Galaxy Note - is CM worth it?

[mj0]

I've gotten hold of a Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 phone that, according to the previous owner (my wife's boss), was supposed to be broken. According to him the phone refused to charge at all and replacing the battery didn't help. Also, when unplugged it tended to alternate between charging and not charging every other second. I've had the phone for two days now and haven't noticed anything weird yet. It charges just like I expect it to and works great so far. If only it weren't so sloooooow... I'm not sure whether or not TouchWiz is the culprit here but that would be my first guess.

Is anyone running CM on this thing? There seem to be two versions, 10.1 stable and 11 nightly. Not sure whether a nightly is stable enough for everyday use and 10.1 wouldn't be that much of a step up since I'm already running the latest official release, 4.1.2. So how does CM11 do on this almost antique device? What would I gain, what would I lose?

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[PapaGary]

I would try a factory reset first.

 

[mj0]

Sorry I didn't mention it but that was obviously the first thing I did. My wife's boss's personal data was on there so before I even took it we performed a factory reset together so he could be sure that everything was erased.

 

[mj0]

This is getting ridiculous... the phone is so slow at times that sometimes I have to wait for up to five seconds until it reacts to my input. I think I'll try CM12 and see whether it improves performance or not. It's no fun to use it this way and even though it's a four year old it shouldn't be this slow. I've used a four year old iPhone 4s with iOS 9 recently and that was blazingly fast compared to the Note even though the Note is running a several years old operating system.

Can I go back to the current Samsung rom in case I won't like CM?

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[beagle82]

Cm will probably breathe new life in to the phone. Create a nandroid backup of the current rom in case you decide to revert. Or be willing to download it again and flash via odin. But do let us know how it works out.

 

[mj0]

Indeed it did. I went for it today since the stock ROM was unbearable. I didn't feel like fiddling with CM10.1 or 11 and went straight for CM12.1 NightOwl 20151211 (Android 5.1.1) from xda-developers. It went great even though I had to flash twice. The first attempt went well but I decided to skip the repartitioning which I regretted immediately - a 2GB system partition will only allow the installation of five to six apps from the Play Store and moving to the second partition (via move to SD) didn't work for some reason. I had to repartition and reflash the stock ROM (redownloaded), then flash CM12.1 again. I now have a 6GB system partition with plenty of space for apps and another 7GB remaining for media.

Performance has improved significantly. Not only does the system look and feel much more modern but it also feels significantly snappier. Sure, background tasks can still bring the phone to a screeching halt but overall performance is awesome.

If anyone wants to follow suit:
CM12.1 for Samsung Galaxy Note from xda-developers: http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-note/development/rom-t2938649
Repartitioning the Note: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2642299 & https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OyiqM4xZ9m3bx4r3MKn0zkvKCMBtdCCkjBtIn9N7HYc/edit
Samsung Stock ROM for Galaxy Note GT-N7000: http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/database/GT-N7000/

 

[beagle82]

Thats awesome. I did the exact same thing with my moms old S2. She kept complaining about not having any space for apps. No complaints now, and shes running lollipop.

 

[mj0]

Since I'm not actively using this phone right now as my daily driver I went wild and installed CM13 beta 1.1 (Android 6.0.1) on the phone. What can I say - it feels just as fast and I haven't found any show stopping bugs yet. I wonder how much this phone will profit from doze, the battery drain in standby was enormous with both 4.1.2 and 5.1.1, letting the phone sit on the desk all day without touching it pretty much drained the battery from 80% to less than 10% in roughly 12 hours.

 

[beagle82]

That battery sounds shot. I just put CM13 on my wife's old s4 today. Feels brand new again. Will also see how the idle battery drain does with doze. Will give it a few days to prove itself otherwise im installing xposed with amplify, greenify and power nap. Working wonders for my G3. If I leave it idle, i get about 0.2% drain an hour.

 

[mj0]

The battery is not the best anymore but should still do for now. The phone will be put into a box in about a month anyway, and I won't have access to it for at least nine months. After that, I'll take care of the flakey USB board and the battery.

Either way it's also much better now with CM13. I left the phone last night at 65% and checked around 8 hours later to find the battery happily idling at 62%. If this is doze then well done, Google, well done.

 

[mj0]

I have to admit: doze is truly fantastic. Where with the stock Samsung Android 4.1.2 or CM12.1 I had to charge after a day even if I hadn't used it all day the phone now lasts for two to three days with moderate to light use with CM13. The battery is still shot, no doubt, but it'd be interesting to see how well it would do with a brand-new battery.

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[beagle82]

I am actually seeing that myself on the wife's old S4. And I know she punished that battery by draining it to zero quite regularly despite my greatest efforts trying to convince her otherwise. She wasn't making it past lunch with the battery but this is day two and it's still going. And I haven't even begun tampering yet.