Should I Root My Phone

[Palatkik]

Titanium Backup (free version). I used it to back up my crapware apps before removing them. Without it (or similar such as NoBloat Free for rooted devices) there is no way to remove crap ware given by Samsung. It also removes the Google apps I never use such as Hangouts etc.If anything goes wrong - supposedly can restore the apps, but nothing went wrong and I'm happy to be rid of them.

 

Of course you probably know warranty is voided when rooting though I heard rooted devices can be unrooted and returned to factory state- but my devices are more than a year old so I don't really care. I haven't updated ROM's beyond KitKat yet, but may try that later as its an added option for rooted devices. Samsung will never update the ROMs again as the devices are too old. One reason I rooted was one Samsung device battery usage went very poor after Samsung updated ROM to Kitkat from Jellybean over the air update and they offered no help afterwards saying it was normal.

 

I am wary of changing ROMs (which rooting also allows) so I haven't done so as they often seem to mention something or other that doesn't work yet in the modded ROM.

 

I agree, I wouldn't root straight out the box, but later when I get bored with the device and could eat the loss if I had bricked it.

I found Youtube tutorials on rooting a help as well and gave me confidence to root.

[gawguy]

Titanium Backup (free version). I used it to back up my crapware apps before removing them. Without it (or similar such as NoBloat Free for rooted devices) there is no way to remove crap ware given by Samsung. It also removes the Google apps I never use such as Hangouts etc.If anything goes wrong - supposedly can restore the apps, but nothing went wrong and I'm happy to be rid of them.

 

Of course you probably know warranty is voided when rooting though I heard rooted devices can be unrooted and returned to factory state- but my devices are more than a year old so I don't really care. I haven't updated ROM's beyond KitKat yet, but may try that later as its an added option for rooted devices. Samsung will never update the ROMs again as the devices are too old. One reason I rooted was one Samsung device battery usage went very poor after Samsung updated ROM to Kitkat from Jellybean over the air update and they offered no help afterwards saying it was normal.

 

I am wary of changing ROMs (which rooting also allows) so I haven't done so as they often seem to mention something or other that doesn't work yet in the modded ROM.

 

I agree, I wouldn't root straight out the box, but later when I get bored with the device and could eat the loss if I had bricked it.

I found Youtube tutorials on rooting a help as well and gave me confidence to root.

 

I admire your skills and envy your outcome. This is a whole new world and I'm very curious about it. When I bought my phone the lovely sales girl was very helpful and did a number of little things. Lastly she asked me if I would like her to upgrade to the latest version of Android. I had just read article about android security saying to always keep updated to the latest version. It was a bit surprising that the phone manufacture date was just one month and there was an update, but I said yes. She installed android 4.4.4. From what I see on line it's not clear if it's really for this particular phone, but it seems to be working fine.

 

I find this site interesting, speaking of changing ROM: http://lifehacker.com/5915093/five-best-android-roms

 

Something for me to think about in the future, maybe on another not too overpriced phone.

 

GG

[Palatkik]

She installed android 4.4.4.

 

My guess would be she was just doing a legitimate over the air update to latest os - not a root. Some devices allow this once or twice in their lifetime before being taken off the shelf.

 

You can test if your phone is rooted with one of the free Google Play apps such as Root Checker - it doesn't root just lets you know if root is successful.