Android Tweaker Is A Great Modding Alternative To Pimp My ROM [Review]

A while back, we reviewed Pimp My ROM that offered Android users possibly the largest collection of various system performance enhancement tweaks, hacks and mods bundled into a single package. Ranging from Kernel-based tweaks to internet & network-based mods, the tool allows both intermediate and advanced users to tinker with a lot of settings of their rooted Android devices. New to the scene,Android Tweaker by XDA-Developers senior member iGio90 is a similar tool that could prove to be a tough competitor to Pimp My ROM and other Android tweaking solutions currently available in the market. As with Pimp My ROM, Android Tweaker is equipped with loads of tweaks allowing you to play around with various performance-related settings of your Android device. Needless to say, the app is meant to work with rooted Android devices only. A good thing about Android Tweaker is that it is fully compatible with almost all Android devices, versions, kernels and ROMs (both stock & custom). Let’s explore this handy utility in detail after the break...

Since the app makes changes at system level, it requires root access and therefore, your device must be rooted in order to use it.  If you want to learn more about rooting, check out our comprehensive guide on rooting Android devices.

Coming back to the app itself, Android Tweaker is meant to operate in the current OS, rather than coming in form of a zip file that you have to flash from a custom recovery. In fact the app lets you natively create full nandroid backups from within the OS as well. As with most performance enhancing, tweaking, hacking and modding tools, it is preferable to take a full backup of your current Android ROM before applying any tweaks, so that you can safely revert everything back to the way it originally was in case things don’t work according to plan.

Also, as the app will itself tell you, playing around with settings or mods you’re unaware of can lead to unexpected behavior or at worse, mess up your ROM and require a reflashing. Therefore, it is suggested that you gain sufficient knowledge about a tweak and its implications on performance before applying it.

The app’s neat Holo UI helps accessing its dozens of different options from under their categorized tabs with ease. Let’s have a quick look at the various categories and the tweaks offered in each of them by Android Tweaker.

Performance

 

Build Properties:

• Force Render UI with GPU
• Additional GPU Tuning
• Enable System UI Hardware Rendering
• Qualcomm Tuning
• Increase Dalvik VM HeapSize
• Improve Scrolling Speed
• Increase Overall Touch Responsiveness
• Increase Maximum Events per Second

Init.d:

• Tune Your Multitasking
• VirtualMemory (VM) Management Tweak

Battery

 

Build Properties:

• Increase Wi-Fi Scan Interval
• Increase Deep Sleep Battery Life
• Disable Power Collapse

Init.d:

• VM Battery Tweaks

Additional:

• Disable Media Scanner

Network

 

Build Properties:

• Increase HSXPA / HSDPA / HSUPA / GPRSclass category
• Enable HEP / DTM  / a52
• Enable 3G Prefix
• Increase HTCMASKW1 / HTCMASKW1 Bitmask
• Enable AGPS
• Enable GEA3
• Enable PLMN Prefix
• Increase Default Net Speed
• Increase Wi-Fi / UMTS / GPRS / EDGE / LTE / EVDO_B / HSPA / HSDPA Net Speed

Init.d:

• IPv4 & TCP Speed Tweaks

Additional:

• Use Google DNS by Default

Images

 

Build Properties:

• Raise JPEG Quality to 100%
• Increase Photo & Video Recording Quality

Additional:

• Enable Mobile BRAVIA Engine v2 for improved image enhancement, real-time contrast optimization and noise reduction of pictures.

Audio

 

Build Properties:

• Enable xLoud Services
• Decrease Dial Out Delay
• Control In-call Volume More Precisely
• Noise Reduction
• Overall Audio Quality Improvement
• Audio Volume Hack

GPS

The GPS-specific tweaks of Android Tweaker can come in particularly handy for fixing GPS issues, as you can precisely pick the NTP servers from not just the required continent but also from the countries listed in the app.

Kernel

 

Build Properties:

• Disable Error Checking
• Allow Purging of Assets
• Disable Strict Mode Checking

Init.d:

• Disable Normalize Sleeper
• Strict Minfree Handler Tweak
• Optimize Kernel Tweaks
• Remove Journalism

Additional:

• Various Governor-Specific Tweaks

Misc

 

Build Properties:

• Disable USB Debug Icon
• Disable Time for Screen On / Off During Calls
• Keep Launchers in Memory
• Prevent Memory Manager from Killing Launchers
• Enable 270-degree Rotation
• Disable Waking Up When Hitting Volume Rocker
• Disable Boot Animation for a Faster Boot

Init.d:

• Perfect Mount Options
• MicroSD Card Speed Tweak
• Remove Logger

Tools

 

System Optimization Tools:

• Zipalign APK
• Super SQL Defrag & Optimize
• Enable Loopy Smoothness Tweak at Boot
• Extreme LowerMemoryKiller Only if the RAM is Excessive
• Enable SQL Database Optimization at Boot
• Enable Zipalign at Boot for /data/app and /system/app

Utilities:

• Install Init.d Support
• oNandroid Backup in Background Without Rebooting

Note: The Init.d tweaks are meant to run on a ROM with a kernel that supports Init.d scripts. If your ROM/kernel doesn’t support these scripts, you can avail the Init.d Installation support feature provided under the Tools tab.

The bottom section of each tab offers you a couple of reboot options – Soft Reboot & Normal Reboot – that can be used to ensure that the selected changes are implemented effectively. Just to be on the safe side, double-check the changes you’re looking to implement prior to hitting the reboot button.

Android Tweaker was successfully tested on HTC Desire Z running Android 4.0.4-based AOKP custom ROM. The app might be a bit short on features compared to Pimp My ROM, but the developer plans to introduce many more tweaks in the coming updates, so keep checking back at the source link below.

Android Tweaker is available in the Play Store as both an ad-supported free version and $1.86 ad-free variant. Besides removing ads, the paid version brings the following additional features to the table:

• Automatic system tuning as per any of three user-select custom profiles: Battery Profile, Performance Profile & Balanced Profile
• Fine tuning tweaks for Qualcomm processors
• Advanced VirtualMemory (VM) management tweaks
• IPv4 & TCP tuning mods
• Various Kernel optimization tweaks
• Audio quality enhancement tweaks
• Support for BRAVIA Engine v2
• LTE, HSDPA, HSPA & EVDO_B tweaks
• Loopy smoothness, and lots more.

Android Tweaker is currently compatible with rooted Android 3.0 Honeycomb and higher devices only, and can be downloaded from the Play Store links provided below.

Download Android Tweaker (Free)

Download Android Tweaker Pro (Paid)