- cross-posted to:
- android@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- android@lemmy.world
Update from Asus
The service team reply misunderstood the situation. Unlock tool is unavailable at this moment but we are allowing the possibility to unlock, please stay tuned.
**TL;DR
- ASUS has apparently withdrawn the ability to unlock the bootloader on its phones.
- As per the company’s technical support team, Zenfone 10 and Zenfone 9 users won’t be able to root their phones.
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Very easy way to remove an almost perfect phone from my list of upgrade considerations.
Which means, legally, you can no longer own even the hardware of a Zenfone you bought, you now only license it. Since their OEM software is proprietary and in nearly every software’s TOS they can revoke your license to it at any time for any reason, which would effectively brick the phone if bootloader unlocking is not 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.
Same here. Well they lost a potential costumer.
So they will just be bricks in a few years
asus has killed the possibility of me being a potential customer then lol
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.
Consumers seem to be too dumb for their own good.
Regulators seem to be too captured for consumers’ good.
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.
Don’t these phones only have 2 years of security updates? I believe samsung S23 is a better choice as a small phone as it has 5 years of security updates.
I can’t believe this shit… I was planning on getting the Zenfone 10. with it’s headphone jack, small size, and Android feel.
Considering their crappy major release and security update support, rooting and flashing custom images is basically a requirement.
Some here are mixing bootloader unlocking with rooting. They’re not the same thing.
Asus broke bootloader unlocking, so you can only use the original ROM in the original state. You can’t install a custom ROM or flash something like Magisk to root your device.
You can unlock without rooting or without installing a custom ROM. You can install a custom ROM without rooting. You can use stock and root. And you can use a custom ROM and root. But all this is only possible if you can unlock the device’s bootloader.
Also, something I don’t see people discuss enough: for security, you also need to be able to re-lock the bootloader after installing a custom ROM. Otherwise anyone can inject code into the system partition if they have physical access to your device, which would also compromise your encrypted storage. So if there’s no way to reverse the bootloader unlocking, that’s also bad.
The problem with companies trying to stop this is the fact that there will be at least one person/team who will find a way to bypass this.
No amount of corporate software devs/engineers can stop the might of a determined team on the internet from achieving their goals when it comes to this kinda stuff.
Edit:
Don’t know whether the bootloader locking is actually coming or not because I saw a different post saying it was a misunderstanding.
The updated response from Asus:
The service team reply misunderstood the situation. Unlock tool is unavailable at this moment but we are allowing the possibility to unlock, please stay tuned.
So the server is down and will be back up. But that is not exactly the most reassuring response. It kind of seems like they are planning on removing it later or majorly altering it.
Tbh, it has been years since I last rooted a phone. There is hardly any reason left to do it tbh.
Plenty of reasons.
- System wide adblock
- Advanced permission management
- Backups and exports of system apps
- Full uninstall of bloatware (instead of mere hiding them with adb)
- Enabling screenshots system-wide
And a bunch of other stuff I need in order to have a fully functioning device.
Can’t you remove bloatware with adb nowadays?
See https://www.makeuseof.com/uninstall-android-app-adb-system-apps-bloatware/
It doesn’t remove them, it uninstalls the app from the current user profile, but they persist on system level. That’s what I meant with the comment in brackets.
It’s the best you can do if rooting is not an option, but I prefer a full removal.
Ah, I see. Would the app still run and consume resources? Or is it just sitting in whatever is a phone’s equivalent of a hard disc?
It would just sit there and be dormant.
Asus is really going down the drain…
