I made a similar post on the Google+ S5 group and the results actually surprised me. Majority said no, when I was almost certain it would be the other way around. I guess devices nowadays are good enough with simple root!
What did you guys decide? Did you install a custom rom? Or you left it somewhat stock (I'm not counting xposed + root as custom rom)
Simple root for me. I use titanium to disable apps I don't need and fix the write to SD that kitkat broke
I decided to with the Project Infinity rom. It's pretty good in the sense that all the bloatware is removed. There weren't as many ROMs as the previous Galaxy iterations though. No more paranoid or cyanogen mods. Besides that, there aren't many major changes to touchwiz so I also installed an Icon pack with nova launcher to get a more stock look. Overall, I feel that it's better but to each his own. Some people like it, some people don't care. Whatever choice you make, the S5 will still be pretty solid.
So far I'm sticking with stock + root + Xposed.
The inability to reverse the Knox flag is just a little too unsettling at this point -- especially since the first S5 I picked up with my JUMP upgrade was a lemon. (The screen died repeatedly-- refusing to switch on for hours and then temporarily fixing itself -- the first time just 45 seconds after I left the T-Mobile store.) Then again my new S5 is only 2 days old, having just burned a JUMP insurance claim and upgrade, so possibly I'll be a little less uptight about Knox flags once I'm 12 months down the line.
Also I'm not hugely demanding of my devices in terms of performance, beyond wanting decent battery life, so I don't really need custom kernels and ultra-streamlined and debloated ROMs if stock performs well enough. Xposed and other root utilities/tweaks allow for a decent amount of customization and debloating anyway, it just takes more individual legwork.
The main drawback I see is the lack of nandroid, which is always a nice fallback option. That's kind of a nagging thought in the back of my mind. My only customization complaint so far is an inability to tweak Touchwiz's ugly-ass color scheme and clunky layout in the notification drawer to a satisfying degree. (Wanam Xposed allows a certain degree of color control but the QuickSetting toggle colors are driving me nuts. )
overfloater said:
So far I'm sticking with stock + root + Xposed.
The inability to reverse the Knox flag is just a little too unsettling at this point -- especially since the first S5 I picked up with my JUMP upgrade was a lemon. (The screen died repeatedly-- refusing to switch on for hours and then temporarily fixing itself -- the first time just 45 seconds after I left the T-Mobile store.) Then again my new S5 is only 2 days old, having just burned a JUMP insurance claim and upgrade, so possibly I'll be a little less uptight about Knox flags once I'm 12 months down the line.
Also I'm not hugely demanding of my devices in terms of performance, beyond wanting decent battery life, so I don't really need custom kernels and ultra-streamlined and debloated ROMs if stock performs well enough. Xposed and other root utilities/tweaks allow for a decent amount of customization and debloating anyway, it just takes more individual legwork.
The main drawback I see is the lack of nandroid, which is always a nice fallback option. That's kind of a nagging thought in the back of my mind. My only customization complaint so far is an inability to tweak Touchwiz's ugly-ass color scheme and clunky layout in the notification drawer to a satisfying degree. (Wanam Xposed allows a certain degree of color control but the QuickSetting toggle colors are driving me nuts. )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I was told when you do an insurance claim, it does not count against your jump. Mine didn't
Coderedpl said:
As far as I was told when you do an insurance claim, it does not count against your jump. Mine didn't
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, that should really have read "insurance claim and JUMP upgrade". I was on an S4 before, so when I made the claim I took the opportunity to cash in an upgrade at the same time and replace it with a new S5 (rather than adding unnecessary extra steps by waiting on a replacement S4 and taking that into a store to upgrade). It does, however, mean that I've both put myself on a new payment plan for the S5 (so under the new JUMP terms I can't upgrade again until it's 50% paid off) and also burned 1 of my 2 insurance claims for a 12 month period. So I don't really want to jeopardize any warranty or other claims by blowing Knox unnecessarily.
Coderedpl said:
I made a similar post on the Google+ S5 group and the results actually surprised me. Majority said no, when I was almost certain it would be the other way around. I guess devices nowadays are good enough with simple root!
What did you guys decide? Did you install a custom rom? Or you left it somewhat stock (I'm not counting xposed + root as custom rom)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been using Omega rom for years and across many devices so it's great to have it again on the S5. I actually switched from an AT&T S5 to a T-Mobile S5 (unlocked and using it on AT&T) because the TMO S5 could run Omega where the AT&T with a locked bootloader could not. Primarily because you cannot install a rom that uses the Aroma installer on Safe Strap (the AT&T S5's version of a custom recovery.)
So on Omega all's well. Very stable, great battery life, all the bloatware gone (except for what I chose to have on the phone.)
There is just way too much bloatware and crap on the stock AT&T and TMO roms. If nothing else, I'd run a debloated rom just to get away from all the bloat and crap.
Bought the phone outright so I'm not worried about knox and all that..
I'm actually fully stock. TW has grown on me, though it gets sluggish sometime. I would probably root later down the road and remove the bloatware.
What bothers me about stock is that I seem to be getting some stupid stuttering and sluggishness without a solid reason as to why it happens .
I did indeed install a Custom ROM.
I installed CM11 from the unified development on my phone. I kept my touchwiz backup just in case i might really need it for whatever reasons, The only reason to keep stock IMO is the WiFi calling feature. Only real complaint about stock is the signal bars in the status bar, it shows 2 bars while searching for service.... CM11 doesn't do that.
I am with you, stock with not bloatware is the way to go for me
gspears said:
I have been using Omega rom for years and across many devices so it's great to have it again on the S5. I actually switched from an AT&T S5 to a T-Mobile S5 (unlocked and using it on AT&T) because the TMO S5 could run Omega where the AT&T with a locked bootloader could not. Primarily because you cannot install a rom that uses the Aroma installer on Safe Strap (the AT&T S5's version of a custom recovery.)
So on Omega all's well. Very stable, great battery life, all the bloatware gone (except for what I chose to have on the phone.)
There is just way too much bloatware and crap on the stock AT&T and TMO roms. If nothing else, I'd run a debloated rom just to get away from all the bloat and crap.
Bought the phone outright so I'm not worried about knox and all that..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am usin XtreStoLite Rom with Aroma Installer, great ROM
dturro said:
I am usin XtreStoLite Rom with Aroma Installer, great ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually moved to this ROM from CyanogenMod.
TW has grown on me a bit. :silly:
what is the point on getting samsung if....
Exel said:
I actually moved to this ROM from CyanogenMod.
TW has grown on me a bit. :silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't use TW ?
Alliance ROM 5.5. KT kernel on NG4 baseband. For me it's the perfect balance of options, performance and battery.
Related
Surprised myself and after two weeks of ownership I am still on the I717 Note's stock ROM. This was after constantly ROM flashing on my prior Android Samsung Infuse and iPhone4 & 3G (Jailbreak of course).
Stock battery life is decent and launchers like GO, ADW, etc. give plenty of ability to change icons, UI behavior, etc.
So far I haven't found any annoying problems that would require me to fix via rooting.
I HAD to root my prior Samsung Infuse because it had software bugs that required root to fix BUT I am real PROUD of my Note's ability to run strong and solid as a stock ROM. I haven't been forced to reboot yet in 2 weeks of ownership! Yeha!
For myself the KEY is to make myself to NOT TO LOOK AT Applications:Running Services...it makes me sick to see all those unnecessary apps loaded up.
I simply wanted to see how the Note behaved out-of-the box...and so far real impressed.
Will I ever ROOT - Probably, just to get rid of bloatware AND I will need to tether occasionally once I start traveling again.
Will I ever replace the ROM? Not sure, depends on features but definitely not interested in ROMs that just change icons, startup screens and colors.
anyway, this is just post to say how satisfied, thus far, with the Note's performance...as is.
Anything I'm missing that needs root to fix?
andrawer said:
Surprised myself and after two weeks of ownership I am still on the I717 Note's stock ROM. This was after constantly ROM flashing on my prior Android Samsung Infuse and iPhone4 & 3G (Jailbreak of course).
Stock battery life is decent and launchers like GO, ADW, etc. give plenty of ability to change icons, UI behavior, etc.
So far I haven't found any annoying problems that would require me to fix via rooting.
I HAD to root my prior Samsung Infuse because it had software bugs that required root to fix BUT I am real PROUD of my Note's ability to run strong and solid as a stock ROM. I haven't been forced to reboot yet in 2 weeks of ownership! Yeha!
For myself the KEY is to make myself to NOT TO LOOK AT Applications:Running Services...it makes me sick to see all those unnecessary apps loaded up.
I simply wanted to see how the Note behaved out-of-the box...and so far real impressed.
Will I ever ROOT - Probably, just to get rid of bloatware AND I will need to tether occasionally once I start traveling again.
Will I ever replace the ROM? Not sure, depends on features but definitely not interested in ROMs that just change icons, startup screens and colors.
anyway, this is just post to say how satisfied, thus far, with the Note's performance...as is.
Anything I'm missing that needs root to fix?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can stop those with Autostarts (free in the market), and requires root. It prevents them from opening at all. If you end up checking it out, use the "after startup" disable option.
- Root required apps (there a lot of really good ones - this alone would be enough for me to root).
If you're not interested in theming, or a lot of modifications, then stock is cool. Features, changes, and modifications from custom roms can be patched to stock roms; the only advantage of using custom ones is that they're baked in for you.
I am sticking on stock rom for now, just going to root so I can restore a lot of my old apps, nothing more.
I've already flashed Da_G's root/over clock kernel, which got rid of the lag I was seeing. As soon as cwm comes out of beta I'm going to check out saurom. The Note's out of the box experience is one of the best I've seen, but there is just too much improvement to be had to stay stock, IMHO.
Synner12 said:
I've already flashed Da_G's root/over clock kernel, which got rid of the lag I was seeing. As soon as cwm comes out of beta I'm going to check out saurom. The Note's out of the box experience is one of the best I've seen, but there is just too much improvement to be had to stay stock, IMHO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CMW b3 seems to be flawless so far!
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA
I think it is a good idea to stay all stock until ics update comes out and we apply it. (I expect them to want us to be all stock when applying the ics update that is why)
Underground_XI said:
I think it is a good idea to stay all stock until ics update comes out and we apply it. (I expect them to want us to be all stock when applying the ics update that is why)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fair enough but there will be several ICS Roms months before official AT&T. (I am typing from my ICS Captivate right now for example). Plus you can always flash back to stock.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA
I was stock from best buy to my house and that's it and I can't wait till I can get a sub 100mb ROM onto here. The bloat is sickening and even after removing down to mid 100 it's still not performing to it's non touchwiz potential.
Just to throw in my two-cents, I am fairly impressed as well with the Touchwiz 4.0 interface. Coming from an Atrix (blur) and Inspire (sense), touchwiz is a big step up imo. It feels like gingerbread done right to me. Although it isn't without a few issues, like the slight but noticable lag (to be fair all stock roms seem to stutter a bit occasionally), the no wallpaper scrolling and no landscape mode for the touchwiz launcher.
I think it will be interesting to see what devs or even Samsung/AT&T come up with to merge Touchwiz and ICS. It's gonna be a good year in the ROM community on this phone I can feel it.
Both my notes are on stock. I have no need for a rom.
Sarius24 said:
Both my notes are on stock. I have no need for a rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but... stock IS a ROM, too.
I think it is a great thing that this phone is so good that we can use it stock. Haven't got mine yet but I only plan to Root it and use stock for a few weeks, at least.
So far yes
Right now there really aren't that many roms for the galaxy note lte so I'm going to wait until ICS comes out play with that for a while then I'll be flashing away!
I think people obsess over nothing rather than actually use their devices. That said, I'm not bothering to flash anyone's cooked ROM until there's an ICS update from Samsung.
burhanistan said:
I think people obsess over nothing rather than actually use their devices. That said, I'm not bothering to flash anyone's cooked ROM until there's an ICS update from Samsung.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^That, less the o/c kernel. The performance boost isn't exacted necessary, but you WILL notice it.
I was going to try and stick with the stock ROM as long as possible. However, my addiction got the best of me, and im now laying in bed at the end of my first full day with my Note, and I'm running TPC2 with Da_G's OC kernel. Go figure. Haha.
Not that I was having troubles with the stock ROM, as it was actually really smooth and lag free for the most part. On the other hand, now my Note is an absolute beast. The Note is definitely the first Android I've been happy with out of the box, but I would still rather be running a custom ROM, if not just so I can tell people it's running custom software when I show them my phone.
Samsung really hit it out of the park with this phone. I will never look at a smaller phone the same way again. Forever ruined! And I find the SPen to be really comfy for just navigating my phone and precision of selection. Swyping is fun with it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
I think it's not necessary for me to do anything yet. But don't get me wrong, I will root the phone eventually. I have a real problem with ATT telling me that I "have" to suffer software I don't want on MY phone. That in its self encourages me to root. But, I am waiting to see if ICS is really going to be available soon.
I wonder though if Rooting would affect the upgrade process--perhaps someone could answer this for me. If not, I would be tempted to root my Note after the thirty days (window of time for return) is up.
I flashed roms daily on my Inspire, but I am stock now and planning on staying that way forever or at least until If leaks. the only thing I've done is root to disable ads and remove bloatware.
I'm still stock. I've rooted and jailbrake-ed other phones. I really like this one the way it is. The bloatware etc don't bother me much. I may root after ICS. For now, my Note rocks pretty hard just the way it is.
Roger_15 said:
But, I am waiting to see if ICS is really going to be available soon.
I wonder though if Rooting would effect the upgrade process--perhaps someone could answer this for me. If not, I would be tempted to root my Note after the thirty days is up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you asking if root will affect upgrading to ICS? The answer to that is no. If you flash a custom ROM then that answer is yes. You would need to go back to stock ROM for the ICS update from ATT. However, there will be ICS ROMs here well before ATT releases it.
What's the 30 days thing? Not getting that part. What happens in 30 days? Maybe you mean the window to return your Note. I agree you might want to wait for that to expire before root. But you can also un-root if you want.
I'm on stock rom and don't plan to root anytime soon for both of my devices the note and gnex!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Bought my S4 with ME7 from a N2 before I knew what was good for me. As a recovering flash-a-holic, ME7 has helped me appreciate the functionality and stability of a factory ROM. In the past, factory ROMs never really did it for me - mainly because I've owned devices where factory overlay versus hardware were never really equal.
Obviously AOSP was the way to go - stable builds of Cyanogenmod to be specific (nightlies and insert developernamehere ROMs always had insertquirkhere that inevitably revealed itself - being a perfectionist who loves minimalism, I had limited options. My ROM choice was always stable AOSP-built or TouchWiz with very light modifications (I looked for debloated, odexed ROMs with no mods, maybe volume key to change track).
Back to the topic name, has anyone grown content with their ME7 stock device? Obviously I'm anticipating Safestrap (I went from a Fascinate to a Bionic, then to GNex, GS3, GN2, GS4 for those wondering), but if it never reaches fruition, I could be content with this device for a little while. Opinions?
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app
zerofighter1 said:
Bought my S4 with ME7 from a N2 before I knew what was good for me. As a recovering flash-a-holic, ME7 has helped me appreciate the functionality and stability of a factory ROM. In the past, factory ROMs never really did it for me - mainly because I've owned devices where factory overlay versus hardware were never really equal.
Obviously AOSP was the way to go - stable builds of Cyanogenmod to be specific (nightlies and insert developernamehere ROMs always had insertquirkhere that inevitably revealed itself - being a perfectionist who loves minimalism, I had limited options. My ROM choice was always stable AOSP-built or TouchWiz with very light modifications (I looked for debloated, odexed ROMs with no mods, maybe volume key to change track).
Back to the topic name, has anyone grown content with their ME7 stock device? Obviously I'm anticipating Safestrap (I went from a Fascinate to a Bionic, then to GNex, GS3, GN2, GS4 for those wondering), but if it never reaches fruition, I could be content with this device for a little while. Opinions?
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
root alone is fine for me, tbh, even though i run a custom rom. Just the ability to get rid of bloatware is fine with stuff like nova launcher.
zerofighter1 said:
Bought my S4 with ME7 from a N2 before I knew what was good for me. As a recovering flash-a-holic, ME7 has helped me appreciate the functionality and stability of a factory ROM. In the past, factory ROMs never really did it for me - mainly because I've owned devices where factory overlay versus hardware were never really equal.
Obviously AOSP was the way to go - stable builds of Cyanogenmod to be specific (nightlies and insert developernamehere ROMs always had insertquirkhere that inevitably revealed itself - being a perfectionist who loves minimalism, I had limited options. My ROM choice was always stable AOSP-built or TouchWiz with very light modifications (I looked for debloated, odexed ROMs with no mods, maybe volume key to change track).
Back to the topic name, has anyone grown content with their ME7 stock device? Obviously I'm anticipating Safestrap (I went from a Fascinate to a Bionic, then to GNex, GS3, GN2, GS4 for those wondering), but if it never reaches fruition, I could be content with this device for a little while. Opinions?
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have ran basically every custom TW rom but now im on an me7 stock rom (can go back to mdk) and im content with it. Im running the xposed framework so I can do some basic customization. Getting some awesome battery life too, day and a half with 6 hours screen on time.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2
Rooted, debloated with TBU, tweaked a bit with Tweakbox and Wanam via Xposed and using Nova, stock ME7 is fairly dynamic. Will I try a custom via SS, and/or via a custom recovery.....you bet. Am I OK with the GS4 as is? Yep. Best phone I have ever had by a long shot.
I used a 16gb S4 for couple days and then returned it and ordered the 32gb version online. I knew I had found my new phone because the only thing that bugged me was the bloat and that will go once rooted. Came from GNex, which I hated stock. Before that, the Incredible-hated Sense. So I was really thrilled with the S4 in all respects.
Question: When my new S4 arrives in the next day or two, what's the way to keep it from downloading the update before I can get it rooted? (I realize it may come already updated, in which case I'll just root, period )
GNex Toro
Pull sim and root or just put it in airplane mode then root. If it can't communicate to wonderful world of VZW, it can't pull down the update
Eric214 said:
Pull sim and root or just put it in airplane mode then root. If it can't communicate to wonderful world of VZW, it can't pull down the update
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The above would be the absolute 1st step/s. 2nd step is to freeze/uninstall SDM 1.0. and go to system root/data/fota/ and delete the ota file/s.
Getting rid of the bloat ware did it for me. My battery life is much better now than when I first got it. I still wish I could flash some different ROMs. I've never had a phone I couldn't do that on so this will be a first.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Actually, I'm ok with rooted ME7 for now. It's only been, maybe 10 hours, and most of that time has been spent searching and reading, but after removing all the bloat mentioned here and downloading blacked out apps from TBO Blackout Updater, I think it should be just fine. Especially coming from the ol' Fascinate.
My first Droid was a HTC Incredible. I went through tons of ROM"s on that. Everything from an ODex'd stock rom to MIUI. I ultimately ran MIUI with tons of customizations flashed via recovery.
With the S4 Im content with root and just getting rid of the bloat. I like TouchWiz more than I liked HTC Sense.
Just rooting alone and removing the bloat I can go 27 hours with 55% screen time and 8% GPS usage. I went with the 32Gb version and a 16Gb Microsd card with tons of wallpapers, notification sounds, etc.
Very content.
I used to be a flash-a-holic, but in the last year, I have had a child and gone back to school. I have found very little time or motivation to mess around with ROMs I don't like, have strange glitches, or are just plain unreliable. I know there are many good ROMs usually available for well supported devices, but the time spent trying one after another has worn on me. My Nexus 7 has been running the same fully functional ROM for a long time, and I feel no need to "update" to the latest version of the ROM just for the sake of having the "latest" when this is running rock solid.
Stuck on stock... hehe... has been good for me actually. Very stable, functional. reliable. After rooting, removing all the bloat (still just frozen until thouroughly proven to be safe for me), and installling HOLO Launcher HD, I am very happy. I am findng tweaks to polish the user experience more and more every day, and my battery life is much better than I thought it would be with this huge and gorgeous screen. I have had no issues with the heat or battery drain I read about and feared before diving in and buying this phone, and whether or not it is because the first thing I did was root and debloat, doesn't matter to me.
I love this phone, my first Sammy.
Tool Belt said:
Rooted, debloated with TBU, tweaked a bit with Tweakbox and Wanam via Xposed and using Nova, stock ME7 is fairly dynamic. Will I try a custom via SS, and/or via a custom recovery.....you bet. Am I OK with the GS4 as is? Yep. Best phone I have ever had by a long shot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wanam Xposed is so awesome, finally able to customized the device how I like
IamPro said:
Wanam Xposed is so awesome, finally able to customized the device how I like
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just installed Viper4Android.......WOW!!
Stupid question I'm sure, but how do I "debloat"? Is there an app, or is this simply manually deleting unwanted apps? FYI, I have Verizon ME7 rooted.
TMack1962 said:
Stupid question I'm sure, but how do I "debloat"? Is there an app, or is this simply manually deleting unwanted apps? FYI, I have Verizon ME7 rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Debloating is basically removing all the apps that come pre installed that you have no use/need for. There is a 1 click debloater posted in the dev section but I prefer to do it manually.
Hit thanks if I helped you out. Doing a little bit of reading goes a long way. Sent via tapatalk.
I just got back home with my shiny new S4 and I can't wait to get the thing rooted and rom'd. But! Before I take the dive, I'd like to test the waters of this lovely phone's community.
If you have a few minutes to spare:
- What rom/kernel are you using? Why?
- What is one thing that you wish you knew about the S4 before flashing?
Thanks!
- EJ
.Ejekt said:
I just got back home with my shiny new S4 and I can't wait to get the thing rooted and rom'd. But! Before I take the dive, I'd like to test the waters of this lovely phone's community.
If you have a few minutes to spare:
- What rom/kernel are you using? Why?
- What is one thing that you wish you knew about the S4 before flashing?
Thanks!
- EJ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before you get to excited, you might want to check what firmware version you have.
riker147 said:
Before you get to excited, you might want to check what firmware version you have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was painfully vague. Care to elaborate?
.Ejekt said:
That was painfully vague. Care to elaborate?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know (which I'm not 100%sure since I'm on mdk) you cannot flash custom roms yet if on the latest update (mj7 with Android 4.3) If you're lucky enough (unlikely) to get one with me7 firmware, you can flash custom roms with safestrap. This phone is not doing so well in the development area as I expected it would before release. Hopefully someone can figure out a way around the locked down bootloader
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2
.Ejekt said:
That was painfully vague. Care to elaborate?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That makes it painfully obvious that you haven't read much around here.
What you first need to know is what firmware version you have. That determines what you can do.
What you asked is equivalent to saying that you have a car then asking what you can do to improve it - no data on what year or model, or what you want to do. Without that info, how can anyone help you? If you can't even be bothered to figure out what build you have to start with, nobody can suggest anything to help you.
Evocm7 said:
As far as I know (which I'm not 100%sure since I'm on mdk) you cannot flash custom roms yet if on the latest update (mj7 with Android 4.3) If you're lucky enough (unlikely) to get one with me7 firmware, you can flash custom roms with safestrap. This phone is not doing so well in the development area as I expected it would before release. Hopefully someone can figure out a way around the locked down bootloader
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I managed to figure that out a couple minutes ago. I actually got pushed to ME7 while I was rooting my S4 (ironic?) and was able to stop it after that. So, it seems I was one of the lucky(ish) ones. Would've been nice to stay at MDK, but SafeStrap seems to be one hell of a tool.
.Ejekt said:
I just got back home with my shiny new S4 and I can't wait to get the thing rooted and rom'd. But! Before I take the dive, I'd like to test the waters of this lovely phone's community.
If you have a few minutes to spare:
- What rom/kernel are you using? Why?
- What is one thing that you wish you knew about the S4 before flashing?
Thanks!
- EJ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there... I remember you from the Fascinate forums. I finally ended up getting an S4 about 2 1/2 months ago and for the most part it's a great device, but you can't expect near the same freedom as you had with the Fascinate.
When I got mine I ended up with ME7 so it sounds like you're in the same boat. I have mine rooted, but decided not to use Safestrap because of the limitations it brings (mainly the storage issue). I'm pretty happy with how I have mine set up and it's pretty snappy overall, but I really do wish I had gotten an MDK in order to really flash roms like I used to on my Fascinate.
If you choose to use Safestrap then go nuts and I hope you find some roms you like (Hyperdrive seems to get the most love around here from what I've noticed). I'll just quickly list off the modifications I did to mine that got it to where I like it:
-Froze all bloat with Titanium, including the SDM 1.0 (to prevent unwanted updates)
-Got rid of e911 icon and ongoing WiFi notification
-Installed the International Voice Dialer with call recording
-Installed Volume Boost mod (increased it around 50% over stock)
-Installed Xposed Framework so I could use Greenify features
-Used Greenify to hibernate all misbehaving apps (examples would be Facebook and Google Play Store) (... this increased battery life A LOT)
-Installed AdAway (adblocker)
-Turned all animations down to .5 in developer options and disabled all hovering effects on the lock screen
Doing all that really made this thing a lot better than it was, but I'm still hoping for a true bootloader unlock to start playing with it more. I have found a lot of the Touchwiz features to be quite useful, like the voice control stuff, camera app, etc, so I would probably stick with a modded Touchwiz rom if I had the option. Good luck.
edit: Oh and another thing you might not be aware of - the camera is set to 9.5MP by default in the app, you need to go into settings to use the native 13MP resolution.
One thing to note that no one mentioned (and in case you didn't read elsewhere) is that with SafeStrap you can not use ROMs with custom kernels. So that means no AOSP based ROMs like CM, Carbon, PACman and others since they are all using a custom kernel. At least until they get KEXEC working with SafeStrap (if they get it working). So basically you can only use modded TW roms with a stock kernel.
With Xposed and debloat I am able to get the look&feel i want and performance is pretty stellar (multiple days on standard battery when i'm not using it much). I've SafeStrap'd HyperDrive and it just seems like i'm missing something...
So my question, what does HyperDrive offer over a stock/rooted/debloated from a usability/functionality perspective? There has to be stuff i'm missing, but i'm clearly missing it. Back in the S3 days, I was avid for LiquidSmooth as it had the craziest button customization i've ever seen (still true, wtb remapping hardware keys on lockscreen to tasker-like action lists )... with the Droid X is was Liberty for the crazy battery life and obvious speed/response improvements... what is it here?
(Please note that i'm being genuine here. I have incredible respect for all the work ROM developers do (and have proven it with donations...) and I am in no means questioning the work of the HyperDrive development team.)
Scott has added all kinds of customizations/tweaks/enhancements to the ROM. Lots of stuff from the Note 3 as well. Read the 1st post in the main thread to see what has been done.
My battery life is at least 50% better than stock S4 (which my wife has)
decaturbob said:
My battery life is at least 50% better than stock S4 (which my wife has)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is likely a user-thing, as once i debloated and greenified stock/rooted my battery life is considerably better than what i am currently getting on HyperDrive. HD is good, but my previous debloated stock was a lot better. That's the main reason for my question, as I would have expected the other way.
Regarding the above post, i'll re-read the HD post again but most of what i saw seemed like Xposed add-ons or Note3 apks. I do not mean to diminish this, but these are things achievable in stock/rooted so if they are the only gain and my battery is about 50% as long then...
Other thoughts? And thanks for the replies
There biggest differentiatior to me is the full multiwindow port from the note 3 that allows us to have floating windows, dual app shortcuts, etc.
This is a topic that had been brought up a ton when we first realized the capabilities of a framework editor such as Xposed. It takes away a lot of the need for a custom rom. I remember I first expected it to replace skinned ROM's like the ones based on TW or Sense, especially as our bootloaders continue to get locked tight. The only thing really holding that back now is the fact that Xposed will probably never be compatible with ART.
Sent from my CIA sanctioned device
Digur said:
This is likely a user-thing, as once i debloated and greenified stock/rooted my battery life is considerably better than what i am currently getting on HyperDrive. HD is good, but my previous debloated stock was a lot better. That's the main reason for my question, as I would have expected the other way.
Regarding the above post, i'll re-read the HD post again but most of what i saw seemed like Xposed add-ons or Note3 apks. I do not mean to diminish this, but these are things achievable in stock/rooted so if they are the only gain and my battery is about 50% as long then...
Other thoughts? And thanks for the replies
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't do anything more than install hd12....and I still have stock rom in place too....I didn't do any thing with wanam or xpose...or greenify or debloat....da nada. Is this a positive aspect. Hands down.
safestrap enabled, Hyperdrive driven
decaturbob said:
I didn't do anything more than install hd12....and I still have stock rom in place too....I didn't do any thing with wanam or xpose...or greenify or debloat....da nada. Is this a positive aspect. Hands down.
safestrap enabled, Hyperdrive driven
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
I tried out HD and did not get the same battery life as i do with BoneStock. For me smoothness and battery life is key so i can use my phone as i want. I get .25%-.5% battery drain while idle. I get about 6 hours of SoT just about every charge and i have gotten up to 7.5 hours of SoT from time to time. I got nothing like that setting up the phone on HD the same way.
There are very good things with custom ROMs with performance tweaks and better battery. But TW has grown on me over AOSP which i had with my Droid Bionic. All I can say is, it's all about preference. Load one up and try and keep track of things that matter to you (lags/battery) and then try another. If you don't see much difference then go with what you like. It's just like food, no one can tell you what you'll like till you try it out yourself
HI everyone,
I received a new LG G3 today. It was a great price with all the new phones out and I now have stock QI. SWEET! I'm coming from a VZN note 2 w horrible touchwiz/ some ROMS tried. Ultimately I dont want to flash roms unless LG sucks, I'd prefer to unlock and root to allow for special applications, I'll get to why at the bottom. I'm seeking your opinion and thoughts in regards to:
1.) Should I unlock/root in 4.2.2 prior to the OTA update and stay with 4.4.2? I was not too happy with Kit Kat and it seems that as you get closer to lollipop I had less customization and was annoyed more often with the loss of features within apps and bland styles.; do you agree? I have only seen lollipop from google researching and it looks similar to Kit Kat, just so, so.... Currently in 4.2.2 I can use Google wallet, my chromecast with any movie and music, etc; I don't think I would be gaining any feature except full screen casting, but I have a computer and Chromecast dedicated to my TV. The new notification styles don't impress me either. I had other notification options with CM11 (lock screen/etc) and was not that thrilled with it to upgrade. Normal pictures are fine with me and I'm not trying to win any film contests. No reason to beam stuff, and I like the full month view with digicalendar widget on one home screen (hated google's new calendar views).... Do you regret upgrading? I'm hoping and praying LG has a solid ROM that doesn't drive me crazing crashing with glitches.
lastly any suggestions - Do I need to root now or do anything else to prevent being locked out after the upgrade if I do do it, as is the case of Samsung? I was so glad I locked out OTA updates that screwed a bunch of people out of unlocking their bootloaders for long periods of time.
THANKS FOR YOUR ADVICE AND TIME EVERYONE! I really do appreciate it and I'm excited to start learning about the G3 and having a lot of fun.
My thoughts/background on staying stock w root and unlocked at this point vs Flashing ROMS if you were wondering:
Pardon the poor grammar/ ranting- Basically I need a solid daily driver and after being a little disappointed with CM11 and KitKat in general due to it's bland looks, camera, messaging, etc (e.g. You have to have a face for every contact including yourself to differentiate well between the text messages back and forth, or have handscent with a more "bubble like experience", but is a [email protected] to attach certain things. All in all I tried out gummy rom, CM11 and liquid smooth and was not too thrilled with the glitches or missing stuff that they had for the stable releases I ended up trying for a daily driver. It was fun flashing and testing stuff out though. I switched to a custom ROM mainly bc my note 2 would not allow for easy access to contacts while messaging in landscape (If you typed out a contact's entire name it would only show numbers in the auto select region just above the keyboard and so you would have to scroll down to select a contact in a thin box, this is not okay when your wife is trying to text on your appradio 3 while you are driving. Touch wiz sucked for stability (atleast CM11 never crashed on me!) and touchwiz had so many other glitches and issues that annoyed me; I had to root and add another app just to get a notification bar wifi toggle, WTF! VZN. In ROMS there were mIssing shortcuts in apps to attach things like contacts and do certain daily driver stuff that annoyed me about each ROM, but CM11 was the best for me out of the 4 total I experienced. Custom ROMS did a bad job at working with ARU unchained for my appradio3, but I didn't sped a lot of time on each ROM getting it to work (CM11 was the easiest).
I too came from a Note II and didn't take any OTA's and instead updated with Bean's stock images.
Root your G3 now and update to the latest via: http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-lg-g3/general/reference-stock-img-files-t2966958
If you did take the latest OTA, you can roll back and update to the latest so not too bad being on LG.
stewbuntu said:
HI everyone,
I received a new LG G3 today. It was a great price with all the new phones out and I now have stock QI. SWEET! I'm coming from a VZN note 2 w horrible touchwiz/ some ROMS tried. Ultimately I dont want to flash roms unless LG sucks, I'd prefer to unlock and root to allow for special applications, I'll get to why at the bottom. I'm seeking your opinion and thoughts in regards to:
1.) Should I unlock/root in 4.2.2 prior to the OTA update and stay with 4.2.2? I was not too happy with Kit Kat and it seems that as you get closer to lollipop I had less customization and was annoyed more often with the loss of features within apps and bland styles.; do you agree? I have only seen lollipop from google researching and it looks similar to Kit Kat, just so, so.... Currently in 4.2.2 I can use Google wallet, my chromecast with any movie and music, etc; I don't think I would be gaining any feature except full screen casting, but I have a computer and Chromecast dedicated to my TV. The new notification styles don't impress me either. I had other notification options with CM11 (lock screen/etc) and was not that thrilled with it to upgrade. Normal pictures are fine with me and I'm not trying to win any film contests. No reason to beam stuff, and I like the full month view with digicalendar widget on one home screen (hated google's new calendar views).... Do you regret upgrading? I'm hoping and praying LG has a solid ROM that doesn't drive me crazing crashing with glitches.
lastly any suggestions - Do I need to root now or do anything else to prevent being locked out after the upgrade if I do do it, as is the case of Samsung? I was so glad I locked out OTA updates that screwed a bunch of people out of unlocking their bootloaders for long periods of time.
THANKS FOR YOUR ADVICE AND TIME EVERYONE! I really do appreciate it and I'm excited to start learning about the G3 and having a lot of fun.
My thoughts/background on staying stock w root and unlocked at this point vs Flashing ROMS if you were wondering:
Pardon the poor grammar/ ranting- Basically I need a solid daily driver and after being a little disappointed with CM11 and KitKat in general due to it's bland looks, camera, messaging, etc (e.g. You have to have a face for every contact including yourself to differentiate well between the text messages back and forth, or have handscent with a more "bubble like experience", but is a [email protected] to attach certain things. All in all I tried out gummy rom, CM11 and liquid smooth and was not too thrilled with the glitches or missing stuff that they had for the stable releases I ended up trying for a daily driver. It was fun flashing and testing stuff out though. I switched to a custom ROM mainly bc my note 2 would not allow for easy access to contacts while messaging in landscape (If you typed out a contact's entire name it would only show numbers in the auto select region just above the keyboard and so you would have to scroll down to select a contact in a thin box, this is not okay when your wife is trying to text on your appradio 3 while you are driving. Touch wiz sucked for stability (atleast CM11 never crashed on me!) and touchwiz had so many other glitches and issues that annoyed me; I had to root and add another app just to get a notification bar wifi toggle, WTF! VZN. In ROMS there were mIssing shortcuts in apps to attach things like contacts and do certain daily driver stuff that annoyed me about each ROM, but CM11 was the best for me out of the 4 total I experienced. Custom ROMS did a bad job at working with ARU unchained for my appradio3, but I didn't sped a lot of time on each ROM getting it to work (CM11 was the easiest).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off, I'm assuming when you say 4.2.2, you mean 4.4.2 As far as LG's stock rom, I'd say that as far as OEM's go, LG's on the better end certainly, however that's not to say the stock rom didn't leave bits to be desired, but imho it was a whole heck of a lot better than barfwiz Me personally, I greatly prefer AOSP as opposed to carrier skinned Android, however you do pay a slightly higher premium in a few more glitches/oddities, but you gain a lot of fluidity/speed and a much better looking system imho, but that's personal preference. As far as rooting/upgrading/downgrading, I'm one to always recommend root solely because then YOU can choose when and how to update YOUR device. 10B is currently the only rootable FW, but if you just got it today then you're likely on firmware version 11C or 12B. Both of these can currently be downgraded using the kdz (and possibly tot) methods, as LG and/or VZW haven't yet implemented anything quite as ridiculous as that yet, but I would never put it past VZW to do this at some point. This is all what I personally would recommend doing, and then consider flashing a stock-based rom (such as skydragon or jasmine) Just my 2c
ohlin5 said:
First off, I'm assuming when you say 4.2.2, you mean 4.4.2 As far as LG's stock rom, I'd say that as far as OEM's go, LG's on the better end certainly, however that's not to say the stock rom didn't leave bits to be desired, but imho it was a whole heck of a lot better than barfwiz Me personally, I greatly prefer AOSP as opposed to carrier skinned Android, however you do pay a slightly higher premium in a few more glitches/oddities, but you gain a lot of fluidity/speed and a much better looking system imho, but that's personal preference. As far as rooting/upgrading/downgrading, I'm one to always recommend root solely because then YOU can choose when and how to update YOUR device. 10B is currently the only rootable FW, but if you just got it today then you're likely on firmware version 11C or 12B. Both of these can currently be downgraded using the kdz (and possibly tot) methods, as LG and/or VZW haven't yet implemented anything quite as ridiculous as that yet, but I would never put it past VZW to do this at some point. This is all what I personally would recommend doing, and then consider flashing a stock-based rom (such as skydragon or jasmine) Just my 2c
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My bad 4.4.2 and I do see 10B build # KVT49L.VS98510B model # has 10b too
Thanks guys, good info and stuff to research
Colchiro said:
I too came from a Note II and didn't take any OTA's and instead updated with Bean's stock images.
Root your G3 now and update to the latest via: http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-lg-g3/general/reference-stock-img-files-t2966958
If you did take the latest OTA, you can roll back and update to the latest so not too bad being on LG.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I knew I didn't want Samsung/[email protected] so I spent a while looking at other options and the G3 seemed great with Micro SD and replaceable battery. I can't understand what companies are thinking with no SD slot and not being able to swap batteries when they go bad, or on the fly (although I do 12 hr shifts). Ever since my Motorolla Atrix 3G I have missed glitch free daily drivers My fingers are crossed
So do you guys like Lollipop based ASOPs?
stewbuntu said:
So do you guys like Lollipop based ASOPs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Locked bootloaders is why I switched to LG. I'm not alone.
I haven't tried any custom roms. I don't like to lose some of the features I like, like knock and stock camera, so haven't messed with custom roms for a couple years. Debloated stock G3 works fine for me....
Oops. Post to wrong thread - deleted