TW (short for TouchWiz) based custom ROMs usually retain and ENHANCE the available stock apps, and give you some extra features like being able to control CPU speed, screen color values, switch DPI etc. They are also known as "cooked" ROMs, and the authors are called "chefs".

You usually get all the Samsung stuff available, unless it's a "slimmed" ROM where the chef has cut out what they feel is unnecessary.
AOSP ROMs, since they are from the freely available Google sources, can be recompiled by developers and features added, optimized or subtracted depending on the philosophy of the dev team. These are "compiled" ROMs and the developers are called developers, not chefs.

AOSP ROMS do not contain the Samsung specific features of TouchWiz like S-View or whatever "S-something" app bundled by Samsung, but since this is Android, there are either replacements or close equivalents of the same apps on the Play Store.

Note that even if you use AOSP, you DO NOT lose the S-pen function, only the S-applications that use it. Any other drawing app can still use the S-Pen.

It's all a personal preference and getting used to a specific ROM type's features. See post 9, the sifus there all use a wide variety of ROMs, and the "flashoholics" change ROMs as often as they, um, make their beds I suppose.

Choice is the key word of Android.

One thing to note, is the S-Note app. It is a fantastic piece of software from Samsung, but unfortunately it only works on the Note family. This is a form of lock in. To avoid this, I recommend HandyNote Pro or others here may recommend other S-pen note taking apps.

Ok hope that was a sufficient introduction. - Credits to Joytest at his N2 thread reply

1. go to /system/etc
2. open up default_gain.conf
3. notice the term "output volume" or "speaker volume", if applied the patch will be 63, so this is the value you are gonna change
4. how do you find what you wanna edit? well, see the term "modifier"? thats like the which part of the audio output to configure for your device, then there is this "SupportedDevice }" line, below it will determine what output hardware it will be going to use to sing, in there, find the line {"Speaker Volume", 63} and adjust values
5. You can also boost/reduce ringtone loudness by going to the modifier "Ringtone" and change the "speaker volume"
6.save it and reboot

Turn Off WiFi Power Saving Mode

Launch Phone Dialer.
Dial *#0011#
Choose Menu, then WiFi.
Set WiFi Power Save Mode to Off.
Keep WiFi On Always

Go to Settings.
Choose Connections, then tap Wi-Fi.
Tap the Menu key.
Set Keep Wi-Fi On During Sleep to On.

Settings => More => Applications Manager => All => tap apps one by one => Disable

The best thing to do to make the phone as responsive as it should be when the Home button is pressed is to unbind it from S Voice feature.

Double-press the Home button to launch S Voice.
Press the Menu key and choose Settings.
Uncheck ‘Open via the home key’.
Now press the Home button and you will be brought immediately to the Home screen.

Please use some caution when deleting apps, just because they are 'safe' to remove doesn't mean you won't need them.
For example: DO NOT delete GoogleContactsSycAdapter.apk if you need to sync your Google contacts.
I have deleted everything on this list from my system apps as they are things I don't use.

I actually NEVER REMOVE system apps completely. I MOVE them to a folder on my external SD. That way if I ever want anything back I can simply copy it back again. I would suggest you do the same.

AccuweatherPhone2013.apk
Airmotiontryactually.apk
Alarmwidget.apk
AllShareCastPlayer.apk
AllshareControlShare.apk
AllshareFileShare.apk
AllshareFileShareClient.apk
and futher more, hit ->Source

Battery Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
First of all, it should be noted that most myths about mobile phone battery care originated from the days where nickel-cadmium (NiCad) based batteries were common years ago but the overwhelming majority of smartphone batteries used nowadays are lithium ion based smart batteries which doesn’t require these treatments.  I’ve seen these questions asked again and again multiple times over multiple threads and I’ve decided to compile some information all over the internet to answer these questions.

Q: I heard that you need to do an initial charge of 8 hours before first use of the battery, is this true?
A:  There is no need to charge a Lithium ion battery to 100% or charge for long hours (priming), this doesn't work for li-ion chemistry, before using your device. It will not affect battery life in anyway. In fact, you can start using most modern smartphone batteries immediately right out of the box and it won’t cause any problems to the long term life of your battery.

Q: I heard that it’s good for the battery if you often charge it to 100% and use it until it’s almost out of power before recharging again to combat battery memory effects. In other words, I heard it’s good to do full discharges of the battery before recharging. Is this true?
A: Batteries have a finite limited number of charge cycles and similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, so also does the depth of discharge (DoD) determine the cycle count. The shorter the discharge (low DoD), the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid full discharges and charge the battery more often between uses. Partial discharge on Li-ion is fine; there is no memory and the battery does not need periodic full discharge cycles to prolong life, other than to calibrate the fuel gauge on a smart battery once in a while between a few months.
In other words, do not discharge lithium-ion too deeply. Instead, charge it frequently. Lithium-ion does not have memory problems like nickel-cadmium batteries. No deep discharges are needed for conditioning. Running a Lithium battery low all the time actually does harm it more than topping it off whenever possible. Using only 20% or 30% of the battery capacity before recharging will extend cycle life considerably. As a general rule, 5 to 10 shallow discharge cycles are equal to one full discharge cycle

Q: Somebody told me to not leave the phone connected to a charger for a long time to avoid overcharging and damaging the battery. Would that be correct?
A: In most cases of modern lithium ion batteries, this is not a problem as these smart batteries are designed to cut the current when they reach a certain charge level and will use a bit of their own power before they start charging again and since lithium ion batteries have no memory effects, this is not a problem. There is no danger of the battery being overcharged. People seem to misunderstand about this point because a lack of knowledge and also advices with other batteries for example with laptops where people are usually advised to take the lithium batteries out if it’s not going to be used for a long time. People don’t realise in that case that the risk is actually the heat coming from operation of the computer instead of overcharging.

Q: How should I store my battery if I’m not going to be using it for a while? eg. storing phone away or spare battery.
A: The worst way to store a battery is to store it fully charged in places with high temperatures. The best common way to store your smartphone battery is to store it away with power levels of between 40%-60% and in places where it’s likely to stay at a comfortable temperature.

Q: My battery is discharging unusually fast even for a smartphone with light usage, can anybody help?
A: First of all, you need to be clear on what you deem as “light usage”, if it’s not much you should go into settings and monitor your battery usage and see what apps are eating up the battery, it’s possible there are apps keeping your phone awake or syncing too often. What you can do is you can play around with the settings of the app or disable or uninstall it if you don’t want it. If you can’t find what’s wrong, try factory resetting your phone. If the problem persists, the reasonable thing to do would be to go to a service centre to get your phone checked out.
Information compiled from:
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article...based_batteries
http://www.buchmann.ca/faq.asp
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=40566686
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread...897#post3846897
http://powerelectronics.com/mobile/proper-...on-battery-life