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Why should I root my S5?

Jim Robson

Jim Robson

Newbie
I'm a regular user of my S5 and I love it as it is. I am wondering if there is any advantage to rooting my phone. Are there any cool apps I could use? I like my provider (Verizon) and don't plan on changing. Thanks, Jim
 
Hi Jim,
As another Verizon customer of 20+ years, it has been rare for me to really wish that my phone were rooted. The few occasions were with previous phones to the S5 where it was impossible to turn off the bloatware.

For myself, there aren't any apps that I want to use that require being rooted.

I would "sort of" like to be able to freely do what I want with the extSDcard, but really, that is not even important because the only thing I use the extSDcard for is picture storage... and there, the camera settings will accept making the extSDcard the "default storage" device.

The exception to that is Screenshots, will only save to the internal storage.

I'm not a gamer, don't use any social apps, so don't feel the need for taking the risk of bricking the S5 just to enable a few features that Rooting will allow.

The use of MacroDroid has given me all the control over the phone's operation that I need/want, so rooting is of no benefit there either "for me".

The S5 is fast, it is much easier to find out something really quick with it than using a Desktop PC for the same searches. for some reason, the smartphone search routines do a better job of finding things I want than a PC web browser does.

ie, just today, on the back of this week's Time Magazine is a picture of a horse for a Longines advertisement. There is a man standing next to the horse that reminded me of Simon Baker of the TV show "The Mentalist"...

but, I did not have my reading glasses on, so could not read any of the fine print on the magazine cover..... but my S5 was in my shirt pocket, and I brought up Google, enter "the mentalist" and boom, up came Simon Baker's picture instantly.... and yup, the same guy as the advertisement...

For me, the S5 does everything I need it to do fast. It is an excellent research tool for quick and dirty searches for anything you want to know.

Can't see how rooting it would improve on my use of the phone.
 
Hi AZgl1500, Thanks for your detailed response. Much appreciated. I see you're from Oklahoma. I lived in Tulsa for 10 years but the weather got to me and I moved back to Florida. I successfully rooted a Galaxy S2 Tab so I'm not too scared of bricking my S5 but I'll probably not do it unless I see a compelling reason. Thanks again. Jim
 
Ummmm, traded lousy Tornados for Hurricanes, eh?
ROFL.gif


We moved here to Oologah Lake area 3 years ago from Phoenix, AZ where I retired from the Phx Fire Dept in IT 911 center...

we had friends here which was the magnet, we are wishing though that we had gone to Georgia as our son is in Dawsonville, GA
 
As a rooted S5 owner I'll throw in my 2 cents (feel free to reassign value as you wish)-
First I'll make the usual statement, this is a matter of personal preference based on a number of factors including your knowledge and comfort level messing with the phone, risk tolerance (bricking is always a possibility and warranty may be voided), importance of root-only options etc.
My main reasons for rooting are ad removal (AdAway), ability to use Titanium Backup and other root-only utility apps, and some other various tweaks and customizations not possible without root. I find these things make the phone more useful and enjoyable for me.
I do not go as far as loading custom ROM's as I'm not looking to take the experimentation that far and I wish to retain the stability and features of the stock ROM. Specifically I have Wifi calling (MetroPCS) which is a great feature and isn't supported by any third-party ROM's, plus there always seems to be something broken in them like flaky Bluetooth, camera, wifi etc.
So that's my position on rooting. Hope you found that helpful.
Sorry I'm in NYC so I can't contribute to the regional discussion. ;)
 
Thanks Fox Mulder, AdAway sounds interesting. That might be the thing that pushes me over. Regards, Jim
P.S. I just checked Play Store and can't find AdAway. Do I have the name correct?
 
Yep but Google kicked the adblockers out a while ago for violating their terms of service, so you can't get it in the Play store any more. It can be side-loaded from F-Droid.
 
 
AZgl1500 said:
AdBlock can be used on a stock Verizon phone. I have it installed and working.
Click to expand...

Yes but that will work within the web browser(s) only. It may be sufficient if you primarily use the browser, however ads will still show up on other apps. AdAway (with root) modifies the host file to remove in-app ads.
I do have AdBlock installed for Firefox but I don't use the browser that much.
 
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