[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] DMaglaras:
Test results, EmUIv3.0 non-final by dabi01

After testing several cm11-based ROMs and finding all of them to have a significantly lower in-call sound volume than stock (at least one was so low as to be useless as a phone ROM), I tested dabi01's EmUIv3.0 non-final for 6 days. I was ever interested in testing EmUI v3+ just to get a feeling of its integrated contacts/dialer/SMS and better camera (as advertised on the site). Here is my report:

ROM DATA

Android: 4.4.4

ROM build date: 2015/12/28

Contains GApps, which I removed pre-install as they were likely to be at least as old as the build date. I then flashed actualized DeltaGApps.

EmUI: 3.0 (it reports 2.3, but this is clearly wrong)

Based on firmware CUST C432D001 certified for Serbia

Kernel: 3.10.28, build date: 2014/11/03

SYSTEM

1. Before install I removed a lot of bloatware; after install there was enough left, however I made the pleasant experience that Huawei has made it possible to de-install them.

2. Even after this (second) cleanup, I was left with a /system partition of 1GB out of 1.2GB, leaving just 17.4% free space. AFAIK this is dangerously close to what is considered necessary breathing space. By comparison, all cm11-based ROMS I tested took just 511-532MB. At one point I loaded a cm11-based ROM with all apps I was ever dreaming of using, all in /system, and total disk use was still just 623MB, leaving 48% of /system free. Of course, it is well known that cm11 is more space efficient and all this was expected. Nevertheless it did not fail to impress.

3. In comparison with all cm11-based ROMs, this ROM felt sluggish.

4. Using board tools, battery management was good and battery life was 1 day plus something. Not bad.

SOUND

1. I tested only earpiece and speaker, not employing any of the mixer_paths.xml hacks I was forced to employ on cm11-based ROMs.

1. In-call sound volume was palpably better than on any cm11-based ROM, however not as good as I remember it to be on stock. Keeping the phone close to my ear, audibility was OK; putting it on speaker, it turned bad. As I can concentrate better on a call when putting it on speaker and having my hands free to take notes or peruse some sheets, I would not use this ROM for a business phone.

2. The big bad surprise was the extremely low quality of music/FM radio. It was full of background noise, scratches and the like. It is the first ROM I tested where listening to music/FM radio without equalizers was impossible. Mark my words: impossible. And did use of an equalizer make things better? I tested EmUI 3.0's Music.apk's built-in equalizer (good); improvement, but still bad quality. I added VIPER4A; bigger improvement, but still bad quality. I downloaded Pi Music Player, the nonplusultra in lean and yet sophisticated music player; still no crystal clear sound, as I used to have with all ROMs I have tested so far, all enhanced per VIPER4A.

UI

In comparison with v2.3, v3.0 of EmUI is a regress. Everything looks prettier. Ergonomically, however, everything is a disaster.

1. All fonts controlled by the skin, and this includes system settings, wifi connectivity settings, and the built-in contacts/dialer/SMS, are so small that you must scale them up to ultra (not extra, ultra!) large to make them legible to anyone over 30. But this affects all other apps too; you go back to Nova and everything looks ridiculously overblown.

2. What used to be EmUI 2.3's best UI feature, the all-in-one swipe down screen with system settings shortcuts ("tiles") (including the tile to take screenshots) plus notifications, has been massacred. Now you have two tab-separated screens, one for notifications, the other for shortcuts. Default is notifications. To get to shortcuts, you need to tap the next tab. Once there, you are faced with tiles which make every possible effort to remain invisible: the glyph is miniscule, the style is pale cyan on bright white. Plus there is not a tile for settings! Neither one for WiFi connectivity! You can switch WiFi on/off, but you cannot scan for WiFi from the tiles! As for the screenshots, forget them. Because it takes you a total of three gestures to take a screenshot, there are some screens --especially those with error message boxes-- which cannot be captured.

EmUI Apps

1. The integrated Contacts/Dialer/SMS is very well done. Is it better than, say, Contacts+? It surely is faster. All of its constituent parts is equal to v2.3 or marginally improved; Contacts, for instance, has an "Organization" tab, which I don't recall in v2.3. Still it is not perfect. In Contacts, for instance, I miss the functionality of filtering the screen view by account/group/organization. In SMS, I miss the functionality to customize bubble colors. EmUI 3.0 keeps the old layout of no color for incoming messages and lime for outgoing, which in my view is idiotic: if you need colorization, it is for incoming messages!

2. EmUI 3.0's Music apk is good, but Pi Music Player is better.

3. EmUI 3.0's FM radio has the best functionality and the best UI I have ever seen. No other UI makes it so easy to select favorite stations and display them (per tab) without switching screens. (On the other hand, stations selected as favorites and displayed as such when playing did not show in the favorites list.)

4. EmUI 3.0's Voice Recorder has again one of the best UIs I have seen.

5. EmUI 3.0's Notes is no substitute for Google Keep (you cannot edit them on your desktop and synchronize the edits back to phone), but Google should take a leaf from EmUI 3.0 and integrate Keep with the InCallUI (Dialer) so that when the call screen is on you can take notes on the call, and after the call finishes you can go to Notes to do the same. Sadly, EmUI 3.0's Notes cannot handle voice recordings, neither does EmUI 3.0's call screen offer a shortcut to its Voice Recorder so that you can voice comment on a call immediately after hang up.

6. EmUI 3.0's Weather app is what the French call "rien de trop". Yes, it shows weather temperature. But not wind direction/speed. Neither breakdown in hours. I wouldn't know why anyone would use it instead of One Weather or Wunderground.

7. Camera is impressively fast and easy to use, but quality of images is mediocre.

VERDICT:

The only reason to choose this ROM over an AOSP4.4.4/CM11-based one would be the latters' low in-call volume bug. Unfortunately, this ROM, even on the supposition that it got this fixed, wouldn't satisfy a business user because of its unbalanced and on the whole immature sound sub-system.

Plus its UI is bad.

Any countervailing points it may offer in the matter of apps count for nothing, as the same benefits can be obtained per third party apps.

It is not a bad ROM; but rien de trop. On the whole, I wouldn't use it.

[MENTION=6800235]dabi01[/MENTION]
[MENTION=6836126]HB72K[/MENTION]
[MENTION=6829336]Hacker432[/MENTION]