Help Is the 2.2 (Froyo) update worth the effort?

[RazzMaTazz]

There are a couple of posts here about how to root the Transform and update it to Froyo (all of which are to Vampirefo's port I believe), but I don't see much discussion about the value of doing so. What are the advantages of the Froyo ROMs over a stock (2.1) phone or over a popular rooted (2.1) ROM? I'm within my 30-day return window and I'm wondering if the 2.2 Transform is faster or better than the 2.2 Optimus S or if I should just exchange it for the Optimus S. I'll root it and compare the two myself if I have to, but I was hoping someone could give me an indication of whether it's even in the ballpark of being worth (the risk and) my time-- especially compared to the Optimus. For example, if it's only a 10% real-world speed increase or enables free WiFi tethering, I wouldn't even waste my time because the Optimus S is at least that much faster and can already do free WiFi tethering. (It would be my 1st root so I'd prefer not to to spend the time getting up to speed, rooting it, and then restoring it so that I can return it if it's not worthwhile.)


1) Is there a significant speed increase in web-page download speeds or in other apps? How much? Has anybody quantified it? Does Angry Birds run silky smooth now?

2) Do any of the Froyo ROMs have a graphics driver (especially an OpenGL driver) that can take advantage of the built-in graphics hardware? (Apparently Samsung didn't include such a driver in the stock 2.1 ROM which may explain why Market version of Angry Birds is essentially unplayable on the 800MHz Transform but runs smoothly on the 600MHz Optimus S. It may also help explain why the Optimus S can download web pages faster. Not sure.)

3) Does video conferencing now work smoothly?

4) Are there any other benefits or features that make rooting the Transform to Froyo worthwhile?

5) Are there any cons to the new ROMS, like bugs, crashes, or features that stop working?

Sorry. I know that I'm asking some questions that might be a bit time consuming to answer. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[tfek70]

I have updated both my phone and my wife's. It really isn't a big deal to update this on your phone, so yes, it is worth it. Here is a list of the "pros" I've seen:

1. My phone starts up in under a minute. I hated the fact that it took so long for my phone to start, so that by itself made it worthwhile for me.

2. I can play Angry Birds on my Transform with no problems.

I don't know what wifi tethering is, but I could do it if I wanted to. I don't really use all of the features of these phones, so I might not be the best for this. I know the video conferencing still doesn't work.

 

[BabelFish]

I don't know what wifi tethering is, but I could do it if I wanted to.

lol! Best sentence of the day!

 

[[TheAndroid]]

lol! Best sentence of the day!

Psh, I second that haha.

Uh for #2 I can post the JIT drivers for the Froyo Transfrom, nobody gave me an indication if they wanted it or anything so i didn't post it on the guide I edited a bit...

3. Video conferencing is being fixed. The guy's at SDX Dev. have been working really hard on that lately, soon the front facing camera should be fixed.

4. For me it's to have a faster phone will better drivers and mostly the apps that come with having a Froyo phone. (Adobe Flash doesn't work atm, but thats alright)

As for bugs, they're 3 keyboard keys that don't work, and I think it's the smiley button, FN+ . )Which is supposed to make .com) and one other, but this is also being fixed as well.

Oh and Angry Birds runs like a dream. Along with many many other games on the Market.

 

[NPA123]

You will see some improvement over the stock for sure. But, don't expect miracles. I was not able to play raging thunder, etc. even with froyo as there is no graphics optimization. The optimus OTOH has a GPU for these tasks and my son is able to play all games on his Optimus S.

In short, you will get an overall better phone after rooting and froyo because you will see a better day to day faster use than 2.1 with the froyo update. You will also get the ability to install some apps on the SD card and wifi tether. If you do any other kind of gaming then don't even bother with the update.

 

[vanburen72]

My wife has the Optimus S, and I admit, I am kind of jealous at how she can run things that I can't, especially Flash, but I need the physical keyboard.
As far as Angry Birds, I don't really care about games on my phone, but it will run AB. At least it will run the levels fine. The stuff in between the levels is still missing text for me.
With the latest Froyo Port, I am getting MFLOPS of 8.8+ on Linpack. Before I was lucky to get anything over 5. So I am happy with the improved performance. Once all the little bugs like the keyboard map are fixed, I will be very satisfied with it.

 

[[TheAndroid]]

My wife has the Optimus S, and I admit, I am kind of jealous at how she can run things that I can't, especially Flash, but I need the physical keyboard.
As far as Angry Birds, I don't really care about games on my phone, but it will run AB. At least it will run the levels fine. The stuff in between the levels is still missing text for me.
With the latest Froyo Port, I am getting MFLOPS of 8.8+ on Linpack. Before I was lucky to get anything over 5. So I am happy with the improved performance. Once all the little bugs like the keyboard map are fixed, I will be very satisfied with it.

I'm trying my best to be optimistic about Samsung releasing some good graphics drivers for 2.2 when its officially released. If not, I have 4 graphics drivers I would be more than glad to post for everyone on here. Such as JIT, and some better 3D Drivers, and trust me, the Transform will be a lot faster. Even I sometimes become jealous of the Optimus S, because I could install ThundeROM and have a phone faster than most Galaxy S phones and 2X the Transform's RAM. Believe me, I'm going to do everything I can to make my phone faster while keeping it stable and enjoyable.

(I found out the Optimus S had a DualCore no more than a month ago. I've had my Transform since Black Friday.)

 

[RazzMaTazz]

@The Android: Thanks. Being new to Android, I don't really understand what good it would do me if you posted a graphics driver. I know that on Windows I can install a graphics driver. Are you saying that I can install a graphics driver on Android? I thought that the system ROMs on these devices are monolithic with the graphics drivers built-in. I didn't think that an end-user like myself could add a driver.

Which do you think is faster in real world use, a Froyo Transform or an Optimus S?

FYI: I don't think we can really call the Optimus S a "dual-core" in the traditional sense of a dual-core applications processor. I believe that both the Optimus and the Transform have two CPUs each, but one of the CPUs is a slower speed unit dedicated to radio baseband processing. The application processor is an ARM single core, and I think that both of those applications processors have a graphics unit attached. The Transform's applications processor runs at 800MHz and the Optimus S's runs at 600MHz. While the Transform has 256MB of RAM, I've read conflicting specifications for the Optimus S-- some saying that it has 256MB of RAM, while others say it has 512MB of RAM. If the Optimums really has 512MB of RAM, I'm not sure that its slower processor speed would make it perform worse than that Transform. This is part of my agonizing decision on whether to return my Transform.

 

[[TheAndroid]]

LG Optimus S Reviews | ProductWiki

Yeah, more RAM then us is quite true. Also I don't worry about my processor speed too much... Vampirefo released an OverClock kernel a few weeks back, I can make my phone faster anytime. But the dual core does have a small impact... Plus I still have yet to understand TRULY why the phone is faster. Theres alot of reasons out there, but I wanna see why so I can help find what the Optimus S has compared to the Transform.