Root Should I Bother With Rooting?

[Bedroom Eyes]

So I've had my DHD for about 6 months now, and I haven't had any problems yet; I've spent a lot of time browsing the forums here to optimize my phones performance and battery life. But now I'm wondering about rooting the phone to increase battery further. I just don't know what to look for or where to start looking. So I was hoping I'd be able to get some info on the topic, like:
What are the benefits, deficits? (Battery life, speed, etc)
Does it make my phone look different? I like the stock look of everything
What ROM is the best?
Is it really worth the work?


Any info from people with rooted phones would help!

 

[D-U-R-X]

What are the benefits, deficits? (Battery life, speed, etc)

By installing custom roms, kernals, etc. it is possible to get better battery life and for the phone to run faster, as you have the ability to do more to the phone itself.

EDIT - you can also install root only apps - one example is Titanium Backup... this allows you to back up all apps and data.

Does it make my phone look different? I like the stock look of everything

You can have either stock "Sense" based ROM's, that would look the same as it does now, without the bloatware rubbish that carriers cram on to the phones (should you have a carrier branded phone), or "Vanilla Android" ROM's - this is different from the Sense UI that you get with HTC... it's not a bad thing, but you do loose some of the Sense niceties. It will make the phone have the same look as the likes of the Google Nexus.

What ROM is the best?

Depends what you want... Sense based or Vanilla Android - many will argue that this or that are the best, but it is really all down to personal choice.

Is it really worth the work?

Yes - not worth saying any more than that, given that there's now a one click hack that does all the work for you!

EDIT - here's a link to the one click method I mentioned - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=952352

Any info from people with rooted phones would help!

Hope that's been of some help!

 

[CDPlant]

I would say overall that I have had a much better experience with my phone now that I have rooted it.

I was not getting a lot of battery life using the stock HTC Sense, and to be honest by the time I had rooted it I didn't really want Sense back. I chose Cyanogenmod 7 because I like the 'vanilla' look of the ROM, it doesn't contain much so it's really fast, and the battery life has been great.

If you don't want to change the look at all, I would suggest going for something like Android Revolution or LeeDroid, where it is the HTC sense ROM but much faster and with some added features.

You can either root it using the downgrade/temp root/root method, or using the Ace Hack Kit, which I used, both of which can be found here http://androidforums.com/desire-hd-...b-build-downgrade-1-32-405-6-easy-follow.html

I would say overall main benefits are -
-Much faster
-Better Battery
-More overall control over your phone (ability to have apps that aren't usually available to non-rooted phones, taking screenshots, backing up all yours apps to your SD, changing between any ROM you like whenever you like, etc)
-Highly customisable
-Lots of things to tinker with (if you enjoy that)

It was all quite daunting at first, but it's really quite easy And I have had a lot of help from really friendly people here who will be happy to help

 

[D-U-R-X]

I would say overall main benefits are -
-Much faster
-Better Battery
-More overall control over your phone (ability to have apps that aren't usually available to non-rooted phones, taking screenshots, backing up all yours apps to your SD, changing between any ROM you like whenever you like, etc)
-Highly customisable
-Lots of things to tinker with (if you enjoy that)

I agree CDPlant... I think one of the best things is that, should you get bored, you can do a backup of your current ROM and then change for a different one - something that makes the 2 year contract a bit more bearable... it's like having a new toy every time you change. I've tried a couple of different ROM's, but have kept going back to CyanogenMod 7, as I prefer it!

 

[Bedroom Eyes]

Would anyone be able to post pictures of what their battery life is, and maybe just some other shots of what rooting can make my phone do? Also, does this void warranty.?

 

[murzz]

Would anyone be able to post pictures of what their battery life is, and maybe just some other shots of what rooting can make my phone do? Also, does this void warranty.?

Yes mate it will void your warranty, but only until you fire an official HTC ROM back on, not much kop if you smash a screen or drop it in the bath, but anything minor and you should be able to get the HTC ROM back on.

Here's my battery life, came off charge at 09.00 this morning and it has been getting used

 

[DCTEN]

How are you finding the wifi Murzz with cm7? Mine was hopeless and kept dropping out so now I've put miui on it and the wifi is superb Your battery times look excellent how on earth has it only dropped a few points and you say it's.

 

[DCTEN]

Been on all day!!?

 

[CDPlant]

Would anyone be able to post pictures of what their battery life is, and maybe just some other shots of what rooting can make my phone do?

Here's a couple from my phone

http://min.us/lbvynCdONRzazO
http://min.us/lbpOt6AHt7w1kd
http://min.us/lwuGPS816tKkp

The second image shows what you can do to the CPU, and the third is some different tools you can use to back up and manage apps

Edit: A Couple more
http://min.us/lLswrLDHWTYyM
http://min.us/lbypaE2C1YRlvk
http://min.us/lbn1MJ51tQPwNa

 

[Bedroom Eyes]

Thanks for the screenshots guys, any rough idea as to how long the battery lasts after rooting? I'm starting to really think about this. Just so long as I can revert it back to stock if I have to get it repaired through TELUS, and if there's good ROMs that keep the stock DHE look including the keyboards, menus, stuff like that. My main reason for looking into this is increasing my battery life, even though I already get ~24 hours per charge where I'm living, and ~48-56 back home where I have perfect service..

 

[murzz]

How are you finding the wifi Murzz with cm7? Mine was hopeless and kept dropping out so now I've put miui on it and the wifi is superb Your battery times look excellent how on earth has it only dropped a few points and you say it's.

I find the wifi not to bad, but may now have to go the same route as you mate to take it to superb. As for the battery life, i have no idea why its so good. Another exampe here, came off charge yestereday at 15.00 and had 95% in the tank, was in the pub until 22.30 and gave it a pretty good hamering 3G with a crap signal so it was switching constanly, the usual suspects, email,facebook, texts, calls Paddy Power, as of now (10.15am) the battery is sitting at 46%, before CM7 it would be near to dead this morning.

 

[DCTEN]

I find the wifi not to bad, but may now have to go the same route as you mate to take it to superb. As for the battery life, i have no idea why its so good. Another exampe here, came off charge yestereday at 15.00 and had 95% in the tank, was in the pub until 22.30 and gave it a pretty good hamering 3G with a crap signal so it was switching constanly, the usual suspects, email,facebook, texts, calls Paddy Power, as of now (10.15am) the battery is sitting at 46%, before CM7 it would be near to dead this morning.

Very impressive thanks for the feedback, after seeing your results I was tempted back to Cm7 I even changed the kernel as advised in here but the wifi problem still remained so i've swapped back to miui not point me having massive battery life if I have to keep manually switching on and off then back on again. Miui is the only option for me

 

[Bedroom Eyes]

What WiFi issue are you talking about?

 

[liger05]

Yes.

I rooted and put on the sensation sense 3.5 rom and my phone runs real nice. Its quick and my friend cant believe that when flicking between panals and making them spin in a circle my DHD is quicker than his sensation.