TiKaZz
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- 21 Mar 2012
- 213
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Ha gaaaay
You are a really good writer and Im sure you will help newbiesSo after using MIUIandroid v5 for a month now (WIUI 3.6.14 up to 3.8.2), I've decided to flash back down to V4 (WIUI 3.2.22) and here are some similarities/pros/cons I'd like to report:
The Similarities
Both WIUI V4 & V5 have fantastic battery life. In fact, I might even get a bit better on V5 (only a little and it's only noticeable during standby mode), but on average I'm getting about 3-4 hours on screen time with either version on Normal Mode at approx. 80% brightness with WiFi, 3G, and GPS on all the time. On the extended battery, I'm getting 5-6 hrs on screen time each day, with usually 15% or less left by the end of the day when I finally plug in my phone to recharge. Of course, I can stretch these numbers out by switching to Power Saving Mode or lowering the brightness. The total uptime is meaningless since I can stretch that out to whatever number I desire by selectively using my phone, but I make sure to use my phone without any regard to battery saving. That is, I use it as much as I want, as heavy as I want and that's the standard I hold it to.
Performance-wise, both are silky smooth so there's no appreciable difference in that area. Wajk claims V4's Power Saving Mode is smoother, but I'm on Normal mode most of the time so I can't judge.
Version 5 (Anything above WIUI 3.2.22)
I've grown to like the aesthetics of V5 and that's really the biggest advantage it has over V4, if you can even call it that since it's personal preference. If there are new features available in V5, I have no idea what they are since I don't use them. I like the animations, the menus/buttons/icons, and ESPECIALLY the dialer since it goes full screen with my contacts' pictures, as opposed to V4 where it's just a tiny icon and the background is my lockscreen wallpaper. V5's camera also seems to be a bit more responsive.
In regards to my comment about it having a bit better battery life, I've noticed that the power management is better. Using the Better Battery Stats app, V5 spends significantly more time in Deep Sleep (90%+) when I'm not using the phone and does not often ramp up all 4 cores to 1.5 GHz the way V4 does. As a result, during standby, my phone is consistently draining less than 1% per hour, sometimes even 0%, so if I don't use my phone (which rarely happens), it will probably last all week.
Version 4 (WIUI 3.2.22)
Now that I'm back on V4, here are the things I've noticed that will probably keep me with it. Even though standby is not as good, I'm still getting about the same amount of on screen time since I use my phone a lot. In contrast to V5, V4 only spends about 66% of the time in Deep Sleep. This is because of Google Play Services and the constant com.google.android.location alarms that go off and NetworkLocationLocator partial wakelocks. As a result, the phone drains at about 1% per hour on average when the screen is off and sometimes it will be less whenever the phone stays in Deep Sleep longer or if you purposely hibernate Google Play Services (but you will get delayed notifications from Google apps) with the Greenify app, but like I said, I use my phone so much that the end of the day result is the same anyway.
The biggest reason why I will most likely stick with V4 is because it seems everything works. There are some apps I use and check often that don't work very well or at all in V5. Here's my own personal list: Quora, Twitter, Ultimate Juice Defender (to regulate 3G), Stick It (a floating video player), SwipePad, and probably others which I have yet to discover, with the last two not working at all in V5. I thought I could live without those apps working properly, but now that they are, I prefer to keep it that way, which is why there aren't enough benefits to V5 other than looking pretty to keep me with it.
Anyway, I'd like to Wajk for all his wonderful work. Regardless of which version you choose to use, you're going to have a very good experience. I'm looking forward to any changes/improvements you make to V4, but even if you don't, no big deal, I'm pretty happy with it the way it is. If there were a way to meld the positives of both V4/5, that would be the ultimate rom! But for now, I will stay with V4 for the foreseeable future.
Ha gaaaay