Root or not root - ROMS and other stuff

[racedog]

I've always unlocked and rooted my phones and used custom roms since I switched to Android a few years ago. But, now that I've got this GS3 I'm having some second thoughts and decided to post here a few of my issues and see what others take on them are.

I'm actually pretty happy with the S3 the way it is and my main reason for rooting this phone is to be able to use some of the tools that I've become used to such as Root Explorer and Titanium Backup and a couple of others and to be able to do nandroid backups using TWRP. I've been reading some of the stickied threads here and they are very confusing because some of them were started before the unlock tool came out. So, my first issue is, what do I use if I want to root this phone? What tool if I want to both root and unlock this phone? That being said I also want to make sure that the flash counter does not get incremented in case this phone needs to be returned. And, speaking of returns, once this phone is rooted and possibly unlocked, it is possible to return it to stock in case of a repair return or replacement?

The other thing that has me bothered is that one thing I've found with being a rom flasher is that as roms are pushed out, more and more people demand more and more features and as the developers add those features, things seem to start breaking here and there and I'm just tired of fighting those issues. I like Jelly Bean but I don't see many JB roms for the S3 and I'm not interested in being a guinea pig or working with beta roms that have known issues, I'm tired of issues. The other thing that really ticks me off is that developers constantly see this need to have their fingerprints all over my phone in terms of boot animations, pink unicorns and removing wallpapers and substituting their own stuff that they (and others) think are "kewl".

All I want to end up with is a phone that runs well and that I can add the apps that I want and use but without all the stuff that others think I should have on it. Is this even possible anymore?

My S3 is running the newest stock rom as I just bought it a couple of days ago, so that's the one I would need to roo and possibly unlock. What tool(s) would I use to do that? Is there a JB rom for this that isn't beta or experimental that will run on this phone and do so without all the other stuff that I don't want such as someone elses wallpapers etc.?

I would appreciate some feedback on the above.

 

[nrm5110]

Build your own ROM its not hard then you don't have to worry bout it a lot of people build and never release to the public

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

 

[jlibis]

I've always unlocked and rooted my phones and used custom roms since I switched to Android a few years ago. But, now that I've got this GS3 I'm having some second thoughts and decided to post here a few of my issues and see what others take on them are.

I'm actually pretty happy with the S3 the way it is and my main reason for rooting this phone is to be able to use some of the tools that I've become used to such as Root Explorer and Titanium Backup and a couple of others and to be able to do nandroid backups using TWRP. I've been reading some of the stickied threads here and they are very confusing because some of them were started before the unlock tool came out. So, my first issue is, what do I use if I want to root this phone? What tool if I want to both root and unlock this phone? That being said I also want to make sure that the flash counter does not get incremented in case this phone needs to be returned. And, speaking of returns, once this phone is rooted and possibly unlocked, it is possible to return it to stock in case of a repair return or replacement?

The other thing that has me bothered is that one thing I've found with being a rom flasher is that as roms are pushed out, more and more people demand more and more features and as the developers add those features, things seem to start breaking here and there and I'm just tired of fighting those issues. I like Jelly Bean but I don't see many JB roms for the S3 and I'm not interested in being a guinea pig or working with beta roms that have known issues, I'm tired of issues. The other thing that really ticks me off is that developers constantly see this need to have their fingerprints all over my phone in terms of boot animations, pink unicorns and removing wallpapers and substituting their own stuff that they (and others) think are "kewl".

All I want to end up with is a phone that runs well and that I can add the apps that I want and use but without all the stuff that others think I should have on it. Is this even possible anymore?

My S3 is running the newest stock rom as I just bought it a couple of days ago, so that's the one I would need to roo and possibly unlock. What tool(s) would I use to do that? Is there a JB rom for this that isn't beta or experimental that will run on this phone and do so without all the other stuff that I don't want such as someone elses wallpapers etc.?

I would appreciate some feedback on the above.

To root your S3 it is really easy (there is a one click method)...tons of tutorials on YouTube. I recommend checking out YouTube.com/DroidModderX he has every single video tutorial you will ever need along with the necessary files to go with it. For unlocking all you do is download EZ-Unlock from the play store once you are rooted and hit one button and it unlocks. As for the ROMs, there are a good chunk of ROMs out that are extremely stable for JellyBean and ICS. There are also Roms that are basically bone stock with minor tweaks. I have ran CM10 nightly builds from over a month ago that had little to no bugs. Right now I am on AOKP and it is flawless. As for developers adding their own things to the ROMs I'd say CM10 is the most stock....the only thing they really change is the boot animation while also adding some wallpapers. Hope I helped out somewhat....any other questions just ask.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums

 

[psyjohn]

Just to let you know, there have been some problems with the more recent versions of EZ-Unlock since the last VZW update. I unlocked mine a few days ago but I used version 1.2 to do it. You can download it from here: [App] [9/20] EZ-Unlock 1.4 - Easiest way to unlock your bootloader! - Verizon Galaxy S III Development - RootzWiki

 

[racedog]

Thanks for the responses! I'll head off to youtube to check out the droidmodderx videos.

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

Yeah, I agree with a lot of what you said...but rooting this phone is easy, and I'm too used to having total control to give that up now.

One ROM definitely worth checking out is CleanROM ... it's built off the stock ROM and doesn't have much in the way of "kewl" bells and whistles as you call them. Plus it uses the "Aroma Installer" which essentially allows you to pick and choose which custom mods you want (and more importantly, the ones you don't) to add during the install process. It's not a beta or a work in progress, just a very stable ROM tweaked for the rooted user.

 

[Srambo217]

Stock/rooted is fine. I actually prefer it over any custom roms (at the moment).

AdFree / freezing bloat makes a world of difference.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums