Something better for my S5?

[smoothmoose]

I have to say, I am almost done with vendor/carrier Android phones. I have had the S2, LG G2x, S3, HTC One X+, and now the Verizon S5, which was my choice of over the iPhone 5s for my corporate phone.

I have not done anything to my S5 yet, haven't installed a boat load of apps, nor does my company run any fancy, MDM work/play management software, and still this phone already feels bloated after a couple months of use. The lockscreen sometime takes many seconds to show up, only then to immediately disappear before I can even enter my lock pattern or swipe my fingerprint. And boy, does the fingerprint reader really blow compared to the iPhone. Try unlocking the phone while on the go with the fingerprint read... nearly impossible. The camera, wow sometimes takes over 20s to load. I thought going from a 1GB RAM phone to 2GB phone would make a difference. Needless to say the Samsung and Verizon bloatware finds way of eating resources up fast.

I'm stuck with this phone, and once again, it looks like I'll need to root and load a custom ROM to get this POS to run like a respectable smartphone. I'm capable and have done this to all my Android devices before (except my Nexus 7), but quite frankly I am tired of this and all the time I have spent, unlocking, downloading, backing up and loading and unloading ROMs. I only wish, there was a Google Play edition for Verizon or, I should just buy my own Nexus 6 when it comes out.

In meantime, what is the best recommendation of the clean/stripped/no frills ROM that will make my phone run and look most like a Nexus device?

Sorry for the rant, I'm not planning to go over to the fruity side either. So you guys are stuck with me.

 

[Chopstix9]

I have to say, I am almost done with vendor/carrier Android phones. I have had the S2, LG G2x, S3, HTC One X+, and now the Verizon S5, which was my choice of over the iPhone 5s for my corporate phone.

I have not done anything to my S5 yet, haven't installed a boat load of apps, nor does my company run any fancy, MDM work/play management software, and still this phone already feels bloated after a couple months of use. The lockscreen sometime takes many seconds to show up, only then to immediately disappear before I can even enter my lock pattern or swipe my fingerprint. And boy, does the fingerprint reader really blow compared to the iPhone. Try unlocking the phone while on the go with the fingerprint read... nearly impossible. The camera, wow sometimes takes over 20s to load. I thought going from a 1GB RAM phone to 2GB phone would make a difference. Needless to say the Samsung and Verizon bloatware finds way of eating resources up fast.

I'm stuck with this phone, and once again, it looks like I'll need to root and load a custom ROM to get this POS to run like a respectable smartphone. I'm capable and have done this to all my Android devices before (except my Nexus 7), but quite frankly I am tired of this and all the time I have spent, unlocking, downloading, backing up and loading and unloading ROMs. I only wish, there was a Google Play edition for Verizon or, I should just buy my own Nexus 6 when it comes out.

In meantime, what is the best recommendation of the clean/stripped/no frills ROM that will make my phone run and look most like a Nexus device?

Sorry for the rant, I'm not planning to go over to the fruity side either. So you guys are stuck with me.

First thing I did out of the box was root, install Titanium Backup Pro and freeze everything that was not system dependent. I run supersu and Xposed framework with Wanam and some other modules. The phone has zero lag and the battery life is insanely great ... I've never had an android phone (my 4th) with such incredible battery life. I am so far beyond impressed with this phone it's un-real.

 

[smoothmoose]

Good point. And my point is, ultimately I am needing to at minimum as you suggest root and freeze with Titanium backup, which at least a bit less of time waste than installing a new ROM. That said, I mind as well while I'm at, since I really don't find anything redeeming about Touchwiz. The bigger point, I can't imagine a non-technical user wanting to do this over-and-over again for each Android phone they get.

I agree battery life is very good, even stock. I'm running in power saving mode. That is the only redeeming quality I have found so far...

 

[huedawg]

Good point. And my point is, ultimately I am needing to at minimum as you suggest root and freeze with Titanium backup, which at least a bit less of time waste than installing a new ROM. That said, I mind as well while I'm at, since I really don't find anything redeeming about Touchwiz. The bigger point, I can't imagine a non-technical user wanting to do this over-and-over again for each Android phone they get.

I agree battery life is very good, even stock. I'm running in power saving mode. That is the only redeeming quality I have found so far...

Obviously running in power saving mode is going to slow down system performance .

Sent from my SM-G900V using XDA Free mobile app

 

[smoothmoose]

Obviously running in power saving mode is going to slow down system performance .

Sent from my SM-G900V using XDA Free mobile app

Power savings mode throttles down the CPU around 30% and dims the screen. This is no way should cause the lockscreen to take over 5s to pop up or the camera 20s to load. I am not playing any 3D games or anything like this. I'm pretty sure it's just bloated software eating away at the 2GB of RAM.

My HTC One X+ never slowed to a crawl like this on power saving mode. The issue with that phone was the battery life and hence...power savings mode.

 

[huedawg]

Power savings mode throttles down the CPU around 30% and dims the screen. This is no way should cause the lockscreen to take over 5s to pop up or the camera 20s to load. I am not playing any 3D games or anything like this. I'm pretty sure it's just bloated software eating away at the 2GB of RAM.

My HTC One X+ never slowed to a crawl like this on power saving mode. The issue with that phone was the battery life and hence...power savings mode.

Then you have a bad phone . ?

Sent from my SM-G900V using XDA Free mobile app

 

[damagi123]

Not experiencing any of the problems you have man. INSANE battery life, extremely snappy performance, I personally have grown to like touchwiz alot. Why dont you at the very least just do a fresh flash with stock firmware and it'll fix alot of your issues or go install one of the roms like SLIMHYDE and youll never have those issues again unless the above poster was right and you just have a bad phone, which is easy to get replaced.

 

[smoothmoose]

Then you have a bad phone . ?

Sent from my SM-G900V using XDA Free mobile app

Not experiencing any of the problems you have man. INSANE battery life, extremely snappy performance, I personally have grown to like touchwiz alot. Why dont you at the very least just do a fresh flash with stock firmware and it'll fix alot of your issues or go install one of the roms like SLIMHYDE and youll never have those issues again unless the above poster was right and you just have a bad phone, which is easy to get replaced.

Probably only a slight possibility my phone is defective. Usually things speed back up if I reboot the phone. But things slow to crawl usually after about 2 days of use.

I can definitely try to do a clean reset, freeze apps, install new ROM, etc. My point is, I really shouldn't need to do this for a top of line smartphone. Again, the only Android device that hasn't presented these issues and I am happy to run stock is my Nexus 7. I guess I should save some pennies for the Nexus 6 phone...great way to suck more $$ out of me.

 

[huedawg]

Probably only a slight possibility my phone is defective. Usually things speed back up if I reboot the phone. But things slow to crawl usually after about 2 days of use.

I can definitely try to do a clean reset, freeze apps, install new ROM, etc. My point is, I really shouldn't need to do this for a top of line smartphone.

I guess my point is , is that very few people are having to do that . That leans more towards a bad device than anything else . Perhaps you have something that is running using system resources ?

 

[cbrehob]

I have to say, I am almost done with vendor/carrier Android phones. I have had the S2, LG G2x, S3, HTC One X+, and now the Verizon S5, which was my choice of over the iPhone 5s for my corporate phone.

I have not done anything to my S5 yet, haven't installed a boat load of apps, nor does my company run any fancy, MDM work/play management software, and still this phone already feels bloated after a couple months of use. The lockscreen sometime takes many seconds to show up, only then to immediately disappear before I can even enter my lock pattern or swipe my fingerprint. And boy, does the fingerprint reader really blow compared to the iPhone. Try unlocking the phone while on the go with the fingerprint read... nearly impossible. The camera, wow sometimes takes over 20s to load. I thought going from a 1GB RAM phone to 2GB phone would make a difference. Needless to say the Samsung and Verizon bloatware finds way of eating resources up fast.

I'm stuck with this phone, and once again, it looks like I'll need to root and load a custom ROM to get this POS to run like a respectable smartphone. I'm capable and have done this to all my Android devices before (except my Nexus 7), but quite frankly I am tired of this and all the time I have spent, unlocking, downloading, backing up and loading and unloading ROMs. I only wish, there was a Google Play edition for Verizon or, I should just buy my own Nexus 6 when it comes out.

In meantime, what is the best recommendation of the clean/stripped/no frills ROM that will make my phone run and look most like a Nexus device?

Sorry for the rant, I'm not planning to go over to the fruity side either. So you guys are stuck with me.

Dude, I feel your pain. This will be my last Samsung device because of their dogsh*t software and locked hardware. The phone slows down over time, there is no doubt. The only great thing about the S5 is the hardware, putting CM would have made it by FAR the best phone out.

Regardless, I have rooted and debloated. I have enabled Wifi tethering, enabled voice recording, etc. For the most part I am pretty satisfied right now.

I am waiting for the next version of the LG phone, G4 maybe? Or a clean Google phone on Verizon.