Verizon's version of Samsung Galaxy S III comes with locked bootloader

6. Alan01 (Posts: 438; Member since: 21 Mar 2012)

I was drinking the "uncola" at the time. Thanks!

Alan F.

9. Wildmanfan (Posts: 238; Member since: 15 Jul 2010)

I am going to do that and I did a field test on download speed with my cousin's phone and it was faster than VZW. I'm jumping ship as soon as my contract is up on Sept 1st.

22. Gemmol (Posts: 792; Member since: 09 Nov 2011)

why are you getting thumbs down, smh, this is why I say they should remove this thumbs down thing, if someone make an opinion and you like it then thumbs it up, but if not, leave the post alone, it is their opinion and by the way congrats and welcome to AT&T, I live in NY and get service, so do not pay attention to everyone trolling post, AT&T service improved a lot, try a phone out if the service do not work for you then pick a company that do, but I tell you this Tmobile and Verizon do not work in my house

28. Gemmol (Posts: 792; Member since: 09 Nov 2011)

so i get a thumbs down too lol

40. k1ng617 (Posts: 264; Member since: 13 Oct 2009)

Hey I made that jump back in January and FYI I'm really unhappy with them.

Call reception (here in Boston) is terrible and I regularly completely miss calls and sms's without ANY notifications. Only way I find out is that people keep telling me they called (and on their end it rings completely) or texted and I never saw them on my end. I am running a Galaxy Note so I'm assuming it's not my phone since it's pretty high end.

I was very happy with Verizon call quality and reception and rarely missed anything; however, I was only on their 3G at the time and the data speeds were pretty slow although I had consistent coverage.

I'm hoping to switch to T-Mobile before the end of the year if they open up their 1900mhz band to HSPA+ so I can port my number and my Galaxy Note over.

Just a heads up! Check with friends that have AT&T in your area before you jump ship!

42. Jimstar (Posts: 259; Member since: 24 Oct 2011)

Good Luck with that! At&t's OneX is also locked, their GS3 made it out untouched but I wouldn't put all my eggs in that basket in the future.

44. superguy (Posts: 297; Member since: 15 Jul 2011)

HTC seems to want to lock all their bootloaders lately, but they usually provide the unlock thru a website. Sometimes it may take a few months, but they usually come out.

Yes, it sucks more than what Samsung typically does, but it's not a completely locked device like Moto devices are.

47. KingKurogiii (Posts: 5713; Member since: 23 Oct 2011)

the Atrix and the Photon have unlocked bootloaders pal. the more popular Motorola phones on Verizon have locked bootloaders because of Verizon which is becoming increasingly evident with this SIII scandal.

7. iamcc (Posts: 1319; Member since: 07 Oct 2011)

Yeah Verizon has been pissing me off a lot lately... I just moved to a new condo a few months ago where their coverage map shows "strong 3G" and possibly LTE. Too bad I can barely get 1 bar of 3G or make phone calls...

Had Verizon send a tech out and even after they confirmed "marginal service even outdoors" all they will do is tell me to buy a Network Extender. f**king idiots.

23. Gemmol (Posts: 792; Member since: 09 Nov 2011)

i guess AT&T for you

39. Ravail (Posts: 182; Member since: 14 Oct 2011)

The same thing applied with AT&T at my grandmother's house.. She called and they sent a tech out to her location, confirmed she had a bad reception location and gave her a network signal booster.. now she has 5 bars of signal constantly.

17. Droid_X_Doug (Posts: 5993; Member since: 22 Dec 2010)

Verizon seems to be batting a thousand recently. First they want to charge their customers $5 to pay their bill with a credit card. Then they claim they have the ability to do whatever they want with their wireless spectrum (see the article posted a few days ago about the 1st and 5th amendment claims regarding net neutrality). Now this. Arrogance brings everyone down in the end.

13. KingKurogiii (Posts: 5713; Member since: 23 Oct 2011)

lol right? xD

48. jroc74 (Posts: 6019; Member since: 30 Dec 2010)

Exactly.....but facts wont get in the way of haters...haters gonna hate, regardless.

15. tedkord (Posts: 13776; Member since: 17 Jun 2009)

It's not that it's locked, it's encrypted. Most bootloaders come locked, but they aren't a real hinderance to development. Encrypted means you need a signature to replace the kernel, etc...that's not easy to get around without the key.

If the devs had full access to the BL, the sky's the limit. ROMs, kernels, skins, different versions of Android. With the limited root access they have so far, they can probably debloat (get rid of the crap Verizon preloads), maybe some limited custom roms. No cusotm kernels.

18. Quezdagreat (Posts: 428; Member since: 05 Apr 2012)

Ok thanks for the reply, and thanks to the guys who thumbs down me for asking a question

21. tedkord (Posts: 13776; Member since: 17 Jun 2009)

Verizon Galaxy Nexus bootloader was not locked down.