Why root a Nexus 5?

[danarama]

Am I missing something here?

Yup. The sticky thread at the top of q&a answers the question. However its personal choice


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[Sianspheric]

Ehm...why did you buy a nexus? Actually i don't even know what you are doing on xda. No offense but... Sound more like an iPhone kind a guy...

Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

That's the biggest insult you can say to someone on XDA, calling them an iPhone guy.



Anyways. I guess my experience so far with an unrooted Nexus 5 has been so massively positive. The device is super responsive, never slugging, the battery life has actually been outstanding.

I didn't have that experience that much with the Samsung Galaxy S3, I rooted it (following tutorials and guidelines EXACTLY) from day 1 to get rid of carrier bloatware and as much fun as rooting was, it also caused me so many headaches.

So now with a device that is seemingly perfect out of the box, unlocked, direct from Google, no bloatware, I just was curious to see many people rooting a great device in it's stock state.

But these are all valid points. I might root it down the line, but right now it's so perfect, I don't want to mess with anything.

 

[Sianspheric]

It's up to you whether to root or not. Whatever problems you had with your previous device, it wasn't due to rooting persay, but rather what you did with root access. Rooting doesn't change anything, it just gives you administrative access to the operating system. Running un-rooted is analogous to accessing your desktop PC through a guest account. Rooting your Android device gives you full access like you have on your desktop as as an administrator.

I don't know if I entirely agree with that.

I guess simply rooting my Galaxy S3 with Odin didn't create problems per say, but inevitably my phone was more buggy and problematic after I rooted it.

I installed recoveries, changed kernals, tried original/android roms, installed the 4.2 camera, all of these done with instructions followed exactly step-by-step via XDA tutorials and thread and still it just got buggier and buggier and more unpredictable over time.

Even unrooting and going back to original stock carrier version of 4.1 and issues still persisted. Maybe I'm not as skilled at this stuff as you guys are (clearly, not going to deny that), but I think people having this perception that rooting/activities done with root access isn't somewhat risky is a misconception. I think you can follow all the "rules" and still cause harm to your device.

 

[danarama]

That's the biggest insult you can say to someone on XDA, calling them an iPhone guy.

1. There's nothing wrong with being an "iPhone guy". To each his own. Some people are

2. Since xda is less about development and more about people wanting "make my phone cool to show off to my friends" nowadays (not for want of trying), I don't think "someone on xda" holds much weight any more

3. Xda has an iPhone-developers sister site

4. There are lots of things that people get called here. Being called an iPhone guy is pretty good really



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[maxpower7]

No offense but... Sound more like an iPhone kind a guy...

That's like saying "I'm not a racist, but..." and then saying something incredibly racist. Give the guy a break. With all the people in these forums whining about every little non-issue they can think of, just be glad that he bought the phone and is happy with it out of the box.

And to say he's an iPhone kind of guy? That's cold, man.

 

[BirchBarlow]

I don't know if I entirely agree with that.

I guess simply rooting my Galaxy S3 with Odin didn't create problems per say, but inevitably my phone was more buggy and problematic after I rooted it.

I installed recoveries, changed kernals, tried original/android roms, installed the 4.2 camera, all of these done with instructions followed exactly step-by-step via XDA tutorials and thread and still it just got buggier and buggier and more unpredictable over time.

Even unrooting and going back to original stock carrier version of 4.1 and issues still persisted. Maybe I'm not as skilled at this stuff as you guys are (clearly, not going to deny that), but I think people having this perception that rooting/activities done with root access isn't somewhat risky is a misconception. I think you can follow all the "rules" and still cause harm to your device.

Like I said it wan't rooting itself that caused problems, it was the software you installed after rooting that caused you problems. Even when you uninstall the software, since it makes changes at the root level, those changes aren't reversed, so I can see why you would still have problems even after uninstalling. It's not that you did anything wrong, you can follow the instructions to a T and still have problems. All this stuff is unofficial/third-party anyway, so results may vary, but that's the beauty of Android. Unlike Apple, Google encourages thid-party development and innovation, and the Nexus is the poster-child for tinkering. Unlocking and rooting is as easy as 1-2-3, no hacking, no exploits, no major fanfare. Whatever harm you may cause your phone, it's only at the software level, so if you screw something up with root access, you can always completely revert back to stock using fastboot.

 

[Danub]

The only reason I'm afraid to root on Nexus 5 is cos I just got it and when you root you lose your warranty. So if anything goes wrong I can't send it back to Google

 

[maxpower7]

The only reason I'm afraid to root on Nexus 5 is cos I just got it and when you root you lose your warranty. So if anything goes wrong I can't send it back to Google

You can always flash a stock image and relock it.

 

[Danub]

You can always flash a stock image and relock it.

oh ok, is that fairly simple? Cos I rooted my S2 and that wasn't too hard. Never tried to unroot though and go back to stock

 

[Dragn4rce]

oh ok, is that fairly simple? Cos I rooted my S2 and that wasn't too hard. Never tried to unroot though and go back to stock

It's EXTREMELY EASY. So laughably easy.

BUT if decide not too. UNLOCK the boot loader at least. ALL NEXUS USERS MUST UNLOCK IT.

Fastboot OEM Unlock.

It pays off down the road because you WON'T lose EVERYTHING and if you need to return it well relock it easy.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Dakeent]

I second this.

Third here

Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

 

[maxpower7]

It's EXTREMELY EASY. So laughably easy.

BUT if decide not too. UNLOCK the boot loader at least. ALL NEXUS USERS MUST UNLOCK IT.

Fastboot OEM Unlock.

It pays off down the road because you WON'T lose EVERYTHING and if you need to return it well relock it easy.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Exactly. There's pretty much no reason at all not to unlock the bootloader right away when you get the phone. You have nothing to lose, and then you don't have to worry about wiping the phone down the line of you don't want to. It's win-win.

 

[BirchBarlow]

The only reason I'm afraid to root on Nexus 5 is cos I just got it and when you root you lose your warranty. So if anything goes wrong I can't send it back to Google

No you don't. If anything goes wrong, you can still send it back.

oh ok, is that fairly simple? Cos I rooted my S2 and that wasn't too hard. Never tried to unroot though and go back to stock

All you have to do to root is flash the Chainfire img through fastboot. Likewise if you want to go back to factory state all you have to do is flash the factory image in fastboot. You don't even need a custom recovery unless you want to flash custom ROMs.