Samsung Galaxy S2 – I9100: CM10 nightlies available now!

After I9100G entered the nightly stage some time ago, the I9100 has followed suit and is now in the nightlies stage too. While I haven’t tried it yet (still using Galaxy Ace at the moment), I have followed the XDA thread and by all accounts, it is mostly working fine (except for RIL crashes and some memory leak). Going through the thread may be daunting (at last count, it stood at 1121 pages long) but here’s the basic summary:

RIL crashes may occur. Try GetRil app from Google Play Store. Matching RIL may help to reduce or eliminate this.
Memory leak may still occur. Rebooting your phone every now and then when the memory gets low is the only thing to do right now.

Last but not least, CM10 does not have Jelly Bean’s Hardware Composer (HWC for short), it is using the Ice Cream Sandwich HWC which makes Project Butter not working everywhere. This sparked a debate on whether HWC is broken or not since the ICS HWC is present and working but the JB HWC is not. My take on this, ignore all posts regarding HWC and just remember that JB HWC is not yet present and will not be present until Samsung releases the JB sources for S2. Maybe the JB sources for S3 may work. Wait and see.

Head on over here to get the latest:
CM10 for S2: http://get.cm/?device=i9100
CM9 for S2: http://get.cm/?device=galaxys2

Take note that starting CM10, the device name is now i9100 as opposed to galaxys2 previously.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus – I9250: Now available at DiGi and Preloaded with Jelly Bean!

Samsung Galaxy Nexus was taken off DiGi’s website some time ago but has now returned and offering Jelly Bean preloaded!

The price is also quite low and worth considering if you are looking for a new phone with a contract. For a 2 year contract @ RM48 per month DiGi Smart Plan, you can get the Galaxy Nexus for only RM849!

If you decide to go with a RM88 per month DiGi Smart Plan on a 2 year contract, the Nexus is yours for only RM499!

In the open market, this phone costs roughly around RM1300-RM1500, if you can still find it. Some shops have told me that they do not carry it any longer or that it is out of stock already. This makes the DiGi contract an affordable and perhaps the easiest way to get a Galaxy Nexus.

If you are looking for the Galaxy Nexus without a plan, the best price I’ve found so far is from SuperBuy which lists it at RM1275 (excluding shipping charges, if any). However, I believe that the SuperBuy Galaxy Nexus comes with Ice Cream Sandwich instead of Jelly Bean. Still, you can easily upgrade it to Jelly Bean so that’s no big worry. In fact, if you don’t wanna do it yourself and you’re on Penang island, I’ll gladly help you to upgrade the phone!

This phone is also well supported by the Android developer community and has a smooth CM10 working beautifully. Of course, it also has CM9 support but really, when you already have CM10 Jelly Bean, who needs CM9?!

If I wasn’t on a DiGi contract (expiring 2014), I’m quite certain that I will be getting this Galaxy Nexus package.

Links:
DiGi
SuperBuy

Huawei Honor for sale

Anyone interested in a Huawei Honor?

Description:
Phone has only been in use for about 3 months as of this posting. The phone is in good condition. Scratches are present on the screen protector (just need to change it). The phone also has extended nationwide warranty (in Malaysia) which will cover until 2014. You will get a free NILLKIN hard case and the 8GB microSD card with the phone along with the rest of the original set box. Phone is loaded with ICS 4.0.3 already.

Price:
A low RM750 (negotiable)

Huawei Honor specs @ GSMArena

Interested parties can contact me via the comments section or by emailing me at the address below.
eric10234 at GMail dot com

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?

Samsung Galaxy Ace – S5830: Which is the best ROM?

This will be short reviews of a couple of custom ROMs for the Samsung Galaxy Ace – S5830. All the reviews are based on my personal experiences, thoughts, opinions and usage. Your usage and experience with the ROMs may vary. As usual, treat this as a guide and use your own judgement to find the best ROM for yourself.

Test environment
Phone: Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830
Area: Mostly around Bayan Lepas, Penang
Network: DiGi
Auto sync: On
3G: Yes
Applications: GMail (auto sync), Whatsapp (auto sync), Facebook (auto sync), Skype (not always logged in)

ROM list
Unofficial CM9 beta 9 from Maclaw Studios
SGSII ICS v9 from Rushabh25 (TeamAdreno)
Official CM7 nightly from CyanogenMod team

What I do:
I use each ROM for around 2-3 days to get a feel for its capabilities, performance and battery life. My usage is light on calls and SMS with more focus on data usage. Your usage patterns will vary from mine and hence, your results could vary as well. After the break, we will get to the reviews for the ROMs.