Looking for a new ROM, recommendations?

[sandman512]

So, I'm running SFR 1.2 and to be honest, that OTA update is starting to annoy the crap out of me. So, at this time, I'm leaning towards a new ROM. So, any recommendations for a new rom, that I could just flash and hopefully not loose anything. Also,I want to get rid of that annoying notification. THANKS!

 

[Trekker]

Since I'm new to the world of custom ROMs I've only tried one and I tell you, the battery savings alone are worth it!

I'm running:

Rom Name: [ROM][EI22][ERA] Legendary ROM Beta.4.0 | NoCIQ
Developer: hoffman1984
Location: xda developers

Before this, running rooted Froyo and then GB on Sprint, I barely got 8-10 hours from my battery. Right now it's been 20 hours since I stuck in a new battery and I still have 42% left.

I would like to try some other ROMs at some point but for now I'm sticking with this one. I'll never go back to stock again!!

 

[Skunkape60]

So, I'm running SFR 1.2 and to be honest, that OTA update is starting to annoy the crap out of me. So, at this time, I'm leaning towards a new ROM. So, any recommendations for a new rom, that I could just flash and hopefully not loose anything. Also,I want to get rid of that annoying notification. THANKS!

I am really enjoying ACS ICS v5.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[riccochet]

Running Starsky here with a load of other goodies I flashed as well. It's pretty solid so far. You can get Starsky from the XDA forums.

 

[arhoolie]

Just yesterday, I jumped from SFR 1.2/Genocide 2.0 to the Legendary 4.0.1 ROM. So far, so good. Haven't run into any problems as of yet, so I'm happy.

 

[fatal99]

I am using CleanGB from XDA by toadlife. A very simple stock android feel with a few custom touches. Loving It completely.

 

[Dronak]

I'm interested in this, too. Being new to custom ROMs (still just running rooted stock at this point), I'd also like to know what's good to use. There seem to be a lot of choices -- http://forums.androidcentral.com/ep...ingerbread-roms-themes-kernels-mods-list.html lists seven, and somehow I doubt that's a complete list of what's available. I guess everyone will have their preference, but are certain ROMs generally more popular? Or perhaps more importantly, more stable? If I'm going to put a new ROM on my phone, I'd like one that is unlikely to cause problems. The Mostly Stock one seemed like it would be one of the safer options, since it contains less modifications than many others (by design). But things like the ACS ICS one look good (if it wasn't missing basic stuff like the calendar and calculator), and the SleeperROM has a non-wiping version that I haven't seen elsewhere (and not needing to wipe is a nice option). I'm sure they all have good and bad points, but additional advice or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Skunkape60]

ACS ICS v5 now has both. There is a link to a download in which both were added in the ACS ICS thread. Should be on around page 12. But there are much better calculators in the market.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[Pibe38]

I am running LegendaryROM Beta 4.0.1 with Samuari 1.0.4 and I am really enjoying it.

There's a new RC out, but I may wait for the next version to update to that.

I was also on SRF 1.2 with Genocide.

ACS ICS is nice, but not my cup of tea.

 

[jmuru]

I'm running Urban Precision 1.0 and loving it!

[rom][cpk][ei22][11/19/11]URBAN PRECISION X_1.0!!--LIVE!!! - xda-developers

Though, ACS ICS is fantastic, too. Don't feel like you can go wrong with the majority of the GB ROM's available so far.

 

[Skunkape60]

I am running LegendaryROM Beta 4.0.1 with Samuari 1.0.4 and I am really enjoying it.

There's a new RC out, but I may wait for the next version to update to that.

I was also on SRF 1.2 with Genocide.

ACS ICS is nice, but not my cup of tea.

Did they add a shortcut on the desktop or apps menu to your sd card on 4.0.1? When I loaded 4.0 there was no easy way into your sd card without using es file explorer. That is the only thing I didn't like about 4.0.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[Skunkape60]

I am running LegendaryROM Beta 4.0.1 with Samuari 1.0.4 and I am really enjoying it.

There's a new RC out, but I may wait for the next version to update to that.

I was also on SRF 1.2 with Genocide.

ACS ICS is nice, but not my cup of tea.

ERA EI22 is out of beta. Go download ERA EI22 RC1. They added my files and some other stuff. Downloading it now and will check it out again.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[Skunkape60]

ERA EI22 is not as fast as the ACS ICS but it is a nice rom. I like the swype keyboard better on ERA EI22 and the rom looks very stock other than the keyboard and some animations. I haven't played with it much so I will hold off any opinions now. However, at first glance, I like the acs ics better.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[Devtodi]

ACS ICS is about to be updated to 5.1.1 which should be really solid. I had to dump some crap off of it but it runs great, is really fast and stable and will take some overclocking if you are so inclined. this IMHO is the best of the best until CM7 returns to the scene. Starskyrom is good too and I never tried v5, but v4 was cool. Again, had to delete and freeze a lot of files but thats typical unless you get a real AOSP.

 

[Dronak]

Part of what makes me a little reluctant to install a custom ROM is how quickly some of them update. ACS ICS, for example, has had v4, v5, v5.1 with v5.1.1 is coming soon, and this was all in about 2-3 weeks? Some seem to be considered beta, too. Both of these aspects make me wonder a bit about how stable the ROMs are. I haven't used them, so I don't know, maybe they're pretty strong already. But rapid changes and/or beta labels still make me wonder.

Anyway, I just found out about this thread -- Gingerbread ROM You Are Using... - xda-developers -- and thought it might interest people here. It's a poll on XDA about which Gingerbread ROM people are using. As I'm writing this, Legendary leads with ~30% of the 159 votes, followed by ACS ICS at ~16% and StarskyROM at ~13%. I guess this provides some measure of which ROMs are the most popular. Still not sure if there's any sort of comparison of Gingerbread ROMs though to help people choose from among them.

Edit: related to installing a new ROM is putting everything you had on it. I already read about using Titanium Backup or the like to backup and restore apps and such. I just read about using CWM to make a backup and then use advanced restore to restore just the data part. I'm not familiar with either of these (I've only made backups). Will both work to basically put things back the way I had them before flashing a new ROM? If so, does either have advantages over the other? A little clarification would be appreciated, since this is another one of those time-consuming things that I don't really look forward to if I want to flash a new ROM. Thanks.

 

[jmuru]

Part of what makes me a little reluctant to install a custom ROM is how quickly some of them update. ACS ICS, for example, has had v4, v5, v5.1 with v5.1.1 is coming soon, and this was all in about 2-3 weeks? Some seem to be considered beta, too. Both of these aspects make me wonder a bit about how stable the ROMs are. I haven't used them, so I don't know, maybe they're pretty strong already. But rapid changes and/or beta labels still make me wonder.

Anyway, I just found out about this thread -- Gingerbread ROM You Are Using... - xda-developers -- and thought it might interest people here. It's a poll on XDA about which Gingerbread ROM people are using. As I'm writing this, Legendary leads with ~30% of the 159 votes, followed by ACS ICS at ~16% and StarskyROM at ~13%. I guess this provides some measure of which ROMs are the most popular. Still not sure if there's any sort of comparison of Gingerbread ROMs though to help people choose from among them.

Edit: related to installing a new ROM is putting everything you had on it. I already read about using Titanium Backup or the like to backup and restore apps and such. I just read about using CWM to make a backup and then use advanced restore to restore just the data part. I'm not familiar with either of these (I've only made backups). Will both work to basically put things back the way I had them before flashing a new ROM? If so, does either have advantages over the other? A little clarification would be appreciated, since this is another one of those time-consuming things that I don't really look forward to if I want to flash a new ROM. Thanks.

There have been a lot of updates, but it has more to do with new features being added than stability. I've tried most of them (Starsky, ACS ICS, Legendary, Urban Precision) and I haven't had stability issues with any of them yet. And, if you stick to the same ROM, and a new feature is released, you should be able to just flash the update on top of it without having to clear your data, so you won't lose any info.

As for backing up, there's several options: I use Mybackup root, which is similar to Titanium backup, but I prefer its interface, and find it simpler to use. CWM also can do what's called a "nandroid" backup in case something goes wrong, which will restore your system to how it was at the time of the backup. With Titanium backup or Mybackup root, you can pick and choose what you want restored, so you have a little more flexibility. Also, according to the dev for ACS ICS, it's a little cleaner than using CWM to back stuff up (I know absolutely nothing about that, so I can't comment on that). Regardless, once you have a backup, it's not complicated to restore your data using Titanium or Mybackup root.

Also, I should add that while you can backup apps with these programs, it's usually recommended you not do it, especially when changing between Android distributions (ie. going from Froyo to Gingerbread), cause there's a chance of data corruption, etc, so it's advisable to just backup your data with it and do fresh installs of the apps from the Market. You likely won't run into this issue, since you're probably already on Gingerbread, but just thought I'd mention it.

As for ROM's, like I said earlier, I've tried most of them, but always find myself coming back to ACS ICS v5.1, but, again, that's definitely a personal preference. The fun part is having all these options to play with, so go wild

 

[strudel#AC]

I decided to make the plunge to rooting and installing a custom ROM and I wanted something that maintained a stock appearance to make applying a theme less likely to cause conflicts. I wanted all the major fixes and tweaks (no CIQ, GPS fix, hotspot, the ability to overclock, ext4 file system, etc.)

I ended up going with SleeperROM since it met all of my criteria. While I was mucking with my phone I figured I should install a theme also. I installed Honeycomb Fusion Explosion so my phone's UI would look more like my Xoom.

Going from stock GB to rooted and installing a ROM took some time and I ran into a few snags along the way but it was completely worth it. The phone just flies now. I have been torture testing it all morning, installing dozens of apps, setting up my homescreens, emailing, texting and the phone has been nothing but totally responsive the entire time. GPS seems to work much better, although it will take further testing before I have a final verdict on the GPS.

So far I could not be anymore pleased. I can't comment on battery life yet because my phone has been abused all morning but in the coming days I should get a better idea of how battery life has changed. Maybe I will find out the overclocking to 1.44 Ghz is not particularily beneficial to battery life

 

[strudel#AC]

Now that I have had a few days to test things further, I am even more impressed. Ever since I upgraded to Froyo (over a year ago) GPS has been flaky and unreliable at best. My phone would lose GPS signal every few minutes (if it could get a lock at all) and lose it for minutes at a time which makes turn by turn directions in Google Navigation basically useless in an urban area where there are lots of turns.

GPS is rock solid now and extremely accurate. It locks on within seconds with 9+ satellites and is accurate within a foot or two.