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  • ASUS has apparently withdrawn the ability to unlock the bootloader on its phones.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