[Droid Incredible General] alexdw369:
My CM5.0.8 Experience so far:

This is my first Android device, so I'm a bit of a n00b and certainly am still learning, so if anything I say isn't quite...right, that's why. I'm only going off what I've learned so far on a stock HTC Incredible with Sense.

Roms can be found at inc.sodpit.com

EDIT for clarification: This is a 2.1 ROM

So anyway, since I'm too impatient to just wait for 2.2, I tried out CyanogenMod 5.0.8, Jager1.62 and Unrevolved, and CM5 is the one I preferred. Not that I don't appreciate the hard work that went into the others, this one just suited my preferences as far as amount of Sense still incorporated. This one has no Sense. AT ALL. Not the dialer, not the message app, not the browser, nothing. All are stripped-down, bare-bones Android apps, and that's what I wanted. And the boot animation is badass :)

I'm gonna give it a shot as a daily driver for a few days (I hope CM cooks up a 2.2 within a few weeks) and try to update this post as to what I find. I will try to compare everything to a stock Incredible, to try to be helpful to those of you switching from bone stock.

I'll give the bad news first:

1) Already known, are issues with screen artifacts when typing, sometimes when scrolling (depends on what is scrolling) and occasionally during system animations. It is still VERY liveable, and really doesn't interfere with anything, so I'm fine. I'm sure it will be fixed soon.

2) I have noticed that Pinch-to-Zoom doesn't work in the browser. Double-tapping will have to do for now. Remember, this isn't the Sense-ified browser, as far as I know, it's stock.

3) It says "T-CMDA 64" on the lock-screen and on the Notification list. I personally don't know why, but I dont really care either. Everything works as it should.

4) Coming from the Sense dialer, the stock dialer seems to be lacking a bit...maybe I'll try out Dialer Pro. Similar complaint with the Contacts app.

5) I THINK (I very well could be wrong) that the stock keyboard might be from Sense...but i'm only 50% certain, so don't quote me on it. My issue with the "stock" keyboard that came with this ROM was apparent only in the Market. It would disappear every time I got a notification. For example, I found a few programs I wanted, and started downloading them. As those downloads finished and installed, I would get notifications telling me so. Every time I got a notification, the keyboard would disappear, erasing what I was currently typing (while searching for the next program to download). I remedied this by installing the Droid X Keyboard .apk, which is free, and available in the Incredible Android Development forum. My only issue with the DriodX keyboard is the lack of haptic feedback, but hey, in exchange, you get a very snappy multitouch keyboard, perfect for those of us who want to hit some serious WPM on our androids lol

6) Camera currently only seems to support 3MP. Not sure why this is. I have not tested to see if the pictures taken ARE only 3MP, or if the camera app simply doesn't have 8MP in the options list.

7) My BIGGEST issue (and remember, this is a VERY early build) is that currently, CM5 doesn't support internal storage access. So any music, videos, etc. you might be wanting on your phone will need to be on an SD card.

8) Since internal storage access won the slot for "my BIGGEST issue," the #2 slot goes to non-functional bluetooth. It simply won't turn on.

Now for the good:

1) Like I said, the boot animation is wicked. :D

2) Stock lock screen is way better than the Sense lock screen. It looks better IMO and allows you to turn off the ringer right from the lock screen. Also, the phone can be brought out of sleep using the optical trackpad, and furthermore, can be unlocked with the optical trackpad. Translation: Pull it out of your pocket, hit trackpad twice and you're in.

3) CM5 comes with ADW.Launcher. Graphically, I prefer it to LauncherPro, but the LauncherPro supports homescreen rotation, so I swapped these out. EDIT: You CAN turn on rotation in ADW.Launcher (if you can get to ADWSettings, which I could not until I installed separate copy from the Market)

4) Came with a few essentials: Superuser Permissions, Terminal Emulator, Wireless Tether, and Dev Tools. Not sure what the protocol on this is, but I would have liked to also see ROM Manager and Astro File Manager preinstalled, but no matter, a few seconds in the Market gets you right where you want to be.

Thats about all for now. I just want to give those sitting on the fence an idea of what they'd be getting into if they wanted to try new ROMS. As always, run Nandroid backup and if you want to transfer your personal data (SMS, cookies, etc) to your new ROM installation, make sure you use Titanium Backup or something to back up your stuff to your sdcard. There are several very good guides on how to install new ROMs on these forums. They worked great for me. Make sure you follow their instructions.