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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] What kernel would you recommend

Okay I'm planning to buy this phone and decided I am going to use CM9, just wondering what kernel I should use stability and performance is key, I don't mind battery life I can cope with charging every night as I do this now with the worlds worst phone (iPhone 3G) fully charged this morning (8:00) now 30% (17:15) all I've used it for is a little browsing and at most 2 and a half hours of music at mid volume and sent a few texts. So to wrap this up what kernel would you recommend stability ranks higher than speed but speed is important battery mind I can cope with as long as it is better than my iPhones :') If anybody already has CM9 post some screen shots :')

either franco or glados will give you the best of all worlds (performance, stability, battery). i'm not partial to either, i just flash whichever was updated more recently.

Trinity kernels
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

I'm sticking with Franco's since it's done wonders for me on GB.
Using it on ICS now and it's stable and fast.
Greetz

i haven't try ICS yet, but in GB i suggest FRANCO , it's damn good
about battery , it happens to all smartphones ...
only you thing you can do for hard usage is buy an extra battery or extrenal power , thank god our phone's battery is replaceble not as iPhone which is UNreplaceble...

I like mathkid. I used franco on gingerbread but i feel mathkid 11.5 ics is better on ics

ehiggins said:
I like mathkid. I used franco on gingerbread but i feel mathkid 11.5 ics is better on ics
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Click to collapse
Hmmm, what's it like on the performance & stability side?

i think franco's kernel is good ..

Franco Kernel hands down.
He frequently updates his kernel usually on a weekly basis as of now and contains all of the power saving tweaks (Lazy Govenor, DEEP IDLE, BLX, TouchWake Live OC ... this guy is good) created by the creator of the GlaDOS kernel Ezeekel.
He does not have any debugging tools running in the background (as other kernels do) for optimal performance.

amazing battery.. better possible?

I'm using current venomxl Rom with elemental kernel (all default other than max 1.5ghz and flu overclock off) and getting what I feel are amazing results on battery life. On phones of the past, aosp style roms pulled better battery life, but I saw here in the forums people were getting better battery life with sense roms? Is that true? I posted a screenshot below of my battery life, sorry couldn't figure out how to get jpg link from dropbox app.
https://photos-1.dropbox.com/t/0/AA...g/d7MN66kx-qjvYssSKvKrYLP2xrN6GZy7R6-COot-8wM
Would be nice to hear what Rom/kernel combos others are using and what kind of battery life you are getting.

Put the picture in your public folder. Right click on the picture and click copy public link, or something to that effect then paste the link in your thread.
In any case, the only things you could do to get even better battery would be to undervolt your processor and maybe underclock as well. Some phones become unstable however and while I noticed the general ui and most apps run fine with a clock speed of about 1.2ghz, some, more CPU intensive apps do lag a bit. You can also disable radios when not in use. I actually use juice defender to do this for me automatically, which is pretty handy though not everyone likes the idea of having an app do that for you.
Last but not least, if your radio signal seems low most of the time, you can try flashing different radios to give you a better signal which will, in turn, increase your battery life.
Hope this helps, maybe others have had different experiences?
I use viper and bulletproof right now ad I wanted a stock kernel with swipetowake
And this holds up damn well in terms of battery life. Never used elemental for long though so not sure if it's better or worse.
*edit* I forgot to add, you can also turn off fastboot. Your phone will take longer to power on but saves some battery life.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

badhabits727 said:
On phones of the past, aosp style roms pulled better battery life, but I saw here in the forums people were getting better battery life with sense roms? Is that true?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Such reports are often just anecdotal and very subjective. Like you, I've also seen people claim better life on AOSP or certain ROMs on various devices, but never really experienced it in any consistent or meaningful way. Battery life often has more to do with the radio and reception in your specific care, than anything. Sure, various ROMs on various devices may have some subtle difference in battery life. But unless you are very methodical and scientific about comparing them, there are just too many variables involved, and you are often just left with subjective reports and placebo effects.
Can't open your pic. But if you are satisfied with the battery life (enough to call it "amazing"), I'd just go with the ROM that has the features you like the best, and leave well enough alone.

ROM with best battery life

Hi
A friend of mine is endlessly complaining about the bad battery life on his stock nexus 5, the phone is off the charger at 7am and is all but dead at 4pm
Being a nice guy and all, I want to help him out by offering to install a ROM that optimises battery life.
Can anyone suggest a good rom for the task ?
If such a rom exists and battery life can be extended to 15 to 17hrs I might jump ship from my LG G3

None

roms have absolutely nothing to do with battery.
battery is determined by your personal use, your personal setup, apps installed, and very much the quality of your phone/data connection. there are other things that'll influence battery life slightly as well, but these are the main things that determine your battery life.

Turn off auto and set the screen brightness display to 15%!

galaxys said:
Turn off auto and set the screen brightness display to 15%!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Autobrightness isn't too bad if your ROM allows you to change the values/levels
Also, "Lux Autobrightness" is useless for saving battery on an LCD screen since the backlight is still the same brightness. on AMOLED (aka not the Nexus 5) it would help, however.

simms22 said:
roms have absolutely nothing to do with battery.
battery is determined by your personal use, your personal setup, apps installed, and very much the quality of your phone/data connection. there are other things that'll influence battery life slightly as well, but these are the main things that determine your battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so we shouldn't expect any battery improvements when Android L is released ?

ipguy said:
so we shouldn't expect any battery improvements when Android L is released ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its possible, a small amount. but that would be from new code that makes something more efficient. but, i personally, dont expect much difference in battery life.

simms22 said:
its possible, a small amount. but that would be from new code that makes something more efficient. but, i personally, dont expect much difference in battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure I agree with you, project volta looks like a concerted effort from Google to do exactly that.

Funny. I always use Auto-brightness and get 4 hours SoT at least twice a week. Other times, I get a little over 3 hours or below.

The best battery life for me is with elementalx 1.05 kernel with a stock rom. 2 days stand by and at least 5 hours sot is the usual verdict.
But i think the problem here is how your friend uses his phone

Different ROMs do have different battery usage. Even with the same kernel. He could stick on stock with elementalx aosp kernel. Then mess around with trickster mod to suck out the most use. Only use the high power goveners when needed. Then switch back to low power for general use. Honestly, had my n5 for a month. Also had a n4 before. The n5 battery isnt much better. Biggest downside. Just doing nothing its fine, but if I play some games on the train it dies in no time.
Some ideas
Vanir
Slim
Purity
Cm11
Vanir with elementalx was good for me battery wise. But after a certain nightly I was getting alot of heat and battery drain. Im now using sabermod carbon with elementalx.

Turn Location off. It has the biggest Impact in Battery life time.

"Best" ROM.
There is no such thing as a best ROM. The question itself is ambiguous. "Best" is obviously a subjective term.
What I want from a ROM may well differ from what you want from a ROM, ergo - what is best for me could be worst for you.
If you are asking what the most popular ROMs are, or which ROMs people are using, you can see which threads stay around on the first few pages (and have the most posts) in the Android Development or Original Android Development forums. You can also see what other people are running by reading the What are you running on your Nexus 5 thread.
If you are asking which is the most stable, being a Nexus device - they're all pretty stable.
If you are asking which is best on Battery, ROMs only affect battery if they have a feature that is badly coded. You will likely be able to read about this in the ROM threads. ROMs do not impact battery life. The only impact to battery life are your apps, your settings, how you use the phone and mostly, environmental issues such as Phone Signal.
For tips about improving battery life, please read [Battery Life Help] Troubleshoot battery issues here!
"Best" Kernel
Also, please note that as above, "best" is still subjective. What we all want from a kernel is different. Again, many people have the misconception that Kernels affect battery life. Let's get this cleared up. Although Kernel devs will build in optimisations and efficiencies that will improve battery life, these are very, VERY tiny...and if 1 kernel has these optimisations, they likely all have.
People will often say "Kernel x is better than kernel y for battery life". This is actually wrong. Kernels respond to user settings. Setting up the governor to favour either battery life or performance is simple enough to do, you just have to do some learning. The reason people think Kernel x is better than y is because developers set their kernels up with their preferred governor settings. This is what we refer to as out-of-the-box settings. The out-of-the-box settings for kernel x may well produce better battery results than the out-of-the-box settings for kernel y, which favour performance. The fact is, you as the user have the ability to tune kernel x or y to perform the same, be that battery or performance - so start learning how to do this yourselves - that way, you can choose the kernel based on the FEATURES you want, and not the fictional performance benefits of one kernel over another.
Hope this helps

rootSU said:
"Best" ROM.
There is no such thing as a best ROM. The question itself is ambiguous. "Best" is obviously a subjective term.
What I want from a ROM may well differ from what you want from a ROM, ergo - what is best for me could be worst for you.
If you are asking what the most popular ROMs are, or which ROMs people are using, you can see which threads stay around on the first few pages (and have the most posts) in the Android Development or Original Android Development forums. You can also see what other people are running by reading the What are you running on your Nexus 5 thread.
If you are asking which is the most stable, being a Nexus device - they're all pretty stable.
If you are asking which is best on Battery, ROMs only affect battery if they have a feature that is badly coded. You will likely be able to read about this in the ROM threads. ROMs do not impact battery life. The only impact to battery life are your apps, your settings, how you use the phone and mostly, environmental issues such as Phone Signal.
For tips about improving battery life, please read [Battery Life Help] Troubleshoot battery issues here!
"Best" Kernel
Also, please note that as above, "best" is still subjective. What we all want from a kernel is different. Again, many people have the misconception that Kernels affect battery life. Let's get this cleared up. Although Kernel devs will build in optimisations and efficiencies that will improve battery life, these are very, VERY tiny...and if 1 kernel has these optimisations, they likely all have.
People will often say "Kernel x is better than kernel y for battery life". This is actually wrong. Kernels respond to user settings. Setting up the governor to favour either battery life or performance is simple enough to do, you just have to do some learning. The reason people think Kernel x is better than y is because developers set their kernels up with their preferred governor settings. This is what we refer to as out-of-the-box settings. The out-of-the-box settings for kernel x may well produce better battery results than the out-of-the-box settings for kernel y, which favour performance. The fact is, you as the user have the ability to tune kernel x or y to perform the same, be that battery or performance - so start learning how to do this yourselves - that way, you can choose the kernel based on the FEATURES you want, and not the fictional performance benefits of one kernel over another.
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
with this guy

I used about every rom and kernel.... And my battery life for me, with my lean setup and usage was always 24 hoursish total and usually over 6 hours screen time on all of them.
So no one will ever convince me that different kernels and especially different roms affect battery life any more than in the smallest ways. Definitely not enough difference to base a choice on solely.
?

rootSU said:
"Best" ROM.
There is no such thing as a best ROM. The question itself is ambiguous. "Best" is obviously a subjective term.
What I want from a ROM may well differ from what you want from a ROM, ergo - what is best for me could be worst for you.
If you are asking what the most popular ROMs are, or which ROMs people are using, you can see which threads stay around on the first few pages (and have the most posts) in the Android Development or Original Android Development forums. You can also see what other people are running by reading the What are you running on your Nexus 5 thread.
If you are asking which is the most stable, being a Nexus device - they're all pretty stable.
If you are asking which is best on Battery, ROMs only affect battery if they have a feature that is badly coded. You will likely be able to read about this in the ROM threads. ROMs do not impact battery life. The only impact to battery life are your apps, your settings, how you use the phone and mostly, environmental issues such as Phone Signal.
For tips about improving battery life, please read [Battery Life Help] Troubleshoot battery issues here!
"Best" Kernel
Also, please note that as above, "best" is still subjective. What we all want from a kernel is different. Again, many people have the misconception that Kernels affect battery life. Let's get this cleared up. Although Kernel devs will build in optimisations and efficiencies that will improve battery life, these are very, VERY tiny...and if 1 kernel has these optimisations, they likely all have.
People will often say "Kernel x is better than kernel y for battery life". This is actually wrong. Kernels respond to user settings. Setting up the governor to favour either battery life or performance is simple enough to do, you just have to do some learning. The reason people think Kernel x is better than y is because developers set their kernels up with their preferred governor settings. This is what we refer to as out-of-the-box settings. The out-of-the-box settings for kernel x may well produce better battery results than the out-of-the-box settings for kernel y, which favour performance. The fact is, you as the user have the ability to tune kernel x or y to perform the same, be that battery or performance - so start learning how to do this yourselves - that way, you can choose the kernel based on the FEATURES you want, and not the fictional performance benefits of one kernel over another.
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said. I hope you don't mind but I've linked your well written response in a Reddit post. Users there argue daily over which ROM or kernel is best for battery life despite my best efforts.

bblzd said:
Well said. I hope you don't mind but I've linked your well written response in a Reddit post. Users there argue daily over which ROM or kernel is best for battery life despite my best efforts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can lead a horse to water.... Etc... Etc. ?

bblzd said:
Well said. I hope you don't mind but I've linked your well written response in a Reddit post. Users there argue daily over which ROM or kernel is best for battery life despite my best efforts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not at all. I'm just copying and pasting it wherever needed now.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

ipguy said:
not sure I agree with you, project volta looks like a concerted effort from Google to do exactly that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
we will see.

Best kernel for battery?

Just wondering what kernels are showing best battery?

ElementalX

Best kernel and ROM plzz tell guys as not happy with stock OOS 5.1.8

Franco Kernel works best for me.

Definetly franco kernel in terms of battery life. But everyone have to decide by themselves which kernel is best.

For every different user, every kernel will yield different results.
All i can say atm is that every kernel out there is amazing, stock is better for some users but has less options.
I recommend you to try it out few kernels out there and see what's better for you, as i said earlier its different for every user...

Usage patterns have a far larger impact on battery life than kernels do. A kernel that gives good battery life to someone who is gaming all day and sees 5+ hours of SOT isn't necessarily going to be be best for someone one doing mainly email and messaging with the phone in deep sleep 90% of the time. From what I've seen here, usage patterns are all over the map, so someone else's recommendation isn't likely to be of much use to you.
Just try them all and see what works best.

Smurf kernel with Helix_Schedutil as governor