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You’ve followed my simple instructions to root your mighty HTC One X — it’s prepped and ready for cybernetic implants. Here are the best five ROMs I found for the Android powerhouse, with a wide spread of extra features and better efficiency.
Each of the download links leads to a forum page that includes the files you need and instructions for installation. Let me know which are your favourites — or any others you recommend — in the comments below, or over on our Facebook page.
CyanogenMod 10 for One X
CyanogenMod needs no introduction if you’ve rooted your Android phone before. This unofficial alternative to the standard Android operating system provides improved functionality but not necessarily at the expense of stability.
Built on top of Jelly Bean, highlights of the ROM include nightly builds (although we would recommend you stick to monthly builds if you are a newbie to all of this), five menus to change settings, an improved lock screen, the ability to add themes to give your One X a personal look and customisation of sytem settings.
Not only that, CyanogenMod 10 can be used to overclock your phone although, as with any fettling, it may do more harm than good. You have been warned.
Clean ROM 5.1
Here’s a great choice if you want improved battery life and superior functionality, but you’re wary of being bogged down by choice and unfamiliarity. Built on top of Android 4.0.4 and HTC’s Sense 4.1, Clean ROM 5.1 is designed to be rock-solid in the stability department.
This means no themes to change the look of your device, but you can still tinker with a number of settings above and beyond the restricted norm of Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
Slim Bean
As the successor to Slim ICS (a customised version of Ice Cream Sandwich), Slim Bean gives you a more colourful fistful of Jelly Beans, without any of the built-in firmware restrictions. This means you can adjust the interface of your phone, set up profiles for different uses, change themes and keep tabs on your CPU, its voltage and other peformance related information associated with overclocking.
Apart from enhancing the look of your Android device and improving performance and battery life, Slim Bean provides shedloads of options to make your phone do almost exactly what you want it to. Sadly, doing the ironing isn’t one of them.
Nocturnal MergeX
Team Nocturnal’s MergeX combines the features of HTC’s Sense user interface, including the camera software, with the visual style of CyanagenMod 10. Once again, like most of the good ROMs, it improves speed to the point where chugginess is a thing of the past. MergeX also adds a tonne of functionality, including stuff from AOSP, or Android Open Source Project. Battery life is also improved.
Though still customisable, Nocturnal is designed to work out of the box with little effort, making it a good choice for those who would rather leave most of the effort to the experts.
Team Venom viperX 2.7.1
To the hardcore Android user, Team Venom’s work needs no introduction and viperX 2.7.1 represents another fine ROM. It’s incredibly fast and packs oodles of useful features, such as a custom status bar, infinite scrolling, a Venom Tweaks menu for a number of unique features and the Venom Hub for installing new themes.
Not only that, updates for the ROM are delivered over the air, which means less faffing around installing them manually, and the viperX 2.7.1 is very stable, which is why it’s won itself a legion of Android fans.
