How is the Skyrocket overall?

[Donald Jeffries]

Screen is great, though as people mentioned, it has some strange lines when viewing dark greys in low light.

Phone calls and texts work perfectly for me. Bigger screen has been great for typing.

I'm stock and rooted, and the performance has been great for me. It can handle just about everything I throw at it w/o any lag at all. I'm sure it'll be good for gaming, too. The one thing I'd look out for is that some games are not compatible on our devices for some reason. I tried to purchase Asphalt during the 10c sale, and it was only compatible w/ a GS2 (my previous phone), but not the SR.

As for issues: The screen issue mentioned above, and on mine, sometimes bluetooth doesn't turn on (though it's been awhile since that's happened).

 

[Donald Jeffries]

I am new to android and would like to know what is the advantage to being rooted.

 

[tedj101]

I am new to android and would like to know what is the advantage to being rooted.

Rooting simply gives you superuser status. As a regular user, your access is limited to the upper levels of the system. Theoretically, this makes sense since it keeps a user (who is likely to be less sophisticated than an administrator) from doing something to screw up the system or what amount to apps that are more or less part of the system (like the phone functionality). Unfortunately, the carriers use your lack of access to put a bunch of junk (and it is, for the most part, junk) on your phone which is designed to cost you more money. (A good example of this is AT&T Navigator for which they charge an insane $15/monthly fee). Rooting your phone simply means getting super user access so that you can make changes at a level that your carrier would rather you didn't.

While all this sounds nice and easy, making changes at the system level has its downside. One of them is that the carrier is likely to drop support of your phone including updates to the operating system. While there are third party updates available (alternative ROMS), fooling around at this level is dangerous for the uninitiated (and everyone is uninitiated at some point) and rapidly becomes a way of life. For years I refused to buy carrier sourced phones for this reason. The Skyrocket offered so much more with LTE etc. that it persuaded me to give up my Nokia N-8 and go with a carrier sourced unit - despite relegating me to "crippled" firmware.

The big question for you is, are you prepared to get the knowledge to support your own phone. (I assume you don't have this knowledge since you asked the question.)

I hope this helps,
<TED>

 

[tedj101]

I see, it looks like i may not really care about the lines then unless i am in that extreme circumstance. I dont put my phones light down much nor do i watch videos in the dark. i sleep in the dark. LOL.

Oh and you can take screen grabs right?

Since no one responded to your question, yes you can get screen captures. Just touch the "home button" and press the power key at the same time. They are stored in a special file which is available with file manager or the pictures app.

Regards,
<TED>

 

[Donald Jeffries]

Two things: First I recently installed ICS version 4.0.4. Once installed I noticed that a lot of my music artist names were changed to unknown artist Is there something that can be done about that. Secondly it seems my battery drains really fast with the new upgrade. I turn it off around 11 pm and charge it at night. It doesn't get turned back on until around 5:30 and by 11 am I'm putting it back on the charger. This is with minimal use. Is this normal or is there something that I can do to extend the life of this battery.