ROM Picks: TEAM DIRT’s Unofficial Codename Android v1.1 for the HTC EVO 4G
Team D.I.R.T’s Unofficial Codename Android is a custom AOSP ROM based on 4.1 Jelly Bean for the HTC EVO 4G with most things working perfectly right out of the gate.
As there’s no completely functioning Jelly Bean ROM for the original EVO 4G yet, the list of what’s broken or not working is fairly short and consists of no 4G/WiMAX, no front facing camera or ability to take video, and an issue where USB tether force closes. You could assume that without fully developed camera drivers, barcode scanning was probably not there yet – but QR codes function fine. Netflix doesn’t appear to work, and the YouTube app and pages seems to be an epileptic nightmare in landscape orientation but work fine in portrait.
On the functioning side, the ROM has fully integrated Google Now with voice responses, can be overclocked to 1.11GHz with its current kernel, flies from screen to screen without any lag, and seems to perform about as well as its more-powerful successor the EVO 3D running Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
While quite zippy, there are some places you will feel the dragging of a not-quite-yet finely tuned engine. I’m betting that will be remedied soon enough though.
While the ROM visually is very similar to other AOSP ICS/JB offerings, the features list of the ROM has some nice additions such as quiet hours for notifications, a built-in update app, the ability to place weather info and calendar reminders on the lockscreen, volume rocker music controls and many more.
Although I’ve used Google’s voice-to-text on many ROMs, it really appeared to fly on this one. I’m not sure if it’s the ROM or Google-side to which the compliments should be directed, but it was noticeably good.
At the moment, this is the closet to a complete Jelly Bean ROM I’ve run across for the EVO 4G. It has got its quirks, and any of the problems it has may be a dealbreaker for your use of it as a daily ROM, but it’s nice, solid, feature packed, and breathes significantly more life into the EVO 4G Jelly Bean world.
One thing I noticed on this is, unlike most AOSP offerings I’ve run across, the Google apps package was not a separate requirement. The Play store is built-in. I’m not sure if that’s how things go in a Jelly Bean world or not but it is kind of nice not having two flashes to get a ROM up and running.
[TheMikMik]
