Database Users

[SOLVED] Stock vs. AOSP - Is it really that bad?

EDIT: I've made my final decision, I'm not coming back to the G2 probably. A Stable ROM is much needed, especially on a recent version of Android. I'll have to give a bit more and opt for the G2. The feedback I got was amazing, thank you so much everyone!
ORIGINAL POST:
Hello,
I am looking forward to buying the LG G2 (again, I had the AT&T one with the bad signal bug - I'm getting the D802 now) and the only thing that is currently holding me back is the Custom ROMs. While right now, the G2 is at a great development state, I don't know how much this will be true in a few years when LG stops making updates for us. AOSP and CM based ROMs will be the only option for an up to date version of Android. The hardware is definitely capable of more than 3 more years of usage with a few optimizations here and there. However, my question is how is the experience on AOSP and CM ROMs compared to stock. How's the battery life? Is the audio worse due to the lack of those special drivers? I've heard the camera is awful, is it really that bad? I love the photos my G2 took and while I'm not someone that takes pictures often, I do like a great Camera for the vacations where I have some time to take photos. I'm especially concerned about all of this as my S2 USCC had an awful ROM development and wouldn't want to risk it all again. Not that Marshmallow wouldn't be fine for another 2 years, especially if we get Cloudy G2 4.0.
Thanks in advance,
Chris

AOSP 5.1.1 roms are just as good as stock in terms of everything except for camera quality. Battery life is stellar and all features work flawlessly without a single bug or app crash or anything. Try the latest SlimSaber for d802.

Thanks! I'll be definitely checking out SlimSaber when I get it. Is camera quality a lot worse or just a bit in your opinion?

AOSP is awesome. It is super fluid on the G2. I keep trying them out (Slim, RR, CM, DU etc) but there are always a couple showstopping bugs that send me back to stock:
• Random vibrations
• 5.1.1 bug: when screen is off, leave a WiFi zone and reenter the zone - the phone will not reconnect unless screen is unlocked (ie no push messages, whatsapp etc etc)
That's about it though. Camera is good, GPS works, QuickRemote with a bit of fiddling works great. But stock gives the full package still.

In my experience the only advantage of custom roms is customization - which isn't a huge advantage considering how customizable lg's roms already are. As far as stability and battery life, it depends on the rom - some are great, others( a lot) are downright unusable. At least with the stock rom you know that it will be stable with good(not exceptional) battery life. Since you mentioned that you take a lot of pictures, nothing beats stock since the developers that made it have access to proprietary data. If you have the time to mess with multiple roms over several weeks, go for it - you may find the one you're looking for. For me, stock does everything I need and then some so that's what I use.

Thanks for your response. As I am not someone that often switches ROMs due to me worrying that I'll lose data, I think I've made my final decision. See Original Post.

Awesome, thanks for the amazing info. I've made my final decision, see Original Post.

I9505 - Unhappy since years with all roms

G'Day all my friends of the shining sun!
I'm a S4-owner since the first second and I really like that mobile... On the hardware site. I switched from the iPhone 4s and I loved to playing around with Android, Tasker, Flashing... Etc pp.
But I missed this "set it up and just use it"-feeling. Why? Because I have to care about the battery life, about the speed and about the storage space. So I tried all possible roms, starting with A like Alucard, over CM, Google Edition, Samsung Stock, crDroid, Abele, optimized cm... And now I'm with kushan rom.
Thank you all for this fantastic community, for the development, for the reports, help, Q&A, love and peace for the world!! There are also nice tweaks, features, gimmicks and other crazy stuff for everyone - awesome!
BUT: It feels like that there is no really stable build in any rom. There are still some little bugs that no one cares about because of the new Android (every year) and no one fixed it. Especially the CM's only nightly and monthly builds politic... Maybe I have very exotic problems or I'm still to stupid to find the stable one.. Anyway I'm unhappy
I'm just looking for a really stable and basic rom, that is fast and low on battery consumption. I just use the smartphone for browsing, sms, camera and Bluetooth music connection to my car... That's it, nothing more.
I don't like to start a big discussion of the best rom or sth like that, I'm just looking for tips because I don't have more ideas. Additionally I don't care about the newest rom... It just have to work (see the paragraph before).
Thank you
Nira
(traveling 1year in Australia... to improve my English )

Performance and battery don't go along very well.
For stability and battery life you would be looking at stock roms. But, for some reason, people have problems even with stock roms. So what does that tell you?
Even stock roms aren't completely stable.
Marshmallow took android's speed up a notch. Everything seems snappier. Although, there are still issues. But they vary from user to user.
People say that Lollipop didn't improve over Kitkat in terms of battery life.
Toucwhiz still has the best camera app and can make most of the camera features (HDR, Slow-Motion). And it probably also has better battety life. We are talking about stock touchwhiz, not a custom touchwhiz.
Slim roms are very basic, with a few extras.
AOSP roms from JDCTeam are even more stripped down. It's just basic android.
Keep in mind that wifi and mobile data are big battery drainers. I can maybe get 2 hours SOT with wifi or mobile data activated. But I can probably double or triple that with wifi and mobile data off.
But I don't use the more fancy features of the phone, like GPS and such.

[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.

Which Custom ROM on Axon7 do You prefer and why?

Simple Question. Got Nuclearom on my phone and am quite happy with it. But I am thinking of switching to DarkRom, Candy or AOSPX. What were you experiences, which performed best etc?

For the g model dark ROM does a good job with the Los thread modem, no call bug, viper works and the delta updates are a great feature too. Battery life is good too.
No lags !!!

Oddshotshotbox said:
Simple Question. Got Nuclearom on my phone and am quite happy with it. But I am thinking of switching to DarkRom, Candy or AOSPX. What were you experiences, which performed best etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nuclea. all of the others had performance problems not even fixable with a custom kernel. Some (Lineage, RR) had terrible GPU handling when I used them, but that was like 5 or 6 months ago, so maybe they ironed that out. Thing is, radioactive kernel has a very nicely tweaked governor (when it doesn't break your touchscreen, that is )
I'd say you should backup your current install on an SD card if you want to try something else, because you might as well want to go back. Most other custom ROMs are carbon copies of each other for some reason. For instance, RR looks like AICP, Nuclea like those but with less tweaks... and the difference is mostly the maintainer and the name (usually even the 'goal' of the ROM is the same, to "provide with the best tweakability and functionality while keeping performance best" or something on the lines).

Choose an username... said:
Nuclea. all of the others had performance problems not even fixable with a custom kernel. Some (Lineage, RR) had terrible GPU handling when I used them, but that was like 5 or 6 months ago, so maybe they ironed that out. Thing is, radioactive kernel has a very nicely tweaked governor (when it doesn't break your touchscreen, that is )
I'd say you should backup your current install on an SD card if you want to try something else, because you might as well want to go back. Most other custom ROMs are carbon copies of each other for some reason. For instance, RR looks like AICP, Nuclea like those but with less tweaks... and the difference is mostly the maintainer and the name (usually even the 'goal' of the ROM is the same, to "provide with the best tweakability and functionality while keeping performance best" or something on the lines).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Feel you man, Tried Carbon and RR before Nuclea and got disappointed, very slow and buggy in comparison. But DarkPixel looks promising and people are reporting good speeds and more/better features.
Is someone around here who tested DarkPixel with Radioactive Kernel? Or did some other kernel perform better? Or might it even be the best to stick with the Kernel of the ROM? So many options, so few differences :/

coremania said:
For the g model dark ROM does a good job with the Los thread modem, no call bug, viper works and the delta updates are a great feature too. Battery life is good too.
No lags !!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice to hear that, might try it out. Any Costum Kernel Attempts or nah?

Oddshotshotbox said:
Nice to hear that, might try it out. Any Costum Kernel Attempts or nah?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, not necessary, the kernel that comes with rom does perform absolutely fine in my eyes. Only modded a bit with kernel auditor, read ahead, no big changes. Viper aroma 2.94 and lawnchair as launcher, just using the black ui, no substratum. The rom is smooth, lagfree and not overloaded with features. For smooth browsing I use the chromium swe
here from xda. Magisk 14 with unified hosts just work fine.
No saftey pass issue.
This are all personal choices of course, but it gives me a good performance.

Overall I find there's very little differences between all the lineage based roms. I use aokp with llama kernel but I may switch again if I can bothered. I use war mod too.

Used all of those ROMs for some time and finally settled with DarkRom. It is stable, fast, got its own color engine, so I replaced substratum with daily issues and never ending updates. Delta updates is another plus. I "customized" it by adding viper4android, Omniswitch and Phonograph music player and that's it. I play with the kernel, but return to the built in one, which is unbeatable smooth.

[ROM Reviews/GUIDE] A newbies guide to Nougat ROMs for the Z2 Plus

Alright, so after ROM-hopping for quite a bit over the past three months, I've got a fairly good idea about the various ROMs for our device, unofficial or otherwise. With Oreo coming out soon, and most Nougat ROMs getting their final builds, I thought this might be a good time to give my impressions. While old-timers might not get much use out of this, I'm hoping this will help out anyone that's recently bought a Z2, or is new to XDA.
INTRODUCTION
So, you got a Z2 and are looking to try a new custom ROM to get away from the horror show that is ZUI. Well, I've got good and bad news for ya.
The good- well, if you're a "normal" user that uses his phone to call, text, browse and game for a bit, most ROMs are gonna please you. Most of them are "stable" at this point, meaning you'll get very few crashes/random restarts unless you go full ham installing esoteric Xposed modules. But if you're new to XDA, you're probably unaware of Xposed anyway.
The bad- Most of them will also have some minor issues, and the only way to know if a ROM is perfect for you is to try it. Everyone has their own use cases/expectations from a ROM and thus will have a different experience than you.
My usage: I do not use Google Apps, except for Maps. Most of the apps I use are free/open source, except a few unavoidable one's like banking apps and WhatsApp. That being said, I've tried most(all?) of these ROMs with both Gapps and no Gapps to get a fair impression. Played a few games too, to test the phone in demanding situtations.
I have divided this guide into categories, roughly based on a users requirements. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Usually, if a ROM has insane performance, battery life tends to suffer. The key, as with all things in life, is finding the right balance. When a category has numerical ratings, I will be using a relative scale out of 10. A 10 does not mean that a ROM is perfect in an area, only that it was the best one that I came across.
With that lengthy, but neccessary introduction out of the way, here's the guide:
CATEGORY A: I want my phone to fly, battery life be damned!
I feel that 3 ROMs fit the bill here:
1. VIperOS by @jneto3000
2. Citrus CAF by @DD3Boh
3. Pure Fusion OS by @devabhi
While Viper has been the smoothest by a tiny margin, all these ROMs have amazing performance, and ran anything I threw at them without a hitch. I never had any UI lags while scrolling in apps. That being said, each does have a drawback. With Viper, I've always had a bit of a delay in the fingerprint scanner, PureFusion has been (slightly) unstable for me, and Citrus CAF hasn't recieved the latest KRACK patches, which makes it a no-go from a security POV.
Overall Ratings:
ROM RATING
Viper 10
Citrus CAF 9.5
PureFusion 9.5
Jaguar 9
LineageOS 8.8
crDroid 8.3
AquariOS 8
CarbonROM 7.8
NOTE: Just because I said, "Battery life be damned", doesn't mean all these ROMs have atrocious battery life. In fact, I got ~6.5 hrs SOT with Citrus CAF + Gapps, which is pretty good.
CATEGORY B: I want a good mix of performance, stability and battery life.
I'm guessing most of you belong to this category. Well you're in luck, because most ROMs for Z2 also belong to this category. You can have your pick amongst:
1. LineageOS by @varotone. Was personally my favorite ROM, extremely stable, lightning fast fingerprint, good performance (lagged a bit in games, but butter smooth for other apps) and good battery life. Unfortunately, it hasn't, and will probably never recieve patches for the KRACK vulnerability, so the more security conscious amongst you might want to avoid it. EDIT: Turns out, we did a get a new build, with the same great performance+battery life, but it does have a slow fingerprint unlock, when the phone has been asleep for a while.
2. Jaguar by @optimumpro. Similar to Lineage, it had frame drops with Games, but was rather smooth otherwise. I used this before Lineage, but my screen-on-time reduced drastically after a couple of weeks . On the flipside, many users have, and continue to report good battery life with it, so take my words with a grain of salt. r17 really improves the GPS performance.
3. crDroid by @Subhrajyoti Sen. Insane battery life. I got ~8.5 hrs of SOT (without Gapps) on my second charge cycle. Began to lag a bit so I switched to Viper, although the latest unofficial build has rectified the performance issues. Haven't tried it myself though.
4. AquariOS by @kenny3fcb. Nothing much to say, just a stable ROM with a good battery life. Hasn't been updated for quite sometime though, so no KRACK or Blueborne vulnerability patches.
CATEGORY C: I want security and longevity
Security conscious? Want frequent updates?
The answer, lads- is Jaguar by @optimumpro, and honestly- it's not even close. I think the only way to find the best ROM for yourself is to find a dev whose priorities/use cases align with yours. And if security is your priority- then @optimumpro is your man.
Damn, I sound like a sales guy.
On a serious note though, while I have little idea what Jaguar's security features like- "hardened bionic" do from a technical standpoint, I can tell you that it's usually the first ROM to incorporate security patches and tweaks, from Google or other sources. The dev takes out the time to respond to most queries, and he's said that the ROM will be maintained and updated till Oreo gets completely stabilized.
It has come to my attention that the dev apparently does not release the source code for Jaguar, so I can no longer recommend Jaguar as a privacy-focused ROM.
CATEGORY D: I want a great battery life
1. crDroid by @Subhrajyoti Sen. The last official build gave me the best overall battery life I've had yet.
2. CarbonROM by @ankit99. Pretty good idle consumption. My battery dropped just 1% overnight. Unfortunately not very stable, and hasn't been updated in a while.
Other noteworthy ROMs
1. AEX by @davidevinavil. While I personally didn't a have a great experience with v4.6 of this ROM, a lot of people have. And the dev has always been active, answering most queries. It's worth trying out the 22nd July build, which is pretty good, but doesn't have any recent security patches.
2.. AEX Unofficial by @Star_king12. While ROM has been discontinued, the dev was very helpful with user queries. Also, the 13th September build gave me some of the best battery life I've had on the Z2. I think he's working on a new ROM, so keep an eye out!
I haven't tried every ROM for the Z2, and I'm sure there are few good ones I've missed. Feel free to point to out any in the comments.
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I'm personally using the last ViperOS build for now, and will continue to do so, if the fingerprint issue doesn't bother me too much. If it does, I might give the latest PureFusion or (unofficial) crDroid builds a try. But by and large, I'm happy with Viper.
I hope this helps some of you.

Nice guide bro! Good work !

I think best nougat rom is viper os I have tried it.It has very good mixture of everything butterysmooth performance I have also played asphalt 8 in it and it doesn't lag

I also used to use Viper OS in My HTC senation XE.. that was the best rom. And full of feature..

what about resurrection remix ? can anyone suggest the best build of RR nougat released till yet?

abhay009 said:
I think best nougat rom is viper os I have tried it.It has very good mixture of everything butterysmooth performance I have also played asphalt 8 in it and it doesn't lag
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What about GPS? Is GPS working, i heard Viper OS has problems with it

vuckovic_stefan said:
What about GPS? Is GPS working, i heard Viper OS has problems with it
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I have no problem GPS is working fine and this have phenomenal battery life this is the best I ever used and it is very stable I think u should try to clean flash again

what about aex roms i think they are also good roms

Heating issue and battery are not that much good on aex roms

abhay009 said:
I have no problem GPS is working fine and this have phenomenal battery life this is the best I ever used and it is very stable I think u should try to clean flash again
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Thanks, tomorow i will get Zuk Z2, i will try first Indian MM and if im not satisfied i will go with Viper.
Nougat stock has some anoying bugs, late notifications, double notifications, wifi hotspot problem etc...

vuckovic_stefan said:
Thanks, tomorow i will get Zuk Z2, i will try first Indian MM and if im not satisfied i will go with Viper.
Nougat stock has some anoying bugs, late notifications, double notifications, wifi hotspot problem etc...
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To temper your expectations, I gotta tell you that some people, including me, do have a problem with the GPS on Viper. It does work, but only when you've locked on via WiFi/mobile data, otherwise it takes an eternity to lock on with GPS only. Also, Viper's fingerprint scanner takes a slightly long time to unlock if the phone's been asleep. But it's still a pretty great ROM.

@n'wah Mention the most bug free stable ROM please !
Best ROM in terms of SOT , performance and stability. I know you might read OP but I just need to know.
Cause some ROMs have been updated so

ashwath230 said:
@n'wah Mention the most bug free stable ROM please !
Best ROM in terms of SOT , performance and stability. I know you might read OP but I just need to know.
Cause some ROMs have been updated so
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I'd say go with the last LineageOS build. I would have never left that ROM if it had recieved KRACK patches.
If you NEED to have the security patch, then I'd say go with the last (official) crDroid build. I didn't find any noteworthy bugs while the phone was on, however there's a rather scary bug with offline charging- the display gets flipped and and the phone refuses to turn on unless you press the power button for a long time. Performance is slightly worse than Lineage though.
Viper is also a good choice if you can live with the slow fingerprint recognition time when the phone is asleep and the GPS issue mentioned above. It's what I'm currently using. Best performance, okay battery life.
Also, if you can wait a couple of days, @miju12 is gonna release a new ROM - DotOS. Maybe he's managed to iron out the bugs that are in other ROMs.
Hope this helps.

n'wah said:
I'd say go with the last LineageOS build. I would have never left that ROM if it had recieved KRACK patches.
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Why the Lineage ROM never became Official? Does it support VoLTE?
Is there a way to install KRACK patch manually over any ROM? I wan't to try Lineage as I am using it on Moto G and it is bug free on it. Also, I believe it does not have the latest camera blobs right? We have to flash it?

saurav_k said:
Why the Lineage ROM never became Official? Does it support VoLTE?
Is there a way to install KRACK patch manually over any ROM? I wan't to try Lineage as I am using it on Moto G and it is bug free on it. Also, I believe it does not have the latest camera blobs right? We have to flash it?
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IIRC to become official, the ROM should pass certain quality tests, be mostly bug-free, sensors should work properly etc. By the time the dev ironed out the bugs, he had to step away from development due to personal reasons. I don't think it has the latest camera blobs, volte should work though.
And it doesn't seem that you can flash a security patch manually, if you find out it is possible, please let us know! I feel a lot of users would return to Citrus CAF and Lineage if they had the security patches.

n'wah said:
IIRC to become official, the ROM should pass certain quality tests, be mostly bug-free, sensors should work properly etc. By the time the dev ironed out the bugs, he had to step away from development due to personal reasons. I don't think it has the latest camera blobs, volte should work though.
And it doesn't seem that you can flash a security patch manually, if you find out it is possible, please let us know! I feel a lot of users would return to Citrus CAF and Lineage if they had the security patches.
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And new ROMS come as official even before masses get to use them (see the DOT OS rom thread). Already official :laugh: no quality control.

vuckovic_stefan said:
Thanks, tomorow i will get Zuk Z2, i will try first Indian MM and if im not satisfied i will go with Viper.
Nougat stock has some anoying bugs, late notifications, double notifications, wifi hotspot problem etc...
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Click to collapse
Did you get Your device. And did you get the Nougat update notification or something like that.

saurav_k said:
And new ROMS come as official even before masses get to use them (see the DOT OS rom thread). Already official :laugh: no quality control.
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If you wish to pay me, I will maintain quality control.

miju12 said:
If you wish to pay me, I will maintain quality control.
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Your reply makes no sense in the current context. n'wah replied that "to become official, the ROM should pass certain quality tests" and to which I said a new ROM which is not even used by anyone yet is already official. Where does the question of paying or not paying comes here? I think you took it in the wrong sense.
I am still not clear about how this Official status gets decided? Lineage, AOSGP-X are out for long time but Unofficial and here is a new ROM which had issues with the first build and it is already official !!
I like many other users appreciate your and other developer's work and I am also excited about the new ROM you are coming up with. The discussion here was about the Official / Unofficial status.

saurav_k said:
Your reply makes no sense in the current context. n'wah replied that "to become official, the ROM should pass certain quality tests" and to which I said a new ROM which is not even used by anyone yet is already official. Where does the question of paying or not paying comes here? I think you took it in the wrong sense.
I am still not clear about how this Official status gets decided? Lineage, AOSGP-X are out for long time but Unofficial and here is a new ROM which had issues with the first build and it is already official !!
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Seriously do you think I have done a random build and publish it? Usually I test my builds myself before publishing but this time I was low on data and the previous build was working good so I didn't test and published which was my mistake and I agree for it. I can't speak for other Roms.