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  • ASUS has apparently withdrawn the ability to unlock the bootloader on its phones.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.
  • 👁️👄👁️@lemm.eeEnglish
    30·
    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.eeEnglish
        171·
        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.orgEnglish
          43·
          1 year ago

          Oneplus? Bootloader is easily unlocked and it can be debloated easily after root

          • mammut@lemmy.worldEnglish
            23·
            1 year ago

            OnePlus does not do a good job keeping up with security updates, though.

            Sure, a custom ROM can fix some of that (for security issues that are part of Android), but the bigger problem is that there are hardware-specific security issues that can’t be patched in a timely manner unless the vendor bothers to do so.

          • 👁️👄👁️@lemm.eeEnglish
            412·
            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.worldEnglish
              82·
              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.zipEnglish
              3·
              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.

    • miserablegit@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
      91·
      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.