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Root Choosing a memory and battery efficient ROM:

A

anabellita

Newbie
Hi, I've recently managed to root my phone, thanks to CafeKampuchia and SentinelBL, and I'm now in the process of choosing a ROM.

Here's the thing, I actually have no particular problem with Sense (perhaps because it's the only one I've really used) - except for all the apps I can't uninstall, the low useable memory and the terrible battery life.

At first I thought that just installing link2sd would do the trick, but I'm still stuck with a whole bunch of HTC's apps which I never use, and a low battery life. Can't get rid of HTC Facebook, HTC SMS, stock, news.... Can't move the address book off to the SD card (perhaps there's a more efficient address book out there??)...

I also can't figure out how to make the phone more energy efficient. Right now, it won't go a full day without charging, and I don't listen to music or play games, and I hardly surf or watch videos!

So I'm looking for a ROM based on the stock ROM, which will allow me to do those things:
* get rid of the HTC apps
* increase battery life
* I guess somewhat better performance would be nice (it does feel a bit slow compared to my friends' phones), but I'm not into too much overclocking, as I prefer my battery alive. Like I said, no games, and only occasional videos.

I did try installing Alquez's CM7. Frankly, don't have the time to be bothered will all the time it would require to customize (it's really bare in terms of apps, and I really didn't like the theme).

..erm.... also, I fiddled around with the screenlock features (clicked the "bubble" something or other) and then was unable to unlock the screen :o So I changed back to stock.

Any suggestions? I've been looking around the forums, but can't figure out which are the latest stable ROMs, nor which one would do what I need...
 
Actually, it is possible to uninstall blotware apps with Titanium backup. Just make sure you don't uninstall any system files or your phone will go for a toss!
 
I tried the other day, but it wouldn't let me... I'll try again.

Can the address book be moved to the SD with link2SD?
Can it be removed and replaced with anoter address book?

What about the email?

And finally, since everyone is raving about CM7, any chance we can see a lowdown of the advantages of using it?

thanks!
 
If you want a fast stable rom flash cm7 rc3 with my kernel I just posted on this for for me battery life is good and the roms fast even with mount2sd.
 
I am using eoghan2t7's CM 7 CR3 and I do agree that the battery is pretty good :)
link2SD will not allow you to move your address book to SD card. At least I don't think so. But I doubt that your address book is that huge that it needs a link for it. Use Link2Sd for the apps and create links. Don't move them to the SD card.
I'm not sure with the Stock rom, but after I flashed CM 7, I installed my preferred email app (Droidmail).
 
thanks for the feedback and sorry for the late reply.
will try out that ROM.

my point about email and contacts was that the data (not the application itself) takes up a huge amount of space, and I can't seem to shift it out of the phone memory and into the SD.

as for removing HTC's stock apps such as peep, email, contacts, stock, news, etc., I did try with titanium, but it gave me a scary warning message, so I was unsure whether it was OK to move ahead or not...

eoghan2t7, is your ROM already stable enough for a noob to use? does it support Spanish?

thanks!
 
Yeah Titanium will give you a scary notice but as long as you don't take any system files out you should be fine. I just uninstalled the apps that I never use like youtube, there was some car app and restaurant app...All those apps are safe to remove.
Just make a nandroid backup before you delete anything so that in case something bad happens, you can always go back to it.
CM does support spanish so not to worry :)
 
I rooted mine a while ago and immediately used Titanium to delete Facebook etc. Then I partitioned my card and used Link2sd to link all the other apps to the SD card. I also configured it to automatically link new apps to the card. I have a lot of app and currently have 83 mb free. I never have less than 80.

I have tried a few Roms but each time I have restored my backup to then stock Rom. I didn't like the look of CM7 at all. It doesn't look a bit like the stock and looked quite amateurish. But the worst thing was that there was no option for an xt9 keyboard and I couldn't manage without that.

My battery life is fine if I charge it every night.
 
ok, my first impressions after playing around with CM7 for a few days...

  • I love that it all feels light and easy. the phone doesn't lag, and the battery lasts about twice as long! It's almost as if the phone were having fun running the OS
  • I love that I have a gazillion options for customization, and can choose everything from the dialer to the keyboard
  • I love that if I find the time and energy I can actually learn to use UOT and tweak this phone to my heart's content
  • I love the themed icons I got on the phone, and the animations for the app drawer :) feels so cool!


  • I hate that I am overwhelmed by all the options out there, and spend more time figuring them out than actually using the phone
  • I hate that I have tried about 10 dialers and contact apps, and have still found nothing that gives me the functionality that Sense had for merging contacts from a whole range of different places, and then filtering the list to show only what I need to see, and allow me to easily place a call
  • I hate that after trying 5 different keyboards, none feels quite like the stock keyboard of my phone. Swiftkey is by far my favorite, but it doesn't allow for easily switching among languages (I send sms in 3 different languages on a daily basis - and a fourth on a weekly basis), and can only manage 3 languages at any one time. The prediction is impressive, but it predicts in all languages at once, and I would rather it didn't....
  • I hate that the phone no longer manages to connect to the wi-fi at work
  • I hate that the phone won't connect to the bluetooth in my car (but, granted, this may have been me not trying hard enough)


so.... I've been thinking about it and came to the conclusion that CM7 is pretty cool, but at the end of the day this little machine is meant to place and receive phone calls and send and receive text messages (yeah, I know, who would've thunk?), so I'm probably better off switching back to Sense and tweaking that


what sense-based custom roms do you recommend? I would like one that comes almost-vanilla, with just the basic system and connectivity, the keyboard, the dialer and the people app. I could also take the calendar. I'm not interested in any other feature. Everything else I may need I'll download from the play store. Something with a nice kernel that would find the right balance between performance and battery drain would be great.

Back to the original OP then. What sense-based ROM do you recommend?
 
Hi Anabellita,

Concerning the wifi I'm sorry it's not working great for you. Although I only use wifi at home, I didn't encounter any problems. But maybe that's because I have only tried it at home.
As for your contacts, If I'm not wrong, you can definitely filter. If you go to contact settings, there is an option somewhere.
I do agree with the keyboard but after a while I got used to it :)
Sorry you don't like the fact that there are so many different option. I actually love it!!!
I haven't really tried any other roms but if you find anything better, let me know :)
I'm currently trying CM9 and it's quite nice. The look is amazing! But battery is a problem and the scrolling is not so good. Plus the only language available is english. But it's still a beta version. It will only get better and better with time!
 
yes, I think I could get used to swift key (already starting to), but it's the contact manager that is really the deal-breaker. I managed to filter, etc. but I still can't get merge a person's facebook, google+, hotmail, gmail, other mail, whatsapp, viber, skype, and normal contact details in a single contact card. And this is quite frustrating.This is a phone, and it's supposed to allow me to easily manage contacts and easily get in touch with them.

I've tried ex-dialer, adialer, dialer one, smartr, contapps, touchpal, DW contacts, and the gingerbread stock. In then though, most are just skins that are sitting on top of the stock, except for smartr, but using it is a rather ugly experience, as you have to go through a few useless pages (where the logo takes up half the screen) before you can actually get to the contact list.

so I need to switch back.
 
Try to use a sense rom. Maybe that feature is there
disciplexone is posting loads of them they're all based on the sense rom. Never tried his roms as I'm not a fan but I believe his roms are great
 
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