Root Should I root now or wait for ICS?

[USCManager]

I just got the HTC Rezound yesterday and love the phone. This site has been great helping me get to know the phone and how to set it up. Have the extended battery with the Otterbox thanks to your fix and ramped up to the 32MB micro SD card. I have been reading up on rooting the phone because I hate all the crap that came installed with it by Verizon with now way to hide/remove. I do have a few questions I hope someone can help me with before I make the decision to root this thing. They are:

1) Is there any benefit to waiting until ICS is pushed out before rooting?
2) If I root will I still be able to get firmware updates (if there are any)
3) Of all the kernel sets and stuff that are out there, how do I know which one is best?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[thornev]

1. There is no benefit to waiting. On the other hand, there is no benefit to going to ICS. GB works just fine. It's all about what you're comfortable doing. Read, read, read before you do anything. This forum and the XDA developers forum are the 2 best reads in my opinion.

2. Yes, but only if you do NOT permanently install a non-stock recovery. Read Scott45's Noob Guide. It tells you everything. He's gone above and beyond with making it as simple as possible for everyone. Bottom line, you can flash ROMs, but flash a custom recovery temporarily before installing a custom ROM. (I may be simplifying this answer as there may be other considerations like keeping your Mainver at a level below what the OTA level is).

3. There is no best. They all do different stuff. Depends what you want to accomplish. Read, read, read.

 

[SamXp]

there is no benefit to going to ICS. GB works just fine.

No benefit? Forget the neat added features, the performance improvements alone are worth it. Screen rendering is much improved, especially with transitions to the app drawer and in the gallery. Not to mention the browser. I can't believe I waited so long to unlock. Running CleanROM right now and am so glad I did! No more waiting on hTC and Verizon.

And for those dealing with data drops on Mobile Hotspot, that is fixed in the update.

 

[thornev]

the performance improvements alone are worth it.

I've got GB running at 1800Mhz so I can't see how migrating to ICS is going to top that significantly. Plus my concern is that the 50 or so apps I have won't work on ICS. So I feel fine recommending staying on GB.

 

[scotty85]

wow,deja vu,lol(http://androidforums.com/rezound-all-things-root/501265-root-now-after-ota-ics-update.html)

for the record i agree 100% with thornev's post #2. there is no benefit to waiting to root,do it now. temp launch your recovery,and stay on the stock rom, and you will recieve OTAs without a hitch.

also nothing wrong with staying on GB. it does work. ICS does add some neat features,but at this point its still beta and buggy. not something id reccomend for just anyone.

 

[SamXp]

GB is also buggy. I use Mobile Hotspot as my primary ISP and data drops out constantly while using it. It's a known issue and fixed in ICS. The Rezound Issue list (Rezound - Issues List - xda-developers) for GB is fairly extensive.

I've got GB running at 1800Mhz so I can't see how migrating to ICS is going to top that significantly. Plus my concern is that the 50 or so apps I have won't work on ICS. So I feel fine recommending staying on GB.

Well then let me help you see how ICS is going to top that. CPU clock speed is only one component of system performance. The increases in efficiency in the ICS framework will make that clock speed perform all the better.
An analogy may help. You can increase horsepower in a car, or you can decrease weight. Both will improve performance. But high power on a heavy platform (1800MHz on GB) will be far less efficient than the light platform. Battery life can improve, as well as performance. The improvements to the way the User Interface renders on the screen place fewer demands on the CPU and GPU in ICS.

And please do share the 50 apps you claim won't work on ICS!

I am not trying to say everyone should upgrade to ICS right away. Unlocking is not for everyone. But let's keep our facts straight.

 

[scotty85]

i think all the facts are straight. while its hard(nearly impossible) for any software to be bug free,the rezound was shipped with gingerbread,and it has been thru a couple of updates allready. compared to pre-release,ICS i believe it to be less buggy,and better for less "tech savy" users.

nothing wrong with staying on GB until ICS is officially released,nothing wrong with updating now. wich ever is most comfortable for the user.

the hard facts are:
1)you can root now,you can root after.(its my opinion there is no beniefit to waiting)
2)you will recieve OTAs if you stay on the stock rom,and stock recovery,even if rooted.
3)"best" is highly subjective,and a matter of opinon,concering firmware,kernels,or software(like ICS vs GB )

 

[SamXp]

Fair enough. I put off unlocking/rooting for far too long, though. I've been calling Verizon every few weeks on this Mobile Hotspot issue and I wish I would have just rooted long ago.

 

[thornev]

And please do share the 50 apps you claim won't work on ICS!

Sam - I didn't say there are 50 GB apps that won't work on ICS. I said "my concern is..." As a programmer myself, I know that OS upgrades can cause nightmares for application developers when APIs change, are no longer supported, etc etc. What I'm saying is that I don't want to go through all the work migrating to ICS and THEN find out that some of my most-used apps won't work on ICS. Also, I've read that once migrated to ICS, there is no return. I don't like "no return" scenarios (well, yes I do, but not when I'm so dependent on my phone for calendar and phone book).

 

[SamXp]

Fortunately, lots of brave people have flashed the ICS leak and found very few issues with application compatibility. After flashing the ICS based CleanROM, I'd go so far as to say the Rezound is nearly perfect.