Are there any advantages to using a custom ROM

[demonix]

Beyond getting rid of any manufacturer bloat included as standard (I'm talking performance, less RAM usage and battery life (if that is possible) increases) as I'm certain that the EmotionUI is what is causing some of the issues with some apps since I know that a 0.3GHz difference shouldn't cause an app to crash with the same amount of RAM available.

Also, what would be the best ones to use on a Huawei Ascend Y300 and what I'd need to back up any essential data (accounts, apps and any settings data since getting APN data from giffgaff on android handsets seems to be pretty hit and miss) before starting the process of going to a custom ROM.

 

[lamboman]

I'd suggest CyanogenMod if you want a polished ROM that is well supported and essentially as close to stock Android as possible. This said, whether or not an official build is available for the Y300 I have no clue.

As for backups, I'd only backup the things that must be backed up (eg. game saves), as restoring apps that have accounts etc. can cause issues. For texts, I used SMS Backup and Restore, and Titanium Backup for everything else (had nothing but problems using Helium).

 

[Psycho Sonny]

If you have an older phone or a phone with poor software updates and support then yes imo CUSTOM ROM is the only way to go.

if you have a nexus 5 however imo it's simply not needed, you can simply stick with stock, root it, use a customer kernel, custom colour profile and then add any features you want through apps.

Cyanogen Mod is regarded as the best as it is usually widely supported and stable staying close to vanilla android experience.

Once you start delving into the more complicated custom rom's with more and more features they tend not to be stable or run as efficiently.

 

[demonix]

This said, whether or not an official build is available for the Y300 I have no clue.

There aren't any official builds, but there are unofficial builds for it from CM10 up to CM11 (although I might stick with 10.1 or 10.2 if 11 is a bit too much for the phone to handle), but I'd have to root the phone first since the backup solution you provided requires that first.

 

[manveruppd]

Coming from Sense CyanogenMod was a revelation! I suppose I could have just used the Trebuchet launcher on its own and still seen awesome gains (since Sense itself was the biggest resource hog), but Cyanogenmod lets you get under the hood of the system so much more, you can tweak to your heart's content or your phone's demise!

 

[this_is_gav]

There aren't any official builds, but there are unofficial builds for it from CM10 up to CM11 (although I might stick with 10.1 or 10.2 if 11 is a bit too much for the phone to handle), but I'd have to root the phone first since the backup solution you provided requires that first.

In theory CM11 should be better than CM10 for lower-end devices. Google specifically made 4.4 more efficient so lower-end devices could better support it.

 

[biron_w]

I suppose the main draw of custom roms is all the extra features.
Things like Halo, PIE, lockscreen shortcuts, lockscreen notifications, theme chooser.

 

[demonix]

In theory CM11 should be better than CM10 for lower-end devices. Google specifically made 4.4 more efficient so lower-end devices could better support it.

I've downloaded the latest CM11 nightly build, the latest CWM that'll allow my to install it along with anything else that looks to be necessary, so I only need to obtain the software required to root the phone (which is required to use the suggested backup method) and unlock the bootloader (which might be a problem as the only one I've found so far installs a different recovery which I'm unsure if it can be used to install CM11 as the recovery required needs to support 4.3 and have certain fixes included) before I can get rid of this RAM hog Huawei have put on the phone.

 

[manveruppd]

In theory CM11 should be better than CM10 for lower-end devices. Google specifically made 4.4 more efficient so lower-end devices could better support it.

Haha good luck with that, I've been waiting for a stable 4.4 ROM for my phone for months! Either the camera doesn't work, or the G-sensor goes haywire, or GPS can't get a lock. And the one common factor is Google switched to a different form of Webview that most older phones can't handle. I think the new version needs hardware acceleration whch most old phones don't support or something.... can't remember exactly what but a lot of phones have problems with it.