Initial Setup: Didn't take but a couple minutes to boot up, which is always nice. First thing you notice, like in previous builds, is there's a diff font (which is easily customizable, more on that later). And then when you try to sign in, you'll notice there's a keyboard issue. Luckily, I had just come off a ROM with the same issue and was prepared for it this time. This is due to having the Droid 2 keyboard, which is easily fixed.
The Market synced up within a half hour and actually loaded more apps than any previous ROM has. The previous holder of that title was UD6, so I guess that shouldn't come as a surprise.
Appearance and Goodies: There's more than a few options here, folks. Just about everything is customizable, from the fonts, to the live wallpapers, boot animations and even the lock screen. All these are accessed from the Settings menu where there's an added Ultimate Droid Settings at the very top, and these are very easy to implement.
From that same menu you can apply scripts, launchers, add or remove built-in or modified apps, change colors, your notifications, and this list goes on. I can't even possibly cover all the tweaks and level of customization that this gets into, but this is a wet dream for a guy like me.
Performance: This isn't a ROM that blows you away with benchmarks. The stock kernel and provided kernels top out very average. But similar to the LithiumMod ROM, while it doesn't score the highest, you wouldn't tell from actual function. Screen transitions are very fluid, and apps open and close with no issue. However, like CyanogenMod, the ability to heavily modify make it seem a step behind ROMs like Liquid Frozen Yogurt and Succulent Desire (both of which pride themselves on amazing speed).
After flashing slayher's 1.2GHz kernel (which completely blew me away when I tried it with LFY1.4), I did get better benches. I topped out at 1587 with Quadrant, which is more reflective of the kernel than the ROM. This was at 1.1GHz. 1.2GHz was actually stable, but like with jdlfg's, I couldn't get Quadrant to run. I was able to run a short and long bench, getting 149 short and about 440 long.
App and System Function: I didn't encounter any app errors, but others have reported occasional difficulty with some of the modified apps you can apply. There's also the aforementioned Droid 2 keyboard issue, which didn't last as a problem for me because I can't live without Swype (changing to Swype eliminated the problem) (I do prefer the Droid 2 virtual keyboard over the stock one and HTC_IME, so I hope to see more development from the devs and themers there).
Everyone should be happy to hear that I was pleasantly surprised with the battery life. While it wasn't horrible in other builds, it certainly wasn't the best. There are some known widgets that really hurt battery life that I run for the purpose of testing (such as Temp Monitor) and it still performed well, running cool after taking quite a bit of abuse.
Overview: This ROM's biggest feature is that it's level of customization is only rivaled by CMs, but it outperforms it with more speed and better battery life (I have NOT, however, tested the new RC3, in all fairness). It doesn't quite reach the speeds of other available ROMs, but it's what you want to get out of a ROM. I would say that this ROM currently has the best balance of everything, and I highly recommend it, based on that. However you feel about the dev, well, that's another story.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
__________________ "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".-Arthur C. Clarke
Last edited by UBRocked; August 19th, 2010 at 08:34 PM.
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Well, I'm only now getting all set with UD 6.0, so I think I might wait for Yankee's review (and watch BD's forum) to see if upgrades are worth it & working just yet.
__________________
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I also went from 6.0 to 7 without wiping no issue. Also at 1.1 LV and no hiccups at all. Politics aside this is an amazingly clean and stable ROM. The rotary unlock is a nice touch as well.
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Had you both been able to clock to 1.1GHz in the past?
I read this morning on BD's forum that there was some issue with the multitouch keyboard that, when mutlitouch was enabled on it, it locked up some keys on the hard keyboard (Alt & Shift, I think).
There is also an issue where the Gallery icon is either replaced by or superimposed with the news widget icon. I see this afternoon that he has released a fix for that.
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Yup, reloading Chevy's lv 1GHz kernel now. It's been my tried & true through most ROMs.
The Gallery fix link I saw was on the "Problems with 7.0" thread in the ROM Help section of BD's forum. However, without wiping, I did not have the issue.
Just took Google Earth out for a spin. Played a little NFS.
Pretty nice. No glitches, no studders. Silky smooth and very responsive.
With faster and faster phones, more people are going to switch to UD to catch up.
I'm loving the rotary lock screen WITH music controls, but the keyboard is an issue. i'm sure it will be fixed in good time, though.
As usual, it's the snappiest thing I can run on my phone. I have to turn down the launcher speed and transitions/animations, to show how smooth it can be.
Had you both been able to clock to 1.1GHz in the past?
I read this morning on BD's forum that there was some issue with the multitouch keyboard that, when mutlitouch was enabled on it, it locked up some keys on the hard keyboard (Alt & Shift, I think).
There is also an issue where the Gallery icon is either replaced by or superimposed with the news widget icon. I see this afternoon that he has released a fix for that.
Going to give her a try later today.
That's b/c it's the Droid 2 keyboard. The same thing happened w/ LFY1.4. Needed a patch to go back to the old keyboard. I don't know why changing the virtual keyboard would change the physical keyboard, but whatev.
Initial Setup: Didn't take but a couple minutes to boot up, which is always nice. First thing you notice, like in previous builds, is there's a diff font (which is easily customizable, more on that later). And then when you try to sign in, you'll notice there's a keyboard issue. Luckily, I had just come off a ROM with the same issue and was prepared for it this time. This is due to having the Droid 2 keyboard, which is easily fixed.
The Market synced up within a half hour and actually loaded more apps than any previous ROM has. The previous holder of that title was UD6, so I guess that shouldn't come as a surprise.
Appearance and Goodies: There's more than a few options here, folks. Just about everything is customizable, from the fonts, to the live wallpapers, boot animations and even the lock screen. All these are accessed from the Settings menu where there's an added Ultimate Droid Settings at the very top, and these are very easy to implement.
From that same menu you can apply scripts, launchers, add or remove built-in or modified apps, change colors, your notifications, and this list goes on. I can't even possibly cover all the tweaks and level of customization that this gets into, but this is a wet dream for a guy like me.
Performance: This isn't a ROM that blows you away with benchmarks. The stock kernel and provided kernels top out very average. But similar to the LithiumMod ROM, while it doesn't score the highest, you wouldn't tell from actual function. Screen transitions are very fluid, and apps open and close with no issue. However, like CyanogenMod, the ability to heavily modify make it seem a step behind ROMs like Liquid Frozen Yogurt and Succulent Desire (both of which pride themselves on amazing speed).
After flashing slayher's 1.2GHz kernel (which completely blew me away when I tried it with LFY1.4), I did get better benches. I topped out at 1587 with Quadrant, which is more reflective of the kernel than the ROM. This was at 1.1GHz. 1.2GHz was actually stable, but like with jdlfg's, I couldn't get Quadrant to run. I was able to run a short and long bench, getting 149 short and about 440 long.
App and System Function: I didn't encounter any app errors, but others have reported occasional difficulty with some of the modified apps you can apply. There's also the aforementioned Droid 2 keyboard issue, which didn't last as a problem for me because I can't live without Swype (changing to Swype eliminated the problem) (I do prefer the Droid 2 virtual keyboard over the stock one and HTC_IME, so I hope to see more development from the devs and themers there).
Everyone should be happy to hear that I was pleasantly surprised with the battery life. While it wasn't horrible in other builds, it certainly wasn't the best. There are some known widgets that really hurt battery life that I run for the purpose of testing (such as Temp Monitor) and it still performed well, running cool after taking quite a bit of abuse.
Overview: This ROM's biggest feature is that it's level of customization is only rivaled by CMs, but it outperforms it with more speed and better battery life (I have NOT, however, tested the new RC3, in all fairness). It doesn't quite reach the speeds of other available ROMs, but it's what you want to get out of a ROM. I would say that this ROM currently has the best balance of everything, and I highly recommend it, based on that. However you feel about the dev, well, that's another story.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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alright, I've honestly never run a UD rom before, def not playing favorites and I know the time old argument that android is open source but there are a lot of devs that i knew and trusted roms from before UD showed up that spent hours upon hours tweaking and writing roms for us to use and I didnt think that them asking to be credited (you know, just a hey thanks, i'm using this because its really good work) was too much to ask... *breathe* (esp you psycho kitty dude, damn you go off on people, lmao)
now with that out of the way, I went ahead and put UD 7.0 on my phone this morning. Install and boot were extremely quick. I esp am really liking the old school rotary unlock . I have always had great results running Chevy's ULV 1 gig so I went ahead and threw that on right after installing the rom, even before booting it up. The rom gives a ton of customization options, simply put it is extremely refined, runs smooth as butter, and has tweaks that should suit anyone and everyone's variety (I also really enjoy the font selections you can implement straight from settings). I think the reboot and reboot to recovery options from the power button is great, normally you get reboot but I havent seen many with both. I honestly dont believe in linpack or quadrant scores because you get different scores every time you run them, often times quite different in numbers. This rom leaves a ton of room left in system, i dropped several widgets i use as well as launcher pro, swype, and flash into the /system folder and with those as well as the other system apps i still have well over 30 megs available just in /system alone. Rom just works, and it works incredibly well, wether you like the people behind it or not the rom is a really good rom...
Only problem I seem to run into is Terminal force closes on me every single time I try to open it. I installed from marketplace, nope, installed from the built in install options, nope, I dont often use it with root explorer and titanium available but its def a nice fall back to have, it just wont run on my droid with this rom... :-/
edit: music mod widget doesnt work either, it plays and pauses music but it doesnt show what is playing, song, artist or album art... annoying... grr...
also i did fix permissions and tried running terminal again, still a no go...
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thunbs up
I liked 6 alot, now 7 a little better left the Kernal alone experiencing great battery life even wireless tethering, Best batery life so far and ive tried 8 to date..kuddos to you.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ballisticn8
alright, I've honestly never run a UD rom before, def not playing favorites and I know the time old argument that android is open source but there are a lot of devs that i knew and trusted roms from before UD showed up that spent hours upon hours tweaking and writing roms for us to use and I didnt think that them asking to be credited (you know, just a hey thanks, i'm using this because its really good work) was too much to ask... *breathe* (esp you psycho kitty dude, damn you go off on people, lmao)
I didn't even bother reading past this point. There's simply no need for anyone to preclude a review with statement of your moral standing. No one gives a crap what your ethical convictions are or that you've managed to overcome your better sense of moral standards and lower yourself to trying this ROM to bless us with your impression of it.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Psychokitty
I didn't even bother reading past this point. There's simply no need for anyone to preclude a review with statement of your moral standing. No one gives a crap what your ethical convictions are or that you've managed to overcome your better sense of moral standards and lower yourself to trying this ROM to bless us with your impression of it.
Like anyone really cares how far past his post you read just because you didn't agree with with the first part of it. Just to flame someone because of what they think about the Dev or what they think about the rom is just as bad as what your complaining about in the first place. But at least he went on to contribute to the thread and give his review of the rom. But then again, you have a reputation to uphold huh?
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wasn't really looking for it to be justified, just irritating to see someone contribute only to be shot down by another member. I could care less about the rom, but it just seems to be a habitual act that shouldn't be tolerated.
Last edited by darkside; August 21st, 2010 at 12:08 AM.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Psychokitty
I didn't even bother reading past this point. There's simply no need for anyone to preclude a review with statement of your moral standing. No one gives a crap what your ethical convictions are or that you've managed to overcome your better sense of moral standards and lower yourself to trying this ROM to bless us with your impression of it.
LMAO! But we should all care that you don't give a crap?
Seems to me that you had this pre-fabricated response ready to go for any anti BD comments. If you really read ballisticn8's post, he seems to be trying to explain why he's never tried this ROM (which is a lot less opinionated than most would be)...I really don't see anything of major concern there and if he wants to disclaimer his post, I'm not aware of any problems with him doing so. Just like no one should care if people disclaimer their posts and say "I've always loved these ROMs and could care less about the other BS". But if he would have framed it like that...I'm sure we would not have your "I don't give a crap what you think" response.
I've seen other posts where you have complained that this forum is not the best place for discussing BD's ROM but the first time a user makes a comment that strays from ONLY DISCUSSING THE MERITS OF THE ROM, you're gonna jump all over them? That's not the best way to welcome discussion of users that are new to this ROM.
The ROM and Developer have a past and as much as you may want to sweep that under the rug...belittling users that so much as mention it isn't the right way to go about it...
__________________
Myself: Galaxy Nexus, Droid Razr M, Transformer, Logitech Revue, Sony Blu-ray Player with Google TV
Wife and Kids: Galaxy Nexus, Apple iPad, Galaxy Player 4.0, B&N NookColor
Retired: Thunderbolt, Droid Pro, Fascinate, Motorola Droid 1, 3 & 4, Galaxy Tab (7" WiFi), Archos 70
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First of all ballisticN8 starts out by bring up the same old BS. Not that big a deal. But then he calls me out specifically. So yeah, I'm gonna say something. Afterall, it was an invite, wasn't it? (I'm sure you guys wouldn't have said anything, though.)
darkside, WTF are you even reading these BD threads for? You're like the Black Droid ROM thread troll or something. lol I'm pretty much convince that you view the BD ROM threads to ensure that they eventually turn into Open Source ethical slug-fests. Start your own damned thread about that crap.
And UBRocked, you're the guy who comes running over here to "mod" this thread? You can't even type "Black Droid's ROMs" without letting everyone know, however subtly, that loading one is beneath your ethical standard.
Everyone, of course, is entitled to their opinion. But if there's an ongoing discussion comparing opinions of the performance of a ROM and someone starts sharing his opinion of the author, his standards, the history involved, another poster's past actions or blueberryfrigginpie, it sends the thread OFF TOPIC (-much to darkside's delight, I'm sure).
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Hey PS, just so you know that when johnlgalt said he reported the thread he didnt report it to me (Im not a mod ). i actually started typing my response when your comment was the last response (i spent awhile trying to properly word my response).
Im not a UD fan but thats not why i replied. i just felt like you were attacking someone and it wasnt justified. in all fairness, your reply is what took the thread off topic. I hope the thread resumes cause UD users DO need a place to discuss this ROM. I just felt like your first response wasnt fair to that user.
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Whatever, man. It's the same old sh!t around here. The dude precluded his BD ROM assessment with his stance on Open Source development accreditation and then specifically calls me out. Justification for my post just doesn't get any more simple than that.
It's just too much work to have a decent discussion around here anymore.
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not trolling the post but have been reading it just like any other new post that comes on this forum, but when someone disagrees with your view of the dev you jump all over them, grow up dude he wasnt "calling you out" it sounded like he was joking which is probably what he was doing. instead of just laughing it off you start to attck. just like when someone calls you out on it they have to be a troll. im interested in this rom just like anyone else and like to read how it works for people, but since i havent tried the rom there was no need to contribute to the thread, i wouldnt call it trolling. have you never read a thread that you had no intention of replying in? call it what you will
I'm looking for a substitute for BB v.4, at least until v.5 comes out. How is UD? Has anyone had any problems with the ROM, things breaking and such? Also has anyone tried the REVOlution theme with UD?
I didn't even bother reading past this point. There's simply no need for anyone to preclude a review with statement of your moral standing. No one gives a crap what your ethical convictions are or that you've managed to overcome your better sense of moral standards and lower yourself to trying this ROM to bless us with your impression of it.
Wow, you take an internet message board a tad too seriously. Surprised it bothers you that much. Hopefully you didn't take it out on anybody in the real world.
I just flashed this - back in "the day" I always liked the way BD's ROMs sat on my phone, but after the whole drama filled nonsense I backed away from his stuff b/c like most others, I didn't feel he was giving credit where credit was due.
At any rate, this ROM is the tits. It's smooth, it's totally customizable, and he/they have jammed as much modded content into this thing as they possibly could have. I don't love the dark black theme so I'm going to hunt around for a better theme option but this thing really is great. Nice work.
I just flashed this - back in "the day" I always liked the way BD's ROMs sat on my phone, but after the whole drama filled nonsense I backed away from his stuff b/c like most others, I didn't feel he was giving credit where credit was due.
At any rate, this ROM is the tits. It's smooth, it's totally customizable, and he/they have jammed as much modded content into this thing as they possibly could have. I don't love the dark black theme so I'm going to hunt around for a better theme option but this thing really is great. Nice work.
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1 GHz was as fast as I thought my Droid could go. Everything I tried over that speed choked it, so I would always go back to Chevy's low voltage 1.0 kernel. I tried other ROMs and kernels, but mostly it's been UD ROMs w/ Chevy kernels.
For the hell of it I stuck in the biggest range P3Droid kernel, and the BD ROM seems to like it. Cruising along at 1.25GHz with no FCs or trouble (so far).
Last edited by Psychokitty; August 23rd, 2010 at 09:21 PM.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Psychokitty
Sorry for being a dick. Usually any time BD's history is even mentioned, the thread turns into an invitation for everyone to take another dump on him, and the OT gets lost in the BS. I see how me adamantly trying to prevent that actually caused it.
Apologies to all.
Except darkside
Lol. Too funny
For those wondering what kernel works best I would suggest trying slayher kernels, I never even heard of them untill reading on liquids rom thread and about the 4th or 5th page someone posted a link. They have worked very well for my phone. I would highly recommend them for anyone looking to switch.
Last edited by darkside; August 22nd, 2010 at 01:25 PM.
With the keyboard fix, I must say, this ROM is as good as ever.
But to be fair, I haven't flashed and then used anything else since UD 3.5. I know every developer has their own way of staying in contact with everyone, but if I ever have an issue or suggestion, it really feels like not only does BD read it, but he tries to include it.
And guys, let's talk JUST about the ROM come 8.0. Which, knowing the way these things are updated (and I'm praying FLAC support is fully integrated), will be by tomorrow night.
I just got notification that FRG22 is ready to install on my phone. FRG01 came this weekend - I followed the directions to install and if failed as it should have. Same thing for FRG22?
Edit: Attempted to install - failed - carry on
Last edited by mtbhk44; August 25th, 2010 at 01:41 PM.
I have been using this rom for the past 3 days in order to give it a fair review.
So far i have been very impressed. I have had zero force closes, the rom flies and it also has some nice features built in which allows for further customization. Many developers are including this in the settings area now but BD has really put together a nice spread of user customizations. I was never a fan of the UD roms due to the well know credit(or lack of) drama but i have to say, he has packed together a very nice rom here. Even if you dont like him you should atleast give this rom a wirl.
How do you get rid of DSP Manager?! It's annoying having it when I don't even know what it is. Kind of defeates the purpose of rooting and romming if the devs are going to bloat their roms with apps you dont want/use.
if you want to get rid of a system app whether its a system app buried into google or a system app buried into a rom all you do is use root explorer to go to /system/app/ then navigate to the app you want to remove and delete it or even easier use titanium backup, use the backup/restore button, then scroll to the app you want, press it, then uninstall it.
also just saying but if you read the app developers pages they normally explain what apps are included and what they do...
Just installed about an hour ago and things seem to be working smoothly. this is the second custom rom ive installed although both of which i have only tried for a couple of hours lol.
I'm have trouble with a couple of apps such as wireless tethering and drocop2. both force close immediately. anyone else have those problems?
edit: after a reboot everything was working
Last edited by Ryan850; August 26th, 2010 at 09:42 PM.
. I have always had great results running Chevy's ULV 1 gig so I went ahead and threw that on right after installing the rom, even before booting it up. The rom gives a ton of customization options, simply put it is extremely refined, runs smooth as butter, and has tweaks that should suit anyone and everyone's variety (I also really enjoy the font selections you can implement straight from settings). I think the reboot and reboot to recovery options from the power button is great, normally you get reboot but I havent seen many with both. I honestly dont believe in linpack or quadrant scores because you get different scores every time you run them, often times quite different in numbers. This rom leaves a ton of room left in system, i dropped several widgets i use as well as launcher pro, swype, and flash into the /system folder and with those as well as the other system apps i still have well over 30 megs available just in /system alone. Rom just works, and it works incredibly well, wether you like the people behind it or not the rom is a really good rom...
Which, knowing the way these things are updated (and I'm praying FLAC support is fully integrated), will be by tomorrow night. 
