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Root [International] To Root or not to Root, I can't decide....

Yesevil

Yesevil

Android Enthusiast
So............

I've had my S3 for about 12 months now and love it.
But I am getting a little bored with the majority of things being stock, so I was wondering about rooting it. Can anyone advise on the following:

1. Are there any stable ROM's that wont need to be flashed every few weeks?
2. I know very little about overclocking, will this be an issue if i Root?
3. How easy is it to go back to stock if i decide to?
4. Will all my apps still work as normal?


I'm sure there are other questions that I have but thats all for starters.

NOTE: Its an unlocked international S3 bought off amazon uk and it currently uses a GiffGaff sim card.

Thanks in advance for your replies
 
1. Yeah loads. Check out the international all things root forum at top of the page for some ideas. Start a thread asking for suggestions.
2. You dont have to mess with overclocking yet
3. Very easy
4. Yes :)
 
Cheers dude. I class myself as reasonably technical but because I havent had a proper look at rooting yet it seems a bit daunting.
I'm sure its quite easy once i read up on it
 
Hey mate. ill try n find a good rooting guide. Youre gona want to install Odin on your pc.
In UK we have 2yr warranty btw but its fairly easy to reset the flash counter (hide the fact that its been rooted) and return to stock.
For your choice of rom you have to think about, do you use any of the samsung features like multiwindow etc? How important is battery life to you? How much of a photographer are you?
Theres roms based on samsung touchwiz that still have the samsung features, great camera, good battery life and theres "aosp" roms based on pure android that are much faster, look better, are on latest android version but you lose all the proprietary samsung stuff and battery life isnt as good :beer:
Titanium Pro is highly recommended because youre gona have to wipe the /system and /data partition of the phone before flashing a rom.
Some custom kernels (flashed after flashing the rom) allow overclocking. Basicly you can increase the cpu max frequency to 1.8ghz if you want. Im running at the stock 1.4ghz on an aosp rom and its really fast so i have no need to overclock.

Read this thread http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?t=443802
 
The actual rooting process is really easy. Its a case of downloading a file, using the Odin pc program to flash it to the phone. That will give you root access and install a custom recovery. In that recovery you can (really importantly) make a backup image of the complete phone (like on a pc) and you can flash custom firmware from the phones SD. I replied in your other thread mate :beer:

As for the "root or dont root".. thats down to you mate lol. After rooting you have the potential to destroy your phone :D
 
Thanks for all the info mate.
I do use the camera quite a bit, but mainly just browse and play games.
Giffgaff don't allow tethering, will that be an issue?
 
Like, rooting removes the child-locks, you have complete access to the phones system so it opens the door to being able to really mess it up in a way that, if you dont know what youre doing or have no help, you wont be able to fix it. just letting you know theres risks when you mess around with things but its VERY rare to see someone mess an s3 up in a way that cant be cured :thumbup:
 
Yeah. I used to be a giffgaffer but moved to Three but just moved home and the data speeds are shit here on 3.
I cant afford broadband so im usin upto 50gb a month tethering lol :D
The camera on aosp roms is fine, just doesnt have all the options of the samsung one
 
Right, let's say if your flashing a rom or kernel.

If you flash one not designed for your device, well then it's possible it'll turn off and not turn back on known as a brick. Leaving you to replace it or have it JTAG'd

That's why I always say read, read and read some more before jumping in.

PS guys, I'm about to merge this thread with the same thread in international s3
 
yes yes yes - root it - then flash the bleeders out of it! :D

as DS says, just make sure you pick the right rom/kernel for your device - take note of the the xda thread info for the rom in question

enjoy :)
 
@Funky I tend to use Camera Zoom Fx rather than the standard app, would this be affected by certain roms?
Generally, how much worse is battery life after rooting? I thought it would be better.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone, I'll do some reading whilst I'm on nights tonight, then I'll be back with loads more questions
 
The answer to most of your questions when rooted is basically, "Try it". As long as you follow the guides properly and make a Nandriod back up before you flash anything you should be OK.

I have yet to come across an app. that won't work on a custom ROM or Kernel with any of the devices I've owned, but like anything else when rooted it's "suck it and see", you may stumble across the one app that doesn't like your choice of ROM.

My only advice, as I see your sensibly going to do, is read, read and read some more. This will answer 99% of your questions about rooting and installing ROMs. Yes you can bork your phone completely, but it is rare to do so. Even the most messed up phone can be restored so long as you can get into Recovery mode or Download mode, a complete brick paper weight would require some novel and highly dubious flashing of very dodgy stuff. Not unheard of, but very rare.
 
Rooting wont make your battery any worse but an aosp rom will. something about the samsung rom or its kernel make it really good on battery. Theres really good samsung based roms though like Neat Rom (in this forum)
How much battery you lose depends on your use. Im a really heavy user and my average battery life dropped from 9.5hrs to 8 since using aosp roms :thumbup:
 
I'll be another to agree aosp is a little less battery friendly, but in my opinion it's worth it to have the snappy stock android feel over the sometimes laggy Samsung touch wiz.

As said above, it's pretty hard to Bork your device entirely to where it isn't recoverable. Hell I've soft bricked my s3 4 times.

1) & 2) theme hung during flash
3) reboot into a boot loop, backups wouldn't restore nor would roms flash correctly :p
4) accidentally flashed a different carriers rom <--almost amazed my device survived that lmfao

With my experience, it definitely is to hard brick :)
 
For many of us the question of whether to root comes down to how happy you are being told what you can and cannot (mostly the latter) do. Gaining root access removes the things that keep you in the "cannot do that" realm, and will nearly always offer up some way to accomplish the things you could only wish the stock phone could do. For me, being able to make nandroid backups and use Titanium Backup Pro to completely rebuild or set up a new phone, with all my apps WITH all their data and settings, in just a few minutes, is the hands down incentive to root. All the rest is added benefit. :) I doubt you would ever regret rooting, so long as you are careful and nothing goes wrong.

As everyone says, read a lot before jumping in. Some of the more popular ROM threads will have thousands of posts, but reading it all will give you an in-depth look at any problems people had and how they were solved. :)
 
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