Any benefits of using CyanogenMod?

[atsuktuvas]

I have got a Samsung Galaxy S II and really love it.
However, I have been reading about Android mods, like CyanogenMod, but do not fully know what advantages it would give.

I have heard that it runs a little faster, but I don't think it would make a noticable difference on my SGSII because it already runs pretty fast.

Anyone?

[Kulverstukas]

As a proud CyanogenMod user I feel I should I answer this.
First take note: I have HTC Wildfire so this is only my perspective.

When I flashed CM onto the phone, at first it was not so cool, but after a while I got used to it and it's much much much better than the stock rom. Latest CM (7) is based on 2.3.7 Android, where Wildfire officially can only run Android up to 2.2.1, but I think there are different rom releases for different phones, so android version may vary.
CM is rooted (obviously), looks much nicer without that stiff-looking HTC Sense environment. CM gives a shit ton of configuration options and on top of that it has CM-ONLY configurations, to fully customize any piece of anything on the phone (software-wise).
CM in itself has option to tweak the CPU power (over/under-clock voltage and speed), it's also faster as I noticed - playing angry birds with a stock rom was annoying because it was lagging most of the time, and with CM it doesn't lag at all.
Because CM is a custom rom, you might experience some problems with a battery - I noticed that my phones lifetime is little less than it was with a stock rom, but I don't complain...

Another very annoying thing I find with CM is that you HAVE to import all your contacts from the SIM card to phone memory, otherwise you can't use the contacts. While with a stock rom you can add/delete/edit sim contacts directly...

Another thing I experienced with CM is that after flashing the GPS didn't work and Wifi worked partially, but that was easily solved by flashing the radio chip to newest firmware.

Overall: Is it worth to flash a phone with custom rom? Hell yeah!

Check out xda developers forum for all kinds of details, tuts and questions/problems.

[atsuktuvas]

Kulverstukas, thanks for the info.
I will give it a try. Just for the hell of it.

Oh, forgot to ask if I can physically damage the phone by installing other rom?

[Kulverstukas]

Of course there is always a risk of bricking the device, but I think it's rare. More likely that something may stop working... it's not like flashing the phone could make it burst into flames or anything.

Before doing this you should always gather as much info as you can and NEVER try Beta or RC releases - let other suckers try them, potentially brick their phone and report back for you to learn.

I flashed my phone because I didn't have a choice (long story)

[Stackprotector]

Of course there is always a risk of bricking the device, but I think it's rare. More likely that something may stop working... it's not like flashing the phone could make it burst into flames or anything.

Before doing this you should always gather as much info as you can and NEVER try Beta or RC releases - let other suckers try them, potentially brick their phone and report back for you to learn.

I flashed my phone because I didn't have a choice (long story)

RC's are good dude -_-, even you have no idea of how low the risks are of bricking a phone, if you do not touch the boot loader every day and thinks like the radio, the only thing you will find may be minor bugs, but less as the stock rom's.

[hacker@sr.gov.yu]

http://www.miuiandroid.com

[Stackprotector]

http://www.miuiandroid.com

MIUI is cool, i used it for half a year,   i upgraded to icecreamsandwich

[atsuktuvas]

Just letting you know that I have finally rooted my Samsung Galaxy S2, installed ClockWorksMod recovery kernel, and flashed the ROM with CyanogenMod 7.1 Stable.

Eventhough I had Samsungs official Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3 android, I wasn't happy with it. I just hate the TouchWiz that samsung android flavour uses. Also hate all the samsung and google bloatware. I know you can get rid of most bloatware by gaining root and removing those apps, but I really wanted a fresh and clean os.

I am really happy with CM7.1.
It works faster then the official samsung android, and uses very little RAM. Has all the options I need and more. Will never go back to samsung version of android again. Now playing around with settings and trying to find some amazing theme
With all that extra free ram I will be able to run some nice eye candy without slowing the phone down.

I recommend Cyanogenmod strongly.
By the way, don't be afraid of voiding the warranty. Just make a backup of your whole firmware including the kernel, apps, data and system using flash ClockworksMod recovery, and buy a Usb Jig like this one to reset the ODIN counter (to make it look as if your phone was never rooted) or to access the odin downloader incase you get bricked.

So if you research before doing random stuff, you have almost 0 chance of permanently destroy your phone. I don't know why everyone on the net seems to be so scared to root their phones or flash the ROMs with custom firmware. Everything is FULLY reversible if you read before doing anything.

By the way, after trying ICS I realised that there is very little practical improvement from gingerbread. It is a bit faster and has a few extra features, but untill a stable CyanogenMod 9 (based on ICS) ROM comes out, I will stick to CM7.1 with GingerBread android.

[FuyuKitsune]

If you have an account on XDA then make sure to get SetCPU. It's a CPU clock tool, free for XDA members. Set min/max clock rates and set different rates for when the screen is on or off. It's a great battery saver.
Yeah CM has clock rate built in but SetCPU (and also OverclockWidget) have more features.

[atsuktuvas]

If you have an account on XDA then make sure to get SetCPU. It's a CPU clock tool, free for XDA members. Set min/max clock rates and set different rates for when the screen is on or off. It's a great battery saver.
Yeah CM has clock rate built in but SetCPU (and also OverclockWidget) have more features.

Will give it a try.
What settings would you recommend to maximise battery time?

[FuyuKitsune]

Check what the default clock rate is on the phone. Set the screen-off min to lowest it will go, then put the screen-off max in between that and the default clock rate. Set the screen-on min to at least that middle value, and put the screen-on max at or slightly above the default clock.

[Stackprotector]

Ice-cream sandwich battery performance is also VERYFUCKING nice

[atsuktuvas]

Ice-cream sandwich battery performance is also VERYFUCKING nice

Personally, I didn't notice any significant difference between gingerbread and ICS on my SGSII.
Maybe it depends on specific firmware and headset combination? On what phone did you test ICS on?

[iandraco]

CynogenMod cambined with aroma is very fast and cool but still has bugs in it, MIUI is much stable for an android rom

[iTpHo3NiX]

Another very annoying thing I find with CM is that you HAVE to import all your contacts from the SIM card to phone memory, otherwise you can't use the contacts. While with a stock rom you can add/delete/edit sim contacts directly...

@Kulverstukas, wtf are you using your sim to store contacts for, use your gmail account DUh!@! Then no matter what all your contacts are in your gmail account!!

@atsuktuvas, Glad you decided to root your phone and put CyogenMod on it, it really is a great Custom ROM! There are several benefits of rooting and flashing custom ROMs as you've found out. It runs faster (a lot of bloatware was removed) over clocking, wireless tether, etc

Also, ICS in general has better battery life over gingerbread as far as the OPERATING system goes. If you have stock gingerbread and go to stock ICS, ICS will have better battery life.

@iandraco
MIUI is cool, but really its too "iPhone" like. However I remember when MIUI first emerged I had a Droid Incredible I had it flashed on there for a while. It did have some innovative features (that sparked more innovation from both XDA developers as well as the big boys like Samsung, Motorola, LG, etc) It was good, but meh, I don't really like MIUI just really too iCrappy