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To root or not to root?

L

Lanmonster

Lurker
I have been thinking about rooting for some time now and I am still in the dark about it. Can someone put a list or something of the pros and cons of rooting?
 
From my viewpoint:

Pros
Les Lag
No Sense
Over-clocking
Les Lag
Did I mention less lag?

Cons
Deciding just which rom to stay with for more than a week.
 
Lanmonster said:
I have been thinking about rooting for some time now and I am still in the dark about it. Can someone put a list or something of the pros and cons of rooting?
Click to expand...

Quick list...

Pros:

1. More responsive phone due to less-burdened ROMs (i.e., removal of bloatware) and overclocking
2. More and cooler apps available when rooted (wi-fi tethering at the top of the list)
3. More options for look and feel (plethora of ROMs)
4. Ability to have Android version not officially available from VZW (i.e., Froyo / 2.2)
5. Ability to have more apps installed (due to removal of bloatware, or apps2sd, or cache2cache (all depending on the ROM selected)
6. Basically extends the useful life of the phone
7. Coolness factor of having a rooted phone :D

Cons:

1. VZW / HTC warranty violated
2. Necessitates un-rooting before returning phone if needed
3. Some amount of learning-curve needed for root-related topics (lots of options available to one now)
4. Little chance of bricking your phone, but you are exposing yourself to issues should you modify something you shouldn't have without taking adequate precautions

Hope that helps. Cheers.
 
n0ct3m said:
From my viewpoint:

Pros
Les Lag
No Sense
Over-clocking
Les Lag
Did I mention less lag?

Cons
Deciding just which rom to stay with for more than a week.
Click to expand...

my only real complaint with the Eris is the lag. the thing is just too damn slow.

does rooting speed it up, let's say to where it's on par with an Incredible, for example?

and, does it speed it up in all facets of action (phone, internet, apps, etc)?

and can i 'undo' the rooting and restore it to 'stock' if i need to return it?

thanks.
 
Rooting does speed up the phone considerably, but it's not ever going to be able to keep up with an Incredible, or any other phone with that much CPU power to play with.

My experience was that they was HUGE speed up in the time it takes for the dialer to do anything (stock dialer is WAY laggy). There is a minor speed increase in the time it takes to load an app and in just moving around the home screens. *I* didn't see any increase in speed in loading web pages.

Yes, you can undo and return to stock. I doubt that you'll want to, but you may need to in the event that you need to return you phone to Verizon due to a hardware problem.
 
bixler777 said:
does rooting speed it up, let's say to where it's on par with an Incredible, for example?

and, does it speed it up in all facets of action (phone, internet, apps, etc)?

and can i 'undo' the rooting and restore it to 'stock' if i need to return it?

thanks.
Click to expand...

I've only played a little with an Incredible, but, in my recollection, a rooted Eris overclocked does not quite run as fast as an Incredible, no - but it's "faster" enough. Yes, it will make everything that the phone does noticeably faster.

Yes, you can unroot, though, before you root, I'd want to make sure that I had every file and instruction that might be required to unroot available to me.

Because of the warranty issues, I'd urge everybody who is thinking about rooting to really be prepared for everything, including having your warranty claim invalidated for having rooted the phone. You probably will not be caught if you file a claim and return a rooted phone, but you may be, and you have to be ready to pay full price (or add another line to your plan as a second line on a family plan minimally). Again, you will probably not need to spend that money, but be ready in case you get caught. Rooting should not be done without a great deal of thought.

That said, I'm quite pleased that I rooted the phone.
 
Rooting really takes the frustration out of the phone. Lag is minimized but won't make it as fast as an incredible. I'd say if you're tech saavy you have nothing to lose. Pick xtrsense if you're happy with the look, nonsensical if you like tweaking.
 
I looked into rooting again this weekend and saw that it's now possible to loot the leaked v3 ROM (which I have). Really, my biggest question before I take the plunge is: what ROM to use?
 
You can root and stay on a sense based rom. Some features of HTC Sense based roms weren't available in Cyanogen based roms, but I've been running KaosFroyo for a few weeks now and like it. The only bug is the camera has some issues and the headset profiles are messed up.
 
I go with Root.
Eris is a little slow, but when you root and put in a custom ROM, it overclocks and that means it will do things on the phone faster.
It will not download files faster, either from WIFI or EVDO.
And it's pretty cool trying out the options; lets you be more like you. Different ROMs for different lifestyles.
 
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