This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
ASUS is apparently killing the posibility of me being a potential customer of their smartphones.
Rooting users are only a small percentage of all users so they probably won't even notice unfortunately.
sent from rooted phone
Oh, fuck off. I'm not one to root my phone, but you own the damn thing. Once it's in your hands, the maker should have no right to tell you what to do with it.
Yeah, I'm really tired of this.
We should be able to root and install any OS on our phones like we can do on PC.
I don't use root or custom ROMs on my phone anymore but this is something that should always be possible.
Well there goes any compelling reason to buy their phones lol
I was genuinely thinking about going with an ASUS phone next because of the unlockable bootloader, this really sucks to see.
There are plenty of makers doing unlockable bootloaders. Honestly, just avoid Samsung.
My EU S9+ (Exynos chip) is running a custom Android 13 rom without flaws. A lot of Samsung phones can be unlocked. Seems US models (Snapdragon) are the ones that can't be unlocked, few exceptions. Most other countries have the Exynos chipset and are perfectly unlockable.
i think this might be related to samsung knox and its efuse, once set not really being able to be undone and that stuff
Locked bootloader and only 2 years of upgrades? Is not like Zenfones are cheap either. Hard pass!
A typical example of planned obsolescence what an effective way of killing my plans to get an Asus phone as my next daily driver assuming this is true
Some important context from the article:
A Reddit user claims that the company’s developer liaison on its Telegram channel has no knowledge of any such development. “According to them, the unlock tool server is in maintenance and will resume in Q3,” the person writes; We’ve written to ASUS to clarify the situation and will update this article when and if we hear more.
But here is the thing why do I need to use a tool to connect to a server just to be allowed to unlock the bootloader? I don't and didn't need such a thing to unlock the bootloader of my Samsung Galaxy phone
Considering their crappy major release and security update support, rooting and flashing custom images is basically a requirement.
This is such an anti-consumer move, by refusing to unlock the bootloader Asus hinders the ability of users to extend their devices' life beyond Asus's original support window by flashing alternative ROMs...
I'd like to see right to repair laws expanded to right to unlock. I think you could make a reasonable argument that a working device that's not receiving security updates is just as broken as a device that's experienced a hardware failure.
This is exactly why I sent my Zenphone 9 back. Shame because it was such a good little phone and one of the few flagships with a headphone jack.
The end of an era. Companies also locked the bootloader back then and you'll need to find a vulnerability to exploit in order to unlock it. When custom roms starting to become popular, companies relaxed their stance and allowing their customers to unlock the bootloader using an official channel instead of utilizing a security exploits, perhaps as a competitive advantage so power users would recommend them to their friends and family. Now with declining popularity of rooting and custom roms, companies are starting to stop allowing their customers to unlock the bootloader again. From their perspective, allowing bootloader unlocking is nothing but trouble (support-wise) and might even cannibalize sales (why upgrade your phone every two years when you can a custom ROM with the latest version of Android), so declining popularity of custom ROMs is a perfect excuse for them to stop allowing bootloader unlocking.
Why do so many phone manufacturers hate letting you unlock their bootloaders? Every Google phone lets you do this, and they probably have the most secure Androids of them all.
Google shouldn't be our shining light on phone rules lol
pixels are by far the best to degoogled your phone and to have privacy/security/freedom actually
they go above and beyond letting you unlock your bootloader
Looks like my current Zenfone running LineageOS is my last Zenfone.
It's my device. I will do with it whatever fuck I desire
Asus is really going down the drain...
Do consumer friendly phones exist at this point?
Pixel phones are the few ones that you can unlock the bootloader and lock again.
fairphone is fully repairable and rootable
Simple fix: stop buying Asus phones. Once their profit drops they will let you unlock bootloader
In a while ASUS won't be able to sell its phones in the EU. I guarantee it.
I really hope the EU requires manufacturers to allow a bootloader unlock. Apple would shit themselves.
Oh come on. I wanted a zenfone, I wanted the compact phone with a headphone jack and actual components. But if they're being cocky about it, there's no point. I guess I'll have to find another brand
I dropped OnePlus for this reason last year, after having 5 models starting the OnePlus 1, and ending with the 8T. Apart from OxygenOS being a buggy mess, I should be able to do what I want with my phone's software
What phone should I buy that is not complete trash and I can do what I want with? My Samsung phone is almost dying and I really don't want another Samsung, or Asus.
Xiaomi flagships are easily rootable. If not anything else, you can install Xiaomi.eu roms
My biggest problem with unlocking the bootloader is that many apps look for an unlocked bootloader as "Its rooted" according to that app but unlocking the bootloader and being rooted is 2 different things. I only want to run a custom rom I dont want to root. But you end up having to do the whole thing and running Magisk to hide the root and unlocked bootloader.
welp, no chance I'm ever considering their phones in future
This is sad to see. Replying from Lineage OS on Asus.
Buy motorola edge 30
Put lineage on it
???
Profit
It's funny that looking around almost every single piece of ASUS hardward I bought over the years, I chose them because I could do more with their kit than I could do with the cheaper stuff and a lot of that had to do with access to the hardware (overclockeability of things like motherboards and graphics boards, much more configurable and better hardware for routers and media players and so on).
So I'm wandering what exactly is their unique value proposition on smartphones versus brands which are much more well known and well established in the regular consumer segment if they're ditching being the superior choice for the more technical users: what exactly is the point of "same shit as everybody else" hardware for premium prices?!
I feel eventually every company would do the same.
I think it more likely we'll get to the point where getting a key to unlock the bootloader requires some kind of bullshit businesses license, or else is only possible on higher end phones. Kind of like how Windows is increasingly walling options off from everyone except Enterprise users.
Or the end result of this eSIM shit comes to pass: unlocking the bootloader breaks the SIM and/or the carrier refuses to let it on the network.
asus has killed the possibility of me being a potential customer then lol
