Redmi 1s - Custome ROM : Adria ROM Features, Performance, Gaming
A lot of users have been complaining about MIUI not meeting their expectations on Redmi 1s. Overheating, Multitasking woes and lag being a few issues described.
Having used multiple smartphones in the past, i know the fact that certain devices do heat, especially when you put some stress on it. Its completely natural for a device to get hot. A good example would be our laptops. And since, there are no cooling fans or liquid coolant flowing inside the mobile devices, long high usage sessions will cause heat. But Lag and multitasking issues is something that i cannot live with. i cant wait for 5-10 seconds for an app to load or contacts to open. I dont like waiting to switch between apps and i dont like animation that lags. Browsers refreshing if you minimize them makes me want to pull my hair out. Unfortunately, when i bought my Redmi 1s, i ran into most of these issues and felt that the MIUI on it was poorly optimized. So i switched to a custom ROM and stayed with MIUI on my Mi3 ( because i love MIUI and cant live without it). Switching to custom ROM had many disadvantages too. Poor Audio, grainy Camera images and quite frankly nothing is as beautiful as MIUI.
v43 update of MIUI for Redmi 1s was pretty good. multitasking and RAM management was improved. Then Xiaomi rolled out a major update on the device with v45. This update promised optimized multitasking, less lags and overall improved performance with minimal heating. But the aggresive heat control again made it one step short of perfect for me. Because when the device started heating, CPU usage is limited and this results in reduced performance as the apps cannot utilize the full potential of the hardware. Although I have seen hints Xiaomi is working on another major update to put all issues at rest and provide a great experience, the current scenario encourages us to experiment us with Custom ROMs to find the best software for the hardware.
Here comes the newest solution for Redmi 1s users. MIUI V5 Adria 4.11.20 ROM based on v45. This is a modified version of V45 Stable ROM. I am gonna review this ROM for you guys to decide if you want to give it a try.
Having used multiple smartphones in the past, i know the fact that certain devices do heat, especially when you put some stress on it. Its completely natural for a device to get hot. A good example would be our laptops. And since, there are no cooling fans or liquid coolant flowing inside the mobile devices, long high usage sessions will cause heat. But Lag and multitasking issues is something that i cannot live with. i cant wait for 5-10 seconds for an app to load or contacts to open. I dont like waiting to switch between apps and i dont like animation that lags. Browsers refreshing if you minimize them makes me want to pull my hair out. Unfortunately, when i bought my Redmi 1s, i ran into most of these issues and felt that the MIUI on it was poorly optimized. So i switched to a custom ROM and stayed with MIUI on my Mi3 ( because i love MIUI and cant live without it). Switching to custom ROM had many disadvantages too. Poor Audio, grainy Camera images and quite frankly nothing is as beautiful as MIUI.
v43 update of MIUI for Redmi 1s was pretty good. multitasking and RAM management was improved. Then Xiaomi rolled out a major update on the device with v45. This update promised optimized multitasking, less lags and overall improved performance with minimal heating. But the aggresive heat control again made it one step short of perfect for me. Because when the device started heating, CPU usage is limited and this results in reduced performance as the apps cannot utilize the full potential of the hardware. Although I have seen hints Xiaomi is working on another major update to put all issues at rest and provide a great experience, the current scenario encourages us to experiment us with Custom ROMs to find the best software for the hardware.
Here comes the newest solution for Redmi 1s users. MIUI V5 Adria 4.11.20 ROM based on v45. This is a modified version of V45 Stable ROM. I am gonna review this ROM for you guys to decide if you want to give it a try.
ROM Specifications and their Explanation:
- Deodexed- I bet you have come across this word a lot of times but never really understood what it means. Let me explain it in the shortest possible way. Ordinarily, manufactures and official developers use Odexed ROM. This basically means that for each app on your device, there is the .apk file and its corresponding .odex file. The .odex file contains a part of the coding of the app and is used for loading the app into memory. So first boot is faster and /data partition is smaller. it also makes hacking the app a tad trickier coz part of the code is already copied into some other location. In a Deodexed ROM, this data is compiled back into the .apk meaning no .odex file for each app. This adds great possibilities of customization and theming. But first boot will be slower. Simple enough?
- Pre-Rooted - self explanatory.
- Bloatware removed. A lot of them.
- Toolbox included in settings. Options available are - WSM, Mi-Tools, Air-Call, Scheduled Power, Viper4Android, Tinted Status Bar, Greenify, xExtStorage, USB Mount Mode, Mi-Pop
- Updated GPU drivers
- MiKey, XiaomiAuthenticator, MiAntiFake, MiTransfer and Send2SD(Moving apps to SD Card) added.
- ROM tweaks and optimizations and Kernel Mods.
First Boot:
First boot after flashing the ROM takes about 5 minutes. Sometimes might take longer for some. Because its Deodexed. When the device boots up, you get the pretty standard options for configuring the device like choosing language, setting up Mi account and sync, configuring and connecting to WLAN and so on. I usually add my mi account at this stage but keep sync off. Once the setup is complete, you are now ready to rock and roll.
ROM Review:
To make it neat and simple, i am going to review the rom in sections, hopefully covering most of the facts about the ROM. I am not going to talk about any feature present in stock v45 ROM. There are tons of reviews on stock v45 on this forum and on the web. So lets start.
1. Design:
MIUI is arguably the best looking ROM out there, and this customized version is no exception. On first boot, you can see the MIUI v6 style on the lockscreen itself. This is not a theme but the ROM developer has implemented MIUI 6 XHDPI resources from stock MIUI ROM. needless to stay it looks good. The animations are clear, the visuals are sharp and overall its a pleasure too look at.
You can ofcourse use the Themes app to change to any paid/free theme of your choice.
4. Updates:
The developer has promised that a new version of this ROM will be available within a week of the release of next stable ROM. So you will not have a new Adria ROM unless a new stable ROM is released by Xiaomi. Further, you would be able to get the Update over OTA as the ROM is hosted on Xiaomi Server.
5. Battery Backup:
Cant comment on it right now, too early to say. Need to use it for atleast a couple of days. But with the current usage, I can tell you it would perform as good as on the stock ROM, if not better. 5 hours of screen time can be achieved easily so a full day on full charge is possible.
6. Overall Experience:
When it comes to small things like call quality, audio/video experience, heating and so on. The device feels pretty good to use. Audio in call is clear, wifi and network connectivity is good and other normal features are same as stock ROM so i did not dwell on them in detail.
7. Bugs/Cons:
This ROM is by no means perfect. If you are playing a graphics intensive game or were multitasking and you had to minimze the apps/games, when you open the app, it would refresh. Meaning, browsers will reload the page, games will start from the beggining and you will lose your unsaved data/work. Same happens when you recieve a call.
Another issue faced is, messengers like qq and watsapp sometimes dont show notifications unless and until you open them. And no, Greenify is not hibernating these apps and i am not talking about heavy usage shutting down background apps.
Transfer and Mi Key app included in the ROM FC. Tried a lot but they dont work. And it seems i am not the only one.
Conclusion - Who Should Flash it and Who Shouldn't:
Anyone looking for a good MIUI experience on Redmi 1s should definitely go with this ROM. It solves a bulk of the issue most users complain about. Removing Bloatware and including minimal google apps package along with kernel mods and ROM tweaks seems to have given this ROM a great performance boost. Not only that, heating is less for a device that isnt throttled so aggressively. Dont expect the device to be super cool. The CPU will heat upon usage. But it wont reach the point where you cant use it comfortably.
On the other hand, those who think that Mokee/CM performance is the standard for redmi 1s and there shouldn't be any kind of lag on the device. Be it in the animation, gaming, or multitasking, might want to give this ROM a skip. Coz at some point, with heavy usage, MIUI will show its toll. And unless you are willing to go that extra step to make Adria run smooth, stay away from it. Another important thing, Adria is based on MIUI 5 which is an Android Jelly bean 4.3 based ROM. And most other Custom ROMs are based on Kitkat. So if Android version makes a difference, give it a skip.
At the end of it all, i would suggest you to give it a try and show your full support to the developers. This is not just another random ROM but solves a lot of issues and problems for redmi 1s users.
Original ROM Thread and Download link:
If you liked the features of the ROM and want to try it, please do visit the original thread posted by the developers for full Specifications and dont forget to say thanks to the developers by rating them.
Click on this link for the original ROM thread -
For Downloading the ROM from Official Xiaomi servers, click on this link -
Flashing Procedure:
To make it neat and simple, i am going to review the rom in sections, hopefully covering most of the facts about the ROM. I am not going to talk about any feature present in stock v45 ROM. There are tons of reviews on stock v45 on this forum and on the web. So lets start.
1. Design:
MIUI is arguably the best looking ROM out there, and this customized version is no exception. On first boot, you can see the MIUI v6 style on the lockscreen itself. This is not a theme but the ROM developer has implemented MIUI 6 XHDPI resources from stock MIUI ROM. needless to stay it looks good. The animations are clear, the visuals are sharp and overall its a pleasure too look at.
You can ofcourse use the Themes app to change to any paid/free theme of your choice.
Now these are just simple theme changes. Whats the point of having a deodexed ROM for changing simple things right? Enter WSM (What Surprised Mitu) Tools. Its essentially a modified version of Xposed and allows you to do deep customs modifications on your device. 4 modules are already included.
For customizing the look , you can enable tinted status bar, and Mi tools, which includes a host of options for customizing the device. Reboot once done. Now you can check the options and the differences they make. Looks good. Although mine look ugly(lack of time and interest to play with them). Adding options like battery percentage or hiding time based on your preferences, changing colors of icons and carrier name and so on. Lots of options to play with.
2. Performance:
Biggest issue that has plagued Redmi 1s from quite some time is performance. Even though its essentially a entry level smartphone, the hardware on it is by no means "Entry-level". Its packs a punch with a Quad core 1.6 Ghz Snapdragon 400 (MSM8228) processor, Adreno 305 GPU and 1 GB of RAM. But the MIUI on Redmi eats up the major chunk of the resources, leaving little RAM for other apps to use. As a result, multitasking used to be a pain. And CPU was used more then needed. Minimized apps would refresh and so on. V45 solved multitasking to quite a good extent, but aggressive thermal control again introduced a new problem, lag when device heats up a bit. So does this ROM improve on that front ?
The answer is YES. I dint get enough time to verify if thermal control and CPU throttling was modified or if there were other changes. But the initial results seems good. I tried putting load on the CPU by decompressing a 1.2 GB sequential file while QQ messenger, watsapp and a few other apps were running in the background. To further test the strength, i then played a full HD 1080p video using the stock player while all those apps were running in the background. and i was amazed to see that the video did not stutter. Then started the stock music player and played a 320kbps audio file and kept switching between apps for no apparent reasons. Browsers refreshed and so did QQ messenger. But did not experience the pause in music that i do in Mi3. The phone heated to 48 degree celcius which is pretty normal. I have experienced 60+ too.
RAM. The issue that worries Redmi 1s users most. The image on the left is free RAM on reboot. The image on the right is free RAM after using few apps. Although RAM comes down even more as and when you use more Apps. To put it right, dont expect CyanogenMod like RAM management and features, but expect something lot better then stock MIUI. Adria ROM is right in between. A pretty sweet spot between performance and looks. Overall, if you are not a "heavy multitasker/Gamer" and dont intend to use more then 5 apps at once, you shouldnt face any issue. Also, do not clear RAM again and again, it does more harm then good. If you feel the amount of RAM is getting to low, reboot the device. Its a good idea to reboot the device once or twice in 24 hours anyway.
Another criteria people use to judge the performance of a device is the benchmarks score. Antutu being the most famous benchmarking tool of the masses. I personally dont like the idea of judging a device on benchmark scores, because it does not give an indication of the real-time performance a device is capable of. A device scoring less points might be better to use in real-life scenario then a high scoring device. And the fact that Antutu is poorly optimized for chinese manufacturer's devices. Anyway, its your wish. You can judge the device on its score. And i ran the benchmark for you. And its almost the same as you get on CM12 or Mokee. Stock v45 however, reported a poor benchmark score.
Performance is based on kernel. Kernel decides what resources are allocated to what services, and hence optimized kernel leads to an improved performance.
3. Gaming:
I only had enough time to test 1 game- Need for speed most wanted. The game's initial start felt a tad slower. But once in the game, the graphics and animations were pretty smooth. There was the slight occasional lag or pause. but it was pretty rare. After 20 mins or so of gaming, i got bored and the device had heated up a little too. So stopped playing. Overall, I would say its quite satisfactory, if not exceptional. Again expect performance just a little bit lower then CM11 or Mokee ROM. I will try to update the thread with a video in a couple of days with more games.
4. Apps:
Adria ROM includes a few apps and modules that are not present in stock ROM. Let me mention them -
- Viper4Android - If you havent heard about it, you need to put down that bottle of beer and google more. In Short, Viper4Android is arguably the best Audio Mod available for android devices. It takes your music experience to a whole new level.
- XExtStorage - Allows you to save space on internal memory by allowing you to allocate the SD card as the default storage. you can get more information on this thread -
- Mi key - If you own a Mi key, you already know about it. If you dont, then you dont need it. And the App doesnt work anyway
- Mi auth - allows you to protect your account details.
- MiPhone anti fake identifier - As the name suggests, use it to identify if you have a real Mi phone or a fake. Not really required coz i doubt if your fake phone would let you flash this custom ROM.
- Greenify - Saves RAM, Data and keeps the phone cool by hibernating background apps.
4. Updates:
The developer has promised that a new version of this ROM will be available within a week of the release of next stable ROM. So you will not have a new Adria ROM unless a new stable ROM is released by Xiaomi. Further, you would be able to get the Update over OTA as the ROM is hosted on Xiaomi Server.
5. Battery Backup:
Cant comment on it right now, too early to say. Need to use it for atleast a couple of days. But with the current usage, I can tell you it would perform as good as on the stock ROM, if not better. 5 hours of screen time can be achieved easily so a full day on full charge is possible.
6. Overall Experience:
When it comes to small things like call quality, audio/video experience, heating and so on. The device feels pretty good to use. Audio in call is clear, wifi and network connectivity is good and other normal features are same as stock ROM so i did not dwell on them in detail.
7. Bugs/Cons:
This ROM is by no means perfect. If you are playing a graphics intensive game or were multitasking and you had to minimze the apps/games, when you open the app, it would refresh. Meaning, browsers will reload the page, games will start from the beggining and you will lose your unsaved data/work. Same happens when you recieve a call.
Another issue faced is, messengers like qq and watsapp sometimes dont show notifications unless and until you open them. And no, Greenify is not hibernating these apps and i am not talking about heavy usage shutting down background apps.
Transfer and Mi Key app included in the ROM FC. Tried a lot but they dont work. And it seems i am not the only one.
Conclusion - Who Should Flash it and Who Shouldn't:
Anyone looking for a good MIUI experience on Redmi 1s should definitely go with this ROM. It solves a bulk of the issue most users complain about. Removing Bloatware and including minimal google apps package along with kernel mods and ROM tweaks seems to have given this ROM a great performance boost. Not only that, heating is less for a device that isnt throttled so aggressively. Dont expect the device to be super cool. The CPU will heat upon usage. But it wont reach the point where you cant use it comfortably.
On the other hand, those who think that Mokee/CM performance is the standard for redmi 1s and there shouldn't be any kind of lag on the device. Be it in the animation, gaming, or multitasking, might want to give this ROM a skip. Coz at some point, with heavy usage, MIUI will show its toll. And unless you are willing to go that extra step to make Adria run smooth, stay away from it. Another important thing, Adria is based on MIUI 5 which is an Android Jelly bean 4.3 based ROM. And most other Custom ROMs are based on Kitkat. So if Android version makes a difference, give it a skip.
At the end of it all, i would suggest you to give it a try and show your full support to the developers. This is not just another random ROM but solves a lot of issues and problems for redmi 1s users.
Original ROM Thread and Download link:
If you liked the features of the ROM and want to try it, please do visit the original thread posted by the developers for full Specifications and dont forget to say thanks to the developers by rating them.
Click on this link for the original ROM thread -
For Downloading the ROM from Official Xiaomi servers, click on this link -
Flashing Procedure:
- Download the ROM package from the link mentioned above. The downloaded file will be in .zip format. Copy the file in your phone's SD card.
- Boot into your custom Recovery (TWRP). For booting, turn off phone and press volume up and power button together when phone is completely switched off. Will not work with Stock recovery so you need to flash TWRP if you dont already have it. You can flash TWRP flashing guide and download link on this thread -
- Select Wipe Data - swipe for factory reset. Wait for it to finish.
- Press back and click on install. It will give you a warning. Ignore and proceed to select and flash the zip you had copied in your SD card.
- It will ask you if you want to wipe cache/dalvik when flashing complete. Wipe it.
- Go back to main menu and Reboot.
- The developer suggests flashing stock MIUI stable ROM first if you are on some other custom ROM. However, i did not flash Stock MIUI. I moved from CM11 directly. So you can do that too. Dont forget to take a full backup from TWRP before wiping data and flashing new ROM.
- Does not require a Gapps package to be flashed separetely as its already included in ROM.
NOTE:- source of this articals
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