I just sent feedback to ASUS expressing my concern at the loss of bootloader unlocking. I have 2 perfectly good cell phones that are e-waste now, simply because the vendor stopped issuing patches, and the bootloader can't be unlocked to use LineageOS. I bought a Zenfone recently because I thought I'd be avoiding that issue. If they don't fix this, I won't be buying another one. ASUS CEO contact page: <a href="https://www.asus.com/us/support/article/787/" rel="nofollow">https://www.asus.com/us/support/article/787/</a>
I have an old Huawei P20 Pro floating around. When it was new, you could contact Huawei and get a code for unlocking the bootloader after providing your phone's serial number. Great I thought, I'll do that later when it stops receiving updates. Stupid me, at some point those arseholes stopped giving out the unlock codes. I wonder if one could sue, but from googling around a bit I can't find a trace of them ever making this a selling point explicitly.
Long is gone the time where unlocking bootloaders and installing custom ROMs was the best path to follow.
Even if you are able to unlock it (with difficulties such as this one, or others that involve opening the device and soldering a shortcut), you will have a device where apps check for unlocked bootloaders and rooted OS, and forbid you from use the application.
With the increasing difficulty (impossibility) of bootloader unlocking that most manufacturers are building into their Android devices, I wonder whether it's market reasons (the longer the devices are operational, the longer upgrade cycle) or pressure from intelligence agencies due to minimised Google / telemetry data back doors in custom ROMs.<p>Using the "simplest answer is often the best" approach, it would historically be the profit motivation at 99% probability. Currently, though, feels like surveillance and intelligence gathering is edging to the higher likelihood.<p>Edited to add: and maybe it's not even intelligence agencies, maybe it's purely profit driven from the personal-data-selling industry.
Okay - so which devices are left that are easily rootable? I will be in the market for new one soon. It's good if EU after mandating usb-c also mandates unlockable bootloaders for whomever wants it.
> This has set a basic precedent<p>I would note that technically the small claims court in the UK does not set precedents. That would be the function of a higher court.
I think this is the original thread:<p><a href="https://xdaforums.com/t/court-action-against-asus-false-promise-on-bootloader-unlock-tool.4657042/" rel="nofollow">https://xdaforums.com/t/court-action-against-asus-false-prom...</a>
It's not clear whether a standard refund is an option for buyers whose phones are still under warranty. Did Timothy try that before going to small claims court?
<i>>Given that ASUS has one of the worst software support commitments in the Android world [...] It started removing posts about bootloader unlocking in its ZenTalk forums.</i><p>Which is why I never understood why Asus Zenfone kept being recommended on HN all the time when people asked for good android phones to buy. I thought this community appreciated long SW support. I think the people recommending it were not dogfooding it.<p>Why not go for something that has 5-7 years of SW updates like a Pixel or a S-series? The Zenfone wasn't any cheaper than those either(at least in EU) so you were also getting a poor value for money.
> ASUS makes some of the best Android phones you can buy<p>> ASUS has one of the worst software support commitments in the Android world<p>How can you possibly say both things in the same article?
The article casually refers to Asus breaking “their promise” but nothing in the rest of the article suggests Asus ever promised anything of the sort. That they used to provide the tools wasn’t a promise. Did they ever advertise or up-front communicate that these tools would be made available and maintained?