Good things come to those who wait and, in the case of the Motorola Photon 4G, dreams do come true. The official CyanogenMod 7 is now out for the Photon 4G, thanks to XDA Developers member cybik, who just recently joined the CyanogenMod Team.

Photon 4G owners who are still experiencing some noticeable lags on their phones can use the CyanogenMod 7 ROM, which not only is fully optimized and bloatware-free but also features lightning-fast response times. The icing on the Android cake is that CyanogenMod 7 is also fully customizable. However, users of Sprint variants of the Photon 4G have reported some problems with WiMax.

Warning

• The instructions in this guide are intended for use with the Motorola Photon 4G, model number MB855. Applying these instructions on another device or model may produce undesired outcomes.
• The information in this guide is provided for instructional and educational purposes only. There is no guarantee that these instructions will work under your specific and unique circumstances.
• Use these instructions at your own risk. We shall not hold any responsibility or liability for whatever happens to you or your device arising from your use of the info in this guide.
• Read and understand the whole guide first before actually performing the instructions.

Requirements

• A rooted Motorola Photon 4G with ClockworkMod Recovery installed
• Fully charged battery or at least 70% battery left
• Backup all personal data on your phone to make sure you have a copy of your personal data (e.g., contacts, SMS, MMS, Internet settings, Wi-Fi passwords, and the like) in case the procedure in this guide erases such data.
• • For backup tips, check our guides on how to sync your data to the cloud and how to create local backups of your mobile data.

Instructions

1. Download the CM7 ROM (update-cm-7.2.0-RC1-sunfire-UNOFFICIAL-may1st2012-signed.zip, md5sum: 899b0ed798e02a9eba4fe9d720ae9f07) from here.
2. Download the Google Apps package (gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip, 6.1 MB) from here.
3. Copy both the CM 7 ROM and Google Apps package to the root of your phone’s internal SD card.
4. Switch off your phone.
5. Boot into Recovery Mode. You can do this by pressing and holding down the Volume key and Power button.  When the bootloader screen appears, use the Volume Down key to scroll down to “Android recovery.”  Press Volume Up to select. A red warning triangle will appear.  Hold down Volume Up and Volume Down to enter Recovery Mode.
6. Inside ClockworkMod Recovery, create a Nandroid Backup of your existing ROM. If some features do not work out with this ROM, you can easily revert to your previous ROM through the backup. Backup by selecting Backup and Restore and on the next screen select Backup. Head back to the main menu after backup is complete.
7. Format the system, data and cache partitions on your Photon 4G.
8. Select Wipe Data/Factory Reset, then select Yes on the screen that follows to perform a factory reset on your phone.
9. Select Install ZIP from SD Card.  Select Choose ZIP from SD Card. Browse for the downloaded CM7 ROM file and select it. Confirm the installation by selecting Yes on the screen that follows. It may take 5-10 minutes for the installation to complete.
10. Repeat step 9 to install the Google Apps package.
11. After the installation is complete, head back to the main menu by selecting Go Back.
12. Select Reboot System Now to reboot your phone.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed the CyanogenMod 7.2 custom ROM based on Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread on your Motorola Photon 4G MB855.