Best ROM for Droid Bionic

[buellboy9]

Your mileage may vary, of course, but CM 10.1 has been the MOST stable ROM I've used since I got the Bionic (and that includes the stock ROM from Motorola/Verizon). It is PURE AOSP plus additional features not present in any other ROM. You have your choice: if you want "Bleeding Edge" then go with the nightlies... but if you want "Stable," then the stable versions of each release are as rock solid as anything else I've seen. CM is also the single largest custom ROM project out there, with a lot more "eyes" on the code than some of the other variants available for the Bionic. Eclipse was good... CM 10.1 is better. Can't wait to see what's in store with CM 10.2 and beyond.

 

[kwest12]

So is everything working on CM? Camera, Bluetooth, sms, mms, GPS, etc? Those seem to be the things that are most often broken or partially crippled...

There also seems to be a quicker "Android-Rot" with custom ROMs. What I mean by that is, like Windows, Android performance degrades over time because of factors I'm unaware of. As with Windows, maintenance and being a smart user helps, but ultimately the only way to fix it is to wipe everything and start fresh. Anyway, in my experience, it seems like custom ROMs, especially for phones without fully unlocked bootloaders, suffer more quickly than the alternative stock (rooted) ROMs.

 

[buellboy9]

Everything you listed works just fine. The CM page for the Bionic says that the flash only works in "Preview Mode" but I think that's old information as the flash seems to be working just fine. I don't send that many MMS messages, but those I've sent worked just fine as well as the few I've received. No issues at all with GPS, Bluetooth, or SMS (and those I use several times a day every day).

Battery life is also CONSIDERABLY better than any other ROM I've used to date. There are a few more KEXEC ROMS out there now like CM, but most of the older ROMS were based on the Motorola code with parts stripped away. As I stated earlier, CM is pure AOSP, without a TRACE of "MotoBlur" or anything else from Verizon or Motorola. I think the lack of all of that bloatware running away in the background is the cause of most of the battery drain and progressively more sluggish performance people report in Android phones. Nowadays, a charge lasts all day, even if I leave the phone in 4G/LTE mode all the time (I used to leave the phone in 3G/CDMA mode to stretch out the battery previously).

I was going to pitch my Bionic when the contract ended and switch over to T-Mobile and a Nexus phone on their unlimited data plan... but now I can keep my unlimited data AND stick with Verizon's heftier network knowing that the Bionic will continue to get updates to keep it current. The only thing the newer phones offer that I don't have is NFC... but if I haven't had it before, I'm not missing anything now.

 

[Noobe]

Everything you listed works just fine. The CM page for the Bionic says that the flash only works in "Preview Mode" but I think that's old information as the flash seems to be working just fine. I don't send that many MMS messages, but those I've sent worked just fine as well as the few I've received. No issues at all with GPS, Bluetooth, or SMS (and those I use several times a day every day).

Battery life is also CONSIDERABLY better than any other ROM I've used to date. There are a few more KEXEC ROMS out there now like CM, but most of the older ROMS were based on the Motorola code with parts stripped away. As I stated earlier, CM is pure AOSP, without a TRACE of "MotoBlur" or anything else from Verizon or Motorola. I think the lack of all of that bloatware running away in the background is the cause of most of the battery drain and progressively more sluggish performance people report in Android phones. Nowadays, a charge lasts all day, even if I leave the phone in 4G/LTE mode all the time (I used to leave the phone in 3G/CDMA mode to stretch out the battery previously).

I was going to pitch my Bionic when the contract ended and switch over to T-Mobile and a Nexus phone on their unlimited data plan... but now I can keep my unlimited data AND stick with Verizon's heftier network knowing that the Bionic will continue to get updates to keep it current. The only thing the newer phones offer that I don't have is NFC... but if I haven't had it before, I'm not missing anything now.

That is very encouraging. My GPS is not working. I depend on it quite often so I have to boot into the stock ROM which is old because my rooted phone would not accept the verizon update. I thought that maybe Google NAV was not working well so I downloaded other waze and trapster with the same issues. Google maps works but when trying to go to NAV mode it is not good. Shows my location off the grid, does not recognize nor update location or direction of movement.

Thoughts?

 

[Noobe]

That is very encouraging. My GPS is not working. I depend on it quite often so I have to boot into the stock ROM which is old because my rooted phone would not accept the verizon update. I thought that maybe Google NAV was not working well so I downloaded other waze and trapster with the same issues. Google maps works but when trying to go to NAV mode it is not good. Shows my location off the grid, does not recognize nor update location or direction of movement.

Thoughts?

Had I known that all it took was posting here.... I have been dealing with this issue for a good 3-4 months now. it only become pressing now that i got a car without nav. So I searched and I posted. Low and behold an hour later the problem just fixed itself spontaneously.
Thank you droidforums
:hail:

 

[ScottyDsntKnow]

Just got CM 10.2 Nightly build on the Bionic and wow... FAST. Everything except the docks works and no Webtop so no lapdock either but the trade off is worth it. So far so good and the baked in tethering is nice since for some reason no matter what I do to my stock JB rom the tethering won't work (foxfi, pdanet, sqlite hack etc... no working... no idea). Time will tell but its definitely a snappier phone and the features of Android 4.3 are nice too. Oh, and the Camera actually taking pics at a reasonable rate is really nice too lol.

 

[deduct]

I flashed the latest liquid a couple of days ago and I have to say its pretty amazing. I especially love the new slide animations they went with. So far its stable and holds signal very well. If anyone wants to try it here's the thread:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2222535

 

[DevilDogMP]

liquid is decent. Mile stone 2 is better

Sent from my XT912 using Tapatalk 4

 

[deduct]

liquid is decent. Mile stone 2 is better

Sent from my XT912 using Tapatalk 4

I wouldn't say milestone is better necessarily. But, it is pretty good. Its hard to choose between all of these 4.2 ROMs that's for sure. My advice is to flash all of them at least once and then decide which one best suits you.

 

[deduct]

Holy cow! Carbon 4.3 is my new favorite. Thanks to devil dog for recommending it to me.

 

[DevilDogMP]

Lol I gotcha

Sent from my XT912 using Tapatalk 4

 

[kwest12]

Holy cow! Carbon 4.3 is my new favorite. Thanks to devil dog for recommending it to me.

Carbon 4.3?? The last version they released for us was 1.8 and that was still the 4.2.2 base, I thought...

 

[DevilDogMP]

That is a different rom. Check xda site

Sent from my XT912 using Tapatalk 4

 

[kwest12]

Interesting. I'll check it out, thanks.

EDIT: I don't see it. There's only one thread for Carbon ROM in the Bionic area. That one is still based on 4.2.2 and is no longer being updated for the Bionic. The last release is version 1.8.

 

[deduct]

Poops. Sorry man. Dog and i have razrs. I forgot about this being a bionic thread.