[Galaxy S 4 General] lcaveyl:
First, thanks again to peppe130 for his excellent work!

Below is a my short write up on the ROMs I have tried to date in this thread and my views on them. Hopefully this may help users who are new to this to decide out which rom to try out first.

Notes

I am using primarily using Apex Launcher and require a pin lock screen for the below ROMs.

My own requirement in that the ROM is Android 4.4.x, no knox counter change and would prefer to have S Health and a slient camera without the clicking sound when taking a photo. Also it has to be stable enough for daily use since this is my primary device.

All roms are installed using the instructions in the first post and all modems are changed accordingly.

As all phones will have different installed apps, different issues and outcomes may occur, thus what is written below is from my observation and testing and does not reflect all user’s experiences

Imperium Rom 16.1

This is the first ROM which I downloaded and tried due to the popularity in the polls. Installation was straight forward and there are some custom options to choose from during installation. However after getting past the initial setup in android, I faced some issues with supersu somehow losing root after it updates its binaries. Tried factory resetting and then reinstalling from scratch but it will lose root randomly.

I cannot be sure if this is the cause but usually during the process of losing root, system apps sometimes force closes (phone dialer, messages, email) unexpectedly during usage. Also as I am using primarily Apex Launcher, it sometimes ‘crashes’ and reverts to Samsung TW. The hardware menu button does not toggle the menu but the multitasking button

As the rom wasn’t stable for me and had the tendency to lose root permissions, I tested the ROM for 2 days and moved on to others.

GoldFinger ROM 9.0

Installation again was straight forward and gave a few options to add certain Samsung apps. For some reason, S health did not install when selected in the installer options. Copying both SHealth and health services apk from the rom image itself did not work (force close) However this is easily resolved by looking in XDA forums for the S Health apk and installing it manually. There wasn’t much to configure in this rom and works as it should

I used it for about a week and it is quite a stable ROM, Some small issues where that the lock screen sometimes displays random numbers on the numeric pad, however it is cosmetic display issue and does not affect the usability when unlocking. Also for this rom Apex Launcher has the 90% drawer transparency issue. It could be Apex Launcher and my phone however again just something to note from my observations. The hardware menu button does not toggle the menu but the multitasking button

Samy Deluxe Rom vP

Again another straight forward installation (not much options to choose really) and all the most commonly used Samsung apps are all present (no option to not install them). Had 1 or 2 forced close during my usage of this rom (from Samsung apps -> however reopening them or clearing app caches solves it) , however overall it is stable. There is no silent camera for this rom and The hardware menu button does not toggle the menu but the multitasking button.

It is just feels very stock Samsung that I used it only for 3 days before moving on the next rom.

Phoenix Rom v10.2

Installed -> 06 Mar 2015

I just installed this rom 2 days back and I find it rather interesting, The installer has a lot of MOD tweak options which maybe slightly overwhelming for new users, and it gives one a lot of choices to mod the phone to your liking (choosing TW, sound mod, custom boot screen with / without sound, louder ring tone etc. Samsung and Android apps can be customised for installation as well. I did not face any issues with the installation and initial setup.

Due to the tweak mods installed, this rom seems more responsive when turning on screen from standby and scrolling from page to page. From the last two days since I installed and used it, it is also rather stable. One thing to note is that you have to stick to the factory version of S Health to work, I tried upgraded in Samsung apps and after upgrading, for some reason I am unable to proceed on as it will hang on the opening S Health page. S Voice also force closes for some reason, i didnt try installing S Voice but moved to google voice

The best thing I like about this rom is the lock screen, where if you choose a pin number lock, it still includes a camera shortcut on the bottom right corner!! Also unlike the above roms, the hardware menu button still works as a menu button (I am not sure if it is an option or how it changed to be but am happy it is as it is -> a hardware menu button)

Final Views -> Overall this rom is rock solid stable. No force close apps for the duration of my use with the only exception of ultra power saving mode, which i read happens to all custom roms. not a big deal though. The security pin with camera lock works for a few days from reboot and will stop working for some reason, but again it is not a big deal.

Only issue I have is with the battery life, for some reason it seems to drain the battery as a faster rate and the phone is usually warm due to this. I try to keep all apps and settings as close as the last and try to identify why was this so but i have no luck identifying the rouge app.

Omega Rom V39

-> Installed on 27 Mar 2015

Moving on to my next rom is to try omega rom, installation gives the option to add/remove stock samsung or google apps, as well some other Omega mods. Stock bootscreen is omega's own custom bootscreen (no sound), going through the setup up of android wasnt too different as well and all went rather smoothly

There is no camera shortcut when selecting the security pin lock screen. It too does not have the weather , shealth information in lock screen too . menu key works as it should. I gather that if the rom has the android 4.3 look and feel installed, the hardware menu key will work according.

Overall looks and feels like Android 4.2 stock. However due to the below note, i didnt continue to use the rom

Do note here: When i did a factory reset in the menu, it caused process.com.android.system.ui to stop responding at boot up. Even after factory resetting in recovery and deleting cache, it continued crashing and it makes accessing the phone almost impossible . I managed to reinstall the rom again via mobile odin but it is a real pain.. so anyone planning to do a factory reset take note note of this

Also do not uninstall or update the 3minit app! it causes the same issue as above.

Echoe ROM

-> Installed on 27 Mar 2015

Echoe Rom was rather straight forward to install, there were no options at all for the user to choose. All Samsung Apps were installed by default, so one will need to freeze those to stop them from working. Some google apps were installed already by default (Google Maps, Voice), however others like gmail had to be installed separately. It is using the stock Samsung bootscreen and with sound. Setup of rom was smooth too.

There is no camera shortcut when selecting the security pin lock screen, however it does allow weather , shealth information in lock screen. Camera has the option the menu to turn off or on sound. Faced no issues with Shealth or any other apps installed. Also ultra power saving mode works in this rom (no crashes).