Advantages and Disadvantages of Rooting an Android Phone or Tablet

Rooting is now a common language among android users.  Many of my friends ask me every now and then if there is any special thing about rooting, what they stand to gain or lose if they root their Android phones or gadgets. In this post I will explain some of the merits as well as the demerits of rooting an Android device.

Rooting an Android device simply means removing the limitations in the device, giving the owner full access to the device.

When you root your Android device, you enable all the functions of your device even the ones that are disabled by the manufacturers for security reasons.

Rooting an Android phone or tablet gives your gadget an edge over non-rooted ones but it is not devoid of short-comings. In as much as you enjoy special features, customize your device and many more when you root your phone, you can still lose your phone during rooting if it is not done properly.

Advantages of Rooting

1. Free up Memory: when you root your Android device, you can move most of the applications to your SD card, even the ones that are originally meant to be installed on phone memory. Also, with some special apps meant for only rooted devices you can uninstall some apps that come with your device which are not being used. With this you will have more space allotted to your phone memory; hence the device will run faster.

2. Installation Custom ROMs: custom ROMs are operating systems produced by other developers to mimic the ones produced by the manufacturers of your device (stock ROMs). Most of these custom ROMs (examples include cynogenmod, AOKP and others) have better and more advanced user interface than the ones produced by the manufacturers of your device. Also most of the custom ROMs consume less memory than the stock ROMs.

3. Manual upgrading of devices: BBM now run on Android OS but not all Android phones will use the app, it is for Android phones running on OS 4 and above. When you root your device, you can install custom ROM running on OS 4 and above, even when your device manufacturer says u can not upgrade to OS 4. For instance, HTC vision if not rooted can only run on OS 2.3 Gingerbread  and below but I’m using OS 4.2.2 Jelly Bean on my own.

4. Download paid apps free: Google play is full of apps, but most of the good ones are paid. When you root your Android device there are some apps you can use to download these applications free, also there are apps that can give paid apps license whenever it is installed in cases where you are able to download them from other sources.

5. Special Applications: there are some applications that are only meant for rooted phones. Some of these apps are worth using. For instance apps like Titanium backup can do numerous functions, one of the functions is that it can backup all the apps you have in your phone and you can send the backup to another rooted device and install all of them in that device saving you the time and data.

Disadvantages of Rooting

1. Warranty voiding: When you root your phone or tablet immediately the warranty that comes with the device is voided. What this means is that if your device is within the time frame the manufacturer said that you can return the device in cases of any fault, once you root the device you cannot return it again.

2. Risk of bricking your device: A bricked device is like a brick or dead phone. While rooting your device you can lose it if you do not follow the steps correctly. I will advise you to give your phone to someone who is good in rooting phones to avoid this, if you want to root your phone or you read the instructions carefully before attempting it.

3. Poor Performance: In as much as rooting makes your device run faster, for those that will want to install custom ROMs some the ROMs are beta version undergoing modifications, as such some of the functions may not be working properly and at times the ROMs may slow down your device.

In summary, rooting an Android device has many goodies to offer but it is not devoid of shortcomings, the decision to root or not to root is yours.