pros and cons of rooting android phone

[KSoD]

anyway... looks like i will not have a need to root it after all

Kinda a moot point that they can get it working. Since he already stated he is not going to Root in the first place. Also doesnt help that these people are developers and know how to get their device working in case something goes wrong. This device was $200 with the contract and worse yet he doesnt know how to do everything that is needed. If something goes wrong he could have a very expensive paper weight on his hands that he cant get no support with from the people who sold it cause of his actions to not only Root it but get around their pricing policies with the install of such an App.

I stayed on the side of caution and didnt bring all of this stuff up for this very reason. He doesnt need to know it. He wants to keep it simple and just use the device. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I rooted my phone and installed a custom rom for a couple of reasons

1) I can remove any bloatware
2) I got Froyo long before AT&T released it for the Captivate
3) The ROM I picked doesn't have side loading disabled like stock AT&T phones do
4) The ROM I picked is extensively themed and has an enhanced version of TouchWiz with superior performance
5) The ROM I picked has Voodoo lagfix which greatly improves the performance of Galaxy S phones
6) The Captivate is very difficult to brick so rooting and installing ROMs is pretty safe. Rooting is also very easy for the Captivate.

The key with rooting and installing custom roms is doing plenty of reading beforehand so you know what to expect when you do it to your specific model of phone. XDA developers has a ton of info for most Android phones and a few weeks of reading threads over there can give you a greater understanding of both Android and your specific phone.

 

[carnageX]

Kinda a moot point that they can get it working. Since he already stated he is not going to Root in the first place. Also doesnt help that these people are developers and know how to get their device working in case something goes wrong. This device was $200 with the contract and worse yet he doesnt know how to do everything that is needed. If something goes wrong he could have a very expensive paper weight on his hands that he cant get no support with from the people who sold it cause of his actions to not only Root it but get around their pricing policies with the install of such an App.

I stayed on the side of caution and didnt bring all of this stuff up for this very reason. He doesnt need to know it. He wants to keep it simple and just use the device. Nothing wrong with that.

Just because he doesn't want to root right now doesn't mean he might not later on. He may decide that rooting his phone and trying out the other features that are available after root are more beneficial to him. I didn't think I was going to root my phone until I started reading up on it more and figured it might be a good idea and that I may like to try out some different ROMs.

There's also nothing wrong with providing the info I gave either. Maybe somebody else is curious later on, and reads this thread and gets their answer as well. And a lot of the times, as long as you can access the bootloader, you can un-brick your phone because it's usually a bad software install or something. I've had to use my Nandroid backup several times because of the mods I've tried on my phone haven't worked and I had to use the backup I created to flash my phone again to get passed it going through boot loops.

I rooted my phone and installed a custom rom for a couple of reasons

1) I can remove any bloatware
2) I got Froyo long before AT&T released it for the Captivate
3) The ROM I picked doesn't have side loading disabled like stock AT&T phones do
4) The ROM I picked is extensively themed and has an enhanced version of TouchWiz with superior performance
5) The ROM I picked has Voodoo lagfix which greatly improves the performance of Galaxy S phones
6) The Captivate is very difficult to brick so rooting and installing ROMs is pretty safe. Rooting is also very easy for the Captivate.

The key with rooting and installing custom roms is doing plenty of reading beforehand so you know what to expect when you do it to your specific model of phone. XDA developers has a ton of info for most Android phones and a few weeks of reading threads over there can give you a greater understanding of both Android and your specific phone.

Agreed with Puddle Jumper on all those points. And yes, XDA is a very good resource for modding your phone or getting support on it if you've done something awry. They have specific boards for each Android phone that dev's work on, and you can easily get help over there for it. And like he also said, rooting is usually very easy for the end-user (as is un-rooting and going completely stock if so-chosen). The tools are usually one-click root process, which also give options to install custom ROMs (or you can manually do it through Recovery, or through ROM Manager app).