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Google’s flagship phone, the Nexus 4, has already been rooted according to a post over at XDA Developers. But we’re genuinely curious: why would anybody choose to root a phone that comes loaded with stock Android?
What are the amazingly useful features you can only access by rooting a Nexus 4? And are they worth the effort, when you already have a great, clean install of Android on your handset in the first place (if you can get your mitts on one)? Tell us.
9 Reasons to Root Your Android Device
10 Reasons to Root Your Android Device
Sony's PlayStation Mobile App Works on Most Rooted Android Devices
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm all the apps that require root……..for example, superuser, Titanium, Adfree, CPU clocking etc etc etc
Thought that was obvious!
+1 for Titanium Backup and Adfree.
I tend not to CPU clock, but I do find that certain phone-specific optimisations can occur in certain AOSP ROMs, even compared to stock.
That’s the nerd equivalent of saying “Why climb Everest?”
never had the urge to root my device so far
Get out!
really
Can’t have ever used an Orange or Vodefone Android phone then.
my sensation is on orange, why would i need to root,
to be honest the only thing stopping me from rooting it is backup and restore will be a pain
How will it be a pain?
I received a replacement SGS3 from O2, and as a result of having rooted, backed up, etc… the previous one, within 30 mins of signing for it was in exactly (give or take a few hours of texts) the same state I’d been a week prior, just with a functioning phone!
wont i have to download all my apps again
along with that HTX sync doesnt work on windows 8, although i am in the process of syncing all my daily stuff with google instead of outlook
I’m pretty sure that you won’t need to download all your apps again. Rooting my S3 was totally painless and once rooted you can make a NAND backup which allows you to restore your phone exactly as it is currently set up.
Also install Titanium Backup and backup all your apps and system data with that. If you ever decide to mess around with custom ROMS you can still do a full wipe and Titanium Backup can then restore all your apps and settings.
And if the custom ROM is a bit dodgy, you’ve got your NAND backup to restore your phone back to how it was.
If you have titanium backup pro installed then you can backup all your apps and data with it. Then whenever you install a fresh rom etc, you can restore all of your apps from the backups with no need to download the apps again.
My only issue is getting into Google Play fast enough to disable the auto updates before they start.
I got caught out last month. No WiFi so it obliterated my data allowance resulting in a couple weeks without internet on the move. “Painful” doesn’t even begin to describe…
Always do the app restore in Flight Mode!
Then reboot (as will likely be recommended), open the Play Store, blip mobile data on and set the apps to update on Wifi only!
I’ve tried and failed rooting my HTC Desire S because of the newer version of hboot which doesn’t flash and ended up downloading ICS from HTC Dev. The reason I tried Cyanogenmod9 is because how crap HTC has really implemented ICS on Sence. Having said that Stock Android is awesome, I’m not a heavy duty phone user and don’t feel the need for CPU clock control etc. Nexus 4 with Stock Android is good enough for the eye candy!
HTC are pretty strict with their bootloaders. Sony seems to be the most open, they have a guide to unlock bootloaders and they share their stuff with xda.
Jamie, if I could direct your attention this way:
http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/01/10-reasons-to-root-your-android-device/
Stock Android sucks, I don’t get why people like it so much. I find Touchwiz to be far better with way more features that google have been slowly copying. TouchWiz always copied stuff that made sense from IOS too. Stock Android too uses Chrome which sucks balls on mobile.
i beg to differ, touchwiz and htc sense are crap, in fact im not a fan of most of the manufacturer stuff, personally i like stock android, well not quite stock, i do my own tweaks
i do like htc sense, but having just had my nexus 10 with stock android, i would choose stock anyday
Always liked sense, and since i got my s3, my first samsung, i quite like touchwiz too. Not sure why theres so much hate for these skins.
Have to agree with you! Although I regularly flash custom ROMs on my Note there are pros and cons for each ROM I’ve used. Currently I am running a highly configurable ROM called ParanoidAndroid, but there are features of Touchwiz I often miss when on CM based ROMs and visa versa. I particularly hate the stock Google calender app bundled with ASOP, touchwiz calender is much nicer (IMO). Yea touchwiz can lag a bit here and there but combined with a custom kernel Touchwiz can be rather good!
+1 for Touchwiz, my samsung galaxy tab 2 7.0 is more usable than my nexus 7 with stock android. I can delete unwanted home screens, app drawer has a wallpaper, print screen button, etc. HTC’s Sense is too heavy for me when I had my HTC Evo 3d. Not all skins are equal IMHO.
custom kernels (overclock cpu/gpu, other tweaks) clockworkmod, other various root required software
Yeah kind of a silly question you dont only root just for roms! I am more than happy with the stock rom on my Nexus however you need to root for all the apps!!
Better question would be why would you not root it?
No idea, even on non-stock phones the only reason I can come up with for root is to remove bloatware and get a root enabled file manager.
I rooted my first phone (Nexus One) but am too lazy to root my Galaxy Nexus. However, a great perk of doing to is to boost the speaker. The stock speaker is so damn quiet.
My question is a simple one, why wouldn’t you root? The joy of Android is it’s open source! I love to flash custom ROMs and see what developers are doing with the source! As for Nandroid backups, they’re a frigging god send.