Why is it that the Android custom roms are always faster than stock?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I've had two Android phones - Captivate and Epic 4G, and I've had to use the stock roms on both of them. Then I use their community ROMS (Serendipity for Captivate and Syndicate Frozen Rom for Epic 4G) and they absolutely run rings around the stock ROMs in terms of snappiness. And they don't have an entire page an impossible to uninstall programs you have to scroll past like SPRINT NASCAR.

How is it that the stock ROMs suck so much?

I also have a first gen iPad and feel no need to install a custom ROM on it. Pretty snappy out of the box.

 

[Apex]

I've had two Android phones - Captivate and Epic 4G, and I've had to use the stock roms on both of them. Then I use their community ROMS (Serendipity for Captivate and Syndicate Frozen Rom for Epic 4G) and they absolutely run rings around the stock ROMs in terms of snappiness. And they don't have an entire page an impossible to uninstall programs you have to scroll past like SPRINT NASCAR.

How is it that the stock ROMs suck so much?

I also have a first gen iPad and feel no need to install a custom ROM on it. Pretty snappy out of the box.

Apple doesn't install cr@pware.

Neither Google nor the cellphone manufacturers regulate the trash that Verizon, Sprint, ATT, etc want to slap on there, except with the Nexus.

 

[shabby]

Those roms usually have png optimization and lots of kernel tweaks, especially the ext4 filesystem mod that samsung never put in the sgs set of phones.
There are roms for ipads? Who knew.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Those roms usually have png optimization and lots of kernel tweaks, especially the ext4 filesystem mod that samsung never put in the sgs set of phones.
There are roms for ipads? Who knew.

There may or may not be iPad roms. I was thinking more along the lines of Jailbreaking when I wrote that.

All these tweaks - the manufacturers themselves just don't bother doing them? When I think about buying an Android device I know that I'll be installing a custom ROM along with it because the stock ROMs suck that much. This is actually not good for me - I just want it to work right and work fast and have a clean OS right out of the box and doing custom ROM installs for me has historically been a royal pain in the ass.

 

[zerocool84]

Because they sacrifice things for speed. Aftermarket ROMs are not 100% stable.

 

[MotF Bane]

They aren't loaded with tons of extra crap that HTC, Motorola, and others stuff onto the phones.

 

[Bateluer]

Because they sacrifice things for speed. Aftermarket ROMs are not 100% stable.

What do you believe they sacrifice? Most AOSP roms are usually more stable than their stock counterparts, though it can take some time for kinks to be ironed out. Even the 'unstable' CyanogenMod builds for the T-Bolt were more stable than stock.

 

[runawayprisoner]

I've had two Android phones - Captivate and Epic 4G, and I've had to use the stock roms on both of them. Then I use their community ROMS (Serendipity for Captivate and Syndicate Frozen Rom for Epic 4G) and they absolutely run rings around the stock ROMs in terms of snappiness. And they don't have an entire page an impossible to uninstall programs you have to scroll past like SPRINT NASCAR.

How is it that the stock ROMs suck so much?

I also have a first gen iPad and feel no need to install a custom ROM on it. Pretty snappy out of the box.

Because as stated, custom ROMs include a lot of tweaks that manufacturers themselves don't bother to put in, and on top of that, the service provider installs even more in. On some Android phones in the same family (Galaxy S), their ROMs are so similar that they are interchangeable, and only minimal tweaks have to be done for one phone's ROM to run on another. For instance, the Captivate can run Vibrant's ROMs just fine.

On the iPad, or iOS in general, the stock firmware of each device is specifically tailored for it. You can't just install an iPhone firmware onto an iPod Touch and expect it to work, and service providers can't modify it further. So out of the box, the iPad has already received the best optimizations that its makers could think of at the time.

Another thing is that some Android custom ROMs come with kernels that change hardware timings around, or even overclock the device slightly, even if the maximum clock remains the same.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Because they sacrifice things for speed. Aftermarket ROMs are not 100% stable.

My aftermarket roms have been more stable than stock, provided the install itself wasn't corrupt. They are faster and even fix shit that is broken out of the box with no official fix in sight on the stock roms like GPS.

 

[kyrax12]

My aftermarket roms have been more stable than stock, provided the install itself wasn't corrupt. They are faster and even fix shit that is broken out of the box with no official fix in sight on the stock roms like GPS.

What phone and what rom are you currently using?

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

What phone and what rom are you currently using?

Using both in the OP.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I think part of it is that (for the most part) Android is open so motivated hackers can do things not possible in a closed system like iOS. One thing years with Linux taught me is a motivated hacker is worth 10 paid programers.

If you don't want to mess with it only buy Nexuses.

 

[lothar]

Because the phones you had are crap and didn't have Ext4 file system support on stock roms.

Sent from my GT-I9100

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Well I've run into several issues with the ROMs out for the HTC Sensation 4G. Mainly, that nothing not based on Stock Sense 3.0 had working Bluetooth connectivty with my car radio. An absolute deal killer for me. I much prefer AOSP over Sense.

As mentioned, the carriers aren't restricted from loading BS crap on Android phones due to it being an open system. That's why you get links to crap that you can't delete, because most of those non removable apps will incure a charge if you use them.

 

[wirednuts]

generally speaking the carriers dont want to spend the time to make sure all of those custom optimization are 100% compatible with all the features of their service. thats why they usually take the most tried and tested versions of os's and write the stock rom so that everything works, leaving speed as the last worry.