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FYI: Motorola is also friendly towards ROM development. You can easily unlock bootloader and slap lineageOS/AOSP. Of course, for people from US - it may not wor

FYI: Motorola is also friendly towards ROM development. You can easily unlock bootloader and slap lineageOS/AOSP. Of course, for people from US - it may not work if you have a carrier branded phone. https://motorola-global-en-uk.custhelp.com/app/standalone/bootloader/unlock-your-device-a https://motorola-global-en-uk.custhelp.com/app/standalone/bo...

mrguyorama 8y ago
Verizon completely locks down nearly every motorola phone they sell. It's horrible
- theandrewbailey 8y ago
  As much as I hate Best Buy, it was the first realistic option I had to quickly get an unlocked phone that would work on Verizon.
ingenieroariel 8y ago
I bought it in Colombia and got the code from Motorola to unlock it, nothing seemed US or carrier specific as the initial code was obtained via adb.
- omnifischer 8y ago
  A majority of hn-readers are from US.
amyjess 8y ago
My only problem is that you can't unlock the bootloader without notifying Motorola so they can void your warranty. As much as I want to root my Moto X4 to get the notification LED back, I'm waiting until my warranty expires next fall before doing so.
- icebraining 8y ago
  Where do you live? I'm pretty sure that one can't renounce the mandatory warranty for stuff bought in the EU, so if you live here, you should be OK (but don't blame me if they're hard to convince!).
  - gowld 8y ago
    Modifying the software (for example, temperature-triggered CPU throttling?) might move liability to the customer side, if the hardware's integrity is software-controlled: https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/dealing-with-customers/consumer-contracts-guarantees/defective-products/index_en.htm https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/dealing-with-customers... " the injured party must prove that: damage took place, your product was defective, the defect and the damage were linked." "You bear no liability if you can prove that: he defect causing the damage did not exist when the product was placed on the market"
    - icebraining 8y ago
      Fair point, but that page is not related to the warranty, only to damages caused to people or other things. Personally, I think it's unlikely that my phone will harm someone or destroy over 500€ of stuff, so I'm not concerned.
    - Zeebrommer 8y ago
      That sounds quite reasonable. If you break something due to your own modifications (hw/sw), the manufacturer should not be held accountable. The trouble is of course proving that is was not due to the mod if the device breaks.
  - amyjess 8y ago
    North Texas. I'm pretty far from the EU, and I ordered my phone through Project Fi.
Nullabillity 8y ago
Meh, that requires you to create an account and ask them for permission to unlock. I'd rather take a Nexus or OnePlus where it's a much simpler offline process (allow unlocking in dev settings, `adb reboot bootloader && fastboot oem unlock`).
- bubblethink 8y ago
  >I'd rather take a Nexus Pixels, the ones bought from the google store (as opposed to retail channels), do allow you to unlock the bootloader, but that is still an implicit network permission check. You cannot get to the oem unlocking screen without turning on wifi, which is basically how it phones home to check if you are allowed to unlock it.
  - nickflood 8y ago
    That is because the phone has theft prevention feature which needs internet connection to know whether the phone was not stolen before allowing the user to bypass the theft check forever with a new rom
    - bubblethink 8y ago
      That could be, but nexus didn't have that. The internet check started with Pixels due to the verizon deal. So the main reason for it seems to be to check if the phone is in the verizon database since all the phones ship with the same ROM.

mrguyorama 8y ago

Verizon completely locks down nearly every motorola phone they sell. It's horrible

theandrewbailey 8y ago
As much as I hate Best Buy, it was the first realistic option I had to quickly get an unlocked phone that would work on Verizon.

ingenieroariel 8y ago

I bought it in Colombia and got the code from Motorola to unlock it, nothing seemed US or carrier specific as the initial code was obtained via adb.

omnifischer 8y ago
A majority of hn-readers are from US.

amyjess 8y ago

My only problem is that you can't unlock the bootloader without notifying Motorola so they can void your warranty. As much as I want to root my Moto X4 to get the notification LED back, I'm waiting until my warranty expires next fall before doing so.

icebraining 8y ago
Where do you live? I'm pretty sure that one can't renounce the mandatory warranty for stuff bought in the EU, so if you live here, you should be OK (but don't blame me if they're hard to convince!).
- gowld 8y ago
  Modifying the software (for example, temperature-triggered CPU throttling?) might move liability to the customer side, if the hardware's integrity is software-controlled: https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/dealing-with-customers/consumer-contracts-guarantees/defective-products/index_en.htm https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/dealing-with-customers... " the injured party must prove that: damage took place, your product was defective, the defect and the damage were linked." "You bear no liability if you can prove that: he defect causing the damage did not exist when the product was placed on the market"
  - icebraining 8y ago
    Fair point, but that page is not related to the warranty, only to damages caused to people or other things. Personally, I think it's unlikely that my phone will harm someone or destroy over 500€ of stuff, so I'm not concerned.
  - Zeebrommer 8y ago
    That sounds quite reasonable. If you break something due to your own modifications (hw/sw), the manufacturer should not be held accountable. The trouble is of course proving that is was not due to the mod if the device breaks.
- amyjess 8y ago
  North Texas. I'm pretty far from the EU, and I ordered my phone through Project Fi.

Nullabillity 8y ago

Meh, that requires you to create an account and ask them for permission to unlock. I'd rather take a Nexus or OnePlus where it's a much simpler offline process (allow unlocking in dev settings, `adb reboot bootloader && fastboot oem unlock`).

bubblethink 8y ago
>I'd rather take a Nexus Pixels, the ones bought from the google store (as opposed to retail channels), do allow you to unlock the bootloader, but that is still an implicit network permission check. You cannot get to the oem unlocking screen without turning on wifi, which is basically how it phones home to check if you are allowed to unlock it.
- nickflood 8y ago
  That is because the phone has theft prevention feature which needs internet connection to know whether the phone was not stolen before allowing the user to bypass the theft check forever with a new rom
  - bubblethink 8y ago
    That could be, but nexus didn't have that. The internet check started with Pixels due to the verizon deal. So the main reason for it seems to be to check if the phone is in the verizon database since all the phones ship with the same ROM.