ROM Picks: Mobster ROM v 2.12 for the HTC EVO V 4G
Mobster ROM is an Android Ice Cream Sandwich AOSP/Sense hybrid custom ROM for the HTC EVO V 4G (Virgin Mobile’s EVO 3D, not Sprint) with bits of Android Jelly Bean thrown in here and there.
It features Awesome Beats v3 (Beats Audio), Dolby Mobile, an AOSP JB launcher, the JB Project Butter enhancements for an incredibly smooth experience, the Sense camera, Leedroid Tweaks, and the Mobster Tweaks among many others.
The camera feels like it’s faster than stock, and seems to have some more options thrown in. The clarity in the preview seems to be enhanced, but overall I only managed to get a 25% acceptable picture rate holding the camera still in a well lit room. I’m not particularly impressed, but I imagine that’s more reflective of the Sense camera that shipped with the ICS release than it is of the ROM.
I think this is my second ROM I’ve run into that claimed Project Butter enhancements, and they are very noticeable in the launcher as it smoothly transitions from one thing to the next. Web pages appear to load instantly in the stock browser, but Chrome doesn’t appear to perform any differently than it does on the EVO 4G LTE or EVO 3D or the OG EVO.
Video flickering in Chrome transitions seems to be significantly faster, but also more distracting. This may have to do with my firmware, so your mileage may vary.
One of the neat things this ROM has is that recent apps can be displayed (or not) in the drop down menu, along with Quick Settings – no long-press is required to switch between active programs, although the long-press functionality is still there and allows for task killing dismissive swipes.
Integrated Google Now on ICS means you’ll be able to use the very useful, and kind of scary, options that Google Now learns from you, from how long it’s going to take to get to work to what the weather is like to what your favorite sportsball team’s points are.
Quadrant and AnTuTu scores untweaked and right out of the box were not terribly impressive and do not reflect how smoothly this ROM seems to flow from operation to operation, but as we’ve said many times, benchmarks tell you only how good a phone performs benchmarks, not real world operation.
As this is my first foray into the EVO V 4G custom ROMs, I only have stock to compare it to, and it blows stock out of the water. A very polished JB finish on a completely performing ICS engine leaves very little to be desired. I think you’ll enjoy.
[Android Forums]
