Showing posts with label android. Show all posts
Showing posts with label android. Show all posts

Saturday, September 07, 2013

Cyanogenmod 9.1 for Galaxy Tab p1000 review

The main usage for my tab was music, videos, web, email, news, feeds, books and magazine. There wasn't any thoughts off changing the stock rom(gingerbread 2.3) since it performed without much lag, until there was an app called Greenify. This app will automatically hibernate apps if you assign those apps that seems unimportant into the hibernate list. Eventually, the OS runs smoother and saving more battery because it cuts down apps running constantly in the background.

It has been a problem on gingerbread where the apps start to slow down after launching multiple apps and closing them. Those apps silently running at background waiting for notification and sometimes task killer wasn't able to help much. I had Greenify running in my Galaxy Nexus phone for a couple of weeks and I love it how it improved my phone performance. But there is a problem. It only supports Android version 4.0 and above and this leads to a thought of upgrading my tab to Cyanogenmod 9.1 stable version.

There are a couple of hiccup when trying to install the ROM through the website instructions. The first pitfall was the recovery ROM wasn't able to install at all. I have gone thru xda website and what I found was the overcome gingerbread fresh install rescue. This approach was to reset everything in the tab to the stock version and do a fresh custom ROM install.

Cyanogenmod 9.1 stable

First was to install the overcome cwm recovery. In the process, the overcome recovery ROM will upgrade the file system to ext4 so Cyanogenmod can run on top of it. The whole installation can be found in the link below:


After I loaded Cyanogenmod 9.1 using the overcome recovery and boot up the tab, lo and behold, the tab now response much smoother and fluid than stock gingerbread. Flipboard flips without any lag and apps for android 4.0 can be found in play store and install with no issue.

After a month of use, nevertheless, some apps do not work well with single core CPU device. Chrome browser and Google Current is laggy. However, those apps can be replaced by Flipboard and default android browser (lacks in feature but performs rather quick in opening website). Due to 512mb of Ram, I got rid of widgets and limit to one homescreen to improve app launching performance. Video (depends on hardware acceleration support, if the format not supported, it's going to be jerky.) and music (comes with DSP manager, which includes the voodoo sound fix) works flawlessly. Wifi and 3G internet connection has no issues. Camera is working alright but not stable sometimes. I don't use the camera much on my tab so, it's not much of a fuss for me. Web, feeds, news, kindle, books and magazine is a joy to read using the new rom (with fancy transition) and the supported apps. There is no frustratingly slow down and lag that hinder the reading experience.

Battery life is about the same as in gingerbread but occasionally there are battery drain if the tab stay for too long without reboot. Mind you, I was using smartassv2 cpu government which is provide the best experience for performance and battery life saving ratio. That being said, the Cynogenmod 9.1 stable is not without flaw (can be fixed with reboots).

Finally, I have not tested the call quality and phone stability so I can't comment on that (sorry for the P1000 owners that use it as a mobile phone). However, as far for the 3G mobile data connection, there are no unstable data connection or lousy mobile reception. I gueess it should be fine to use the P1000 as a mobile phone.

In summary, I would recommend the Cyanogenmod 9.1 stable for Galaxy Tab p1000 owner who got bored with the gingerbread stock rom and missing some Android 4.0 and above supported apps. Give it a try and you'll find the P1000 is like a new toy again.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

What's next after rooting your galaxy tab 7 (P1000) ?

Warning: I do not held any resposibility if this article has damage/bricked your device. Android version that are currently running in this article is Gingerbread 2.3.3.

I can flash a custom rom if I want to but I find the time it takes is just too exhausting and not to mention there is a possibility of bricking my tab. So, I better not go there until I have a backup android device. Furthermore, some of the custom roms are not 100% working and there are some compatibility issue with certain apps. Anyway, to cut down all these inconvenience (a.k.a I'm lazy), I find it much better if I can improve my current stock rom as much as possible after rooting it. Let's get started.

1.Titanium Backup
This wonderful app allows backup apps with data. So, if something goes wrong on your tab at least you can restore the app + data back to its original form. Another plus point about this backup is that you can remove apps/games temporary if you run out of space (e.g. backup all angry birds apps and uninstall. Install other games. Remove other games after finished and restore angry birds.)

2. Remove bloatware
Using the Titanium Backup, I found I can remove system apps. Please be caution on the apps you're about to remove. Below are the apps that I have removed and the tab still able to boot into homescreen. They are found hogging in the memory and not used; or they are just there not doing any good.

-Built-in English dictionary and Ebook (Alternative Colordict and Kobo works much better)
-Daily Briefing (Not using this apps but I found it was running in memory)
-Date, time or weather widget (I got beautiful widget from market)
-Home screen tips (Unused widget)
-AccuWeather Clock (Unused widget)
-Y!Finance Clock (Unused widget)
-Calendar Clock (Unused widget)
-Allshare (I'm using Linux most of the time and allshare does not support Linux desktop app)
-ThinkFree Office (Kingsoft office free from Market works better)
-Pulse
-Social hub
-Feeds and Updates

-AdService (It can be removed without root)
-Samsung Push Service (It can be removed without root)

3. ES Task Manager (Free)
There are many tools come with this small app. It consists of Task Manager, Cache Cleaner, Startup Manger and Power Optimizer. The tools that requires root access is the Startup Manager, which is very handy to disable some of the unnecessary startup service such as Skype. I find there is no reason why Skype has to be initiate very time i restart my tab and therefore it was disabled. After that, rebooting to homescreen become very snappy.

4. Autokiller Memory Optimizer Pro (optional, paid apps)
Better memory management. There are pre-define preset and currently I'm using the optimum preset. This app comes with a restart widget, that allows you to have a quick restart (not reboot) on the galaxy tab.

5. Voodoo Control Plus (optional, paid apps)
This app is for the hifi quality sound output. If you're a music lover, this is a must to install after rooting the device. Works best with Poweramp music player.

5.1 Change the stock phone to a better earphone
Like Shure SE215.

6. SwitchPro Widget (optional, paid apps)
This app will put all the shortcut at homescreen included the root require restart button. It comes very handy with shortcut for air plane mode, wifi and  mobile data on/off switch.

7. Install Cyanogenmod 9.1 (optional, no root required)
Link Cyanogenmod 9.1 for Galaxy Tab p1000 review

Avoid
1. One Click Lag Fix. There have been reported problems on this app that caused the tab unable to boot for Gingerbread. If you really want the lagfix, I suggest flash it with custom roms that comes with this feature.

Summary
After removing the bloatware, the memory seems to have more space after reboot and startup becomes much faster. Beside that I only used web version of facebook because I do not need constant update from them. Facebook apps also runs in memory waiting stuff to happen which I find it pointless. (You may want to keep it if you're uploading a lot of photos and check-in),