Thankfully, you can install a custom ROM for Samsung Galaxy A5 and completely change how the device behaves and feels. Samsung knows a lot of people are not going to shell out top dollar for every flagship smartphones they launch; this is exactly why they have catered to the midrange market with their premium feeling A Series. The Samsung Galaxy A5 is a prime example of great market research as well as awesome pricing, and this is perhaps the reason why Samsung is topping the smartphone charts globally. The ROMs are in no particular order as I did not test them.
1. CyanogenMod 13
Even though the smartphone is quite popular among the masses, there is not a lot of development going on for it simply because there are a lot of different versions of it available. This is exactly why I wasn’t able to find the official CyanogenMod ROM for Samsung Galaxy A5 on XDA-Developers forums. However, a user named theWhisp has ported this mod for the smartphone unofficially. You may think that the unofficial ROM might not be up to par with the official ones, but this one does come close. I’m not going to say that it is a perfect ROM but for basic functionality, the developer has done a great job. Everything you expect from the mod is available on this unofficial port and runs well. There are two issues with this ROM though; the FM radio can easily crash when you adjust the volume in the app. The Android Beam feature is also not working properly. Other than that the ROM works perfectly fine on the Samsung Galaxy A5.
2. Resurrection Remix 5.6
If you want Marshmallow on your Samsung Galaxy A5, then Resurrection Remix is the best and perhaps the only option available. It is a stable ROM that brings the latest version of Android to a relatively old smartphone. As much as I like Samsung, they have a habit of abandoning mid and budget range devices a little while after release, when it comes to software updates. I guess when a company has a ton of smartphones; it becomes hard to push out updates regularly. This particular ROM gives you a stock Android experience and is relatively bug-free. Some users have reported issues when you switch on the Wi-Fi from the settings but other than that it is a smooth experience. One good thing about this Rom is that the developer is very active in squishing bugs.
3. TouchWiz Light Weight ROM
A lot of people like the TouchWiz interface of Samsung smartphones and want to keep it on their phones. It is understandable because a lot of people exclusively use Samsung devices, and they are associated closely with the Android ecosystem. So, it is perfectly natural that you want TouchWiz on your Samsung Galaxy A5 as well but don’t want the hassle of using odd apps that Samsung likes to bundle with the device. This ROM is TouchWiz that is de-bloated and stripped of all unnecessary features that drain the battery. The Rom comes mostly with Google app so that you have basic access to all the functionality. You can easily turn off rest of the apps as you see fit in this ROM as well. To summarize, this ROM is for those who want a standard Samsung experience but don’t want the unnecessary burden Samsung puts on their devices by installing apps.
4. BlissPop for Galaxy A5
This is one of the oldest ROMs available for the Samsung Galaxy A5 on the forums, but it cannot be recommended as a daily driver. There are some bugs in the ROM that may affect you negatively in day-to-day tasks so I cannot recommend it fully. However, if you want to check out the new features in this ROM, feel free to test and check them out. While there are some bugs in the ROM itself, you might get lucky, and all the features you use will work fine. Apart from that, this is a ROM based on Android 4.4 so don’t expect any latest features to pop in this one.
5. MIUI 7 for Galaxy A5
The vibration and the rotation senses don’t work on this ROM, so it is pretty much useless as a daily driver. If you use your smartphone usually on silent mode and rely on vibrations, you can simply forget this ROM and move on. It’s a little bit disappointing to find very little development for the Samsung Galaxy A5 smartphone on the XDA forums, but that is quite understandable. A lot of developers make new ROMs for flagship devices and keep the latest enhancements for their top-of-the-line ROMs. As Samsung Galaxy A5 is nowhere near a flagship, I don’t expect to see many thriving ROMs for the smartphone. However, the amount of ROMs available was not satisfactory at all. This is the reason why I include this MIUI 7 port on the list. I have used Xiaomi smartphones, and their interface is very user-friendly. If you want a simplified experience with a couple of new features, then this ROM will suit you really well.
Conclusion
The lack of quality ROMs for the Samsung Galaxy A5 was the main reason I had to include slightly average ROMs on the list as well. The first three ROMs are relatively stable and provide good feature sets, so I highly recommend that you check them out first. As expected, there was not a lot of development going on for the Samsung Galaxy A5 for the fact that it is a midrange smartphone. Not a lot of developers these days invest in a midrange smartphone and only developer flagships. So tell me how was the experience of using the stock Samsung Galaxy A5 as a daily driver? If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to talk to us in the commands below.
