Couple questions on rooting the S4

[Sid6point7]

My girl has decided to leave the world of Apple & embrace the Android universe (proud man here). I want to make the transition to Android as smooth as possible while rooting her phone to get rid of all the bloatware, nothing else special beyond that other than trying to maximize battery life. I don't own an s4 myself (have S3) & want to know couple things before i dive into this:

-Is there a ROM out there that is just a "naked" version on KitKat for the S4?

-OR-

-Would you recommend just updating to KitKat & then root to strip the bloatware?

I have found in the past that sometimes a custom ROM can outperform Google's version pretty well while conserving battery life. Any help is appreciated from S4 users who have experience first hand.

 

[mhunter6378]

First things first. If you're girlfriend has an iPhone now and is moving to android, be absolutely certain to turn off iMessage BEFORE switching from the iPhone. I would even do that days before to insure it is off and texts work as they should.

As for the switch to an S4 here's my thoughts regarding your questions. The most current software for the AT&T S4 is Jelly Bean 4.3, Kit Kat 4.4 has not been officially released yet. There are custom ROMs out based on 4.2 and 4.3 Jelly Bean that are debloated and based on Touchwiz, others that are based more on vanilla Android and yet others based on vanilla 4.4 Kit Kat. You could even turn it into a Google Play device with ROMs ported over from them. If you just want to go the rooting route, you could do that and install Titanium Backup to rid the device of any bloatware. Keep in mind doing any of these things voids your warranty and you run the usual risk associated with these changes. You can go to XDA and find plenty of ROMs for the S4.

If it were me I'd keep it stock, at least for a while. You can disable the bloatware and after that the only downside of having it on the phone is the physical space it takes up in the device storage. You would still have the benefit of the added features that Samsung brings to the device and you get to choose whether to use them or not.

If battery life is your motivation for considering these changes (rooting and custom ROMs) I can tell you that in my experience with the stock software battery life is very good. I'm currently running 4.3. After the update from 4.2 to 4.3 I did a factory data reset/restore immediately to make sure I had the cleanest install possible. I then reloaded my apps and set up my accounts. I have had no problems with the update. My typical day is off charger at 6 am and back on charger at 9 pm at which point I usually have at least 50% battery life left and many days I have near 70%. I'm not a heavy user but I do use my phone throughout the day. I have two email accounts (Gmail and Exchange) that I check and use all day, I text frequently, I rely heavily on Google Now, use my Google+ account, sync my Picasa account for images, Google Play syncs for music, I have GPS, Bluetooth and Wifi constantly on.

If you want to change up the user interface you can always add a launcher like Nova and theme it like an iPhone to make the interface more familiar to your girlfriend while she adjusts to android. In the end my advice to you is leave it stock and not root or ROM right after getting it, give it a while and if you still want to go that route do it later. The Kit Kat update is coming. If you root now you may not be able to get that OTA when it comes.

Good luck, hope she likes her new phone and hope this helps.

 

[Sid6point7]

Thank you SO MUCH for the clarification in what to do for her. Unfortunately she just told me she is sticking to Verizon instead of going to AT&T for the phone, i hope this advice still sticks. But yea, my main motivation of possibly rooting & clearing bloatware is for battery life since she is used to iPhone extensive ability to maintain good battery life throughout the day. She is habits similar to yours & since you can go a full day with only about 50% left sounds great. If anything I could root the device to uninstall the bloatware while keeping the original Android OS intact; correct if I'm wrong on that but my understanding is that it's just giving you root permissions. And yes she is well aware of rooting voiding the warranty but still want that as an option just in case. Thanks again man & i think I'll just keep it stock for now as a dry run & go from there.

 

[metle_geek]

My girl has decided to leave the world of Apple & embrace the Android universe (proud man here). I want to make the transition to Android as smooth as possible while rooting her phone to get rid of all the bloatware, nothing else special beyond that other than trying to maximize battery life. I don't own an s4 myself (have S3) & want to know couple things before i dive into this:

-Is there a ROM out there that is just a "naked" version on KitKat for the S4?

-OR-

-Would you recommend just updating to KitKat & then root to strip the bloatware?

I have found in the past that sometimes a custom ROM can outperform Google's version pretty well while conserving battery life. Any help is appreciated from S4 users who have experience first hand.

Yes there are aosp roms but if it's running the 4.3 update out of the box we do not as of yet have a boot loader unlock tool for it there fore no custom recoveries and no aosp roms only stock style 4.3 safe strap roms at&t can be rooted as I am on one rite now Verizon mot so sure? But please go to XDA and read all you can

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