Experiences with different Android ROMs

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Experiences with different Android ROMs

Postby [DRuG]NikT on Mon Mar 12, 2012 1:38 pm

Thought it would be good to start a thread logging my experiences with the different ROMs I load onto my phone.. The Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570... $129 prepaid Optus (via Boost) at Australia Post

boost_samsung_galaxy_mini_0047357a.jpg
Before replacing the housing
samsung-galaxy-mini-s5570.jpg
After replacing the housing
samsung-galaxy-mini-s5570.jpg (57.21 KiB) Viewed 3572 times


First up I ordered a new housing from HK, $20 - to make the edges grey like in the photo.. mine was originally orange.

Next I ordered a new touch screen coz I put a tiny scratch in mine that annoys me but nobody else can see.. $15

These things are starting to be identical to messing with your PC... custom parts, easy to pull apart, custom OS... which leads me to the purpose of this thread... each different OS build offers a different set of features and performance... so I've been trying them all... some with varying results to others.

Refresh regular, I'll be updating this first post as I arrange the info I have here.

Standard ROMs from Samsung
They say back up your phone before trying to flash... I didn't - to get rid of the Boost Mobile video sample that plays @ power on... it's really annoying. SO it then becomes important to have access to some Standard ROMs from Samsung.. http://yagyagaire.blogspot.com.au/2012/ ... wares.html - of useful note, I did in fact manage to rescue my phone at one point using Odin & a stock ROM after a failed attempt to install a ROM using the default bootloader instead of rooting the phone and using rzrecovery (it couldn't write to the system folder so only completed half the changes, leaving the phone unbootable)... Odin saved the day.

The first one on that list has a nice Samsung startup and runs 2.3.6 perfectly:

Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570 Asian Stock ROMs
S5570DDKQ7
PDA: S5570DDKQ7
CSC: S5570ODDKQ6
OPS: TASS.OPS
Version: Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread
Country: India
Released: November 2011
Download Link (Password : sampro.pl )

In order to load custom ROMs onto the phone, most techniques recommend:
(credit to http://bestiphonedroid.com/how-to-upgra ... ead-2-3-4/ for parts of these instructions - refer to them for installing a standard ROM as mentioned below)
- putting one of these standard ROMs on first using the following two extracted to a folder:
TASS_v1.0.zip
Tass.ops (unzip to a folder with Odin)
(209 Bytes) Downloaded 375 times

S5570_Odin Multi Downloader v4.38.zip
S5570_Odin Multi Downloader v4.38.exe (unzip to a folder with Tass.ops)
(206.57 KiB) Downloaded 326 times

- installing SuperUser (just place the update.zip in the root of an SDcard, hold power + home and install it)
- installing RZrecovery using the same technique as the previous step.. root of SD & install from boot menu
- copying a ROM zip to your SDcard, then booting into RZrecovery (which will have now replaced the original ROM/update installer boot menu) & using the Install menu to load the ROM

Note that after the splash screens appear, the phone will just display the word ANDROID in text mode while it boots.. instead of spamming you with Boost videos etc... be patient.. it will eventually load.

Custom ROMS:

I'm only listing the one's I've tried, if you know better ones, please tell me in this thread.

Taken from the selection @ http://yagyagaire.blogspot.com.au/p/dow ... s5570.html - not just at random, though, but to verify the results of my reading comparisons of the different available ROMs for my phone from google... as it turns out, the results matched my reading precisely... it seems everyone loves CM7 2.1 Music Edition & that most of the others either don't support all the hardware or are unstable.

I have so far found that CM7 Music Edition 2.1 is the best performer.. running Android 2.3.7
Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?lrxyh6p92xp34jf

MIUI v4 - based on Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich took too long to start up and crashed on me at one point where I had to take the battery out... but it works, just, unstable.
Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?ysnetcqjuwz9ud2

Sooo that's my experiences so far... and I've decided to stick with Android 2.3.7 (that's 1 subversion newer than the stock ROM) using Cyanogen Mod 7 Music Edition 2.1 - it runs reallly fast and has a much better keyboard, lock screen/mechanism and phone interface than the stock ROM... annnd it's got a nice animated Cyanogen splash screen instead of the stoopid Boost Mobile guy saying in a dumb voice "Who spilled that!? where you at?" every time you turn on the phone (I mean seriously, what does it even mean!?!).


"But my head's all messed up, so you better driive brother"
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Re: Experiences with different Android ROMs

Postby zog on Mon Mar 12, 2012 10:33 pm

I can see a Samsung android phone in my future (not right now though) as well [mrgreen]

I'm tending towards the galaxy note, as its pretty much a small tablet that can also double as an oversized phone. Not quite a thing for the pocket, but I'm all metrosexual and typically wandering around with a crumpler messenger bag anyway...

with the custom ROMS, SuperAwesomeWife has a Huawei Ideos u8150 that was OK for a cheap and cheerful Android phone a year ago - but it kept getting slower and slower afte initially being quite zippy. Loading the DRONIX custom ROM for the Huawei Ideos was the fix, the phone is now nice and zippy.

I got an el cheapo KOGAN tablet, loaded am unofficial CyanogenMod version onto it which was nice in some ways, but incomplete hardware support. But I'm over the cheapy kogan tablet although it was a good intro to tweaking android, as its crappy power jack means it doesnt charge properly half the time.. I've been delicate with it but I think its cracked or got loose. Might see if I can return it on warranty and get credit towards a Samsung.
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