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- ASUS has apparently withdrawn the ability to unlock the bootloader on its phones.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.
Well there goes any compelling reason to buy their phones lol
I was genuinely thinking about going with an ASUS phone next because of the unlockable bootloader, this really sucks to see.
There are plenty of makers doing unlockable bootloaders. Honestly, just avoid Samsung.
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.
Same here. Well they lost a potential costumer.
I remember owning their Transformer tablet back when Honeycomb first launched.
Considering their crappy major release and security update support, rooting and flashing custom images is basically a requirement.
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…
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.
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.
Very easy way to remove an almost perfect phone from my list of upgrade considerations.
Exactly !!
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.
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.
Consumers seem to be too dumb for their own good.
Regulators seem to be too captured for consumers’ good.
… 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.
asus has killed the possibility of me being a potential customer then lol
I still don’t buy Sony over the rootkit escapade and that was nearly 30 years ago.
I bought their Zenfone 5 in 15 and I always chose ASUS MoBos whenever I need to upgrade. Not anymore.
ASUS is apparently killing the posibility of me being a potential customer of their smartphones.
Rooting users are only a small percentage of all users so they probably won’t even notice unfortunately.
sent from rooted phone
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.
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.
Which means, legally, you can no longer own even the hardware of a Zenfone you bought, you now only license it. Since their OEM software is proprietary and in nearly every software’s TOS they can revoke your license to it at any time for any reason, which would effectively brick the phone if bootloader unlocking is not possible.
The problem with companies trying to stop this is the fact that there will be at least one person/team who will find a way to bypass this.
No amount of corporate software devs/engineers can stop the might of a determined team on the internet from achieving their goals when it comes to this kinda stuff.
This is just simply not the case. There are multiple phones that have no known bootloader bypass to this day. Sk17i springs immediately to mind.
The updated response 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.
So the server is down and will be back up. But that is not exactly the most reassuring response. It kind of seems like they are planning on removing it later or majorly altering it.
That’s sad to hear. I’m an iPhone guy but I bought a Zenfone a few years ago when I wanted a cheap VR headset. It scratched the itch at the time and it was the best bang for my buck with the best features and yet still being unlocked from a carrier.
But with all that is going on at ASUS, I’m surprised they would make an unpopular move like this. Their motherboards are frying CPUs and their supposed Steam Deck killer didn’t do much of anything to kill competition. Wtf is going on at ASUS HQ?!
I’m surprised they would make an unpopular move like this.
Because it’s only unpopular to a niche audience. Granted, those buying a Zenfone are niche, but still. They stand to make more by locking the phones down for Samsung-level bullshit than they do from the customers they’ll lose here.
I dropped OnePlus for this reason last year, after having 5 models starting the OnePlus 1, and ending with the 8T. Apart from OxygenOS being a buggy mess, I should be able to do what I want with my phone’s software
Got any recommendations? I’ve been with them for 3 phones starting on 2 and I’m thinking on replacing my 6. I was already looking at other companies but not sure who would be good.
So they will just be bricks in a few years
I can’t believe this shit… I was planning on getting the Zenfone 10. with it’s headphone jack, small size, and Android feel.
