[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshootin] markbc01:
That's probably a good choice and you can enjoy the S4 i337 without doing anything, it is a great phone.

Of course, rooting -basic rooting using the new technique for the MF3 rom-- seems to work well enough for many so far. So please don't view it as jumping off a cliff and hoping to find a vine on the way down or something so bleak.

For your model, which does not currently have as many recovery options as the earlier MDL versions, it certainly pays to be careful and also to understand your options for return or exchange if you do muck up the phone. The trick is to understand the specific risks up front. In this case, what can go wrong in the rooting process and how often does it seem to occur.

Read the XDA thread on this new rooting exploit for MF3 and see exactly what others did to get root without ruining their phone -and do only and exactly the steps that have worked for others. The rooting process takes only a couple of minutes --but so does bricking your phone when it rooting is done incorrectly.

The differences between success and failure are:

1. How much you understand of the procedure?

2. How much you have prepared in advance for what you are doing and trying to accomplish? and

3. How carefully and patiently are you doing each and every step of the process?

I've rooted several phones and tablets and been fortunate to get it right most of the time, or to be able to recover when I did not get it right. Unfortunately, in your case it appears that you need to get it right the first time for rooting, and many many folks have. So while this is very different from the iPhone "click on this site and you're jailbroken" approach, it is not low-percentage surgery either :good::good::fingers-crossed: So, I'd recommend that you continue to read up on that new root technique for MF3:

-- read to see how it is being accepted, what kind of feedback folks have and also

-- how safe/or comfortable folks seem to be in using it. and

-- what problems have come from trying it -bricks? soft bricks? recoverable or not?

I've read the original post (OP) on the exploit, but not all the information is in the one thread.. I am sure there are several threads that echo this development. . . Might have even more information too. After, that you will know if you want to try the rooting step. Or not.

Good Luck!

P.S.

- While root does not sound as valuable as being able to switch roms and use full customizations, it does provide quite a bit. For example: you can add (root-requiring) apps like "Titanium Backup" (which not only backsup all of your programs and data, but also can "freeze" programs that are useless and running in the background when you don't want them to do so!) Or Greenify, which has the same functionality for dealing with unwanted apps (better actually!) and apps like Cerberus to help you keep track of your phone or find it if lost.

- Rooting to add these types of add ons, without fiddling with some of the more invasive mods that others have already warned about in the other posts, may be acceptable middle ground for you -it does provide customizations for your phone without stretching the safe use limits very far.

Take your time. . . keep reading and move at your own pace. It's hard to come here, start reading and simply "get it" on first bounce. . .It's just a shame that your friend with the older S4 didn't provide a couple of hints or tips about which versions to by ("buy the red ones"... :laugh:) so you could have picked up one that is easily customizable. . .(of course if you are still in the 14 day window you might go back and try to exchange for another one and look for a MDL version -according to some posts they seem to be the red ones that no one wanted to buy early on . . . . hmm

Good Luck!

:cowboy: