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  • ASUS has apparently withdrawn the ability to unlock the bootloader on its phones.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

    • IDeserveToBeLoved@szmer.info
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      1 year ago

      Rooting users are only a small percentage of all users so they probably won’t even notice unfortunately.

      sent from rooted phone

        • brygphilomena@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Samsung goes so hard with their proprietary apps and intrusive ads. The closest to vanilla I’ve gotten is a pixel phone.

          • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            By vanilla I mean the most basic for consumers, not debloated factory default, which is what someone who roots their phone might want. The average customer is definitely not bothering with that,

          • just_another_person@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Samsung unlocked is free to root, and they even provide the tools to do so. Most models supported in the free distros as well.

            • Hyacin@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              Yeah, but then you break Knox, and can’t EVER fix it. The phone becomes instantly worthless for resale.

    • Magiwarriorx@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      ASUS annihilated the possibility I’d ever buy any ASUS product after the way they handled the 7800X3D/AM5 VoC issue. I had never really noticed, but a pretty big swathe of my tech came from them (laptop, monitor, and motherboard among others) but no more.

  • 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

      • 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.

  • 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!

  • 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

    • Psythik@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      No kidding, especially with their recent motherboards catching on fire, and then voiding users’ warranties for updating to the beta BIOS that fixes the issue, fiasco.

      They used to be such a good company; what happened?

    • onparole@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, don’t have one of these, but I was looking at one before settling on a Pixel 7 Pro instead. Have had some sketchy interactions with Asus regarding support and warranty in the past. Might be looking elsewhere in the future where ever Asus is an option. I really don’t like they changing promises retroactively.

  • 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 (planned obsolescence ladies and gentlemen)

    • 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.

    • miserablegit@lemmynsfw.com
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      1 year ago

      I suspect it’s to keep a record which can be used to defend themselves from lawsuits. “You caught that virus after you removed our protections, so it’s your own fault. Here’s the receipt.”

  • 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.

    • Boinketh@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It should be illegal to restrict what people can do with their own goddamn motherfucking private property.

      • 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.

        • Boinketh@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, that’s the dystopia we’re headed towards already arriving at, except I’m not fucking happy.

      • 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

    • miserablegit@lemmynsfw.com
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      1 year ago

      Probably because they know their OS is a duct-taped piece of garbage which could fall to pieces if you look at it wrong while unlocked.