Is it worth it to get a nexus device if you aren't going to root it?

[cannon11]

So there's like a 50/50 chance that I'll either get a nexus s or galaxy nexus, the other option would maybe be a a galaxy s2. So the question is, is the main bennefit of a nexus device is that it is easy to root and should you bother getting a nexus device If you aren't going to root it?
I'm pretty good with tech, but not sure If I really want to get into the rooting business, even if it is pretty easy. Especially since my compute crashes half the time when I try to download somthing. Out of just pure appearance to me the nexus interface looks alot better, just cleaner and a cooler look. Samsung touchwiz is ok but still not the greatest, It adds functionality but it just doesn't look that great to me, not bad just not as good as nexus. Also I'm not a big fan of HTCs sense.
Anyway, Would I be better off going with an s2 If i'm not going to root it or do you think I would still be happier with a nexus s/galaxy nexus even if i don't root it?
thanks

 

[jhawkkw]

The one advantage of getting a nexus other than rooting reasons is that they're more likely to receive updates to newer software os's than non nexus devices. The Galaxy Nexus(GSM) is on 4.3, while VWZ & Sprint variants are on 4.2.2 and 4.2.1 respectively. The GS2, depending on carrier, can be on anything from 2.3.x to 4.1.2. The Nexus S has reach end of life and is stuck on 4.1.2.

 

[lunatic59]

The main reason to get a Nexus device is that it's pure Google without carrier nonsense (except for what Verizon did to the gnex, but that was a one-time debacle). You get updates first and a longer update life cycle. Because they are also thought of as developer phones, they tend to get rooted easily and quickly, but there's nothing that says you must root it.

I've had several Samsung phones including the S2 that I would say were as easy to root as my Nexii (Nexuses?).

The Nexus Google interface is very plain and just boring to some people. I use Apex launcher to add functionality, but there are many others. That's the beauty of Android... it's your phone, your choice.

Don't worry about rootability. Go with the phone you think looks and feels best to you. I've found that if a device looks cheap or feels awkward, there's no amount of tech tweaking that will make me like it.

EDIT: semi-ninja'd by jhawkkw ... or is that quasi-ninja'd?

 

[funkylogik]

Quasi sounds better mate
Both the phones are very rootable and have great rom support. The main thing between the gnex and s2 is the s2 has expandable storage. Tbh thats the main thing separating them if youre gona root and use a custom rom anyway. If you arent gona root and dond need an SD card then go for the nexus :thumbup:

 

[lunatic59]

Quasi sounds better mate
Both the phones are very rootable and have great rom support. The main thing between the gnex and s2 is the s2 has expandable storage. Tbh thats the main thing separating them if youre gona root and use a custom rom anyway. If you arent gona root and dond need an SD card then go for the nexus :thumbup:

Quasi it is ... like the new phone for French hunchbacks ... the Quasimotorola.

Seriously one of the things to consider is also the physical phone. The S2 has 4 variants with differences in construction. The AT&T variant, which is the model I own is very thin and perfectly flat with square corners. The GNex has the typical Samsung rounded corner look with a convex screen. You really have to get one in your hands to see which you prefer.

 

[funkylogik]

Yeah im a fan of a more boxy look. i hated the look of the gnex at launch but when i held one, it felt good and the curved screen is excellent at reducing glare.
Looks wise though, i think the best lookin phone around is the Sony Xperia Z. I dont even care how it feels in my hand lol its beautiful and looks how a gadget should

 

[nickdalzell]

I got my Nexii to experience pure Android and being Pure Google, the hardware and software work well together much like the way an iPad works. It is extremely fast, responsive and of high quality. Rooting for me was usually to work around bugs with carrier stuff, or to work around problems with lower-end hardware, or to upgrade Android by flashing a ROM. NONE of that is necessary forma Nexus. I can't imagine why I'd need to over clock, free up memory, or use an sd-ext partition. I don't need root to customize Android. I got Nexii so I did NOT have to root.

 

[Medion]

I chose to get a "Nexus" device because I wanted pure Android without carrier bloat, and I wanted to achieve that without the need for rooting and running ROMs. If anything, a Nexus device (or Google Play Edition) doesn't need root as much as a carrier-branded device (though there are still excellent reasons for doing so).

 

[boathead]

i have a gnex that i rooted. i've played around with roms/kernels, and am now back to the stock 4.2.1. and this is the way i prefer it. it is an excellent device as is.

i will say that i have two apps that have root access, which i enjoy, but i could quite easily do without them. i am tempted to manually update to 4.3, but i probably won't bother.

 

[funkylogik]

i am a bit of a google fan but i know for sure that id root a nexus and probably end up running a custom rom on it. Im not a purist and i dont blindly follow googles idea of what android should be android is ours, not google's :beer:

 

[nickdalzell]

Problem with putting a custom ROM on a nexus is that it then becomes another bug-fest, since you're then running unofficial software and the software isn't made for the hardware like stock. I'd basically have the same bugs with cyanogenmod 10 on my Nexus 10 that I'd have with the same ROM on my Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. I see zero benefit from rooting that isn't possible with stock. There is zero issue with storage so an sd-ext makes no sense (and Nexii have no SD card slot), no slow or laggy processor to benefit from over clocking, and no problems with too little RAM for hundreds of apps to fight over. As for ditching Google's pastel metro junk, while not possible, even in a custom ROM, to use Play or Google apps (as well as updated versions of non-google apps that utilize a similar approach) without them looking that way, we certainly have control over the launcher, lock screen and countless others without rooting being necessary.

 

[funkylogik]

im kinda vain in a way when it comes to my UI tbh lol so i like bein able to use mods and UI themes to make it look in a way that pleases me. Stock android doesnt. Thats kinda shallow but if im honest its probably the main thing that would make me mod a nexus :beer:

 

[jhawkkw]

Problem with putting a custom ROM on a nexus is that it then becomes another bug-fest, since you're then running unofficial software and the software isn't made for the hardware like stock. I'd basically have the same bugs with cyanogenmod 10 on my Nexus 10 that I'd have with the same ROM on my Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. I see zero benefit from rooting that isn't possible with stock. There is zero issue with storage so an sd-ext makes no sense (and Nexii have no SD card slot), no slow or laggy processor to benefit from over clocking, and no problems with too little RAM for hundreds of apps to fight over. As for ditching Google's pastel metro junk, while not possible, even in a custom ROM, to use Play or Google apps (as well as updated versions of non-google apps that utilize a similar approach) without them looking that way, we certainly have control over the launcher, lock screen and countless others without rooting being necessary.

Custom roms on Nexus devices are generally optimized for the hardware because Google publishes the binaries/drivers for them on their website. Unlike a non-nexus device were devs have to reverse engineer them which leads to instability.

 

[Rxpert83]

Custom ROMs on nexus devices work much better than on a device that they had to reverse engineer the drivers and hack together a ROM for.

Why? Google already did all the hard part. The custom ROM devs just have to add their tweaks or customizations.

They just work.:thumbup:

 

[funkylogik]

And also, the average dev team are gona all own a nexus to to test it on in real time :thumbup:

 

[Medion]

(and Nexii have no SD card slot)

And that is why we have Google Play Edition phones. I know that they aren't exactly a Nexus, but they are close. I greatly prefer either Google Play Edition over the Nexus 4.

 

[funkylogik]

Id much rather buy a phone thats cheaper than a GPE and mod it to be better

 

[breadnatty08]

Rooting my Gnex was no easier than my S3. These days, flagship phones get root exploits and often one-click apps almost immediately after launch.
"Back in the day", my OG Droid was the hardest as it required several steps and different apps to root. Now, it's more or less easy as pie.

 

[Medion]

Id much rather buy a phone thats cheaper than a GPE and mod it to be better

Unless you're buying a $100 prepaid phone, when you buy cheaper phones on contract, you pay more. Both T-Mobile and AT&T offer options for people who pay full price.

http://androidforums.com/android-lounge/740148-justifying-price-google-play-editions.html

In the example given, an HTC One costs $250+ less at $600 outright than for $200 on contract.

 

[out of ideas]

\ As for ditching Google's pastel metro junk, while not possible, even in a custom ROM, to use Play or Google apps (as well as updated versions of non-google apps that utilize a similar approach) without them looking that way, we certainly have control over the launcher, lock screen and countless others without rooting being necessary.

that's not true.

all the google apps have been inverted to black themes.

 

[divinebovine]

and no problems with too little RAM for hundreds of apps to fight over.

I hate that that should ever be an issue. Nothing should be using RAM unless you've specifically launched it or chosen to have it launch on boot or it is specifically launched by something meeting the previous two conditions. But hey, that's not the mobile way...everything runs all the time.

 

[lunatic59]

But hey, that's not the mobile way...everything runs all the time.

No it doesn't. Not really. Android memory management makes use of all the resources and tries to predict next usage so it's ready for you, cached in memory. 80% of the time it predicts correctly and you don't see a lag when performing the required task. When it doesn't get it right, it knows what to dump to optimize the new app or service.

They may be sitting in memory and occupying space, but they aren't consuming clock cycles or interfering with the apps and services that are actually running.

Think of it this way. Your phone is a ball game. The processor is the stadium and memory is the parking lot. If you kept the parking lot empty and waited for someone to leave the game before another car could enter, it would backup everyone at the entrance. If you let everyone park, they can sit and be happy drinking beer and grilling burgers before the game ... and the highway doesn't get jammed up.

 

[divinebovine]

Think of it this way. Your phone is a ball game. The processor is the stadium and memory is the parking lot.

...and there's no bench, every player must be on the field all the time, even if some are just sitting down in the infield, not running around doing stuff. Let's not even talk about how every fan is in the bathroom at the same time.

How about this...
Your phone is your work area. RAM is your workbench. You are the processor. Storage memory is your toolbox. Do you keep all your tools on the workbench? No, you keep only the ones you're using for the current project on the bench; the rest are stored in the toolbox. If all your tools were on the workbench you'd be very limited in how many tools you could have and the bench would be too full to work. The tools you almost never use are stored in the attic/garage/etc (like freezing apps, or like storing uninstalled APKs on the SD card to install when you need them), too.

If you kept the parking lot empty and waited for someone to leave the game before another car could enter, it would backup everyone at the entrance. If you let everyone park, they can sit and be happy drinking beer and grilling burgers before the game ... and the highway doesn't get jammed up.

You've obviously never been to Gillette Stadium.

 

[divinebovine]

Of course we could bring it out of analogies and into reality. If it worked as great as you say then I probably wouldn't care. In fact, the reality is as follows:

On a 20 year old desktop computer with a fraction of the RAM and CPU power of my phone, as long as I have a large enough hard drive, I can install thousands of programs, run one at a time, and it will run fine.

On my low-spec Android phone with hundreds of times as much RAM and CPU power, I can install a few dozen apps (small ones!) before it starts to run like crap. Argue all you want about the behavior of those apps but the OS should be in charge, especially when you consider how sandboxed apps are in Android. They are allowed to occupy RAM and may even use CPU cycles merely because they're installed, regardless of whether I run them or not.

Don't worry, I'm not making a case for task killers. I'm just kvetching about the concept.

 

[lunatic59]

...and there's no bench, every player must be on the field all the time, even if some are just sitting down in the infield, not running around doing stuff. Let's not even talk about how every fan is in the bathroom at the same time.

They are patiently waiting in their seats until the usher let them know the bathroom is free.

To extend the football metaphor ... Android is your football team and the CPU is the field of play. When your team is executing a play on the field (you are running an app), non-active players are on the bench (cached apps). Removing players on the field during a play (killing running apps) is potentially harmful to the game. The players on the bench waiting to take the place of the active players on the field do not impact the play on the field. Sending them to the locker room during a play (killing an idle cached app) has no impact on the play's successful completion nor the efficiency with which it's executed. It does however delay the next play if the player sent to the locker room was scheduled to replace one of the players on the field and does impact the overall efficiency of the game.

Any NFL coach who arbitrarily sends benched players to the locker room because he feels they are distracting the players on the field would be fired for gross inefficiency.

How about this...
Your phone is your work area. RAM is your workbench. You are the processor. Storage memory is your toolbox. Do you keep all your tools on the workbench? No, you keep only the ones you're using for the current project on the bench; the rest are stored in the toolbox. If all your tools were on the workbench you'd be very limited in how many tools you could have and the bench would be too full to work. The tools you almost never use are stored in the attic/garage/etc (like freezing apps, or like storing uninstalled APKs on the SD card to install when you need them), too.

Not quite. The processor is the workbench (where all the work gets done) RAM is the toolbox and storage memory is the supply closet where little-used tools and data are kept. You are the shop foreman. If you reach for a tool and it's not there, you have to go to the closet and get it. If it's not in the closet then you have to wait for the Snap-On truck to show up (d/l from the Play store) or make a tool run to WalMart (d/l from a bogus Chinese app store ). When you are done with a tool, you put it back in the box near you so it's handy if you need it again. You don't walk every tool back to the closet.


In truth Android is neither a shop floor nor a sporting event. It is a sophisticated OS that is optimized for mobile applications. That's why it works the way it does.

You've obviously never been to Gillette Stadium.

Actually, I have! (But it wasn't for a Patriots game, it was a product endorsement photo shoot. )