[Q] Speed and stability: Stock vs Custom ROM

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Hello,

Ever since the latest update from HTC to Desire S I have been thinking about unlocking, rooting and flashing custom a ROM into my Desire S. I have been reading in this forum to get information if its possible after the last update and also if it would be worth it. It would seem that the easiest way is to unlock the bootloader with HTCdev.com and then continue with the backup and flashing of a new ROM. Can anyone confirm this method?

I've of course heard the arguments that the custom ROMs use less battery and are more stable but when I read through the forum I always manage to find people having problems with connectivity and battery life, even in the latest CyanogenMod ROMs. This makes me a bit hesitant to make the step into a life of custom ROMs since I dont want to get there and realising that my original phone worked better. So can someone confirm that they custom ROMs actually are better in any of the following critera:
- Stability
- Speed
- Battery efficiency

Secondly I would like some tips about good ROMs for the Desire S. Of what I've managed to find out CynaogenMod seems like a good choice. MIUI seems to look to much like iOS for my taste. And I'm not sure that I want or need a Sense ROM, I am currently having a hard time figuring out why sense is something I should use. How stable are the latest Sense 3.5 ROMs vs. CynaogenMod?

I will be very grateful for any thoughts and tips, especially if you are a noob like me. I have only ever jailbroken an iPhone 3G and that process was extremely easy and seems to differ quite a bit from unlocking, rooting and flashing an Android phone.

Thanks,
Andreas

edit: Is there any big difference between the nightly build and the "stable" build of CynaogenMod?

Originally Posted by thebiffman

Hello,

Ever since the latest update from HTC to Desire S I have been thinking about unlocking, rooting and flashing custom a ROM into my Desire S. I have been reading in this forum to get information if its possible after the last update and also if it would be worth it. It would seem that the easiest way is to unlock the bootloader with HTCdev.com and then continue with the backup and flashing of a new ROM. Can anyone confirm this method?

I've of course heard the arguments that the custom ROMs use less battery and are more stable but when I read through the forum I always manage to find people having problems with connectivity and battery life, even in the latest CyanogenMod ROMs. This makes me a bit hesitant to make the step into a life of custom ROMs since I dont want to get there and realising that my original phone worked better. So can someone confirm that they custom ROMs actually are better in any of the following critera:
- Stability
- Speed
- Battery efficiency

Secondly I would like some tips about good ROMs for the Desire S. Of what I've managed to find out CynaogenMod seems like a good choice. MIUI seems to look to much like iOS for my taste. And I'm not sure that I want or need a Sense ROM, I am currently having a hard time figuring out why sense is something I should use. How stable are the latest Sense 3.5 ROMs vs. CynaogenMod?

I will be very grateful for any thoughts and tips, especially if you are a noob like me. I have only ever jailbroken an iPhone 3G and that process was extremely easy and seems to differ quite a bit from unlocking, rooting and flashing an Android phone.

Thanks,
Andreas

edit: Is there any big difference between the nightly build and the "stable" build of CynaogenMod?

The best advice I can give you is, try it yourself
After unlocking the bootloader and flashing a custom recovery, you can backup your current rom, to revert back to it whenever you want.

Most (if not even all) custom roms are faster and have a lighter battery consumption then the stock. The stability depends on how "fresh" a rom is. But all 3 creteria are not carved in stone, battery drain is often deppending on which user you are. As poweruser you won't see much difference, cause the battery cosumption advantage is at idle.

Stability is in most common more or less only depending on the rom, but if you use root apps in beta or alpha state there also can be freezes or reboots.

When it comes to speed, the question is, do you want to overclock it or maybe underclock,...

You see there are many possibilities^^

I personaly like cyanogen most, it's fast, stable and has no bloat, but it's not as eyecandy as sense and the standard apps are unfortunatly not as handy as the sense ones, but there are many replacments at the market^^

The difference between Stable and nightly is that the stable release is tested, the nightly rolls out almost every day and is build by an bot. They are released after building it, the tests for them are made by people like me who want to have the latest source with latest features^^

Regards

EDIT:
Maybe this [GUIDE] Complete tutorial for beginners... and this [GUIDE] Maximum Battery - Maximizing your battery life with CM7 ROM could be interesting for you, also take a look at the [INDEX][02 NOV 11] ROMS/RECOVERY/ROOT/HBOOT/RADIOS/TWEAKS/GUIDES/etc thread.

Have to agree with Tectas there... there is no perfect ROM. If there was, everybody would be using the same ROM and there wouldn't be so many different ROMs out there. Your personal opinion about a ROM will bias you towards it eventually, but to get to that stage you have to try out a couple of different platforms to allow you to make a mental picture of what you want in a ROM and which ROMs give you that...

If you want suggestions, then you should try out at least 5 categories of ROMs:

1. AOSP : Stock gingerbread. Vanilla UI. No bells and whistles, just the OS the way google built it.

2. CyanogenMod. No introductions required here. Google is your friend. (And YouTube)

3. MIUI (its looks very different from both the other builds, but you can skin it to death and it has a pretty big fan community behind it). Minus all the bloatware, fast and good battery life...and possibly the best stock music player of the lot - except maybe the Sense 3.5 player with beats audio(untouched).
Again, personal tastes - apples and oranges.

4. Sense 3 Official ported ROMs : Most popular ones currently are by Lowveld and Proxuser, tweaked to perfection. Stock pre-rooted ROMs are also available, but then there's nothing custom about them. Excellent lockscreen, beautiful animations and transitions, smooth UI and groundbreaking social network integration throughout the OS. The most functional, bug free and battery friendly one is Hyperion. (personal opinion). Added bonus is that the customer support is awesome!! (general opinion)

5. Sense 3.5 Official ported ROMs : The latest addition to our phone, skimmed off the newer HTC devices like the Sensation XL (aka Runnymede) and Bliss. These are the best looking (subjective) and have amazing functionality and built in widgets. The most notable here, with absolutely no issues at all is the Endymion ROM, by lowveld. Proxuser also has a Runny port for the Desire S, but there are unresolved issues on that one. Prox is a great developer and i'm sure he'll come around to solving them soon.

Why you would buy a HTC phone if you don't want Sense is something that completely eludes my tiny brain. But for those that want a non-sense ROM (has a ring to it, doesn't it) there's AOSP, and MIUI, Cyanogen. In the Sense corner, are the Official HTC ROM ports, both Sense 3 and 3.5.

You'll have to try them out on your own to see what tickles you in the right way...

DISCLAIMER: I am human. I have opinions. They may be wrong.
I have answered this question at length for the benefit of those looking for opinions, and speaking the universal truth is beyond my capabilities. So please don't be offended by any comments about any ROMs above. In their own little way, each is a little better than the other. It's called choice. We all have it... (Well, at least the ROOTED ones!! )

EDIT: Info corrected. Thanks to Tectas.

Originally Posted by enigmaamit

Why you would buy a HTC phone if you don't want Sense is something that completely eludes my tiny brain. But for those that want a non-sense ROM (has a ring to it, doesn't it) there's AOSP, and MIUI. In the Sense corner, are CyanogenMod, and the Official HTC ROM ports, both Sense 3 and 3.5.

Sry, but cyanogen got nothing to do with sense, it's pure aosp
And why someone uses it, cause it's damn fast and the first official place to get updates or are there any sense roms with gingerbread 2.3.7 ?
And you can also set the hell out of it.
Ah and btw miui is based on cyanogen

Swyped from my HTC Desire S

Originally Posted by Tectas

Sry, but cyanogen got nothing to do with sense, it's pure aosp
And why someone uses it, cause it's damn fast and the first official place to get updates or are there any sense roms with gingerbread 2.3.7 ?
And you can also set the hell out of it.
Ah and btw miui is based on cyanogen

Swyped from my HTC Desire S

Thank you Tectas. Post edited.
Like i said. Opinions... i could be wrong.

Originally Posted by enigmaamit

Why you would buy a HTC phone if you don't want Sense is something that completely eludes my tiny brain. But for those that want a non-sense ROM (has a ring to it, doesn't it) there's AOSP, and MIUI, Cyanogen. In the Sense corner, are the Official HTC ROM ports, both Sense 3 and 3.5.

Because HTC have the best build quality and they're damn sexy

Thanks all for the answers. I have now tried to flash a custom ROM, the stable version of CynaogenMod to be more precise.

I say "tried" since it didnt work. I managed to unlock the bootloader with HTCDev.com. I also managed to install Clockworkmod and root the phone. And made a backup. And it all worked. But when I installed the ROM I got stuck on the HTC logo. So I restored the backup. And it worked.

So Im happy that the phone works but Im irritated that I couldn't install the ROM. I read something about HTCDev not unlocking kernel, only system partition, can that be the case? I will just make a list of all the steps I have taken and maybe someone can help me figure out what I did wrong =)

1. Unlock bootloader with HTCDev. It says unlocked. I still have HBOOT 2.00.0002. Is that a problem?
2. Used fastboot to install ClockworkMod. Worked great.
3. Used ClockworkMod recovery to install SuperUser I believe its called. The icon showed up in the apps drawer.
4. Used ClockworkMod "install zip from sd card" to install the CynaogenMod zip. Like described on CynMods wiki. No error that I remember.
5. Reboot and stuck on HTC logo. Does not show up when using "adb devices" and charging light does not light up when connecting the phone to the charger.
6. Press and hold Volume up + Volume Down + Power to reboot/shutdown phone and pulled battery when it went black.
7. Power down + Power to boot into recovery. Restore backup.
8. Rooted again since backup was taken before root. Superuser is back in the app drawer.
9. Wut should I dooo? =)

Thanks for any help. Its hard to find the right answers sometimes even using google and forums search.

edit: HTC seems to make pretty solid and affordable phones. With a UI thats at least okey. Thats why I bought it =) But Im a tech guy and likes to try new things (and also hates that skins does not work on latest Desire S update) so now Im venturing into the dark lands of custom ROMs... =))

When toy flash a new ROM you have to wipe data and cache. Especially when the ROM is as different as the cyanogen from the previous one

Swyped from my HTC Desire S

I have wiped Data and Cache. I have not touched the "dalvik cache" or whatever it is called.

This is the text I followed:

"Select the option to Wipe data/factory reset.
Then select the option to Wipe cache partition.
Select Install zip from sdcard.
Select Choose zip from sdcard.
Select the CyanogenMod update.zip."

It would seem that the HTCDev.com unlock is not as good as the revolutionary version... Seems a couple of other guys have had the same problem.

Dalvik is the virtual machine where the Android apps run in.

Ok, damn. Sry I have no experience with the the htcdev unlocking procedure, I used xtc-clip, cause when I got mine there even were no possibility to unlock with revolutionary^^ Maybe try revolutionary or a custom sense ROM, but without the advantage of a custom kernel your experience could be the half.

Edit: I'm just wondering, cause only system can't be true, recovery has also it own partition.

Swyped from my HTC Desire S