They drop support for older smartphones and move on to greener pastures and hope that a lot of people will upgrade accordingly. But why change a perfectly great smartphone when it can do all the things that the new ones can? That is something that Samsung needs to ponder. Thankfully, some great developers enjoy making custom ROMs for Samsung Galaxy S5 and breathing new life into the aging hardware. It’s not like the Samsung Galaxy S5 is an old smartphone, it’s only 2 years older, but we won’t be seeing new Android updates from Samsung, that much is certain. By now you must have expired the warranty on your smartphone, and there is no need to keep the stock TouchWiz on your device anymore. All you need to do is root your Samsung Galaxy S5 and flash a custom ROM on it to gain great new features as well as stability. Before starting on the best custom ROMs for Samsung Galaxy S5 list, I have to warn you that this is no child’s play. You need to have perfect knowledge of your device and how to flash custom ROMs on it before you even consider playing with your device. If you follow the instructions on the ROM pages perfectly, there is no need to be alarmed, but if you lose attention, there is a certain risk in flashing ROMs on devices. I also highly recommend that you check out the best backup apps for Android and back of all the data well before starting on the custom ROM journey.
1. XtreSto Lite
Despite having a hard time pronouncing the name, this ROM for Samsung Galaxy S5 is pretty smooth. It is a heavily debloated ROM that makes your device run faster than ever. It is based on Samsung’s Stock Lollipop firmware and is very light on the resources. It comes with a 5-way reboot menu, a removed high-volume warning message, a removed increasing ringtone, faster animations by default and an enabled quick torchlight toggle. There is even a great permission manager available in the settings menu. The ROM also ships with a toolbox that contains 12 different apps that allow you to do various tasks with ease. Another great thing about this ROM is the separate add-on package; it allows you to reinstall any removed Samsung bloatware apps, so you don’t miss them. You will also be able to record your calls natively as well, eliminating the need to use the best call recorders for Android.
2. Alliance ROM
Alliance ROM has been available for a lot of different Android smartphones, and it has a big fan following. I have personally used it on 3 different smartphones, and it has worked like a charm on all of them. One of the best things about this ROM is its ability for customization. There are a ton of themes available on the ROM from the get-go, but we also get a lot of deeper options to make the smartphone truly your own. From little style tweaks to impactful color changes, you’ll be able to do a lot of customization with this ROM. Another great thing is that all those changes that require you to flash additional things on your smartphone, they are available on the fly. It also comes with 17 preset user interface styles that truly revolutionize the way you interact with your phone.
3. Sixperiance ROM
If you’re in the market for a clean, fast and simple, stable ROM then Sixperiance ROM is the one you should consider. It is based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop and comes pre-rooted as well. The ROM is lightly de-bloated and is also zip aligned. The ROM aims to port everything from the Samsung Galaxy S6 to the Samsung Galaxy S5. This means all the apps available on the Samsung Galaxy S6 are in this ROM, including phone, contacts, and SMS. However, for some reason the camera app is not ported back, it’s probably due to the difference in megapixel count and other technical stuff. This is a fast and responsive ROM that is also battery friendly. The ROM also comes with different themes that allow you to customize the user interface.
4. Omega ROM
Omega ROM is one of the best ROMs available for Samsung smartphones. I’ve used it for Both the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and they have worked perfectly fine. So, there is no reason for me to assume otherwise for the custom ROM for Samsung Galaxy S5 as well. There are several versions of the ROM available on the landing page, but I recommend the Android 5.0 over the others. It is based on the stock firmware and is fairly stock regarding looks. However, this is one of the most stable and robust ROMs available for Samsung Galaxy S5. Anything you want from a ROM, this ROM most probably has. One great thing about this ROM is that it comes with an aroma installer with an option to remove more than 825 MB of the bloatware right off the bat. If I had to recommend one custom ROM for Samsung Galaxy S5, I would go with this one.
5. Phoenix ROM
Phoenix ROM is based on the latest stock firmware Samsung has released. The Android 5.0 build came with a lot of features and the ROM uses the lollipop kernel source update as well. One great feature of this ROM is the improved fast charging support that really works. There are a lot of different mods and tweaks baked into the ROM as well. For example, the network speed tweak allows you to browse the Internet a little bit faster. Overall there are several kernel streaks to make the experience faster as well as reliable. Overall, this ROM is one of the best custom ROMs available for the Samsung Galaxy S5.
Conclusion
These were some of the best custom ROMs for Samsung Galaxy S5. I’m sure you’ll love at least one of them and it will reside on your smartphone for a little while. If you run into any problems or need help in troubleshooting, feel free to talk to me in the comments below and I’ll help you to the best of my abilities. Until next time, keep on reading Joy of Android. Feature Image Credits
