Daily Driver - Functioning ROM suggestions? - OnePlus 2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey all, I recently upgraded from the 1+1 to the 1+2 and am not too excited about Oxygen. Mostly, I REALLY hate not having the long-press-to-kill feature that I've grown so used to. I do really like the fingerprint scanner, but it is something I could easily live without, and don't know how much I'll miss the laser-autofocus (haven't been all that impressed with the camera as after it "snaps" a photo if I move the camera at all the image comes out super blurry, I have to continue to hold it for a second or so afterwards to get a clear picture).
So, my question/s for you are what ROM are you using for your daily driver? Why did you choose that ROM?
I may just go back to my 1+1 until more ROMs come out and there's better support for them with full functionality.

Try to root stock rom,install xposed plus modules. For me this combo fits perfectly.

Already rooted it, @acmerw. Having some issues with what appears to be a freezing launcher (Apex Launcher). And 1 of the 2 speakers doesn't work, so I'm waiting to see if OP will replace it or refund me for it.

samstheman42 said:
Already rooted it, @acmerw. Having some issues with what appears to be a freezing launcher (Apex Launcher). And 1 of the 2 speakers doesn't work, so I'm waiting to see if OP will replace it or refund me for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you'd be the first OPT-owner who's phone has two speakers at all...no, seriously: the OPT has got a single speaker...
i'm running Blisspop with NovaLauncher and AK kernel, no freezing, no hickups, just smooth and responsive :good:
tried some of the other available ROMs (thank to all those dev's), but always return to Blisspop 'cause i like the immense amount of customization it provides...

samstheman42 said:
Already rooted it, @acmerw. Having some issues with what appears to be a freezing launcher (Apex Launcher). And 1 of the 2 speakers doesn't work, so I'm waiting to see if OP will replace it or refund me for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LoL. Chill. There is only one speaker in the phone. The other grill is just for keeping things symmetric.
And about the ROM, I would prefer staying on the Stock Rom + Root + Boeffla Kernel + Xposed Framework.

My current setup right now is Team exodus' ROM and Kernel. Rooted and without xposed. So far, the phone is nearly flawless. Never have I seen it lag (like never did it stutter or freeze), and the RAM management is outstanding. Battery is good, averaging 4.5 - 6 hours SOT, but then I think it could get better if the ROM is paired with AK kernel.. Only downside of this is that there is yet to have fingerprint scanner, and a built in camera app that would make use greatly of the software, but as of now im using CamNextmod which works well with the set up.
if you're a benchmark jungky, my current set up (stock team exodus) scores between 64k - 68k in antutu, matching that of the Galaxy flagships

Related

GB to ICS and back - mini review

My month with a factory unlocked Galaxy S2​
Bought this in mint condition from a friend for about half price with only 1 hour of use, an unwanted upgrade. Came with 2.3.4 as expected, so hooked up to Kies; no update at the time. As is my wont, I used the phone for a few days to get to grips with TouchWiz (TW) and the phone generally. All quite reasonable, no stability issues and TW is not bad by any means.
My thoughts and trials so far then:
Hardware
Well made, light and thin. Slippery, so a black rubbery skin bought and fitted and I popped a spare 8GB microSD card in, not that the phone needs it for my purposes.
Only criticism is the OLED screen, I'm used to higher resolution (Moto and Sony) and 800x480 looks rather "cheapo" in terms of detail on a screen this large, but no deal breaker. What I do find somewhat at odds with the price of the phone is the slight but noticeable shading and colour tints across the screen at low brightness levels and on some backgrounds. Plus, the screen's legibility outside on a bright day is no better than more run of the mill LCD screens. (I mean cheaper!)
My first GB update
I generally root phones straight after flashing a new firmware version, if it isn't already. I had already successfully rooted the original stock 2.3.4 firmware with Zergrush 4 and debloated that ROM.
I was keen to try a later GB version before trying ICS, and I found 2.3.6 for "Open Europe" on Sammobile and downloaded it. I had already tried Kies, so the USB drivers were present and working. I uninstalled Kies on the PC but left the USB drivers alone. Kies and Odin are not good bedfellows. I did a full factory reset on the phone and erased everything, allowed it to reboot and then powered off, got in to download mode and flashed XXKL1 (which is an engineering version and deodexed it seems). Rooted it via Zergrush 4, deleted known bloat and renamed possible bloat to xxx.bak to clean the ROM for my own usage, and deleted that very annoying start-up sound. Downloaded all the apps I normally use (about 22 of them), including the excellent CPU Spy to check for deep sleep.
I used/charged the phone over the next couple of days to let the OS bed in. No problems encountered at all, and a very pleasing battery life of 30+ hours of light use, with syncing and GPS, 3G, WiFi always on and occasional BT. Magic! Only thing I did is change the Modem to LPR - the KI3 Modem that came with the ROM is not quite as good at holding weak signals. Only just though...
My first ICS update
So, good phone, stable and very usable ROM in 2.3.6. Time had come to try this new ICS thing. Downloaded the LPQ version and installed it, after a full wipe, via Odin. Not impressed by all the automatic installation rubbish at first boot... Rooted via a hot boot CWM and SU/Busybox successfully and did all the same debloating and app installation as GB 2.3.6. Spent some time getting orientated and used to the new menus and so on.
Over the next day or so, I let the ROM settle and began using the ROM - I changed the Modem to LPR as LPQ was not as good, perception wise. ROM was stable and usable, didn't really look or feel much different from 2.3.6 and was worse on battery - I would say 18 hours at best with the same usage pattern.
Absolutely hate the new Exchange thing for live.com email.... real pain usability wise and battery unfriendly.
My second ICS update
So, not overly impressed with LPQ, although it was usable, I decided to try LP7, the UK generic one. Went through the same process as above, and again swapped the Modem from LPS (awful!) to LPR.
No obvious differences at all. Battery life was as poor, but it was usable.
My first CM trial - CM9
So, somewhat disillusioned by Samsung's ICS implementation, I decide to look around for another "mature" ROM. CM9 fitted the bill (I have used CM6 before on another phone) and was smack bang up to date in terms of kernel, AOSP and G Apps. After my usual clean deck start, installed fine, 23/04 build.
At first, I was quite impressed as I could configure more and to my liking. The ROM was stable and I set the phone up with the usual Apps and deleted some useless stuff (like GenieWidget).
Swapped Modem out to LPR - bit of a theme going on here...
I liked the fact that the Spirit FM radio worked (so bought the Pro version as it is that good). The ROM is very usable and never got bogged down, BUT, for reasons I never fully determined, the battery life would start OK and then decline faster during the day. I never saw more than 12 hours life, again using as per my normal pattern and after a few days to settle. There appeared to be various background activities going on that were preventing deep sleep sometimes, but BBS was not really showing me what. Note that I only use BBS as a last resort as it can increase battery use...
No other real problems, but the soft key backlights wouldn't play with NoLED and were somewhat counter-intuitive. A bit trivial, but a mess.
My second CM trial - CM7
I like GB, it is mature and well understood, so CM7 RC 2 was therefore of some appeal. It had been developed over months and must therefore be fairly sorted. Surely.
Installed without issue on a cleaned platform as usual, including G Apps. Did the usual debloat and installed the usual Apps from the Market/Play, and some that were missing, like GMail. LPR modem was already there, Hooray! Spent rather longer fiddling with the settings in CM7 than CM9 since they were less obvious at first, to me anyway.
Switched off and put the phone on wall charge overnight and was rather shocked to find the phone was noticeably warm and displaying "Kernel Panic" in the morning. The phone had only charged by about 5% in total (to 64%). Worry Worry. I put the phone on USB charge until 100% without incident.
Started to use the phone as normal, the phone UI and operation was very good, fluid even. But, first problem I had was in the car. I paired BT fine, as usual, and made a phone call. After the call, I couldn't end the call on the car or phone - it had locked up. Oh dear.
Later, I tried the FM Radio during my daily walk - doesn't work, so why is it there? I tried Spirit FM - no way would it work. Oh dear.
The following day, I noticed that the battery life was amazing! I had never seen this phone sip juice like this. Deep sleep was always easily achieved. That was until the afternoon. I noticed that the battery level was declining at a much higher rate than earlier. I hadn't done anything different, so BBS was called in again. Nothing obvious shown but I kept seeing the GPS icon winking at me from the Notification bar, and continually. I always keep GPS on, but for some reason on this ROM, no GPS signal meant the ROM just kept trying. I played with various settings like Location etc. and managed to stop this odd behaviour, but this was too silly. I use a Smartphone for all the smart features. This wasn't very smart at all.
CM7 was my biggest disappointment of all the above ROM trials. It was the lightest and most promising, and yet the least reliable or functional. Which is a huge shame...
Today...
I'm now back on KL1 2.3.6, and it just works fine - day after day.
The future for me?
I would really like to use CM9 (or CM7 for that matter). They represent a number of ideals for me, including the open nature of development, the collaboration, a pioneering spirit and giving users a choice and a superb base to build on. I am no developer - I can split and modify kernels to a point, I can rehash ROMs with or without adb, I can amend frameworks. But little more.
Reserved for "tips and hints"
Avoiding problems
Always data reset and wipe before doing anything major from one ROM to another, or follow the installation guide for any specific differences in approach.
Avoid Titanium Backup like the plague - it invariably leads to functional issues later if you cross flash. Use Google and/or airdroid for everything, it all just works. So many friends and other forums I contribute to have had too many backup issues to count. Go clean. Forget about Google paranoia.
ES File Explorer is very useful and recommended.
Don't bother "calibrating" the battery - it's an outdated practice and useless. Just use the phone normally, and anyone who claims the battery life is "great" 1 hour after flashing a newly announced ROM is a fool. Likewise NEVER fully discharge a Li-Ion battery. Just keep topping it up. See here: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_charge_when_to_charge_table
Thoughts
Newer ROMs are rarely better ROMs. Better means different things to different folk of course.
ICS ROM core LPQ to LP8 are largely all the same, just variants of the same thing for different markets. Some users believe they perform differently.
Custom kernels and ROMs are always work in progress and should be treated as such. Check out the number of revisions. Some kernel cookers are (welcome) enthusiastic amateurs that assume more is better and cram "fixes" in that the professional salaried software engineers have mysteriously missed. If you only need your stock kernel to be insecure, learn how to make it so. You are running Linux on your box, right?
Deodexing is not a means to improve performance, on the contrary.
Undervolting is a mythical beast
I bought a phone with an FM radio because I want to use it!
And I totally agree. to all of it. Tried all iterations of almost all roms available. For some reason keep going to my VR 3.0 nandroid back up.
Except CM9, I don't really think there is any real development going on. Most are just cooked up roms OR stuff taken from the CM9 tree and implemented OR so called fixes that have actually broken something else OR just debloated rooted official firmware (that AFAIK is pretty easy to do with the fantastic dsixda's kitchen or on a rooted rom).
Now fanboy's may flame as much as they wish to, but seriously a stable CM9 (hopefully..!) or a VR 4.0 is all I am willing to wait for.
Till such time VR 3.0 it is.
LenAsh said:
Reserved for "tips and hints"
Newer ROMs are rarely better ROMs. Better means different things to different folk of course.
ICS ROM core LPQ to LP8 are largely all the same, just variants of the same thing for different markets. Some users believe they perform differently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't agree with your final thought. Different ics rooms have really different feels. E.g. Look at scrolling from lpq to lp7.....and there are numerous others as well. If u want more specific thoughts and feedback, just browse through different ics threads in this section..
omeryounos said:
I don't agree with your final thought. Different ics rooms have really different feels. E.g. Look at scrolling from lpq to lp7.....and there are numerous others as well. If u want more specific thoughts and feedback, just browse through different ics threads in this section..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... I have browsed through the sections, and tried various "revisions" or versions of Samsung ICS today while jotting this lot down, and my view, honestly, is there is no real difference. That isn't to say there isn't, I just can't see or feel it. I do accept that playing with 3 ROMs in a few hours is less than ideal. And a drag!
I suppose if someone could deconstruct the ROMs properly and thoroughly...
Anyway, thanks for your thoughts, appreciated.
Very nice review! +1
Keep up the good work
I broadly agree with the OP.
ICS/AOSP/AOKP/CM9 have improved over the last few weeks, but I'm back on GB, and will probably stay with it until I get the SGS3.
May be subjective, but for me the GB stock browser, camera and dialler are streets ahead of what the rest can offer. Scrolling is smoother too. And I like/need a radio.
B3311 said:
I broadly agree with the OP.
ICS/AOSP/AOKP/CM9 have improved over the last few weeks, but I'm back on GB, and will probably stay with it until I get the SGS3.
May be subjective, but for me the GB stock browser, camera and dialler are streets ahead of what the rest can offer. Scrolling is smoother too. And I like/need a radio.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like you and the OP only tried the AOSP/AOKP roms? Give the roms based on the latest official a try.
The dialer is still as good as always (unchanged), camera is actually improved with higher bitrate recording and the ics stock browser...is untouchable at the moment in my opinion. (Granted I use "ICS Browser+" from the market which uses the best ui in a browser I've encountered)
I currently use Dynamic's ICS rom and it would be extremely difficult for me to go back to GB at this point.
Sigurd02 said:
Seems like you and the OP only tried the AOSP/AOKP roms? Give the roms based on the latest official a try.
The dialer is still as good as always (unchanged), camera is actually improved with higher bitrate recording and the ics stock browser...is untouchable at the moment in my opinion. (Granted I use "ICS Browser+" from the market which uses the best ui in a browser I've encountered)
I currently use Dynamic's ICS rom and it would be extremely difficult for me to go back to GB at this point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I agree that in terms of loading websites, ics default browser is a little bit faster, scrolling and pinch and zooming is much smoother with stock gb browser. Also the dialer is worse on ics as it has removed the contacts section which means I have to put both the dialer and contacts shortcut on the dock.
I'm using Wanamlite v11.1, Siyahkernel v3.1, and Apex Launcher.
A winning combination in my opinion, that is now at least as good as the best GB ROMs in terms of battery life. 7 hours standby with 30 minutes screen time and i'm still on 87%.
In terms of fluidity and performance I think ICS /w Apex beats GB handsdown.
Thanks for the recommendation, but I avoid ROM mix ups, I can do that myself. The ones I have looked at have had some very dubious scripts and additions. I usually look at build.prop first, and generally find all sorts of hybrid attempts at adding stuff that is completely wrong. Lines taken from websites, other phones and so on.
LenAsh said:
Thanks for the recommendation, but I avoid ROM mix ups, I can do that myself. The ones I have looked at have had some very dubious scripts and additions. I usually look at build.prop first, and generally find all sorts of hybrid attempts at adding stuff that is completely wrong. Lines taken from websites, other phones and so on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends, it was like you say in Gingerbread days, not with ICS WanamLite nor Dynamic, only tried these + CM9
I am using Dynamic 1.4 LP9, it is as smooth and fast as CM9, but everything working because it is Samsung based
I tried the included NEAK and Speedmod kernels, similar performance and very good battery life, only 3% drain overnight, I dont play with processor tweaking
Sigurd02 said:
Seems like you and the OP only tried the AOSP/AOKP roms? Give the roms based on the latest official a try.
The dialer is still as good as always (unchanged), camera is actually improved with higher bitrate recording and the ics stock browser...is untouchable at the moment in my opinion. (Granted I use "ICS Browser+" from the market which uses the best ui in a browser I've encountered)
I currently use Dynamic's ICS rom and it would be extremely difficult for me to go back to GB at this point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dialer is laggy if you compare it with GB. CM9 variants have slightly more response dialers but overall, GB dialer is way more responsive. There is a small but noticeable lag when pressing a key and the time it takes to register on ICS (CM9 & stock).
Camera recording with stereo voice recording...! Seriously how many people do shoot video with a phone's camera? For facebook uploads mono audio is just fine..
Browser is a definitive improvement yes, and the desktop mode is welcome but browser mods have been available on GB since long.
It is not that ICS is bad. It is actually very good, but the way it has been implemented on S2 is downright ridiculous...! And not one stable vanilla build isn't really helping..
kranti2064 said:
For some reason keep going to my VR 3.0 nandroid back up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is something I have been contemplating for quite some time now, quite possibly the last month. The only real thing stopping me is that for some reason alot of games (eg dead space and modern combat 3) don't seem to like it when i change roms, and even though all the ingame data is there, sometimes it decides I have to re-download.
I do miss it alot though.. and also red pill kernel
I might end up doing a backup of current my CM9 and take the plunge sometime soon. I've been using CM9 since around feb and lately I think my interest has plateaued and now I'm just beginning to get frustrated with little lags that are popping up more frequently (probably due for a wipe mind you!). The only thing about villiam rom is the bloody touch wiz launcher.. I just don't like messing with the launcher roms were made for either.
kranti2064 said:
Camera recording with stereo voice recording...! Seriously how many people do shoot video with a phone's camera? For facebook uploads mono audio is just fine..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mass lols to be had at the fact that a majority of the time they would be played on the device through the mono loudspeaker too
I also go back for GB..becoz i feel that ics so laggy at dialer,and PES2012 freeze and cant play on ics..but in GB all working great..
Daripada galaxy s2 non-G
melorib said:
Depends, it was like you say in Gingerbread days, not with ICS WanamLite nor Dynamic, only tried these + CM9
I am using Dynamic 1.4 LP9, it is as smooth and fast as CM9, but everything working because it is Samsung based
I tried the included NEAK and Speedmod kernels, similar performance and very good battery life, only 3% drain overnight, I dont play with processor tweaking
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kranti2064 said:
And I totally agree. to all of it. Tried all iterations of almost all roms available. For some reason keep going to my VR 3.0 nandroid back up.
Except CM9, I don't really think there is any real development going on. Most are just cooked up roms OR stuff taken from the CM9 tree and implemented OR so called fixes that have actually broken something else OR just debloated rooted official firmware (that AFAIK is pretty easy to do with the fantastic dsixda's kitchen or on a rooted rom).
Now fanboy's may flame as much as they wish to, but seriously a stable CM9 (hopefully..!) or a VR 4.0 is all I am willing to wait for.
Till such time VR 3.0 it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Currently trying ninphetamine kernel (as per VR3 - thanks for the heads up) on my fave stock KL1 more for interest than anything. Seems OK, no obvious difference from stock running as is apart from it being insecure, need a couple of days to evaluate in real life use.
Bloody good post. I've been using CM9 since the video recording bug was solved, and thats probably the longest I've used any ROM on the SGS2, I really like AOSP but the problem is it does still have quite a few bugs, and isn't quite as fast or as battery friendly as I remember the likes of Hyperdroid v6 being.
This makes me tempted to go back to GB. For me, it is still the ultimate for a daily driver. But I'm lazy so I'll probably stick with CM9.
kranti2064 said:
Dialer is laggy if you compare it with GB. CM9 variants have slightly more response dialers but overall, GB dialer is way more responsive. There is a small but noticeable lag when pressing a key and the time it takes to register on ICS (CM9 & stock).
Camera recording with stereo voice recording...! Seriously how many people do shoot video with a phone's camera? For facebook uploads mono audio is just fine..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ICS dialer laggy , doesn't happen to me on stock LP9 or Dynamic based on LP9 and CM9 is as smooth as they come. Whilst mono audio is fine for you I quite like having stereo audio. Choice, not limitations my friend
tameracingdriver said:
Bloody good post. I've been using CM9 since the video recording bug was solved, and thats probably the longest I've used any ROM on the SGS2, I really like AOSP but the problem is it does still have quite a few bugs, and isn't quite as fast or as battery friendly as I remember the likes of Hyperdroid v6 being.
This makes me tempted to go back to GB. For me, it is still the ultimate for a daily driver. But I'm lazy so I'll probably stick with CM9.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers for that - I would definitely recommend the 2.3.6 KL1 off Sammobile if you want a solid GB.
Dude, if you have not tried CheckRom RevoHD V6, then you have not tried the BEST gingerbread rom for sgs2.
This is why I can not use ICS (yet). Checkrom is just too perfect of a Rom.
Try it, tweak it to your liking, use it for a week or 3 then try and go back to stock.
CheckRom XDA thread

Recommend me a Rom?

Hey guys,
Recently got my self a Note 3 and I am having a terrible experience with the ROMS... I have a Note 2 still with DN3 and that is flawless, but with my Note 3, I have tried S5 Full port and that is slow, crashes and lags for me, S5+N4 ROM is good for a while then just starts to freeze up and crash, won;t allow my phone to turn on.
Anyone know why this is? I am dong all the steps before hand, wiping caches, wiping phone, leaving phone for 10 minutes and I still get issues even after a full fresh install.
Could someone help me and try and fix some of these problems or is it the phone itself as I have seen no one else have these problems?
My favourite is ray man's V19 light roms and X-note V21. I'm currently using X note and it's great!
Thanks for the reply I tried X-note and it as great, nice and fluid but it having it' sown theme, I didn't like it one bit /: And I couldn't seem to find a way to change it..
IMO
RC ROM is an S5 port and its been wonderful on my Note 3 900W8. best battery life on a TW ROM. no crashes, no corrupted data, no nothing out of the ordinary. almost everything works except, video call (which you can replace with skype obviously) bluetooth tethering (tell me who uses that) and screen mirroring (also too, who uses this just get an MHL and get rid of lag).
You´re welcome
RC Elite ROM
GabTheAce said:
RC ROM is an S5 port and its been wonderful on my Note 3 900W8. best battery life on a TW ROM. no crashes, no corrupted data, no nothing out of the ordinary. almost everything works except, video call (which you can replace with skype obviously) bluetooth tethering (tell me who uses that) and screen mirroring (also too, who uses this just get an MHL and get rid of lag).
You´re welcome
RC Elite ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply, I'll be flashing this tonight
I've been like you on DN3 with note2. And I have stayed on stock until there is no proper N4 port.
Note3 is so powerful and full of futures that those roms out there not changing much as it was in
Dn3 case.
Of corse I have root, kernel changed and some improvements.
Just my opinion
Regards
Spunkiest said:
Hey guys,
Recently got my self a Note 3 and I am having a terrible experience with the ROMS... I have a Note 2 still with DN3 and that is flawless, but with my Note 3, I have tried S5 Full port and that is slow, crashes and lags for me, S5+N4 ROM is good for a while then just starts to freeze up and crash, won;t allow my phone to turn on.
Anyone know why this is? I am dong all the steps before hand, wiping caches, wiping phone, leaving phone for 10 minutes and I still get issues even after a full fresh install.
Could someone help me and try and fix some of these problems or is it the phone itself as I have seen no one else have these problems?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After testing a multitude of ROMs, TW based and AOSP, I have come to this conclusion.
If you need your phone to be fast as hell, I recommend one of the two Lollipop builds we have for now, they've become somewhat stable even at this early stage, and both devs seem to have focused on that, so you've got bugfixes every day. And, like I said, the phone will be extremely fast. I've never before had such speed on that Nope 3.
But my own setup right now consists of:
1. This ROM: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2649176
This ROM is as close to stock, stable as stock and still be tweaked.
2. Flashed this theme: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2719942
3. For good battery life I added this kernel: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2488082
Now after all this is flashed, I wanted it to look differently, I got the xposed framework and installed Wanam's xposed module, which can tweak colors and behaviors that no app or launcher can change. LIKE THE GODDAMN GREEN PUKED-ON LOOKING GREEN STOCK QUICK SETTINGS.
Also, for good battery life I got the 10 000 mAh ZeroLemon battery.
That's my two cents.
sirobelec said:
After testing a multitude of ROMs, TW based and AOSP, I have come to this conclusion.
If you need your phone to be fast as hell, I recommend one of the two Lollipop builds we have for now, they've become somewhat stable even at this early stage, and both devs seem to have focused on that, so you've got bugfixes every day. And, like I said, the phone will be extremely fast. I've never before had such speed on that Nope 3.
But my own setup right now consists of:
1. This ROM: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2649176
This ROM is as close to stock, stable as stock and still be tweaked.
2. Flashed this theme: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2719942
3. For good battery life I added this kernel: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2488082
Now after all this is flashed, I wanted it to look differently, I got the xposed framework and installed Wanam's xposed module, which can tweak colors and behaviors that no app or launcher can change. LIKE THE GODDAMN GREEN PUKED-ON LOOKING GREEN STOCK QUICK SETTINGS.
Also, for good battery life I got the 10 000 mAh ZeroLemon battery.
That's my two cents.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Downloading now. It seems that any ROM I have, a day or so later it will just turn slow sluggish and doesn't want to load up any apps. Have you ever heard of this before?
Spunkiest said:
Downloading now. It seems that any ROM I have, a day or so later it will just turn slow sluggish and doesn't want to load up any apps. Have you ever heard of this before?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. Was your phone new or second hand?
B3311 said:
No. Was your phone new or second hand?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bought it from my mum, she got it but went back to an iPhone, around 3 weeks old, maybe 4.

Bloody G3 - I need to rant

I know this is going to sound very much like a first world problem, but this phone is frustratingly ****. It is easily the buggiest, slowest, most laggy phone I have ever had.
I have tried just about all the LG based ROMS, only to find that each one, although not buggy, are all laggy. The lag is so bad that it gives my old S2 on Gingerbread a run for its money. At least with Samsung phones, you could get rid of the lag by using a AOSP ROM and it would still be functional.
To solve the frustrating lag issue, I have installed a CM based ROM. At first I was delighted. The lag was gone. The phone was now comparable to my super fast Nexus 5. But after a few hours, I noticed the same bugs that every other CM based ROM user has. Today, I had to restart the phone six times FFS! It is a little more stable on 777 Kernel, but the same issues still persist.
Has anyone achieved bliss with this phone? Is there any ROMS, AOSP or LG based, that are fast, (Nexus 5 fast), and bug free?
Don't get me wrong, I love devs and the work they do. Without them, my old Galaxy phones, (S1, S2, S3, S4), would have been poo. My Nexus 5 would have been boring. (Stock android is meh). I just don't understand why this phone seems to have so many issues. Help me understand why it is so hard to develop a fast and reliable ROM for this phone. I know it isn't from a lack of trying. There is heaps of support and devs working on various ROMS in the G3 threads already and all of them are very talented.
Is it hardware based lag or is there something else inherently wrong with the phone?
Thanks for reading and offering any solutions. I don't want to list the ROMS I have tried, as it will seem like I am an ungrateful twat to those devs that worked so hard. Suffice to say, I have tried all the popular CM/AOSP and LG based ROMS.
Stock 5.0 V20H fine for me no lag [emoji3]
I switched to note 4 whilst g3 was good I had a better experience with my note 3. So upgraded
-= Note 4 & Gear VR =-
hashcheck said:
I switched to note 4 whilst g3 was good I had a better experience with my note 3. So upgraded
-= Note 4 & Gear VR =-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't want to switch so soon. There has to be a solution. I love the screen and size of this phone. The only other phone I would consider is the droid turbo, but it's so bloody expensive!
DoobyDroid said:
Stock 5.0 V20H fine for me no lag [emoji3]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Compared to what? Which other android phone have you used? In isolation, this phone is barely acceptable. Then, after you use a nexus, HTC or Sony phone, this phone is comparably slow. Almost unusable.
I can't bring myself to try stock again until someone who has other phones to base their claims on can confirm it is lag free.
cubic25 said:
Compared to what? Which other android phone have you used? In isolation, this phone is barely acceptable. Then, after you use a nexus, HTC or Sony phone, this phone is comparably slow. Almost unusable.
I can't bring myself to try stock again until someone who has other phones to base their claims on can confirm it is lag free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried the usual tricks?
1. Swap out the stock launcher for something like Nova or Apex
2. Switch your keyboard to a 3rd party keyboard
While it does suffer from the random stutter, my phone is generally very zippy and does not lag.
Done all that. On stock based ROMS, stutter and lag is unbearable. My wife, nexus 5 user, even commented on how bad it is. I'm actually embarrassed to use the phone in front of people. I know it isn't a hardware issue, because AOSP ROMS are lag free, but not bug free.
Yeah, the phone is nowhere near as quick as a Nexus. The notification bar is also **** compared to stock Lollipop. There are a few tricks I use to improve performance on a stock rom:
1) Turn off throttling/thermal daemon via the service menu.
2) I use setCPU to set the phone to use the "performance" scheduler whenever the screen is on, locking it at 2.5Ghz.
Still isn't perfect, but it helps substantially. Obviously this is in addition to changing the launcher.
It's just one of those things. As you say, CM12 just isn't stable and worryingly seems to be going backwards, getting less and less stable with each passing nightly. The camera is also completely crap on AOSP roms. Nexus devices are great but the N5 is old and the N6 is too big and expensive. The S5 lags too, and while Note 4 is supposed to be good, but I simply won't believe that Touchwiz lag is gone without seeing it with my own eyes. Even if it has gone, Touchwiz remains the ugliest skin I've ever seen. Sony phones are nice, but they aren't packaged anywhere near as tightly as the G3, which is it's biggest strength: 22mm shorter than an iPhone 6+, with the same size screen. That's impressive. HTC's are just ridiculously large for a given screen size. The 1+1 is old now, and doesn't support all LTE bands used in the UK.
There is no perfect phone. Whichever you choose, there are compromises to be made. However IMHO the G3 strikes the best compromise available today, at least once running the latest Lollipop build and with the tweaks I mentioned above applied.
Had most 2014 flagships and G3 is deff fav so far, didnt have KK as updated to LP out the box had little lag after ota but common just needed a factory reset and all good since
Just a tip you can use on any android phone, go to settings, developer options, and set all the animations to 0.5x. This drastically reduces the time the animations take, and it gives a very snappy experience. It makes a LOT of difference, trust me.
No lag whatsoever here. Im running Chupachups newest rom with rin kernel. I've previously owned htc one, lg g2, xperia z1 and this phone definitely outperforms them all.
Ive owned the Xperia Z1, HTC One M7, and tbh id rate this better than both, i would like the battery life to be better my Z1 was amazing for that buh im custom stock rom and i dont get lag, everything is as it should be.
cubic25 said:
I know this is going to sound very much like a first world problem, but this phone is frustratingly ****. It is easily the buggiest, slowest, most laggy phone I have ever had.
...
Has anyone achieved bliss with this phone? Is there any ROMS, AOSP or LG based, that are fast, (Nexus 5 fast), and bug free?
...
Is it hardware based lag or is there something else inherently wrong with the phone?
...
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because LL is still unstable and buggy? And so is any rom based on it?..
Stock firmware sucks because of LG's software - it's very badly written. Almost as bad as touchwiz is. (I used SGS3, trust me on that one...)
AOSP/CM based firmwares are better, but they still suffer due do LL newness. Wait till android 5.1, things may become better.
There is also a hardware issue: unbelievably bad heat management. They used 8974ac, but had not made any cooling system. No radiators, no heat spread throughout the case, and it's facing LCD panel - which is a very bad radiator. GG WP, throttling kick in, phone starts to lag, etc etc etc.
I think there may be problem with your unit... Try to send it back to get a replacement or have it serviced.
Sent from my LG-D855 using XDA Free mobile app
I agree that most of the stock LG-G3 roms, Lollipop/Kitkat, if not rooted and without any mods, LAG is unavoidable. The case is, some people can't root their phones and most of them will try searching why G3 stock rom is lagging... if I'm one of them and I happen to see this post, I would feel bad and feel stupid at the same time why I spend money buying a crappy phone.
Well anyways, try Crash Rom v2.0. It is a stock based ROM like chupachups. The animation is not as fluid as CM but I won't say that it's lagging. Compared to CM, I have not yet encountered any bugs and mostly the camera is better. If you're interested you can also downgrade the resolution to 1080p, this will enhance your g3, 3d and 2d graphics performance.
Hi im all so on lollipop 5.0 updated out of the box and its all good maybe some lag not much to notice. Still no root method yet for stock lollipop 5.0 and i dont want to downgrade to kk so il have patience and wait for new root method for me g3
Wow, I went from the nexus 5, to the htc m8, to the g3 all in year. My advice, play with this one to get the phone lag gone. This by far is the best. Like a previous person said, turn off animations and change the launcher.
mab71 said:
I think there may be problem with your unit... Try to send it back to get a replacement or have it serviced.
Sent from my LG-D855 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't be an issue with the phone, as it is lag free with CM based ROMS.
marfioso said:
I agree that most of the stock LG-G3 roms, Lollipop/Kitkat, if not rooted and without any mods, LAG is unavoidable. The case is, some people can't root their phones and most of them will try searching why G3 stock rom is lagging... if I'm one of them and I happen to see this post, I would feel bad and feel stupid at the same time why I spend money buying a crappy phone.
Well anyways, try Crash Rom v2.0. It is a stock based ROM like chupachups. The animation is not as fluid as CM but I won't say that it's lagging. Compared to CM, I have not yet encountered any bugs and mostly the camera is better. If you're interested you can also downgrade the resolution to 1080p, this will enhance your g3, 3d and 2d graphics performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll give crash a go this afternoon and report back. Hopefully 5.1 ROMS fix the issue too.
dspcap said:
Wow, I went from the nexus 5, to the htc m8, to the g3 all in year. My advice, play with this one to get the phone lag gone. This by far is the best. Like a previous person said, turn off animations and change the launcher.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Already done all that. Animations are turned off, launcher animations are set to lightning fast, CPU throttling is turned off. I've tried all the tricks in the book. Fact is, LG based software is crap, just like Samsung.
So far today, the lock-screen has only frozen on me four times, which is good.
I'm not sure if I'd rather put up with a laggy phone or a buggy phone.
My phone is currently on V20h. Apart from the occasional Home launcher crash, I've not had any lag that I notice of. The last time there was any lag was on V10i. My phone is rooted but is not running any mods.
Prior to this, I've had the Note 3 and Xperia S. Compared to the G3, I would say that the smoothness is at the very least, on par with the Note 3 running on stock.
I've seen people complaining about the G3 being laggy too. Is your phone by any chance the 2 GB RAM version?
My phone is the 2gb version, but I always have at least close to 300mb free. Sometimes I have over 1gb free. Not that it should matter though, as I have read on numerous places that the 3gb version lags too, and that both phones are very close on performance. The extra 1gb of RAM is negligible.
Just flashing Crash ROM now. I think I'm going to regret it though, as I much prefer the look of AOSP anyway.
Ah crap. Just as I flash the ROM, I read that the dev is stopping support for our device. Based on the comments, it looks like a promising ROM.

My first!

Ive been using the moto x 2013 for some time now. I was going to get a S4 or G2, I just cant stand how big the new flagships are these days. I finally ended up on buying a oneplus x. Ordered 2/29 and should arrive today 3/2....pretty fast shipping I think!
Im excited to try it out. I do like CM but going to wait for a stable official CM 13. Ive never tried oxygen, any tips or tricks to make it better? Any bugs that I should be aware of?
Thanks.
Enjoy with oxygen os . Few minor things are there but nothing which hampers normal usage. I wouldn't point it out now because then you will specifically look out for those issues. Enjoy it, its a nice experience and with oneplus team working hard on, it will get better .
If you look for customization,mod and seemless experience, we have dedicated, awesome developers who are continuousuly working on Kernels, ROMs and other stuff . I had not thought of this fast development for this phone. Definitely a great feeling.
mario24601 said:
Im excited to try it out. I do like CM but going to wait for a stable official CM 13. Ive never tried oxygen, any tips or tricks to make it better? Any bugs that I should be aware of?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally, I prefer CM13 over Oxygen. It's stable enough for using it as my daily driver. I've tried every rom available for the OPX and always go back to CM12 or CM13 by MasterAwesome..
If you decide to root, there are many options for tweaking. I use the blu_sparks kernel, tasker and secure settings, viper4android, xPosed, greenify, busybox, ad away...
My screen-on-time varies from day to day, but I always make it through the day with normal usage.
There are bugs on any device, it depends what rom you're using. Some get resolved faster than others, but there are no perfect devices.
I'm moderately happy with the OPX. It's the right physical size for me and looks great with the rounded glass. It feels great in the hands. I love having the sd card.
I have had an issue with the magnetic sensor tripping and shutting off/locking my screen repeatedly, but that was "resolved" by using a non-flip-cover case.
If I wasn't as comfortable as I am flashing and rooting devices, I probably wouldn't be very happy with this device.
When the time comes to upgrade again, I doubt I will buy another OnePlus. They have atrocious customer service. It's basically non-existent.
Cheers
I've tried so many ROMs and to be honest they're all great. Oxygen by itself is a bit stale. I recommend flashing Boeffla and checking out the configuration thread I made
http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-x/general/boeffla-configuration-make-oxygen-fly-t3326054
As for what I prefer to run most, I can't really answer that. Right now I'm enjoying Tipsy with Blu Spark, AICP is great in terms of customization, FlexOS was amazing when I gave it a shot, Tameseks is really good and is probably my favorite implementation of CM, RR has the features, and CM is... CM. You can't go wrong there.
I highly recommend checking out a few ROMs
I'm running Tipsy as aforementioned and I'm loving it so far. The Layers theme is great, it has a great community on G+, and the features aren't bloated by any means. Just needs a feature to to display a memory bar in recents
Have fun with your new device. I love mine. As a matter of fact, its my favorite (coning from using a G4 for a bit too)
OxygenOS is fine. I have been using it since Dec 2015. It is clean and very close to AOSP Lollipop. I will stay with stock for official Marshmallow update from OnePlus. Hopefully the developers community will have similar AOSP based ROM available to play with.
RJDTWO said:
I've tried so many ROMs and to be honest they're all great. Oxygen by itself is a bit stale. I recommend flashing Boeffla and checking out the configuration thread I made
http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-x/general/boeffla-configuration-make-oxygen-fly-t3326054
As for what I prefer to run most, I can't really answer that. Right now I'm enjoying Tipsy with Blu Spark, AICP is great in terms of customization, FlexOS was amazing when I gave it a shot, Tameseks is really good and is probably my favorite implementation of CM, RR has the features, and CM is... CM. You can't go wrong there.
I highly recommend checking out a few ROMs
I'm running Tipsy as aforementioned and I'm loving it so far. The Layers theme is great, it has a great community on G+, and the features aren't bloated by any means. Just needs a feature to to display a memory bar in recents
Have fun with your new device. I love mine. As a matter of fact, its my favorite (coning from using a G4 for a bit too)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well its too early to call for favourite ROM. CM13 is good but RIL is little weak on that. WIfi, mobile data issue. Its as close to daily driver but depends on person to person. Since all of them are close to pure android, It would be hard to pick a favourite . Btw right now I am sticking to OOs for manual camera mode, it comes pretty handy sometimes. Though there are few bugs, smoothness makes me happy. Btw I am rocking Boeffla kernel, greenify, amplify and xposed.
Thanks all for recommendations. Been using it for few hours and so far I like it. I do wish the size was smaller like the moto x but I'm sure will get use to it. One thing, wow is this phone slippery! I use to have nexus 4, that was also all glass but I never felt like I would drop it. Maybe it's the metal edge of the OP. Any good cases, something slim and light?
Sent from my ONE E1005 using Tapatalk
I recently bought few phones and don't know which one to keep to replace my old 2013 moto x. I got galaxy alpha, oneplus x, and Z5 compact. To be honest none feel as good ergonomically as the moto x. The oneplus is nice, good screen and speed but a Lil big. The z5c is really nice but darn thing si hard to hold without a case. Just way too slippery. And loli on it not very fast in my opinion. Also gets pretty warm with light surfing. Not terribly hot but the hottest of the bunch. The alpha is good all around. Nice size, weight is awesome... So light! Speed seems good. My first time using Samsung, it's not as terrible as I thought would be. I switched to Nova prime and feels good. No SD card is a bummer but not deal breaker. It's also slippery but best grip of bunch without case. Screen is good but a bit yellow and not as sharp next to oneplus.
What do you all think, which would you keep?
Thanks.
Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk
I am the type of person that nitpicks all the imperfections in phones. every single phone that been out for the past 6 months i have tried it. so i basically had a try of every kind of software. i had a iphone 6s plus but i felt that i paid to much for what i was getting. so then i was hesitating getting the one plus x because it said it was missing bands. but i was lucky to live in a area where lte is supported. i feel the one plus x is a well rounded device. and the community for this phone is pretty amazing. i was also coming from honor 5x but there was development on it yet. for me the size is not an issue i actually i wish it was a little bigger. alpha and compact i haven't tried them. but what your getting for in the one plus x is definitely a win in my book. if you think its too slippery buy a skin from dbrand or slickwraps. Hope i made your choice a little easier. @mario24601
dgrasley said:
Personally, I prefer CM13 over Oxygen. It's stable enough for using it as my daily driver. I've tried every rom available for the OPX and always go back to CM12 or CM13 by MasterAwesome..
If you decide to root, there are many options for tweaking. I use the blu_sparks kernel, tasker and secure settings, viper4android, xPosed, greenify, busybox, ad away...
My screen-on-time varies from day to day, but I always make it through the day with normal usage.
There are bugs on any device, it depends what rom you're using. Some get resolved faster than others, but there are no perfect devices.
I'm moderately happy with the OPX. It's the right physical size for me and looks great with the rounded glass. It feels great in the hands. I love having the sd card.
I have had an issue with the magnetic sensor tripping and shutting off/locking my screen repeatedly, but that was "resolved" by using a non-flip-cover case.
If I wasn't as comfortable as I am flashing and rooting devices, I probably wouldn't be very happy with this device.
When the time comes to upgrade again, I doubt I will buy another OnePlus. They have atrocious customer service. It's basically non-existent.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad to see that you're having a positive experience with CM13. May I ask how battery life worked for you? — as I'm seeing battery life as a con for a majority of the ROMs available for this device.
I have previously used CM roms on my phones so I isntalled CM 12.1 by MasterAwsome right after I got the OPX. Of course like it , but encountered a bug in volume call. So decided to give a try to Oxygen OS 2.2.0 and I can say I am more then happy with it. Missed some CM customization but nothing I can not handle. On Oxygen , I encounter the bug related to the missing button to close all opened apps - I had to reboot to safe mode then reboot normally to fix it.
I use wifi on work and home, 3g and location always on during day, gps and sound while walking - and I can make it through 2 days before charging, since I watch videos rarely and as long as screen brightness is not set high (I set it at 25%). During the night battery-saver option comes handy.
arukemo said:
I'm glad to see that you're having a positive experience with CM13. May I ask how battery life worked for you? — as I'm seeing battery life as a con for a majority of the ROMs available for this device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the best in comparison to any other ROM out there. 6)-7 hours of SOT easily
I'm liking the X more and more as I use it.
When I'm using SD card, every time I reboot, I have to enable SD card in camera to use it, is this normal?
Sent from my ONE E1005 using Tapatalk
arukemo said:
I'm glad to see that you're having a positive experience with CM13. May I ask how battery life worked for you? — as I'm seeing battery life as a con for a majority of the ROMs available for this device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, battery life is relative. Some days i get 4 hours SoT, sometimes i can get 7. It depends on so many things: whats apps i used that day and for how long, the strength of my wifi/cell signals, screen brightness etc.
On some roms, ive noticed the battery draining very quickly even while not being used.
Right now im using the new CandySix rom and it also has pretty decent battery life.

[Q] Stock or Not to Stock

I have unlocked my bootloader, rooted with Magisk and flashed AsopExtended Rom. Very happy with the performance of my A2017U as it is right now. My question to ya'll is, What would be the pros and cons of returning to complete stock (for OTA updates) or sticking with rooted and custom rom and not being able to receive OTA updates?
whats the question here? Its on you... what you prefer
Lol that depends of your needs - I stick to stock because of audio (mostly) and somehow bcz of camera (as far as I know you can install stock camera app).
That's question is a little bit irrevelant when you was stock and now you are testing custom rom.
So the answer is simply - replay to your question by yourself and with margin to your needs.
Had to test the waters with custom roms on this phone, but was just wanting to hear other peoples thoughts on the subject. I've always tinkered with customizing my phones and enjoy doing so. Would like to hear different points of view and then see if it would make me change my mind. Sometimes custom roms have little bugs that people can or can't live with, and in some cases stock is best for total functionality. Just curious of others opinions.....
amaury48 said:
Had to test the waters with custom roms on this phone, but was just wanting to hear other peoples thoughts on the subject. I've always tinkered with customizing my phones and enjoy doing so. Would like to hear different points of view and then see if it would make me change my mind. Sometimes custom roms have little bugs that people can or can't live with, and in some cases stock is best for total functionality. Just curious of others opinions.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IMHO custom ROMs are littered with bugs, but mostly overlookable. Take the phone bug or storage with SD card bug for example.
Stock works better in every regard (except substratum, damn you mifavor) and with MiFavor 5 this is even truer. But if you like your current ROM there's no reason to go back...
Choose an username... said:
IMHO custom ROMs are littered with bugs, but mostly overlookable. Take the phone bug or storage with SD card bug for example.
Stock works better in every regard (except substratum, damn you mifavor) and with MiFavor 5 this is even truer. But if you like your current ROM there's no reason to go back...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I finally went back to stock B25 via the DrakenFx method to retain root and custom recovery. I came across the phone bug on my custom rom and that helped me make my decision to go back to a stock rom.....
Yep, used custom ROMs from the first week of owning the phone until about a month ago when I went back to B25 with Magisk. Couldn't be happier.
I was about to make a similar thread myself but saw this one. I have been running custom roms since day one but have been considering returning to stock.
A brief summary of the benefits:
Reasons to go with stock:
Fully functional ZTE camera app with no bugs - This is perhaps more important than you might think, ZTE haven't enabled the Camera 2 API which means its very possible we are going to get the best quality and feature-set by sticking with the stock app. If ZTE haven't released their blobs there could very well be reasons to stick with the default camera app...not only that but I like it. You can install the mod, but there are aspects that will never work and some roms and kernels play more nicely with the mod than others.
Dolby Atmos app. Similar to the camera on stock this would just mean less messing about, you can of course get atmos mods in magisk but whether they work as well as the stock ZTE app I am not sure. The strange thing is I have never had the stock ZTE Axon atmos magisk mod to work on a custom rom, even though I have an Axon!
Reliability, no need to worry about force closes or apps not working, everything pretty much just works. So much less stress if you use your phone as a daily driver.
Ease of use, less features makes the phone easier to use. In some cases even when you are a tinkerer like me its sometimes good to be able to forget about continuously tweaking stuff and digging yourself in to a never ending upgrade cycle.
Oreo, it looks like if you stay stock we will see Oreo sooner than custom roms.
Reasons to go custom:
Substratum, oh boy would I miss this going back to stock. The ZTE theme engine is pants compared and I love the work that goes in to my current premium theme.
Battery life, perhaps with the aid of also a custom kernel there are some very nice roms and kernels being worked on which allow you to fully customise and save battery life.
Features, you can set the phone up exactly as you want too, every small detail can be customised. You can choose exactly which rom you like based on the features you use.
Performance, you can get more performance out of a custom rom with custom kernel and find a nicer balance between battery and performance, whichever suits you.
Fun, its fun to flash different roms and get the flashing bug. You learn a lot and get to join in with a fantastic community where people help each other.
Third option, run a debloated custom rom.
Seems to be more and more popular, as an ex Nexus 5 user I loved Cataclysm rom for this very reason. You keep all the features associated with stock with added performance benefits, fixes and less bloat. There is a downside if you plan on keeping atmos as some stock roms seem to strip it away, but it is a nice compromise between the options above. Usually these roms are more reliable as they are based on stock too. If you want a lean rom that just works, this may suit you!
Its such a hard choice and one I still havent decided on, if I have missed anything please let me know!
Background info and summary:
My first smartphone was a ZTE blade 2 and it was a beast for the money, this phone is tremendous too. My GF owns a pixel and apart from the camera this phone trumps it for value no question...for less than half the price.
I have to say though, I do miss the days of my Nexus 5 and the larger mod community, I realise these days have gone now with google devices but perhaps next time I will opt to go to Oneplus just so I can trust a bit more that there will be less caveats going custom as if there is one complaint I have with ZTE it is their unwillingness to release their source code for the little tiny things like the camera api and atmos.
Dodgexander said:
I was about to make a similar thread myself but saw this one. I have been running custom roms since day one but have been considering returning to stock.
A brief summary of the benefits:
Reasons to go with stock:
Fully functional ZTE camera app with no bugs - This is perhaps more important than you might think, ZTE haven't enabled the Camera 2 API which means its very possible we are going to get the best quality and feature-set by sticking with the stock app. If ZTE haven't released their blobs there could very well be reasons to stick with the default camera app...not only that but I like it. You can install the mod, but there are aspects that will never work and some roms and kernels play more nicely with the mod than others.
Dolby Atmos app. Similar to the camera on stock this would just mean less messing about, you can of course get atmos mods in magisk but whether they work as well as the stock ZTE app I am not sure. The strange thing is I have never had the stock ZTE Axon atmos magisk mod to work on a custom rom, even though I have an Axon!
Reliability, no need to worry about force closes or apps not working, everything pretty much just works. So much less stress if you use your phone as a daily driver.
Ease of use, less features makes the phone easier to use. In some cases even when you are a tinkerer like me its sometimes good to be able to forget about continuously tweaking stuff and digging yourself in to a never ending upgrade cycle.
Oreo, it looks like if you stay stock we will see Oreo sooner than custom roms.
Reasons to go custom:
Substratum, oh boy would I miss this going back to stock. The ZTE theme engine is pants compared and I love the work that goes in to my current premium theme.
Battery life, perhaps with the aid of also a custom kernel there are some very nice roms and kernels being worked on which allow you to fully customise and save battery life.
Features, you can set the phone up exactly as you want too, every small detail can be customised. You can choose exactly which rom you like based on the features you use.
Performance, you can get more performance out of a custom rom with custom kernel and find a nicer balance between battery and performance, whichever suits you.
Fun, its fun to flash different roms and get the flashing bug. You learn a lot and get to join in with a fantastic community where people help each other.
Third option, run a debloated custom rom.
Seems to be more and more popular, as an ex Nexus 5 user I loved Cataclysm rom for this very reason. You keep all the features associated with stock with added performance benefits, fixes and less bloat. There is a downside if you plan on keeping atmos as some stock roms seem to strip it away, but it is a nice compromise between the options above. Usually these roms are more reliable as they are based on stock too. If you want a lean rom that just works, this may suit you!
Its such a hard choice and one I still havent decided on, if I have missed anything please let me know!
Background info and summary:
My first smartphone was a ZTE blade 2 and it was a beast for the money, this phone is tremendous too. My GF owns a pixel and apart from the camera this phone trumps it for value no question...for less than half the price.
I have to say though, I do miss the days of my Nexus 5 and the larger mod community, I realise these days have gone now with google devices but perhaps next time I will opt to go to Oneplus just so I can trust a bit more that there will be less caveats going custom as if there is one complaint I have with ZTE it is their unwillingness to release their source code for the little tiny things like the camera api and atmos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some comments about this:
-Stock still has RRO support, so while it is kinda craptastic to use substratum this way, it is doable. I have most of my apps with Swift Dark (the ones that don't force close anyways) and Lawnchair with black theme, on MiFavor 5 which already has a rather black quick settings screen. The result is awesome
While you might be getting more battery life from a custom ROM, I totally disagree on the performance part. Everything works just slower. But yeah, battery-wise I got 7h SOT once which is absolutely bonkers :silly:
If you want a nice modded stock try any MiFavor 5 modded ROM like RDX or ADM Team. Those keep Atmos and use MiFavor 5 B13, which seemingly have a new camera app?
Choose an username... said:
Some comments about this:
-Stock still has RRO support, so while it is kinda craptastic to use substratum this way, it is doable. I have most of my apps with Swift Dark (the ones that don't force close anyways) and Lawnchair with black theme, on MiFavor 5 which already has a rather black quick settings screen. The result is awesome
While you might be getting more battery life from a custom ROM, I totally disagree on the performance part. Everything works just slower. But yeah, battery-wise I got 7h SOT once which is absolutely bonkers :silly:
If you want a nice modded stock try any MiFavor 5 modded ROM like RDX or ADM Team. Those keep Atmos and use MiFavor 5 B13, which seemingly have a new camera app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I will give ADM a try first since RDX seems to exclusively for the A2017 and I own the A2017U.
Frankly when I saw substratum without OMS support before I wasn't impressed but it sounds like it's worth a look.
Performance wise I loved running AOKP. It runs so much faster than resurrection remix and faster than my brief time on stock also.
It's a pain sacrifices have to made somewhere, but I guess you can't argue for the money!
Dodgexander said:
Thanks I will give ADM a try first since RDX seems to exclusively for the A2017 and I own the A2017U.
Frankly when I saw substratum without OMS support before I wasn't impressed but it sounds like it's worth a look.
Performance wise I loved running AOKP. It runs so much faster than resurrection remix and faster than my brief time on stock also.
It's a pain sacrifices have to made somewhere, but I guess you can't argue for the money!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you simply have to flash the univ bootstack and your modem file to install RDX, it just wasn't tested on other phones but the A2017. but yeah, just use ADM Team
If we don't get Oreo, I will root mine, debloat etc and unroot just to keep it stock but lean. Stock camera in Nougat is quite good IMO. Atmos is pants but I will leave it alone.
RobboW said:
If we don't get Oreo, I will root mine, debloat etc and unroot just to keep it stock but lean. Stock camera in Nougat is quite good IMO. Atmos is pants but I will leave it alone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what's the downside of having it rooted?
Some apps don't work and it has to be secure for work use.
RobboW said:
Some apps don't work and it has to be secure for work use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Magisk then...
Choose an username... said:
Some comments about this:
-Stock still has RRO support, so while it is kinda craptastic to use substratum this way, it is doable. I have most of my apps with Swift Dark (the ones that don't force close anyways) and Lawnchair with black theme, on MiFavor 5 which already has a rather black quick settings screen. The result is awesome
While you might be getting more battery life from a custom ROM, I totally disagree on the performance part. Everything works just slower. But yeah, battery-wise I got 7h SOT once which is absolutely bonkers :silly:
If you want a nice modded stock try any MiFavor 5 modded ROM like RDX or ADM Team. Those keep Atmos and use MiFavor 5 B13, which seemingly have a new camera app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just installed adm rom and substratum but can't get any themes to work at all. Substratum appears to work and let's me install them but after a reboot they don't work.
I tested with the Google app, gmail and chrome amongst others. I am using swift black.
I guess it's just a bug with the adm Rom? Magisk is working fine I think.
Dodgexander said:
Just installed adm rom and substratum but can't get any themes to work at all. Substratum appears to work and let's me install them but after a reboot they don't work.
I tested with the Google app, gmail and chrome amongst others. I am using swift black.
I guess it's just a bug with the adm Rom? Magisk is working fine I think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It can't be because I had everything themed on ADM ROM too. Except system ui and that stuff since it can't be themed. no idea why that happens.
Choose an username... said:
It can't be because I had everything themed on ADM ROM too. Except system ui and that stuff since it can't be themed. no idea why that happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Were you using the new release with version 5 of mifavor?
What about systemless host list in magisk enabled to get adaway to work?
Only two things I have changed. I am using A2017U with the b13 bootstack.
Haven't changed anything else so no idea why it isn't working.
Dodgexander said:
Were you using the new release with version 5 of mifavor?
What about systemless host list in magisk enabled to get adaway to work?
Only two things I have changed. I am using A2017U with the b13 bootstack.
Haven't changed anything else so no idea why it isn't working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i was using the old release with version 5 (ADM Team V3)
I would stick with stock unless you are an extreme power user. ZTE fixed 99% of the issues with MiFavor with 7.1.1 and custom ROMs are littered with SO MANY little bugs. MiFavor is extremely stable now. Audio and camera is also much worse on custom.
But hey whatever you prefer.

Categories

Resources