Author: Alexander Mamchenkov

As you may know, Google has announced the next Adnroid (KitKat) some time ago, and at the same moment they told that Galaxy Nexus will not receive this update. This was pretty sad for me, as I got my Nexus mainly because of two reasons: raw Android (without all those apps that normally come pre-installed on branded phones like Sony, LG, whatever) and over-the-air updates to the latest version of Android.

All the time I had Nexus, I was never bothering with routing, custom ROM or what-so-ever as I was pretty happy with the stock SW, but after Google rejected to get the latest SW, I had no choice. Checking all around and doing couple attempts to find what suites me – I finally found what I like and what works for me.

Criteria to choose one or another was as follows:

• Latest Android
• Minimal non-stock apps included
• Most customization
• Stability

Due to the first criteria or the latest version of Android – there are not that many ROMs out there to pass the test. After checking few, I had finally chose the SlimRoms guys to support me. They have latest Android (currently 4.4.2), frequent updates (even weekly builds), almost all SW is stock one (except Nova Launcher, Simple Browser and SlimCenter to check for updates and some SlimRom IRC tool), and nice customization. For instance, they have increased the standard DPI in SW build, so I have every item smaller, but can have more on the screen, they also have customization on ring short-cuts and so on, but overall it is not over complicated and they keep the ROM really slim.

After getting custom ROM and playing around – I really enjoy and think I gonna stay with rooted phone and such ROMs. Not that I have a lot of things that require root, but some are:

• remote apps that I don’t need (browser, as I use Chrome, sms, as I use Hangout, Gallery, as I use QuickPic, launchers, as I use Go Launcher and so on)
• nice SSH client that supports private keys and identities (JuiceSSH – my dream as a system administrator)
• custom app permissions (as I fed up facebook and others polling GPS and doing other mess)

Anyhow, if you are an owner of Samsung Galaxy Nexus and want latest Android, or you are an owner of any other Android-based phone and wanna play around – check it, it is fun :-)