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  • ASUS has apparently withdrawn the ability to unlock the bootloader on its phones.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.
  • 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.

    • King@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah no reasons besides only tiny stuff like being only flagship under 6", better speakers than samsung, better cooling and less throttling than samsung, headphone jack, near stock android. More like there are no compelling reasons to root anymore, enjoy your 1k samsung throttling tho

      • z2k_@lemmy.nz
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        1 year ago

        2 years of updates means you’ll quickly end up with a phone that’s waiting to be hacked

        • King@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          They offer 4 years of security updates, what are you on about? It’s even better than sony

          • XLRV@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Well it’s better but it’s still not enough imo.

            People shouldn’t be left behind on security just because they don’t have the latest phone, 4 years isn’t long at all.

            Now phones are powerful enough to last years, and could last even longer with replaceable batteries. This artificial limitation is anti-customer.

            So yeah at least there should be an way to root and install custom ROMs, they may not want to support phones longer officially but they shouldn’t limit the user if they want to do it themselves.

              • XLRV@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                They don’t have to support it 10 years, but they shouldn’t prevent people to keep their phones updated themselves with custom ROMs.

                • King@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Ah the peak of security, third party custom roms. Accept your hobby isnt popular and move on, grown ups like their banking apps working

  • 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.

  • 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!

      • Herr Woland@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        My guess is they’re going to slow down the device on new android and block rooting so you can’t install your own OS, also, probably doing a lot of spying on the users.

  • 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.

      • ToniCipriani@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        As much as I agree, I don’t think our legislators are knowledgable enough to be able to handle the issue, and majority of the users don’t care enough to push for something like this. This isn’t like USB-C vs Lightning where users are sick of buying cables and chargers, so the issue is much more visible.

  • 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

  • 👁️👄👁️@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

          • 👁️👄👁️@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

            • dsmk@lemmy.zip
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              1 year ago

              What Asus broke here was the bootloader unlocking. Without that, there’s no custom ROMs or root. Root and bootloader unlocking mean different things.

              Regarding root being a terrible security risk or not, I guess it will depend on the user? I never had any issues and only see it as one more thing that isn’t as safe as it could be… my bootloader is unlocked, the recovery isn’t stock, I’m running a custom ROM so I have to trust the developers/building process, etc.

  • bitwolf@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    Very easy way to remove an almost perfect phone from my list of upgrade considerations.

  • kamen@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    … aaaand another brand I’ll be avoiding when looking for a new phone. In my eyes a phone that can’t be rooted is kind of like a computer without access to an administrator account - you can do stuff with it, but at one point your hands are tied.

  • 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.

  • 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 install 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

          • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I agree with the sentiment, but even the claim that they were free is part of their narrative. Their cost was included in the price of the car, everyone paid for it already. They are double-dipping.

      • Uriel238 [all pronouns]
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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.