Pros/Cons of custome ROMS
 

How's it going guy/gals

I am fairly new to this and would like to know what are some of the pros and cons in doing a custom ROM. I have a CDMA Touch Pro (Sprint) and want to just get to know the phone a little better and see what it can really do.

Any info is deeply appreciated

Thanks in advance

Rick


P.S. any recomendations in custom ROMS is deeply appreciated.

Re: Pros/Cons of custome ROMS
 

Custom The Way To Go No Reason Not To

Re: Pros/Cons of custome ROMS
 

Custom ROMs can offer greater speed, useful tweaks, additional applications and more flexibility than the stock ROM. They can also have new bugs. They require you to flash your phone's firmware, which can possibly damage your phone, even though it is very unlikely.

As far as which one to use, just pick one that has the tweaks and features you want and try it out!

Personally, I've been using Juggalo_X's ROM for some time now, and I must say it's much better than the stock ROM. It's stable, fast and easy to flash (even for a beginner). The current version is here: http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=49341

Good luck!

Re: Pros/Cons of custome ROMS
 

Positives

• Custom ROMS give you the best of all worlds.
• Custom ROMS can be much faster than stock
• Custom ROMS can give you access to additional applications or features that your carrier never intended you to have

Negatives

• You can't get support from Sprint if you screw something up. However, everyone here for the most part is very helpful so that isn't a problem
• You may lose certain features or functionality.
• A bad ROM could leave your phone temporarily unusable

My advice is to read the directions on how to flash very carefully. Once you feel comfortable, you can go ahead and flash a custom ROM that someone has built. Once you have done that for a while, move up to the kitchen.

Re: Pros/Cons of custome ROMS
 

I'm also new to all of this, and a bit hesitant to do the custom rom thing. I've read through many posts of some of the more popular custom ROMs, but I still have no idea what "benefit" they give other than people claiming that it makes their devices "snappier", but I haven't seen any concrete benchmarks, and although I see some room for improvement in speed for some things, the stock ROM doesn't really seem to be THAT slow. Unfortunately a lot of the custom ROMs seem to be people's personal preferences, but I guess without trying I'll have no idea which one I prefer.

Also, they all mention removing all of the "bloat", but for me on Sprint, I don't really know what "bloat" there is that would be slowing down the device much. I kinda like Sprint TV sometimes, and don't mind the Sprint Music Store "banner", and not really sure how those slow anything down when not actively being used.

I guess for me the ideal "ROM" would be one that didn't introduce new bugs, kept all the features of the Sprint stock ROM, while maximizing batterly life first, then performance, and then adding in any new "features" (though not really sure what is added that couldn't be added as a program).

I know this is a "n00b" type post, and will probably just get a lot of people saying to either just try out all the ROMs, to read all the posts, or whatnot, and I wish I had the time to actually do that, but I don't. And then of course there's the problem that any thread like this turns into a flame war of fanboys of their particular ROM and then the thread gets closed without any real helpful info. If anyone could actually answer some of those questions, and maybe point to specific differences (objective, not subjective) of the more popular ROMS, it would be appreciated, though.

Re: Pros/Cons of custome ROMS
 

i used custom roms on my diamond, but on my pro, i haven't really felt the need to. i installed all the tweaks i found to be the most beneficial, such as battery/performance tweaks, ati video drivers, etc... and the phone works fine for me. i think roms are much more suited for people who don't want to do the legwork required to cook one, and also for people who want the specific features that these custom roms provide. its very easy to flash the phone, so that's not an issue. i say, if you find a rom that has what you want, you're not going to lose anything by flashing to it, except the possible insight that customizing your own rom could bring.

sprint tv kinda sucks, i have to admit. but if you use it, you should find a rom that has it.. as for the sprint banner, its just annoying. it makes the album covers smaller, and it isn't necessary to have an ad on your phone for something they are selling. i think that's a little excessive. you can remove that with one file edit, its not that big of a deal to do it. it took me 2 seconds.

the bloat that sprint ads really isn't that bad when you consider it... there's programs that you probably don't need, and issues such as opera not being able to be overwritten, so if you upgrade it you end up with two versions. luckily, the touch pro has an excessive amount of onboard memory, whereas the diamond doesn't and that space really does matter.