Root Root questions: Battery life, Superuser requests

[Methos1979]

Okay, so I've rooted the phone now and that all went smoothly. It was almost too easy. I'm new to rooting so I'm not really sure about all this and I'm proceeding slowly. I have a couple basic questions:

Battery life: I have noticed what seems to be increased battery life. I mean, REALLY increased life! I'm a power user and generally got to the end of my 18-hour day with 10% of battery left. Now I'm getting to the end of the same day, with the same (or even more) amount of usage and I've got 50% battery left! I'm not complaining at all, just surprised. I posted on the regular HD Maxx forum and a regular there said he doubted it was from the rooting. But what else could it be? I've changed nothing. I have not removed or froze any bloat and I'm doing the exact same things on the exact same apps. Has anyone else rooted and noted an increased battery life?

Superuser app requests: My primary reason for rooting was so I could have the ability to program automatic reboots in Tasker using an app called Secure Settings. The first time I ran this program it flagged me that the app was requesting Superuser access. I allowed this 'forever' since this is what this program was designed to do. Since then I went into another program called 'Utter' to make some minor setting teaks and it, too, requested Superuser access. I allowed it just once. My question is, can someone explain exactly what granting Superuser access to the phone is, and when one should grant access forever, or just once, or never?

Thanks for any info on these two questions. I have not done the unlock bootloader yet because I don't know why I need it. I have not plan to run custom ROMs yet. Like I said, baby steps.

 

[Xelios]

Yeah I noticed your other thread but I figured I'd leave my opinion out incase someone more experienced could answer it. However, I may as well just post it here.

Rooting your phone should not play with your battery life. From everything I've read, it's like going from Guest mode to Administrator mode on your PC. It just gives you more access to system files, but it doesnt really enhance the performance of your computer. It's possible that if your software installation is new, it could just be settling in. Or the signal strength has increased, or something else. You mentioned you rooted so you can use Tasker, it might be one of the programs you wrote for that.

For me, root did not affect my battery life. Actually, it indirectly made it worse since it allowed me to use other apps I previously couldn't. It's a on a per user basis more or less.

As for your other question, its like I said above. It gives the program more access to the file structure of the system, like to the core system files. I have it granted to forever because I run the same apps constantly and its a hassle to do it over and over. However, its good to leave it on a prompt in case you install an app by accident, it wont be given automatic permission to do as it wishes.

The bootloader unlock, I may as well touch on it while here. Its a quick process, there's like two button presses. For now, its not so worth it. CyanogenMod is still in its developmental phases, and although I love using it as a daily driver, it still has its issues. Thats all thats really going on for now on that side.