I agree with your assessment. HTC has better hardware (physical) and software (sense 5) vs Samsung (Plastic and Touchwiz). Samsung is too cartoony and weird looking for me. Regarding the hardware button, I also agree, hardware button is pretty bad to use and I don't like it. That said, the HTC ONE is a capacitive button and also set up the wrong way (not following android guidelines). There is some weirdness going on with HTC also, such as hitting home twice for the task manager and other keypresses to get Google Now.
I've owned several high end phones over the years, and for some reason, I still prefer the on screen keys that the Nexus 4 provides. Along with the MOTO X and some other models. About OTA, some custom roms do offer OTA, but their OTA can be half baked or really well done. But in either way, you download the full package and then upon accepting the OTA it automatically goes into recovery and flashes it or you flash it manually. Thankfully the process is not too painful and the OTA's don't come too often, maybe once a couple of weeks or in some cases once a month. One more thing, with android you never change the bootloader, just the recovery and ROM. Speaking of recoveries there are mainly 2 out there. CWM (Clockwork) and TWRP. TWRP is more graphical and supports the Open Recovery Script that a lot of ROMS use to automate stuff like flashing the ROM, then modem, then something else, then wiping dalvik cache and other stuff, so that's why I recommended TWRP (Team Win Recovery Project). With either recovery it's advisable to first do a nandroid backup from within the recovery. This is akin to creating an ISO image of your phone, so if you flash to a newer version of a ROM or to a different ROM and don't like it, you can always "re-image" your phone back to it's previous state including all preferences and wallpapers that you have set. It's a true image. Also read up on Titanium Backup. That app is worth it's digital weight in gold!! I use it regularly and almost every day. It can do some freakishly amazing stuff!! In the end, if none of this custom ROM malarkey makes you happy, it's also very easy to revert back to stock and continue using it that way. For a vanilla experience with some bells and whistles over stock, try Cyanogenmod. It's compiled from the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) and has some really nifty features built in that I wish were in stock android. In fact a lot of stuff in stock comes from Cyanogen. These guys are at the leading edge of Android Development. But there are some caveats with Cyanogen (www.get.cm) Stable builds for the S4 and One don't exist, and you would have to run nightlies. That can also mean flashing every night. Thankfully there is a free app called Cyandelta on the play store that downloads only the delta's and flashes that, so instead of a 180 MB download every day, it's around 5-6 megs. But then again, if a particular build of the nightly is working fine, then there is no real reason to upgrade. But you know me, I like to inflict hurt on myself :) Hope that's not too overwhelming. It may seem as such, but once you understand the basics, flashing ROMS and Kernels is really fun and you can really tailor your device to your particular usage needs. Like I said, I value battery life, so I flashed the ROM and Kernel that gave the best battery life for me. But at the same time, when I wanted to play games I wanted full performance. Hence I chose Carbon Rom and Matri1x Kernel. I'll do some general research on the HTC one and will provide some suggestions on which Kernel and/or ROM you should start off with. Speaking of which, the best path in the beginning is to stick to a customized stock ROM. That's where they take the stock rom and tweak it to remove excessive bloat, add new features and tweak the speed. You get the stock look and feel but with generally better performance and features. Till next time, take care! On Sun, Aug 4, 2013 at 3:02 AM, Brian Weeden <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks, this is good stuff. > > I've been going back and forth about S4 or One, and I could probably live > with either. The one thing that sort of annoyed me about the S4 was that > it still has a hardware menu button, despite that going away in Android. > Plus the Samsung software is just horrible. While I could probably live > with the default HTC software, no way I could deal with the Samsung crap. > > Part of what I'm struggling with is being overwhelmed with options. Unlike > iOS where you get one bootloader, one recovery, and one ROM there's a ton > of options out there for Android. However, I have gotten really used to > OTA updates and a good backup/recovery if something goes wrong. Do any of > the options you suggest offer OTA? Does going such a customized route make > recovery any harder? What about backing up your device? > > > > --------- > Brian > > > > On Sat, Aug 3, 2013 at 6:01 PM, Naushad Zulfiqar <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hey there Brian. > > > > First off good choice on the phone. In my opinion and after using both > > phones I do say that the One is better than the S4. That said, the > Verizon > > versions info is sparse at best. I found info on most other carriers > > except verizon. Anyway, that link you had seems okay. > > > > The basic premise for HTC phones is as follows. > > > > 1. Unlock Bootloader (do this as soon as you get your phone because if > > you unlock the bootloader you basically end up deleting all user data on > it > > and returning it to factory settings) > > 2. Once the bootloader is unlocked you need to flash a custom recovery > on > > it. Having a custom recovery will allow you to basically flash any file > > into the OS. > > 3. I recommend TWRP for the recovery. I find it the best. > > 4. Also download superuser (like supersu or others) from the web and > > download it. > > 5. Once you flash the recovery and copy the supersu onto the phone; > > 6. You would boot into TWRP and flash supersu from there. > > > > That's it your phone is rooted with a custom recovery. From there you > can > > do anything you want. > > > > Now regarding stock Android...............I think you will be losing a > lot. > > There are a lot of camera optimizations on these devices that you would > > lose if you went that route. I would suggest doing the following. > > > > 1. Put the custom recovery and root the device. > > 2. Keep the stock rom > > 3. Use a launcher such as APEX or NOVA (I use APEX) and you will then > have > > a pure vanilla android homescreen experience, but still retain the > > optimizations that HTC did for the camera and speakers and other things. > > > > If you insist to have vanilla android on it then if I'm not mistaken then > > the Google Edition HTC One ROM does work flawlessly on the HTC One. > > > > There are no major caveats to doing a custom rom. Make sure that you > check > > out custom kernels also, they really really really improve the > performance > > of the phone. > > > > Just for info I'm using a Nexus 4 with Carbon ROM and Matr1x Kernel with > > GPU Overclock. I'm getting similar performance to the S4 with all day > > battery life. What's not to like!! The new MOTO X looks good to me > also, > > despite it being called a mid range device, I would have to disagree. > > People are becoming spec whores and in the end there is no benefit to > > having all that power when the apps don't need it and the battery life > > suffers. For me, if I was in the US right now, the MOTO X would be near > or > > on the top of my list. One more thing, do consider getting a nexus 4, > > they are cheap as chips and still a very viable phone and a powerhouse. > > Otherwise wait till November for the Nexus 5. > > > > Oh and one more thing...... > > > > XDA Developers website and forums are your best friend. Repeat after > > me....... XDA Developers is awesome!! > > > > LOL! > > > > Good luck and welcome to the world of Android. > > > > > > On Sat, Aug 3, 2013 at 7:42 PM, Brian Weeden <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > I'm switching from iOS to Android in the next week or so. I want an > HTC > > > One with just stock Android on it. Only real option for good coverage > > > where I need it is Verizon, and with them I would get charged the same > > > price whether I had a subsidized phone or not. So, my plan is to get a > > > new, subsidized HTC One and then root it to put stock Android on it. > > This > > > guide seems to be just what I need: > > > > > > > > > http://www.cultofandroid.com/26527/rooting-the-htc-one-the-right-way-how-to/#BPoyTdi0vV0cqaz0.99 > > > > > > > > > I'm wondering if there are any gotchas I'm going to run across. Like, > > would > > > the fact that the phone is locked to a carrier (because it's under > > > contract) prevent me from rooting it? > > > > > > > > > > > > --------- > > > Brian > > > > > > > > > > > > On Sat, Aug 3, 2013 at 12:38 PM, Naushad Zulfiqar <[email protected]> > > > wrote: > > > > > > > Yeah I do it all the time. > > > > > > > > What do you need. > > > > On Aug 3, 2013 7:34 PM, "Brian Weeden" <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > > > > > > Anyone on here have experience with putting custom mods on Android > > > > phones? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --------- > > > > > Brian > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Best Regards, > > > > > > Zulfiqar Naushad > > > -- Best Regards, Zulfiqar Naushad
