I want to switch to a rootable phone so that I can delete Youtube apps and other useless hard-coded apps. But I read only old phones are easily rootable and new ones generally make it harder to root. But old phones are worse.. So I am wondering what is the best rootable phone with the best spec.
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Best rootable phone?
- Thread starter andfo
- Start date
Thanks. But I just read its reviews and it looks like this phone is very slow...
Is there any other option among those from more standard manufacturers?
Pixels are easy. OnePlus are easy. It's not true that only ol phones are easily rootable (unless you mean "without a computer", in which case you do need an old phone. But those "one click root" apps were pretty shady anyway, and I'd never use one myself).
Phones sold by US carriers are usually locked down hard. The same phone may be much easier elsewhere.
Phones sold by US carriers are usually locked down hard. The same phone may be much easier elsewhere.
yeah sorry anytime you have to take the phone apart to root.....is not the best phone to root as was asked by the op.
go with the pixel as @Hadron suggested.
I think the instructions and screwdriver are for device maintenance, not for rooting.
mrjelly
Lurker
Yeah sorry for the.confusion, I was mentioning taking it apart as a bonus. It's not needed for rooting. The main thing is the bootloader that's easy to.unlock.
I'm interested though, as I'm looking at the fairphone, who's saying it's slow? In what way?
And what makes the pixel easy? I have stayed away from that as it looked like it had Google assistant baked into the hardware so maybe a bit hands off, but if it's good it could be potential.
What makes the Pixel easy is that you just go into developer options, enable oem unlocking, then one fastboot command and the bootloader is unlocked. After that you can flash a custom recovery and then you are away. You don't like Google software, install a custom ROM with no Google apps.
(Note: if you were thinking of buying one from a carrier I'd check first that they haven't interfered with this).
I have a Pixel 2 and no Google Assistant: I simply disabled the Google app (which means I can't have a working Google Search widget, but I never wanted one so that's no loss either). Everything else works perfectly fine without it.
As for the Fairphone, the Fairphone 3 uses the Snapdragon 632 SoC, which is a mid-range processor released in late 2018. So if you are after flagship type speeds it's not going to give you those, and if you are a 3D gaming fanatic it would not be the best choice. For general usage a modern mid-ranger should be able to handle what most people need perfectly well. That said, performance depends on system and software optimisation as well as what SoC is used, and some reviews have said that it is laggy in use.
(Note: if you were thinking of buying one from a carrier I'd check first that they haven't interfered with this).
I have a Pixel 2 and no Google Assistant: I simply disabled the Google app (which means I can't have a working Google Search widget, but I never wanted one so that's no loss either). Everything else works perfectly fine without it.
As for the Fairphone, the Fairphone 3 uses the Snapdragon 632 SoC, which is a mid-range processor released in late 2018. So if you are after flagship type speeds it's not going to give you those, and if you are a 3D gaming fanatic it would not be the best choice. For general usage a modern mid-ranger should be able to handle what most people need perfectly well. That said, performance depends on system and software optimisation as well as what SoC is used, and some reviews have said that it is laggy in use.
I got Pixel now. Now I am trying to root. I just Youtubed on how to do it. I found this
Anyways, I am a complete novice. It's unlikely that I will ever be able to root this phone without youtube video or some explanations with screenshots. Where can I find them?
Yeh, that video looks like BS clickbait.
As you haven't stated what model and variant of Pixel you've got there, I probably can't help in finding you a suitable tutorial, method, and/or video for rooting.
Which Pixel model do you have? Because you will need to install software built for the particular device, so it's important to know the model.
Personally I find YouTube videos utter crap for this type of thing, mainly because I don't have the patience to put up with all the guff that comes with these videos in order to get just a few lines' worth of information. Plus a text-based guide can even be copied and pasted if needed. So my starting point would be the XDA forum for your particular model: I can provide more specific info if you say what model it is.
I would also say that it is important to understand what you are doing first, what you want to achieve by it, what the downsides of rooting are and how you will recover if something goes wrong (always have a backup of anything important, and worst case, know where to find a factory image and how to flash it).
Personally I find YouTube videos utter crap for this type of thing, mainly because I don't have the patience to put up with all the guff that comes with these videos in order to get just a few lines' worth of information. Plus a text-based guide can even be copied and pasted if needed. So my starting point would be the XDA forum for your particular model: I can provide more specific info if you say what model it is.
I would also say that it is important to understand what you are doing first, what you want to achieve by it, what the downsides of rooting are and how you will recover if something goes wrong (always have a backup of anything important, and worst case, know where to find a factory image and how to flash it).
Thank you so much. What I bought is Google Pixel 2 - 64GB
I don't store anything permanently important on my phone. So I guess it will be fine. My purpose is to permanently delete system apps like Youtube and Chrome, which give me a big distraction from work.
Well it is possible to just disable both of those, but I guess from what you say your motivation is to make it so you can't just re-enable them (though removing them from the system won't stop you reinstalling them, if you really have trouble with temptation).
OK, rooting the Pixel 2 genuinely shouldn't be hard. "Magisk" is the trickiest bit, but that's the new rooting method that allows you to avoid some of the drawbacks of older root methods, so probably worth following. There's a pretty detailed guide here. It's changed a bit since I last rooted, but by my reading you need to follow the steps of installing fastboot and adb on a computer and rooting using Magisk (which at one point requires you to use "fastboot flash", which for anything other than official firmware means the bootloader must be unlocked). It seems you can do this without installing TWRP, though you will need TWRP if you want to try custom ROMs or ROM backups (without a ROM backup, called a "nandroid", be careful about what system apps you remove since any error will leave you unable to boot). The "flashing factory images" section isn't needed if you are already up to date with system updates, but may be useful if anything goes wrong (such as removing the wrong app, as mentioned above).
Note that I expect that rooting will break installing of over the air updates (I'm sure that if you then delete system apps it will). You'll still be able to update using a computer by flashing stock images, but you'll probably lose root when you do that and have to repeat the magisk step.
OK, rooting the Pixel 2 genuinely shouldn't be hard. "Magisk" is the trickiest bit, but that's the new rooting method that allows you to avoid some of the drawbacks of older root methods, so probably worth following. There's a pretty detailed guide here. It's changed a bit since I last rooted, but by my reading you need to follow the steps of installing fastboot and adb on a computer and rooting using Magisk (which at one point requires you to use "fastboot flash", which for anything other than official firmware means the bootloader must be unlocked). It seems you can do this without installing TWRP, though you will need TWRP if you want to try custom ROMs or ROM backups (without a ROM backup, called a "nandroid", be careful about what system apps you remove since any error will leave you unable to boot). The "flashing factory images" section isn't needed if you are already up to date with system updates, but may be useful if anything goes wrong (such as removing the wrong app, as mentioned above).
Note that I expect that rooting will break installing of over the air updates (I'm sure that if you then delete system apps it will). You'll still be able to update using a computer by flashing stock images, but you'll probably lose root when you do that and have to repeat the magisk step.