Ok, here goes my promised experience review on overclocking the ZTE AWE N800 :
First I must mention that I have 2 Awe N800 devices. Both phones are in practically mint condition, but are different in one major way. Recall our reference of "chip quality" during the first few rounds of testing kernels by rbheromax and cooldudezach. Basically some devices could handle ludicrous clocks (which turned out to be wrong freq. tables that were later fixed) while others were barely able to boot with the kernel. This is a result of manufacturing done wrong and experiences have been varied across the board. The overclock project then went defunct and was eventually started over seperately by spock1104 (who developed AWEstruck) and phenomx4 (who developed CM11 and its various KK roms) as the OG devs moved on to other things. Rbheromax continued to work with spock1104 on adding features to AWEstruck.
I own one of each device, a good (or apparently perfect) quality chip and a low/mid quality chip.
I'll refer to them as:
Beauty (low/mid)
The Beast (for obvious reasons)
All of my testing was done under the same conditions for both devices using 3c Toolbox to tune over a clean rom install with very few app installations. For testing stability I used Performance governor at max clock speed using Performance gpu as well. I then used Quadrant to run the benchmarks. As a baseline on-boot setting I have set the clocks to 1.72ghz using ondemand governor and let it rest for a minute or two before setting to Performance for testing. Entropy settings are also set fairly low, but I'm still finding the perfect balance. High entropy results in high CPU load.
My experience with each phone differs due to what clocks their chip will handle. I have tested extensively both devices with both JB and KK variants of the AWEstruck kernel with the same roms (CM11 and AWEsome Rom 1.6) and kernel version, ie the current 1.05 beta 4. These roms are the lightest available with the minimum requirements necessary to boot and use.
I'll note that I did remove some junk from AWEsome and replaced a couple of apps, mainly KK Launcher for S Launcher and Trickstermod for 3c Toolbox. AWEsome does not include the current beta kernel as well, so you will need to manually flash it in TWRP. Same goes for CM11 and its variants. These revisions are expected to be made available to my AWEsome Rom when I get hold of a computer to do so.
Beauty doesnt like high clocks. The highest stable speed is at 1.72ghz and will even reboot randomly depending on CPU load. The Beast will reach 1.94ghz without a sweat and take everything I throw at it and then some. The Beast has reached 1.99ghz on occasion, but to do so requires raising the voltages just high enough to keep the chip happy or else all hell breaks loose. The same can be said for Beauty at 1.83ghz, but it is much less likely to hold no matter what volts I set.
When setting clock speeds too high for each, one of three things can happen. Either the screen will completely freak out and have a seizure but the phone still responds to touches (with animations causing the seizure to occur), the phone will soft reboot to the boot animation that gets super glitched and loops, or it will flatout freeze and reboot.
Now for the kernel variants and their experiences.
JB kernel is meant specifically for stock based roms. Ive really had no problems outside of the above issues. Everything is buttery smooth and very responsive. Wifi is quick to connect and signal strength seems improved over stock. Bluetooth is no issue either. HID connects in a snap. This shouldnt surprise many people as its basically a souped up modded stock kernel rebuilt from the ground up. Performance is all around beautiful with very few if not any stutters while multitasking and apps load fairly quick. One small issue is that YouTube app videos do not play properly. They will stutter and buffer constantly. Also for some reason it claims to be booting at 2.05ghz though it never actually ever reaches this clock. Quadrant scores tend to be in the low to mid 6k on Beauty at 1.72ghz while on The Beast can reach as high as 7300+ at 1.94ghz.
KK kernel is much the same experience. Very snappy, performs mundane tasks without a hitch and handles the larger ones with relative ease. The only caveat ive found is that Bluetooth HID does not work properly as of yet. I own a MOGA Pro controller and cannot get Mode B to connect. Quadrant scores however are not quite as high as on JB kernel. I'll manage at most around 5600 - 5800 on Beauty and low to mid 6k on The Beast.
Battery life is what you make of it. I am an addicted gamer and The Beast is my fix. I usually up the clocks at performance while doing so and as a result ill get much less battery life. Display brightness will also have an impact. Wakelocks and background apps are also resource thieves. There are apps like Greenify to counteract this stuff and I also use Startup Manager to restrict apps loading on boot. Some things still sneak through the cracks though like most of the Google junk and can't be avoided entirely. Managing memory can also help keep your device on. Thats why I opted to use S Launcher. By sliding from the left edge of the screen you can view how much RAM is being used and there is also a nifty "clean memory" button there to free some up. Very handy and highly recommended by me. On average with reasonable clocks I can manage nearly a full day with moderate use on both JB and KK.
Temperature is dependent on a couple of variables and is the same across both kernels. It mostly comes down to CPU load and how well the governor handles managing the clocks. High load means more CPU usage which will max out your clock setting. I recently discovered that Intellidemand is great at managing clocks on load, so this may help battery life too. I tend to turn off the Thermal Control feature but I'm a power user and like unrestricted clocks. Same thing with MP-Decision. While your phone may get warm to the touch depending on what your doing, I havent noticed any real negative side effects. Its basically up to you to decide whether you want to use these features or not.
So theres that. Below you will find some FAQs that I anticipate will probably come up in your mind. If you have any other questions about maybe a game or app request or would like some more clarification on a certain aspect of my testing experience feel free to ask.
Shoutouts:
rbheromax and cooldudezach - for the work they put in to make overclocking possible on this AWEsome device
spock1104 and phenomx4 - for their continued support and hard work to keep this thing alive
One last thing:
I'm not responsible if your device bursts into flames while trying to achieve the same level of performance I have experienced. Every phone is different and your results may vary.
Dragon out!
I do plan on adding pictures and video to this thread, as well as links to everything you could possibly need for your phone, so for now consider a WIP.
P.S: While I'm not in any way shape or form asking you to, I would accept any donations if you feel the urge to do so if you happen to find I did a relatively good job with this writeup. They would go to my acquisition of more devices to help test things out for more developers in the overly-extensive manner that I do. If you do feel generous enough to help out, inbox me for the details.
First I must mention that I have 2 Awe N800 devices. Both phones are in practically mint condition, but are different in one major way. Recall our reference of "chip quality" during the first few rounds of testing kernels by rbheromax and cooldudezach. Basically some devices could handle ludicrous clocks (which turned out to be wrong freq. tables that were later fixed) while others were barely able to boot with the kernel. This is a result of manufacturing done wrong and experiences have been varied across the board. The overclock project then went defunct and was eventually started over seperately by spock1104 (who developed AWEstruck) and phenomx4 (who developed CM11 and its various KK roms) as the OG devs moved on to other things. Rbheromax continued to work with spock1104 on adding features to AWEstruck.
I own one of each device, a good (or apparently perfect) quality chip and a low/mid quality chip.
I'll refer to them as:
Beauty (low/mid)
The Beast (for obvious reasons)
All of my testing was done under the same conditions for both devices using 3c Toolbox to tune over a clean rom install with very few app installations. For testing stability I used Performance governor at max clock speed using Performance gpu as well. I then used Quadrant to run the benchmarks. As a baseline on-boot setting I have set the clocks to 1.72ghz using ondemand governor and let it rest for a minute or two before setting to Performance for testing. Entropy settings are also set fairly low, but I'm still finding the perfect balance. High entropy results in high CPU load.
My experience with each phone differs due to what clocks their chip will handle. I have tested extensively both devices with both JB and KK variants of the AWEstruck kernel with the same roms (CM11 and AWEsome Rom 1.6) and kernel version, ie the current 1.05 beta 4. These roms are the lightest available with the minimum requirements necessary to boot and use.
I'll note that I did remove some junk from AWEsome and replaced a couple of apps, mainly KK Launcher for S Launcher and Trickstermod for 3c Toolbox. AWEsome does not include the current beta kernel as well, so you will need to manually flash it in TWRP. Same goes for CM11 and its variants. These revisions are expected to be made available to my AWEsome Rom when I get hold of a computer to do so.
Beauty doesnt like high clocks. The highest stable speed is at 1.72ghz and will even reboot randomly depending on CPU load. The Beast will reach 1.94ghz without a sweat and take everything I throw at it and then some. The Beast has reached 1.99ghz on occasion, but to do so requires raising the voltages just high enough to keep the chip happy or else all hell breaks loose. The same can be said for Beauty at 1.83ghz, but it is much less likely to hold no matter what volts I set.
When setting clock speeds too high for each, one of three things can happen. Either the screen will completely freak out and have a seizure but the phone still responds to touches (with animations causing the seizure to occur), the phone will soft reboot to the boot animation that gets super glitched and loops, or it will flatout freeze and reboot.
Now for the kernel variants and their experiences.
JB kernel is meant specifically for stock based roms. Ive really had no problems outside of the above issues. Everything is buttery smooth and very responsive. Wifi is quick to connect and signal strength seems improved over stock. Bluetooth is no issue either. HID connects in a snap. This shouldnt surprise many people as its basically a souped up modded stock kernel rebuilt from the ground up. Performance is all around beautiful with very few if not any stutters while multitasking and apps load fairly quick. One small issue is that YouTube app videos do not play properly. They will stutter and buffer constantly. Also for some reason it claims to be booting at 2.05ghz though it never actually ever reaches this clock. Quadrant scores tend to be in the low to mid 6k on Beauty at 1.72ghz while on The Beast can reach as high as 7300+ at 1.94ghz.
KK kernel is much the same experience. Very snappy, performs mundane tasks without a hitch and handles the larger ones with relative ease. The only caveat ive found is that Bluetooth HID does not work properly as of yet. I own a MOGA Pro controller and cannot get Mode B to connect. Quadrant scores however are not quite as high as on JB kernel. I'll manage at most around 5600 - 5800 on Beauty and low to mid 6k on The Beast.
Battery life is what you make of it. I am an addicted gamer and The Beast is my fix. I usually up the clocks at performance while doing so and as a result ill get much less battery life. Display brightness will also have an impact. Wakelocks and background apps are also resource thieves. There are apps like Greenify to counteract this stuff and I also use Startup Manager to restrict apps loading on boot. Some things still sneak through the cracks though like most of the Google junk and can't be avoided entirely. Managing memory can also help keep your device on. Thats why I opted to use S Launcher. By sliding from the left edge of the screen you can view how much RAM is being used and there is also a nifty "clean memory" button there to free some up. Very handy and highly recommended by me. On average with reasonable clocks I can manage nearly a full day with moderate use on both JB and KK.
Temperature is dependent on a couple of variables and is the same across both kernels. It mostly comes down to CPU load and how well the governor handles managing the clocks. High load means more CPU usage which will max out your clock setting. I recently discovered that Intellidemand is great at managing clocks on load, so this may help battery life too. I tend to turn off the Thermal Control feature but I'm a power user and like unrestricted clocks. Same thing with MP-Decision. While your phone may get warm to the touch depending on what your doing, I havent noticed any real negative side effects. Its basically up to you to decide whether you want to use these features or not.
So theres that. Below you will find some FAQs that I anticipate will probably come up in your mind. If you have any other questions about maybe a game or app request or would like some more clarification on a certain aspect of my testing experience feel free to ask.
Shoutouts:
rbheromax and cooldudezach - for the work they put in to make overclocking possible on this AWEsome device
spock1104 and phenomx4 - for their continued support and hard work to keep this thing alive
One last thing:
I'm not responsible if your device bursts into flames while trying to achieve the same level of performance I have experienced. Every phone is different and your results may vary.
Dragon out!
I do plan on adding pictures and video to this thread, as well as links to everything you could possibly need for your phone, so for now consider a WIP.
P.S: While I'm not in any way shape or form asking you to, I would accept any donations if you feel the urge to do so if you happen to find I did a relatively good job with this writeup. They would go to my acquisition of more devices to help test things out for more developers in the overly-extensive manner that I do. If you do feel generous enough to help out, inbox me for the details.
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