MOBILE

Ten Cool Custom Android ROMs (Part 2)

5/17/2013 6:51:17 PM

FoxHound

FoxHound is a Samsung ROM specific to the Galaxy S3, which is based on the latest stable Jelly Bean sources. It offers you the latest and best, along with proprietary features like pop-up play, smart stay, etc. Also, as opposed to AOSP ROMs – Bluetooth, NFC, TV-Out, Dock, etc, work flawlessly. However, its most important feature is the Aroma installer, which provides installation options like what you see while installing an operating system on your computer, where you can choose each and every component and application that you want to install on your ROM. You have the freedom to choose from different launchers, kernels, mods, keyboards, themes, etc.

ParanoidAndroid

This particular ROM lets you turn your phone into a mini tablet

This particular ROM lets you turn your phone into a mini tablet

Paranoid Android is another marvel based on CyanogenMod 10, that makes you thank the Android ecosystem for all the customisability it provides in modding your devices. This particular ROM lets you turn your phone into a mini tablet, and allows you to run selective apps as if they are running on a tablet. This, for example, gives you the benefit of the split-column view in the email app. It does this with the help of per-app DPI adjustment, along with a colour scheme adjustment according to the most prominent colour in the app. Apart from this, it provides the usual customisation features that CyanogenMod does. The support seems to be equally good, with a dedicated forum and chat page to communicate with the development team.

Slim Bean

Slim Bean is a ROM compiled and built from scratch, right from the AOSP code. It also incorporates all the important customised features from CyanogenMod, AOKP and CNd. This includes minor features like User Agent Switcher and Quiet Hours to mute notification sounds, profiles, performance tweaks, etc.

JellyBam

JellyBam is one of those ROMs that offers you the best of all features

JellyBam is one of those ROMs that offers you the best of all features

JellyBam is one of those ROMs that offers you the best of all features. It mixes everything from AOKP, CyanogenMod and ParanoidAndroid to offer you everything in one single ROM. It also comes with many performance enhancements, along with many mods, and YouTube HD support.

The Omega ROM series

Omega ROM is also one of the popular ROMs developed by Indie, and is based on Samsung firmware. It offers built-in features like BusyBox, init.dsupport, Aroma installer, and Google Apps from Android 4.2 on ROM Android version 4.1.2. As usual, it also adds a lot of mods and tweaks after removing the bloatware.

AOKP

AOKP is another popular ROM for Android

AOKP is another popular ROM for Android

AOKP, or Android Open Kang Project, is another popular ROM for Android. It offers innumerable tweaks and configurations and has much more mods, tweaks and customization options than CyanogenMod. The difference also lies in the layout and development philosophy. One needs to try both in order to form an opinion on which suits you better.

UltimaROM

UltimaROM offers the standard Aroma Installer with multiple options, and a bloatware remover. It comes with everything themed in blue, even the default Google Apps like Play Store, YouTube and Gmail.

WanamLite

WanamLite is a Samsung ROM based on the JellyBean update

WanamLite is a Samsung ROM based on the JellyBean update

WanamLite is a Samsung ROM based on the JellyBean update, which offers better battery life and removes all the bloat, whilst providing customizations like call recording, 15 toggle buttons on the notification screen, and most importantly, a lower OS footprint, with the ROM taking up much less space in internal memory as well as RAM. In short, if you want better battery life, more free RAM, and an overall snappy experience with a de-bloated Samsung-based ROM, WanamLite is for you.

There are many more ROMs that might be equally popular, but since we are doing a ‘Top 10’ here, I'll restrict my choice to these. Usually, if you ask experts on where to start with a good ROM, most reply with a “Depends on your preferences…” kind of answer and that makes life much more difficult for people who don't know where and what to look for. However, you should note that it is very difficult to point out which ROM is the best for your particular device. What's more, sometimes it even becomes difficult to differentiate between two popular ROMs, because they look very similar on the outside, and the features available are not too different from each other. Even if you don't find a particular feature in your ROM, you'll find that it is very easy to customise and add new functionality on a rooted Android device, if you know how to go about it!

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