Pros and Cons of Rooting?

[Dendore]

So I don't even have an android phone yet but am trying to get all my research done ahead of time. I'm a CS major and fairly savvy on a command line; Yet my experience with smartphones is limited. Jailbreaking being something I've never done.

I have read some of the beginners guides to rooting. Seems like a lot of them are specific to certain phones. I can understand this because of the ROMs being different, but should the process really be any different?

So anyways, I was hoping to compile a list here of the pros and cons of rooting. I know it lets you load custom ROMs, which changes the UI... but arent there apps for that? And you risk bricking if you mess up, but cant you just reflash the original bios/rom?

I understand there are probably 100s of pros and cons so I don't expect 1 person to list them all.... Just chip which ones you guys think are important or havnt been mentioned yet.

[maek_it_happen]

so many pros to rooting , the only con i would say is there is a brick of a chance , but honestly i'm no super techy and i have succesfully flashed most roms , realy u won't brick your device as long as u stay patient and follow the right procedures , i think most brick occur when flashing a new radio and spl , most ppl flash spl first ,and then they have a brick ITS RADIO FIRST THEN SPL . u have to be more specific on wut phone your are thinking of and im sure simms or sumone will show u the right guides to follow , I wonder how many ppl simms saved from thinkin there device wus bricked when it wus just a mistep or sumthing simple

[simms22]

Yea , its actually pretty hard to brick a g1/dream or mytouch/magic . It happens when updating an spl before the radio . Radio is supposed to be first ! But , most likely you will do it only once . Other than that , you only get a "soft brick" . From that its easy to recover
Anyways , my pro is.... I do what I want with my phone , because its mine .
The con is.... I haven't really found one yet . The closest thing to a con that I could think of. Is the time I spend keeping my phone using the latest and greatest
Btw , there is a good link to rooting a g1/dream in my sig

[cmbarry1]

Yea , its actually pretty hard to brick a g1/dream or mytouch/magic . It happens when updating an spl before the radio . Radio is supposed to be first ! But , most likely you will do it only once . Other than that , you only get a "soft brick" . From that its easy to recover
Anyways , my pro is.... I do what I want with my phone , because its mine .
The con is.... I haven't really found one yet . The closest thing to a con that I could think of. Is the time I spend keeping my phone using the latest and greatest
Btw , there is a good link to rooting a g1/dream in my sig

True..the only con being, you will always want more from your phone. My Gf's always on my ass about how much I mess with it and am on AC lol

[ggrant3876]

Everything from above plus wireless tether, truly awesome.

[f4phantomii]

Long list of pros.....

Tether - either via BT or Wifi or USB
Improved apps - e.g. Maps from Android 2.0 with realtime nav running on my G1!
Apps moved to SD allowing way more apps than possible with stock phone
Backup and restore options you don't have with the stock phone
Swap space or compcache to supplement internal RAM for improved performance
Frequency scaling for better performance when needed and longer battery life when not in use.

About the only Con I can think of is that you no longer get over-the-air updates from your carrier....but you usually get ROM updates while rooted way before official releases.

[rnee67]

Long list of pros.....

Tether - either via BT or Wifi or USB
Improved apps - e.g. Maps from Android 2.0 with realtime nav running on my G1!
Apps moved to SD allowing way more apps than possible with stock phone
Backup and restore options you don't have with the stock phone
Swap space or compcache to supplement internal RAM for improved performance
Frequency scaling for better performance when needed and longer battery life when not in use.

About the only Con I can think of is that you no longer get over-the-air updates from your carrier....but you usually get ROM updates while rooted way before official releases.

Okay, I'm ready to take the rooting dive....my noob question is, are the existing apps on my phone and what's on the market gonna be functional and compatible with a cyanogen mod? And, if I do make the mistake of the inevitable brick, is it possible to un-brick your phone? Also, any disadvantages with no OTA updates via carrier? Or does rooting take care of any improvement, features, functionality etc....?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[docgab]

Long list of pros.....


Improved apps - e.g. Maps from Android 2.0 with realtime nav running on my G1!

Care to help a noob out and share where I might get this as well? :-)

[ggrant3876]

Care to help a noob out and share where I might get this as well? :-)

As long as your rooted, here is a zip file. Haven't tried it, did mine through then terminal. Just flash it like a rom.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...59&postcount=1

[docgab]

As long as your rooted, here is a zip file. Haven't tried it, did mine through then terminal. Just flash it like a rom.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...59&postcount=1

Thank you very much. :-)