For a few months now, I've been using the HTC Rhodium (aka Touch Pro 2, Tilt 2) on the Sprint CDMA network. It is a few generations more current than my previous device, the HTC Titan (aka Mogul), and has already been surpassed by the HTC Leo (aka HD2). My Sprint-branded model has a 528Mhz CPU and pretends to have 512MB memory, although only ~184 of that is actually used for applications and the rest is storage, which is pretty useless on a device with a microSD card reader. The stock Sprint ROM (software configuration) is Windows Mobile 6.1 coupled with HTC's TouchFlo 3D (aka Manila 2.1) interface. I've never been one to leave well enough alone, so I was eagerly awaiting the HardSPL Unlocker for Rhodium_W (the CDMA model for carriers like Verizon and Sprint). It finally came out and I was able to start looking for new ROMs to try on it.

 

MightyROM
The first ROM I tried was MightyROM, because it offered what was essentially the same operating environment as I was used to on the Sprint stock ROM (WinMo 6.1 and Manila 2.1), but from a third-party kitchen (which is a tool used to hand-craft custom ROMs). I tried this mostly to find out how much bloat had come with the Sprint ROM and how much faster and more available memory I would have. I definitely got a speed increase, but occasionally I would have issues with stability and sending MMS messages required some extra effort on my part. In short, I felt that the Sprint stock ROM was better overall in terms of usability.

EnergyROM Leo
Next, I tried the new EnergyROM Leo, which is a modified HTC Leo ROM that works on the HTC Rhodium. This ROM featured the newest version of TouchFlo 3D (aka Manila 2.5), which has been officially renamed to HTC Sense UI (confused yet?). The ROM also features Windows Mobile 6.5, which is drastically different from Windows Mobile 6.1. Many users notice only notice the significant changes to the Start Menu, but the reason for that is because most Windows Mobile 6.1 phones that come out are pre-loaded with many, many extensions that HTC wrote to make it more touch-friendly and user-friendly to compete with the iPhone. If you haven't seen a "clean" Windows Mobile 6.1 ROM, it looks like this:

Superficially, it is barely different from Windows Mobile 5, but there were significant changes underneath the hood which are too boring to talk about here. EnergyROM Leo looks nothing like this, nor does it even look like a clean Windows Mobile 6.5 ROM. EnergyROM Leo is designed for performance and visual appeal, and looks like this:

I had to check it out just because it was awesome looking. The built-in "social engine" (which only supports Twitter for the moment) was a welcome addition to the TouchFlo/SenseUI/Manila interface, and integrating the Home panel with the Programs panel (simply swipe a finger up to reveal the programs) I thought was a nice touch. It's very cool and I would recommend Leo's SenseUI for someone who does 99% of their usage within the TouchFlo/SenseUI/Manila interface. However, the drawback of using EnergyROM Leo is that it since it's hacked together from software intended for Leo, there are both stability issues and usability issues (you can't use landscape at all in the TouchFlo/SenseUI/Manila interface). Extra hacks were also required to get MMS working, which is pretty standard for these ROMs because Sprint handles MMS kind of in a weird way internally. What really turned me off to EnergyROM Leo was that my phone would occasionally freeze entirely, which made me late to work more than once. Unacceptable and removed.

MightyROM Love
Since MightyROM and EnergyROM are the most popular custom ROMs for the platform, I checked in on MightyMike to see if there were any new developments in the MightyROM world. I discovered that in addition to a new build of the MightyROM from before, there were also three split-off ROM projects called MightyROM War, MightyROM Love, and MightyROM Impact. War has the SenseUI 2.5 from EnergyROM Leo, Love had the latest WinMo 6.5 build, and Impact had both. I decided that I would rather devote program memory to the programs I used rather than the SenseUI interface, so I got MightyROM Love and simply disabled Manila 2.1. Upon checking my links for this article, I now see a new ROM on there called MightyROM Void, which is exactly this same configuration (although I'm sure you get more storage space for not having Manila on there at all).

I like using MightyROM Love, as the Titanium (WinMo 6.5 touch-friendly default) interface is much faster than TouchFlo/SenseUI/Manila, but it is definitely plainer. I haven't even got a weather app set up and configured for it yet, so I've been relying on my work iPhone for weather info. Again, MMS hacks were required, but I'm used to it by now so everything is pretty reliable and fast, but also pretty plain and featureless. I haven't even bothered to change the sounds and background yet. I guess I'm waiting for something better?

The custom ROM world moves pretty quickly, and in checking links for this article I see now that MightyMike has implemented landscape support for SenseUI 2.5 in the War and Impact variants of his ROM. I've seen this hacked in before with mortscript and it's pretty raw and fairly unusable, so I'll be interested to see if this is that same thing or if it's done right (probably the latter since MightyMike refuses to ship the ROM with mortscript built in). Supposedly now there is a way to get MMS working without disabling HTC Messaging, so I will be trying that out too because I was sad to see that neat extension go just to make MMS work, and the strongest argument to going back to the Sprint stock ROM. The standard MightyROM has also been updated and promises better performance, so for the first-time custom ROM user I would recommend the current "vanilla" MightyROM. The only annoying thing is that he hijacks the boot screen with his logo, which has been a pet peeve of mine for a LONG time since well before QuickPwn started putting that dumb pineapple logo on iPhones. EnergyROM has been updated too but I'm going to wait for some significant changes to the ROM before I try it out again.

Got a favorite ROM that I've overlooked? Mention it in the comments! I don't know about you but I'm looking for speed and stability, with maximum available memory as a secondary objective.