Root Recommend me a new ROM

GrenW · Apr 29, 2014

I've been an AOKP user for the last 2 years or so on both my GNex and N5. I've hardly run any other rom in that time.

Trouble is the team seem to have run out of steam. No worthwhile enhancements (IMHO) pretty much since the start of the year, nightlies that happen every 2-3 weeks and forums/threads that seem to be a shadow of their former selves. Shame!

So, great folks of Phandroid. Recommend me a rom!

Features I'm looking for are probably pretty standard :

- Power menu with reboot options
- custom toggles
- battery % in the notif bar
- customisable nav bar
- customisable LED (always found AOKP's old LED control was so much better than LightFlow)

Not really bothered about themes, ribbons and would prefer a non-CAF rom so that I could go back to using Franco's kernel.

Hook · Apr 29, 2014

Obviously, I'm going to recommend Dirty Unicorns. Cataclysm is also excellent, as is Slim Kat (at least on my Nexus 7), but DU on the Nexus 5 is a fantastic experience. See the thread here in this forum for links.

xdrc45 · Apr 29, 2014

Yep... I agree with Hook and recommend DU also. Excellent features, very stabile and smooth!

Rxpert83 · Apr 29, 2014

Dirty Unicorns, OMNI ROM, Liquid Smooth, and Carbon seem to be my favorites.

I'm playing with ParanoidAndroid today to check out their new hover feature:Paranoid Android's Hover Feature Offers Desktop-Style Rich Notifications And Floating Windows

GrenW · Apr 29, 2014

Okay, a number of DU recommendations....why? What makes it better than the rest?

It looks to be based off AOKP (hence the unicorns bit) so what else does it bring and if AOKP id fizzling out what is the future of DU?

Hook · Apr 29, 2014

Honestly, i don't know if "better than the rest" means anything. The Nexus 5 has, as far as I can tell, a really fine set of alternate ROMs available with a lot of similar features and a few unique tweaks. I suggest installing Multi-ROM and try a few and see which give you most of what you want before settling on a "primary ROM."

For me, DU is silky smooth, very stock-like and has exactly the features I'm looking for. I also really enjoy the bantering on G+ of the team that develop all the different device versions of this ROM-- the genuinely seem to be in it for the fun of development. It's like asking someone on the old American Bandstand why they liked a song. "It's got a good beat and I can dance to it."

OhSeven · Apr 29, 2014

Hook said:
Honestly, i don't know if "better than the rest" means anything. The Nexus 5 has, as far as I can tell, a really fine set of alternate ROMs available with a lot of similar features and a few unique tweaks. I suggest installing Multi-ROM and try a few and see which give you most of what you want before settling on a "primary ROM."

I agree with trying various roms yourself, and multirom makes that relatively painless. Because it's a nexus device, there are a million roms but there aren't many that bring anything unique to the table. You'll see many of the same features shared among roms. (Someone should name one YAAR- yet another android rom. It could have a pirate boot animation and be set)

With that said, I primarily use DU because it has most features I can ask for, it's stable, and it's actively developed. PA has gotten a slow start since kit kat, but I'll be trying the latest soon since they do want to diverge from other roms.

Rxpert83 · Apr 29, 2014

GrenW said:
Okay, a number of DU recommendations....why? What makes it better than the rest?

It looks to be based off AOKP (hence the unicorns bit) so what else does it bring and if AOKP id fizzling out what is the future of DU?

It used to be based off of AOKP, its now based off of OMNI ROM.

The nexus 5 maintainer is an active contributer to the forums here, and he occasionally gives us some sneak peaks

Its a solid ROM that is packed with features.

xdrc45 · Apr 29, 2014

Rxpert83 said:
Dirty Unicorns, OMNI ROM, Liquid Smooth, and Carbon seem to be my favorites.

I'm playing with ParanoidAndroid today to check out their new hover feature:Paranoid Android's Hover Feature Offers Desktop-Style Rich Notifications And Floating Windows

Just curious... How's the PA ROM and the new hover feature working out?

Rxpert83 · Apr 29, 2014

xdrc45 said:
Just curious... How's the PA ROM and the new hover feature working out?

I was never a really big fan of halo, but hover is pretty good so far.

The ROM itself has the features you'd expect, but lacks some of the mods I've grown accustom to such as battery charging LED.

I'll stick with it for at least a few more days though.

thisISjoel · Apr 29, 2014

I use DU and I like it. It gives a very stock like experience, but with extra, useful tweaks available. That said it's the only rom I've tried (other than stock), I've considered trying others but it just doesn't seem worth the hassle when DU is so good.

Rxpert83 · Apr 30, 2014

thisISjoel said:
I use DU and I like it. It gives a very stock like experience, but with extra, useful tweaks available. That said it's the only rom I've tried (other than stock), I've considered trying others but it just doesn't seem worth the hassle when DU is so good.

The world is at your fingertips, and a nandroid is like going back in time... Like you never even tried another ROM

DU is solid though. Its got more features than anything else out there, but you will find features on other ROMS that haven't made it to DU yet.

Someday you'll catch the flashaholic itch, and its near impossible to treat. You'll flash anything just to try it :eek:

akmsr · Apr 30, 2014

hey since when this became the mardi gras thread? you guys are talking about flashing anything and everything!! :smokingsomb:

unicyclist · May 12, 2014

Flash any and everything? That's what Multi-ROM was made for!

On another note: DU has become my favorite since I found it on another phone about a year ago. Even with Multi-rom, and going flash-happy, I come back to DU because it's so smooth, and has a few more cooked in tweaks. I could find those tweaks elsewhere, but being cooked in seems to make them less laggy.

flashback7 · Jun 10, 2014

CandyKat!! One of,, if not the best rom out imo!! Has a base of Slim and the kernel included has nice colors and is extremely fast and good on battery life.

If you use it you will be amazed!! Check it out some time.

sherlock5545 · Jun 10, 2014

Sorry if I hijack the thread, just wanted to ask a few questions. I'm currently running stock + Gravity Box and so far it seems I really have all I need. When I had a GS3, I never really used stock TW ROMs since it was bloated, but the Nexus 5 is as good as you can get.

So my question is, what's the advantage of a custom ROM over stock tweaked with Gravity Box and other xposed modules?

NYCHitman1 · Jun 10, 2014

sherlock5545 said:
Sorry if I hijack the thread, just wanted to ask a few questions. I'm currently running stock + Gravity Box and so far it seems I really have all I need. When I had a GS3, I never really used stock TW ROMs since it was bloated, but the Nexus 5 is as good as you can get.

So my question is, what's the advantage of a custom ROM over stock tweaked with Gravity Box and other xposed modules?

Custom ROMs likely have more tweaks and the same features you get with gravity box baked in.

badutahboy · Jun 21, 2014

Any suggestions for ROM's to try out with MultiRom? I'm going to install DU, and I'm currently using CM11. Anything else that's got different/creative stuff worth investigating?

Incakola · Jun 23, 2014

badutahboy said:
Any suggestions for ROM's to try out with MultiRom? I'm going to install DU, and I'm currently using CM11. Anything else that's got different/creative stuff worth investigating?

You can try carbon ROM, been running it for a few months and it suits my needs. Basic features:
-Hover
-Privacy guard
-Persistence installs (keeps your xposed installed, keeps your hosts installed all when you update to the next nightly)
-Carbon delta (an ota client that not only downloads newest nightly but also gives you the option to add in to auto flash zips afterwards that you'd normally do manually like flashing gaps)
-SlimPie
-cm themer
-nav bar, power menu, status bar customizations
-active display and lock screen notifications (pocket mode will show system ui taking away most of the battery in battery stats)
-Incoming calls in background (calls pushed as a notification instead)

aciulladev · Jun 23, 2014

Why do you have to use a rom? You can use the stock rooted version of android and just add those modifications yourself! Than you can be forever happy =D

GrenW said:
I've been an AOKP user for the last 2 years or so on both my GNex and N5. I've hardly run any other rom in that time.

Trouble is the team seem to have run out of steam. No worthwhile enhancements (IMHO) pretty much since the start of the year, nightlies that happen every 2-3 weeks and forums/threads that seem to be a shadow of their former selves. Shame!

So, great folks of Phandroid. Recommend me a rom!

Features I'm looking for are probably pretty standard :

- Power menu with reboot options
- custom toggles
- battery % in the notif bar
- customisable nav bar
- customisable LED (always found AOKP's old LED control was so much better than LightFlow)

Not really bothered about themes, ribbons and would prefer a non-CAF rom so that I could go back to using Franco's kernel.

flashback7 · Jun 24, 2014

RastaKat stockui or any Rasta is great. Zero issues and lots of cool features depending on which build you use. There are 3 unofficial builds and then there are the og builds that rascarlo builds as well. All are great. :cool:

There are so many great roms. Nexus is the s%$#!

Slickinator · Jun 24, 2014

I'd just use xposed on stock 4.4, every time i use a ROM, somethings broken and I always go back to stock rooted with Xposed

Rxpert83 · Jun 25, 2014

Slickinator said:
I'd just use xposed on stock 4.4, every time i use a ROM, somethings broken and I always go back to stock rooted with Xposed

That's very strange. These are nexus devices, other than an odd buggy nightly or two I've always had functional builds.

xdrc45 · Jun 25, 2014

Rxpert83 said:
That's very strange. These are nexus devices, other than an odd buggy nightly or two I've always had functional builds.

Agreed... Unless your using a nightly, WIP or alpha release, you should not experience any problems or issues. I have had much better experiences with the custom ROMs that I've used than not. They're by far more functional and have all the extra features baked into the ROM and I have not had any issues with broken, missing features or FC's.
Truth be told, xposed is a great feature for a strictly 100% stock ROM and shouldn't really be used on custom ROMs. Since most custom ROMs have the same features that xposed offers, baked into the ROMs and using them together will typically cause conflicts.
In my experience I find that many of the xposed mods are buggy and can cause more harm than good.
Then again every users experience and preference is different from one to the next and if you find something that works for you then stick with it.

For me that's Dirty Unicorns and a custom kernel and I couldn't be happier with my setup and I experience absolutely zero issues what's so ever... I can't find anything broken, missing or that causes any issues.
In fact my N5 performs better than it did on stock with xposed... Which is how I ran my N5 for more than a month before switching to a custom ROM. It's less buggy, battery life and performance is way better. Not to mention all the awesome features baked into the ROM, which makes it more stable that way and it allows me to customize my N5 to my liking without having to download, install and manipulate multiple xposed mods.

thisISjoel · Jun 26, 2014

Incakola said:
You can try carbon ROM, been running it for a few months and it suits my needs. Basic features:
-Hover
-Privacy guard
-Persistence installs (keeps your xposed installed, keeps your hosts installed all when you update to the next nightly)
-Carbon delta (an ota client that not only downloads newest nightly but also gives you the option to add in to auto flash zips afterwards that you'd normally do manually like flashing gaps)
-SlimPie
-cm themer
-nav bar, power menu, status bar customizations
-active display and lock screen notifications (pocket mode will show system ui taking away most of the battery in battery stats)
-Incoming calls in background (calls pushed as a notification instead)

I'm giving Carbon a spin at the moment after using Dirty Unicorns for like 3 months and not even really looking at any other roms. After seeing your post I figured it looked like Carbon had pretty much all the goodies I love from DU plus Hover which I've been keen to try. So far I'm enjoying it, it feels like a pretty similar experience, although I'm not 100% sold on it as a replacement for DU as my daily driver.

EDIT: Looks like DU is going to be implementing Heads Up so as soon as the first Hammerhead build with that feature enabled drops I'm going back, baby!

EDIT EDIT: Just used xposed to install Heads Up to try it out on Carbon and I think Hover still has the edge in that it gives you the floating window in which you can type a reply to an sms or email without having to switch back and forth between apps. Being able to blacklist apps from Heads Up is very cool though. Pros and Cons to both.

EDIT EDIT EDIT: Looks like on DU at least there will be the option to launch the app that the notification is from in a floating window!!1! Mother flipping YISSSS! BAST AF BATH WARLDS!!!

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