[OnePlus 3 & 3T Cross Device Development] obeny:
Hi guys,

I'm reading the RR for OP3/OP3t and LineageOS 15.1 for OP3/OP3t threads for longer time and there are multiple questions about stability, battery life, problems, stability etc.

I've switched to RR/LineageOS long time ago and now with latest stable OxygenOS 5.0.4 I wanted to do a comparison and see whether it is missing and what is beneficial in RR over stock software.

Here I want to share my view about RR vs OOS.

Typical user comparison of RR Oreo vs OxygenOS (from usage POV, not abusing some extraordinary features).

Background:

On RR I've never faced any installation, update problems. Always kept blobs and firmware in sync. I've never faced problems most problems described by many users. Excluding those which are evident and awaits fix by the maintainers/developers. Maybe I'm lucky...

I was using OxygenOS for 2 weeks, to give kernel chance to settle down and use the device in my normal routine, without any artificial actions and synthetic tests. Just use the phone as I usually do.

Device:

Oneplus 3 (not op3t) initial use on 9 November of 2016. It is my primary and the only phone, so it is used regularly. Battery is pretty degraded, AccuBattery says that it has around 2650mah instead of initial 3000mah. Never replaced any screen, battery or whatever. I'm not very heavy user, no playing games, not using Facebook, so in most cases battery lasts whole day.

OxygenOS setup:

Version: 5.0.4 (Oreo 8.0) clean install using TWRP 3.2.3-0, complete wipe of everything in every memory type.

Kernel: stock, 3.18.66-perf+

Rooted: yes (Magisk stable 16.0)

Xposed: no (do not need that)

Install procedure:

wipe all

install OxygenOS zip

reboot to fastboot

reflashed TWRP again (don't know why but it seems that stock software replaces the recovery with OP3 stock)

reboot to system

initial setup (google account, Wifi, nothing more), just to see if ROM is working

reboot to recovery

install Magisk

wipe cache/dalvik and reboot to system again

Setup:

disabling/uninstalling not needed software shipped with the ROM. (*1)

restoring everything manually, not using any kind of data from google cloud. Only contancts were imported.

restoring SMS and call log history using 'super backup'.

installation and configuration of the apps

Ad. 1: OOS disabled/uninstalled apps:

chrome

duo

google play movies

gallery

gboard (replaced with swift keyboard)

camera

google play music

sms/mms

RR setup:

Version: started with clean install (switching from Nougat to Oreo) somewhere in March (one of very first versions), then dirty updated every week since end of July. No clean install in the meantime, always dirty. Never had any problems during updates. (*2)

Kernel: various kernels (stock, caesium, boeffla, franco, maybe something else but do not remember) in this timeframe, but finally landed on Mady's extended kernel (using for more than 2 months).

Rooted: yes (Magisk stable 16.0)

Xposed: no (do not need that)

Install procedure:

As mentioned everytime it was dirty update, so I'll describe how I did that dirty updates, not initial. TWRP was updated whenever new version comes out.

reboot to recovery

install firmware from Jamal365 that matches current version of the blobs in the RR. Now it is on 5.0.4 stable.

dirty flash new RR image

dirty flash new opengaps

install kernel (Mady's extended kernel)

install magisk stable (16.0)

wipe cache/dalvik and reboot to system again

Setup:

Initial setup was done exactly the same as for OxygenOS, so did everything manually. Never did any reconfiguration after initial setup. Of course I've played with config options, but never wiped the data.

Ad. 2: There was no clean install of RR before the comparison. Didn't want to do clean install because there were no problems and everything worked like a charm.

Comparison relates to the lastest setup: RR-O-v6.1.0-20170730-oneplus3-Official vs OxygenOS 5.0.4.

It's worth to be mentioned that usually I'm charging the battery every morning to somewhere between 80 and 90 %, sometimes to 100%, but not very often. In both cases (Oxygen/RR battery) lasts all day. If there was more intensive day, I was charging it in the evening additional +10-30% when battery level was below 10%. Then charging to 80-90 in the morning next day. I do not know whether it is healthy for the battery, but I don't care, if it works and battery is not destroyed. I'm fine with it. In both RR/OOS dark/black theme was preferred.

Ok, we know what is the device condition, let's do some comparisons.

Battery:

I'm somewhat disappointed about Oreo battery drain. On Nougat both OOS and RR battery life was AWESOME 4-5h of SOT, usualy lasted for 2 days without charging, sometimes 1 day. But in Oreo era situation become bad. It is not the ROM issue, google screwed something in Oreo and battery drain is horrible on both OOS and RR. We are talking about Oreo, so forget about Nougat times. I'm not enabling airlplane mode at night. Wifi and data transmission enabled all the time. I've got Wifi access at home and at work. Everywhere else data is used.

OOS: It seems OOS deals a little bit better with the battery, at the end of the day it was something like 10% more than RR. Device never reached high temperatures, it was always cool, little warm under load. Usually had something around 20-40% at the end of the day. Overnight drain is around 0,5%/h after averaging.

RR: There is not huge difference, but RR consumes battery a little more. Device tends to reach high temperatures under load, but most of the time it stays cool. At the end of the day having around 10-20% battery. Sometimes I had to charge it a little bit to survive the night (+10-30%). I've set the extreme battery saving mode to be enabled at 25% and enabled smart pixels. This solved my problems with too much battery drain. Overnight drain is around 0,7%/h after averaging. I'm using Mady's extended kernel, which gives me a little bit better battery life than stock RR kernel (due to wakelock blocker). No kernel profiles used, default does the job. But it is possible to survive 3 days without charging with extreme battery saving mode, with wifi off and data off and little amount of calls and text messages.

Usage habbits:

gmail (40-80 emails read on the phone daily)

firefox (half of an hour a day)

several whatsapp and text messages written a day

using a torch frequently (while doing something in cars engine bay)

few pictures taken daily

no facebook at all

sometimes navigation on short routes using google maps or here we go. But it is possible to use navigation for 3h in a row without charging and have some battery left (10%) without charging.

face unlock used all the time, in bad light conditions fingerprint used instead

no ambient display

day/night color compensation enabled

using android pay regularly (nfc enabled only when doing the transactions)

automatic display brightness enabled

some other applications are used, but not regularly, so they are excluded from the comparison

using textra sms instead of default texting application

using google photos instead of builtin gallery

using google camera mod by arnova instead of default application

enabled adaway to remove crappy adds

Winner: OOS, but just a little. Nothing special. Both ROMs give me enough power to survive whole day without worrying about dying battery. Due to extreme battery saving mode RR wins the competition when you really want to reduce battery consumption to the minimum.

Face/fingerprint unlock:

OOS: it is immediate, click the button and phone gets unlocked.

RR: both face and fingerprint needs less than a second or so to unlock. I don't know whether it can be configured somehow, but I prefer this behavior, because sometimes I want to check what time it is without unlocking the phone. And this delay is enough to take a look on the clock, while OOS unlocks the phone. To disable swype to enter home screen you have to activate dedicated option, otherwise you have to swype after unlock to get to the home screen. So one additional step is required to configure it. However it is possible.

Winner: OOS in terms of reaction time, RR in terms of usability.

Performance:

OOS: phone is snappy but nothing special. It just works as expected. Fast and on time. Automatic brightness reacts immediately (e.g clouds or entering the tunnel)

RR: awesome, everything works smooth and extremely good. Application startup times - immediate, no lags at all. Switching apps - perfect. I really really like the responsiveness of the phone on RR. This may explain a little worse battery life. If so, it is worth it :) Automatic brightnes needs a while to compensate lightning conditions.

Winner: RR in every matter.

Stability:

OOS: rock solid, no FCs, no hangs (maybe too short testing period)

RR: 2 random reboots and 10 maybe 15 hangs since March. Most of the hangs happened with recent versions. Maybe dirty flashing for over half of the year is the reason. Not a big problem. Turn off and on again and everything is fine. Can live with it. Never hanged during call or navigation.

Winner: OOS, but RR also behaves decent no, significant problems.

Look and feel:

OOS: Oneplus Launcher have search bar and is organized in a way that I like. Nothing to add. Good and simple. Dark theme is propagated to contacts and telephone application. I like black backgrounds. OOS uses modified version of google contacts and telephone applications. Tabs (favorites, last and call log) are narrower what makes switching between them harder. Oneplus call log marks unanswered calls with red text. OOS have some improvements in battery stats that indicates GPS activity, signal strength, wifi enabled. It looks nice, nice to have it, but is that really usefull? Judge by yourself.

RR: Trebuchet same functionality and organization as on stock. I would say Oneplus Launcher and Trebuchet are siblings. Both are great. You have to use substratum themes to have contacts and telephone black background. RR also uses modified google telephone and contacts application, but with standard tabs, what is more comfortable for me. I prefer contacts pictures in RR. RR supports substratum themes out of the box, so if you don't like some visual aspects, just download your theme and it should fit your needs.

Winner: functionality and feel is equal, which is better depends on user preferences and habbits. I would go for RR, because it looks better for me and I can change it.

Gestures:

OOS: I like the 'O' to open the camera and 'V' to turn on the torch. But there is nothing more in regards of gestures.

RR: So damn good in regards of configuration options. You have to play with options, but you can configure whatever you want :) But still using default OOS settings in RR, but also contacts under '/\' and change track in music player using '>' and '<'. Much more options, just play with it.

Winner: definitely RR.

Connectivity:

OOS: Never had any Wifi/GPS problems. Works as expected. BT connection to the headphones or car audio works fine.

RR: Wifi works flawlessly. GPS lost signal few times for short time period. BT connection to headphones or car audio can hang from time to time. Honestly - I don't care, usually using cable headphones.

Winner: OOS. RR have some glitches that may be unacceptable by some people. For me RR flaws are minor.

Camera:

OOS: Stock camera does the job. But I've replaced it with google camera mod from arnova and opencamera. All of the applications works good. Photos are decent.

RR: Stock camera is not functional, flash doesn't work (black/dark pictures taken). It is well known bug awaiting to be fixed. No problems with open camera and google camera mod from arnova. Problem with flash doesn't exist.

Winner: OOS if you want to use default camera app. Equal if you are using alternative camera application (what I recommend, gcam produces great pictures).

Others:

On OOS my banking app do not allow me to log in using fingerprint (magisk hide active), oem locked. Tried to clarify on info line and no success. On RR no problems, can login with fingerprint (magisk hide active too), works out of the box. Settings are organized in standard Android fashion, so you won't be surprised by location of the options.

On RR Magisk Manager tends to crash early after startup. After a minute or so, works flawless. Maybe some startup is in background and this leads to the problem. Nothing special. Just wait a while and you'll be fine. Settings are organized in standard Android fashion, what makes it comfortable to switch between the devices. But RR have great configuration section that allows you to change every aspect of your phone behavior. The amount of options is scarying, but I love it. On RR you have to change the button layout, because by default back and recents buttons are swapped. Changing some settings on RR leads to FC of configuration application. There are known bugs for that and will be addressed in the future hopefully.

No winner here, just sharing my observations.

Summary:

OOS seems to be more polished, better out of the box configuration, performance is reduced for better battery life. Less bugs and unexpected behavior. Just stock ROM.

RR: needs huge amount of time to configure the phone to your likings. And you have huge configuration options (see RR features) that are not available in OOS. RR is about the customization ;) Performance is better at little expense of battery life, but this is just very small difference. But performance is worth it. Amount of bugs is very very very small and it is perfect for daily driver. You may hit some small problem from time to time, but this is very rare situation. No difficulties in normal usage. RR reached mature state and definitely can be recommended for everybody, because it provides you stock features and behavior, very good stability and customization that is not possible in OOS. Moreover RR is well maintained and updates are regular and security bugs do not exist in RR. While on OOS you had to wait. Moreover OP3 support from the Manufacturers is reaching it's end, while RR will be maintained in the future. Honestly go for RR as great stock firmware replacement. Everything is there, it works and gives you freedom of choices.

TL;DR: RR is mature, stable, fast and configurable. Forget about OOS, everything is in RR. Treat RR as next update of your OOS.

These are my 3 cents, for those who are hesitating to switch ;)