Editor's Choice: 10 Must-Have Mods Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Is Begging For

There are a lot of things your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 can do straight out of the box, but there's also a ton of things it can't, or simply could be better at. That's why most of us end up rooting—to enhance the mobile experience.

Today, I'll be showing you some of my favorite root-only mods for your Samsung Galaxy Note 2, which will improve overall functionality.

You can customize the hell out of your non-rooted Note 2 with different home launchers, interactive live wallpapers, and old-school games, but rooting is inevitable if you want to improve upon the basic device features.

Prerequisites

• If you haven't done so yet, check out our softModder guide to rooting the Note 2. It's quick and painless.
• You'll also need to pick up the Xposed Framework, which some of these mods use.

#1. Make "Just Once" Your Default Selection (Xposed Mod)

Speed up the "Complete action using" prompt on your Note 2 by turning the "Just once" option into your default selection. This is a great mod for those of you who never choose "Always" when clicking on links or files that can be opened with multiple apps. Simply tapping on your app choice will take you right there—just once.

#2. Get Rid of the Low Battery Alert (Xposed Mod)

Any time you dip below 15 percent battery life on your Note 2, you'll get a "Battery low" alert. This is something you only really need to see once, but you'll see it again and again if you don't plug in your phone immediately. This mod lets you get rid of that annoying low battery alert for good. Don't you kinda already know when it's about to die anyway?

#3. Stop Certain Apps from Running at Startup (Xposed Mod)

Some apps and system processes start as soon as you turn on your Note 2, but some of these things don't actually need to. With this mod, you'll be able to prevent certain apps from running during startup, and save some processing (and battery) power in the process.

#4. Save Battery by Hibernating Background Apps (Root App)

Have too many apps running on your Note 2? Use the Greenify app to hibernate your background apps to stop lag and save battery power. Greenify also recently added non-root functions, but if you want to auto-hibernate, root is the way to go.

#5. Get a Better GPS Lock (Root App)

If your current position can't be located properly in Google Maps or any other app, satellites may actually be having difficulty locking onto your Note 2. By using the root app TopNTP, you can get a better GPS lock so you never get lost again.

#6. Delete All the Useless Bloatware (Root App)

Tired of all those useless bloatware apps lingering in the app drawer on your phone? You can delete preloaded Android apps for good using Titanium Backup on your rooted Note 2.

#7. Use the Swipe-Back Gesture Everywhere (Xposed Mod)

If you're tired of using the back button at the bottom of your Note 2 to return to the previous app screen, you can use this mod to enable the swipe-back gesture for all apps instead. In most cases, it actually feels faster than using the dedicated back button.

#8. Get Faster Access to Your Camera (Xposed Mod)

If you have a PIN or password set on your lock screen, you have to enter that first before you can open up your Camera app. This mod changes that to be more like iOS, where you can swipe the camera open without entering your PIN or password.

#9. Adjust Your Flashlight's Brightness (Root App)

For some reason, changing the brightness of the flashlight app on your Note 2 is not an easy task. However, if you're rooted, it's pretty easy to adjust the LED brightness of your flashlight using Adjustable Torch.

#10. Make Zooming Easier (Root App)

Not everyone digs the pinch-to-zoom feature, especially in Google Maps, which previously had a one-finger zoom option. You can easily get the one-finger zoom back in Google Maps, but what about for all of your apps? For that, there's Assistive Zoom, which let's you zoom in and out of any app using a single finger.

And This Is Just the Start...

There are ton of other root mods you can use on your Note 2, and the next big step leads to installing a custom ROM of your choosing.

Also, check out our How-To tab above to explore all of the other root mods we've covered for the Note 2, as well as the Xposed Mods section for some more ideas on what else you can do with Xposed, like customize your quick settings toggles and tint your status bar.