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  • ASUS has apparently withdrawn the ability to unlock the bootloader on its phones.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
  • XEAL@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    ASUS is apparently killing the posibility of me being a potential customer of their smartphones.

  • Xperr7@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • XLRV@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      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.

    • ayaya@lemdro.id
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      1 year ago

      I was genuinely thinking about going with an ASUS phone next because of the unlockable bootloader, this really sucks to see.

        • kindenough@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          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.

  • cafeina@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Locked bootloader and only 2 years of upgrades? Is not like Zenfones are cheap either. Hard pass!

  • Im28xwa@lemdro.id
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    1 year ago

    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

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      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

      It’s been this way since I first flashed a custom ROM on my 2011 Xperia and I’ve never gotten it. It seems so useless. Either Huawei or Xiaomi wanted me to provide a REASON for unlocking.

      I think Nexus phones were unlockable without making a request to a server. I might be wrong though. But I do miss the Nexus line.

      • Zak@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Pixel devices don’t require permission via a server. Unlocking is enabled via developer settings on the device.

        Doing it any other way is user-hostile.

    • Smirk@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Am on a galaxy 21 U5g and was looking at my next phone being a zenfone.

      Not a chance now.

  • pallettownbry@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • SeaJ@lemm.eeOP
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    1 year ago

    Considering their crappy major release and security update support, rooting and flashing custom images is basically a requirement.

  • BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.com
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    1 year ago

    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…

    • OldFartPhil@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      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.

  • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
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    1 year ago

    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.

      • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Once digital media got away with “actually we are just letting you borrow it and can take it away whenever we want”, hardware manufacturers have been drooling to do the same. Apple and game console manufacturers are most of the way there already.

        • zaplachi@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Well it sure is a good thing they are making everything smart nowadays….

          But seriously I can’t believe how fast the car industry locked previously free features behind a subscription

      • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        I suspect we’ll eventually need to create a standard much like th PC Clone, in which hardware, OS and software are independently produced and support compatibility standards.

        Not in the current clime of unregulate capitalism, though.

        • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
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          1 year ago

          I’m afraid the PC ecosystem is one-of-a-kind, and perhaps once it’s gone, we’ll never have anything like it again. Companies are obsessed with vertical integration now, owning everything from software to peripherals and accessories. The closest thing we have to PC ecosystem where multiple independent companies works to support a single platform is perhaps the raspberry pi ecosystem, but even then it’s pale in comparison to the PC ecosystem in term of variety and number of manufacturers.

  • 👁️👄👁️@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    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.

      • 👁️👄👁️@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        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

        • Sused@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 year ago

          Oneplus? Bootloader is easily unlocked and it can be debloated easily after root

          • 👁️👄👁️@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Rooting is a terrible security risk and there’s no point in doing it. You won’t see the popular roms like GrapheneOS, /e/, or CalyxOS supporting it.

            • Zuberi@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Lol this is the technology page and you’re going to try to make the argument to not root(/jailbreak) a phone?.. Genuinely lold

  • 𝐘Ⓞz҉@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Simple fix: stop buying Asus phones. Once their profit drops they will let you unlock bootloader