Slim6 ROM Review

Video Review

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scs3XvCCMYE

 

 

Even though Slim6 might seem to have arrived late on the Marshmallow stage of ROMs, it does pack a punch. The ROM hit the floors officially on 15th June 2016. The first alpha build comprised of features such as DPI changer and the famous SlimLauncher.

 

SlimLauncher

 

The SlimLauncher has been developed by the developers of the SlimROM themselves. I was impressed with the customizations which came in with the stock launcher. You can show or hide the search bar on the home screen and customise the grid size and icon size along with it.

Coming up to the dock settings, you can choose the number of options that can be shown in the dock along with their size.

Then, you can choose from the vertical or the paged style app drawer layout. You can choose the grid size in both the portrait and the landscape mode. Isn't that cool? It definitely is! And, of course, you can adjust the icon size in the app drawer too.

There is still a lot to come. Moving on to the folders section now and you have numerous coloring options here. You can change the background color of the folder, the icon text color and the preview color of the folder too. Wew! I haven't seen so many tweaks in the stock launcher of any ROM. You can also hide the name of the folder when you open it.

You get all the gestures you can imagine. So, I made a list of the gestures you can tweak. Have a look:

• Swipe up left


• Swipe up middle


• Swipe up right


• Swipe down left


• Swipe down middle


• Swipe down right


• Pinch


• Spread


• Double tap

Additionally, you can enable or disable auto rotation and choose amongst your favourite icon packs.

 

Privacy Guard

Privacy Guard allows you to disable the apps from accessing the private data on your phone such as call logs, contacts and messages. It also allows you to choose whether the app should keep your phone awake or not. If an app has many wakelocks, then it may keep your device awake. The wakelocks keeping your device awake won't let it go into the deep sleep mode. This might end up draining your battery.

Additionally, Privacy Guard allows you to choose which apps should start up on boot. Disable those apps which you think are not required to run when your phone boots up. But, you need to play around this setting carefully. Disabling core apps from starting when your device powers on might result in bootloops. You can disable apps such as web browsers, games etc from starting on boot. You might end up noticing a considerable difference in the bootup time and performance.

 

Root Access

To enable root access, you need to go to "About Phone" at the bottom in the settings menu, tap on the build number seven times to enable the "Developer Options" and then you will find the "Developer Options" just above "About Phone" in the settings menu. Upon opening the "Developer Options", you would be able to find the "Root Access" option.

The multi window mode is also present under the developer options.

 

 

What makes this ROM special?

SlimROM has been one of my favourite ROMs since the KitKat days. Honestly, after April I had lost hope that we would be having the SlimROM for Marshmallow. But, things turned out to be completely different. We are in June and here we have the first builds of Slim6 leading the way.

As I have mentioned in the video too, this is a very lightweight ROM at the moment. This ensures a smooth and fast experience. The lesser size of the ROM also gives you more space to install apps in the internal memory of your device.

 

Miscellaneous Stuff

The Alpha 0.1 build also packs in AudioFX which lets you play around with the audio output of your headsets and speakers. We also have some gestures such as press the power button twice to launch camera.

 

That's fine. But what about the features?

All of us love ROMs which are a blend of features, stability, battery life and performance. Don't we? You might be thinking when is Slim6 going to have that balance. So, at the time of writing it's just been 2 weeks since Slim6 started it's journey on the Marshmallow road. The ROM is thus in it's early stages of development and more features will be added on soon. We need to give the developers some time to add those features.

A similar situation occurred during the Lollipop days too. But, if you remember, SlimLP grew up to become one of the best Lollipop ROMs out there. The SlimROM developers have given us a lot of features. Slim Recents, Slim Pie and Slim Dim are a must included features in all the other ROMs too. So, we just need to repose the same faith as we have had done previously in the Slim developers and they will take care of the rest.

 

The Future

Slim Alpha 0.2 has been released and it brings in the following new features:

• Slim Doze/Ambient display options


• Proximity Wake


• Proximity Speaker


• Toggle for waking up device when charger is plugged in

Slim Alpha 0.2 was released just a week after the release of Alpha 0.1. So, the future looks promising. I would say that we can expect a build once every week or two. But, it's up to the developers in the end.

 

Downloads

To download the unofficial builds, you can check out the SlimROM G+ community or XDA. For official builds you can head over to the SlimROM website's download page by clicking here. If you want to test out the builds, then you may find them on G+ or you can head over to Android File Host (AFH) and search for the ROM for your device.

 

Krittin Kalra

Krittin Kalra is a 20 year old Android freak. Striving for passions, chasing down his dreams and living a life without regrets is his sole mantra. A bit moody, he also does custom ROM reviews for AndroGuider. Currently pursuing his B.Tech, he aspires to follow his heart.