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).
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA App

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
Click to expand...
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.

This may sound dumb to you guys.

Thinking about buying a new og droid from amazon. Im downgrading from my Bionic as its bootloader locked and can't stand not having soap. I've had the DROID incredible and battery was horrible no matter what I did, had the fascinate, charge, and now am looking to stick to my android roots until my upgrade in november. So should I do it?

Honestly, I was thinking about doing it myself a while back. Don't know about the new ones but the OG Droid as I remember was very responsive to overclocking and ran great. I loved mine. Thing felt like a tank. Only thing to consider is CM will be dropping support for the OG Droid with CM9. Droids are dirt cheap and if you're good with fixing gadgets, you can get one with a broken digitizer for next to nothing.

I just recently fullfilled my 2 yr contract and was looking at new phones, but decided to try rooting and using a custom ROM on my OG Droid to get back some speed and functionality. I am no longer planning to fork over $ for a new phone

They're cheap, so the risk is minimal, but imho it is a painful experience running anything higher than Froyo/CM6 on the OG Droid. I know people swear by CM7 (and various scripts like V6, etc), but I have never gotten CM7 or any other GB ROM running smoothly for me.
The problem isn't the speed (I have mine OCed to 1.2ghz), its the memory. 256mb just isn't enough anymore.

so cm6 is the way to go? I have no problem with that. Whats the better setup with cm6 as far as kernel matching with cm6? Would like to hear some setups from anyone using the old school og droid.

Currntly running PE6. 5 on my og droid with the stock kernel which is 1.05Ghz lv. Have used the V6 scripts in past with so so results, am currently using Juwe's Ram Manager with pretty successful results.
Sent from my Droid using XDA App

Try going even farther back. Android 2.1 XD. I still have the old files sitting on my hard drive.

thanks! keep them coming

Looks like project elite 6.5 for me, unless they have something newer out. Anything else I need to know about project elite? Whats the verdict on it? Its hard to find info on the og droid roms, so much just scattered around.

It's an asop rom built by actngrezy, he has stated is working on a version 7 but nothing on it recently or date. Alot of info on PE roms at Droid Forums.
Sent from my Droid using XDA App

Here is a link to my dropbox if you want to try this rom.
http://db.tt/FqDCbRqp
Sent from my Droid using XDA App

are you guys kidding me? this device is SO SLOW it's completely unusable. No matter how you tweak it, 256MB is just not enough. The day you go to a 512mb device, you will NEVER be able to return.... seriously

wow and who are and how have you helped the xda community. Try using a device with more than 512mb. I have. If I wanted your dumbass opinion on the d1 specs I would have asked for them. Clearly you have zero reading skills. Go troll somewhere else.

I found a brand new d1 for 100. Should be here today, looking forward to stepping back in time!

Ever think not everyone can afford a 299.00 phone. I love my d1, 256 and all.
Sent from my Droid using XDA App

well that's exactly it. I have come to the conclussion that I don't need an expensive phone anymore and actually my favorite phone was the htc magic running amon ra rom Three years ago. I have five main uses for android in my little world. phone, facebook, xda, pandora and email. Anything past that and the novelty dies off after a couple of days

Anyone have a working link for p.e. 4.2?
Sent from my Droid using XDA App

Gingerbread roms I'd recommend is Simply Stunning, Liquid, Project Elite, CushZero (as I'm using right now) im getting really good memory. I have been along time Droid user and tried just about every single rom that has been developed for it and finally found one that I can stick too.
If you're going to use Gingerbread, I'd recommend to use v6 supercharger (option 3 or superminfree calculator settings)
Sent from my CushZero using Tapatalk

Best USED replacement for my REVO?

I don't get an upgrade till June 2013, and I'm just sick and tired of this phone. Its just not as snappy, fast or useful as it once was. Tried rooting and custom ROMS and all but it just gets slow time and time again.
What are my options for a decent replacement or better phone for under $150? I was thinking the Galaxy Nexus? Ideas? Thanks.

Galaxy Nexus
The Galaxy Nexus is awesome!! Went from the Revo to a T-Bolt via Verizon replacement. T-Bolt sucked so I bought a used Nexus about 2 months ago and absolutely love it. It is leaps and bounds more advanced than the Revo and will probably last well past your upgrade date because of the strong developer community. No brainer here.

Droid bionic is another decent replacement. Just upgraded to ICS and has JB based custom roms. It also has TWRP recovery that gives the ability to boot between 4 custom roms plus stock
Sent from my BNTV250A using xda app-developers app

Factory reset, limit apps, and watch RAM/cache?
Just a thought, because I went from the laggiest Revo to a perfectly acceptable Revo. Actually, I was forced to, when my original Revo got the infamous boot-to-lit-gray-screen. So I bought a used one off eBay.
Old Revo: 170 apps (at one time, over 200), very laggy. I knew I had too many apps, because it performed considerably better when I reduced from 200 to 170.
New Revo: I judiciously added only 58 apps to the pre-intalled 54 for a total of 112. It's a whole new world, I'd even say it's speedy. (I only updated one of the pre-installed apps, Kindle.)
Caveat: I watch my RAM usage constantly (e.g., Settings-->Applications-->Running services), and am at the borderline already, ranging from about 70 - 150 MB free RAM at any one time. That means I cannot have an e-mail app other than Gmail (e-mail apps use about 50MB of RAM), so instead I use a browser to read the non-Gmail accounts (seems fine enough to me).
On the other hand, maybe mine will get slow again, like yours did. But I don't see technically why it should, if I continually watch my RAM and cache and limit my number of apps (like for seldom needed apps, just install, use, uninstall), and severely limit the number of widgets.
Just posted in case you want to try this (free) route via a Factory reset. (Free in money, not in time.)

The revo definitely runs better if you take an approach like jjt2mey's above. But if you just can't do without a lot of apps installed and running you'll need something more robust. My droid 4 is very snappy without having to be careful about what's installed and running. I imagine that means the similar razr line would be too.
Sent from my DROID4 using xda app-developers app

New to Revo Root/ROM

Okay I just got a free Revo and currently have a Droid X. I want to use the Revo but the stock setup sucks, I want to root and get a stable/functional Rom on here. What Rom would that be? Also would I bide able to hack to use WiFi teather?
Thanks

There is really only one custom ROM for the Revo, called Broken Out. I'm using version 1.1, but there is a version 2 available. There seems to be mixed results with all versions for users. I think it works well of you don't overclock it and get things how you want then, then allow a few days for the system to kind of sort itself out. After that I recommend just leaving it alone and not doing constant tweaking. The Revo just doesn't like a lot of change for some reason. Also, for best performance and stability, try to leave about a gig of memory free and 100 mb of ram free by not having too many apps set up to constantly run. And yes, you can do wifi tethering. I haven't used it lately, but have used foxfi. It worked fine, but I believe they've changed it so that the free version only works for short intervals at a time now. I imagine there are better alternatives.

Thanks for the quick response, do you think it's worth switching from a RD.

I'm not sure I've come across that term. What's an RD?

The Kraken! said:
I'm not sure I've come across that term. What's an RD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry an DX (droid x)
Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk 2

Well, if you're really into customization, probably not. On the other hand, if 4g speeds are important to you, then yes. Also, though I don't know how much memory the DX has or how much you need, the Revo's 16 gigs of storage is a nice element as well.

I owned a DX and its a good phone no costomisability cuz of locked BL but the revo has a little more ram and a lot more memory that can be used for everything not just apps like the DX so yea there both pretty lacking in the SW development area but yea good switch at least my bro thinks so...
sent from my Sony Ericsson Xperia Play™(r800x) Running Slimbean 3.0 using Tapatalk 2™

I've been using the revolution for about one week now and although kagg
Sent from my VS910 4G

How to get a buttery experience w/ our phone

Since I have gotten this phone I have noticed an influx of complaints about how slow and laggy this phone is due to it's low RAM. I too have experienced these same issues as everyone else. After using the Galaxy S 3 since July it was hard not treating this phone like it was a power house. Well this phone obviously isn't, and as Android OS and Apps are advancing the slower this phone is going to seem. Remembering what life was like when I had the Samsung Intercept on Virgin Mobile I was able to get some what of a buttery experience with this phone. So I am just going to share my set up and what I am doing, and other's may share their experience. My hopes is that we can all learn what to do and what not to do and somewhere in between. I am no expert and do hope to learn some pointers from people more experiences and more qualified than me
#1 I am using a light weight rom, slim bean 4.1 to be exact I am sure any rom will do, but with this phone I would assume less is more in terms of performance. Also play around see what works best for you, ,GB, ICS, JB4.1, JB4.2. There is no best rom just best rom for you. Once you find one that works for you golden!
#2 Since I am using Jellybean I went into developers options(to enable go to about phone and tap build number 7 times) and I set the background process limit to 4. My reasoning is I dont' want to forfeit multi tasking all together but it's very apparent that this phone can only handle so much. You can also set it "don't keep activies" which wont allow any multi tasking like old school iOS.
#3 I use Android built in task manager to exit out of applications I am using quite frequently. If you hold the home button for an extended period of time the task manager will appear. (maybe different depending on which rom you use)
#3 don't overload this phone with apps, not only do we have limited storage for apps, but the more apps that run in the back ground the slower that it takes. What I did is many apps are basically short cuts to website for instance bank of america. What I did was in the stock browser I bookmarked the website, and then made a short cut to my desktop. I also changed icon to something similar to what the app icon would look like. Not all launchers support changing the icon. I did the same with facebook as it is often runing in the background. If you don't use Navigation uninstalling google maps might be a good idea. If you play games delete all processes before and after playing
#4 A lot of games take up a lot of resources so if you must play games especially one that uses a lot of power than maybe a good idea to delete processes before and after game usage. If the game(or any app for that matter) is constantly freezing than perhaps you should just delete it.
#5 don't use a launcher that takes up a lot of memory, the lighter the better. Stock launcher is probably a safe bet. I use Espire launher(iOS launcher), I know Atom would also be a good one. Stay away from any 3D launcher anything with eye candy imo is bad idea. In my experience Go Laucher, mihome, Launcher7/8 are memory hogs, I mean if they slowed down my old GS3 just imagine our phone. Although with Launher 7/8 If you were disable the live tiles it may run smoother. My opinion though is what's the point. The live tile's is the reason what attracted me to those launchers in the past. In the end just use what works for you
#6 If the phone starts acting up go ahead and reboot,
#7 If using a rom that supports theme's try not to use them, often times I have run into many so called bugs that magically disapeared when reverting back to system theme. Right now I am using xperia cm10.1 and so far no issue's what so ever
#8 I disabled Google Now, my experience has shown me that our phones aren't capable of handling it. Google now is constantly running in the back ground and I suspect causing the phone to slow down, freeze, or just randomly reboot.
#9 I do not use live wallpaper, nor do I use any widgets. I love widgets and depending on the widget may not use any extra resources. That being said for me on this phone I would rather be safe than sorry
#10 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2158329
This has improved my phone greatly. Make sure your ROM meets the requirements and doesn't have any tweaks.
Using these methods I get decent performance, and battery life. This is no GS3 so I believe to get the most out of this phone you really have baby it to get the most out of it. I believe the issue is with how little Ram this phone has. I have had the HTC Mytouch 4g and I never had this issue. The MT4G also had almost a gig of Ram. I don't believe it's the processer as there are many 1GHZ single core processing phones that do not have the FC/Freezing issues we have.

Try CM7
I have been using Slimbean 4.1 and 4.2 too for the past few weeks and I have experienced frequent lag spikes when multitasking which sometimes drived me crazy. Recently, my phone was stuck in a bootloop while I was out of town so I had to flash CM7 and I was surprised at how buttery it felt. Overall, I really like the performance (although I do miss some features of JB) and I strongly advise you to try it out.

jin03002 said:
I have been using Slimbean 4.1 and 4.2 too for the past few weeks and I have experienced frequent lag spikes when multitasking which sometimes drived me crazy. Recently, my phone was stuck in a bootloop while I was out of town so I had to flash CM7 and I was surprised at how buttery it felt. Overall, I really like the performance (although I do miss some features of JB) and I strongly advise you to try it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To each his/her own. I am not interested in gingerbread unless absolutely necessary. I think many of the problems are with Google now
Sent from my SGH-T679 using xda premium

Try a shot of Nos then Tell me how u feel http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2158329
JELLYBAM DAMN™

It says twrp is not recommended any reason why? I am using slim bean 4.1 should work I'll have to read the thread to make sure it has no conflicting tweaks...excited to see if this helps
Sent from my SGH-T679 using xda premium

md1008 said:
It says twrp is not recommended any reason why? I am using slim bean 4.1 should work I'll have to read the thread to make sure it has no conflicting tweaks...excited to see if this helps
Sent from my SGH-T679 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Smartguy used TWRP and says it works just fine. Just make a nandroid as always in case you have an issue, I don't think you will though. Just be sure to disable any task killers if you use them.

It works flawlessly in twrp
Sent from my SGH-T679 using xda app-developers app

hatememarkz said:
Try a shot of Nos then Tell me how u feel http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2158329
JELLYBAM DAMN™
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works really well on slim bean 4.1. For list of possible ways to improve this phone. Had to disable start up tweaks
Sent from my SGH-T679 using xda premium

Anytime i can help i miss thus phone
JELLYBAM™ 7.4.0