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Stock or root?

really just depends. A lot of people are perfectly happy with stock. Some people prefer to root. Personally i would suggest rooting if anything just to put a better kernel on to improve battery life. Also a lot of the roms available are actually stock ICS with just a few mods to them.
 
I am stock because I prefer it :)

To get maximum battery life I have combined the extended battery with Juice Defender Plus. In Balanced mode, I can go all day with moderate to heavy use. Try the free version for awhile and see how it works out for you... if it's successful, then you'll want to spring for Plus.
 
I got the extended battery for $25.00 and it is great. Adds just enough extra juice and makes the phone feel a little more solid without adding much bulk at all. I rooted phone and my battery life is outstanding. On very light use when visiting family I used only 30% of battery in 7 hours. Now with the screen on it uses a lot more but after being rooted I could never go back. I use liquids rom and nova launcher and love it. It is basically stock ICS with more customization. Even if you don't root though you can still use nova launcher and it just enhances stock ICS.
 
Even rooted and romed I get about 5 hours if that on my extended 2100 battery. But I also use my phone I don't keep it on wifi in pocket or desk. It gets used. I'm not afraid to plug it in at 50% to charge it.
 
It doesn't have to be "Stock OR Root". It can be stock and rooted. That's how I run.

My advice, immediately unlock the bootloader. This prepares your phone should you ever want to root it. Unlocking completely wipes your phone, so you don't want to have it all setup nicely and 2 months later decide to root and have to start setting things up again.

Once you've unlocked, well you might as well root....its like 60 seconds extra and you're practically wasting time if you don't root. Also, you can always UNroot, re-LOCK and go back to factory stock should you ever need to.

Once you are rooted there are a number of features you can take advantage of without installing a custom ROM or kernel.

So, my suggestion is to immediately unlock and then root. Run stock rooted for a little while to see what you like / don't like.... and if its not perfect then see if there's a custom ROM that will give you exactly what you want.
 
Matesims23 said:
Yeah the guy I traded with said he would root for me and install several roms
Click to expand...

Well, no offense to your "guy", but I wouldn't trust anyone to mod my phone for me. If I want to do it, I'll figure it out myself.

That being said, I'm stock and probably will never root. I use Nova Launcher for all my customizations and it works for me. I don't need to improve my battery life by 30-60 minutes because it's not, for me, in any way necessary ... what I have works without voiding my warranty ( yes, I'm aware I can return it to stock for the warranty, but why do it if I don't really need it. I can wait for the eventual updates to the OS. ). For some people, rooting is the only way to get satisfaction from the device ... why, I don't know but that's the way it is.

Do you want ultimate control and the latest "MOD" updates to the OS? Then you will want to root.

Can you live without flashing the latest non-OEM updates as soon as they are available? Then maybe rooting is not for you.

Only you can decide.
 
I was satisfied with ICS, but being on Verizon, I am stuck on 4.0.2. I don't know if us Verizon folkes will ever see 4.0.4 until late summer, so rooting is looking pretty appetizing as of now. Also, when another update comes out, I won't have to wait months at a time for Verizon to allow it to be pushed through. If you're not on Verizon though, I'm sure this isn't an issue.
 
i agree with just rooting it your self. Because if you don't understand the process and something happens two months from now you won't know how to fix it.
 
trophynuts said:
i agree with just rooting it your self. Because if you don't understand the process and something happens two months from now you won't know how to fix it.
Click to expand...

I've been reading alot about it... if worse comes to worse I have a buddy that owns a cell shop lol
 
I would just Root it. its simple, reversable, and pretty much dummy proof (you have to be able to plug into a computer and read some simple directions)
you can always choose to run stock, but if you want some more options to really make the phone yours, you can install a custom ROM...and that usually increses battery life and performance.
 
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