Outstanding custom Android ROMs for the Samsung Galaxy S5

Although it's reportedly not as well-received on the market as its predecessor was, the Samsung Galaxy S5 has been on the market for quite some time now. Released back on April 11 this year, the Galaxy S5 has undoubtedly landed in many users' pockets,and while it's definitely not the most-outspecc'd device you can get now, it was among the more power-laden phones at the time of its release. Today, it's still a relevant handset. 

As we are dealing with a Samsung flagship here, it comes without saying that the device has a large developer base, which constantyl develops new firmwares for the Galaxy S5 and improve the user experience, at least software-wise. Sammy's current flagship was launched with Android 4.4.2 (got updated to 4.4.4 eventually), with the company's signature TouchWIZ UI on top. Nturally, most of the custom ROMs for the Galaxy S5 are based on this the latest available KitKat build.

While it's say impossible which of the custom ROMs for the Galaxy S5 are the best ones, we can highlight the more noteworthy and popular ones, with which you'd hardly go wrong if you decide to ditch the stock firmware for a tad lighter one. Have in mind that custom ROMs that are based on stock Android don't support fingerprint scanners just yet, thus flashing one of these will render your embedded one useless.

CyanogenMod 11

One cannot simply make a list with good custom ROMs for Android and don't include CyanogenMod (CM for short). Its latest version for the Galaxy S5 is CM11, which is based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat and brings an user experience that is quite similar to stock Android. Only nightly builds are available at this point, though. CM's definitely not among the most feature-rich ROMs out there; it's a lightweight solution for those looking for a no-frills experience.

CyanogenMod supports different themes, profiles, and many other features that are nowehere to be found in its stock TouchWiz. Not to mention that goes lighter on your system's resources and, arguably, provides better overall performance. An aplha version of CM12 (based on Android 5.0 Lollipop) is already available, yet it's quite bug-infested at the moment, so we'd advise you to stick with CM11!

You can get it from here; for further instructions go here.

Carbon ROM

Based on CM11, Carbon ROM comes with many more nifty features which add up to the deep functionality bag of Cyanogen's creation. Carbon comes with the so-called Carbon Fibers, various features that are neatly sorted into categories. Among these are a Moto X-like Active Display, Halo, Pie controls, customizable status bar icons, themes, extended power menu, optional navigation bar with custom toggles, expanded desktop, advanced privacy settings, and many others. Sounds good, doesn't it? Carbon ROM is definitely worthy to grace your Samsung flagship.

Download it here; for flashing instructions go here.

PAC-man ROM

PAC-man ROM is a concoction between three of the more popular custom ROMs, Paranoid Android, AOKP, and CyanogenMod. Thus, it includes most of the signature features of these, alongside the goodies that KitKat brought in the mix. Some of its more notable features are Appbar, Battery Bar, CM Themes, Floating Windows, Halo, Gesture Anywhere, OmniSwitch, PAC, Slim Pie, Wakelock Blockers, and many, many others.

While most of these features speak for themselves, other require the user to carefully research what they do. Well, it's usually good to have many features on board, but that's also the Achilles' heel of PAC-man ROM - it's not as lightweight as the ROMs, the features of which it has adopted. Nevertheless, a viable alternative for the powerusers that own a Galaxy S5. 

For installation instructions and download links, go here. 

Slim ROM