Is it worth rooting a Fascinate??

[i3izkit12]

Hey guys, I'm thinking about rooting my girlfriend's Fascinate for her but I've been looking through these forums and I don't see a whole lot of dev support for this phone. So before I go crazy messing with it I'd like to know a few things...

1. Are there simple ways to root a Fascinate? A simple guide or a 1 click root like developers have made for other phones.

2. Are there well made, functional, and stable roms available? If so, which ones are the most popular in the community and for what reasons.

3. I guess the last thing would be themes. I'm assuming there's not a huge abundance of them but 1 or 2 aesthetically pleasing and complete ones would do the trick.

Sorry for all the questions but hopefully this thread could be useful for a lot of other people with the same questions sifting in and out of this sub-forum.

Thanks!

 

[AllForNaught]

I'm not an advocate for rooting. Many problems seem to pop up, like gps functionality, and worse battery life.

As far as custom themes go, download a launcher like Go Launcher EX. You can use .png pics for custom icons even, like this:

View attachment 34039

And battery life like this:

View attachment 34040

I'm a proponent for customizing your device, but rooting isn't necessary to have a custom phone experience, and frankly, imo the problems outweigh the benny's.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using DroidForums

 

[Mcbrocker]

If you do things the right way you won't have problems. Best thing I've done to mine and my wifes phone. Debloating them, changing more then a launcher can do. Just follow directions.

 

[ecsnead69]

Rooting is simple with ODIN! Just follow the instructions and you can't go wrong. There are several themes that are linked here. I would suggest ComRom 2.0, it is great! This phone stock is a POS compared to what it is after rooting and tweaking!

 

[AllForNaught]

Rooting is simple with ODIN! Just follow the instructions and you can't go wrong. There are several themes that are linked here. I would suggest ComRom 2.0, it is great! This phone stock is a POS compared to what it is after rooting and tweaking!

Like, how, specifically? I'd seriously like to know what the real-world benefits of rooting are: discluding pirated .apk's.

Because frankly, I've compared my stock Fascinate against more than one rooted one, live, and in person.

Any ram recovery due to bloatware removal seems pretty negligible, and the custom rom themes are a matter of taste. There's plenty of launcher options for stock phones.

Oh, and forget battery life: I'm getting better than any rooted phone - that was the MOST obvious difference.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using DroidForums

 

[ecsnead69]

The phone stock was very sluggish and unresponsive. Rooting also allows for overclocking and undervolting which improves battery life, I get at least a day out of mine. I mean really, as long as the thing last 8 to 10 hours, how much more do you need?? Plug it up, it won't hurt it....

And as far as pirated apps, you DO NOT need to be rooted to use them, trust me.....

You paid a lot of money for these things, why shouldn't you be able to control them and do what you want with them?

 

[AllForNaught]

The phone stock was very sluggish and unresponsive. Rooting also allows for overclocking and undervolting which improves battery life, I get at least a day out of mine. I mean really, as long as the thing last 8 to 10 hours, how much more do you need?? Plug it up, it won't hurt it....

And as far as pirated apps, you DO NOT need to be rooted to use them, trust me.....

You paid a lot of money for these things, why shouldn't you be able to control them and do what you want with them?

I don't experience any sluggishness, or unresponsiveness.

As far as battery life goes, I'm getting twice what you mentioned. 24-30 hours.

I have a Youtube channel. I'm thinking about doing a side-by-side with my friend Scott's rooted fascinate, using several ROMs and Kernels.

I can tell you this much for certain: we've compared notes with several customizations on his phone, and have yet to find any appreciable differences. Even overclocked, the real world differences are measured in 1000ths of a second in regard to speed.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using DroidForums

 

[Mcbrocker]

Its all in peoples opinion, its like a$$holes we all have one. My phone was a hole lot slower stock, then it is now. Root it or don't, it your phone.

 

[Stelv]

I like root cuz I hate bing and bloatware. I also like the mods and themes that come with rooting...but yes this phone is still fast stock. Voodoo lagfix will give you a tad more speed and more. Running a voodoo kernel is a little risky cuz u have to remember not to flash nonvoodoo things over voodoo or use odin when voodoo. Here is info on voodoo project http://project-voodoo.org/

Sent from my fascinate

 

[AllForNaught]

Its all in peoples opinion, its like a$$holes we all have one. My phone was a hole lot slower stock, then it is now. Root it or don't, it your phone.

...and my opinion is don't.

Don't get me wrong: I can appreciate people who like to tweak with open software.

But since the topic is 'root or not' it seems like a good opportunity to see what the real benefits are.

The most noticeable one to me is being able to upgrade to firmwares unavailavle via OTA. But the initial versions are often reported on here to be unstable, and missing features.

Btw: this isn't a forum strictly made for rooted users. Many of us just don't see the need.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using DroidForums

 

[Desicrator]

I have rooted 5 different phones for different people, they are amazed by the difference. they like not having to look at all the bloat, its just a matter how comfortable you feel doing it. But when you get it set up right he difference is astounding

Sent from my DROIDX using DroidForums

 

[DROOIID]

Rooting is simple with ODIN! Just follow the instructions and you can't go wrong. There are several themes that are linked here. I would suggest ComRom 2.0, it is great! This phone stock is a POS compared to what it is after rooting and tweaking!

Like, how, specifically? I'd seriously like to know what the real-world benefits of rooting are: discluding pirated .apk's.

Because frankly, I've compared my stock Fascinate against more than one rooted one, live, and in person.

Any ram recovery due to bloatware removal seems pretty negligible, and the custom rom themes are a matter of taste. There's plenty of launcher options for stock phones.

Oh, and forget battery life: I'm getting better than any rooted phone - that was the MOST obvious difference.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using DroidForums

What do you mean pirated apks .. you can install pirated apps on stock phones.

 

[bhfd64]

Rooting is all about customization. Mods and hacks that someone who hasn't rooted knows nothing about. Half a dozen different lock screens to choose from, the ability to hide almost everything in the status bar, multiple themes, ROMs, kernels, Voodoo lagfix, startup animations, shutdown sounds and animations. My battery life is twice what it was stock, and my GPS is much more reliable than it was stock. Not perfect still, but it never worked stock. Yeah, you can change your stock launcher. But largely what you see is what you get from a stock phone. The EXT4 file conversion that is Voodoo offers some performance improvements in the way of things like list population, screen rotation. It does away with some lag in areas like those. You will lose the ability to do OTA updates, but those updates will still be available to you in other ways. Any ROMs based on the official Froyo have always had everything working. Things like Gingerbread and MIUI that are being ported/built from other devices and sources have a couple problems, which is understandable. Some minor performance enhancements, but it's mostly aesthetic.

 

[AllForNaught]

Rooting is all about customization...Half a dozen different lock screens to choose from, the ability to hide almost everything in the status bar, multiple themes... My battery life is twice what it was stock, and my GPS is much more reliable than it was stock. Not perfect still, but it never worked stock. Yeah, you can change your stock launcher. But largely what you see is what you get from a stock phone.

I have the lock screen disabled on mine via the hidden dialer menu.

Go Launcher EX allows you to hide the status bar entirely (though admittedly not individual readouts/icons)

Go Launcher EX also allows you to hide any bloatware apps from view - which btw, there's a lot fewer background apps running in 2.2 anyhow.

You can have multiple themes with Home Switcher and simular apps.

My battery life was already mentioned as being more than sufficient.

My GPS has never failed to work flawlessly (accurate to within 3' easily)

Sorry, but the only compelling reasons to root I've heard so far are: custom firmware beyond what ota offers (which is big for some people), and mild performance enhancements.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using DroidForums

 

[bhfd64]

I have the lock screen disabled on mine via the hidden dialer menu.

Okay. I have the MIUI, 4 tab lock screens that allow me to unlock to the home screen, phone dialer, or a custom app of my choosing.

Go Launcher EX allows you to hide the status bar entirely (though admittedly not individual readouts/icons)

Okay. I like the status bar visible with only my signal shown.

Go Launcher EX also allows you to hide any bloatware apps from view - which btw, there's a lot fewer background apps running in 2.2 anyhow.

Okay. I like to stick it to VZW and remove their crap apps from my phone entirely.

You can have multiple themes with Home Switcher and simular apps.

Okay. They don't include a dozen themed apps and intricately placed inlays throughout the theme.

My battery life was already mentioned as being more than sufficient.

Yeah I read that in a couple posts already.

My GPS has never failed to work flawlessly (accurate to within 3' easily)

You're clearly in the minority there.

Sorry, but the only compelling reasons to root I've heard so far are: custom firmware beyond what ota offers (which is big for some people), and mild performance enhancements.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using DroidForums

Yes, customization and mild performance enhancements are the point of rooting.