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- ASUS has apparently withdrawn the ability to unlock the bootloader on its phones.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.
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.
Google shouldn’t be our shining light on phone rules lol
See why GrapheneOS only supports pixels
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
Oneplus? Bootloader is easily unlocked and it can be debloated easily after root
This 100%
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.
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.
Lol this is the technology page and you’re going to try to make the argument to not root(/jailbreak) a phone?.. Genuinely lold
Yes…? You can have custom roms without sacrificing security. There’s genuinely no reason to root anymore.
Can’t tell if troll or not
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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.
Very easy way to remove an almost perfect phone from my list of upgrade considerations.
Exactly !!
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.
Boo you whore. Asus really is just kicking itself in the dick the last 5 years or so.
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.
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?
It’s my device. I will do with it whatever the fuck I desire
This is sad to see. Replying from Lineage OS on Asus.
If I ever come across anyone in the wild who actually has one I’ll be sure to warn them not to root their phone.
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.
… 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.
So they will just be bricks in a few years
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.
oneplus 11 is going to get lineages soon
its actually in beta rn
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.
Zenfone 9 can’t be bootloader unlocked?
Nope. At least not when I bought mine only a couple of months ago, I guess right when they blocked the unlocking tool from being used. Super annoying.
It’s funny that looking around almost every single piece of ASUS hardward I bought over the years, I chose them because I could do more with their kit than I could do with the cheaper stuff and a lot of that had to do with access to the hardware (overclockeability of things like motherboards and graphics boards, much more configurable and better hardware for routers and media players and so on).
So I’m wandering what exactly is their unique value proposition on smartphones versus brands which are much more well known and well established in the regular consumer segment if they’re ditching being the superior choice for the more technical users: what exactly is the point of “same shit as everybody else” hardware for premium prices?!
Didn’t even know they were great for it, but my motherboard has been a sexy beast for for iommu grouping
What the lame, user already buy they product but user can’t modify it like apple did…
Asus is really going down the drain…
