There are easier ways of removing bloatware on your Samsung tablet than going to the effort of installing a custom ROM on your device. Many people are turning to apps like Titanium Backup or J. Rummy’s ROM Toolbox to get it done so it doesn’t make much sense to change your entire ROM for the stock system apps removal alone. While all that is true, it is the removal of most of those system applications that aids a custom ROM in its performance, and performance is without question one of the main reasons for installing a custom ROM. Of course, there are many other reasons one would want to install a custom ROM too — extending the life of the battery, having a different design, being less reliant on large companies, and enjoying some open source software just to name a few. But the real reason why most Samsung Galaxy Tab owners will want to install a custom ROM is to bring out the true inner geek in you and to have some fun with what playing with ROM is all about. If the option of changing ROMs is there for you to try it, often the curiosity of it all to a true geek is overbearing and ultimately wins.

These are the best custom ROMs for the Samsung Galaxy Tab device to help upgrade your tablet to newer version of Android and deck it out with new features:

Samsung Galaxy Tab

See also: Free Samsung Firmware Update Tools

Omni ROM 6.0.1:

The Omni ROM 6.0.1 is based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and it is the only custom ROM which is based on this latest OS. You can do a lot of new things with this ROM like use the multi window feature and floating windows without any root app or tweak.

Features: Android 6.0 Marshmallow based, init.d support, clear all icon color, battery light 100% charging level, reorder items under drawer settings, smart mute (flip down your phone to mute or reject incoming calls).

Download: Omni ROM 6.0.1

Unofficial CyanogenMod 11 ROM:

The CyanogenMod 11 custom ROM is based on Android 4.4 KitKat and is a really cool and stock based custom ROM with the least customization options, but it does come with more performance and smoothness. This build of CyanogenMod 11 custom ROM is unofficial which means that this custom ROM is ported from some other devices custom ROM.

Features: based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat, paged and continuous app drawer, custom dpi, init.d support, SELinux switch, custom widgets, sort apps in app drawer, custom tiles in notification drawer, quick tiles customization, flip quick tiles, quick pull down.

Download: CyanogenMod 11 ROM

Unofficial Resurrection Remix 5.1.5 ROM;

Resurrection Remix is a team of really talented coders who makes the Resurrection Remix series of custom ROMs so popular. I can confirm that they can make RR on official OS of some Chinese based smart phone company like MiUI and CyanogenMod. Now you can also experience the smoothness of this custom ROM.

Features: based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat, halo, active display, lock screen notifications, application side bar, omni switch, tiles style, music toggle, camera mode, list view animations, custom progress bar, screen recorder, hardware button and navigation bar options, CRT animations, keyboard features, lock screen blur and reduce slider, show Wi-Fi name, flip tiles, profiles, SB brightness slider.

Download: Resurrection Remix 5.1.5 ROM

Stock Gingerbead 2.3.4:

Some times things get stuck and there’s no way to go — not forward or backward. The aforesaid situation always comes in our lives while installing any custom ROM on our device and our device then gets stuck in the proverbial boot loop. This stock ROM for your phone can be installed using any custom recovery and rooted too!

Features: based on Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread, rooted, deodexed, debloated, Samsung Galaxy apps removed, more free space, better RAM and battery management, zip aligned, smooth than real stock ROM, more performance and battery.

Download: Stock Gingerbread 2.3.4 ROM

Unofficial PAC Man ROM:

The PAC Man ROM is a combination of three popular custom ROMs: Paranoid Android, AOSP and CyanogenMod. These three custom ROMs are most popular custom ROMs and come from a good deal of smart phones so why not have all the customization, stability and performance in one place?

Features: based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat, highly customize-able, status bar colors, status bar clock alignment (right and center), status bar battery bar, battery icon customization, battery charging animation, list view animations, developers options enabled by default.

Download: Unofficial PAC Man ROM

JBROM FINAL V1.0 ROM:

The JBROM FINAL ROM was the first ever custom firmware for Galaxy Tab and popular too.This custom ROM focuses on giving the Galaxy Tab the features and interface of the latest Google’s Android OS, which is Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and it did the job really great.

Features: based on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, status bar has been resized for better view in landscape mode, settings and main menu is black, colors for stats bar and icons, added new wallpapers, lock screen animations and time position, roboto font, MXPlayer with codec, Dolphin + JetPack for the full website browsing, completer animated UI, added new JB keyboard, added new icons.

Download: JBROM FINAL V1.0 ROM

Unofficial LiquidSmooth v3.2 ROM:

The LiquidSmooth custom ROM is also a good custom ROM and does the same thing as the title says — is very fast and smooth as liquid. The Liquid Smooth custom ROM is fast and most stable custom ROM, you can use it for a daily driver. This custom ROM is unofficial build of LiquidSmooth custom ROM so watch out for bugs around.

Features: based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat, SlimPIE, quiet hours, Slim recent apps, Lock Screen style, notification reminder, hardware key rebinding, custom carrier label, smart pull down, ADB over network, Glowpad torch, advanced reboot, custom tiles, flip to mute, incoming call in background, side USB debugging notification, stylus feature, stylus support.

Download: LiquidSmooth v3.2 ROM

Paranoid Android 2.53 ROM:

You are lucky that your Galaxy Tab has supported the Paranoid Android team for making custom ROMs. Paranoid Android custom ROMs are some of the most highly customize-able custom ROMs on this planet. If you like customization then I recommend you to install this custom ROM once on your tab and experience the ocean of UI customization.

Features: based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat, enable disable navigation bar, brightness slider, time and date customization, carrier label switch, clock color, network traffic indicator, RR exclusive pitch black theme, CM theme engine, system animations, toast animations.

Download: ParanoidAndroid 2.53 ROM

Energy™ GB 2.3.5 ROM:

This is the second custom ROM made for Galaxy Tab and it’s main goal is to give more performance. That’s why the developer named it “Energy”. Your Tab also can experience this energy by installing this custom ROM on your Galaxy Tab.

Features: based on Android 3.3.5 Gingerbread, init.d support, Gapps included, insecure boot image, blue highlights instead of green, deodexed, zip aligned, tweaked, busy box, Titanium Backup, bloat wares removed, 240 DPI, transparent pull down notifications, battery charging animation, rooted with SuperSU, extended power menu.

Download: Energy™ GB 2.3.5 ROM