Is my device rooted if I can delete system app, but doesn't have SU installed? I recently bought a new Allwinner A13 tablet. I wanted to side load Google Search app, but because there is already Google Search system app, it conflicted and failed to install.

Knowing this would be impossible without root, I still downloaded Root Explorer and navigated to /system/app and deleted the Google search app. To my surprise, it's deleted successfully. I rebooted the tab 4 times and the file is not in /system/app. So, I was able to side load my Google app.

Does this mean my tab is already rooted even though it's brand new and doesn't have SU installed?
In addition to Hussain's answer (whether the existence of SU app tells the device is rooted or not), the fact that you can access /system folder gives a strong indicator that your device is already rooted.

Note that it seems A13 tablets usually come pre-rooted; they are already rooted when out from factory.


  From the little bit I'm seeing of these A13 tablets, [...] , and I can get root, which most people seem to agree that they usually come pre-rooted, [...]


(Emphasis mine)