I have held back from rooting my Samsung S3 phone for this long because of the new feature samsung has introduced into its devices called Flash Count.

The flash count feature is available on the Samsung Galaxy “S” and “Note” series and basically records the number of times your device has been rooted or flashed with custom or cooked ROMs (Non Official builds of Android OS).

The flash count is definitely not a good thing as only the device manufacturer stands to benefit from it. Reason is, the manufacturers want to have a way to keep tab on  compulsive “flashers” who stand a good chance of bricking their devices in the process and passing it off as manufacturer defect. Flashing your device in any way voids your warranty, but “hacking” enthusiasts have always found a way of going round this without Samsung being any wiser – until now.

And worst still, Samsung keeps making improvements against reseting flash counter so much that there is no guarantee that apps like Triangle Away will successfully reset the counter back to zero on your device.

Not that the flash count affects the performance of your device in any way, neither is the notification displayed visibly anywhere, however there may be users who wish to return to stock in order to either to sell or exchange. This definitely would impact negatively on the resale value if selling to someone that has a knowledge of this.

Also, any claim on warranty from the manufacturer would be disregarded. With the rising popularity of modifying Android phones, service center technicians have learned to check for an extra something that may result in their returning your device to you unfixed or sending you an invoice for the repairs.

Knowing this, do i still go ahead and root my device?

For me, the need to root my S3 is borne out of the following:

– To be able to uninstall all the bloatware (promotional, mostly unnecessary softwares) T-Mobile included in their Samsung S3 variant, the T999.
– To have elevated access to use root access softwares. Backup apps like Titanium Backup used to restore apps/data easily comes to mind.
– Browsing the filesystems of my Device.
– Flashing of modified ROMs to enhance device performance.

I have never been the one to shy away from such undertakings like this, so why start now. Ummh, but there is always this nagging fear when you know a task you are about to undertake has the possibility of making your device the most expensive paper weight, ever.

“My mind tells me one thing
Should I listen to my heart
Should I say yes, should I say no”

Sigh.