Database Develop

Advantages of the different Roms

The Bionic is my 5th Android and they all have been rooted and had custom roms installed. Before I root it and get to installing custom roms, I would like to know what each one does well and what their weaknesses are. I don't currently have the time available to install them and play with them all like I normally do, so I'm asking the users who are currently using them.
3 things that are important to me: performance, battery life, and would like the camera not to take 5 seconds after clicking it before taking a picture(wouldn't care about this but have kids that I would like to take pictures of). I would also like to install custom boot screens (after owning the lg revolution, I now know that custom boot screens aren't always an easy task).
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smokedkill said:
The Bionic is my 5th Android and they all have been rooted and had custom roms installed. Before I root it and get to installing custom roms, I would like to know what each one does well and what their weaknesses are. I don't currently have the time available to install them and play with them all like I normally do, so I'm asking the users who are currently using them.
3 things that are important to me: performance, battery life, and would like the camera not to take 5 seconds after clicking it before taking a picture(wouldn't care about this but have kids that I would like to take pictures of). I would also like to install custom boot screens (after owning the lg revolution, I now know that custom boot screens aren't always an easy task).
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unl3ash3d: Blur based and stock feel, but with extra mods and an extra pretty theme. Pulldown toggles.
Liberty: Stripped down, AOSP (as much as it can be) and a speed demon. Pretty lightweight. Lots of free RAM here. Pulldown toggles. Reboot and other options in the extended power menu.
Which one is better? Matter of taste. Do you fancy the new blur we have? If yes, go Unl3ash3d. Do you want a stripped down, clean, AOSP vanilla gingerbread feel? Go Liberty.
Battery life I couldn't tell you, as I never ran Liberty through a full discharge. I'm a (new)blur kind of guy - it's grown on me. Unl3ash3d gave me battery issues on some early builds, but this latest is great and gets me the best battery life I've had to date.
Both have different themes available for them, so that's equal as well.
Good luck.
P.S. When Eclipse drops in here, give that a whirl. Smooth.

As far as the camera goes, I agree that the stock one is pretty unusable compared to other phones. Both Liberty and Unl3ash3d have replaced the stock camera app with ones that I find work much faster and better.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium

I definitely appreciate this thread and would love to see more discussion from those with experience with the various roms. I've just switched from the Atrix to the Bionic and from some of the comments, I wasn't even sure if it was worth switching to a custom rom or not. Obviously they each offer some benefits, but complaints about battery life were a bit concerning. I also wasn't clear on how much faster/smoother any of them performed compared to stock (though it's pretty nice in stock form already).
As of now I'm rooted and running go launcher without any huge complaints, though I like to tinker and customize stuff, so that alone is driving my interest in running a rom, though I'm still having trouble with taking interest in a particular option.

CC Lemon, don't let the complaints about the existing roms scare you. This is still a relatively new phone and it takes time for the devs to work the bugs out. Over time, they will be worked out.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA App

smokedkill said:
CC Lemon, don't let the complaints about the existing roms scare you. This is still a relatively new phone and it takes time for the devs to work the bugs out. Over time, they will be worked out.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA App
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Click to collapse
I wouldn't say that it scares me... I'm just not convinced there's anything I should be trying yet. I'm sure we'll see some great roms eventually, but I'm not looking for something that I'll update every time a new version is released, so I'd like something with as few bugs as possible. My post was mostly directed at trying to figure out if any current roms in their current form are worth using or if I should just wait until more bugs are worked out.
The recent CM7 developments definitely sound promising. I know it's just a matter of time before I decide to flash something, but the question is when and what.

Have the devs just abandoned this phone?

I haven't seen any ROM updates or development news in some time. I was planning on getting the Nexus anyways, but I at least wanted the phone to have life after I passed it on.
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Sent from my Droid Bionic.

I've been waiting and hoping. I like my bionic a lot.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA App

* *

We have liberty, that's enough for me. Liberty was all I ran (I tried others but always went back) on my Droid X, with my thunderbolt I only ran BAMF roms. I would like to see more customizable options like power control widget in the notification pull down.

Unfoetinitaly I agree. Having had the evo 4G and the thunderbolt, Dev for this phone seems dead.
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I disagree. Liberty was released just a few weeks ago, the the30ry dev has released two new ROMS, one of which was just updated yesterday, and eclipse will have a 5.7.893 update here soon. In addition, there are devs working to get ICS working on the bionic, and a CM7 project (although I don't know if that's in the works any longer as they have announced CM9 for January). I will say that few of these devs seem to be active on XDA any more, they're all on droidforums and rootzwiki. But they're out there.

It sounds more like the OP is abandoning the Bionic, not the devs.

Hashcode said:
It sounds more like the OP is abandoning the Bionic, not the devs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And I never tried to deny it. However, I'm passing on the phone to my girlfriend, and I didn't want her to be SOL when it came to the best part of owning an Android device.
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Sent from my Droid Bionic.

I think this is just part of the "downtime" between releases. We have an OTA on the way that may or may not have additional compared to whats leaked so a lot of devs IMO are waiting for that OTA to come out and then will update their Roms accordingly.
In addition a lot of 3rd party Roms use CM as a base so until CM is finished being ported to the Bionic, this front will probably remain dead. Once we see CM7 done and CM9 starting, i think you'll start to see a bunch of new roms pop up.

dpw2atox said:
I think this is just part of the "downtime" between releases. We have an OTA on the way that may or may not have additional compared to whats leaked so a lot of devs IMO are waiting for that OTA to come out and then will update their Roms accordingly.
In addition a lot of 3rd party Roms use CM as a base so until CM is finished being ported to the Bionic, this front will probably remain dead. Once we see CM7 done and CM9 starting, i think you'll start to see a bunch of new roms pop up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're probably right.
Surely the parade of better more exciting devices isn't helping.
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I agree I feel UN loved
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Hmm.....
We're supposed to get the OTA and ICS....No???
D

I feel the same way about the Photon, but we are making progress too.
Have you guys been able to unlock your bootloaders without loosing LTE? If so, you are at an advantage, but how many of you have developers with this phone?

There is a locked bootloader. The excellent devs have done most of what can be done without that being unlocked. They are not lazy, they just did so well that there is nothing to change until the bootloader is unlocked or motor/Verizon push ics.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA App

I understand, I am going through the same thing with my Photon, on Sprint, the Now Network.

The devs definitely haven't given up, the Th3ory T3am is working on getting CM9 to boot and a couple of devs over at DF are going through the source code to see if they can unlock the bootloader right now.

darkrom said:
There is a locked bootloader. The excellent devs have done most of what can be done without that being unlocked. They are not lazy, they just did so well that there is nothing to change until the bootloader is unlocked or motor/Verizon push ics.
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Click to collapse
A locked BL isn't as big of a hindrance as people think ... really all it stops you from doing is running a custom kernel. You can still make custom roms and over/underclock. Sure it's not ideal bc you have to deal with 2nd init to run CM but otherwise there is still a lot of flexibility. Liberty, Th3ory and eclipse are perfect testaments to that.

it isn't as long as Motorola continues to create roms with kernals for the newest version of android and only as long as it is rootable. The min one of those two things stop happaning we will need kernel access to continue on

dB Zac said:
it isn't as long as Motorola continues to create roms with kernals for the newest version of android and only as long as it is rootable. The min one of those two things stop happaning we will need kernel access to continue on
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Click to collapse
That's a good point. I would hope that at that point they would at least have the decency to unlock our BL... but who.knows. I'm holding out hope for project cheesecake ... yum I can smell the creamy goodness...
[ sent from _base2 ]

The Razr came out, all hyped up, and now half of what you see on the forums is talking about how it's not that much different than the Bionic, and it clearly becomes a subjective issue, mainly based on form factor and pentile rgbw/lcd (bionic) vs pentile rgbg/samoled (razr).
The Gnex will likely be similar once it comes out and people realize that its not that much better either. It has pure ICS, but I bet we'll be seeing some of that by the time the Gnex is released anyway - at least some roms based on that source anyway.
Droid 4 is literally a Razr with a kb.
Rezound is great as well, but nothing tremendously better than these others.
My point is this... All of these new phones have something positive and something negative about them. I don't see any good reason why developers would stop supporting the bionic, as it is technically in the same league as all of these other phones. I don't think I'm being too much of an idealist ... at least that's my hope
Sent from my phone

Is there any hope for a stable droid 4 rom?

I mean, is the d4 going to be overlooked due to the new razr hype?
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i have faith in the Devs that we will see stuff. Even if at first it is ports from the Razar as the hardware is almost identical. Right now there are a few ROMs that are out, but without the files to factory restore a lot of us are not yet wanting to take the risk of loading custom ROMS.

Thats where i stand. Ive only rooted thus far. I went to motorola without doing my homework. Ive had htc phones in the past and loved the roms available for sense. But when i look at the droid roms it seems they must not be as "popular" as the ones for htc sense. But then again i havent participated in the forum scene enough to research yet.
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Sometimes it just take a little longer for them to come out on Motorola but we do get custom ROMs. Once the recovery files are leaked for the Droid 4 fast boot system then I believe we will start to see many more ROMs.

CM9 for Droid 4
I know that the CM9 ICS ROM that hashcode is developing is still in beta stage but honestly that ROM is very stable. I have been using it for over a week testing all the various hardware functions and they all work fine. I was very impressed with it. No major issues with it at all. Just some very minor issues with the software.

whiteout is right.... hashcode's ICS (both CM9 and AOKP) work almost flawlessly for me. I have used both, and they both have everything working, including front facing camera now! with only little bugs here and there that will be worked out shortly.
keep in mind, this phone has only been out for a month, and there are no stock recovery files out there for us if we really eff somthing up.
dont know about you, but i am thrilled with the development so far and LOVING my ICS experience on the droid4.

I know how you feel; this happened to the Droid 2 thanks to the Droid X, but I think it's safe to say that is not the case here. Actually, for there to be a nearly stable ROM for a phone within a month of it being released, is pretty darn awesome! I think the only reason we haven't seen, say, a CM7.1 ROM yet is because everyone is busy working on CM9.
Side note; since we do have all the drivers, is it possible for someone to get CM7.1 compiled for the phone? I suspect this would not take much work for someone who knows what they're doing, and it would be a nice step up from stock for those of us who actually need to keep a stable phone until CM9 is ready.

I really like roms that also add alot of visuals like change the look of the phone
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I can tell you that at the moment we have two good Android ICS roms in the works, I don't know if those will have many visual options.
Sent from my DROID4 using XDA

blpw said:
Sometimes it just take a little longer for them to come out on Motorola but we do get custom ROMs. Once the recovery files are leaked for the Droid 4 fast boot system then I believe we will start to see many more ROMs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I sure hope we get a good stock recovery file soon. I boot-loop bricked my D4 with careless use of Titanium Backup PRO (moving around system Dalvik cache, deleting rather than freezing stock bloat apps, etc.). Since factory resetting hasn't help, I assume I've trashed the system core and need to reflash from stock... which I guess hasn't been released yet. Sigh.

I just got my Droid 4 a few days ago, and quickly tried the ICS/CM9 ROM, and while it still has some kinks to work out, it definatly has a strong following, and Im sure we will get more things in the future.

Introduce yourself, by that, I mean your device!

Hello everyone,
I'm new here,
Starting this thread so that beginners and new users (like me) can know about what people have done with their monsters and what they are capable of!
Tell me about your favorite top 10 apps and must haves!
Reason for choosing Droid 3?
I'd also like to know if some serious droidians can provide links on how to achieve what they have!
Would also like if they can tell users like me what should be done with their Droid 3 if they just took it out of the box!
I have a Motorola Droid 3 Verizon [XT862 (its obvious but still)],
5.6.890.xt862.verizon.en.us (I think its stock rom, but I could be wrong)
Using it in India.
And thats all I know about it.
Its not even rooted.
My reason for choosing Droid 3:
I wanted something solid, which felt like a monster in my hand, not like the new phones being thin and light as a paper, I needed something heavy! The large screen, 8 mp cam, 16+16 Gb memory are just add-ons to the list,
the main reason being the 5 row physical keyboard. I did not find any other phone with k/b with such screen and cam. And Motorola is well known for being modded and customized!
Share anything and everything you can, it is always helpful to someone!
Tell us about different processes of flashing, about roms, latest updates and so on.
Very excited to hear from y'all!
Hope. to get some really interesting and helpful posts!
Don't forget to have fun while doing this and help as many people as you can
Thanks a lot.

Really?
Really guys,
no one?
I was hoping to get some really good feedback!

Kinda old phone! I got it because i wanted the original but went with the Droid Incredible for processor. So I saw the droid 3 and it looked just as good.

Phone is end of life. These discussions have been had many times before. People are waiting to upgrade to a better phone.
Sent from my DROID3 using xda app-developers app

Droid Incredible?
Isn't it a cdma phone? With 1Ghz processor?
-------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, I see.
But buddy, this discussion is not only about the features of the phone but more about what can one do or should do if they just got it.
This phone is not available at the place I'm using it. Specs are incredible, except for the software update.
I do not see a single phone with a keyboard like this with such a screen over here.
Even though it is an old phone, I got it regardless of its lousy software update.
And therefore I wanted to know, what people are doing with their droid3 regarding software?
I wanted to know which rom are they using and what apps are must haves!
Thats all.
Thank you all for reading.

Rom toolbox, safestrap3, thats all i recommend for must have apps.
Run stock for a while, and then put on safestrap and see what roms you like.
You can also use the ubuntu install app in the market if you want a linux distribution, worked ok on my droid3.
If you like at&t or tmobile, use the radio hack to skip verizon.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Okay so for your info: safestrap 3.0, Mavrom 4.5 on .906 base. Waiting for May for new phone upgrade!
Sent from my DROID3 using xda app-developers app

I just scored a d4 off ebay will be here in 7-13 days lol oh well..lest I can keep my unlimited data and cost less then doing the upgrade lol
ill still be here in the d3 forums though as my wife has a d3 so I keep it current plus I love you guys..

Right back at ya!
Sent from my DROID3 using xda app-developers app

We do too!!
And guys, can any one of you confirm if I flash with any rom, would it affect my unlock?
Using it overseas.
Thanks a lot guys.

Allan Guigan said:
We do too!!
And guys, can any one of you confirm if I flash with any rom, would it affect my unlock?
Using it overseas.
Thanks a lot guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you shouldn't loose unlock but if the rom wasn't dev'd for your specific device..ie..xt862,xt860 ect you might have to flash the proper radio and build prop

Is there really any need to flash a custom Rom on the One?

Firstly, please don't get me wrong here. Im not trolling in the slightest and I really appreciate all the work the devs do here.
With the HTC One having such high specs is there really any need to flash custom Roms? In my opinion all of them seem the same and don't look or feel any different to the stock rom on the One. The only benefit I can see is for Root access.
Im sure there is a lot of "under the hood" tweaks that are done but are these really noticeable or beneficial to the end user? Other peoples thoughts would be interesting.

dr9722 said:
Firstly, please don't get me wrong here. Im not trolling in the slightest and I really appreciate all the work the devs do here.
With the HTC One having such high specs is there really any need to flash custom Roms? In my opinion all of them seem the same and don't look or feel any different to the stock rom on the One. The only benefit I can see is for Root access.
Im sure there is a lot of "under the hood" tweaks that are done but are these really noticeable or beneficial to the end user? Other peoples thoughts would be interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually yes, I wish to get CM working fully on HTC One.
It gives us an alternate experience than what HTC wanted us to.
Best of all, you don't have to wait so long for HTC to update their phones.
Especially when they abandon the One, we rely on CM.
But I'm really hoping for the success of the One, nobody could resist the look and feel of the One.

Livebyte said:
Actually yes, I wish to get CM working fully on HTC One.
It gives us an alternate experience than what HTC wanted us to.
Best of all, you don't have to wait so long for HTC to update their phones.
Especially when they abandon the One, we rely on CM.
But I'm really hoping for the success of the One, nobody could resist the look and feel of the One.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally agree the updates and the benefit of getting rid on Sense if you dont like it is a real benefit. But is there a need for multiple Sense custom roms?

dr9722 said:
I totally agree the updates and the benefit of getting rid on Sense if you dont like it is a real benefit. But is there a need for multiple Sense custom roms?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's subjective I guess. But for something like example HTC DROID DNA or Butterfly, Sense 5 gets ported before HTC did. So I guess it's also a huge benefit.

Earlier updates is the main reason why I will be rooting, these phone networks take ages to update it's unavailable!!
Also there are some very nice skinned roms out there

I won't be unlocking my bootloader for a while. Not until I am at least sure that my device is working 100% and that will take a couple of weeks. I was eager to root it etc but I was reading about HTC's warranty and it seems as though it is a very long winded process. Maybe you wish to do the same?

m00moo said:
I won't be unlocking my bootloader for a while. Not until I am at least sure that my device is working 100% and that will take a couple of weeks. I was eager to root it etc but I was reading about HTC's warranty and it seems as though it is a very long winded process. Maybe you wish to do the same?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep ill be in no hurry either.
when i finally get a device im happy with yea i will root and flash custom rom, but not CM - Sense 5 is great and IMO is much better than stock JB - there are a few minor things I would like added, but I have no doubt they will be added to custom sense 5 roms in due course.

to me, there is no point in being a flashaholic. flash the latest stable base, and then keep up with custom kernels for battery.
thats me, idk bout u guys

Personally something that will push me over the unlock bootloader line is when either when A) IF the HTC logo can become mapped as a button, or B) A full relock becomes available lol

For me, absolutely. I consider some features (such as long press vol key to skip tracks) essential. There are also always some visual things I like to change no matter how well it is made

I just need root to enable volume key wake, and ill want to remap the keys. Everything else looks flawless
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda app-developers app

do you need root etc. to install flash on ONE ?

ChazyChaz said:
do you need root etc. to install flash on ONE ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. To my knowledge, the built in browser has flash support.

What about Wi-Fi hotspot support?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

While there's obviously no NEED, a lot of people will prefer to flash ROMs for a variety of different reasons.
I'd say the main reasons are;
*The ability to have a pure AOSP look which is preferred by a lot of people (especially those who come from a Nexus device). Also, a lot of people don't like the look/feel of Sense and will therefore want to change the UI to something which is more preferable to them.
I, for example, have never tried Sense before and could quite possibly hate it once I finally test it. On the flip side of that, I may love it but at least custom ROMs will give me the ability to completely change the UI whilst giving me a ton more customizations and optimizations than a custom launcher would do.
*As mentioned at the end of the first reason, customization is a huge part of what a lot of people do with their devices. For example, when I had my SGS2 I used to love the ability to flash a simple ROM and have a ton of customization at my fingertips, so I could edit the look of my phone to my hearts content.
*Some people are simply flashaholics and have ORD (Obsessive ROM-flashing/updating Disorder). I'll normally flash every ROM in sight if the device is new and there aren't many ROMs available yet. This way it gives me a good early decision as to what type of ROM I'd prefer on said device. However, once the device starts getting more development and more ROMs start appearing in quick succession, I'll then make my mind up about which ROM to choose and generally won't change ROM for the vast majority of the devices lifetime.
Got a HTC? Join the HTC Hangout Thread

I unlocked, rooted and flashed now because in a few months time the phone will be setup perfectly; all the right apps, all the right data, all in the right place (and HTC might of discovered a way to do a Sensation on us (S-Off))
With the phone rooted I can be relatively confident of getting it back to my currently backed up state after any major updates (and, when I finally install some games, get their progress restored as well)
Sent from my Tricked out HTC One via xda-developers application

Sense means HTC. I don't see any reason to buy HTC if I'm not gonna use sense.

Because HTC makes great hardware. I buy HTC exclusively, but I rip sense off it ASAP and put AOKP or CM or something without sense. Nexus devices are generally not top of the line hardware, they're supposed to be a benchmark for development (i.e. midrange). That said, N4 has more impressive specs than usual, but I can't imagine buying an LG phone. I have never realized LG even made smartphones, only flip phones until the N4 was released.
Still, HTC makes best hardware, I just generally don't like sense. That said, sense 5 does look interesting.
Sent from my EVO LTE using xda premium

Having options is nice!
Dharkan said:
Sense means HTC. I don't see any reason to buy HTC if I'm not gonna use sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To a certain extent, yes, I agree with you on that statement. However, sometimes you just need a change and it is nice to have the option of running AOSP roms as well. I would much rather go back and forth between Sense/AOSP than TouchWiz/AOSP after having my GS3.

No. Roms are for old devices. Lol
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