What is rooting ? Pros and Cons.

Have you ever thought of rooting your Android powered smartphone?

In this post we would be covering everything you must know before rooting your android phone.

What is Rooting?

Rooting in laymen’s term is a process of overcoming the limitations with which a device is shipped to the customer (carrier locks, bloat ware, overclocking of processor). It gives user “ROOT ACESS” that is otherwise impossible. Rooting is similar to jail breaking which is done for iOS (Apple’s OS for smartphones) .Moreover users can replace complete OS with a newer version which is officially unavailable.

Why should you Root?

Rooting will give you root access as the name suggest Rooting removes carrier lock and unwanted apps that are otherwise immotile. Some manufacturers even lock the frequency of processor which you can overclock or underclock after rooting which will either make your device more powerful (in case of over clocking) or will increase the battery backup (in case of under clocking).

Is Rooting Legal?

On 26 July’2010 it was termed as legal.

What are the Pros and Cons of Rooting?

PROS        

1. You Can clock your processor
   
   overclocking to get more power or under-clocking to get more battery backup. With overclocking you can run apps which were earlier incompatible with your device.
2. Install Custom ROMS , MODS and Themes
   Users can personalize their device by using custom MODS, ROMS and themes.One good example is Cyanogenmod
3. You can remove bloatware
   Manufacturer and carriers loads the device with useless apps which you rarely or don’t even use and it just consumes the space on your device
4. Tethering 3G/4G
   
   You can share your data connection with other devices and reduce your spendings on multiple data plans.
5. Backup !
   
   For example with a single app like titanium ,everything can be backed up !
6. Run Apps on your SD card
   
   This is a life saver for smartphones which are short of internal memory ,as you can run apps on SD card.
7. User interface can be tweaked further
   
   

 CONS

1. Bricking
   If rooting process fails (though less frequent) it will render your device useless.
2. Warranty is void if you Root
   Rooting voids manufacturer and Carrier warranty.
3. Burning of processor
    If you overclock your processor too much than you may end up burning the processor.
4. Updates
   You can’t get Over the air updates (OTG) in some cases.

Some best sources to get you started

          1.     XDA Forums

          2.     Phandroid

          3.     Android Central 

          

T2C Verdict! (To root or not!)

No other person can answer this question better than you. If you can compromise with the cons of rooting and ready to take the risk involved, then we suggest you to go for it without giving it a second thought.