Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Root Root Root for the home team...



                I recently “rooted” my Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777 Android phone from AT&T.  I have been hearing for months about how the new Jelly Bean OS for Android would be officially released for the GS2, and the date seems to keep getting pushed back.  I had previously updated from Gingerbread to the official Ice Cream Sandwich release when it was put out by AT&T & Samsung, but I had never tried to install a custom OS before.  To me it always seemed like an awfully big risk.  Well, I finally decided to try it, and found mixed results.
                First of all, let me say that rooting your phone is actually really easy.  Anybody who is moderately computer savvy can complete this task.  There are seemingly endless websites on the internet that explain how to do this.  The first time you do it is going to be nerve racking.  But really, as long as you follow the instructions, you can’t mess it up.  In theory you can always go back to your default OS too.  I’ll come back to that point later.
                The first problem with rooting your droid, is deciding which “ROM” to replace your OS with.  There are probably hundreds of choices for each phone.  I tried reading several review websites to choose the best one for me.  Now supposedly these releases will be labeled stable if they are no longer in development, but I did not find this to be true.  I probably loaded 10 different ROMs before I found one that worked well for me.  I couldn’t find a single Jelly Bean based one that worked well for my GS2, even though various sites suggested them.  The biggest problem I had was getting them to sync to my Google account.
                The other problem I had was that I was not able to reload my stock OS onto my phone.  I downloaded the file form the internet and flashed it to my phone via a connection to the PC and software called Odin.  However, once it was done, the phone would not load past the AT&T welcome flash screen.  At that point I knew I was stuck, and if I didn’t want to buy a new phone, I would have to use a custom OS.
                Luckily, I did find a ROM that worked well for me.  It is called Serendipity 9.4 and it is an ICS based ROM with the TouchWiz launcher from the GS3.  I heard about it here, and here is a link to the official website.  So far if you are reading this and you have never rooted your phone, you have probably been convinced not to attempt it.  I will say that in the end, I am really happy that I did it.  The Serendipity ROM is faster and more stable than my default ICS from AT&T.  I was having a lot of problems with my phone turning off for no reason.  It hasn’t done that since the switch.  Battery life is noticeably improved, and of course, it doesn’t come with any of the “extra” software from the manufacturer that cannot be uninstalled.
                So, in the end, I am glad I did it.  I was getting frustrated with my year old GS2 and was ready for something new.  I ended up with a better product than I had before.  If you are trying to decide whether to take the plunge, I would suggest you give yourself enough time to try out several different products to find the one that works best for your phone.  Good luck.

* Update! * 3/15/13: An unanticipated consequence of rooting the phone is that it can now be used as a mobile hotspot without paying the extra fee required by AT&T.  This definitely makes it worth doing!