cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/3429727
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- ASUS has apparently withdrawn the ability to unlock the bootloader on its phones.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
Well, there goes our hope for the Zenfone 10.
From the article it seems that there’s confusion around that at ASUS. Support staff are saying unlocking the bootloader isn’t and won’t be possible, but at the end of the article you also have this:
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.
Those big companies usually don’t have great inter-department communications, we’ll just have to wait and see if it’s true or not.
Yeah, hopefully this is just a whole misunderstanding, as there’s not much reason for them to stop allowing bootloader unlocks for the people that want them.
Huh, ok. Well then, fuck you Asus.
This is still a rumor, let’s wait for things to settle down a bit before we get too angry right now.
Welp. Not going to buy Zenfones.
That sucks. I was considering one of their devices instead of a Google Pixel, mainly due to the form factor. I guess not anymore.
I had no idea they even made phones.
They’re actually really good
I got an Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2 in 2020 and it already gave up last year by becoming very slow and randomly rebooting from time to time. Updates also seem to have stopped but the phone was released in 2018 so the obsolescence doesn’t surprise me, but what’s infuriating is that right now it’s pretty much garbage. I’m now using it only for work 2FA as the process to add my new Pixel phone to my employer’s 2FA is pretty bureaucratic and takes a whole month (and during that month you have to give up working from home since they have to disable 2FA on your old phone).
I’ve loved their ROG Phones. I had their ROG 2, and now their ROG 6. Complete overkill for most people, but I’m definitely an Android “Power User”.
Their Zenfones have also gotten a good reputation as decent mid-range devices that kick some recent trends, like keeping the phones on the smaller side and keeping the headphone jack.
Pegatron makes a lot of things.
Again, for a company as big as Asus/Pegatron, major decisions like this travel slowly and chaotically down the pipeline. We’ll have to wait for the Zenfone 10 release to say for sure.
I was hoping they would anounce one day that they up their support window bc two years of updates is kind of ridiculous for a 800€ phone. This is of course another way to boost their sales smh.
Fuck Asus then
Is it possible to exploit these phones in the future, I remember unlocking the bootloader on my amazon fire tablet using an exploit.
If this is true then F them.
fucking hell
I was about to buy a Zenfone 9 because it was the perfect device for me
Asus no more, I guess
