{CellGuy Mods} An in-depth look at PPCGeeks TP2 ROMs

[CellGuy]

CellGuy Mods ROM Reviews

Some of you know me from the various MODs I create, the help I give in some ROM threads, or the silly and outrages off the wall commentary found all over these forums. Well, I am taking on a new project out of shear boredom. It is really slow this time of year at my job. So with all of the down time I have I will be downloading and testing out some ROMs to share my experiences with you all. I wish I could do some modding at work instead, maybe a few donations and I can buy a new laptop! All joking aside, I want everyone to understand that this is all my personal opinion and experience. That being said, I do not guarantee that the results you may experience on a specific ROM will be the same as mine. Issues I have, you may not and vice versa. So take this all with a grain of salt and feel free to share your experiences as well. When doing so please include not only the ROM you are talking about but the date of the ROM as these chefs tend to update their products quite frequently.

First and foremost, this thread is not to compare ROMs directly and deem one better than the rest. There are plenty of those threads around. The problem with doing so is that different ROMs are designed and built wiith different objectives in mind. So this thread will simply be a review of each ROM showing its strengths and where it may be able to improve. There will be no grading system for things like speed, stability, etc. I have one rule when tresting these ROMs and that is no installing mods of any kind. I will put on a few apps I use like slacker radio, nanogroove and of course HDboobs. No themes, taskbars, audiopara, etc. Also, I am only doing 2.5 ROMs and for the 2.1 ROMs out there, well....it's time to move on guys. Live in the now! I will not be reviewing these. To start out, I will pick one ROM per chef for those that have several options to choose from. I intend on going back and reviewing each build at a later date. I also want to mention that I was going to give each ROM a 24hr test period before reviewing until I realized just how many ROMs were available here. So after my first ROM review which was Energy ROM, I explored each one until I felt I got to see everything it had to offer. Because of this, some things like battery and sustained memory usage will be left out. Of course there are a few others out there that I have used as my main ROM for some time and those will also see a bit more in depth review.

Energy 6.5 Manila 2.5 w/Cookie HomeTab (3.9.2010)

WM 6.5 w/Manila 2.5
WinMo Build: 21895
Manila: 2.5.2012
Cookie HomeTab cooked in
Thread found here

The good stuff:

The Energy ROM series in general is your one stop shop for a highly pre customized ROM. Energy ROMs are great for beginners as well as advanced users who do not want to spend all the time learning how or what to do to get a fully loaded phone themselves. There is plenty of eye candy as well as quite a lot of preinstalled 3rd party apps. I have always been impressed by the prefesional looking theme of NRG's ROMs. Custom taskbar, several .tsk's to choose from and overall quality theming really add to the attraction of this package. And the start menu is organized very well with folders in an easy to use manner. This ROM also has a BG4ALL mod installed and the wallpaper it boots up with looks fantastic on all screens. Slide2shutdown is preinstalled. The preloaded Cookie HomeTab runs smooth and in my opinion is a must have on any 2.5 ROM. (Whether it's preinstalled or post installed by the user.) A lot of custom ROMs out there are removing the documents, footprints and ereader tabs from manila whether its for performance or simply the lack of usefulness of the tabs. It's nice to see a ROM that includes these for those that want them even though I don't personally use any of the 3. As for speed and stability, I have not had any issues with lagging or crashing at all. I have used faster responding ROMs but I wouldn't list speed as a negative here. RAM usage does tend to get a bit higher than some other ROMs after a day or so of use but it's not bad and doesn't seem to effect speed or stability. Every now and then, I have an issue with apps that use the web like nanogroove, facebook etc being able to get a connection. But that may not be the ROMs fault. Battery life seems to be average on this ROM. Again, one of the biggest features of this ROM is all of the preinstalled apps that come with it. There are a lot of them so I am not going to list them all here. You can visit the link above for more information.

The not so good stuff:

Energy ROM was the very first custom ROM I installed on my TP2 last year and it has certainly come along way. Speed and stability have increase significantly but every time I try it out again I have the same recurring issue. I cannot get the time to display and update properly on it's own. I have to manually adjust it myself. Not a huge deal but seems like a simple fix that could have been implemented long ago. NRG builds ROMs for GSM as well as CDMA and that becomes very apparent in a few places. Unless you have a SIM card installed, the signal guage on the taskbar shows a no SIM card icon. I know there is also a fix out there that doesn't require a SIM card installed but for testing purposes I am not installing any mods or fixes. Again, an issue that is easily overcome but something I would think would have been implemented in the ROM release by now. Also, there is an FM Radio app included but the CDMA phones do not have the required hardware to support this. With all of the extra apps installed, there is substantially less storage space available than other ROMs. I am having the appointment issue on this ROM that I have read about before but never experienced before personally. All of my appointments show that they start and end 1 hour earlier than they do. If I used any type of alert for appointments, this would be a big problem. Sometimes the clock hangs or becomes jumbled when switching back to the home screen. When Weather animation starts, the wallpaper changes to black for a few seconds. One other small detail is XDA_UC. It is a nice app to include for those that don't want to take the time to learn sashimi. I was actually really surprised to not find it in this ROM. That is about it for negatives that I have noticed. Nothing major here that would prevent somebody from completing the day to day tasks they rely on and expect their device to do.

Aside from a few minor glitches I have noticed, this ROM runs well, looks great and offers a lot of extras. It's no wonder there is such a huge following for the Energy ROM series.

ROM 7PPC (3.11.2010)

WM6.5.x w/Manila 2.5
WinMo Build: 28232
Manila: 2.5.2012
Cookie HomeTab cooked in
Thread found here

The good stuff:

I have seen this ROM in the upgrade forums but have never really taken a serious look at it. I am glad I decided to do these reviews as it pushed me to look at ROMs I have never tried. This ROM is unique in many ways. There are a lot of concepts here that I have not seen before. The ability to install extra apps, manila mods like sliders, clocks, icon sets and others with an automated install menu is an interesting concept. Out of the box, it has a fairly unique look and feel everywhere. It comes with a custom taskbar and a few .tsk's to choose from. Also has a BG4ALL mod installed. There are a decent amount of useful 3rd party apps installed and of course the option to add more with the automated install menu. XDA_UC is available and will autorun on 2nd boot after you run the provisioning cab. Overall, this ROM comes with the ability to self customize without the user having to find different packages them self. Being a 6.5.x build, there are of course workaround apps to broken functionality we are accustomed to on 6.5. The biggest one of course is the use of a 3rd part task manager. As for speed and stability, I really have not had much for issues. I'll talk about a possible stability issues in the following section. It's not the fastest ROM I have used, but I always cut 6.5.x ROMs a little slack in this department as it is simply the nature of the beast.

The not so good stuff:

On first boot, hangs on Touch Pro2 Screen FOREVER. I actually put it in bootloader mode and reflashed because I thought it was borked. 2nd flash it still hung for a long time. Had I not gotten a customer that made me let it sit for a while, I would not have found out that it was actually working. Microsoft Myphone not preinstalled! I almost reflashed to another ROM right away. I looked everywhere in this phone and the lack of this app preinstalled is a major inconvenience. I really hope the next release includes this. The general theming out of the box is not for me. Some may like it so this complaint is purely personal prefence. The biggest issue I had with this is the slider icons were all invisible except the tab you were currently on. I feel like it leaves a gapping hole on the bottom of the screen that looks out of place as manila 2.5 home screens are generally packed in with icons and such pretty tightly. But, there are several slider packages built in to choose from so this was easily overcome. The clock hangs and gets jumbled which seems like a more common issue with manila 2.5 so I cannot blame this ROM entirely for this. The first thing I had to do before I could get started using this ROM was change the wallpaper. It's a nice enough looking graphic, however it created issues with being able to read the text below icons in the start menu. While typing this, I swiped along the touchflo bar to change tabs and the manila UI reloaded. Not sure if this is an isolated incident or not, but there may be some stability issues here. While applications icons are organized in folders in the start menu, it's not the most convenient layout I have used.

Overall, this ROM shows great potential and has a lot of unique features worth checking out. I am sorry to the chef for putting it through the grinder here. He has stated that he is fairly new to cooking and to that I tip my hat for a job well done. I look forward to watching the progress of this ROM.

Timberwolf v4.1 (3.5.2010)

WM 6.5.5 w/Manila 2.5
WinMo Build: 23542
Manila: 2.5.2012
Maxmanila 3.0 cooked in
Thread found here

The good stuff:

I've glanced at this thread quite a few times and always wondered what it was all about. It used to be a sprint only ROM so I never tried it out. Well today I noticed that it now supports all carriers and does not have the extra Sprint bloatware preloaded. Wolves you say? Sure why not. Not my cup of tea but I won't hold that against the ROM. Overall this ROM includes a very well done theme with matching .tsk, custom taskbar, almost completely invisible home screen and an attractive slider. This ROM seems pretty straight forward and clean. Not a whole lot of 3rd party applications but you will find some here. It is pretty fast, especially considering it has Maxmanila 3.0 cooked in. I have not used Maxmanila in quite some time and was impressed with the how smooth it runs now. The vibrate feedback is a nice touch. When I first got my TP2 it was something I missed after using a Samsung Media phone. It could use a more gentle vibrate as well as only vibrating when you actually touch a function of some kind. I looked around for a way to adjust the feedback and found the settings which I was able to use to dial it in and found a better feel. PSshutXP is included for all of your soft resetting needs and it has a very attractive skin.

The not so good stuff:

After bootup, I was prompted to provision for my carrier. Okay, no problem there. Some chefs make you do this at the start and others tell you to do it yourself before you setup the device. Only problem here is that there was no soft reset when I was done. Just to be sure, I did one before I continued on. The reader icons on the slider are OEM and do not match the custom ones. Probably a simple oversight, not a big deal since I don't use that tab anyway. The start menu left in the jumbled stock style but with 4 rows instead of 3. An improvement over stock for sure, but I prefer to see a nice organized start menu with folders. When you hold the end key for a few moments, the the phone appears to be loading something (via the spinning thinking thingy) but then does nothing. Not sure what is going on here.


Pretty straight forward ROM here. It is simple and everything seems to work just as it should. Can't say too much more than that. I really hope some of you guys give this one a try and say a few nice things in jstine671's thread.

Medium Hill Rom's (3.09.2010)

WM 6.5 w/Manila 2.5
WinMo Build: 21895
Manila: 2.5.2012
Thread found here

The good stuff:

I seem to recall this being a Sprint only ROM at one point in time. I could be wrong but glad to see all carrier support now. ROM is split into 2 builds for bot 6.5 and 6.5.5 depending on which carrier you have. USCC and Sprint on the USCC core and Verizon and Telus on the Verizon core. Nice touch. On first boot a whole list of options popped up to install. I looked through and thought for a moment, "Hey! I use a lot of these myself! Guitar tuner, wow that's an odd one to see. Wait a second....Core Player...is that not a ware?" I soon realized that this was my XDA_UC folder. I found more info on this in post #2 of Dibbson's thread. I suggest checking it out. Also in here is Carrier dependent MMS provisioning! This is something I wondered why chef's were not including. Well here it is and thank you for that. Also, carrier provisioning and an option for Maxmanila. I chose not to customize anything too much and just went with the MMS and carrier provisioning. On first boot, it is not what you would expect from the pics in the ROM thread. However if you read the thread a little more, you will notice that Dibbson chose to make the theming an addon package. The great part about this is he states that can download the theme from an update from the phone. Well, this is a unique feature I have not seen before I could not wait to try out. From what I read, it links straight to his FTP server and allows you to mix and match his mods. Unfortunately I could not find the app in the start menu like stated. Maybe I needed to try the Beta ROM? I hope to be able to try this out soon and will definitely report back. I just hope it wasn't and ID10T error on my part. So looking around, I found a few 3rd party apps but it's not bloated with a bunch of extra crap you don't need. A nice taskbar is included and the ROM seems to run smooth without hiccups. No ereader, footprints or document tabs which is a plus. I don't use them and prefer not to see them in a ROM. (I know I contradicted myself here from my Energy ROM review.) The start menu is laid out nicely in folders and well done.

The not so good stuff:

The lack of the medium hill update app I was looking forward to trying out was a dissapointment. Until I get to take that for a test spin, I can't really say much else as the rest of the ROM is pretty stock.


This is a ROM that implements some unique programming by the chef and once I get to see the rest of it in action, I will add more to this review.

XpressDusk ROM (3.13.2010)

WM 6.5 w/Manila 2.5
WinMo Build: 21891
Manila: 2.5.2011
Cookie HomeTab Cooked In
Dusk Theme packages cooked in

The Good Stuff:

I am a long time fan of the Dusk Theme and all of the addons to go with it. So trying this ROM out is very exciting for me. Another unique find tonight is the implementation of separate ROMs for each carrier. USCC, Verizon and Sprint are supported with their own install. OMG OMG OMG it's booting up right now. This is truly exciting. WOW! Boot screen and splash screen are...Amazing! I'm glad I threw some trance on before it booted. Okay, I will calm down now. Boot up is quite lengthy but well worth the wait. It is just as beautiful as you would expect a Dusk themed ROM would be. Moving through all of the Manila tabs you find all of the beauty you expect to find. The start menu is laid out in a 4 column honeycomb style with many folders for organization. Uses a 3rd party task manage (not sure which one off hand) that is similar to the HTC task manager in looks but comes preconfigured to close on X. S2U2 and PSShutXP preloaded both of course in dusk style. Quite a few apps preinstalled including Slacker radio which is the first of this I have seen. Preloaded apps are not overdone and most are extremely useful. Of course, Cookie HomeTab is preloaded and this ROM really does fly. No speed or stability issues yet. The clock does not hang or get jumbled. This ROM is indeed impressive. One of my favorites so far. I will definitely be reflashing this when I am done with these reviews.

The not so good stuff:

Hangs at the Touch Pro2 screen for a very long time on first boot. I hope it's not borked. Passed the TouchPro 2 screen and hangs again at the splash screen for a long time. Boot went through successfully though so all is good. Needs a SIM card or CDMA fix for the signal guage on the task bar. Could use a cooked in fix since it is a CDMA ROM build. Start menu has a few apps outside of the folders. Could easily have placed them in the appropriate folder to give a cleaner look.

Other thoughts

Clicking through all of the tabs to check it out, I get an error on the messages tab:
Lumos
No configuration file found
Not sure what the hell that means. I have never seen that before. I clicked okay and it brings up a menu to adjust calibration of a sensor and backlight. So apparently this is not because of the tab I was on? Very confusing but I will follow the prompts and check it out. Well it turns out it is for an app called Lumos which controls the backlight. Very confusing but perhaps this is discussed in the thread. I am moving this out of the not so good stuff section and to it's own section.

Did I mention how much I love the Dusk Theme? No glitches, stable and fast. This is truly a ROM that everyone needs to see for themselves. Good job xpressyourcell!

MightyROM War (02.26.2010)

WM6.5 w/Manila 2.5
WinMo Build: 21890
Manila: 2.5.2012
Thread found here

The good stuff:

MightyROM has by far the largest following. You won't find any flashy preloaded themes, taskbars or even an assortment of 3rd party applications. A few light modifications are included. An organized start menu with folders, custom wallpapers, XDA_UC and a ROM update notification application. One might ask then, "What is with all the hype? This doesn't look very custom to me." The answer is Mike's ROMs are built on an OEM platform that leave the user with a blank slate to build upon themselves. His ROMs are the fastest, most stable and least glitchy available. An emphasis is put on things simply working the way the are supposed to. It's rare to see a release of a MightyROM with bugs and when they do come up there is always a prompt update with the fix. With the large following MightyROM has, the amount of support from the user base is immense. Users also create many mods, apps and tweaks to improve the overall experience. There are also some official themes available which are created specifically for the MightyROM.

The not so good stuff:

Umm...ahhh...Mike's Canadian. Also his ROMs don't have doors or wheels. Seriously though, I don't know what to say here. I cannot think of one negative thing to say about MightyROM WAR. Maybe I should have reviewed IMPACT instead. At least then I would have 1 or 2 real thoughts to put in this section.

MightyROM for OEM 2010! Seriously, it's that good. I hope HTC and Microsoft are taking notes.

Mr. X ROM (03.05.2010)

WM6.5 w/Manila 2.5
WinMo Build: 21889
Manila: 2.5.2012
Thread found here

The good stuff:

Mr X ROM is another fairly OEM ROM. What you find here is another very fast, very stable ROM that just works. I find the Mr X ROM and MightyROM WAR to be very similar aside from the not so stock look of the Mr X ROM. But what's under the hood is very similar. It's ROM that you can flash and know that everything is going to be just as it should. You do get a nice organized start menu with folders, custom wallpapers, taskbars, sliders and more. There is actually a large selection of themes built specifically for this ROM. (most of my 2.5 mods were built using this ROM as a base) This ROM has also gained quite the following recently and I personally find the atmosphere in his threads to be much more friendly, helpful and just overall pleasant.

The not so good stuff:

Another one where I really can't say anything bad. I would like to have seen a more stock look out of box so users could build it the way they see fit, but then what would we need this ROM and WAR for if there wasn't something to set them apart?

Mr X ROM is one of the fastest 2.5 ROMs available. If you want a fast, reliable ROM that's not bloated with apps, give this one a go.

RSToyGuy ROM (03.08.2010)

WM6.5 w/Manila 2.5
WinMo Build: 21893
Manila: 2.5.2012
Thread found here

The good stuff:

One of the first things I noticed about this ROM is the system sounds. Some sound like a Windows 7 sound pack. When you connect the phone to active sync, a very pleasant woman tells you it is connec...it gets cut off. And then again on disconnect. Clear home screen mod has been installed. A custom slider, taskbar and BG4ALL is included. GAMES GAMES and more GAMES! There is also an assortment of apps like the netflix app, blockbuster app and others. Overall this ROM comes with a wide assortment of extras.

The not so good stuff:

I spent the least amount of time using this ROM. I kept having lagging and freeze up issues. The first freeze took a soft reset to fix. All I did was move through the tabs on the slider and the phone froze. So I rebooted and continued to browse around the phone. Going in and out of the start menu created some pretty bad lagging. The taskmanager had both the 3 bar with down arrow icon as well as either the ok or x icons stacked on top of each other when not on the home screen. I then noticed pac man, frogger and some other older great games. I had to try them out. Frogger froze my phone up. I was able to recover it without a reboot but it took a couple minutes to get the app to close. So much of this ROM just felt glitchy to me that I moved on after only about 1/2 hour of playing with it. 15 minutes of that was spent dealing with lag and freeze ups.

I usually say something nice in this part of the review. I'm sorry RSToyGuy, but I think this one needs some major revamping before I can recommend anyone tries it out. I really hate having to give out my first bad review here.

Juicy R10 (02.21.2010)

WM6.5 w/Manila 2.5
WinMo Build: 21892
Manila: 2.5.2012
Thread found here

The good stuff:

Juicy ROM is the closest to OEM that you will find. Visually, there is nothing altered. The only addons I can find are XDA_UC and Opera. It's fast, it's stable and a great starting block for those that prefer to do the customizing themselves. I'm sure there are a few things done under the hood to improve performance, battery, etc. Being a manila modder myself, this may become my new base ROM to build off.

The not so good stuff:

I have no complaints about this ROM at all. I won't even list the absence of an organized start menu as a negative since this ROM really is designed to be OEM without the extra bloatware.

I feel like I just ordered an unbranded TP2. It is exactly what you would expect to find from an OEM package. If you are a modder, this is the ROM you should be running.

Blackout ROM (03.05.2010)

WM6.1 w/Manila 2.5
WinMo Build: 21056
Manila: 2012
Thread found here

The good stuff:

Blackout ROM, once you go black... I actually had the opportunity to play around with this ROM a few backs before it was released. I helped out with some of the theme on it and was quite impressed with the performance of it. WM6.1 flies on the TP2. It's much less of a resource hog than 6.5 which allows you to run the latest Manila builds and whatever tweaks you want without a noticeable slow down. The ROM is looks clean and runs stable. BG4ALL, top & bottom curtains removed, a simple theme using the stock slider with blackened icons except for the tab you are currently on which retains the OEM coloring. It comes with some additional 3rd party apps but it is not bloated. After using this ROM for a couple hours, I am sitting at 49% RAM usage! An impressive stat!

The not so good stuff:

ROM download is just the nbh file.Some may be confued by this. I recommend supplying the boot package with it. No XDA_UC installed. I really feel this is an important feature to include in any custom ROM. The wallpaper used is rather dark and barely visible which goes well with the theme but could be brightened up a bit. (That's my fault and I plan to fix that for Adrian) Everything else works as it should. Good job Adrian!

If you have used this ROM in the past and experienced issues, give it another try. This release is superb. 95% of your daily tasks are handled through manila, so downgrading to 6.1 isn't as bad as you would think. FAST FAST FAST

I really enjoyed stepping out of the MightyROM and Mr X world to see what other chef's are doing. I can't wait to see what the rest of the PPCGeeks chefs have to offer!

[CellGuy]

reserved

[CellGuy]

and another

[CellGuy]

waiting 30 seconds to post again sucks

[CellGuy]

I mean, I understand why it was implemented but maybe this could be lifted for VIP's?

[D/\SH]

wow you got a lot of typing ahead of you but so far so good

[CellGuy]

Originally Posted by D/\SH

wow you got a lot of typing ahead of you but so far so good

lol, thanks. I'm starting to get a little drunk so I decided to quit while I am ahead.

[D/\SH]

Originally Posted by CellGuy

lol, thanks. I'm starting to get a little drunk so I decided to quit while I am ahead.

that might be a good idea.

[DarkLord]

Originally Posted by CellGuy

I really enjoyed stepping out of the MightyROM and Mr X world for a night and see what other chef's are doing. I can't wait to see what the rest of the PPCGeeks chefs have to offer!

remember. there are many decafinated brands that are just as tasty as the real thing....

[turbochris]

beer!