Android firmware on personal experience

Good time of day habra-reader. This topic is a story about personal experience of owning Android-based phones. It will be about the pros and cons of the firmware and about everything that cares about the not-so-ordinary user of modern gadgets. This topic, I hope, will be of interest to users of Android devices thinking about reflashing. For experienced users, and especially developers, he is unlikely to tell something new.

I have no experience with owning phones on WP7 or iOS, and this holivar is not affected in this topic.


A little personal story.
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The personal estate was / is: prehistoric phones, SE Symbian, Motorola WP6 qwerty, HTC Desire, HTC Desire HD, Chinese tablet from Cube U9GT2, Samsung Galaxy Note.
While owning a windows phone-based version 6 version without a touchscreen, the Android phones that appeared appeared just mega-cool, with unprecedented features and the coolest UI. Of course, there was already iOS, but he was not interested in me and I just ignored this device. Why is this? I cannot explain this fact myself. Within six months, I was mature for the purchase of an android phone and the decisive moment was the review of the flagship HTC - Desire, which was rated higher than the iPhone. Desire was then sold with Android version 2.1 (Eclair) and HTC Sense pre-installed. This device was a great toy for 3-4 months, until I got a taste and began to put heaps of applications, of which at that time it was already full in the market, for every taste and color, at least for me, not sophisticated by that time taste. And here I rested at 100 with a small MB of allocated space for third-party applications ... I quickly learned how to transfer applications from internal memory to external memory and this gave the device an "air" for another six months.
But the acute shortage of space and emulated multitouch support on the archaic AMOLED screen has finished, and it was decided to buy HTC Desire HD (DHD). At this point, it came to be understood that the big screen was not a hindrance for me, but the plus and the allocated space for 1GB applications fully complied with my requirements. In addition, DHD was sold with the updated HTC Sense and Android 2.2 (Froyo) by that time. I was quite the happy owner of an Android phone with a single core process, obediently waited and received updates, until Google was released with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

As it has now become fashionable, HTC began feeding breakfast on the topic of updates on ICS for a number of former flagships, but as already known to owners of many smartphones, these promises were not destined to come true. That they were announced, then canceled, then the iron does not fit, it again came up ... but in the end HTC just otmazatsya statement that users of the old line of phones, it would be better to sit on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), ala you want frozen buter (ICS) be kind to buy new smartphone. Here, in my opinion, HTC marketers deliberately or not, but the appetite of millions of users who have not received an update has been steeply whetted. By that time, the cancellation of updates became the norm, so there was a great chance that the HTC product user would remain loyal and buy the product from the same company.

After reading quite a few positive reviews on improvements in both the UI and the look & feel in Android 4.0.x, I didn’t want to stay on the old firmware at all. But in the update of the phone, I did not see the point. The solution was obvious - to flash the phone and install third-party ICS-based firmware. That was done. But by chance, it was possible to profitably exchange your already old single-core phone, for a new Samsung Galaxy Note, which after a couple of days was also successfully reflashed.

Overview of the flashing method.
In my opinion, the most comprehensive resource with all kinds of instructions and links is XDA-developers , besides there is a convenient forum, with a branch for each individual device. Usually, flashing an Android device comes down to three steps:
1. Unlock the bootloader (S-Off)
2. Install ClockWorkMod Recovery (CWM)
3. Install third-party firmware (ROM) + separately install Google Apps (GApps)

The first step needs to be done once. Each brand needs different tools.
CWM is recommended to be updated periodically, there is even a special ROM Manager program for this.
Firmware can be changed as gloves, you lose only the settings and SMS (I heard that some SMS are saved in a google account and restored when the firmware is changed, but for this I have to install third-party applications) it’s safe. True, there are exceptions . For this reason, I strongly recommend that you carefully examine the issue of the initial flashing of your device.

On the topic of loss of warranty during a flashing.
In most cases, the loss of warranty shines only if you turn your smartphone into a brick. T.K. In other cases, you can return the original firmware and return the bootloader lock (S-On). So in the warranty service to you claims will not arise.
In fairness, I note that most of the “bricks” are treated with JTAG connectors. Although if you are not an extreme / enthusiast without experience and follow the instructions for your smartphone, then there should be no problems.
I will say from experience that for HTC products, you can unlock the bootloader on the official website, while agreeing with the limitations in the warranty (in fact, the disclaimer of the warranty). Naturally, this option is suitable only for those who have a phone and so without a guarantee for any reason.
And samsung, they built in the drop counter, which is expressed by the appearance of a yellow triangle at boot, but this can be bypassed .

Google apps typically include Google Play, Google Search, etc. A separate package, they are set because teams collecting third-party firmware are not engaged in the development and customization of standard Google applications. For each version of Android you need your own set of Google applications.

Third-party firmware (ROMs).
Third-party firmware is usually divided into customized branded firmware and those that are collected from the Android source.
Customization of branded firmware usually consists of adding a root, removing unnecessary pre-installed brend of new (branded) applications and adding or replacing a launcher. Of course, how many firmware - so many different changes made.



The downsides are that if the manufacturer did not update the Android version in the original firmware, then you will not receive custom branded firmware with the updated Android. Your co.

And the advantages of such firmware are in the minuses of firmware from source. The main problem with the firmware collected from the source, is that the commands collecting the firmware data do not have the source drivers for the devices. Of course, purely by chance, the firmware periodically leaks and the necessary drivers fall into the hands of the developers. But what if for a specific smartphone for a new version of Android there are no such drivers at all? Developers take drivers from newer, but similar in parameters models of smartphones. But that's not all fits ... Common problems with firmware from sources:
- The radio does not work;
- NFC does not work;
- MTP does not work;
- Camera not working / buggy;
- Does not work / buggy Wifi, Wifi point (hotspot);
- Bluetooth is not working / buggy.

Naturally, you will see the entire bouquet only in the earliest versions of the firmware, they are usually marked as beta or Nightly, besides, this all applies mainly to Android versions collected from sources and under which there are no drivers from the manufacturer. In order not to be unfounded I will give an example: HTC Desire, the latest original firmware on Android 2.2.x, and if you install the firmware from Jelly Beans sources (Android 4.1.1), most of the problems listed above will come out, it is clearly said, for example.

You also lose the whole set of branded applications, both useless and useful, because all of them are based on a branded framework. For example, if in the case of HTC Desire HD flashing, I didn’t notice it, then when I flashing the Galaxy Note, I lost almost all the functionality of working with the stylus, as well as the branded camera from samsung, which, in my opinion (I didn’t find a comparison in the internet), makes better photos, like a keyboard designed for a large screen.

Pluses of firmware from source are in a large set of settings. I see no point in listing everything, for their sea. About some, on the CyanogenMod prier, you can read here .
As well as the ability to solve problems, such as HTC Desire, with available space for applications, using formatting, changing partitions on the SD card and installing an a2sd application or third-party firmware that supports this solution.

A brief comparison of the original Galaxy Note firmware on TouchWiz Android 4.0.4 and CyanogenMod10 Nightly on Android 4.1.1:
Initially, touchwiz for Galaxy Note was an add-on for Android 2.3, after the upgrade to ICS itself, touchwiz has not changed, the whole look & feel remained from Android 2.3. (what for changed phone?)
In the picture Galaxy S2, but the essence is the same:


Most widgets from the market will not be full screen, because Galaxy Note has a 5.3 "screen and it has 5 columns and 6 lines for icons, and all widgets are designed for 4 columns and 5 lines. And you can’t stretch it. For example, google search:


A bunch of pre-installed useless apps that I can't uninstall.

The lack of a root, and therefore greater opportunities. I note that you can get the root on touchwiz and without resorting to flashing, but there is little sense from it, because There is practically no memory on the system partition and there is no opportunity to install the necessary tool too. (Some of the root applications are placed in the / system section)

CM10 is devoid of all these shortcomings, but there are also disadvantages:
- no full hardware support, for example, MTP
- it’s still the Nightly version, not very stable yet and occasionally buggy
- lack of support for the stylus. Of course in the market there are applications for the stylus, but there is no support at the OS level
- the touchwiz camera is more functional and the picture quality is higher

Some problems can be solved by rolling back to the stable version of CM 9.1. But you quickly get used to the new buns and don't want to do this at all; instead, I update the CM10 from fresh assemblies every week.

As an option, I’m waiting for the TouchWiz update for Galaxy Note, but this will happen only after the start of sales of Galaxy Note 2. Firstly, it will give developers updated drivers for Jeally Beans versions, and secondly, the updated look & feel may well be arranged and no need to be updated. Of course, all this is true if this update happens at all ... After all, the Galaxy Note even by today's standards is a very productive smartphone, and the only thing that can push an inexperienced user to new products is just a new look & feel in the updated Galaxy Note 2. By releasing updates for the previous line, samsung risks lose some potential buyers. In today's race performance of smartphones, the flagships are replaced every quarter, and updates to the latest firmware becomes an influential factor when deciding to buy a new smartphone.

PS In the latest CyanogenMod 10 Nightly firmware, an auto-update has been added, the frequency of updates can be configured. Thanks zoxa for info.

I will be glad to answer your questions.
Inaccuracies and ochepyatki please in PM.