Liquid Frozen Yogurt v1.2
Loaded on 8/3/10

- Initial setup worked much better on this release than on v1.1. All market apps restored very quickly (within 10 minutes with WiFi on...56 market apps).
- Market was slow after that when I'd actually go into the market the first few times but it has sped up since then. It now takes about 10 seconds after launching the market app, for the main screen to load. Seems a little slower than some ROMs but not a big deal and could reflect the Market being bogged down....
- 800MHz kernel feels very fluid and the lowest SetCPU short benchmark was 228! The fastest long benchmark achieved was 635. Quadrant second test was 1066. SetCPU profiles are set to 800MHz Max/125MHz Min and I'm using on-demand scaling with Pete's SetCPU advanced settings (32000, 50, 0, 0).
- Launcher Pro usually lags for the first second on most ROMs running @ 1.2 if on-demand scaling is used. Rarely seeing any lag with this release and the best word to describe how smooth Launcher Pro feels is "Shocking" when you consider it's running at 800Mhz!
- This ROM uses the "Sapphire" type shutdown/reboot menu and this is a good thing! That is the way it should be on every ROM including on the CyanogenMod ROMs...Only my opinion but it just makes more sense having the option to shutdown, reboot, or reboot into recovery all in one place.
- Loaded the Blueberry theme and it looks really nice. Very well integrated and some people will be turned off by how much blue is actually used but as with v1.1 it is very well integrated into the ROM and looks professionally done. The Twitter widget was not themed while the Facebook widget was (which I thought was strange but no big deal). Facebook was ready for an update so I updated so at least both widgets (which I keep on one screen) "matched" each other better. Anymore I could care less about those apps being themed cause I hate dealing with the updates and the widgets being unthemed.
- Tried Chevy's LV kernels that were provided in the release notes for this ROM. Chevy's 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2GHz LV kernels caused a boot loop for me and I couldn't get past the "M" logo.
- Loaded P3Droid's LV 1.2GHz kernel and booted without issue. Rom seems to be blazing along at this point. I have "auto rotate" turned off but when I slide the keyboard open, the screens are redrawn very quickly and I can start to swipe through my homescreens in about one second. Closing the keyboard and going back to landscape is just as fast. Some ROMs have made me wait for 10-15 seconds before Launcher Pro would allow me to swipe after changing orientation. Very nice to have this work so quickly!
- Benchmarks with P3Droid's 1.2GHz kernel is as follows: SetCPU short test 158, SetCPU long test 418 (I hit 418 twice but average score was around 460),
- I did try to load Jake's kernels and both 1.2 and the 1.0 GHz kernel were too unstable to use. The phone would boot but then reboot soon after getting to the lock screen. Pity too...I was hoping to compare some of the benchmarks I have had with that kernel and other ROMs. Those kernels work on some ROMs and not others. I do not hold this ROM at fault for the kernels that would not load. Plenty of kernels with different voltages and speeds were provided and that is more than sufficient. But you may want to keep the 800MHz and just enjoy some crazy good battery life! 800MHz would be sufficient for most users using this ROM...it is smooth!
- Battery life with the P3Droid's 1.2GHz LV kernel provided in the release notes has been kind to my battery as well. It has been 6 hours since I took it off the charger, been playing with the phone off and on all morning, and still showing 80% battery life...not too bad considering my usage today. I even made a backup of the ROM today before flashing any new kernels.

I reviewed version 1.1 of this ROM and gave it a 3 out of 5 because of the issues that ROM had (market issues were the bigest problem). I said that if those issues were fixed, it would be a 4 or even possibly a 5. When I think of the "BEST" custom ROMs available...the ROMs that come to mind are Bugless Beast, CyanogenMod, and whatever JRummy is cooking up (Kangerade, Lithium Mod...source build, modified Moto ROMs, etc.)

I'm going to add a 4th to that list! I can't find any bugs, hick-ups, FC's, etc....this ROM also has plenty of additional features and most importantly speed...all while providing good battery life. I don't know how I could score it any differently....I'm very curious to see what others will say about this ROM! I personally think it's brilliant!

Final Score: 5 out of 5

Review!


Vitals:
LiQuID FroZeN YoGurT v1.2 by LiQuID
A promising new ROM line that is off to a great start.
Appearance:
Stock looks with nice theme options so far. The stock theme has some added transparency, battery percentage in notification bar and an absence of Launcher2, more on that later…
There are 2 themes supplied by Liquid right now. The “Blueberry Frozen Yogurt” and “Smoked Frozen Yogurt” I did not use the Blue theme as I am personally not a fan, but if you want blue this is the theme for you. It has been thoroughly gone over with a blue-toothed comb, as you can see in the screen shots. “Smoked Frozen Yogurt” on the other hand was something I could get into. I like the dark gradient notification bar and the dark glass widgets. It is your standard dark glassed look, and I like it.
Speed:
This is a fast ROM. It just is. Bumping the speed up to the 800mhz max that comes with the ROM is really all you need, netting you 12.5 Linpack scores and 1017 Quadrants. But if you are a glutton for punishment and pushing the envelope like me you will put on a high speed kernel, like P3Droid’s 1.25ghz Standard Voltage and get a 19.5 average Linpack score and a 1517 on Quadrant.
The stock kernels battery usage is great, 4 hours of steady use dropped me down to 70%. Applying more power (Tim Allen grunt) and speed to your kernel will reduce this obviously.
This is also one of the few Froyo ROMs to date that I have had zero problems with launcher redraws. Which is a great segueway into special features as it focuses on my second favorite special feature after Chevy’s bkapps/rstapps…
Special Features:
BUILT IN LAUNCHERS! TWO! This release comes with both ADW Launcher v1.01 and Launcher Pro v0.7.1.0 built into the system. Launcher2 is nowhere to be found. You can either leave them both installed OR choose between Team Edwar…. I mean Team ADW or Team LPro, and uninstall the other via the handy scripts. I know there are rabid fans on each side. For those who don’t know there are pros and cons with doing this. It is better for the performance of the launcher as it is prioritized in the OS and will stay open almost all of the time and will not suffer from the frequent kills that the “standalone” launcher gets. If you use anything other than Launcher2 (stock Froyo launcher) and have redrawing problems (like me) this is huge.
There are, however, drawbacks. You will not be able to update the launcher from the market, or at all really, if AnderWeb or Frederico come up with a hot new feature. I think, if you know what you are doing, you can utilize ADB and update it manually but I could be wrong. If you try to download the market version it will install as a normal standalone and you will have the choice between the older system version and the newer standalone version which will have nothing to do with one another.
Other special features include a list of the standard, handy scripts we ROMers have come to expect (remove some system apps, camera sound on/off, mounting options, godmode, apps2sd options and the like) although Liquid does not have a Script UI that is becoming popular, you will have to use a terminal emulator.
The lack of “toast” notifications from Super User app is a pleasant change from his previous version, they got pretty annoying even though I think it was more SU’s fault I am glad it is changed. The market issues some people were having with Liquid 1.1 were not evident at all for me.
Breakdown:
I think this is a solid contender in the ROM space. Although the only real new feature Liquid brings is the choice between the two aftermarket launchers, the reiterations of all the other features Liquid brings have been done very well and all work. Everyone’s ROM seems to have one thing that they are really good at (i.e. BB and SS for speed, CM6 for customization and special features, JRummy’s for theme options, etc) Liquid seems to be a very solid all around ROM that doesn’t do one thing exceptionally, but does everything good.
4.5/5
P.S. Team ADW

Well, now...

When I concluded my review of the previous LFY build, I stated that there were a few bugs that needed to be worked out, but if they could, this had the potential to be a great ROM. Let's just start by saying, mission accomplished!

Initial Setup:
Initial boot was quick, just as last time. Again, I love that boot animation. First thing that made me scratch my head was when signing into Google, it took quite a bit for it to actually connect to the server. My screen has never actually timed out when connecting before. No biggie, though. Last time, my Market didn't sync any of my apps, this time it got the majority of them. Took at least a half hour.

Appearance:
Stock is what you expect it to look like. Blueberry is, indeed, very blue. And the Smoked is what you've come to expect from that variety. I didn't see any screenshots of the Smoked, but I didn't notice any apps themed. Blueberry themed all my apps, but I don't have the nifty blue MotoTorch blue widget like in the screenshots. Also, LauncherPro didn't theme as I already had 7.2.0 on. And I still have no idea where that wallpaper from the screenshots is, if it's even supposed to be on here.

Performance:
And here's where this baby shines. The 800MHz out of the box kernel is very capable, as my counterparts have already stated. Everything is as smooth as can be, which was evident in the last build (after a reboot with the last build, SetCPU defaulted back to 600MHz and I didn't even realize it after hours of use!). But when you flash a diff kernel, you're going to be amazed.

I had been using Jake's 1GHz kernel since moving to Froyo, so I had to play to see. I was somewhat suprised when I topped out at 1508 on Quadrant when last time I netted 1539. So I played around, used the P3 kernels from the OP, couldn't go over 1GHz, and my scores were very unimpressive. So for gits and shiggles, I flashed jdlfg's 1.1GHz kernel, which I hadn't been able to load before. Low and behold, it worked! 1569 Quadrant score, a new high for me! So, I went ahead and tried the 1.2GHz kernel, with many reservations (I haven't gotten a 1.2GHz to work on my Droid since coming to Froyo). After setting it, I was pleased that my Droid didn't immediately freeze. So I shortbenched it, 159! Oh, I had to run Quadrant. Yeah...it froze. Or so I thought. I couldn't run the test, but my Droid was still functioning. I tried everything, but I couldn't get it to test. Then I remember Linpack. I topped out at 18.928! Oh, very nice indeed. As far as I can tell, 1.2GHz is stable on my Droid for the first time since being on Eclair, save for Quadrant. I'm elated. Only downfall is I have an older version of that kernel and WiFi doesn't work w/ it. I haven't tried an updated version as of yet.

App and System Function:
I haven't run into any issues yet. WiFi worked with the stock kernel, MotoTorch is back (yay!), GPS knows where I'm at, and Shazam is back to being opperational. Also the internet seems more stable than last time, but you never can tell what's causing browser disfunction.

One thing I'm happy to report is the battery improvements. The temperature has been more stable, and overall battery life seems much improved from the last go round. I've had it off the charger and dealt it some very heavy use (especially since I've flashed so many diff kernels on diff themes) and after 3 hours, I'm down to 60%. This is a vast improvement over the last build. I feel the battery will make it through a day of normal use.

Overview and Rating:
As I stated in the beginning, it seems much of the bugs have been ironed out. The speed and responsiveness of this ROM are undeniable, and given that I can put a higher kernel than I've been able to on previous Froyo ROMs, I am getting the best benchmarks I've seen yet. Aside from a few theming hiccups, this ROM is def ready for primetime. Ladies and gents, you will be very pleased with Liquid Frozen Yogurt.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars