[HTC One X] :
Here's my long promised review of the ROM. I know I said I'd do it after a few days of fiddling with the ROM but work and studies took over so I postponed. With that said here is my review of MagioROM (R2) for HTC One X international:

What is it?

It's a close-to-stock Sense 5 ROM developed by ImagioX1, grinder19, MadMax and Zarboz. With the HOX, we also have a community member ExoticMe contributing (please correct me if I got anything wrong). Since the ROM is Sense5 -based as about 10 other HOX ROMs, we need to ask the question: "how does this ROM differ from all the rest"? The quick answer is by making tweaks and options available through Sense5 toolbox and through Xposed Framework and by having personal theme development done by the main developers rather than third party devs.

The long answer is that while there are several approaces to tackle Sense5 such as:

Stripping the ROM out of everything unnecessary and keeping only bare minimum

Staying as stock as possible with root enabled

Adding customization through tweaks and options

Editing the looks through themes or other mods

MagioROM approaches with a mixture of all these. They have stripped some of the unnecessary apps or made them optional during ROM installation, the looks and settings of Sense5 are close to stock and they have added options for the users for customization. But when other roms might build tweaks within the ROM (such as Team Venom's ViperX) MagioROM gives the user full control over options by pre-installing and building Xposed Framework within the ROM. It means that if the user doesn't want or need a tweak, they don't have to use it or have it on. And if they want to add options, they can do so via downloading modules and playing around with Xposed. In my opinion this gives the users more freedom but also means they need to play around the settings and modules as every desired tweak might not be build in. The ROM does have some extra options that are not present in stock hence the usage of the term "close-to-stock" instead of "stock" ROM.

Daily usage

I'd like to remind once again that this review is done on R2 - so anything prior or later might be different.

MagioROM provides OTA updates via their own application and in R2 most of the bugs related to this app are fixed. At least for the past week I've been using it, I haven't run into any problems. The ROM is smooth and doesn't present lag unless playing around with heavy Xposed modules which are known to cause lagging issues and have nothing to do with the ROM. The customizing options such as increased grid size for the launcher and extended power menu work out of the box and enhance the user experience on Sense5. And Sense5 naturally works as HTC made it - weather you like it or not is a matter of preference but the fact is that it it is lighter which makes it both smoother and less "flashy".

Xposed Framework and modules also work out of the box. The ROM comes preinstalled with a few modules and they - and other modules - work as long as you remember the correct procedures that go with Xposed. Here is a quick how-to introduction to Xposed. While I haven't ran into any problems with installing or using Xposed modules, the ROM R2 edition seems to have some small issues with the Aroma Installer which pre-installs apps that are selected by the user to be removed from installation. This flaw can be fixed by manually removing the apps with root tools such as Titanium Backup and the developers are aware of the issue and looking into fixing it for further versions.

The battery life is, based on my own experiences, fantastic. A few other Sense5 ROMs can achieve the standby battery drainage that MagioROM can, namely Blade ELITE. However this opinion is slightly biased because I have not had the time or desire to try out every HOX Sense5 ROM to make complete comparisons. I can wholeheartedly say that the battery life on MagioROM is good and the standby drainage is as it should be - very very small. And this comes from a person who always has 3g on, WIFI on whenever at home, autosync always on and brightness set to automatic (which is actually a bit too bright on Sense5). If you see excessive battery drainage on MagioROM, you need to check out your settings and other apps - because the ROM definitely doesn't drain it.

The wireless performance is good and I haven't ran into any problems with WIFI, which is still presenting problems for some people with Sense5 ROMs. This also ties to battery drainage that I talked about - often if the coverage or signals are weak, the phone spends a lot of energy trying to connect and reconnect resulting in staying constantly awake and eating power. When the connections are working as they should, like in MagioROM, the phone only connects once in a while to sync and goes soon back to sleep.

Wrap Up

In essence MagioROM provides a close-to-stock Sense5 ROM with 100% control for the users to decide what kind of tweaks or options they want. Xposed works also on other ROMs but not all of them have it built in or preinstalled which can be perceived as an advantage or not depending on the person and the usage of Xposed modules. The developers and community members are quick to acknowledge any problems and respond to messages sent to them - however as of now the HOX community around MagioROM is still quite small so there aren't many active members to help with problem solving aside from the Magio Team.

Also my personal preferences have almost always been with AOSP or stock Android and not heavily modified Sense or TouchWiz frameworks. However the HOX development on anything else than Sense is growing slow and I dislike the turn that CyanogenMod is taking with removing "unwanted or unnecessary" settings and tweaks without asking the users what they REALLY want. Out of all the options of Sense5 ROMs, I'm keeping MagioROM because it offers me the flexibility that I want without forcing every single little tweak that I might not want or need.

The good:

Stock feel

Optional customization through Xposed

Battery

Connections

Smoothness

Developer activity

The bad:

Installation issues (will be fixed)

Preinstalled Xposed (might not please everyone)

Small community (problemsolving is dependent on the developers)

Should I install or try out MagioROM?

Yes, you should unless you want:

a) Stock or AOSP style Android - this is a Sense5 ROM

b) Completely stock Sense5 without any additions

c) A heavy amount of tweaks that are built into the ROM - then I would suggest ViperX