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What Are The Advantages and Disadvantages of Rooting Your Android Devices/Phone?
Rooting Your Android Devices
You often hear or read about rooting of Android devices but you may not know the basic benefits and bad side of it. So this post will reveal all the major advantages and disadvantages of rooting Android phones. More often than not, the question of what can I gain and what will I lose/risk when it comes to rooting android phone pops up. It’s in there as 2nd place (debatable of course) in the most common rooting questions.
This is because most people that do care about their Android device really want to know before they even try to root. Even the ones that don’t actually care would, at some point, eventually want to know (curiosity still works). In this case, we’ll start with the good news and then the bad news about rooting and provide details about each part.
This might not be considered as a “best reasons” list (still debatable!!), but it can provide well enough to help you decide. You can learn to root android phone by following simple steps. I am listing 7 positive sides of rooting an android phone below.
ADVANTAGES OF ROOTING YOUR ANDROID DEVICES/PHONE
1. ROOT ACCESS / SUPER USER ACCESS
Once your Android device is rooted, you now have access to various files/parts/sections of your device that previously should not have been available. This is a pretty good thing which allows for more customizing and other things like being able to remove system apps. System apps are normally stuck in there with no way to uninstall/remove them. It also allows for apps that require root access to be installed and run properly/better.
2. CPU CLOCKING
CPU clocking is normally not available with un-rooted devices. What you can do with CPU clocking is increase AND decrease the CPU (processor) speed. What this does is either increase the performance or increase the battery life respectively. One of the easier apps to deal with is No Frills CPU Control. It’s freely available from the Google Play Store and is a pretty straightforward app to use as the name implies. You don’t really have to worry much about its use and technical settings/terms. You can experiment with it safely. It doesn’t keep the changes if they are not working. It’ll even tell you in most cases which setting/setup isn’t working.
3. TWEAKING
Tweaking is simply configuring and usually at the same time optimizing your device to give it a customized look/feel and better performance. Once your android device is rooted, you’d have access to settings and other things to allow this. There’re a lot of different tweaks that can be done on Android. It’s actually a very large list depending on your aim for the device. So much more shows up when it’s rooted. Some examples are customizing the keyboard layout and better multitasking.
4. BLOCKING
This one is very popular. Ads get in the way and get annoying pretty quick. Rooting allows a person to use specific apps that are meant to block ads among other things. Do note that it is better to use the apps rather than attempting to manually change/edit an app in hopes of blocking ads.
5. REMOVE PRE-INSTALLED APPS
There are many cases where manufacturers and carriers will install apps that you wouldn’t want, like, or need. They’re just going to sit there taking up space on your planet!! The most likely case is that they’re set as system apps. You can’t normally uninstall/remove them. Rooting will definitely help to fix that.
6. CUSTOM ROMS AND KERNEL
A kernel is the part of an operating system (Android of course) which helps apps and whatever else needed to control the various hardware aspects of your Android device. There are various goodies that come with a custom kernel. Adding features that were not there before and improving performance and battery life.
A ROM is a modified version of Android that can be installed. Again, extra features and usually a large variety of other goodies are included with custom ROMs. Custom ROMs can be installed and used even without rooting. The thing is, you’d be much better off using a custom ROM with a rooted device. Custom ROMs really can drastically change the look/feel of your device with their heavy duty customizing. The fun part is they also come as stock Android. This means they’re the basic Android install as typically found on most devices. This is surprisingly handy because they can be used for a variety of purposes. Especially when it comes to un-rooting your device.
7 .UN-ROOTING
Sure, there are plenty of ways to root your Android device. But there is some cases where un-rooting is needed. Un-rooting is simply reversing the rooting process. It does return your warranty and usually returns your device to stock. The better bet for warranty concerns is to simply not tell anyone that it was rooted, un-root it, and hope for the best.
Apart from above listed benefits, there are many apps for rooted android which simplifies your technical life. You can download them once you root your android device. They are worth trying and helps to enhance your android experience.
DISADVANTAGES OF ROOTING YOUR ANDROID DEVICES
1. ROOT ACCESS / Super USER ACCESS
Sure, it’s seems pretty nice to have this. Up until something goes wrong. Do note that one wrong setting or move in the wrong place/time, and “here comes the pain”.
2. CPU CLOCKING
Although there’s a wide variety of apps out there to help you increase and decrease CPU speed and at least some have pretty good safety features, someone is almost always bound to get it wrong and BBQ their device.
3. BRICKING
This is the dreaded word of the rooting world. When you brick your device, it simply means your Android device is now a very fancy and very unusable brick. Yes, there are ways to fix it. It can be surprisingly easy to brick your device. The list of ways is mountain sized. You’d be amazed at some of them.
4. TWEAKING
What did you think was going to happen when you adjust a setting wrong? If you guessed “nothing pretty”, you’re good!! Sure, anyone can tweak their device all day long. Find out how FIRST. Otherwise, get ready for that “nothing pretty” wreck!!
5. AD BLOCKING
Yes, this one is also considered a downside. Keep in mind that those ads we’re all stuck with are also used to help generate income for the developers. Said income is often used to further develop the app you like using. Blocking those ads all the time might actually become a bigger problem than most would think. Attempting to edit/change an app manually for this purpose could render the app useless.
6. CUSTOM ROMS AND KERNELS
Yes, they sure can be pretty nice to have and use. They can also be a total nightmare wanting to happen. Get the wrong ROM and/or kernel, your device gets bricked or just outright goes crazy on you. These disasters can cost you a lot in the way of time, money, and effort to fix.
8. WARRANTY
It’s well known that rooting an Android device will void its warranty. Un-rooting might not work every time. So this particular problem is definitely situation dependent. It’s a matter of if you care about it or not and if the device was under warranty to begin with?
Should I root android device?
At this point, you most likely have noticed that most of the pros are the cons at the same time. That’s just how Android has always been. What it amounts to are these questions:
1. Can you live with or outright get around the cons part of it and really enjoy rooting your device?
2. Did you make a backup of your device before you attempt anything involved with rooting?
3. Did you take the time to find out how to root your device properly?
With just 2 out of 3 of these questions answered as “yes”, you should be okay. All 3 and you should be in great shape to root android. If any 2 are answered as no, you might want to get help from someone that knows what they’re doing and perhaps will either charge you little or nothing to do it. Or outright leave rooting alone all together.
