Well, to all Galaxy note brickers, Once you get started on flashing custom ROMs, it is an addiction.. Some prefer devs more than others, some prefer TW-based ROMs and others prefer AOSP-based ROMs.. the bottomline is you have to go through a myriad of ROMs before you can settle for a particular one and keeps coming back to, in my case that was Paranoid Android
It all started back in the ICS era (yea, that was long ago) when I rooted my Galaxy note & decided to add some themes to the original TW-based stock ROM, being all afraid of brick issues, I had read every thread taking about possible scenarios for bricking my phone and they all came down to one thing: Flash a safe kernel before you do a ROM flash, a wipe or a restore.. & While there're nowadays lots of safe kernels starting from hydracore universal kernel to PhilZ safe stock kernel, I still stick to Abyss GB kernel whenever I flash a new ROM
So starting to add themes, I sadly found out that the theme library for TW-based ROMs is very limited, but I wasn't ready to switch to something non-samsung, the idea was just inconceivable!
So here it was SweetROM ICS v3, This was my first custom ROM over my galaxy note.. Great ROM, I have to say for a TW-based ROM, it has many features and nice theme and very stable, but it started going a little out of hand regarding the battery drainage starting from v4 which made me update to v5 & that was when the battery didn't last more than 8 hours a day without much time with screen on.
Going back to the threads, researching a ROM, being drunk I decided to flash an AOSP-ROM, it took me a good 3 hours to know what AOSP is, what CM is & why the hell do I need to flash CM9 or CM10 before flashing Paranoid Android, but that was somewhere in October..
What I loved most about PA is the speed, the simple vanilla interface & the lack of bloatware, though I missed Video calls, flip to mute, S Memo & WiFi direct, but I could manage perfectly without them especially with Vivid theme on, love the color combinations.. I still use the phone mode though with per-app tablet mode which I find the golden feature in PA, you can keep your layout as phone but you can use the tablet mode automatically for specific applications *gasp*
But then TW-based JB got leaked, I had to get a taste of XXLS2 but when I tried to flash it, it didn't boot up.. but then I tried RocketROM JB v1 but still didn't boot up - looking back, I should have tried a bit harder before I switched back to PA and giving up on the idea, I should have done a triple wipe three times along with system format (That's what you should do switching from CM to TW) - I even made a flashable zip for it
Little time later, I decided to try other CM ROMs, Jellybam comes next to PA with its AOKP interface along with PA settings but PA settings wasn't working as it should be which really pissed me off, I also tried some other AOSP ROMs that couldn't last for more than a couple of hours and then back to PA
But then, Ultimate ROM XXLS7 v4 came into existence, and I just had to try a piece of that, been told by a friend that I have to do the triple wipe 3 times in a row and then format system, I decided to give it a go.. & Finally a familiar homescreen showed up, Samsung Touchwiz.. I cannot die I felt a bit nostalgic being on PA but the battery drain on Ultimate ROM was immense so I had to swtich to SweetROM JB v1 XXLS7 which was great at first, but then the battery drain became an issue in a day or two (I am a doctor, so I spent lots of my time on the move away from a plug, so I need the maximum battery I can get) and again back to PA !
Then SweetROM JB v2.5 XXLSA was released, great ROM, very stable with everything Samsung.. and you can get some more juice outta battery if you removed most of samsung bloatware (I wouldn't remove something I don't know) .. and most importantly disable media scanner which eats up up to 40% of your battery because it keeps running in the background if you have large folders!
It wasn't until yesterday that I felt nostalgic to PA and had to flash it back
The end
Feel free to share your ROM story
It all started back in the ICS era (yea, that was long ago) when I rooted my Galaxy note & decided to add some themes to the original TW-based stock ROM, being all afraid of brick issues, I had read every thread taking about possible scenarios for bricking my phone and they all came down to one thing: Flash a safe kernel before you do a ROM flash, a wipe or a restore.. & While there're nowadays lots of safe kernels starting from hydracore universal kernel to PhilZ safe stock kernel, I still stick to Abyss GB kernel whenever I flash a new ROM
So starting to add themes, I sadly found out that the theme library for TW-based ROMs is very limited, but I wasn't ready to switch to something non-samsung, the idea was just inconceivable!
So here it was SweetROM ICS v3, This was my first custom ROM over my galaxy note.. Great ROM, I have to say for a TW-based ROM, it has many features and nice theme and very stable, but it started going a little out of hand regarding the battery drainage starting from v4 which made me update to v5 & that was when the battery didn't last more than 8 hours a day without much time with screen on.
Going back to the threads, researching a ROM, being drunk I decided to flash an AOSP-ROM, it took me a good 3 hours to know what AOSP is, what CM is & why the hell do I need to flash CM9 or CM10 before flashing Paranoid Android, but that was somewhere in October..
What I loved most about PA is the speed, the simple vanilla interface & the lack of bloatware, though I missed Video calls, flip to mute, S Memo & WiFi direct, but I could manage perfectly without them especially with Vivid theme on, love the color combinations.. I still use the phone mode though with per-app tablet mode which I find the golden feature in PA, you can keep your layout as phone but you can use the tablet mode automatically for specific applications *gasp*
But then TW-based JB got leaked, I had to get a taste of XXLS2 but when I tried to flash it, it didn't boot up.. but then I tried RocketROM JB v1 but still didn't boot up - looking back, I should have tried a bit harder before I switched back to PA and giving up on the idea, I should have done a triple wipe three times along with system format (That's what you should do switching from CM to TW) - I even made a flashable zip for it
Little time later, I decided to try other CM ROMs, Jellybam comes next to PA with its AOKP interface along with PA settings but PA settings wasn't working as it should be which really pissed me off, I also tried some other AOSP ROMs that couldn't last for more than a couple of hours and then back to PA
But then, Ultimate ROM XXLS7 v4 came into existence, and I just had to try a piece of that, been told by a friend that I have to do the triple wipe 3 times in a row and then format system, I decided to give it a go.. & Finally a familiar homescreen showed up, Samsung Touchwiz.. I cannot die I felt a bit nostalgic being on PA but the battery drain on Ultimate ROM was immense so I had to swtich to SweetROM JB v1 XXLS7 which was great at first, but then the battery drain became an issue in a day or two (I am a doctor, so I spent lots of my time on the move away from a plug, so I need the maximum battery I can get) and again back to PA !
Then SweetROM JB v2.5 XXLSA was released, great ROM, very stable with everything Samsung.. and you can get some more juice outta battery if you removed most of samsung bloatware (I wouldn't remove something I don't know) .. and most importantly disable media scanner which eats up up to 40% of your battery because it keeps running in the background if you have large folders!
It wasn't until yesterday that I felt nostalgic to PA and had to flash it back
The end
Feel free to share your ROM story
