Note 4.4 Rom review of CyanogenMod 11.0

CyanogenmodAs I reported a few days ago, the original Galaxy Note (SGH-i717) got its own taste of Android 4.4. KitKat.  Thanks to JamieD81 at XDA and his posting of an Unofficial CyanogenMod 11.0, us lonely Note users have some life left in us.

Now onto the meat and potatoes…

The ROM itself installs quite easily and painlessly as long as you follow directions in JamieD81’s post. You have to make sure to flash ClockWorkMod Recovery before installing the ROM and Gapps. For some reason TWRP recovery doesn’t play well right now, so your best bet is to just go back to ole’ CWM for now.

Once installed, let the phone settle for about 10 minutes or so. This is to let the fresh install finish up what it needs to do.  Now that you’ve sat patiently for a bit, go explore KitKat and its smoothness.  Even on a device as outdated as the Note is, the ROM ran pretty smoothly for me. Yes it stammered and lagged once in a while, but what did you expect? The ROM essentially is an early Beta, if not an Alpha stage ROM, so be thankful you even have a ROM to play with.

Camera was nice and clean, no problems to report with its daily use.  The UI of the ROM is, well, naked. Pure AOSP.  Integration of Google Now with its “OK Google” voice prompt actually works very well. I was quite shocked by this, figuring some of the problems others were reporting that it wasn’t functioning properly for them.  I guess this is a case where following directions properly means you SHOULD be okay. Speed of some transitions could be a bit better in my eyes, but that could also be our phones only running little less than 1GB of RAM on a ROM designed for devices with 2GB of RAM.

The ROM JamieD81 has provided for our enjoyment is great… if you like AOSP based ROMs.  Unfortunately I am not one of those people.  Yes there are some things I like about it, mainly it’s bloat free straight from Google source goodness. There are some neat features I use on stock ROMs, and honestly, if you want to remove bloatware from your carrier or Samsung, all you have to do is root your phone and you’re golden.

My personal opinion shouldn’t affect your judgement on whether or not you should try it out, so by all means please do.  It’s fantastic that it actually runs and runs well on our devices.  AOSP is not for me this time around. I tried it and gave it a shot, but it’s just not in the cards for me.  I implore you, though, to try it out, and see for yourself.  If you do, drop us a line, and let us know what your thoughts or opinions are about it.

Also please thank the developers for their hard work and time.  Without them, you as the end user would have nothing to play with.

 

Source: JamieD81 @ XDA

Sean Winder

About Sean Winder

I work in a liquor store by day, but am a techno-phile at all times. Love Android and its diversity. Technology in general is of great importance but my passion is for my beautiful wife and our 2 kids.

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