[Lenovo ZUK Z2 (Plus) ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & ] NaXal:
Hello,

I have been using AiCP 13.1 for last week or so. Here is my view about it.

Before I write anything, I would like to mention that before AiCP, I have used Pixel Experience (PE), Resurrection Remix (RR) and AEX 5.4 along with ZUI 2.5 (Indian stock) and couple days of ZUI 3.5 (Chinese latest). So they are my point of reference when I compare anything.

My AiCP Setup was all default without any 3rd party kernel or modification. I didn't have root also. I used Open GApps Nano Package. Baseband is 1.70 (Chinese ZUI 3.5 latest)

The Good

I moved from AEX 5.4 so that treble thing background work was already done hence flashing this ROM was easy, plain and simple. Everything that I used for day to day worked. Finger Print detection was tad slower than stock ZUI but nothing alarming for me. Camera worked as expected, so was the Google Camera Mod. UI performance was smoother than AEX and at par with RR ROM. But behind PE. PE by far the slickest that I felt with UI performance, smoothness. May be some animation and other tweaks would get this ROM up there but I kept things default (not a big fan of poking around things). WiFi link speed was 150 mbps, RR/PE both had issue of being stuck at 72mbps where as ZUI / AEX /AiCP gave full 150 mbps link with 2.4GHz router. Internet (via WiFi) speed performance was satisfactory and same with AEX/ZUI/AiCP. Bluetooth streaming in my car worked flawlessly with AiCP and (As with all other ROMs), headphone performance was also satisfactory (not a heavy music listener via headphone). WiFi tethering worked properly. VoLTE worked flawlessly, didn't notice any difference with call quality on any of these ROMs.

AiCP didn't have truck load of customization option like RR, but AiCP extra (option in settings) had just enough options to satisfy my requirements for customizing lock screen, notification, or status bar etc.

Now coming to battery. Usually I follow a charge cycle of 20-80% assisted via AccuBattery application. Every 10 to 12 or 15 days, I do a below 20% to 100% charge cycle (usually 2/3 times a month).

Battery was more than enough to last me entire day with 20-80% cycle. Fast charging was slower than PE+AR-Beast setup but similar to AEX/RR. Faced some idle drain issue with PE, solved somewhat with AR-Beast but here no such problem. Overnight loss of charge was down to like less than 0.5% per hour. Some nights, even less at 0.2% per hour. That with WiFi on (cleared the recent before I closed my eyes) and both SIM Card being active (Jio VoLTE + AirTel). Usual SoT (with minimal gaming) stayed around 6h30mins to 7 hours for full 100% charge. Mostly emailing, WhatsApp, reading news feeds, browsing with Chrome / FireFox, YouTube playback, navigation and yes, Bluetooth streaming while drive via 4G data link. If I played games (like Guns of Boom, NFS, CoC, PubG) SoT changed drastically. Let's talk about PubG, with WiFi, usually 25-28% (battery draining) an hour where as with 4G data link, it went up to 35% per hour. Sorry, no feedback about exact figure like 100% to switch off.

During my entire use, never felt the need to reboot the device. It run non stop from first few reboots (as needed after install and first day) till this write up. Performance was as good as to start with.

The Bad

Network reception like all other ROM except ZUI. Jio 4G doesn't like custom rom it seems. All the ROMs I have tried has this issue. Network keeps on fluctuating. However no call drop faced or seen drop in 4G speed. It was as usual compare to ZUI or any other ROM.

The trusted unlock feature was working at random. I had added my vehicle Bluetooth or my home as trusted unlock, but it worked some time, some time it didn't.

For some reason, all of these custom ROM detects wrong carrier label. It always detected and displayed my second network as carrier label.

As mentioned before, finger print action was slower than ZUI.

As mentioned before, if comparing to PE, ROM isn't as snappy as that.

The Ugly

WhatsApp picture message couldn't be replied via quick pull down notification menu. I could reply to text, emoji, video but if some one sent a picture, that needed clicking that message to open whatsapp for replying. I was unable to find any solution for this.

I use some banking app which needs sending outbound SMS for registration. All most all app thought I was rooted and gave warning at start. Now those app which were tied up with my second SIM (as registered mobile no.) as needed to send an outbound SMS for verification, failed. They were unable to send SMS out of second SIM Card. Even if I turn off the first SIM Card. No I didn't test by removing the 1st SIM physically !!

Heating issue with PubG while playing under mobile data. Now this wasn't a big deal for me, not a heavy gamer, only an occasional player. But just for testing, I played. Heat was really felt in skin while on mobile data. Felt scary. With WiFi, usually at home or office with lot cooler ambient temps than out side Kolkata (India) summer heat. But out door with Mobile data, PubG felt burning the palm and phone.

That lead me to reading about custom kernel. Wanted to give AR-Beast a try before Nameless, so went ahead to flash it and broke the installation. Phone wasn't booting up the rom and was going into fastboot mode after then flash.

Needed a re-installation but thought before that I would give AEX 5.5 a try since it was just out hence went for that today.

Over all

I was unable to fix battery drain + wifi issue of PE as otherwise PE+AR-Beast felt like the perfect for my usage. I would have recommended anyone who were like me, casual gamer but heavy phone users (Social, working, etc). But since that was not happening, so this was the next best thing I would say.

AiCP feels good enough for earning a daily driver tag for anyone who is a casual gamer, uses his/her phone for work, study or general purpose and likes to keep thing plain, simple but effective. Default setup (Flash ROM/GApps & you are done) is good enough, no extra working is needed. Everything works flawlessly, extremely stable !!

If you are switching from Lenovo default ZUI 2.5 (Indian stock), prepare to be blown away with the feature list and performance.

Thanks.

(Tagging [MENTION=6596602]vuckovic_stefan[/MENTION] & [MENTION=5551474]sanjay.2704[/MENTION] as you wanted my feedback on it)