Root Why should I root? Opinions appreciated!

[AndroidMax]

I managed to order a Acer-Iconia Tablet with 8GB Memory-Silver-A500-08S08u SKU: 3815032 from BestBuy on Cyber Monday (For $220!), It's preloaded with Android 3.2 Honeycomb. (Already ordered a 24GB class 4 mcrosd card.)So, I'm not new to rooting. I have an HTC EVO 3D that I rooted with CleanRom, and it allowed me to remove the bloatware, as well as turn on wireless tether. Better battery life, better camera. It was a smart move.

SO. what will I get if I root the Acer? Pretty much the same? Battery, camera, bloatware removed? What else? I see that I have to back off to 3.1 first, but would greatly appreciate comments! Which one to use? Which one to avoid?

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[splatoid]

Yes and some very nice roms.
Check out the tegra forum Thor is making some great roms.\
Acer A500-ROM TegraOwners – Nvidia Tegra2 & MultiCore Tablets, Phones – ROM, Apps, News
Im using 14.2 and it is very stable and fast. Pluse lots of extras.

 

[AndroidMax]

Thank you! Looks like a great ROM.

I didn't think my ACER had GPS, as bestbuy listed it as GPS: No. It would be awesome if it does!

Looks like the only issue is no Auto Screen Brightness with 14.2?

"216-1200Mhz default means it's faster than the OEM? If so, does this use battery faster?

 

[MahaloCat]

It does have GPS....not sure why the Specs don't list it...unless they left it out of the 8Gb model....which i doubt.

I second splatoid -Thors 14.2 has been the fastest smoothest best battery life of all the ROMS i have tried. He is also good about support. (and working on a ICS release)

As for issues with 14.2 - no Auto Screen (fine by me uses up battery) and no Screen Rotation Lock (button on top doesn't work)

 

[splatoid]

It does have GPS....not sure why the Specs don't list it...unless they left it out of the 8Gb model....which i doubt.

I second splatoid -Thors 14.2 has been the fastest smoothest best battery life of all the ROMS i have tried. He is also good about support. (and working on a ICS release)

As for issues with 14.2 - no Auto Screen (fine by me uses up battery) and no Screen Rotation Lock (button on top doesn't work)

There is a setting in the settings screen where you can either enable or disable the screen rotation.

 

[Zoandroid]

One really good reason to root an Android device is that you can then install a custom recovery, such as ClockworkMod, and create full backup files (called nandroids) which get saved to your SD card. Another is the ability to also install and run Titanium Backup,(aka TIBU) which allows you to back up all your apps and data to the SD card. With the Pro version of Titanium Backup you can even save more than one backup of the apps and data.

These 2 safety nets give you the ability to easily restore your device back to the point in time you created the backups. Much like Windows System Restore in a way, but far BETTER. EVERYTHING gets put back the way it was.

Another option for the more adventurous is to install custom ROMs in place of the stock operating system on your device. Once you have a nandroid of the stock ROM after you rooted it, no matter how badly you fare in attempts to try out custom ROMs, you are just a few steps away from restoring the rooted stock ROM again using the nandroid you created.

Then of course there are the issues already mentioned, such as removing bloatware and unwanted apps, which require you to be able to access "all" the files in the device. That's the essence of what Root Level Access is all about. Without it, you can't access the system files. With root, you can, so aside from de-bloating there are sometimes other things you can do to modify your device which would not otherwise be possible.

I recently read a good analogy given as a reason to root. The fellow said "imagine if you bought a new car, but the dealership put their own locking lug nuts on it so you could not install the nice custom wheels and tires you have and intended to use on the new car. That's essentially what cell phone vendors who lock bootloaders are doing. They are trying to prevent you from actually OWNING what you have PAID FOR.