Android custom rom comparison/guide

[RampantAndroid]

Hi all,

I've got a Verizon S3 that I'm running LiquidSmooth RC5 on (going from CM10, which had SERIOUS bluetooth issues on the nightly builds) and while I have yet to try Bluetooth to see if it works, I was hoping someone could give a good comparison of the various Jellybean ROMs out there?

I understand the basics: AOSP is the baseline; AOKP is AOSP plus some features (but what features?), CM10 is AOSP pretty much and then a ton of ROMs are downlever from CM10.

But from the list I found on the XDA forums, why would I want one ROM over another?

Here's the list off their site:
AOKP - B4
Blackbean - 5
Codename Android - 3.6.6
CM10 Official - NB
CM10 JellyBro - NB
CM10 Unofficial - NB
Eclipse - b1
JellyWiz - RLS9
LiquidSmooth - 2.0 RC5 What makes this one special compared to CM10?
MIUI Port - 2.9.7 Chinese
PARANOIDANDROID - 2.20 Seems to just be CM10 with tablet UI? What else?
Slim Bean - 2.7
Taste of Beans - 2.0

Which will be the most stable?

Thanks in advance for any info!

 

[Uppsala9496]

I am using slimbean on my gnex. All of his releases have been stable for me. Never had an issue dating back to ics builds.

 

[jhansman]

You might want to head over to XDA and read up on these ROMs for your phone. Careful posting there, though. Most members are cordial and helpful, but there are a few dinks as well who seem to like jumping on the uninitiated.

 

[Paladin]

Use RootzWiki as your resource.
RootzWiki

I'm currently running Liquid 2.0 RC5 on my GNexus and love it.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Use RootzWiki as your resource.
RootzWiki

I'm currently running Liquid 2.0 RC5 on my GNexus and love it.

Seems my main issue with Liquid - this strange popping noise over bluetooth audio - is a hardware issue. Joy.

 

[cmdrdredd]

As I understand it we don't have an official Verizon build to go off of for JellyBean. I currently run JellyWiz and everything works perfectly for me. No problems with RLS9 at all.

I am going to flash AOKP now and try it.

AOKP adds some stuff like CPU scheduler, USB fast charge and other tidbits. Read up on their official pages and FAQS. Also doesn't have TouchWiz AFAIK.

 

[RampantAndroid]

I'll have to give AOKP a go, but I just finally got my phone to stock again (removed recovery, reset flash counter, flashed base ROM) and need to go by Verizon and demand a new phone to fix my bluetooth issues. I can get it to work, but even so it's still finicky. People seem to be saying a replacement phone will likely fix the issue. What a pain...

 

[cmdrdredd]

I'm on AOKP now and I like it. Phone has less crap on it to get rid of with TB. Benchmarks went down a bit. That isn't an issue to me though. I like being able to control my CPU speed with the scheduler. I can force it to run at 1620Mhz all the time when I need it to or can force it down if I want to save battery. Lots of presets too. I always did use nova launcher so that isn't really anything new to me. There are more options for the notification window (toggles). Can do custom themes and change the way it reports signal levels in the status bar. Built in weather notifications through the notification window. Really cool stuff.

 

[grkM3]

Stick with the hybrid jellywiz for now.all the others are galaxy nexus source hacked to work on the gs3.

An example is my cell gets 3700 in quad on cm10 but 6000 running jellywiz

 

[RampantAndroid]

Stick with the hybrid jellywiz for now.all the others are galaxy nexus source hacked to work on the gs3.

An example is my cell gets 3700 in quad on cm10 but 6000 running jellywiz

3700 what? Not sure what you're referring to. Quad?

As I understand this, it's not Nexus source, it's S3 source from TMO, combined with the leaked Sprint ROM for CDMA support. Verizon has yet to leak a ROM, and who knows if they will...

 

[grkM3]

3700 in quadrant and yes all the jellywiz builds are off leaked source for our gs3 phones.the cm10 are built off official jellybean made for the galaxy nexus and won't run as fast as even the stock ICS the gs3 comes with.

Try out the jellywiz ROMs those are way faster and more stable then the rest except for the modded stock roms

 

[shabby]

But from the list I found on the XDA forums, why would I want one ROM over another?

Because each rom has its own set of features that differentiates itself from others, i personally prefer codename android since he takes pretty much every feature from aokp/cm10 and other roms and molds into one rom.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Stick with the hybrid jellywiz for now.all the others are galaxy nexus source hacked to work on the gs3.

An example is my cell gets 3700 in quad on cm10 but 6000 running jellywiz

on AOKP I get 5500...jellywiz was 6200 but benchmarks don't tell everything. I have a serious issue when it comes to having to remove 20+ samsung apps I'll never ever use.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Because each rom has its own set of features that differentiates itself from others, i personally prefer codename android since he takes pretty much every feature from aokp/cm10 and other roms and molds into one rom.

But THIS is the problem right here. I get it, they are each their own. But no ROM easily lists all features for me, and there is certainly no maintained table comparing features of which ROM has what...and certainly none that easily benchmarks all of the ROMs for me to see in terms of both performance AND battery life. This is what I want - a simple table listing the most interesting features and showing who has them. You cannot sit there and respond to people new to the scene asking "whats the best [ROM/Kernel]" with "Go read up" and expect them to actually give a crap in the end, or make an educated decision. My decision in the end is "which thread is more active?" It's the same problem I had with Arch Linux: I'm not new to Linux. I did a stage 1 install of Gentoo, I know my way around reasonably well....but you ask questions on Arch of how to install a GUI or do a GPT install and they throw the book at you and tell you to read up. Maybe I don't want to, maybe I want a simple guide explaining the commands to run, and what they do. Maybe I shouldn't have to read the documentation. [/rant]

My summary so far is CM10 seems like nothing special; Liquidsmooth is very smooth with great battery life, but bluetooth needs help. ParanoidAndroid's settings app is annoying as hell, but has good perf and good bluetooth. The stock ROM is an absolute turd, and I hate that keyboard. I hate the Verizon apps, and I don't use any of the samsung apps.

on AOKP I get 5500...jellywiz was 6200 but benchmarks don't tell everything. I have a serious issue when it comes to having to remove 20+ samsung apps I'll never ever use.

Exactly. I want STOCK android. I like the stock UI. I like it A LOT. It works for me. I don't want anything to do with SenseUI, TouchWiz or anything else. Give me android as Google intended it, because they did a pretty darn good job.

 

[grkM3]

You bought the wrong device.go get a nexus and run Google the way its meant to be.

I'm selling my gs3 when a new nexus comes out and I've tried every ROM out there and nothing can touch a nexus on pure jellybean.

I got 1100 on sunspider with my nexus and can't break 1400 with my gs3 over clocked and I've tried every browser and ROM out there.

Google puts out vanilla android for the nexus device and for its setup and hardware and then the devas take that and try and make it work on other phones.

When jellybean was running perfect on my nexus we didn't even have data or texting on our gs3 with cm10.then slowly they got something working but its still slow as shit compared to a pure bread nexus running jellybean

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Paranoid android

I'm running this and its awesome

 

[PowerYoga]

Using AOKP B4 myself, but you do lose touchwiz and all that jazz. If you just want the base touchwiz rom then just root and uninstall the stuff you don't want or installed a stripped down version.

 

[RampantAndroid]

You bought the wrong device.go get a nexus and run Google the way its meant to be.

I'm selling my gs3 when a new nexus comes out and I've tried every ROM out there and nothing can touch a nexus on pure jellybean.

I got 1100 on sunspider with my nexus and can't break 1400 with my gs3 over clocked and I've tried every browser and ROM out there.

Google puts out vanilla android for the nexus device and for its setup and hardware and then the devas take that and try and make it work on other phones.

When jellybean was running perfect on my nexus we didn't even have data or texting on our gs3 with cm10.then slowly they got something working but its still slow as shit compared to a pure bread nexus running jellybean

No nexus phone to date has had a SD card slot - the current Galaxy Nexus doesn't, and I doubt the LG one will either. If my Zune ever dies, I need a player and my phone would be a good candidate. 32 + 64GB SDXC would hole my music.

Paranoid android

I'm running this and its awesome

Can you change the layout of the settings app in PA? Default layout didn't look so great, print was WAY too small.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

im running paranoid android on my brand new S3 and it works well and looks great. google now is awesome. much better than siri IMO, my last phone was an iphone 4s which is now my lady's. not sure what else to say, if anyone has questions let me know.

and to the above poster, you're asking about the size of the print when viewing phone settings? I dont know why that would be a real big concern, but I can read everything in there perfectly and there are ways to modify it if you cannot.

 

[shabby]

This is what I want - a simple table listing the most interesting features and showing who has them. You cannot sit there and respond to people new to the scene asking "whats the best [ROM/Kernel]" with "Go read up" and expect them to actually give a crap in the end, or make an educated decision.

I'll narrow down the list for you, cna/cm10/aokp/miui/paranoid, miui is the only oddball there but some people like it, look through those roms features and see what appeals to you, it might not be in a table listing but reading the 1st post from 5 threads isn't so different. As for battery life and performance that is upto the kernel, again there's plenty of kernels and you'll have to try them out and decide for yourself.
I would still flash codename android, because it is the most feature packed rom.

 

[cmdrdredd]

You bought the wrong device.go get a nexus and run Google the way its meant to be.

I'm selling my gs3 when a new nexus comes out and I've tried every ROM out there and nothing can touch a nexus on pure jellybean.

I got 1100 on sunspider with my nexus and can't break 1400 with my gs3 over clocked and I've tried every browser and ROM out there.

Google puts out vanilla android for the nexus device and for its setup and hardware and then the devas take that and try and make it work on other phones.

When jellybean was running perfect on my nexus we didn't even have data or texting on our gs3 with cm10.then slowly they got something working but its still slow as shit compared to a pure bread nexus running jellybean

You know sunspider scores...lower = better right? My Gs3 on jellywiz scores under 1100ms.

BTW: a GS3 running JellyWiz is multiple times faster and smoother than a Nexus running AOSP/AOKP. I know because I own both and both are rooted. The Nexus does have lower specs which makes a difference.


I'm back on JellyWiz RLS9 Hybrid because I had one issue with AOKP. It would always have a com.gapps crash at random times. Wouldn't close down what I was doing but it became annoying to me.

 

[grkM3]

You know sunspider scores...lower = better right? My Gs3 on jellywiz scores under 1100ms.

BTW: a GS3 running JellyWiz is multiple times faster and smoother than a Nexus running AOSP/AOKP. I know because I own both and both are rooted. The Nexus does have lower specs which makes a difference.


I'm back on JellyWiz RLS9 Hybrid because I had one issue with AOKP. It would always have a com.gapps crash at random times. Wouldn't close down what I was doing but it became annoying to me.

I own both aswell post up your under 1100 sun spider score on your gs3.I got around 1400 over clocked and have not seen any gs3 come close to a nexus on official jellybean with that bench and jellywiz is not faster than a nexus its nothing more than a bloated stock rom running 4.1.h

 

[RampantAndroid]

For the record, AOKP feels sluggish, and Wifi is really pretty broken for me. Beyond that it has unicorns.

I think I'll try CNA, then circle back to LiquidSmooth and try to make bluetooth work...

 

[grkM3]

For the record, AOKP feels sluggish, and Wifi is really pretty broken for me. Beyond that it has unicorns.

I think I'll try CNA, then circle back to LiquidSmooth and try to make bluetooth work...

IM going to be honest and say the fastest rom is the stock debloated rom with halo launcher and halo locker,its the closest thing you will get to jellybean source without any bugs.After you install those download a jellybean keyboard from the market and you are good to go

You can install a custom kernal and overclock it and you will get the best of both also.

or wait until we have an official jellybean rom leaked for the verizon s3 and then get a debloated version of that rom,everything else is not as stable as the stock ics rom,or even as fast!

 

[RampantAndroid]

IM going to be honest and say the fastest rom is the stock debloated rom with halo launcher and halo locker,its the closest thing you will get to jellybean source without any bugs.After you install those download a jellybean keyboard from the market and you are good to go

You can install a custom kernal and overclock it and you will get the best of both also.

or wait until we have an official jellybean rom leaked for the verizon s3 and then get a debloated version of that rom,everything else is not as stable as the stock ics rom,or even as fast!

Does the debloated one have stuff like meetings, weather and customizable unlock positions like the other roms, though?