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Why rooting your Android device is good for gaming

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Why rooting your Android device is good for gaming
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Right now, there are more Android devices in the world than there are grains of sand on the planet.

Okay, that's not true, but there are an awful lot of Android phones and tablets out there. You might be reading this on one. Are you?

One of the best things about Android is how open it is. The entire OS is open source, and if you've got a bit of technical know-how, you can crack it open like a delicious candy-filled egg and gorge yourself on the sweet hacky goodness within.

Now Pocket Gamer is a gaming site, not some flashy, tech-savvy how-to blog, so we're not going to show you how to unlock and root your Android device. But we are going to tell you why it's a good idea for anyone who likes to play on their Google-powered blower to give it a go.

If you're looking for hints and tips on unlocking and rooting, then your best bet is the XDA Forums. And if you're looking to take your first tentative steps into flashing a ROM onto your device, I'd recommend having a crack at the Cyanogen Mod installer.

And now I shall convince you why going through all of that is worth the hassle.

Xposed Framework

Xposed Framework should be your first port of call on a rooted device. It's essentially a back-door into your system, and it lets you install Modules that tweak the way your phone works.

On its own it doesn't really do anything, but once it's up to date you can trawl the repository of Modules to find ones that can help you with your gaming.

There are a couple that are super useful. Play Store Fixes lets you confuse the Google Play Store into letting you install apps that aren't designed for your screen size. And there are a lot of games on the Play Store that require you to have a certain resolution.

Another good one is Burnt Toast, which adds an app icon to any toast notifications you get, so you know at a glance what game is shouting at you to spend some currency.

Overclocking

Yup, you read that right. Android devices, like any smartphone, are just computers in your pocket. And if you know what you're doing, you can squeeze more power out of them by overclocking.

There are a number of overclocking apps on the Google Play Store, and if you're willing to risk accidentally making your phone or tablet explode from over heating, you're likely to be able to get more power out of an old device than you ever thought possible.

Some of the apps offer a clever spoof that convinces the Play Store that you're using a different processor as well. It doesn't always work, but if you don't have a Tegra device and you fancy trying out some of those Tegra Zone games, it's one way around it.

Free up some space

Rooting your device gives you more control over where your files actually go. A lot of games will install to your internal memory automatically, meaning your SD card will get sad and lonely and unloved and empty.

But with a rooted device you can move stuff around, and take better control of what goes where. Play smart and you can bounce out multiple SD cards like some sort of SD card juggling professional.

But it's not just your storage that's going to take a beating. Apps like Greenify let you take a tighter control over what's running on your device, and should in theory speed up your gaming.

It'll also protect your battery, extending your gaming sessions for a few more hours. And that's the dream we're all chasing, right?

And the rest

You could install fullscreen to get rid of the button bar on any Android device that doesn't have hardware buttons. There are apps that let you record your screen from a rooted device, albeit a little jerkily.

You want more reasons? There are apps that allow you to really get into the bones of your device, tweaking around how everything works to get even more performance out of Android.

You can install a different operating system entirely, get rid of all the hideous bloatware that third party Android devices ship with, and change the colour of your icons too.

Like I said at the start, this isn't a how-to. This is a primer to tell you why you should definitely consider rooting your Android device if you've got one. Doubly if you're not running vanilla Android.

Right now I've got two rooted devices, and there's so much more you can do once you've unlocked and rooted your device. And for players, that can only be a good thing.

Please note that if you do decide to root your device and it all goes horribly wrong, it's very much not our fault and we'd really appreciate it if you didn't shout at us and make us cry.
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.