JKeene Reviews- Synergy ROM For Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3!!
One of the last things I did before I got rid of my Galaxy Nexus was flash the JB leak. It lead to nothing but problems, the biggest being the almost daily softbricks. The problem was fixed before the phone left but it showed me what can happen to your phone when you run custom software. I work in healthcare and cannot afford to have a phone that does not work. So when my S3 came along, I will admit to being a bit gun-shy. In addition I wanted to use TouchWiz for a bit to see what Sammy had new to show me. So after a few weeks of course I got the itch and found myself heading over to XDA. Rooting was a rather simple affair but the search for a ROM was not. I wanted a ROM that was stable, fast, and most of all trustworthy. A lot of the builds out there had MMS issues, problems with the phone losing it’s number, etc. Sure a reboot fixed that issue but when I am on call, I can’t be dealing with that. So I finally came upon the Synergy ROM by Team Synergy.
Team Synergy is well-known to us here at AndroREV, KidRomulous has been a big fan of some of their team’s work on the EVO 3D and now they bring their expertise to the S3! Synergy ROMs are famous for being swift and stable and this ROM will not disappoint you in those areas! I am going to say up front that this is a very close to stock ROM so those of you looking for a crazy AOSP experience may be looking in the wrong place. That being said this is not a bad thing at all,
- ICS 4.0.4 – Latest I535VRALG1 Base
- Fully Deodexed, Zipaligned, Busybox, Superuser
- Debloated
- Team Synergy’s custom init.d scripts for insane performance
- Blocked Samsung’s “root checker” service (We killed it so well that Device Status shows “Not available” rather than “Modified”)
- EXT4 performance tweaks for moar speed
- Be gone ongoing WiFi connect notification. Nobody likes you. (Won’t take effect until after first reboot)
- 15 notification toggles
- 4-in-1 reboot menu
- Jelly Bean Animations
- Fully working Google Now with Jelly Bean voice search and offline dictation
- 4×5 Launcher with up to 9 homescreens
- Sony Bravia Engine
- Hold volume to skip tracks when screen is off
- WiFi Tether working right out of the box. Just tap and go. (Note: This refers to the app named WiFi Tether, not Mobile Hotspot as the latter is a subscription VZW service)
- Customized mounting scripts (see Q&A)
- I9300 boot animations with disabled sound
- 4G and WiFi speed tweaks
- Verizon OTAs blocked
- Synergized build.prop
- Unlocked settings for camera, browser, and Find my mobile
- Exchange policy disabled (your IT policy may prohibit this, if so flash this in recovery to get back to stock)
- Fully integrated search (The newer VZW GS3 base removes this thanks to yet another lawsuit from Apple, so we retained the old search)
- Ability to set WiFi transmit power (see Q&A)
- Tons more tweaks and enhancements
The real story here is the scripts, something the Synergy Team is famous for. The speed this ROM has will make you swear it is dipped in Project Butter. It helps that JB animations have been added but either way the ROM just flies! While there is not a huge tweak kitchen on board the team has included some great mods that I really like. First up, Google Now is on board and works like a charm. I run a lot and hate having to turn my screen on and unlock to skip songs, Synergy lets you skip tracks with the screen off simply by pressing and holding the volume button. The ROM retains TouchWiz in just about all of it’s glory and while I know a lot of people are not fans of this overlay, Samsung has done a lot of work to this version and I have to say it is the first time I can say I enjoyed using it as my daily driver.
1. App Test
Here I used Dead Trigger and The Dark Knight Rises to test out the ROMs gaming chops. Both games really show how badass the S4 processor is, the games look great and played totally lag free. Google Plus worked great and I really love the new update btw Google! The camera works really well and I had no issues with any aspect of its performance. TweetDeck is my usual Twitter client of choice and it worked just fine. Instagram worked like a charm and gave me no problems.
5 out of 5
2. Launcher Responsiveness
The ROM comes with a tweaked stock launcher that has some speed optimization additions as well as the option to have up to 9 home screens. The stock launcher is very swift and as I mentioned allows for up to 9 home screens. While I felt it was swifter then the stock launcher, I had some trouble with the launcher freezing up. It happens like every 2 days, usually when attempting to send a text while Google Plus is open or something like that. However due to the freezing I cannot give the stock launcher a perfect score. I also used Nova Launcher as well and did not seem to have the same problem. Nova performed pretty damn well and I did not see the force close issue I saw on the upgraded stock launcher.
4 out of 5
3. Battery Life
Here is an area that the GS3 already shines and Synergy does not disappoint. I easily get through my work day using WiFi, in fact 15 or 16 hours with my solid use is a pretty much daily occurrence. On 4G of course it was not quite as good but 10-12 hours with average use was not unheard of.
5 out of 5
4. Sound Quality
I had no issues here. Games sounded great, my ringer volume was the usual level, and notifications were plenty loud. YouTube sounded great and music through my headphones sounded awesome on this kernel. If you are a sound junkie, nothing will let you down here.
5 out of 5
5. Browser Testing
Both the stock internet browser and the Google Chrome browser worked like champs on Synergy. While I prefer the Chrome browser, the stock one will not let you down. Graphics intensive sites loaded well and quickly and YouTube videos through the browser worked just fine.
5 out of 5
Ok so time for final thoughts. I know some of you who love to customize everything on their phone may not find Synergy to be their cup of tea. However there are a lot of you out there who want to root to get rid of bloat but still want the stock experience and dependability. If this is you than look no further then this ROM. It delivers greatly improved stock performance and tasteful mods that really deliver where it counts. So if this sounds like something up your alley, head on over to the link below and check it out!!
Source-XDA Synergy ROM
