Kerry Wan/ZDNET
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ZDNET's key takeaways
Rooting or jailbreaking a phone isn't as hard as it once was.
The process does involve considerable risk.
Some reasons might make you want to try.
Many years ago, when I first heard about rooting Android phones, the practice intrigued me. Rooting (Android) or jailbreaking (iOS) was a challenging task that some did simply because they could, and some did it because they had a very specific need.
One reason rooting/jailbreaking has been such a controversial subject is because of the risks involved. I have rooted a few Android phones over the years, and one time I wound up bricking a device (that is, it was rendered unusable). Fortunately, that was a spare test handset; I still had my main phone available.
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