How Resurrection Remix Made My Galaxy Note 3 Spiffy Again.

If you have been following the consumer tech industry even remotely as close as I have, you begin to realize that 2013 feels like ages ago in terms of the frequency of smartphone releases. While the stock TouchWiz ROM of 2013 and beyond can still keep up, albeit barely, an OS upgrade was long overdue for my Note 3 whom I lovingly named Edgar .

Keep in mind that I installed an updated version of TouchWiz 5.0 Lollipop a few months ago but eventually, it didn’t cut it for me anymore. The UI felt dated despite being based on Android L, something Sammy is really notorious for, and I had a slew of other minor but really annoying problems with the OS. The Bluetooth connection between my phone and my OG Pebble would constantly drop out, making the watch almost useless. Memory management on the original ROM was also spotty, causing very recently used apps (like the second to the last app I used) to still reload despite having used it just a few minutes prior.

Another reason for wanting to refresh Edgar is all the clutter caused by my son’s constant app downloading. I would let him borrow my phone from time to time so he can relax and watch his toy reviews, but he’d eventually want to play. And play he would. The result was over 30 games downloaded in the span of a couple of days, and I always had to remove all the crap that he’d download (screw all the junkware games in the Play Store).

Anyway, I stumbled across a Reddit post (image above) in the Note 3 sub detailing the battery life of a Galaxy Note 3 running Resurrection Remix (RR) and I was blown away, to say the least. It had achieved 5h 42m two hours of Screen On Time, which sealed the deal for me. Stock Android based off CM and other ROMs, 6.0 Marshmallow and overall slick looks? Sign me up.

So I went over to the XDA thread and read over all the installation instructions. Thankfully I had a relatively new version of TWRP custom recovery, so I just had to update it to the latest build. I downloaded the latest stable build for RR, downloaded the mini gapps posted there, and began to do a full Titanium backup and then a nandroid backup over TWRP. Boy did that take long, but probably because I did the nandroid backup without uninstalling all the games that my son had downloaded (something I definitely should have done), hence the long backup time.

With all the precautions completed, I wiped the system, data, and cache through TWRP, did a factory reset and flashed the ROM and gapps respectively. The phone booted up after about 5 minutes of staring at a spiffy, fluid splash screen and boom, stock Android 6.0 goodness.

By this point, I was beyond stoked to try all the customization options of RR, and there are a lot of those. From status bar elements and font colors to complete theme overhauls, RR features the best of customization from the CyanogenMod side of things while being stable all around. I did have a couple of force restarts, but I determined that SwiftKey was the culprit as always was the case. Despite having purchased that damn good keyboard app, I had to say goodbye to it and just use the Google Keyboard instead, a compromise that didn’t hurt so much.

Note: I managed to get SwiftKey to play well with the OS again after simply installing it again. It may have just been some compatibility issues with the backup.

What I Like

With RR comes all the bells and whistles of AOSP, but without any of the bloatware. The result is a zippy, beautiful OS that handles everything I could ever throw at it. A slew of customization options are present in the Settings menu, and hitting the Configurations button will reveal dozens of other options you can tweak. I love Omniswitch, and I was glad that it was baked into the OS. I don’t use it as a Recents replacement, but the convenience I get from the shortcuts is invaluable.

I also opted to use the flashlight shortcut, which you can bind to the power button. Long press the power button while the screen is off, and it will turn on the torch. Press it briefly again to turn off. It’s handy for when I need a light but I’m charging my phone as it’s attached to the GridIt stuck against my headboard.

One other thing worth mentioning is that Android 6.0 fixes the Bluetooth disconnection issue (as far as I can tell), so no more issue with my Pebble being useless. Additionally, the trusted devices feature is functioning, so the upgrade added more convenience in my day to day digital meandering.

Edit: I’ve since lost my Pebble (RIP old boy), but I had no BT connection issues after updating.

What I Don’t Like So Much

I previously mentioned a couple instances of force restarts the first few days of using RR, but I can report that the issue has been resolved. Though you never really know what caused it exactly when dealing with custom ROMs unless you’re a developer looking through error logs, so I figured that it was either Swiftkey causing issues or some apps from my Titanium backup restoration caused the restarts. I quickly figured out that I was a dumbass for restoring backed up apps from another OS, but thankfully the Play Store updated the iffy apps in question and I can confidently say that the issues are gone.

I’m running RR v5.7.4 from the Sept. 21,2016 update and using the default OS kernel. I have also been getting this seldom recurring bug where running YouTube full screen will cause the playback progress bar to partially clip down the bottom of the screen. Also, some quick settings elements are iffy in landscape mode such as when I try to connect my BT headphones while watching a video. The options for choosing found BT devices will show as unpopulated, but switching to portrait mode fixes the issue.

In the end, I got what I needed from my upgrade. Smooth transitions, exceptional RAM management, a plethora of customization options, excellent app support, and so much more. I now have a spiffy OS in an oldie but goodie phone, and I don’t see myself needing to buy another smartphone in the next couple of years. Hopefully, this doesn’t sound too fanboyish for you not to try it out. If you’ve been looking for a good updated ROM, this is it.

Cheers to Lord Eko and the other contributors who refined this ROM and gave my phone a second wind that will make it relevant for years.