The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is one wonderful smartphone and even trumps the latest version of the Note in some ways. However, the software side of the smartphone is starting to show its age now. Thankfully, you can easily install one of the best custom ROM for Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and enjoy an updated and in many cases faster experience. This is the beauty of the Android platform, you get to do whatever you want and completely removing the Samsung TouchWiz skin is among those things. By now your smartphone will already be out of warranty so it makes sense to either purchase a new smartphone or spice up your experience with a custom ROM. This article will assume that you already know how to root Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and how to flash ROMs. If you don’t, I recommend that you check out our guide on how to root the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. I will also suggest that you fully explore what Galaxy Note 4 and TouchWiz have to offer by checking out 20 tips and tricks for Galaxy Note 4 as well as 15 ways to customize the phone. Finally, I will say that Joy of Android is no way responsible for any damage wrongly installing a ROM can do to your device. So it is highly advised that you read the ROM instructions on the XDA landing page and follow them to the latter. Installing/flashing a new ROM on your phone is simple and easy if you follow the instructions but can be hairy if you don’t. Another thing you need to know is the model of your smartphone. Some Galaxy Note 4 come with a Snapdragon processor while others come with Samsung’s own in house Exynos one. Both will have different ROMs for them and no, you simply cannot install anything on any model. You can check the model by going into Settings>More Info. The first 6 ROMs in this list are for the Snapdragon variant while the last 4 are for the Exynos one.
1. Dr.Ketan Custom ROM
Want to get the latest Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy Edge features on your older Galaxy Note 4? You can have them thanks to this great ROM. The ROM brings in so many features that I will need a completely dedicated article just to explore them. However, if you want the best ROM for the Galaxy Note 4, this is a big contender. It is stable and stocked full of epic features. Did you know that this app allows you to turn on the camera during a call? Not a lot of other OEM or custom ROMs have that feature. From great themes to advanced RAM management, this ROM has it all. I highly recommend paying a visit to the XDA page for a robust look at the feature set.
2. Cyanogen Mod 13 Official
Cyanogen Mod is perhaps the most famous ROM and any Android lover must have seen or used it at one point or another. Personally, I have used this ROM on Samsung Galaxy SIII as well as Galaxy Note 3 smartphones and it has worked wonderfully on both of them. The creators of this ROM are active as well as helpful people. The Cyanogen Mod sees constant releases and is being updated on a regular basis. There are a lot of features in this custom ROM for Samsung Galaxy Note 4 but it runs extremely smooth on the device. Gone are all of the bloatware Samsung has installed with their own skin of Android and this really helps speed up the device. Your device will also be losing some S-Pen centric features here but if you want a simple experience, this is one of the best ROMs available today.
3. Emotion Revolution
Emotion Revolution has been around for other devices but this version of the ROM really shines ahead of others. Emotion ROM is available on a couple of devices and is intended to increase the performance of Android-based devices. The ROM also offers a mixed bag of features and improvements that are only available on this ROM. While you cannot say that this is an entirely original experience, but this ROM manages to take the best aspects of other OEM ROMs and makes them its own. This version of emotion ROM comes with many performance tweaks as well as improved battery. The custom ROM also introduces multi-users as well as a flashlight in toggles. One of the best aspects of this ROM is that it comes with a custom-built animation feature as well as swipe to open APKs.
4. Omega ROM
Omega ROM is the ROM you get when you want an experience similar to Samsung’s own TouchWiz skin. I highly recommend this great ROM to those who want to keep the features included by Samsung on the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and yet want to get rid of the bloatware as they see fit. Apart from usual functionality, the Omega ROM brings in a lot of different mods with it. For example, the ROM comes with an excellent call recorder. The 4-way boot menu that allows you to boot directly into recovery mode on the ROM, as well making everything a lot easier. The Omega ROM makes everything TouchWiz without actually being TouchWiz.
5. Super Fast & Famous ROM
As the name implies, this ROM makes everything fast by stripping your Galaxy Note 4 of useless bloatware. This ROM was also on Galaxy Note 2 as well as Note 3 so I have had the pleasure of using the older versions of the ROM myself. However, before we go deep into details, I would like to remind you that this is as barebones are you can get. Sure, the basic functions are all there but many others are trimmed down to make the ROM a lot faster. If you crave speed and don’t want any of the Samsung’s own services running in the background, this is the ROM made for you.
6. AllianceROM
Now not everyone changes ROMs to get new functions, some people also like to change the way their smartphone looks. For those people who are simply not satisfied by the custom launchers on Android, this is the best ROM there is. The amount of customization you can achieve on this particular ROM is astounding. AllianceROM makes changing the colors of your Samsung Galaxy Note 4 device an easy thing. Want to make your status bar transparent? This ROM can do that. Want to move the clock to a different place? Yep, this ROM can do that. It’s based on Samsung 5.0.1 TouchWiz so you will be getting a stable performance with this rom as well.
7. Ditto Note 5 ROM
If you are feeling left out by the latest Galaxy Note 5’s inclusions, no worries, this Ditto Note 5 ROM is here to save the day. Made by Electron Team, the guys behind porting Note 4 TouchWiz to Galaxy Note 2, this is one promising addition to the list. I really love how OEMs say there is no way the new features would work on their older devices and wham comes the modders to change everything. True, a lot of hardware dependent features will not work but everything else works just as intended. If you want to joy ride the new Galaxy Note 5 features without getting the smartphone outright, this is the ROM for you.
8. Glamour ROM
Glamor ROM is one of the best custom ROMs for Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Exynos version. The ROM comes pre-rooted and with virtually zero bloatware on board. The ROM is based on the Samsung Galaxy S6 framework and all of the S6 apps are ported to the ROM. This includes phone, SMS and contacts. The ROM also comes with great looking themes that can help you change the look of the phone in seconds. The S-Pen features are also kept intact; this is a relief for those who love to use them on a daily basis. So Airview, Smart Select, S-Note and Pen Select are all on board. You will also get some battery life improvements, thanks to clever optimizations.
9. Infinity ROM
Want a more stock like look and experience on your Samsung Galaxy Note 4 smartphone? Then get Infinity ROM on it. While it is based on the stock Android 5.0.1 OS, it is still one of the smoothest ROM out there for the phone. A lot of Galaxy S6 apps are also made available on this ROM; this includes the SBroswer, calculator, keyboard and file manager. The 5 ways reboot menu is also present in this ram. One of the best things about this ROM is that it ships with 14 different themes ready to be applied by you. You will also be able to record calls without the need of any third party apps on this ROM.
10. SimplROM
While the name of SimplROM may imply that the ROM is barebones and simple, it is anything but that. This is a fully loaded ROM which will not only provide quality performance but also introduce you to new customization tools. The SimplTeam behind this ROM has made it unique and wonderful to use. This is a pre-rooted and pre-BusyBox ROM. It is also deodexed and zip aligned. The ROM has also gotten rid of Knox which was already an annoyance. The tool provided will help you with system settings, Notification panel settings, as well as status bar settings.
Conclusion
Getting the perfect custom ROM for Samsung Galaxy Note 4 can be hard. This is all up to your personal preferences. I highly encourage you to back up your stock ROM and keep it somewhere safe, in duplicates before experimentation. And try out different ROMs before settling on one. If you have any questions or concerns about the ROMs included in this list, feel free to ask them in the comments section below. Featured Image Credit
