You’ve been with your no-longer-so-brand-new Android phone for a long time now. It has become slow, there are apps that are no longer compatible with your operating system version and widgets and do not convey any emotion.
If your phone was a PC, you would have formatted and installed latest operating system. Same thing goes with Android, where you have to install ROM on device.
What is an Android ROM? What about firmware?
Firmware and ROM are one and the same thing: Read-only memory on your phone, can be said to be Soul of your Phone. Contains the Google Android operating system, duly adapted and configured to work with the hardware-specific mobile phone (antenna, computer graphics, cameras, etc.).
The operating system is in a read-only memory for two reasons: to prevent overwriting files, and to keep you faithful to small changes and integrated applications that manufacturers often include in their models. Being open source, Android allows for all sorts of modifications. In addition to the official ROM, very common thing you find is ROM made by groups of volunteers and enthusiasts who take the code base and add or remove features or skins. Even you yourself can create (cook) yours.
So why should I change the ROM?
For the same reason you changed your phone, whatever. Some people need more performance, who want to upgrade the operating system to a later version without waiting for official update, and who wants to renew the look of your phone or just try new things.
Is it Dangerous? Can Anything go Wrong?
No. Generally nothing happens as long as we follow the steps given correctly. Chances are new ROM may wipe out user data so, take backup (Titanium Backup is recommended). Or it may happen that some of your apps aren’t compatible with new ROM so, there are always alternatives to choose from million in Android Market.
Bricking of Phone (Phone actually becomes no more than a brick) is an extreme case which results out of carelessness and improper following of instructions.
How to flash a ROM?
Step 1. Install ROM Manager
Your Phone needs to be rooted, the next step is to install ROM Manager, a great app that lets you download and flash new ROM and change the recovery (recovery mode of mobile) with ClockworkMod, from which it is possible to perform full backups and delete the phone memory, among many other things.
Step 2. Install the recovery ClockworkMod
To install ClockWorkMod Recovery, Press the menu option in the ROM Manager. After downloading the image with the latest version of recovery, the app will ask you to restart the phone in recovery mode. From Recovery Mode, you can get back to normal mode with Reboot option.
Step 3. Flash ROM
ROM Manager has another important feature of installing ROM from SD Card. You generally have to download Custom ROM provided by developer and insert that ZIP file into root directory of SD card and then flash it.
How to Choose Perfect Android ROM
There is nothing like Perfect ROM but still, choosing a ROM for your Android phone is not a simple matter. Before flashing a note the following:
- Compatibility with your device (model, manufacturer and country)
- Presence of your favorite apps (HTC Sense, Google apps, etc.).
- If you need external partition (A2SD) or installed into the memory
- User Comments and Review about them
.
Some popular ROMs available are:
- CyanogenMod, the best known and with support for most brands
- MIUI, a spectacular ROM for Samsung, LG, Motorla and HTC
- LeeDroid , HTC mobile for fans of HTC Sense
There are many more, some more stable than others. All bring something, but the choice is up to you. You can always browse XDA Forums to find the one for yourself.
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