The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge versions powered by Snapdragon 820 (all US carrier models) come with one unpleasant surprise in the form of a locked bootloader. This means that the modding community is going to have a pretty hard time to root and create recovery for these phones, paving the way for all the wonderful things that good custom ROMs bring.
Their owners would have to wait for Android N to hit their handsets officially, for instance, which, knowing Samsung, may not happen before this time next year. Any battery life optimizations, bloatware stripping, or TouchWiz enhancements that need root will also be sorely missing for quite a while on US models, too, as those are often the benefits of custom ROMs for those brave enough to go there.
The US carrier versions ship with locked bootloaders, but the Exynos ones got root
Fret not, however, as T-Mobile's flamboyant CEO John Legere would try and come to the rescue, and has apparently ordered his engineers to probe Samsung on workaround solutions that will satisfy all parties involved. He is not doing this only from the good of his own heart, though, as some users have reportedly started returning their phones with locked bootloaders, seeing that there will be no modding development for a while.
@MarkHibbard1 I'm aware some are upset. It's under Samsung’s control, but my engineers are asking them for a solution that they can support.
For comparison, the international Galaxy S7 and S7 edge versions, powered by Samsung's own Exynos chip, have no such restrictions, and already got root and TWRP recovery installed.
Here's what you need to do if you have one of those and want it rooted - as usual, make sure that you have the correct model (an Exynos one), be advised that rooting will trip KNOX, back up everything beforehand, and charge your phone before you proceed:
1.
Tap on the phone's build number in Settings > About five times to enable Developer options;
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2. Go to the Developer settings and enable "OEM Unlock";
3. Get Samsung's Odin and Chainfire's auto-root file for your respective device on your computer:
7. Run Odin on your computer, and connect the phone to it with the USB cable, while it's in download mode, until Odin shows “Added message”;
8. Click the AP button in Odin, and select the .tar.md5 file you unzipped in step 4;
9. Click START and enjoy the ride. Your Galaxy S7 or S7 edge won't show progress, just the S7 logo while the process is ongoing. It will reboot a couple of times, and then will boot into Android.
Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena since 2010, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.
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