[HTC Sensation] GreatSudoku:
A work in progress, this will be updated frequently, these are solely MY opinions, YMMV:

Paranoid Android (JellyBean)

Paranoid is my daily ROM for two reasons. #1 It's running JellyBean :D #2 It allows me to select for each individual app the DPI resolution I want the app to run at. Setting a low enough DPI will display certain apps in Tablet Mode. This is wonderful for Gmail, after using the tablet interface I never want to go back to using the pre-school-like stock interface that Gmail uses by default for phone. Having my folders in a column on the left hand side is very useful. System settings is also made more useful by lowering the DPI to make it a column divided screen as well. Limited by the Trebuchet launcher, I always install Apex launcher and use it. Setting Apex's homescreen to 10x10 and assigning Apex a DPI of 160 REALLY gives me freedom to use widgets on my desktop, resizing each one as I see fit. Whereas in previous apps I couldn't fit all my widgets on to the same screen I wanted too, now I can. This also makes the APW widget I use for facebook much more useful, as more posts are displayed, and I don't constantly have to scroll. And with the ability to download free themes for CyanogenMod from the Play Store, you have a fairly large selection to choose from in customizing how your Droid looks. If you don't mind smaller text this ROM is going to open up whole new worlds to you.

Cons:

Camera not working (upstream JellyBean issue)

Audio routing, you need to download the "Wireless Headset Routing Fix" app (though with Bruce's latest builds of CM10 that Paranoid pulls from the audio issue has been corrected, I assume this will be a non issue with the next release of Paranoid Android.)

Sometimes the touch interface stops responding, which is quickly fixed by using the power button to shut off the screen, then unlocking it,voila touchscreen works again.

In Tablet mode (statusbar at the bottom) USB Storage doesn't work, you have to reboot into Phablet or Phone mode to transfer files via USB.

EyeCandy

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1615560

With a fresh install of the 3.1 FINAL release of EyeCandy, my choppy audio issues are gone; replaced by BOOMING audio that blows away the sound quality in any other ROM I've tried. Apex is A LOT faster than SENSE, enough to make me say "I can concede the cool, springy, drag-the-ring unlock screen for the amount of lag Apex reduces". My stress level should go WAY down from this gain of speed. I can set longpress BACK to force kill the current app, and I can configure which style of "recent apps" I want longpress HOME to bring up. Using FancyWidget almost equals the sense weather clock I miss. The added quickness of my droid and the better sound quality are just too good to pass up!

Pros:

Audio! Even without enabling ANYTHING in AwesomeBeats, out-of-the-box-after-a-fresh-install... EyeCandy's audio CURBSTOMPS all of the Beats-based Sense 4.0 ROMs I've tried. (Select the TamCore kernel during install, on my first install the bricked kernel made the audio very choppy in Eye Candy)

The Sense-4 Themed "recent apps" style looks more elegant & visually pleasing than the actual Sense 4 one!

Includes "Simple Mobile" apn by default.

Apps installed in other ROMS are fetched from Google Play Store during setup.

Circuitry themed keyboard

The "turn the TV off" effect you get when turning the screen off.

Awesome, Elegant ALL Around theme, from icons to the animated blue "please wait" wheel

Much faster and more responsive than Sense based ROMs

The dock can be expanded to hold *7* icons!

THE cleanest & nicest looking 4EXT theme I've come across

A few extra I/O schedulers

Cons:

The screen turns itself on and displays the lockscreen for absolutely no reason whatsoever. No notifications are pending, the phone is just sitting idle then all of a sudden the screen repeatedly turns itself on. VERY annoying!

When updating from 3.0 to 3.1, OTA Update was downloaded but I had to manually apply it

Reception (including wifi) is absolutely atrocious. Even after RE-flashing firmware, RIL, and DisH files, /system/build.prop contained NO radio.ril entries! I ended up copy-pasting a few dozen radio.ril entries from the SmartDriod Daemon ROM to compensate.

The battery indicator icon on the status bar makes NO SENSE! How is ANYONE supposed to tell what % the battery is from two concentric circles? It would be like replacing the digital clock with a binary clock. It's confusing, unfriendly, and not very functional. Luckily the stock theme can be changed to a theme with a more sane battery indicator.

Inability to define longpress actions for MENU and SEARCH

Lock Screen - I miss the springy-ness of Sense's lock screen when dragging the ring. Being limited to a horizontal line to unlock is rigid and boring.

ViperS 1.01

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1671547

My favorite Sense ROM. A ROM I've gone back to, and used as my main ROM many times.

Pros:

Ability to define longpress actions for MENU, BACK, and SEARCH! Not just HOME like most ROMs provide. A MUST have!

Ability to select which icon to use for items on the status bar individually

OTA updates, I don't have to constantly check the thread for new versions.

Quicksettings. another MUST have feature (a dealbreaker for other ROMs that don't have it)

Venom Tweaks - The sheer number of tweaks for the status bar and Sense far surpass any other ROM out there

Bricked kernel - because Overclocking is fun

AROMA installer - easy to customize cpu/gpu settings during install

Cons:

Status bar icons: They're stock and boring. Installing Jerry93's all-in-one mod made this SLIGHTLY better using glowing blue icons, but visually it is still lacking polish. The icon packs you can install through the venom hub are quite boring as well, single color, 2D and drab. Icons like the ones used in Elegancia 4.0 & Fluffy Blue Sensation would be the perfect addition to this ROM.

Sluggish/Resource Intensive: Even overclocking to 1.728 I still experience lag using the badass governor. Sometimes I have to step that up to "lagfree" or "performance". On each boot Sense takes an inordinately long time to load, I want to use my phone not stare at a screen that says "loading"

No ability during install to specify packages that I DON'T want to have installed by default

I can put up with the sluggishness for the freedom and ability to tweak so many sense/statusbar items with this ROM. Honestly, if they had a decent looking icon pack to choose from I wouldn't bother installing any other ROMs until a JellyBean one gets released.

SmartDroid Daemon

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1770522

This looks like a contender to replace ViperS ROM, because of the visually pleasing icons included, and the ability to pick and match several different elegant status bar icons for each item individually (wifi, signal, battery)

Pros:

A Sense 4 Based ROM that focuses on having a ton of Sense and statusbar tweaks, as well as visually pleasing icons.

Signal Strength. This ROM gave me unbelievable signal strength, it plays VERY nice with the 3.33 firmware and the DisH3 flash. It did so well I had to take a peek at /system/build.prop and take note of a few radio.ril entries to use in other roms.

Bug Fixes! Version 1.1 was released less than 48 hours after version 1.0 was released.. My main gripe about the theme-chooser crashing was fixed in the 1.1 release, keep up the good work!

Cons:

The installer. While not using Aroma does make the ROM a smaller download, it makes the ROM seem a lot less elegant/professional when installing.

The all text installer also can lead to confusion with OR choices. For example I installed the RAM tweak, and right after that finished it asked if I would like to install the LIGHT version of RAM tweak. If one install item would conflict with another, when item A is selected item B should then NOT be presented during install. Again I think using Aroma would fix this quite easily.

Framework icons. Mail notifications, play store update notifications, etc. They're still stock white, perhaps in the next incremental update this will be addressed.

The keyboard defaulting to French at each step of setup, regardless of setting the keyboard to English in the previous step.

No longpress settings for MENU and SEARCH. Only HOME and BACK can have longpress actions defined.

The app-installer during setup. It detects apps on my SD card, however unlike the app-install some other ROMs use, this one doesn't detect apps I've previously installed (in other ROMs) and automatically download them from the Play Store as part of setup. (I love the ROMs that do this!)

This ROM felt lighter and faster than ViperS, who may have some serious competition if Daemon adds the ability to define actions for all 4 longpress buttons.

Elegancia 4.0

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1429953

This was the first Sense4.0 ROM for the Sensation to jump out at me because the screenshots I saw had some style. It didn't look like every other stock Sense 4.0 ROM for the Sensation. I had high hopes for Elegancia.

Pros:

Elegancia's IMPRESSIVE boot-up screen! Elegancia wins hands down for the most elegant and eye catching boot up screen.

Installing/Restoring the ROM installs a nice EXT4 Recovery theme, with menus that are EASY to read.

Decent looking blue-based icons which are consistent with other aspects of the ROMs UI theme.

Even the Mail Notification icons and such are blue themed

4ext Recovery Updater installed by default

Cons:

Quicksettings. I like the tabbed QS interface better than having to push the top bar. Also I was disappointed I couldn't change screen brightness right from the QS screen.

Doesn't play nice with Extended quicksettings mod, makes the status bar disappear completely and deliver crash reports frequently.

No Option to connect to the HTC hub to download more skins, only 3 come by default in Elegancia

TWEAKS section:

Disappointing lack of tweaks for statusbar, there are only **2** tweakable options

Simplistic interface for tweaks inconsistent with Elegancia's look. (using the interface for ViperS tweaks would be more apt)

Lack of Sense tweaks, including my must-have of defining ALL 4 longpress button actions.

Fluffy Blue Sensation

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1598903

The Fluffy Blue one takes icons a step further towards impressive than Elegancia did with a few exceptions. It still lacks the UI tweakability I'm looking for.

Pros:

Ability to remove unwanted packages during install

Autocompletion of .com names during setup

Very cool purple & black themed defualt keyboard

Best icon pack I've seen for ICS/Sense 4.0 (app icons)

Clean, not a lot of "Garbage Apps" inlcuded.

Cons:

Statusbar icons - App store notifications still come through as stock white icons. The Wifi icon isn't as good as the one in Elegancia 4.0 Icons such as CHARGING, GPS and SYNC would look better if they didn't have the "glass" look to them

Tweaks - the "Sense" section only has **2** tweakable items

Same quicksettings issue as Elegancia

RMS Blue

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1661403&highlight=rms+blue

In order to get this ROM to work, I had to install install version 3.0 then install version 4.0 on top of it. Installing version 4.0 clean would always, without fail, lead to a boot loop.

Pros:

Fantastic looking app icons for the app drawer

Auto-brightness included in quicksettings.

Custom "IceHD" Sense Theme included

Black keyboard with blue letters

Ability to define longpress actions for HOME, BACK, and MENU

IC Tweaks UI

Cons:

I had to install version 3.0 just to get version 4.0 to work.

The statusbar icon for "slient mode" is silver, ugly, and out of place among the blue icons in the status bar.

Certain framework icons are still stock white ("usb connected" "play store updates", etc.)

RMS stands out for it's app drawer icons. If the statusbar and framework icons were just as polished, RMS would be a serious contender to ViperS as well.

Insert Coin Evolution

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1546731&highlight=insertcoin+evolution

Pros:

Ability to define longpress actions for HOME, BACK, and MENU.

The UI design for the IC Tweaks (based on the P0kemon Tweaks I believe)

Cons:

Lack of statusbar tweaks

Boring stock theme and icons

It's nice that this ROM includes the longpress functionality I'm looking for, though aside from that nothing really sets it apart from other Sense 4.0 ROMs.

DarkForest Sensation XE 6.5.0

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1423684

An interesting mix of Sense 3.6 & 4.0 which focuses on speed and functionality at the expense of UI tweakability and visual aesthetics.

Pros:

Can customize H/4G/LTE text next to signal on status bar

Skins from Sense 3.6 included that were eliminated in Sense 4.0 release.

Cons:

Can't define ANY longpress buttons

The option to display battery % appears NEXT to the battery icon instead of inside it.

Stock icons with no options to change icon sets.

With a name like DarkForest, I expected at the very least this ROM would have an interesting Dark Wallpaper, perhaps even a dark forest theme. Alas, we get stock themes and icons. I'm on the fence with the Sense 3.6 Recent apps functionality instead of the Sense 4.0 one. While the 3.6 vertical scrolling is a lot faster and cleaner, I miss the visually pleasing expo type view form Sense 4.0. DarkForest performs like a souped-up Sense 3.6 install or a stripped-down Sense 4.0 install. It's not what I'm looking for, but anyone who wants a fast, responsive system and doesn't care about eye candy, this ROM might be the one you're looking for.

Sense-O-Maniac

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1671145&highlight=sense-o-maniac

Pros:

During install I choose what packages to INSTALL, rather than what packages to REMOVE.

Accounts setup screen contained ONLY services I use

Cons:

Stock look doesn't visually set this ROM apart from other ICS Sense 4.0 ROMs

LeeDroid Tweaks One X v1.0 - which really lets you tweak next to nothing.

HOME is the only button that can be assigned a longpress action.

Only 2-3 tweakable items in Sense and status bar tweaks

This ROM is great for people don't care about visual aesthetics or UI tweaks and just want a lean, clean, bloatware-free ROM. Not My cup of tea, but it might be your's.

MIUI

http://www.miui.com/development.html [select the ROM for HTC Sensation G14/G18]

There's little to say here other than I hate MIUI with a passion. Maybe because it's so different from the Sense experience I'm used to.

Pros:

small ROM size

Cons:

stock kernel - I want to overclock. When I installed the bricked kernel it completely broke wifi in my MIUI install

Themes - because the descriptions are in Chinese I can't tell if I'm downloading a wallpaper, an icon pack, an entire theme, or a call screen. MIUI's themes section is a hot mess.

Interface - It tries real hard to emulate the iPhone interface. I found it to be quite unintuitive and difficult to figure out visually. When I'm saying "oh so that's a TOGGLE BUTTON" after sitting there wondering for 5 minutes what the heck I'm looking at, there's something wrong with your UI design.

Not playing nice with the Bricked kernel was the dealbreaker for me. I tried real hard to like MIUI, but it was nothing but frustration and aggravation every step of the way.

MIUI.us

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1726250

I'll re-iterate my previous point. I tried REAL hard to like MIUI. MIUI.us is the English version of MIUI. I thought perhaps my problems with MIUI were because I used the Chinese (main) version, and my frustrations were due to language barrier. I decided to give MIUI another try using the US/English version. Sadly, MIUI.us is as plagued with problems as it's Chinese progenitor.

Pros:

small ROM size

fast and responsive

tons of themes

Cons:

No Google Play Store included by default! And when I flashed the recommended miui.us-gapps package to add the Play store, upon reboot MIUI did nothing but spam me with repeated crash reports before my status bar disappeared all together. FAIL!

No app drawer, at least not one I could find.

The main version of MIUI had it's own (in-house?) version of the play store installed by default (I think, I don't read Chinese and this is what I infer from launching the app). To me MIUI.us made an inexcusable mistake of NOT including some kind of play store by default, be it Google's or their own. Having to FLASH the play store onto the ROM is bad enough, but the fact that the flash causes repeated system crashes is just downright sloppy. MIUI may totally rock if you can read Chinese, otherwise save yourself the frustration and stay FAR FAR away from it!

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Criteria I look for in an Android ROM:

Something that is NOT Sense 3.6 based (i.e. Sense 4, Apex, AOKP, MIUI)

Decent Carrier & Wifi reception

A kernel that allows me to overclock my CPU/GPU

Beats Audio, or compatible with the flashable BassMod. No glitches in audio when changing from app to app while listening to music.

Slick, Polished, Elegant icons for the status bar

The ability to "mix & match" statusbar icons from various downloadable themes

FRAMEWORK status bar icons that are themed & colorful

Ability to define longpress-BACK as "kill current app"

Ability to define longpress-MENU as "launch camera app"

Tabbed QuickSettings that include a brightness control

A fast and responsive system, even when I'm using Live Wallpaper

OTA updates that apply themselves after download

Sense 4.0 style "recent apps"

Ability to change the "H" icon

Ability to change the clock color

Ability to toggle the transparency of the dock and the statusbar

NOT installing a tacky 4EXT theme with text that is almost impossible to read

Intelligent app-installer that downloads previously installed apps at setup