Samsung Galaxy Note 8 owners who’ve had enough of the TouchWiz skin Samsung slathers over Android 8.0 Oreo, can now root their handset, but at their own risk.
Rooting methods for the Note 8 have popped up online and are readily available for both the Snapdragon 835 and Exynos 8895 chipset versions of Samsung’s flagship phablet.
Where once the process of rooting an Android handset had a myriad of risks and took a good bit of technical nous, these days the process is a little easier.
However, in the case of the Note 8, the two rooting methods for the two chipsets have different side-effects, and using the wrong method with the wrong chip could end up causing all manner of problems or brick the handset. Hence, all the disclaimers branded onto the rooting instructions.
One of the biggest dangers to a rooted Note 8 is that with the Exynos variant Samsung’s built-in Knox security framework can be broken, which prevents people from using other features reliant on the protection it brings; for example Samsung Pay and the Secure Folder can’t be used without Knox.
Such problems don’t affect the Note 8 with the Snapdragon chip, but other problems could crop up from rooting the handset, including making it more vulnerable to malware.
Samsung has gone some way to make TouchWiz less flabby and bloated than it has been on previous Galaxy and Note handsets, so the benefits of rooting a Note 8 may be outweighed by the risks.
But if you do want to have a go at rooting the Note 8, may the odds forever be in your favour.
Related: Samsung Galaxy S8 review
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.