best rom for galaxy s2?

[sflannery07]

Hey guys, still kinda new to all this. I would appreciate any info on the best roms out there, used a guide in this forum to root my phone but my battery is now RUBBISH! I've had to freeze maps, because it kept turning itself on and gorged on my battery. So please help me find a better solution

 

[lotus49]

Hey guys, still kinda new to all this. I would appreciate any info on the best roms out there, used a guide in this forum to root my phone but my battery is now RUBBISH! I've had to freeze maps, because it kept turning itself on and gorged on my battery. So please help me find a better solution

You'd be better off asking in the rooting sub-forum Galaxy S2 - All Things Root - Android Forums. Although it's sub-titled all things root it also addresses the issue of alternative ROMs as well.

 

[steslatt]

I can recommend villain rom. It has improved my battery life a lot.

 

[sflannery07]

Thanks guys, was thinking about villainrom. Seems to be the most popular, cheers!

 

[mvh]

I've got villainrom since yesterday evening. I unplugged at 1 AM and at 1pm I still have 86% left. Wifi is on for more than 4 hours. Sync was of.

I'm happy

 

[steslatt]

+1 for villain rom. Stable, fast and good battery life.

 

[Captain Stu]

Does the VillainROM have the Samsung UI over the top or is it "pure" Android?

 

[Rudedawg]

Having an issue with Villain ROM. Installed the base rom just fine but now at the Villain Tweaks step and have no idea how to install it? I cant used CWM because it says i need Superuser access yet it doesnt apply the access like it did when stock rooted. So thats off the cards.

Ok ignore above , I reinstalled CF root first and installed the Tweaks APK after that. I then installed the modem file and re flashed the stock kernal to once again remove the yellow triangle.

Job complete

 

[Rudedawg]

seems I screwed it up and reset the phone back to CF-Root stock and removed villain. DOH! Well im clueless. XDA dont explain things as clearly as youd think.

I'm thinking all I did wrong was restore using CWM to the state before I flashed Villain. Man i question my intelligence sometimes. >.<

 

[mvh]

@captain stu:

Yes it has Samsungs UI (touvhwiz). Haven't found a good stock android rom.

 

[Caspa]

Ive been looking into ROMs as my line is up in 10 days and Villian does look like the best out there, especially if you want close to stock with the tweak bonus...

Cognition also looks good but you'd need to watch out for whats been stripped out as you may need to replace some... I for one would need to whack sevenengine.apk back in for Exchange syncing....

Gonna give Villian a go when I join the SGS2 gang...

 

[Rudedawg]

Good man. Really is less faffing than some. I cant say i noticed any change in battery usage but I do hammer away at it all day constantly.

 

[Captain Stu]

@captain stu:

Yes it has Samsungs UI (touvhwiz). Haven't found a good stock android rom.

Aahh bugger, I need to get an S2, best phone on the market hands down, but I HATE the Samsung UI - totally ruins Android for me.

 

[Rudedawg]

Aahh bugger, I need to get an S2, best phone on the market hands down, but I HATE the Samsung UI - totally ruins Android for me.

I love it. Compare it to what Touch wiz was back on the Tocco and its top quality. Smooth as butter and easy to manage. I use LauncherPro to customize the desktop/homepage and the results are stunning.

Avoid GDE themes by the way. Ugly

 

[JMack89427]

Looks like Team Hacksung will have nightlies of CM7 shortly.

Status:

Originally Posted by codeworkx
- little bug on usb disconnect
- still no media codecs (choppy playback, no recording)
- boot into recovery from rommanager doesn't work
- haptic feedback is very low, needs to be improved
- 2G/3G toggle bug
- no sound from fmradio
- no tvout
- usb otg untested

- open source sensor drivers done

everything else should be fine
- little bug on usb disconnect -- fixed.

We are going to get most of the others before we start nightlies. Ideally all. I should add that we are using them as daily drivers now, but feel that we need to be closer to full functionality before we put it out so as not to devalue the CyanogenMod brand due to all the kangs that will show up as soon as we go into nightlies. A premature nightly is worse than none at all in our opinion.

Source: [ROM][GRJ22] CyanogenMod 7 for Samsung Galaxy S II - To Be Completed! - Page 25 - xda-developers

 

[ironass]

I use LauncherPro to customize the desktop/homepage and the results are stunning.

+1 for LauncherPro. First app I downloaded onto my phone.

I have been a life long hater of Samsung phones, stretching back 8 years.

However, I have to say that this phone really does tick the boxes.

I rooted my phone immediately and installed Villian ROM 1.4 with Battery %. See here:-

[23/6-11] [MOD] [STOCK XXKF2 & VillainROM 1.4] BATTERY PERCENTAGE and ASOP icons - xda-developers

in the fond hope that Cyanogen will release their first Nightly Mod anytime soon.

 

[mvh]

I use LP+ too. Can't stand the childish look of Touchwizz UI

 

[retrorom]

Just flashed Cognition S2 v1.08 a few days ago. It is really nice so far and overclockable to 1.5ghz. There is a Cogapps installer that comes with it to reinstall apps that have been ripped out. Cognition overwrites everything though so make sure (as always) to do a backup. I am still waiting for a custom rom like Cyanogen though If that's available, I'll be getting that one for sure. I used to have Villainrom on my Hero, maybe a next update with more custom stuff will get me hooked again who knows.

 

[denwa]

trying revolution rom 2.6 with Zeem launcher. Pretty nice so far. I found the instructions on rooting and installing roms a tad confusing compared to HTC. Once rooted it seems some roms get installed via the recovery using an sd card and some you install via Odin and a cable.

Really messed up my phone at one point trying to install a rom that had android 2.3.5.

Finally got it working again and installed revolution 2.6 (android 2.3.4)

 

[runlsd]

I've used quite a few so far.. CM7, SensatioN, Batista, Cognition, Villan, MIUI, Checks..

Currently on Dlev and going to stick with it for a while.

 

[Nirvana1000]

Can anyone who has Miui Rom 2.3.4,give their impressions of it? And is it safe and stable for Galaxy S2?How different is it from Villain which i'm currently using?I went to the download page and there is US,UK and so on.So i'm assuming Canadians use the US version.Well i know with any installation of custom ROMs you have to make sure it is done correctly with every step.But i read with special emphasis for Miui ROM.

 

[Uber-Duper]

I've been on a lot of different roms, on a mission to find one that is cutting-edge, stable, smooth, customizable, and good on battery.

My first custom rom (Lite'ning rom) was decent, and had a good balance of performance vs battery life with CPU master by Antutu installed (Set CPU freezed up from time to time). This rom came with ninphetamine 2.0.5, is already themed and ready for scaling from 200 to 1600mhz. I had no real reason for changing from this rom, other than wanting a newer bios, as lite'ning 6.1 uses baseband KH3.

I have settled on checkrom revolution HD v.2

This rom is extremely stable, and has been tweaked with a few goodies that have really enhanced the user experience. Packet data connectivity is noticeably improved, Proximity sensor delay is shorter, so accessing the dialer after taking the phone away from your face is less frustrating This rom comes with the Kitchen pro app, from which u can install new themes, modded apps, modems, kernels and other cool stuff.
Having tested the available kernels on this rom, i recommend sticking to DK Siyah and using CPU master with the SmartassV2 Governor. I'm scaling from 100 to 1400mhz, left the phone on all night for 8hrs with packet data still on and only lost 2% battery. It's pretty amazing.

IDK why i'm selling this rom so much, guess i just like it

 

[Rudedawg]

I think CheckRom is the flavor of the month here at Phandroid.

 

[cdl]

Can anyone who has Miui Rom 2.3.4,give their impressions of it? And is it safe and stable for Galaxy S2?How different is it from Villain which i'm currently using?I went to the download page and there is US,UK and so on.So i'm assuming Canadians use the US version.Well i know with any installation of custom ROMs you have to make sure it is done correctly with every step.But i read with special emphasis for Miui ROM.

I downloaded the MIUI ROM from here: http://miuiandroid.com/roms/miui-development-roms/
I have a UK Galaxy S2, which of course I rooted.

I used the phone unrooted for about 12 hours, and with MIUI for less than a day. I already restored all the apps I had on my other Android (a Motorola) using Titanium Backup. So far impressions are good: I like the graphic style, and the phone seems just as fast as with the stock rom. Too early for conclusive opinions, but first impressions are very good. Also, MIUI is the eye candy I like the most of all the Android versions I have seen (stock, HTC Sense, Motoblur, TouchWiz, Cyanogenmod etc). I particularly like the integrated data monitor and the firewall to prevent certain apps from accessing the internet. I installed go launcher and 'folder organizer' (by a chap called Fabio Collini) on top of MIUI because the only thing I didn't like was the Iphone-sque approach of not having an app drawer. Oh, bluetooth rsap works with MIUI, too.

 

[MrBaker22]

Im undecided on the MIUI rom, checkrom hd or villain rom which one is best on battery life? And easiest to flasg and do they all work with siyah 2.1.1?