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> Samsung has had bootloader unlocking as a feature in all their mobile devices

This is simply not true. Some of their devices provide that but many don't. Research carefully before purchasing.



I just realized that the US carrier locked devices don't have it. So, if you have one of those, unfortunately, you'll have to use a third-party method.


Some of the unlocked ones, too.


All Snapdragon variants of Samsung's Galaxy lineup are locked, regardless of carrier. This has been going on at least since the S7, and there are exploits to unlock bootloaders for such phones, at least as far as the Note 9 [1]. I would argue that if you need an exploit to unlock the bootloader, you are no better off than purchasing Apple.

1: https://www.xda-developers.com/samsung-galaxy-s9-galaxy-note...


It's still a far fry from "no better," in my view. There's an ecosystem of Android software for these environments. For instance, LineageOS, as the typical first target, was unofficially ported to the Note 9 Snapdragon soon after the bootloader exploit. There are also existing tools for Google Apps, microG, Xposed, etc.


You've got fairly good jailbreaks for most iPhones, too, so in my opinion they're close.


Admittedly it's been a while since I've been on a jail broken iPhone, but AFAIK custom ROM support is almost completely missing from iPhones. The jailbreaking ecosystem there is more comparable to Xposed tweaks and root access on an Android device. Custom ROMs are far more extensive with their own software and theming frameworks, perspectives on usability and performance, and often completely different OSs (that are not Android) thanks in part to GSIs these days.




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