Samsung Galaxy S4

[Park@82]

Right so... any recommended roms for the GT-i9500?

Did you find the way to get the gear 2 working on alternative roms?

 

[cerebus]

Well, this is interesting.

Not terribly. I got an S4 and Gear 2. Liking the S4, mixed feelings about the Gear2. I may keep either or neither. But one thing I have no mixed feelings about is Touchwiz.

Did you find the way to get the gear 2 working on alternative roms?

I saw something about it.

 

[mercurial]

Not terribly. I got an S4 and Gear 2. Liking the S4, mixed feelings about the Gear2. I may keep either or neither. But one thing I have no mixed feelings about is Touchwiz.

Nova Launcher

How did you get the S4 and Gear 2? A gift? Win it?

 

[cerebus]

Nova Launcher

How did you get the S4 and Gear 2? A gift? Win it?

Nova Launcher is already on but I just want to get off the Touchwiz train altogether. I purchased them at what I consider to have been a bargain price

 

[mercurial]

Nova Launcher is already on but I just want to get off the Touchwiz train altogether. I purchased them at what I consider to have been a bargain price

Nice. Welcome

On your question - I'm using Omega.

 

[cerebus]

Nice. Welcome

On your question - I'm using Omega.

Omega looks like it's quite heavy on the Touchwiz is that correct?

 

[Quentin Legend]

Omega looks like it's quite heavy on the Touchwiz is that correct?

Correct.

Omega is a TouchWiz based rom, but it cuts out most of the lag / slowdowns as well as allowing you to select what you want installed, so all the bloatware can be removed during installation. I tried Cyanogenmod 11 but the camera app was k*k because the S4 uses a lot of the TouchWiz framework in order for the camera to work. So I installed Omega about a week ago, VERY happy so far. Battery life also increased by 50-80% for me personally.

 

[goofball]

I found CM11 to be better than Omega.
Jag Omega the pay few months and recently moved to CM and I'm really happy.
Feels much faster to me and generally just nicer.
I use Google camera so the CM camera doesn't bother me at all.

 

[mercurial]

Omega looks like it's quite heavy on the Touchwiz is that correct?

Ya but trust me, plain AOSP looks horrible on a Samsung phone. Omega is pretty damn good and stable. You can decide upon ROM installation, which apps to include, so you have full control over what you want. Then just replace TW launcher with Nova and you're good to go.

 

[Park@82]

Then just replace TW launcher with Nova and you're good to go.

But the settings menus & status bar would still look touchwizzy. For status bar & notification panel, one could probably use Xposed + Gravity box to customize it somewhat. not sure about the settings menus.

 

[Soul Assassin]

Anyone thought about testing OzcanRom, it has Ultra Power Saving Mode ported from the S5.

 

[cerebus]

Ya but trust me, plain AOSP looks horrible on a Samsung phone. Omega is pretty damn good and stable. You can decide upon ROM installation, which apps to include, so you have full control over what you want. Then just replace TW launcher with Nova and you're good to go.

I'm now running plain Google Now launcher and I'm not sure what's horrible about it. It's quite attractive actually. Hm well first steps are to root this thing then see. That's if this LG G2 possibility doesn't pan out... ah me.

 

[mercurial]

I'm now running plain Google Now launcher and I'm not sure what's horrible about it. It's quite attractive actually. Hm well first steps are to root this thing then see. That's if this LG G2 possibility doesn't pan out... ah me.

Each to his own, I guess. Also, the AOSP ROMS tend to have the most issues. The ROMS from Samsung are stable. But try it out and see how it goes.

 

[Viva]

After much consideration, I decided the best compromise for the i9500 is a stock rom (or stock based rom) coupled with a decent launcher (Google Now or Nova Prime).

The drawbacks of AOSP roms for this phone are just too major: worse stability and software that can't properly take advantage of the camera hardware.

 

[Romito]

Anyone thought about testing OzcanRom, it has Ultra Power Saving Mode ported from the S5.

Been using it for 2 months now, I even upgraded to the latest version. It is ultra smooth. Battery lasts at least 36 hours, that's with internet, wi-fi and sync on.

 

[Soul Assassin]

And the Ultra Power Saving Mode? The S5 feature that greyscales the screen and makes the battery last 24 hours on 10% battery.

 

[Romito]

And the Ultra Power Saving Mode? The S5 feature that greyscales the screen and makes the battery last 24 hours on 10% battery.

I haven't tried it yet. Will give it a go when I get a chance and report back.

 

[Tsepz_GP]

After much consideration, I decided the best compromise for the i9500 is a stock rom (or stock based rom) coupled with a decent launcher (Google Now or Nova Prime).

The drawbacks of AOSP roms for this phone are just too major: worse stability and software that can't properly take advantage of the camera hardware.

Exactly, you meet a lot of compromise with Custom ROMs on the I9500. Samsung used a different and better sensor in the I9500, they used a Sony Exmor RS instead of the inferior Sony Exmor R in the I9505, on top of that the I9500 wasn't sold in most of Western Europe and most devs. didn't want anything to do with it, those that did seem to have had a hard time optimizing their ROMs for it.

 

[Maverick Jester]

on top of that the I9500 wasn't sold in most of Western Europe and most devs. didn't want anything to do with it, those that did seem to have had a hard time optimizing their ROMs for it.

Actually, it's simply the age-old issue of Samsung not providing kernel sources for the Exynos chipset.

 

[milan188]

Anyone thought about testing OzcanRom, it has Ultra Power Saving Mode ported from the S5.

It's buggy. Some applications lose their app data when you enable then disable it