Root Should I root my Hero? (advantages/disadvantages)

[Boy Genius]

Hi there, this is my first post so greeting to you all. I bought my Hero a couple of weeks ago and heard about rooting, and was just wondering whether it is worth doing. I've seen some videos and shots of rooted Android devices and some of the customisation looks pretty damn awesome, but I was wondering what, in a nutshell, the upsides and downsides of rooting are (e.g will it void my warranty?)

Regards

BG

 

[mgillespie]

It will void your warranty, but this would only be a problem if you somehow can't flash it back to stock (i.e. you dropped it or something).

 

[Elpelco]

Rooting generally improves performance, and right now it's the only way to get Android 2.1. it depends how much control you want over your phone, there are things you can do with a rooted phone you can't do with an unrooted one. It's not that tough to do as long as you read up first.

 

[Boy Genius]

Thanks, I'll have a look around the forums and such to get a better idea. My main reason to root is to improve performance, which is often below par on the Hero.

 

[blunderbus]

I just rooted mine today and got the villian 5.5 Rom. I was going to wait for the stock one to come out for 2.1 but decided to take the plunge. The speed seems slightly faster, but the extras far outweigh anything stock has to offer at the moment. I would recommend that you do it !!

 

[tojjer]

Thanks, I'll have a look around the forums and such to get a better idea. My main reason to root is to improve performance, which is often below par on the Hero.

If you're with Orange, you may / probably will have to use MMSzap to set up the phone for picture messages, depending which ROM you go for

 

[islandmixed]

Take the risk man...i was like this afew weeks bk...i love sence 2.2 & it works great..no issues with it. i will un root soon as the real update comes back. vallian rom was awful, ive not tried the 5.5 but scarred to after having errors constantly with 5.3/5.4

 

[Boy Genius]

Thanks for all the help people, been looking around and I think rather than install custom ROMs on top of the Android 1.5 I'm running at the moment I think I may have a go at installing 2.1 or 2.2. Any ideas when the official 2.1 update will arrive? (I am on Orange in the UK)

 

[blunderbus]

Theres talk of it cming next month, but don't hold your breath! I haven't tried sence, but Villain 5.5 is very good....no issues with it at all at the moment. Everything appear fine.....!!

 

[Jaffa]

5.5 has one issue, no voice mail icon. Apart from that its a pretty slick 2.1 port