either of these methods.

yeah im looking at more undervolting for battery life cause current performance seems great for me as of this point. but i mean cyanogenmod doesnt change much since its built on gingerbread, its just slightly more customized, but on the actual performance side, it is a slight increase? so whats the best kernel for undervolting and still getting stock performance or more? im guessing its the one u just mentioned? cause i saw a voodoo kernel or something on main dev page and itwas undervolted and OCed to 1.4 i think...idk.

Yeah you might be talking about the matr1x kernel. It ocs to 1.44 and is uved also. Plus has voodoo sound, bln and bld. Some people have issues with cm7 and some don't. I really don't like the look of miui so I can't say for it. But I use decks 1.3d with zero issues and matr1x kernel with zero issues along with heavy use 4+ hrs screen time in over 12hrs. Personally running 1.44 your phone will prolly lock up but I run 1.2 non stop no freezes or lockups or reboots. Try them and see qhich ones fit you and what you like.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App

I'm still on stock with mine and honestly, I don't need anything else... i get 12-15 hours of moderate use and i don't really know what lag is because i never experience it with my phone.

The above posters are correct in everyway. I mean it definitely comes down to preference. I was averaging about 13-15h on my stock kernel/rom but my phone would be basically completely dead.
I switched to TEUV88-rammstein2 (Trinity Undervolted rom). It has Voodoo sound, BLN (backlight notification), and with todays update it has touchwake mod. So as you can see my phone lasted 15h (still with 35% battery left) with 3h of screen on, and 45m of audio streaming, and lots of texting.
Check out my post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=17108560&postcount=3154

[Q] Question about Kernels

Hi, my Triumph should be arriving in the mail in just a few days and i was wondering which is the best kernel or ROM and Kernel combination that is best for battery life? I've heard that battery life on the Triumph is not so good. Maybe it's false but i would still like to know.

jerenater10 said:
Hi, my Triumph should be arriving in the mail in just a few days and i was wondering which is the best kernel or ROM and Kernel combination that is best for battery life? I've heard that battery life on the Triumph is not so good. Maybe it's false but i would still like to know.
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I would go with CM7

That's what i was planning on. Does your Triumph give you battery problems?

jerenater10 said:
That's what i was planning on. Does your Triumph give you battery problems?
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Click to collapse
The battery life is a lot better now with the latest builds of CM7 and MIUI.
I just use CM7 and leave wifi and bluetooth off, no juice defender or anything like that and I can easily go all day with no charge, typically about a day and a half and my battery is getting low but it really depends on what you are doing like games, wifi, videos and whatnot.
Before I think there was a problem with the battery draining while in idle but things have cleared up since then, There are also third party kernels you can OC and everything, but you can use them to undervolt as well to save some battery if you know what you are doing. over on androidforums there is a lot more chatter about this phone, just so you know.

ketjr81 said:
The battery life is a lot better now with the latest builds of CM7 and MIUI.
I just use CM7 and leave wifi and bluetooth off, no juice defender or anything like that and I can easily go all day with no charge, typically about a day and a half and my battery is getting low but it really depends on what you are doing like games, wifi, videos and whatnot.
Before I think there was a problem with the battery draining while in idle but things have cleared up since then, There are also third party kernels you can OC and everything, but you can use them to undervolt as well to save some battery if you know what you are doing. over on androidforums there is a lot more chatter about this phone, just so you know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I got my phone today and im loving it so far. Do you know which of those third party kernels are good for battery life and that i can install over stock? I'm not quite ready to install a ROM yet but i already did the HTC Thunderbolt Build.prop tweak and obviously im rooted.

It's usually not the kernel but whatever governor you have it set to use. Even the stock can get improved performance if you switch the governor to such--”performance”--but I'm probably not the guy to tell you about which one is best.
I also have the silly feeling a lot of misconceptions abound here...in the form of ”I changed this setting and now my device lasts longer..., oh btw I no longer play with it 24/7.” In other words, use drastically impacts battery performance. JuiceDefender is an amazing tool but it won't do you a bit of good if you're testing out your phone's Adobe Flash capabilities regularly.
Sent from my Wildfire S

The Savagezen and interactive (not sure if interactive is on any of the kernels for this phone.) gov isn't that great. At least not in my experience. I had SmartassV2 on my girlfriends phone and it got ~3600 on Antutu benchmark at 1.5 and when I used Savage at 1.5 she got ~1700. The interactive gov made my friends Dinc2 noticably slower. Just switching home screens it lagged to the point it was hard to get into the app to change the gov.

CM7 + TheOC kernel allows adjusting voltage & overclock or underclock. You really should flash a CM7 ROM. Having it just rooted can be dangerous because you're not using a custom recovery to make a backup image, and if something messes up, you don't have a backup ROM to restore. Going to a different ROM forces you to make a backup, then there's a backup to restore if you mess things up.
Governors just tell the CPU how fast to ramp up to a certain frequency, & how long to stay there. It's hard to balance fast ramp up (less lag), and low battery drain (spend more time in the lower frequencies). I like interactive/x, find that smartassv2 spends too much time in the mid frequencies (~500) even for light work. Using the app CPU Spy helps a lot to see what's going on. Also it tells you whether your phone is sleeping properly when screen is off, which is a big factor for battery drain.

[Q] Proper Infuse SetCPU settings and voltages.

Ok I'm kinda new to the whole overclocking thing and I was wondering what are the best settings to use if I wanted to(for instance) save more of my battery. I've done quite a bit of searching but I wanted to make sure that the voltage settings aren't different on different ROMS or phones. I'm on Zeus V3 for the record. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for your time.

Stable settings definitely vary from phone to phone unfortunately, even if they are the same device. So basically its trial and error, no matter what anybody suggests. Generally, the more you can undervolt and stay stable, the better battery life you will have. You're just going to have to experiment a bit, and just make sure you don't save any settings as boot settings until you know they are stable. I know there is a guide to overclocking somewhere on the forums, I just hate searching on my phone.
Quick tips, start with only moderate undervolting, and crank them down gradually until your phone is at the limit of stable to maximize battery life. Use the 'stability test' app in the market to test for stability. Also, running other benchmarks, such as neocore or quadrant, without freezing is a good test.
Hope I helped!
PS, I've come to the realization that it all doesn't make THAT huge of a difference, and if you switch roms anywhere as frequently as me, its a waste of time. Not to discourage you, just my two cents. If you like to pick a rom and stick with it, then definitely play with it.
*edit* Got on my computer and found the guide for you:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1036020
Obviously, since the guide is based on a captivate, the values you will end up with will be different, but he explains the process of fine tuning very well. Enjoy!
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium

what i do with all my ROMs is put it from 100 mhz (min) - 1600 mhz (max)
and put the governor to "ondemand"
i usually get about 18 hours on battery life a day.
give it a shot doesnt hurt to test it out cause you could always charge your battery haha

Optimal Undervolt/OC Settings

So I have a few apps... Voltage Control, SetCPU, No-Frills CPU... but I've honestly been a bit weary to use them. I want the best battery life since I'm a heavy user, but I also don't want to overclock/set voltage to a point where I'll screw up my phone. I'll admit that I'm a novice user when it comes to voltage/overclocking, but not when it comes to ROMs, kernels, bootloaders, etc. I work with those all the time, but really trying to get the most out of the battery and CPU.
There's this thread I found that has someone's settings on it, but don't know if its good or how much this guy knows(no offense to him):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1356211
Anyone got any insight or perhaps screenies of their optimally tested settings? VERY VERY appreciated to anyone that can help.

jgruberman said:
So I have a few apps... Voltage Control, SetCPU, No-Frills CPU... but I've honestly been a bit weary to use them. I want the best battery life since I'm a heavy user, but I also don't want to overclock/set voltage to a point where I'll screw up my phone. I'll admit that I'm a novice user when it comes to voltage/overclocking, but not when it comes to ROMs, kernels, bootloaders, etc. I work with those all the time, but really trying to get the most out of the battery and CPU.
There's this thread I found that has someone's settings on it, but don't know if its good or how much this guy knows(no offense to him):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1356211
Anyone got any insight or perhaps screenies of their optimally tested settings? VERY VERY appreciated to anyone that can help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is no rule. every cpu is different. very different. my captivate took a lot of effort to get a meer 1300 mhz but my infuses get 1600 no problem at all. some infuses wont go to 1600 but more will go to 1500 than galaxy s's. they probably held out the best testing cpu's for the higher clocked phone.
for battery life try clocking @ 800 mhz and dont use screen off profiles just because it looks like a good idea to slow the cpu when you arent really using it(causes problems if the max freq is too low with some kernels) and test stability with your uv settings, go down a little at a time, for max frequency uv from the top down, for battery life go from the bottom up and disable the upper freqs if they become unstable. this is because rapid voltage changes can contribute to instability. too much differential will cause crashes if the uv is extreme or the oc is extreme.
at some point though the cpu settings will have a limited effect. the radios use battery as well. manage your screen brightness and try edge only with the screen off using any number of apps that manage the radio. try one of entropys kernels to avoid a feature of the wifi chip (or was it bt) from sucking power when in proximity of another device with the same chip. turn off sync if you dont need push emails from gmail or real time facebook updates and if you really need battery life get in the habit of togging wifi and bt and gps on and off depending on need. i do none on this because i always found the battery life adequate on samsung phones but on my aria, well it was a must and prolly why people hate android. htc and battery life dont go together unless you manually manage the phone functions.

That's a great bunch of information. I currently keep my Brightness at 0%, GPS off, Wifi only ON when I'm at work when the charger is plugged in.
I guess I'm more concerned with the undervolting than the overclocking. I'd rather preserve the battery life with undervolting... the overclocking isnt a HUGE concern, but it'd be nice to see. Regardless, if you have any "ideal" UV settings, or ones that have worked for YOUR Infuse(assuming you have one), then I'd love to see them.

at one point i had -200mv on every freq from 100-1600mhz and no crashes. i started manually editing the uv script (voltage control is only able to write -200 into the script unless you have the pay version) and forgot what i ended up with. but my first infuse was exceptional in that area. some infuses freeze above 1400 mhz no matter what voltage settings are used. about -50 seems to be safe 99% of the time with minor or no overclock across the board but you could probably go -50 down low and -100 from 400mhz up to 1200 and -50 or -75 on overclock freqs. with underclock or atleast no overclock it's probably safe to go -100 to -150. it may be safe to go much more than that as well but on a small number of phones that might be too far as it is. cpus are made on such a small scale that microns of inconsistency make large percentages of difference. many dont pass testing and qc. some are borderline for the application, some are exceptional. the smaller the architecture gets the more potential the design has for speed but the larger the variance in performance is given a manufacturing technique. obviously the manufacturing gets better and better combating this so that they can make smaller architectures they also have redundancy built in, but sometimes they just disable features of a chipset and market it as an economy version if they have a low pass rate. ever see a 3 core cpu for a pc? most are manufactured as 4 cores and on many motherboards the bios can unlock the 4th core with somewhat unpredictable results.

Again, some really great info for the technical guys such as myself. What is the best way to test the UV settings? The built in tools and stuff in SetCPU? Or is there another way that would be more effective and/or would get more realistic results?

[Q] Underclocking for battery life

So to start off I'm kind of a noob at this... So bare with me but I recently just got the 32gb white(not like it matters) S3 SCH-I535 by Verizon of course and I just rooted it yesterday. The ROM I have on here is basic like just the ROM its self but the ROM I'm running is SuperChargedWizBuild3 and my question is what do I have to do to under clock this to get a good battery life and still some performance. I have ktwerker and played with it myself..... Made the phone run hella slow so I decided to ask instead of putting it in a loop.

In ktweaker just set the Max CPU speed as low as you want. The lower you set it the leas voltage it will use and the slower the phone will run. You have to find the best balance for you.
Also you can undervolt each step to save power as well. When the phone starts to hiccup you undervolted too much.
Hope this helps.
Sent through mental telepathy...or my unlocked SGS3