Galaxy S3 – Best Android 5.1 Lollipop ROMs

Old but gold. This can be the perfect quote for Galaxy S3. It has been more than three years that it is released in the markets worldwide and a huge number of people use a Galaxy S3. That’s why the developers still create and port stuff to it. Galaxy S3 is considered as the most supported phone.

Just a few months ago most of the devices receive a Lollipop update. We saw devices being upgraded to Android 5.0 and later to Android 5.1 but for Galaxy S3 there is no word if it would receive an official update. However there is nothing to worry. Even though Samsung does not support this phone any more, developers do.

They create lot of stuff for Galaxy S3 and the ROMs described below tells about that. It’s not Lollipop 5.0 but it’s Android 5.1 that bring tons of optimizations and the new Material Design look. The most popular ROMs have landed on Galaxy S3 and you can choose to install Lollipop 5.1 on Galaxy S3 right away.

• Table of Contents

  CyanogenMod 12.1

CyanogenMod is the most popular Custom ROM. If you don’t want to use the stock ROM the first ROM you should search for is CyanogenMod. The Cyanogen team update the ROM every time the new Android version is released. Even this time the CyanogenMod is updated and it brings all the features of Android 5.1 Lollipop besides the other features added by developers.

CyanogenMod is based on Stock Android and offers various features to your device. The CyanogenMod community is one of the biggest and the developers there try to bring the best user interface. I have been using for a long time CyanogenMod even before the Lollipop was released since I am not a fan of Touchwiz version of Samsung.

CyanogenMod Features:

Privacy Guard

CyanogenMod allows its user to control app permissions and disable what it’s not needed. You can control what an app can learn about you and protect yourself with only one click.

Quick Setting Ribbon

Enable toggles and even the camera in the notifications drawer. This is the fastest way to access your favourite app and enable or disable the most used actions like mobile data, WiFi and more.

Theme

CyanogenMod ROMs comes integrated with a theme engine which allows you to change the look of your device. Get your favourite theme and personalise your phone.

Global Blacklist

Baked into the Operating system the ability to flag telemarketers, robo-callers or annoying people and blacklist them. So you will never receive a call or SMS from these people.

Status Bar Behaviour

CyanogenMod ROM allows you to customize your Status Bar and Unlock some of the best features. Simply tap on the date to open calendar or type on the clock to set an alarm.

CM File Manager

CyanogenMod ROMs comes with a built-in File Manager. You can organise and edit your files easy and simple.

CM Account

The CyanogenMod team have created a secure and encrypted account service right in. You can have some control over your device even if you don’t have it on your hand. You can get remote, find and wipe the device.

DSP Manager

CyanogenMod gives you the chance to unlock the potential of your headphones with a built in equalizer.

Superuser

Easily manage root access to the applications you trust, check access logs and revoke access logs when you are done.

Advanced Device Controls

These are few extra options that are added only to CyanogenMod ROMs. They vary by device and ROM version and allow you to have deeper control over your device.

SMS Rate Limit

This is a neat feature that notify you if an app starts spamming bogus SMS  message services to generate advertising revenue for a developer. It’s a useful options because always there are some bad apps out there.

• OmniROM Android 5.1.1

This is another ROM you can install right away on your Galaxy S3 and enjoy Lollipop 5.1. There are plenty of ROMs out there waiting to be installed on Galaxy S3 but why you should install OmniROM?

At the begging OmniROM was created as a reaction to CyanogenMod “Selling out” and now it’s developer as a commercial enterprise. There are a lot of developers working behind the OmniROM to bring to you the latest updates. But what can OmniROM offers to you?

Active Display

It allows you to view notifications and even messages directly on the Lock Screen. It can be configured via Android settings. Once you go there you can set notifications frequency, how they will appear on lock screen, repeat rate and more. You can choose to keep some of the apps hidden and you won’t receive notifications on lock screen.

Customise Status Bar & Notification Drawer

To customise Notification Drawer go to Settings Screen. There you can choose to activate a background image and configure shortcuts for date and time.

Under the Settngs > Bars you can enable the ability to adjust brightness by sliding finger across the Status Bar. There you also can change the position of date and time, adjust how notification drawer is pulled down and you can add indicators to monitor the network traffic.

Flick2Wake & Pick2Wake 

OmniROM brings and Advanced Settings when you can deeply customise your Device. There you can perform various tweaks. O good one that I really like is Flick2Wake and Pick2Wake. When the screen is in the vertical position the screen will turn on.

Flick2Wake is effective and comes with its companion Flick2Slep. Enable both this feature and you can turn the display on or off simply by flicking the wrist.

Voice Controls and Launcher Customisations

OmniROM allows you to change the dimensions of the icons and shortcuts on the home screen to as high as 10×10. So if you ever complained about the limited number of columns on Android Home Screen OmniROM has solved this problem.

In conclusion OmniROM brings a great selection of improvements to Stock Android. The ROM is optimised to run faster and the battery life is excellent.

• SlimLP 1.04 

SlimLP is a ROM based on Android open-source-project AOSP. It is designed to brings a Slim and faster phone with full of features and optimisations. The ROM is optimized to be faster and your phone will run without any lag. SlimLP ROMs are designed for black theme lovers. The ROM has a dark slim design and you can invert everything with a single click.

Other features of the Slim ROMs:

Slim Recents:

It wil replace totally the AOSP recent screen to give a better experience using multitasking along with marking favourite apps.

Slim Privacy:

Slim Privacy Guard is a neat feature that we have seen only on SlimROMs. It allows you to disable unnecessary permissions set by developers. You don’t have anymore to follow tired guides to disable app permission which sometimes are necessary to do because the app asks to access much more than what it needs to work.

Slim Pie

Here comes another cool feature of Slim ROMs. Simply by swiping your finger at the bottom corner of the phone a shortcut menu which allows you to access your favourite apps or phone options. Slim Pie is based on CM’s Pie and inspired by PA’s Pie with a light touch of Slim.

Notification Reminder:

Slim ROMs offer you a way to easily set reminders to show on the notification drawer so you want miss anything.

Slim Dialer:

Slim Dialer has replaced replaced the stock Google Dialer. It offers so many features to make calling easy and awesome.

Notification Drawer & Lock Screen Shortcut:

You can access your favourite apps from everywhere even in the lock screen. You won’t have to unlock the phone every time you want to access your favourite app. Simply create a lock screen shortcut and easily access the app.

Shake Event:

Simply by shaking your phone you can do various action on your phone. You can open and close apps, secure your lock screen and much more.

• Resurrection Remix

The Resurrection team has already released a build of Resurrection Remix ROM based on the latest V5.1 Lollipop version. It has a mix of features from the most popular ROMs like Paranoid Android, OmniROM, AOKP and SlimROM. As the name says Resurrection Remix team have picked the best features of other ROMs and bring them to a single ROM.

According to the team and Resurrection users, the ROM is complied to be stable enoght to give you the best Android experience. For many users it might be the perfect ROM but for some other Resurrection Remix might not be the ideal ROM because it contains tons of features from other ROMs and you may not like that. Android users want something unique and Resurrection Remix ROM might not be the first choice.

Personally I like it too much since I want to have a device allowing me to do lot of things and nothing better than Resurrection Remix can offer that to you. There is so much space to customize that you will be amazed. If you want to know more what Resurrection Remix can offer to your Galaxy S3 here are the best features.

• Plethora of options to customise.
• Heads Up Notifications.
• UI Customisations. Customise every piece of the ROM from Status Bar to Recent Apps.
• Theme chooser (Included Resurrection Remix Pitch Black Theme).
• App Circle Bar.
• Lock Screen shortcuts (more than 100 shortcuts to add on Lock Screen).
• Quick Slider Shortcuts.
• New CM Audio FX App.
• Increased performance and UI-enhancing features.