With bootloaders continuing to be a popular topic these days, we started asking ourselves questions like, “Does a locked bootloader matter as much anymore?” And of the topics that were brought up, one was whether or not people are using custom ROMs and kernels like they once did back in early 2010. As someone that lives and breathes Android, I’ve got to admit that I get the feeling that as phones become more powerful and have more polished software, that custom ROMs and kernels may be less popular in the future than they once were (I’m sure the CM team will do their best to crush that prediction though).
Rooting on the other hand will always top everyone’s list of things to do as it allows you to take screenshots, wireless tether, etc. But, is Android as a mobile platform becoming optimized enough that less and less needs to be done to your phone out of the box to make it live up to your standards? We once tossed in custom kernels and ROMs with new features to help out our under-spec’d phones. With dual-core processors, loads of RAM and things like native screenshots, what does the state of the ROM world look like today? Going forward? We ask you just a simple question below to get a feel for it.
And if you would, feel free to sound off on your thoughts on custom ROMs, whether or not you still use them, and if so, which you continue to use. Should be interesting to see if folks with newer phones are still opting to use a ROM rather than stock software.
Update: Changed the poll slightly. Please re-vote if you will.
This post was last modified on January 10, 2020 10:03 am