[Galaxy S 4 Mini Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] khat17:
Hi everyone. Firstly - thanks for making this AMAZING forum! I've been visiting here forever and always found things to make general device usage easier. Rarely have I ever had to make a post because the questions are already asked, and you guys are really amazing so there's really not much help that I can provide.

Today - I'm looking for assistance in making a decision. Which ROM to use.

I know there may be answers like - try them - find what works for you - and such but my problem is I've tried a few and nothing is perfect. Or problem-free. I'll list a few I've used and let you know what I'm looking for.

To be frank, if I could get the contacts to work in StockRomLite V2.0 or get the dialer / SMS in one of the AOSP / CM versions then that would be the end of this. If it's possible for me to use Titanium and remove those parts from one ROM and restore to another..........................please let me know!!!

LOOKING FOR

Everything works (functions of the phone - calling, wireless, etc).

Lollipop style keyboard with number pad at the top.

Phone doesn't slow down with usage.

Helium works.

Dialer has option to call from SIM1 or SIM2 off the bat (like stock).

SMS has option to send with SIM1 or SIM2 off the bat (like stock).

That's basically what I want. Here's what I've used and what I've found.

BlissPop

Most things work.

Doesn't have dialer/SMS similar to stock.

Things that don't work include Helium (depending on version).

Some elements erratic on screen.

CM/AOSP

Most things work.

Helium doesn't always restore. Mostly doesn't restore - depending on version of ROM.

Doesn't have dialer/SMS similar to stock.

StockROMLite

V2.0 - Just about everything works. Almost perfect but........

Contacts keeps crashing (android.process.acore) and nothing fixes it.

V1.3 - Helium doesn't restore anything at all.

S6 Lollipop Port

Most things work.

Slows down after being used for a bit.

Doesn't allow moving as many apps as AOSP/CM.

S5 Lollipop Port

Same as S6 but doesn't slow down even half as badly.

I've not seen any dialer /SMS app in the market that I could use to substitute the stock ones. If I could do this then I'd fish around the different CM/AOSP variants until I found one that works better. But. I'm kind of at the end of my rope. I always try to have the same handset for myself and my wife so I could troubleshoot the problems and give her the things with less headache, but it's been a while and I'm not sure how to proceed. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

*EDIT*

Actually what I'm going to do currently in my testing on my device is this..........restore a different OS like CM11/12/BlissPop/S5 Lollipop. Once done I'll restore my Helium backup then use Titanium to do the backup. Then put back StockROMLite 1.3 and restore from Titanium. Because Helium isn't working to do the restore at all. Also my wife's phone is currently on CM11 I think. And Titanium seems to be giving issues there. So I'd love to get this sorted and then just stick to whichever one just works. Thanks again in advance!

*EDIT*

Currently installing CM13 since dual SIM now works. It runs nicely but the inconvenience with the dialer / SMS would be my issue. I'll overlook that if everything else works however. Will post back and close the thread if that's the case. Oh yeah. Forgot to mention that with some other versions of AOSP/CM the dialer setting to "always ask" gets changed to SIM1 on reboot. Issue is present based on the version of AOSP/CM.