custom rom recommendations?

[Stearmandriver]

Hi all,

I've had this phone for quite a while, and while i always rocked a custom rom on my OG Epic, I've never gone beyond rooted stock on this phone - there never really was a need. Until the ICS update lol. And actually my phone still isn't having a lot of the issues others are - after wiping cache and dalvik and doing a five minute battery pull, battery life is back to GB levels. But the whole OS just feels... Clunky, now. Unoptimized. UI lag where I never used to see it, phone using almost twice the ram of GB etc. So I'm thinking it's time to go custom. I'm out of the custom loop here, was wondering if I could run a few questions by you guys:

1. Most stable ICS rom? Is there one lol? I was thinking to try an AOSP based rom, AOKP or CM. Anybody prefer one over the other? I'm looking primarily for stability, everything working, no cell/data/gps/mms/camera issues etc.

2. I'm currently running stock rooted ICS with the agat-src recovery. Is it safe to make a nandroid backup? If I then want to restore that backup, should I do it from the same ICS agat recovery, or from el29 CWM5? (I know to odin to GB CWM5 to flash the custom rom.)

Thanks for any recommendations and/or points in the right direction!

 

[JayWill]

1. Most stable ICS rom? Is there one lol? I was thinking to try an AOSP based rom, AOKP or CM. Anybody prefer one over the other? I'm looking primarily for stability, everything working, no cell/data/gps/mms/camera issues etc.

Both CM9 and AOKP are extremely stable and everything works. In fact, I find they work better than the stock Samsung ROM. Which is better is a matter of personal preference. At it's core, from my experience, AOKP has more features while CM9 is a bit better on battery life. Again, that's just from my experience.

2. I'm currently running stock rooted ICS with the agat-src recovery. Is it safe to make a nandroid backup? If I then want to restore that backup, should I do it from the same ICS agat recovery, or from el29 CWM5? (I know to odin to GB CWM5 to flash the custom rom.)

That kernel and recovery is safe to save and restore nandroid backups, as well as flash from. No need to flash a GB+CWM kernel first.

 

[osc006]

Hi all,

I've had this phone for quite a while, and while i always rocked a custom rom on my OG Epic, I've never gone beyond rooted stock on this phone - there never really was a need. Until the ICS update lol. And actually my phone still isn't having a lot of the issues others are - after wiping cache and dalvik and doing a five minute battery pull, battery life is back to GB levels. But the whole OS just feels... Clunky, now. Unoptimized. UI lag where I never used to see it, phone using almost twice the ram of GB etc. So I'm thinking it's time to go custom. I'm out of the custom loop here, was wondering if I could run a few questions by you guys:

1. Most stable ICS rom? Is there one lol? I was thinking to try an AOSP based rom, AOKP or CM. Anybody prefer one over the other? I'm looking primarily for stability, everything working, no cell/data/gps/mms/camera issues etc.

2. I'm currently running stock rooted ICS with the agat-src recovery. Is it safe to make a nandroid backup? If I then want to restore that backup, should I do it from the same ICS agat recovery, or from el29 CWM5? (I know to odin to GB CWM5to flash the custom rom.)

Thanks for any recommendations and/or points in the right direction!

Dark Knight has some great ROMs. I'd recommend his Stable 1 release.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Stearmandriver]

Both CM9 and AOKP are extremely stable and everything works. In fact, I find they work better than the stock Samsung ROM. Which is better is a matter of personal preference. At it's core, from my experience, AOKP has more features while CM9 is a bit better on battery life. Again, that's just from my experience.




That kernel and recovery is safe to save and restore nandroid backups, as well as flash from. No need to flash a GB+CWM kernel first.

Thanks guys... Jay, that's exactly what i wanted to hear... More stable than stock! ;-) I'll give it a try tonight...

 

[dt81]

We all have different results with ROMS. For example I was using CM9 and was having horrible battery issues, I just updated to AOKP and so far loving it. Lots of customizations, tomorrow will be the test with battery as I work at the airport :

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Android Central Forums

 

[Stearmandriver]

Good lord, is AOKP AWESOME!!! Fast, smooth, stable, and battery life better than the best I ever had on GB. And dozens of uber-cool options baked in.

Thanks for the positive recommendation. I'm sure the others are great too, but I can't see a reason to move off this!

 

[josephcatt]

I would look into Dark_Knight2's port of Android Jelly Bean. It isn't quite stable yet but is well worth the wait.

 

[Jweb92]

Ok so this may not be in the right place but I'm a big noob to flashing roms (have not done it yet) and am scared of bricking my phone, I have rooted it and have agat recovery I just wanted to know if im running the official ICS update do i have to flash back to GB before I would want to flash a custom rom or am I fine to flash one from where I'm currently at. thanks in advance

 

[chriswilliams2183]

Which AOKP are you using. I am running Article right now but always looking for faster.

 

[GiantJay]

Ok so this may not be in the right place but I'm a big noob to flashing roms (have not done it yet) and am scared of bricking my phone, I have rooted it and have agat recovery I just wanted to know if im running the official ICS update do i have to flash back to GB before I would want to flash a custom rom or am I fine to flash one from where I'm currently at. thanks in advance

I recommend going back to el29 or el26.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[steddora]

just wanted to toss a prop for the rom I'm running on my e4gt. Search up The Blu Kuban on xda. Been running that one for nearly as month and must say, it is absolutely amazing. Never had a single stability issue, excellent tweaks, and insanely good support from the maker and the forums over at xda.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2

 

[Corrupt_Data]

just wanted to toss a prop for the rom I'm running on my e4gt. Search up The Blu Kuban on xda. Been running that one for nearly as month and must say, it is absolutely amazing. Never had a single stability issue, excellent tweaks, and insanely good support from the maker and the forums over at xda.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2

Blu Kuban is a really nice ROM, was running it back in my TouchWiz days lol. Now its all about AOSP With that said, PhantomPhreak53's unofficial cm10 build is pretty stable and could be hitting beta soon. Well worth a flash.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[nabril1569]

great question and great answers.
I work in IT, and I certainly know how to navigate a forum. But I kindly ask if someone can paste the link to the AOKP ROM link so I can try that one. The ROM page in the xda developers forum is a menacing, intimadating list of links with numbers, names, and codes that are hard to decipher. For you expert ROM'ers, I am sure it is easy to follow, but for us newbies, it's tough.

thank you very much

 

[hevenz1]

Hi all,

I've had this phone for quite a while, and while i always rocked a custom rom on my OG Epic, I've never gone beyond rooted stock on this phone - there never really was a need. Until the ICS update lol. And actually my phone still isn't having a lot of the issues others are - after wiping cache and dalvik and doing a five minute battery pull, battery life is back to GB levels. But the whole OS just feels... Clunky, now. Unoptimized. UI lag where I never used to see it, phone using almost twice the ram of GB etc. So I'm thinking it's time to go custom. I'm out of the custom loop here, was wondering if I could run a few questions by you guys:

1. Most stable ICS rom? Is there one lol? I was thinking to try an AOSP based rom, AOKP or CM. Anybody prefer one over the other? I'm looking primarily for stability, everything working, no cell/data/gps/mms/camera issues etc.

2. I'm currently running stock rooted ICS with the agat-src recovery. Is it safe to make a nandroid backup? If I then want to restore that backup, should I do it from the same ICS agat recovery, or from el29 CWM5? (I know to odin to GB CWM5 to flash the custom rom.)

Thanks for any recommendations and/or points in the right direction!

Paranoid Android 4.1!!!! The best jb ROM out there..... EVERYTHING works for me... Battery live is way better then all of the other jb ROMs...
Google now and the cards work flawlessly.... can't go wrong with this rom

 

[explosivequack]

Gamermod 1.0 only touchwiz ROM I've EVER enjoyed running or have ever ran for more then 5 hours, its retro and has nice tweaks.

If you hate touchwiz cm10 is cool, same with paranoid, both very smooth although the battery life on either isn't too amazing.