Are custom roms worth it?

[bgstcola]

I like my sgs4 but it is too damn slow and unresponsive. There is wake up lag, home button lag and the dialer takes ages to start. Also, I kinda want a recent apps button.

I thought about buying a nexus 5 but it seems like it's a bad phone besides the software and processor.

So I'm thinking about trying a custom rom. I'm convinced that a custom rom would be faster and that I would love the improved customization, but I'm wondering about the disadvantages. I'm mostly concerned about signal reception (3g,lte,wifi) since I've read complaints about signal loss when switching to a custom rom but I'm also worried about bugs and freezes. Besides the lack of speed the stock rom has been without issues for me. Finally I'm a bit worried about losing the warranty and bricking the phone,

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

 

[Bman123]

Factory reset the phone and see if its still running slow stock, might be a app you have on it slowing it down

 

[shabby]

Roms shouldn't affect the signal at all since they don't include modem firmware.
Bugs and freezes are possible depending on the developer, if you stick to cm/aokp/pa you'll see less of them.
As for bricking the phone... well if you can read the instructions properly and understand them you shouldn't have any issues.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I put custom ROMs on various things. But one thing I really don't like about them is battery life has always been worse for me. So I usually don't put custom ROMs on anything I'm using daily anymore.

Though if I owned a Samsung device with all that Touchwiz crap on it, I'd make an exception and slap a ROM on it faster than I could say DIE TOUCHWIZ DIE!

 

[ControlD]

I stick with Touchwiz based custom ROMs on my Note 2 and I have been more than happy. I get the features I want (zero wake lag, etc.) and most of the bloat removed while keeping the TW features I like. Throw a custom kernel on there and battery life is as good or better than stock. So yes, I believe custom ROMs are worth it.

 

[gorcorps]

Roms can indeed make things a lot smoother. They can also increase battery life because they'll make use of efficient kernals that downclock your CPU when you're not doing anything intensive. The biggest thing to remember when looking at roms is, do you want to sacrifice all of the features that make your phone special? If you don't care about the samsung specific motion controls then you can pretty much pick whatever is popular, but if you like the samsung stuff (like I do) then make sure you use a touchwiz based rom. It'll retain all the features that make the samsung phones unique, but it will be a lot smoother overall.

 

[gus6464]

My Droid Razr Maxx HD with CM 10.2 (4.3) is a whole other beast compared to stock including pure AOSP.

 

[lothar]

I like my sgs4 but it is too damn slow and unresponsive. There is wake up lag, home button lag and the dialer takes ages to start. Also, I kinda want a recent apps button.

I thought about buying a nexus 5 but it seems like it's a bad phone besides the software and processor.

So I'm thinking about trying a custom rom. I'm convinced that a custom rom would be faster and that I would love the improved customization, but I'm wondering about the disadvantages. I'm mostly concerned about signal reception (3g,lte,wifi) since I've read complaints about signal loss when switching to a custom rom but I'm also worried about bugs and freezes. Besides the lack of speed the stock rom has been without issues for me. Finally I'm a bit worried about losing the warranty and bricking the phone,

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

Not sure if serious...
How is the Nexus 5 a "bad" phone?

 

[Ravynmagi]

Not sure if serious...
How is the Nexus 5 a "bad" phone?

Haha... My eyes ran right passed that bit on insanity.

Nexus 5 is probably my favorite phone ever. I love how it feels in my hand, that soft touch back feels so nice and the curves and angles are just right.

The front glass is free of any logos or markings, I love that on Nexus phones. And that 5 inch 1080 display is gorgeous with the slim bezels. And it's a size that is comfortable enough to carry around without needing to buy a man purse.

Only negative thing I have to say about the phone is the speaker isn't loud enough, but fortunately the placement of the speaker has improved.

I really love this phone, this might be the first Nexus phone that may be hard for me to separate with next year because I just think it's so nice looking and feels so good in my hands.

 

[T2urtle]

Roms can make the phone smoother. Some roms do overclock and underclock for battery life. Lets face it the OEM people aren't the best at things, they are trying to make a balanced phone.

I have a S4 myself and i ran a AOSP rom ( no samsung touchwiz, like the nexus ) and well it was great. Battery life horrible. I went from a normally modified rom 16-20 hour battery life to about 10-12hours. But everything was SMOOTH and insane solid. As i recalled stock rom got me 14-16hours.

My only problem with roms is that it takes some time to find the RIGHT ONE FOR YOU. But it opens up the world to you in terms of options. I think you should root and first try something really popular like Wicked ROM.

I've owned all nexuses, except the 4. But i think the S4 and N5 is about equal in many cases. But this all pending user. the N5 is nice and smooth out the box. S4 has samsung holding it back a little

 

[luv2liv]

i think theres something seriously wrong with your phone if you are experiencing those issues.
i tried custom ROMs on my HTC one for fun. then i reverted back to factory ROM. to get the customization i wanted, i used a different launcher.

 

[JimmiG]

In my experience, AOSP ROMs are faster, more responsive, leave more RAM free for apps and are less cluttered/bloated. However battery life and actual benchmark results tend to be lower.

I prefer a modified, rooted stock-based ROM with some of the bloatware removed. For the Galaxy series there's the Omega ROM Series, which worked great for me on my S3.

 

[Ancalagon44]

After using TONS of custom roms on my LG Optimus 2X, I dont bother anymore with my Samsung Galaxy S4. I just dont see the point.

When a kernel developer or rom maintainer posts that they have done something that will improve battery life, or improve performance, I am extremely skeptical. If it were that easy, that one man could make a significant difference to performance and/or battery life, why would Samsung, HTC etc not do the same? The only caveat is that you can gain performance at the expense of battery life, and battery life at the expense of performance. But you cannot magically improve both.

There are only 3 reasons for which I would consider installing a custom rom:
1. The phone or device is old and no longer supported by its manufacturer - a new custom rom, say CM, can be a huge boost in usability.
2. The phone or device is of Chinese origin with poor quality firmware - firmware maintained locally will then be much better.
3. You want to remove bloatware or add features that your network has restricted from you, such as tethering.

Other than that, there are no good reasons to use a custom rom. You arent going to simultaneously get better battery life and better performance. You may even end up with worse stability.

 

[bgstcola]

Not sure if serious...
How is the Nexus 5 a "bad" phone?

Speaker is way to weak, reception (wifi and cellular) is subpar, battery life is mediocre and camera is not very good either. I do agree that the design is perfect. I really wish that they would make a premium Nexus phone without all the cost saving sacrifices.

It seems like you all agree that custom roms improve performance at the expense of battery life or vice versa. But no one seems to confirm that custom roms affect the signal. So both wifi and cellular reception will be exactly the same after flashing a custom rom?

 

[mnewsham]

Speaker is way to weak, reception (wifi and cellular) is subpar, battery life is mediocre and camera is not very good either. I do agree that the design is perfect. I really wish that they would make a premium Nexus phone without all the cost saving sacrifices.

oh you mean the LG G2? It just won the Stuff magazine Gadget Awards 2013.

 

[mnewsham]

But no one seems to confirm that custom roms affect the signal. So both wifi and cellular reception will be exactly the same after flashing a custom rom?

in the 2nd reply to your thread

Roms shouldn't affect the signal at all since they don't include modem firmware.

 

[gorcorps]

i think theres something seriously wrong with your phone if you are experiencing those issues.
i tried custom ROMs on my HTC one for fun. then i reverted back to factory ROM. to get the customization i wanted, i used a different launcher.

That's pretty much what I did. I used to run ROMs a lot, but these days I'm pretty happy with my stock S4 active as long as I'm using a different launcher.

 

[tsupersonic]

I've heard the S4 has micro stutters in stock form, and custom ROM's can alleviate the problem. I love custom ROM's on older phones, gives me something to tinker with.

 

[mrpiggy]

IMHO there are basically three types of custom ROMS. "Lean" type ROMS, bare-vanilla ROMS, and highly-modified ROMS. Yes, my descriptors of the three types can overlap quite a bit, but I think it's a decent breakdown. I personally stick with the "lean" type ROM's anymore. For me, Vanilla is too plain, and highly modified is too much work.

"Lean" type ROMS are basically stock ROMS with a some or most of the added OEM manufacturer bloat (Samsung, HTC, etc) or vender bloat (AT&T, Verizon, etc) removed. These keep the flavor and best software of the manufacturer's original ROM while removing the worst offending software. I like these the best as since they are based around the original manufacturer's stuff, they tend to be very stable, while still allowing for cool manufacturer-specific hardware/software to work without issue (i.e. custom camera features).

Bare-vanilla type ROMS basically strip everything that was not originally written by Google away. Basically mimicking a Nexus type experience. Like the "lean" type ROM's the bare vanilla tends to also be stable, but you end up missing cool features that manufacturer's put in. So while the camera may work perfectly fine, the software to run the camera is not going to have interesting/useful manufacturer-specific features like particular manual controls over camera ISO settings and such. The missing manufacturer/vender software features can usually, but not always, replaced with an app that provides similar functionality. This type of ROM often appeals to people who prefer specific apps to do what they want and they don't want other stuff they never use wasting storage space. It also tends to feel faster and more responsive than lean ROM's on the same hardware as there is nothing fancy slowing user interaction down.

Highly-modified ROM's tend to have many custom features like custom kernels, launchers, color layouts, etc, etc. This type of ROM is very personally subjective in appeal to the person/group who uses it. Think Cyanogen type mod. As these are often very "tuned" to particular hardware, they can make your hardware scream and/or be incredibly beautiful, but vice-versa, if they are badly "tuned" stuff just might not work right and one man's beauty is another man's ugly. This type of ROM is more polarizing in that you either love it or hate it. These also tend to be more technically advanced and allow for more technical things like undervolting, overclocking, etc. While the other types of ROM's may allow for stuff like this, these highly modified ROM's tend to allow or already be tuned for particular customizations better. These ROM's are more geared towards people who are very experienced and like to experiment.

So for the average user, I think "lean" type ROM's are very worthwhile. This keeps the interface and software familiar while retaining the stability of the original without so much "bad junk". The other two types of ROM's, not so much for the normal person as one is too bare, while the other is too much work.

 

[mrpiggy]

Oops DP

 

[Chocu1a]

I am over the whole custom rom craze. As long I can root my phone, the hardware & software are currently fast enough for my use. Currently running a Note 3 stock, rooted, debloated. Fast enough for me to use every day.

 

[JimmiG]

oh you mean the LG G2? It just won the Stuff magazine Gadget Awards 2013.

The G2 is a great phone, but it's about as far from the Nexus experience as you can get.

 

[ThisIsChrisKim]

IMHO there are basically three types of custom ROMS. "Lean" type ROMS, bare-vanilla ROMS, and highly-modified ROMS. Yes, my descriptors of the three types can overlap quite a bit, but I think it's a decent breakdown. I personally stick with the "lean" type ROM's anymore. For me, Vanilla is too plain, and highly modified is too much work.

"Lean" type ROMS are basically stock ROMS with a some or most of the added OEM manufacturer bloat (Samsung, HTC, etc) or vender bloat (AT&T, Verizon, etc) removed. These keep the flavor and best software of the manufacturer's original ROM while removing the worst offending software. I like these the best as since they are based around the original manufacturer's stuff, they tend to be very stable, while still allowing for cool manufacturer-specific hardware/software to work without issue (i.e. custom camera features).

Bare-vanilla type ROMS basically strip everything that was not originally written by Google away. Basically mimicking a Nexus type experience. Like the "lean" type ROM's the bare vanilla tends to also be stable, but you end up missing cool features that manufacturer's put in. So while the camera may work perfectly fine, the software to run the camera is not going to have interesting/useful manufacturer-specific features like particular manual controls over camera ISO settings and such. The missing manufacturer/vender software features can usually, but not always, replaced with an app that provides similar functionality. This type of ROM often appeals to people who prefer specific apps to do what they want and they don't want other stuff they never use wasting storage space. It also tends to feel faster and more responsive than lean ROM's on the same hardware as there is nothing fancy slowing user interaction down.

Highly-modified ROM's tend to have many custom features like custom kernels, launchers, color layouts, etc, etc. This type of ROM is very personally subjective in appeal to the person/group who uses it. Think Cyanogen type mod. As these are often very "tuned" to particular hardware, they can make your hardware scream and/or be incredibly beautiful, but vice-versa, if they are badly "tuned" stuff just might not work right and one man's beauty is another man's ugly. This type of ROM is more polarizing in that you either love it or hate it. These also tend to be more technically advanced and allow for more technical things like undervolting, overclocking, etc. While the other types of ROM's may allow for stuff like this, these highly modified ROM's tend to allow or already be tuned for particular customizations better. These ROM's are more geared towards people who are very experienced and like to experiment.

So for the average user, I think "lean" type ROM's are very worthwhile. This keeps the interface and software familiar while retaining the stability of the original without so much "bad junk". The other two types of ROM's, not so much for the normal person as one is too bare, while the other is too much work.

I think you're spot on--on a phone like the GS4, which has a lot of improvements built upon Android, but also filled with lots of 'extras', removing many of the extras but keeping the framework improvements is great for performance and stability. Many AOSP (ie. "stock Android") ROMs lose the great features that Samsung/LG/HTC/etc actually improved such as the camera or audio modifications which, frankly, Google has yet to properly implement (these areas suffer greatly on Nexus phones).

Custom kernels with more aggressive CPU governor management also can help significantly with battery life. They can ramp the processor down much faster. And if your phone has a high binning, it can be aggressively undervolted for better thermal management.

I'm currently running a Nexus 5, but there are many areas where my Note 3 was a significantly better phone--the camera/photo and audio experiences were much much better on the Note.

 

[Raduque]

For me, the only time a non-stock ROM improved a device is my old Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant and my Transformer TF101. Every other device, a community ROM wasn't an improvement.

Edit: I should say I'm talking about CM# or AOSP-type ROMs. I've flashed some community ROMS on my Galaxy S II that were ported international roms. I mostly just run well-built kernels on completely stock rooted devices.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I only use GPe Roms for my S4. I pick ones that are barely hacked so that way I get maximum stability.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

The GPe Roms feel much smoother than anything based on Touchwiz. Sure I lose some features but it is worth it for me. Honestly the camera is good enough and I never used multi-window or any Air feature.

If you have a S4 that is hackable (so NOT Verizon or AT&T) then I would try a GPe rom.