Benefits of rooting

I have had two android phones: The HTC MyTouch 4G and the HTC Sensation 4G. When I first got the MyTouch 4G I was a bit wary about rooting the phone. There didn’t seem to be a huge benefit to rooting, and the risks seemed high. Every rooting related website has copious warnings about how you will brick your phone if you screw something up, and how you will void your warranty.

After owning the MyTough 4G for a few months, curiosity got the better of me. I took the plunge and rooted the phone and flashed a new Rom. It was like getting a new phone! Everything was so much better. Later, I got the HTC Sensation. I got it the day it came out, and I had to wait a few months before someone figured out how to root it. I am now a firm believer in rooting android phones.

Before I start into my reasons for rooting, let me first explain the difference between rooting and flashing a new rom. Rooting the phones gives you super user or administrator access to your phone. This allows you to modify system settings and have much more control over your phone. However, just rooting your phone won’t make any big changes. You will still be running the stock android firmware that came with your phone, and all your apps and settings will remain untouched.

Once you are rooted, you will have the ability to flash a new rom. Flashing a rom means putting a custom flavor of android onto your device. It’s a completely new operating system for your phone. A new rom is where the most significant performance and battery life increases come from. These first 4 reasons apply to just rooting, 5-7 have to do with custom roms.

This picture of Jabba represents bloatware

Here are 7 reasons why you should root your phone:

1. Ability to remove bloatware crap.
   
   Cell phone companies always put a bunch of apps on that you can’t delete! I hate it. What if I never use Amazon mp3? What if I don’t want to play the Nova demo? Too bad! They are stuck there forever! (I can almost hear the maniacal laughter coming from the cell phone companies.)But no. They are not stuck there forever. After rooting your phone, install titanium backup, and uninstall any bloatware apps that you want. (More about titanium backup on number 3.)
   
   
2. Cool visualizations.
   
   There is a root-only app on the market called Anim Mod. It rewrites files in your system to create really cool transition visualizations. See Anim Mod in action here:
   
   
3. Ability to back up your apps
   
   Lets say you just spent the last year getting 3 gold stars on every Angry Birds level in existence. When it comes time for a new phone, how can you transfer all your games and progress in those games? Or how can you ensure that dropping your phone in the toilet won’t destroy all your hard Angry Birds work?
   
   There is a root-only app called Titanium Backup. With this app you can backup all your apps and all the user data from your phone. This is essential since I like to try out new roms a lot. I just back up all my apps and user data, and flash the new rom which wipes out everything. Then I restore all my apps exactly as they were when I backed them up. Titanium backup will restore other stuff too such as the wifi passwords that were remembered and system settings.
   
   
4. Wifi Hotspots / USB tethering
   
   Rooting allows you to create wifi hotspots from your phone. This means you can make a wifi network that a number of people can connect to and use the 4g internet. My roommates and I actually used to game online through wifi hotspots before our apartment complex upgraded their archaic internet service.
   
   USB tethering is the same idea. It is the ability to use your phone’s internet while it’s plugged into the computer.
   
   Now, it is possible to do this without rooting. You either can pay an outrageous sum of money per month to your cell phone company, or you can buy an app such as EasyTether. However, once you are rooted, there are several good free apps available such as Barnacle Wifi Tether. In fact, I personally have never used a rooting app, because most good roms such as CyanogenMod come with tethering and wifi hotspot capabilities built in.
   
   
5. On T-Mobile, 3g phones such as the vibrant or MyTouch 3g get 4g speeds.
   
   This one probably won’t apply to very many people. My friend used to have a MyTouch 3g. He decided to root it in hopes of speeding up the very sluggish phone. We were both shocked to find out he had 4g speeds after it was rooted! This only works on T-Mobile because the 3g and 4g basically use the same technology.
   
   
6. Faster and smoother
   
   These stock android phones have so much extra crap going on that is unnecessary. After you root and flash a new rom the phone will be noticeably faster. Custom roms are optimized for speed so all the unnecessary bloat will be cut out leaving behind a streamlined android operating system.
   
   
7. Significantly better battery life
   
   I had terrible battery life on the MyTouch 4g. It wouldn’t make it through the day with moderate use. I had to charge it every time I was in the car and whenever I was at home. However, once i rooted and flashed a new rom the battery life was significantly better. I could make it through the day with moderate to heavy use.
   
   Before it was rooted, it drove me crazy how fast the battery life went down when the phone was just idling. After flashing a new rom, the battery life barely went down when it idled. (Battery drain was roughly the same during use however.)
   
   Custom Roms will have many tweaks and optimizations to increase your battery life such as under-clocking and under-powering the CPU when it is not in use.
   

Before I end, here are my counter arguments for the common two reasons NOT to root.

1. ROOTING COULD BRICK YOUR PHONE!!!!! WE TAKE NO RESPONSIBLITY IF YOU SCREW UP YOUR PHONE!!!!!!
   
   Yes, there is a risk of screwing up your phone, but its a very small risk. You will only screw it up if you do something really stupid. Just follow the rooting instructions carefully and you will be fine. Even if you make a mistake, 99% of the time it is fixable. Of all the phones my friends and I have rooted and jailbroken, not a single one has ever been bricked. In fact I’ve fixed a phone or two that were thought to be bricked, but actually weren’t.
   
   
2. Rooting will void your warranty.
   
   This is true. However, Rooting is usually reversable. If your phone starts having problems, just reflash your stock firmware, unroot it, and your phone is back to normal. Go get a replacement if you need. On the other hand, warranties tend to be on the crappy side anyway. If your phone is defective, generally the cell phone companies will send you a refurbished phone and charge you for the shipping. My advice? Be careful with your phone! Buy a nice tpu case for it. Don't use it in the shower. Don't throw it with the GPS on to see how far you can throw. Don’t dangle it over pits of lava. If your phone breaks, its probably obsolete anyway. Go buy a new one.