The Best Sense ROMs For Your HTC Android Smartphone

If you have an HTC smartphone and are anything like me, you just can’t seem to get away from HTC’s Sense user interface. It’s sleek, intuitive, and has way more features than what the stock Android UI offers.

While some custom ROMs like CyanogenMod are quite popular, I could never quite stick with them because of the absence of HTC Sense. However, you can still get all the great features of a custom ROM without sacrificing the goodies of the Sense UI. Here are a few options:

Note: Before you can flash custom ROMs, you’ll need to root your Android device first. Use Google to find a how-to guide that’s catered towards your specific phone. If you’re still not sure that you want to root your Android device, here are a few reasons that might change your mind.

Redemption

This is currently my primary ROM, mostly because I like the subtle changes to the theme that make it a bit darker, and the developer does a good job keeping it up to date. If you like the stock look of the Sense UI, but want it to look a bit more sleeker without overdoing it, this is the ROM for you.

Redemption ROM

Virtuous

This is a fantastic ROM for those that want the completely stock look of the Sense UI, but don’t want the bloatware that comes with it. It’s also a good choice for users who are new to flashing custom ROMs because of its easy maintenance tools like Virtuous Buddy and EZ-Customizer.

SkyRaider

The best thing I like about SkyRaider is the recent apps in the notification pull-down menu. Surprisingly, I like it better than holding down the home button to view recent apps. SkyRaider also updated the stock Android keyboard to the Gingerbread keyboard.

SkyRaider ROM

Uncommon Sense

If you want the best of both worlds (Sense UI and stock Android), Uncommon Sense is the ROM to use. It includes the wonderful widgets the Sense users love along with the look of the stock Android UI. It’s also packed with all the essential root apps and includes many browser choices by default (SkyFire, xScope and Dolphin HD).

Uncommon Sense ROM

IncROM

If speed and smoothness is the selling point for you, IncROM might be up your alley. It’s probably the fastest and smoothest ROM I’ve tried. Plus, the developer is pretty quick to release fixes for bugs, so dev support is not a problem with this ROM.

IncROM

Warm

The main feature of the Warm ROM is that it’s pretty. If you’re an artistic type, you’ll enjoy Warm. It also has a ton of mods (thanks to the Warm community) that you can install separately and play around with.

 

Warm ROM

 

 

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Comments

7 responses to “The Best Sense ROMs For Your HTC Android Smartphone”

  1. Nathan Bechtold Avatar
    Nathan Bechtold

    as for battery life, what would you choose? i have run cm7 but like you i enjoy the overall aspects of sense, so i am now running skyraider but it seems to wipe my batter even faster than my stock rom.

    1. Craig Lloyd Avatar
      Craig Lloyd

      I couldn’t tell a huge difference in battery life amongst these five
      ROMs, but if I had to choose one that has the better chance of having a
      better battery life, it would be the IncROM.

      1. Nathan Bechtold Avatar
        Nathan Bechtold

        alright i may try that out. i also found a way to desensitize sr4 (to get rid of bloatware and vzw crap and rosie, ect) but the thing is it deletes all sense widgets and i do like some of the sense widgets such as email and camera, but i could probably live without other widgets and can always get any gapps i want with an apk. do you think i should try another rom or desensitize sr4 first. and if i desensitize is there anyway to keep these widgets or get ones very similar?

        1. Evan Wondrasek Avatar
          Evan Wondrasek

          The home screen replacement app LauncherPro has some fantastic Sense-like widgets, and Beautiful Widgets has a Sense-like weather widget and many other useful tools.

          1. Nathan Bechtold Avatar
            Nathan Bechtold

            ok yea i have launcher pro and thats what i used while running cm7 the only thing i had problems with was that it would be glitchy when syncing. like it would only load/refresh my mail upon rebooting the phone (the auto push sucked ass) and thats why i switched roms back to sense, perhaps that was just due to cm7 and on sr4 these bugs will be fixed? 

    2. Evan Wondrasek Avatar
      Evan Wondrasek

      I installed the Redemption ROM on my girlfriend’s HTC Incredible about a month ago. I asked her if she noticed any positive or negative change in her battery life and she said it seemed the same as stock.

  2. João Filipe Cachinho Avatar
    João Filipe Cachinho

    All these roms work with htc explorer ?

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