Yes you can root. And what rooting does is just gives you full control of your device. Like you can install roms and some apps require a rooted device. On android (Without Root) you have more controller over your device then even when ios is jailbroken. i just switched from iphone 6 to note 4 and its 100000 times better. Im still waiting for a root to come out for note 4 At&t so i can install a custom rom.

A rooted device allows you full control of your device, like downloading Custom ROM's, downloading certain apps that require root access, etc.

I would say the only con to rooting is that depending on what you download on a rooted device, the battery might start to not last quite as long, but obviously that depends on what you're downloading.

Good luck!

If you are looking only for the customizations side of the phone. Theams and widgets or changing the
icons. You can do all that without rooting. im going to list a few apps that I like for customizing.

Themes:
KK Launcher
Google Now
Themer

Widgets:
Zooper

Icon Pack:
Cryten
Atran

But other than that, if you want full phone access you can go [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] and they give
you everything you need to know on how to root your specific phone.