Android is an open source platform. And I love it that way. Because I can enjoy latest and greatest Android OS version, features, enhancements, modifications, tweaks and hacks unofficially by 3rd party developers. Yes, you will get software update / firmware upgrade even official manufacturer stops supporting your Android devices. Just take Amazon Kindle Fire as example. Amazon did not update it for quite some time but I still can enjoy the latest Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean on Kindle Fire. And plus lot of nice features like OTG, access to Google Play Store… Same apply to the legendary HTC HD2.
Yes, original stock Kindle Fire loaded with Android 2.3 Gingerbread. But with the help of developers, we can enjoy Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on Kindle Fire. However, this is not possible if Kindle Fire bootloader is locked. Luckily, it is not so that we can install custom ROM on it. However, root Kindle Fire or install custom ROM on Kindle Fire will void its warranty. But no worry, we can always restore stock software on Kindle Fire back. And Amazon won’t even know that what you had done on your Kindle Fire. So your Kindle Fire warranty is safe. Same apply to Samsung Android devices with unlocked bootloader…
On the other hand, all Android devices like HTC One X from HTC have locked bootloader. You can’t install custom ROM unless you unlock HTC devices bootloader first. However, unlock HTC devices bootloader void warranty. HTC has your device unlock bootloader record in their server. Take my HTC One X as example, I did not unlock HTC One X bootloader until now because HTC One X hardware quality sucks. Sending it back for warranty claim is just matter of time.
Luckily, there is a way to unlock HTC devices bootloader while keeping its warranty safe ~ S-OFF method. However, this S-OFF method does not come in easy because developers need to find a way to hack. For example, there is no public S-OFF HTC One X method since 6 months of HTC One X launch. And some HTC devices took a year to get S-OFF. So what is the point of getting HTC Android devices while you can’t enjoy all the root access / custom ROM benefits. Example, top reasons to root Samsung Galaxy S3.
In short, stay away from Android devices with locked bootloader and unlock it will void warranty.
