Monday, 18 August 2014

In Depth Look: Customs ROMs for your One M8

HTC's Sense UI skin for its Android phones isn't as bad as it used to be, but the concept that skins are good isn't easy to grasp. Making your M8 a Google Play Edition is one thing, but putting a custom ROM on it that adds more features - that's another. Here's a showcase of XDA's top custom ROMs for HTC's One M8. Not all IDLs will be lists, some may foucus on only one ROM, but anyhow, here goes.

Note: I accidentally found some of these in the Verizon section.To the best of my knowledge though, they should work with any M8. Please leave a comment if you've found it doesn't work with your non-VZW phone.


SinLessROM is a custom ROM for your HTC One M8 that lets you Android 4.4.4, the ART ahead-of-time compiler, performance enhancements and a heap of customisation tools. As well as making your One M8 faster and smoother, it also promises battery life and sound improvements, which are always welcome, even on a phone with the legendary Boomsound front-firing speakers. My favourite bit, though? The Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 is running at the 2.5 GHz clock rate that it's capable of - the ordinary One is at 2.3 GHz - and while this may not seem to matter, there's no reason you shouldn't run at max clock rate.

Tranquil MS - http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-htc-one-m8/development/rom-sinlessrom-gpe-v3-4-3-google-play-t2818550 - Created by XDA user fernando sor / Badseed (From VZW threads, though devs claim in post it should work on anything)

Badseed has an interesting ROM any M8 owner can use - and should. It's mostly made up of new customisations and back-end improvements. There's also some interesting tricks you can do with the lock screen - the more customisation, the better - and some sound improvements. It also comes with plenty of themes - you won't have trouble making your phone look unique - and they've even ported across some of the useful HTC apps, and gotten rid of carrier bloat at the same time. Badseed's ROM is really about doing more with what you have, making things better, not completely replacing them.


CyanHacker is a pretty powerful ROM that really lets you under the AOSP skin, what with its Kernel Tweaker and all. But wait, there's more! There's a Moto X-style Active Display, the very postmodern PlayStation-looking soft keys of Android L, and a Battery Saver tool. You can use the CyanogenMod Theme Engine and Theme Showcase store to shake stuff up a bit. Plus, CyanHacker offers you a Screen Recorder, which could come in handy, and gives you some useful lock screen upgrades.


ViperOne for HTC One M8 doesn't actually bake in many features. What it does instead (which I rather like) is it gives the user extreme granular control, and thus, the power to truly make their One M8 their own. It also includes a cool LMT-Launcher-style pie that you can use, as well Android 4.4.3, stock-like Android, and the myriad advantages of a matured custom ROM by a solid development team.

Have you tried any of these mods? Any you can recommend? Leave me a comment below with your opinions on this list of custom ROMs for the HTC One M8.


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