ASUS is apparently killing the ability to root present and future Zenfones
www.androidauthority.com
ASUS is reportedly telling customers they can no longer unlock the bootloader on their phones, including the Zenfone 9 and Zenfone 10.

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  • ASUS has apparently withdrawn the ability to unlock the bootloader on its phones.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.
  • Stefen AurisEnglish
    811·
    1 year ago

    Well there goes any compelling reason to buy their phones lol

    • ayaya@lemdro.idEnglish
      32·
      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
          9·
          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.

      • z2k_@lemmy.nzEnglish
        62·
        1 year ago

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

          • XLRV@lemmy.mlEnglish
            31·
            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.mlEnglish
                0·
                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.

                  • XLRV@lemmy.mlEnglish
                    1·
                    1 year ago

                    Yeah, you can use Open source roms.

                    Why being against freedom? Allowing ROMs and root won’t affect you if you don’t want to use them.

                    No need to be unpleasant too.

    • Tony BarkEnglish
      11·
      1 year ago

      I remember owning their Transformer tablet back when Honeycomb first launched.