Nexus 6P is the latest offering by Google in the Nexus lineup. It is made by Huawei, a Chinese company. It boasts a 5.7″ Quad-HD AMOLED display, giving it a 518 ppi. Internals include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor clocked at 2Ghz, 3gigs of RAM, a 3450 mah battery. Though the Nexus lineup is known for not so good camera quality, but, this time, it is the other way round both the new Nexus devices, Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X, boasts a 12.3MP camera which is capable of taking great pictures in any condition.

The key feature of Nexus devices is their software, they run stock Android out of the box and are the first one’s to receive any updates pushed by Google. Stock Android is the choice or rather favorite of many Android device users including me. But then comes the power of custom ROMs which enable you to add some useful features to your smartphone experience and remove some unwanted ones. Nexus devices always receive good dev support and there are already lots of Custom ROMs available for Nexus 6P which was released only a few months back.

Before starting with the list, let’s start with the prerequisites or the necessities before installing  custom Rom on your device.

Prerequisites to Install a Custom ROM

• All the Roms listed below are supported by Huawei Nexus 6P only.
• Your device should have unlocked the bootloader.
• You should have a custom Recovery like TWRP installed on your device (read the article linked below).
• Make sure to make a backup of your current ROM.

Also Read: How To Unlock Bootloader and Install TWRP on Nexus 6P

WARNING: Any damage to your phone, loss of data or any other problems faced by you while installing Custom ROMs on your device are your responsibility. The developer of the ROM or Droidviews should not be held responsible.

Best Custom ROMs For Nexus 6p

Disclaimer: There is no best ROM available for a device, one user may like a ROM that other users don’t like. The best one is a personal choice. The ROMs listed below are appreciated by many users and are stable to use. Also, the list is in no particular order, so check out the one you like or try them all if you can’t decide.

1. Pure Nexus Project

Pure Nexus Project is based on AOSP 6.0.1_r3. It aims to provide stock Nexus experience with few useful features. It has many features that you would find in any popular custom ROM. It even has Layers support, so that you could personalize every bit of your device using various themes available for Layers theme manager. Customization options for Navigation bar, Status bar, Recents App screen, Notification drawer and Power menu are available in the ROM. The endless feature list for the ROM is given below.

It is perfect ROM for someone who is looking to get a great amount of customization without getting too far from stock Android experience. It offers great performance and is stable for daily use.

Features

• Based on AOSP Android 6.0.1_r3
• Pre-rooted with SuperSU 2.52
• SELinux Enforcing
• Init.d support
• Addon.d support
• T-Mobile US WiFi Calling + Project Fi Support
• Fully Working VoLTE
• Full Layers 4.0 support
• Advanced Reboot menu enabled by default
• Enabled option to use multi-window mode
• UI Improvements (fixed a bunch google forgot to materialize)
• Download Speed in download notifications
• Seek-bar animation speed and font size control
• Full 3-Minit battery support, no mods needed
• Lock Screen
  • Option to customize lock screen shortcuts
  • double tap anywhere to sleep
  • Option to disable lock screen media art
  • Scramble pin layout
  • Lock screen Wallpaper (add/crop/delete)
• Notification Drawer
  • Weather
  • quick settings pulldown (left, right)
  • brightness slider on/off toggle
  • fully customizable quick settings with now up to 23 custom tiles
  • option to enable four quick settings tiles per row option for advanced location in location quick setting tile
• Recent Apps
  • Recent app full-screen mode
  • Clear all recents toggle
  • Clear all recents location option
  • Clear all recents but last app toggle Recent search bar on/off toggle
• Battery customization (stock, landscape, circle, dotted circle, text, none)
• Battery percent options (hidden, inside the icon, next to the icon)
• Battery Bar options (location, color, style, thickness, animation)
• Navigation Bar
  • Enable/disable IME toggle
  • Option for arrow cursor keys
  • Long-press recents for last app toggle
  • Navigation bar size customization (width, height, length)
  • Navigation bar customization (placement, buttons)
• PowerMenu
  • Option to disable on secure lock
  • Add/remove (reboot, screenshot, screen-record, airplane mode, user switcher, settings shortcut, search, voice search, lock now, sound panel)
• Volume Rocker
  • Volume key wake
  • Volume key music control
  • Volume key keyboard cursor control
  • Volume button swap toggle Control media volume anytime toggle
  • Option to allow volume down in silent to enter the DND mode
  • Option to allow volume up in do not disturb to exit do not disturb
• Display
  • LCD density control Expanded desktop options option to enable/disable wake on plug
  • LED controls
• Notifications
  • option to disable low battery notification
  • Option to disable battery saver notification
• Clock Settings
  • Customize the cLock widget

2. Chroma

Chroma is a lightweight AOSP ROM focused on battery, performance, and stability. Like the Pure Nexus Project, this ROM also aims to provide customization options without moving too far from the stock Android experience. The ROM includes few features that the devs feels are essential in day to day usage. The ROM being a custom ROM still manages to have Android Pay working. It is one of the few custom ROMs you would find with Android Pay working. Though I would not recommend you installing a custom ROM if you are an Android Pay user. The following features have been included in the ROM:

3. Benzo ROM

BenzoRom is a complete package, it includes all the customizations you would need in a ROM based on stock Android, Starting from Layers support, Pie controls, App sidebar, Viper4Android to custom Animations it has it all. The never ending list of features is given below. With too many features included in the ROM, you might face few minor bugs here and there. Other than that its a good stable ROM for daily usage. The ROM also includes a custom Kernel which tends to provide better performance and a better battery life for your device.

Features

• Layers Manager (theme support)
• Un-encrypted
• Viper4Android 2.3.4
• PA PIE Controls
• Animation Options
• Ad-Blocker
• App Circle Bar
• App Bar
• DPI Changer
• Wakelock Blocker
• Lockscreen Options
• Slim’s Ambient Display
• Extra Quick Settings Tiles
• Floating Clear Recents
• Clear All Recents Button Position
• Disable Google Search in Recents
• Disabled Tether Checking
• Power Menu Customization
• Notification Drawer Settings
• Statusbar Clock Options
• Quick Settings Options
• Google Webview
• Scroll Effects
• Gesture Anywhere
• Camera Sounds
• OmniSwitch
• Screen Recording
• Wake Gestures
• OTA Updates
• Wi-Fi Calling
• Media Scanner on Boot Options

4. CleanCore N6P

 CleanCore N6P is a trimmed version of Stock Android. the ROM has trimmed all the unnecessary application that comes pre-installed on your device. It has no other customization, they provide absolute stock experience with no bloatware and minimal gapps. You can expect good performance and a long battery life with this ROM.

The ROM is meant for users who like to keep their phone bare minimal, without too much hassle. Or the users who use alternative applications to the one’s that are removed, the users that are not heavily invested in Google’s ecosystem. You could easily install any of the applications removed from the Play Store if you need to.

The following things have been removed from the ROM

• Videos
• YouTube
• Books
• Chrome
• CloudPrint2
• Drive
• EditorsDocs
• EditorsSheets
• EditorsSlides
• FitnessPrebuilt
• GoogleEars
• GoogleEarth
• GoogleHindiIME
• GooglePinyinIME
• KoreanIME
• Maps
• Music2
• Newsstand
• Photos
• PlusOne
• PrebuiltGmail
• PrebuiltKeep
• PrebuiltNewsWeather
• Street
• Hangouts
• Wallet

All the ROMs listed above are based on stock Android (AOSP), but I feel the list remains incomplete without the ROMs based on CyanogenMod. Well it’s still too early for CM13 and it’s not too stable for daily usage, that’s why it could not make it into the list. Hope to see them soon, as the CM13 nightlies for Nexus 6P have already been started to roll out. You may try out the official CM13 Nightlies for yourself, following this link.

Links to XDA threads are given above. Installation instruction and Download links are given in each XDA thread, if you still have any trouble while installing a ROM on your device, feel free to drop down a comment. We would be happy to help you.

Missed your favorite one? Tell us in the comments below which ROM suits you best or the one you like the most. Also, tell us what’s the feature you miss in the stock ROM or the reason you switched to a custom ROM on your Nexus 6P.