Which Is The Best Custom ROM Out There? Does It Even Exist?

Allow me to start this post on a note of honesty, this blog post will not tell you which is the best custom ROM out there, but instead it will tell you why there is nothing existent known as "a best custom ROM". I just used a captivating heading to pull you into reading this. So, if you care to read on, please do so or you might as well leave at this very moment.

What is a custom ROM?

Do you know what the problem is most of the times, people get the wrong meaning of things inside their heads and this leads to these silly questions like the "captivating" heading of this post. I have mentioned the word "rooting" to a lot of people. The next thing that I asked these people was, "Will you root your device?" Not to mention, I was entertained to a barrage of nonsensical replies. Most of these people tried to ignore this question, and then I don't know why they started ignoring my opinion on technology too, even though prior to this "rooting talk" I was the first person they would approach when they wanted to know which gadget should they be buying next. Moving on, I have had heard people expressing their fear that their phone might blast off if they rooted it, some of them had the fear of exposing the data on their devices to hackers (or should I say crackers!) & the rest of them tried to pass this over by saying that they haven't thought about it and they are not interested in voiding their warranty at all. I still don't get why just mentioning the word "rooting" extracts all those unwanted stares & gazes and how on earth can people talk about the weather outside when we are chatting on an interesting topic.

Now, if you have ever rooted your device, you might be familiar with what all rooting can do and how hilarious all those replies were. By the end of this post, I want to you to find this best custom ROM subject funny too.

So, what on earth in your opinion is a custom ROM? Is it just something which adds more features to your device? No, it is more than that. Custom ROMs are "opinions" of people (ROM developers to be specific) on what Android should be like. And as you know, all of us have different opinions. To live in peace and harmony with our fellow human beings, we try and respect all the opinions. Similarly, in the Android community, we have different opinions on how Android should be like. Then, in this very community, we have certain people who wish for their opinions to be heard. These people undertake efforts lasting days, months sometimes, and try to get their virtual imagination of how Android should be like on paper. This includes some hefty coding and a lot of bug fixing. Call it an irony or whatever, these people don't even charge a penny for their efforts.

Coming back to the opinions scenario, there are some opinions which we do like and there are some which we don't. At the end of the day, just like opinions, you gotta find which ROM best matches your opinion and expectations. It's as simple as that.

How are the ROMs different then?

As I told you before too, ROMs are nothing but different opinions on how Android should be like. These opinions differ on a lot of aspects. The biggest of them being the number of add on customizations.

Opinions differ on this regard too. Some ROMs come with only those features which they think are essential. Some ROMs want to show off unique features specific to a particular genre, such as the blur configurations in Marsh ROM. Some ROMs such as Dirty Unicorns, AICP & Resurrection Remix try to be feature rich, flaunting their uniqueness at the same time. We had covered up all the unique features which different ROMs have to offer in our tribute to Marshmallow based ROMs here.

The second aspect is the number of apps. Again, opinions differ here too. You will find some ROMs which have everything ranging from an internet browser to a sound recorder to a gallery app. On the other hand, there are others who don't even pack in a messaging app, again opinions differ. The latter category of ROMs want you to take the efforts of downloading even the essential apps too. I look at these ROMs in a way that they are giving me more control over what should be there in my device. Thank you devs!

The number of apps decides how much internal memory is free in the end. More apps, less memory. Less apps, more memory. Mathematically, we are following  the law of inverse proportions!

Battery Life & Performance Issues

This is the most commonly asked question out there. In fact, this is the most common comment under our YouTube ROM reviews.

Try and apply some logic to this, why would anyone want to screw up your battery life. Put yourself in the developer's shoes and give me one good reason why would I suck the juice out of your battery. In fact, I will always try and give you the best battery life I can.

Come to performance now, there is no ROM which has performance issues. No ROM likes to be laggy. Put yourself in the developer shoes again.

Battery life and performance of a ROM are also dependent on the kernel the ROM comes in with. Next and most importantly, what are the kernel settings, this includes the CPU governors, IO Schedulers, hotplugs and a lot more. Different ROMs have different settings for all this. The ROM developers try to give you a best of all, but in the end, they are not the ones who would be using your device. You have to use it yourself. So, tweaking the kernel settings to suit your needs is another feature which many ROMs come with. Some even come with apps which allow you to tweak the kernel settings. And, almost all of them are pre-rooted, so all you need to do is to install an app which allows you to control the kernel features. If you can't tweak the kernel as per your needs, then it is your fault, not the ROM's. No one will purposefully screw up your battery life.

Last thing to note here is that battery life and performance are inversely proportional. If you want more performance, you have to compromise on your battery. Vice versa is true as well. To get a balance of the two, tweak the kernel as per your needs. And please, do not ever believe in any performance booster apps which also give you a fake guarantee of a poor battery backup. We had covered this up earlier too. Please don't believe in any such nonsense.

Are you too lazy to search for opinions?

I was too. Most people are. But then my love for Android knows no bounds and I end up trying all the ROMs which are cooked for my phone. While I try them, I make some review videos too, so does our very own David Hayes. Not just video reviews, written reviews are present too. So, you can't make an excuse even here, that you don't know what a ROM has to offer. Through our reviews, we try to highlight the "opinion" of the ROM developers.

Still not satisfied?

I guess you are quite an adamant guy then. I believe you have quite an opinion on Android too. Do me a favor now and build a ROM. It will just take a few months of your time. That's pretty much it. How to get started? Let me help you out here too, click here.

Conclusion

Giving fires to debates like which ROM is the best is pretty much like you don't even give a fuck to the efforts developers put in to get a ROM out for you. It's not just the ROM developers, but the maintainers as well who get that ROM out for you. Next up are the mediocre ROM reviews which guys like me do. You are treating us badly as well. By the way, all the respect should go to the ROM developers and maintainers, all the stuff I do is to bark behind a phone showing you the things a ROM has to offer.

I hope you now find your question funny now!

So, either respect people or just fuck off. Thank you for reading!

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.