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is custom ROM worth it?

S

sannitig

Newbie
Hello I just picked up my s3 on the bell network. What a nice phone

Now I want to know what the benefits are of putting a custom ROM on the phone. The only thing I would really want to upgrade is the battery life The only thing I would really want to upgrade is the battery life.I will not use a custom ROM if it makes the phone or any applications inherently buggy.



Can anyone please advise if a custom ROM is worth it as I see any degradation in stability not worth it.
from my s3
 
You could add some tweaks to your build.prop file if that's all you want. There are several threads on the XDA site with lists of tweaks. My tablet doesn't have any custom roms and with just tweaks I've gotten around 20% better battery life and an increase in performance.
 
Currently, I'm running on cyanogenmod 10 and it is faster and battery saving for me. Certain custom ROMs eliminate bloatwares that takes up RAM and space
 
Do you notice anything boggy about it? Does the camera work fine does voice recording works fine etc. etc.? Any issues at all?
 
You could use a rom thats based on official firmware so everything works, all the samsung features are there but its a bit more "optimised" for performance and efficiency
 
My phone reboots randomly at times especially when it is "heavily loaded". What I meant by that is whenever you open too many apps at once, the phone would become very sluggish and automatically reboot.

Aside from this problem, everything is good! This is a lightweight ROM recommended for battery savers!
 
funkylogik said:
You could use a rom thats based on official firmware so everything works, all the samsung features are there but its a bit more "optimised" for performance and efficiency
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What ROMs are based on the Samsung official firmware?
 
The one im using is Neat rom Lite. Im on the international s3 though so i dont know about roms for the north American models :thumbup:
 
funkylogik said:
The one im using is Neat rom Lite. Im on the international s3 though so i dont know about roms for the north American models :thumbup:
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last time I checked Singapore wasn't in North America lol. ;)

If you've got the international S3, as funkylogik said, there is NeatRom. Also Wanamlite, and Omega are popular samsung-based roms.
 
sannitig said:
Hello I just picked up my s3 on the bell network. What a nice phone

Now I want to know what the benefits are of putting a custom ROM on the phone. The only thing I would really want to upgrade is the battery life The only thing I would really want to upgrade is the battery life.I will not use a custom ROM if it makes the phone or any applications inherently buggy.



Can anyone please advise if a custom ROM is worth it as I see any degradation in stability not worth it.
from my s3
Click to expand...

I have yet to see a ROM that is "bug" free, close but not 100%. So if your expectations are a bug free ROM it does not exist. Hell even Touchwiz is buggy.................:rolleyes:
 
Ricky Babalu said:
I have yet to see a ROM that is "bug" free, close but not 100%. So if your expectations are a bug free ROM it does not exist. Hell even Touchwiz is buggy.................:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I got to agree for sure. I've got 2 year old devices that aren't completely bug free and the development of them have continued regularly. May have to accept a little instability if you want a custom rom.
 
Since this is a root topic, I'm going to move it to the root forum. Can you let me know what carrier you're on so I can get it to the right spot?


As far as "is rooting/running a custom rom worth it"?


Heck yeah :D. I'll never own a non-rooted device again
 
As far as "is rooting/running a custom rom worth it"?


Heck yeah :D. I'll never own a non-rooted device again[/QUOTE]

That's the whole point in rooting right? :D
 
I usually mess around with them briefly on most devices but always end up back on stock roms.

It all comes down to whats in the custom rom, if there's something you NEED then it might be worth it.
 
if all you care about is battery life than probably not, but i would at least try it out. just make sure to back up your current ROM and if you dont like the new ROM you can easily go back to stock.

you may just stick with the custom ROM when you experience all the extra things it allows your phone to do.
 
If you want to maximise battery life you probably want a custom kernel and then spend months tweaking it to get it right for you ;). To do so you need to root, but you can stick with rooted stock ROM and just flash a kernel if you want.

Other major benefit of rooting is having a custom recovery which allows you to take a full backup of your device. Of course if you root then it also opens up using custom ROMs too, and most are very stable with useful tweaks as well as customisation options.

Personally, I root my Android devices straight away - aside from the benefits I can help it :)
 
There are plenty of stock based custom ROMs tweaked for better performance. Why going back to a stock firmware when you have all the same features and more with a custom one? I'd never go back ;)
 
sherlock5545 said:
There are plenty of stock based custom ROMs tweaked for better performance. Why going back to a stock firmware when you have all the same features and more with a custom one? I'd never go back ;)
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I never noticed any difference except it benchmark scores, the phone is smooth and responsive as it is and doesn't need tweaking.
 
I just set my maximum clock speed higher or lower depending if i need better battery life or not. 1.7Ghz if im at home, 800Mhz is still pretty smooth for when im out, 300Mhz functions fine in emergencys (international). All u need is a clockable kernel for that :thumbup:
 
funkylogik said:
I just set my maximum clock speed higher or lower depending if i need better battery life or not. 1.7Ghz if im at home, 800Mhz is still pretty smooth for when im out, 300Mhz functions fine in emergencys (international). All u need is a clockable kernel for that :thumbup:
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The phone already has a power saving mode which reduces clockspeeds as well as other things. Even then the phone feels laggy, dropping clockspeeds any lower would make it unbearable.

Besides it's the screen that uses the most power, unless the CPU is being used constantly you won't see much difference in battery life.
 
Shocky said:
The phone already has a power saving mode which reduces clockspeeds as well as other things. Even then the phone feels laggy, dropping clockspeeds any lower would make it unbearable.

Besides it's the screen that uses the most power, unless the CPU is being used constantly you won't see much difference in battery life.
Click to expand...

Yeah. do u know what clock speed powersaving uses mate? 300mhz definately saves battery when just usin the phone to tether :thumbup:
 
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