Samsung Galaxy Ace – S5830: ROM review (part 3)

ROM review for StockLite v7.1 and DroidAce v2 ROM  has been completed. StockLite is a stock based ROM which has been optimized and uncluttered to increase stability, performance and battery life. However, does it meet what I want? DroidAce v2 is a revisit of a good ROM that has been improved upon. Can it be a great ROM? Conclusions below and the link to the full post can be found below.

StockLite v7.1 Conclusion: A contender for those who likes the stock UI. I do enjoy the swipe to call/sms feature but overall, I wouldn’t stay long on this ROM. The slower launcher is frustrating after you’ve tried Xperia launcher, trust me. Acceptable battery life and stability but ultimately, being on stock kills it for me. On the plus side, it is a lite version which does improve on battery life, performance and stability from a stock Samsung ROM.

DroidAce v2 Conclusion: An already good ROM made even better. It fixes all the bugs from v1 and adds the impressive Xperia launcher. A winner in many ways for me. RealPlayer may not be everyone’s cup of tea though and although it can be easily removed and replaced with another player app, I would still have preferred a lighter app be included by default so that users have the option of going with a heavy app should they want to.

Read the full post here.

Samsung Galaxy Ace – S5830: ROM review (part 2)

ROM review for CM7.2-RC3-AA and SPeriance ROM  has been completed. One is a CM7 based ROM while another is a Stock based ROM. Both are pretty good ROMs but what are my conclusions and what are their pros and cons? Read the summaries and follow the link at the end for the full review.

Next on my list: Democracy ROM and Stock Lite. Both are Stock Based. I may even add an iOS themed ROM (based on Stock) into my review list if time permits.

CM7.2-RC3-AA ROM Conclusion: A stable ROM with smooth and fast launcher UI. The battery life is also great. One thing that I would want to highlight is that the UI is a little unorthodox for regular users (for one thing, the power toggles were at the bottom of the notification bar instead of on top). But if you can adapt to that, this is a good ROM. One of the best ROMs so far. Oh. Did I mention that the ROM also does not use too much RAM and the preloaded stock apps doesn’t take much of the system storage area, leaving enough for your usage.

SPeriance ROM Conclusion: If you like stock based ROMs, this might be the ROM for you. It is a good ROM with slightly above average performance and battery. However, it was not able to reach the heights set by CM7.2-RC3-AA’s performance and battery life. On the plus point, however, you do get some Stock Samsung ROM goodies like swipe to call and SMS from the contacts. It also has the notification (like missed call, messages) enabled on the lock screen so you can simply swipe those to launch the Call Log or Messages app immediately.

Read the full post here.

Samsung Galaxy Ace – S5830: ROM review (part 1)

ROM review for Apocalypse and DroidAce ROM completed. Both are CM7 (Ginger Bread) based ROMs but both have been heavily modified with FireKernel-OC and other mods. Which ROM is better? You can find the summaries below but click on the link at the end of the article to read the full review.

The ROM review is taking longer than expected and I have 4 more ROMs to review. It looks like another 2 weeks without my S2. Yikes!

Apocalypse ROM Conclusion: A stable ROM with decent battery life. Lagging is expected when you run heavy applications that takes up a lot of RAM or when running multiple applications. One thing that may put off some people is that this ROM is quite barebone. You would need to install your own File Manager, Music Player, Camera, Gallery/Picture Viewer and Messaging application. On the other hand, some folks may enjoy the freedom to install their own without any stock applications.

DroidAce Conclusion: A pretty stable ROM with slightly better battery life than Apocalypse but the network issue on 3G and WiFi did put a damper on the overall score. V2 is coming out soon and hopefully it can resolve some of the issues and enhance on it. A ROM to look out for once V2 is released.

Read the full post here.

Samsung Galaxy Ace – S5830: SpeedTest result

Here is my speed test results for 4 servers. As you can see from the table below, the numbers does vary wildly for some servers while other servers may be more consistent. This is dependent on the server load and connection speed as well.

Speed Test Result

My connection details are:
Network service provider/plan: DiGi Smart Plan 68
ROM: CyanogenMod-7.2.0-RC3-DroidAce v1
Modem: DXKPD

Samsung Galaxy Ace – S5830: On The ROM Hunt

To Galaxy Ace users out there,

Unsatisfied with the performance/battery life of stock CM7 and/or CM9 on the Galaxy Ace, I’ve decided to test a few more ROMs to see if any of them is able to provide a better, smoother and longer lasting experience on the Galaxy Ace. I’ve decided to focus on GB ROMs for now as ROMs based on Maclaw’s CM9 still has the camera issue (beta10 is more stable than beta9 but still has issues).

Most of the ROMs below do have ICS-styled layouts so you get a feel of ICS still. But if you must have ICS, I would say that SII ICS v9 ROM that I’ve tested earlier is the best available for now.

This time up, I’m testing the few ROMs listed below. Its going to be a long test for sure.

ROMs:
1. Apocalypse 090712 Final (FireKernel-OC edition) — Testing underway (090812)
2. DroidAce v1 (or v2 if it comes out in time)
3. AA (FireKernel-OC edition)
4. Speriance
5. Democracy v2.1 (BlackHawk edition) or Democracy v2.0 (FireKernel-OC edition)
6. Stock Lite

Anyone with prior experience with the above mentioned ROMs?