Buy Root-Friendly. Put your money where the root is.
When you buy root-unfriendly Android devices, you are far more likely to lose root after updates. Stick to the Root-Friendly devices and you'll be safe.
This list only ranks phones based on their permanent rootability: the ability to root a phone and replace the boot and system images, and not by any other standard. A phone may be easily rootable, but might have other flaws that make it a poor device.
Important: phones may change from one category to another when manufacturers and carriers release updates. The phones listed under “Root-Friendly” are likely safe indefinitely, but there is no guarantee that others will be rootable forever. Do your own research before buying and let us know if things change.
Have more information? Submit additional devices or corrections here.
The Root-Friendly devices have root options supported by the manufacturer. These devices are intended to be customized, and have full support for it. (Flashing may void the warranty.)
Phones
Device | Manufacturer | Root support | Availability |
---|---|---|---|
Nexus One | HTC/Google | oem unlock (can't be officially re-locked) | Limited availability List of retailers |
Nexus S | Samsung/Google | oem unlock (and oem lock) | $200 from BestBuy (with T-Mobile contract) |
Google Ion | HTC/Google | fastboot flash | Development device only |
Geeksphone Zero | Geeksphone | ROM manager + recovery tools | €179 from Geeksphone |
Geeksphone One | Geeksphone | ROM manager + recovery tools | No longer sold |
Xperia Play (sim-unlocked only) | Sony Ericsson | oem unlock (via key) 1 | $749 from Amazon (import, no warranty) |
Xperia arc (sim-unlocked only) | Sony Ericsson | oem unlock (via key) 1 | Available |
Xperia pro (sim-unlocked only) | Sony Ericsson | oem unlock (via key) 1 | Available |
Xperia neo (sim-unlocked only) | Sony Ericsson | oem unlock (via key) 1 | Available |
Tablets
Device | Manufacturer | Root support | Availability |
---|---|---|---|
Archos 10.1 | Archos | developer firmware flash 1 | $328 from Amazon |
Archos 7.0 | Archos | developer firmware flash 1 | $148 from Amazon |
Xoom WiFi | Motorola | oem unlock (and oem lock) | $590 from Amazon |
Xoom CDMA | $800 from Amazon |
The great choice devices have little to no protection right now, allowing them to be rooted easily. Root is generally not supported by the manufacturer, but is not actively discouraged. Great devices generally have fastboot support for unsigned images, or can be rooted from Android with little likelihood that a future system update will remove this ability.
A phone that can always been downgraded to an earlier, rootable version is considered a great choice as well.
Phones
Device | Manufacturer | Root support | Availability |
---|---|---|---|
Acer Liquid-E | Acer | fastboot flash support 1 | |
Acer Liquid A1 | |||
Acer Liquid E | |||
Acer Liquid Metal | |||
Dell Streak 5 | Dell | fastboot flash support | |
Dell Streak 7 | Dell | fastboot flash support | |
Huawei u8110 | Huawei | fastboot flash support | |
T-Mobile Pulse Mini | |||
Movistar Ivy | |||
Yoigo Selina | |||
LG GT540 Optimus | LG | fastboot flash support 1 | |
LG Optimus 2x | LG | nvflash/smartflash 1 | |
T-Mobile G2x | |||
Cloud Touch | iNQ | flashboot flash support | |
Droid 1 | Motorola | flash unsigned update.zip, no future updates | |
Galaxy S | Samsung | flashable via root, can be downgraded via Odin | |
Moment | Samsung | flashable via root, can be downgraded via Odin | |
Galaxy Spica | Samsung | flashable via root, can be downgraded via Odin | |
Galaxy Beam | Samsung | flashable via root, can be downgraded via Odin | |
ZTE Blade | ZTE | fastboot flash support | |
Orange San Francisco | |||
T-Mobile G1 | HTC | no NAND locks, can be custom flashed easily, no future system updates | No longer available |
HTC Dream | |||
HTC Magic | HTC | no NAND locks, can be custom flashed easily, no future system updates | No longer available |
HTC Hero | HTC | no NAND locks, can be custom flashed easily, no future system updates 1 | No longer available |
Tablets
Device | Manufacturer | Root support |
---|---|---|
Nook Color | Barnes & Noble | flashable via SD card |
Notion Ink Adam | Notion Ink | flashable via SD card 1 |
Viewsonic gTablet | gTablet | flashable via SD card 1 2 |
Cross-flashable Phones
This is a special sub-category for cross-flashable phones, ie: phones that don't run Android natively and can be easily flashed to become a working Android device. Installing Android on these devices may require advanced knowledge of Linux, Android or other operating systems.
Device | Manufacturer | Root support |
---|---|---|
HTC HD2 | HTC | Windows Mobile phone, flashable to Android 1 |
HTC Leo |
The good choice devices have security, but the security is either weak or has been broken in all versions. Alternatively, they may have writable boot/system partitions, but no fastboot (requiring a temporary root to write that may be fixable in a future system update). There's no guarantee that future versions of the device will be rootable, but as of the most recent update they are rootable. Check with forums to confirm before you purchase a phone on this list!
Any phone that relies on a software root in Linux to flash images and may receive system updates will be in this list, since a future update may make this difficult.
Device | Manufacturer | Root support |
---|---|---|
HTC EVO | HTC | unrevoked3/forever |
HTC EVO Shift | HTC | can flash ENG hboot from root |
Droid Incredible | HTC | unrevoked3/forever |
Droid Eris | HTC | flash eng bootloader 1 |
HTC Desire (GSM) | HTC | alpharevx (permanent hboot flash) |
HTC Wildfire | HTC | alpharevx (permanent hboot flash) |
HTC Desire (CDMA) | HTC | alpharevx (permanent hboot flash) |
HTC Incredible S | HTC | alpharevx (permanent hboot flash) |
HTC Desire S | HTC | alpharevx (permanent hboot flash) |
HTC Aria | HTC | alpharevx (permanent hboot flash) |
HTC Droid Incredible 2 | HTC | alpharevx (permanent hboot flash) |
HTC Espresso | HTC | alpharev (earlier versions), root (later versions) |
T-Mobile myTouch 3G | ||
HTC Desire HD | HTC | permaroot via gfree |
AT&T Inspire 4G | ||
HTC Thunderbolt | HTC | downgrade |
T-Mobile G2 | HTC | permaroot via gfree |
HTC Desire Z | ||
HTC Vision | ||
T-Mobile myTouch 4G | HTC | permaroot via gfree |
HTC Ace | HTC | |
HTC Desire HD | ||
MyTouch 4G | HTC | permaroot via gfree |
HTC Glacier | ||
HTC Tattoo | HTC | can be flashed from root |
LG Ally | LG | recovery flashable via root |
LG Optimus S | LG | recovery flashable via root |
LG Optimus T | LG | recovery flashable via root |
Galaxy 3 | Samsung | flashable via root (maybe be downgraded via Odin - needs info) |
Garminphone | Garmin/Asus | can be rooted from linux, no custom ROMs yet (?) 1 2 |
Garmin A-10 | Garmin/Asus | can be rooted from linux |
Tablets
Poor choices have protections that have not been broken yet (or has newer releases that cannot be rooted), have signed boot partitions that cannot be replaced, or read-only system partitions that cannot be written to at this time. Root might be possible, but it is difficult to support custom ROMs.
These devices are not recommended!
Phones
Device | Manufacturer | Root support |
---|---|---|
HTC Legend | HTC | temporary, older versions have alpharev permaroot support |
HTC Wildfire S | HTC | signed boot/recovery partition, only temproot |
Xperia X10 | Sony Ericsson | signed boot partition, can be bypassed via splload (?) |
Xperia X10 Mini | Sony Ericsson | signed boot partition, can be bypassed via splload (?) |
Motorola Devour | Motorola | possibly unsigned boot partition (?) |
Motorola Droid X | Motorola | signed boot partition, root unfriendly |
Motorola Droid 2 | ||
Motorola Droid Pro | ||
Motorola Atrix | ||
Motorola Milestone 2 | ||
Motorola (any unlisted above) |
Set-top Boxes
Device | Manufacturer | Root support |
---|---|---|
Logitech Revue | Logitech/Google | older versions only, requires hardware hacking 1 |
These devices have no root options yet.
Device | Manufacturer | Root support |
---|
Please submit additional information about these devices.
Device | Manufacturer | Root support |
---|---|---|
Kyocera Echo | Kyocera | temporary at least 1 |