[Aaron1011]

> However, to get the Play Store, as well as other first-part Google apps, a device has to pass Google's strict compliance tests.

If you're talking about officially, when the device is shipped, then this is true. However, one of the first steps after installing a custom rom is to flash a Google Apps package for your device (which includes Google Play). People still install Google's applications without the device passing any test.

[saurik]

I would quibble with even that, as those "Google Apps packages" are often themselves from sketchy sources... but even so, being some unofficial process done by a user is not really relevant from the perspective of a shipping device purchased through a carrier...

[bad_user]

I have a CyanogenMod-enabled phone and haven't installed Google's apps on it. I got some open-source stuff and that's it. It's a two-year old Galaxy S (first gen) and battery now lasts for 8 days.

[amenod]

Seriously? With "normal" amount of calls? I would love to hear more... Battery life is my biggest gripe with the smartphones.

[bad_user]

I don't know what's normal to you. It's a backup phone, using a PrePay plan on another network (prepays are pretty cheap in my country) and indeed I'm making less calls with it than with my primary. I'm also keeping it off the data-network, unless I need to connect.

So basically I use it as a dumb phone and it's a pretty good dumb phone.

[yareally]

Not having (or using) LTE helps quite a bit, since it's still fairly new technology with a lot of optimization still needed. Also the fact the Galaxy S has a 4" screen. Galaxy S lives on most of all from being nearly identical to the Nexus S, so it can borrow a lot from it.

[kllrnohj]

Yes, but Google also turns a blind eye to that, and by and large CM and other custom ROMs stay compatible anyway. Google could, however, start cracking down if custom ROMs started causing problems.