Installing a custom ROM on the Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000

I dug out an old Samsung Tab P1000 that was launched back in Sep 2010 (reviewed here by Hardwarezone). Surprisingly, this Tab P1000 with only 512Mb RAM is still going strong in the modding community. With the stock Froyo 2.2 firmware, it was well behind the times. It was time to get to work...

FIRST ROOTING, UPGRADE ATTEMPT WITH CYANOGENMOD 9.1 STABLE

First of all, I tried the Z4root method, but that didn't seem to work. Then I tried the Superoneclick method and was successful. However, I realised that most upgrade paths to Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4 (ICS) required Gingerbread stock ROM. Furthermore, ROM Manager didn't support the Tab P1000. After downloading and installing Samsung Kies, I successfully upgraded to Gingerbread 2.3.3 (and unrooted the Tab in the process). This took me several hours as the Kies took a long time to update itself, and the GB download was very slow as well. I then flashed Clockworkmod (CWM) recovery using the Superoneclick method again in order to upgrade to CyanogenMod (CM)9.1 Stable running on ICS. However something must have gone wrong in the process, resulting in unknown baseband and IMEI issues on my TaB P1000, effectively giving me a stable CM9.1 on my Tab P1000 with WiFi, but disabling my phone, SMS and 3G.

 BACK TO SQUARE ONE (RESTOCK GINGERBREAD 2.3.3)

Subsequently, I decided to restock to Gingerbread using the Overcome method. My tried and tested update process was:

 1. Flash GB stock safe tar, gt-p1000_mr.pit and JPZ modem using Odin 1.7 (gets you back to stock Gingerbread 2.3.3 with the Euro ROM).

2. Flash Overcome 4.0.0 Kernel using Odin (gives you CWM ver 5.1.2.6).

3. Flash Overcome 7 Series 4.1 Wipe.zip ROM using CWM recovery.

4. Flash Android Open Kang Project (AOKP) ICS ROM using CWM recovery.

 I am using AOKP ICS Milestone #6 on my Tab P1000. Everything works i.e. WiFi, Phone, 3G, SMS, camera. The AOKP Jelly Bean 4.1 build is also available but the general feedback indicates that it is not yet bug free.

DOWNLOAD LINKS AND INSTALLATION GUIDES BELOW

Follow the Team Overcome instructions at this google doc link. Alternatively, download the pdf here. Another installation guide in PNG image is available for download at the AOKP site under the comments section of the #40 build here.

Page 7 onwards of the 15-page Overcome guide details the steps required to restock to Gingerbread and flash the Overcome kernel to install an updated version of CWM Manager. For my Singapore Tab P1000, installing the JPZ modem works. The links for the various files are most likely not working though, so you can try to download from this XDA forums thread here. Also available for download at the AOKP site under the comments section of the #40 build here.

The AOKP Milestone #6 build ROM can be downloaded at the AOKP website under the downloads section. The mirror site is faster for folks in Singapore, with the link over here.

PERFORMANCE OF THE TAB P1000 UNDER ICS


If we compare the Tab P1000 specifications (circa Sep 2010) with the Huawei Mediapad (launched in Sep 2012, reviewed here at Hardwarezone), the Tab P1000 is comparable in many respects. The P1000 runs on a 1Ghz single core ARM Cortex A8 CPU vs Huawei's 1.2ghz dual core ARM Cortex A8 CPU.

Though RAM wise, the P1000 only has 512Mb RAM vs 1Gb RAM on the Huawei, other tabs launched by Shinco and Toshiba also only have 512Mb RAM. Furthermore, the P1000 has its own venerable GPU (Power VR540SGX). This is a pretty good GPU in its time.

A comparison of GPUs of that generation and how they render:

Motorola Droid: TI OMAP3430 with PowerVR SGX530 = 7-14 million(?) triangles/sec
Nexus One: Qualcomm QSD8x50 with Adreno 200 = 22 million triangles/sec
iPhone 3G S: 600 MHz Cortex-A8 with PowerVR SGX535 = 28 7 million triangles/sec
Samsung Galaxy S: S5PC110 with PowerVR SGX540 = 90 million triangles/sec

Quadrant Standard Edition benchmark

Based on the Quadrant benchmark, the HWZ review indicates that the Huawei Mediapad scores 1,747 on Honeycomb 3.2 (and between 1000-1500 depending on review for ICS) vs P1000 Tab score of 1,784 (without overclocking). Hence ICS objectively can and should run smoothly on P1000. Admittedly, the Quadrant benchmark isn't optimised for multicore tablets, and hence the Tab P1000 can appear to perform.

Smartbench 2011 benchmark 

Over here, the Tab P1000 feels its age, coming in at only 894 for the Productivity index and 2091 for the Games index. After overclocking the CPU from 1Ghz to 1.2Ghz, the scoring improved to 1019 for the Productivity index and no significant change for the Games index(~2034). After bringing back the CPU to default, the GPU was overclocked from 200Mhz to 320Mhz. This time, the Productivity index registered 897 while the Games index improved slightly to 2118. The overclocking options are available on the AOKP ICS ROM in the Performance Tweaks section under Settings. In this instance, the benefits of overclocking can be considered to be in line with analysis at Tom's Hardware Forum discussed in the article over here.

For the entire plethora of benchmarking tests possible on an Android, refer to this article here which incidentally demonstrates how the Samsung Galaxy S3 is the top dog.