CM7.1 vs Nils 3.0/3.5 Vs Rooted OTA [4.06.605.2]

[dallasburn]

Hi All
New owner of HTC Droid Incredible and I bought from cowboom at a very good price. I have rooted the using unrEVOked (3.32). I have not yet accepted the OTA yet.

I have looked into *multitudes* of sites and have narrowed the choices of custom ROMs to the following

(1) [Rom] Official Inc OTA 4.08.605.2 [Updated:23Nov2011] New build is Ready! - xda-developers
(2) CyanogenMod 7 for the HTC Incredible :: V7.1.0 (9 Oct 2011) - RootzWiki
(3) [ROM] Nils' Business GingerSense 3.0 GB2.3.4 (9/14/11 V2.3) - xda-developers
(4) [ROM] Nils' Business GingerSense 3.5 - GB 2.3.5 - (11/13/11 v2.2) - xda-developers

This will be used by my wife (and my 8yr old daughter) as a IPod Touch replacement (she already has AT&T BB from office). Mainly she will be
(1) Listening to Music
(2) Taking and viewing pictures
(3) Taking and viewing videos (720P)
(4) Emails
(5) Web Browsing
(6) A few games that my 8 year old daughter will play sometimes

Stability, hopefully better battery life and a nice GUI are the important criteria s.

Any suggestion on the ROMs?
Thanks
dallasburn

 

[Wanda]

Hi All
New owner of HTC Droid Incredible and I bought from cowboom at a very good price. I have rooted the using unrEVOked (3.32). I have not yet accepted the OTA yet.

I have looked into *multitudes* of sites and have narrowed the choices of custom ROMs to the following

(1) [Rom] Official Inc OTA 4.08.605.2 [Updated:23Nov2011] New build is Ready! - xda-developers
(2) CyanogenMod 7 for the HTC Incredible :: V7.1.0 (9 Oct 2011) - RootzWiki
(3) [ROM] Nils' Business GingerSense 3.0 GB2.3.4 (9/14/11 V2.3) - xda-developers
(4) [ROM] Nils' Business GingerSense 3.5 - GB 2.3.5 - (11/13/11 v2.2) - xda-developers

This will be used by my wife (and my 8yr old daughter) as a IPod Touch replacement (she already has AT&T BB from office). Mainly she will be
(1) Listening to Music
(2) Taking and viewing pictures
(3) Taking and viewing videos (720P)
(4) Emails
(5) Web Browsing
(6) A few games that my 8 year old daughter will play sometimes

Stability, hopefully better battery life and a nice GUI are the important criteria s.

Any suggestion on the ROMs?
Thanks
dallasburn

If you want any kind of quality picture I'd say stick with a Sense-based ROM...that is not to say Cyanogen 7 isn't a great ROM but its camera app leaves much to be desired.

I would go with Nils BGS 3.5 v2.2. It may take a bit extra to get up and running but once you do you won't be disappointed. It's basically the HTC Rezound ROM but nicely shoehorned into the Inc. The camera is heads and shoulders above the CM7 camera, though I can't speak for the 720 video, as I don't take many video's. I do know CM7 does not have 720 recording available at all.

On the music side, if you flash the right kernel (Gingertiny 10/15 I believe) you can even get the Beats by Dre to work as well!

As far as a nice UI goes...well its absolutely beautiful to look at and use. Best version of Sense so far.

If you need tips on getting it going, check the "Fastest Gingersense ROM" thread in this section of ROMs and Hacks.

 

[dallasburn]

Hi Wanda
Thanks a bunch.
dallasburn

 

[ngc457]

Which to use is a decision only you can make. Both roms are as different as night and day. Why not flash one and run it for a week and then the next week flash the other. After that use the one you like the best. Some people like myself want a more plain android experience which is what cyanogenmod gives you. Granted the camera app as mentioned above is not good. The beauty of android is if you don't like something change it. You don't have to use the cyangogen camera app. Camera FX and vignette are good replacements. There is not 720 video with cyanogen and no app to fix that. The video is nice enough for my needs maybe not yours. I personally can't tell the difference.
I hate sense, everything about it. I hate the dialer, contacts, launcher, gallery, and everything. That is why my next phone will be the galaxy nexus. I just want plain android, no touchwiz, moto blurr or sense. Nils from my experience seems slow. It is using sense versions and components meant for phones with faster cpu and more ram and trying to shoehorn it on the aging incredible. If you like sense and but not happy with the speed of nils you may want to consider a stock rom with bloat removed.

 

[Wanda]

I think Sense would be more appropriate for an 8 year old to be used in the manner of an iPod Touch than CM7...I doubt she'll be interested in pimping out the phone with V6 supercharger scripts and SetCPU and all.

On my Inc, Nils ROMs have been pretty stable, offers decent battery life, and is very smooth.
If the main goal is to listen to music, take some pictures and video's, and do a bit of web browsing, the Sense UI is totally the way to go.

I look at it like this, Stock Android is function over form, Sense is more form over function.

 

[mldiroff]

I agree about the Nils' roms. I ran 3.0 for a couple months and loved it. Fast, functional, great camera, and would be great for an easy to use ROM. Of course, I'm currently running MIUI and loving it and am also a big fan of CM7. It really does depend on who and how.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[dallasburn]

For now, I went [Rom] Official Inc OTA 4.08.605.2 [Updated:23Nov2011] New build is Ready! - xda-developers. It was a pretty easy custom ROM installation. I am new to the custom ROM scene. I followed the instruction to the tee. I was puzzled to see the wipes being done twice and formats being done twice. Does everyone do it twice?

BTW, I wanted to check out the stock GB first before embarking on the Nils custom rom for Sense 3.5. My wife likes the stock itself. The 8 year old like the Fruit Ninja app that I bought for 10 cents

Thanks
dallasburn

 

[mldiroff]

That's cool. Again, whatever works for you and your wife/daughter. I have my wife running a mostly stock ROM for her Fascinate and she loves it. Better battery, faster, and close to what she was used to before. WORD OF CAUTION: stay the heck away from the phone now, because your desire to try new stuff will draw you back in and you'll probably make your wife mad when you delete her settings by flashing a new ROM

 

[dallasburn]

I will stay the heck away from the HTC incredible.
This is the best piece of advice yet on this thread! Spoken like a true man who knows how to keep his marriage in tact
Thanks
dallasburn

 

[Lee_Bo]

Both Sense and AOSP roms have their pros and cons. Sense roms have Sense, and AOSP roms don't have it. That's both a pro and con for both. Sense has it's advantages and disadvantages.

As for your requirements, 1,4,5 and 6 can be done with either a Sense or AOSP rom. If 2 and 4 are that important, stay with a Sense rom. However, I just flashed the Miui rom this week and was at an event last night where I took some photos and videos and my PERSONAL OPINION is Miui kicks CM7's butt on pic and video image quality.

 

[mldiroff]

Both Sense and AOSP roms have their pros and cons. Sense roms have Sense, and AOSP roms don't have it. That's both a pro and con for both. Sense has it's advantages and disadvantages.

As for your requirements, 1,4,5 and 6 can be done with either a Sense or AOSP rom. If 2 and 4 are that important, stay with a Sense rom. However, I just flashed the Miui rom this week and was at an event last night where I took some photos and videos and my PERSONAL OPINION is Miui kicks CM7's butt on pic and video image quality.

Agree with this as well. When I was running CM7, I flashed the MIUI camera on recommendation, but now that I'm running MIUI, don't have to worry.

WAIT, one small note I just thought of. If your daughter is used to an Ipod touch, the stock MIUI theme is like an Iphone/Ipod touch, so it may be easier for her to understand, too. Just a thought.