This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
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.
Some here are mixing bootloader unlocking with rooting. They're not the same thing.
Asus broke bootloader unlocking, so you can only use the original ROM in the original state. You can't install a custom ROM or flash something like Magisk to root your device.
You can unlock without rooting or without installing a custom ROM. You can install a custom ROM without rooting. You can use stock and root. And you can use a custom ROM and root. But all this is only possible if you can unlock the device's bootloader.
Also, something I don't see people discuss enough: for security, you also need to be able to re-lock the bootloader after installing a custom ROM. Otherwise anyone can inject code into the system partition if they have physical access to your device, which would also compromise your encrypted storage. So if there's no way to reverse the bootloader unlocking, that's also bad.
Buy motorola edge 30
Put lineage on it
???
Profit
I have been thinking about getting the ZenFone 10 as well. I have seen a lot of similar posts here and on various google searches. In the XDA forum for the phone there also a topic about not being able to unlock the bootloader/root, but there is a bit more info on the reasoning.
"A moderator in the Asus ZenTalk forum posted that they are working on a new release of the unlock tool and that it should be available in Q3 2023."
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/unlocking-the-bootloader.4607595/
Very cool. But they removed it for now, so I'll assume it's permanent until proven otherwise. Not very cool.
I used to own a ZenFone, and Asus's technical support was awful. I guess I'm glad I don't use one now
What phone should I buy that is not complete trash and I can do what I want with? My Samsung phone is almost dying and I really don't want another Samsung, or Asus.
Xiaomi flagships are easily rootable. If not anything else, you can install Xiaomi.eu roms
OK. Pixels forever it is.
welp, no chance I'm ever considering their phones in future
One less potential customer here then
This is sad to see. Replying from Lineage OS on Asus.
Are they going to increase their abysmal security update support time?
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.
