Friday, May 31, 2013

Upgraded my HTC Incredible S to Nik ROM with Sense 4.1 Lite and Sense 5 visual

My 2 years old HTC Incredible S Android smartphone with official HTC ROM was last updated to Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich, ICS) with Sense UI 3.6 in July 2012. Since then, it didn't receive any new ROM update from HTC anymore.

Since its 2-years warranty period is now over, I upgraded it to a custom ROM called Nik Project X Rebirth v3.0 with Sense 4.1 Lite and some Sense 5 visual (a.k.a. Nik's ROM). This custom ROM for HTC Incredible S is also running on Android 4.0.4 but bring us the Sense 4.1 UI experience found in HTC One X and some Sense 5 visual found in HTC One (M7).


Although there are some other HTC Incredible S custom ROMs running on newer Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) or even Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean), but they don't include HTC Sense with the ROM.

If you are still using HTC Incredible S, you might probably also want to try out Nik's ROM because it brings new Sense experience as in HTC One series of smartphone, and it runs faster, smooter and more battery efficient than the stock HTC ICS ROM with Sense 3.6. This ROM will also upgrade your phone's filesystem to EXT4 too.


It really makes your HTC Incredible S remain fit and fun for use for quite some times.

In order to upgrade your HTC Incredible S to Nik's ROM, you need to get your phone rooted and S-Offed. There is a detail instruction in XDA developers forum to guide you through the process.

Click here to get the detail instruction to root and S-Off HTC Incredible S.

Note that you need to follow the instruction exactly, including flashing the CyanogenMod 7.2 ROM. This is because you might not be able to install Blackrose HBOOT with some other ROM.

At the end of the process, when you boot your phone by pressing Volume Down and Power key together, your screen should show the information as below.



Once you are done, you can proceed to download Nik's ROM, put it in your SD card, and flash it into your HTC Incredible S with ClockworkMod Recovery.

Click here to go to the download page of Nik Project X Rebirth v3.0 ROM.

After successfully upgraded to Nik's ROM, you can find the 4EXT Recovery Updater app in your app drawer. You can use it to replace your ClockworkMod Recovery with 4EXT Recovery Touch then.

Nik's ROM uses AROMA Installer for its installation. Along the process, you can customize your installation and choose whether to include or exclude the Sense UI, select the looks and feels of the icon style, battery icon, font, etc.



You can also exclude some of the "pre-install" apps that you don't want to install into your phone.


What are the new things and experience you can get in your HTC Incredible S after upgraded it to Nik's ROM? Well, here are a few of them...

The weather lock screen (among the available lock screens in Sense 4.1):


The home screen with Sense 4.1 looks and feels:


Press the phone's Power button, and you can see more options, including taking a screenshot:


The Quick Settings menu:


Now your HTC Incredible S can also have HTC Sense input with trace keyboard:


Long press the Home button to open this Recent Apps screen:


And you also get a faster, better, more feature rich Camera app with HDR, panaroma, show motion video, etc.

In addition, you can just swipe your finger from left to right (from Home button to Search button) to wake up your phone from sleep, and bring it to sleep mode by swiping your finger from right to left (from Search button to Home button). Therefore, you no longer need to use your phone's Power button as often as before.


14 comments:

Unknown said... Reply To This Comment

i am a Incredible user too and curious about Nik Rom. So far any major & monor problems after flashing?

Voyager8 said... Reply To This Comment

@chun ching han

No problem so far. This ROM is superb.



Arslan Qadri said... Reply To This Comment

My phone is stuck at HTC logo :(
What to do??

Voyager8 said... Reply To This Comment

@Arslan Qadri

If you are using Nik Project X Rebirth 3.6, it is a known problem. Try revert to Nik Project X Rebirth 3.0.

Alternatively, you can try to change your boot animation. Check the link below:

[BOOT+DOWNANIMATION] 480x800 HTC One PureBlack + beats audio

Arslan Qadri said... Reply To This Comment

I got that working.
Actually my phone is S-ON and I still tried to flash using recovery without flashing boot.img.
Finally got it working and it is amazing.

razesky said... Reply To This Comment

You're Malaysian? I am newbie and nood in rooting my phone. Can I sent my phone to you to root using this ROM? I will pay the compensation later

Voyager8 said... Reply To This Comment

@razesky

You just need to follow the step-by-step instruction in the link below to root the phone.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2118187

Unknown said... Reply To This Comment
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said... Reply To This Comment

sejahtera...bro...smlm sy stuck kt no 5...tp lpas tuh da ok...tp x yakin lg..tkot x jadi..bolei bgtw x klo bende nye jaadi...apa yg berlaku??
klo na upgrade android tnpe mmbuang sense 4-1 ni bolei x??

Unknown said... Reply To This Comment

lg 1... HTC hUb mmg x de ke?
weather forecast kt lock screen x lei deteck...widget HTC semua hilang n x lei gne..mmg mcm tuh ke?
hrp boleii bg feedback

Moomal Mahar said... Reply To This Comment

My HTC incredible S isn't upgraded to ICS. It's on Gingerbread with hboot 1.13.000. Would this still work on it?

Voyager8 said... Reply To This Comment

@moomal mahar

As long as you rooted it, it can replace your existing ROM.

Moomal Mahar said... Reply To This Comment

@Voyager8
Alright. Just a question. My HTC Incredible S is refurbished and it's on Android 2.3.3
this is the bootloader info

VIVO PVT SHIP S-OFF RL
HBOOT - 1.13.0000
RADIO-3805.04.03.27_M
eMMC-boot
Apr 1 2011, 18:34:39

Since it's already S-OFF how should I root it and flash this ROM?

Voyager8 said... Reply To This Comment

@moomal mahar

Just follow instruction as above.

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