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Root Choosing a custom ROM

sharksfan7

sharksfan7

Android Enthusiast
I've been using GO Launcher EX over the stock Sense ROM on my Inspire for several weeks. I'm really happy with the customization I've been able to do to my homescreens; customizing, scrolling and hiding the dock bar, hiding the status bar, adding/deleting homescreens. If I root, do most custom ROMs have the ability to make these interface customizations built in or would I most likely need to continue using GO Launcher? If I have to continue using Go Launcher to have the interface the way I want it, what other components of a ROM should I consider when choosing which ROM to use? What are the main aspects of a ROM that differentiate one from another?

Thanks.
 
In my opinion you will still be using the launcher. The Roms you install will have HTC Sense 2.1, 3.0 or the new 3.5 (which I did not care for) and will be setup the same way as stock even with minimal customization. The other roms will not have htc sense such as Cyanogen Mod 7, ninja, non-sense, etc. Cyanogen is the best by far and allows the most customization without having to install a launcher. His work is like no other rom out there and the battery life is excellent. He gives 2 options in settings, both the Cyanogen settings and adw launcher. You should install his rom and go through these 2 settings for all the customization it offers. As far as what roms have that sets it apart from other roms, in layman's terms, it either has HTC Sense or it doesn't.
 
Coming from WM I would think that Sense is a lot more then a Homescreen, but also adds a lot of apps and UI elements. A ROM without Sense, while it may have other advantages (better battery life, RAM, etc.) would lose those apps and UI improvements. At least that was my experience in WM. Can anyone comment on this?
Thanks!
 
ymmp said:
Coming from WM I would think that Sense is a lot more then a Homescreen, but also adds a lot of apps and UI elements. A ROM without Sense, while it may have other advantages (better battery life, RAM, etc.) would lose those apps and UI improvements. At least that was my experience in WM. Can anyone comment on this?
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Sense is pretty much an completely new framework built ontop of the existing android one. So yes you are correct its more than a homescreen.

If you flash an AOSP based rom you are correct you won't get anything sense related with it since sense is proprietary.
 
Personally I ditched sense and went with a much lighter rom. I can't say enough how happy I am with absolution 3.0 which is based on cyanogenmod. for example a sense based rom is 300+ mb where as cm7 and it's various cousins are 90ish mb in size. The other reason that I ditched sense is that it is not compatible with a lot of things I like to do such as wiimote connection etc. The battery life is much better with cm7 and I get much fewer fcs and random boot loops. Sense is a great interface but I ran into more problems with it then solutions. I am sure that rom development has fixed lots of these problems but from a performance and compatibility standpoint cm7 is just far superior.
 
I switched to Android Revolution HD after running Absolution for a couple of weeks. I actually like the Sense interface and couldn't find the mods for Absolution to get things just how I wanted. Mostly little cosmetic things but things that over time were starting to bug me. I'm getting just as good battery life with ARHD as I did with Absolution and my network speed is much faster. Haven't run into anything that I want to do but can't b/c I'm on Sense. ARHD is a solid Sense-based ROM if that's what you're looking for.
 
sharksfan7 said:
I switched to Android Revolution HD after running Absolution for a couple of weeks. I actually like the Sense interface and couldn't find the mods for Absolution to get things just how I wanted. Mostly little cosmetic things but things that over time were starting to bug me. I'm getting just as good battery life with ARHD as I did with Absolution and my network speed is much faster. Haven't run into anything that I want to do but can't b/c I'm on Sense. ARHD is a solid Sense-based ROM if that's what you're looking for.
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I loved Android Revolution. I didn't know that the battery life was bad until I flashed Virtuous Unity. Still Sense 3.0, with better tweaks, and way better battery life. Just my opinion.
 
chall80 said:
I loved Android Revolution. I didn't know that the battery life was bad until I flashed Virtuous Unity. Still Sense 3.0, with better tweaks, and way better battery life. Just my opinion.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I'll have to give that a spin.
 
chall80 said:
I loved Android Revolution. I didn't know that the battery life was bad until I flashed Virtuous Unity. Still Sense 3.0, with better tweaks, and way better battery life. Just my opinion.
Click to expand...

I'm using Android Revolution and its great. I tried Coredroid but didn't liked all that modified theme and icons so went back to Android Revolution. Virtuous Unity seems interesting. Have you used it?
 
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