billosca Android is great, but sometimes, the version you
get with your phone—whether its vanilla Android
or something like Samsung's TouchWiz—leaves a
bit to be desired. Here's how to install a new
version of Android (or ROM) on your device for an
even better Android experience.

*What's a ROM?*

One of the best things about the openness of the
Android platform is that if you're unhappy with the
stock OS, you can install one of many modified
versions of Android (called ROMs) on your device.

A new ROM can bring you the latest version of
Android before your manufacturer does, or it can
replace your manufacturer-modded version of
Android with a clean, stock version. Or, it can
take your existing version and just beef it up with
awesome new features—it's up to you.

If you're familiar with Linux, it's sort of similar to
installing a different Linux distribution. Each
version of the OS has a specific goal in mind, and
as such differs quite a bit from the others. Which
one you choose is dependent on your priorities
and how you use the device. You'll need to
unlock your bootloader and flash a custom
recovery (more info on that here), but once you
get the hang of it, it's not too difficult.