The Samsung Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge on various U.S. carriers have finally been rooted.
Samsung unveiled the two Galaxy smartphones in February this year. The mobile phones are available in two variants: one running on Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor meant for the U.S. market, and an international version running on Samsung's own Exynos chip. The Qualcomm versions of the two phones are what developers have successfully rooted.
Rooting of Android devices is not a necessity, but many fans want in-depth access to their devices and simply prefer rooting their phones.
Smartphone owners should note that even though rooting allows users the benefits of access to Android's open source operating system, it still comes with certain risks.
Carrier-locked devices are one of the most difficult to root. However, skilled members of the Android development community have gained root access to many devices in the past, and now developers have also rooted the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge.
A special version of Odin tool is needed to flash root the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge. Full instructions on how to root the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge along with necessary downloads are available from the XDA Developers community.
According to developers, the root method has been tested on the two Galaxy devices on AT&T. Some users in the forum suggest that the same method has worked to root the T-Mobile version of the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge.
Many Galaxy phone owners will be happy to root their Galaxy S7 or the Galaxy S7 edge. However, some developers have also reported to have faced several issues after rooting their phone.
"I followed the instructions and got Odin to flash but once my phone reboots it gets stuck at the AT&T logo. I can turn it off via vol down+power but once it boots back up it stops at the logo again. Any idea on what to do to either get it back to normal or moving forward?" complained a user on XDA Developers community.
"I am getting a Forced Reboot everytime I make a serious attempt at accessing /System. Is anyone else encountering this? I have tried SD Maid, System Cleanup and Root Browser. I can easily replicate the force reboot, as it happens every time I try to access the system apps. I managed to debloat a few of them in a roundabout method, but for the most part it just reboots when I try to touch them," says another user.
Although developers have tested the root method on AT&T and T-Mobile versions of the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge, the same method may also work for Verizon and Sprint variants of the smartphones.
Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge owners whose devices are running on Exynos processor will now hope that developers find a way to root their devices as well.
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns | Flickr
