[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] johannesmr:
Hi everyone!

I have some questions regarding a possible update of my i9505 for my personal usage scenario. Since my phone is getting slower and less secure (stagefright etc.) with time, I'm wondering if I should update my phone to one the following, or stay with the software I'm currently having:

- Original Samsung TouchWiz 5.0.1

* latest for Germany: I9505XXUHOJ2 (2015-10-01)

* latest for Austria (A1): I9505XXUHOF2 (2015-07-01)

- CM 12 based 5.0.1/5.0.2

* [Android 5.0.2][FINAL][STABLE] AntaresOne & Alucard24's optimized CM12 builds

- CM 12.1 based 5.1.1

* [JDCTeam][STABLE][5.1.1][1 November] Optimized CyanogenMod 12.1 builds

* [5.1.1r3][Resurrection Lollipop v5.4.6][SaberMod OPT][06/06/15]

- Google Play Edition

* Google Play Edition [5.1][JFLTE-GPE] - 10-21 -2015

_ Additional Information:

My Provider in Austria is A1.

The phone was SIM locked (A1) until I was abroad and unlocked on the 31.10.2013 it via buying a code online on UnlockUnit.com for around 15-20€. That worked out without any problem. Apparently it wasn't possible to unlock it any other way at that time without tripping Knox.

I have a 128GB MicroSDXC Card (SanDisk SDSDQUN-128G-FFP-A Ultra UHS-I Class 10 up to 48MB/sec read) installed in the MicroSD slot.

To get full access to my external SD Card which I need for Bittorrent Sync to work as I want it to, I installed the following software:

towelroot

SuperSU

Xposed Installer

Wanam Xposed

SSCF Xposed

I didn't install any custom recovery because I guess it would've tripped Knox and I had a problem with a not properly working proximity sensor back then. After sending it to the service, the sensor worked for a month. I then, thanks to xda realized that it just got dirty again due to some Samsung construction mistake and cleaned it myself. I still didn't properly fixed that problem, but just got used to manually unlock the screen via the power button, when I wanna do anything on screen during a phone call.

_Currently this software is installed:

Modelnumber: GT-I9505

Android-Version: 4.4.2

Basebandversion: I9505XXUGNE8

Kernel-Version: 3.4.0-1567293 dpi@SWDD3918 #1 Wed May 21 21:41:31 KST 2014

Buildnumber: KOT49H.I9505XXUGNE8

SE for Android Status: Enforcing SEPF_GT-I9505_4.4.2_0017 Wed Jun 25 09:46:04 2014

Secure boot status: Type: Samsung

Securitysoftware-Vers.: MDF v1.0 Release 2

_In Download mode it shows the following:

Current Binary: Samsung Official

System Status: Official

Knox Kernel Lock: 0x0

Knox Warranty Void:0x0

CSB-Config-LSB: 0x30

Write Protection: Enable

eMMC Burst Mode enabled

_My usage scenario:

I would like to continue extensively using HDR mode in the camera app and I'm not quite sure how that works out in other non Samsung ROMs.

I'm also using Bittorrent Sync to completely manage the Pictures taken with the camera, music, whatsapp pictures on my 128GB SD Card over my Notebook and Workstation. That means I need full external SD card support, which I'm figuring still needs root access to work. To my knowledge Bittorrent Sync doesn't support the newly introduced handling of extSD cards in Lollipop (already in 5.0.1?) yet. Though I read they are working on it.

I'm quite skeptical about the stability of CM and ROMs based on it, since I encountered random reboots, not responding device with black screen and a lot of other problems on my previous SGS3 i9300 and SGS1 i9000.

I'm not sure how much time I want to invest in sorting out problems instead of using my device.

Am I correctly assuming that HDR is not supported by non-Samsung ROMs and full external SD Card access is not possible without rooting the phone (or waiting for an updated Bittorrent Sync app) and thereby tripping Knox (which I actually wouldn't really care anymore, since it doesn't have any warranty anymore due to it's age).

To sum up my quite extensive question:

What would you do in my situation?

Thanks in advance for anyone who took their time to read through all that and for any possible input!

JohannesMR