For next device, please don't go with Sony!!!! [not relevant]

I maybe need to alter that a bit, not exactly sure what gave me that impression but most of the places I found at first glance sell with a telecom contract, leading me to assume (possibly inaccurately) that these devices will be useless for our course. My perception of scarcity might also have been influenced by the fact that many sources require you to buy the entire phone directly, whereas I was happy to have found a vendor that allows installments. Regarding that, thank you (and Bakero) for telling me you got it from Belsimpel! So did I, so I have now send a request for exchanging my phone (through their 31 days return policy). Maybe I just got unlucky (got one with a foreign charger as well). Thanks for the inspiration and sorry for the long rant. I kinda lost it when I saw my rooting status :s

I get your frustration. The fact that there are "locked" phones in the first place(an so you could get unlucky) is annoying. But it's not Sony's fault per se, it's the same with other manufacturers. Those phones are probably produced (SIM)"locked" as a requirement from the telco's, but now somehow sold in the open market.

Yes that's what I guess happened to me. But AFAIK other manufacturers do not make their hardware permanently locked to the best of my knowledge, and many sites say that Sony is a bit of a unique case here. Then again, my previous phones are both 5 years old (Sony Xperia Z1, branded by t-mobile but has an unlockable bootloader, HTC One, not branded and also has unlockable bootloader). Maybe this changed over the last 5 years, I wouldn't know.

@revave: No, other manufacturers do this as well, e.g Samsung, LG. But it always depends on the telecom carrier who request from Sony, Samsung etc. to lock the bootloader. So there's nothing Sony can do about it as long as they want to distribute their devices to the telecom companies. In the US for example, companies like AT&T even want their logo printed on the devices. I think Sony is very open compared to other manufactorers, especially with their Sony Open Devices program which is also the reason we can have Sailfish X.

Btw, Sailfish X costs money because Jolla also has to pay licences for stuff like Android emulation, text prediction and Exchange service and offers official support for the image. If you don't want all that stuff you could also use a community build - which is maintained by the community and doesn't cost money (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=99875).

But seeing how much advertisement and Google branding there is on "free" Android, I think those EUR 50 are absolutely worth is - apart from the fact, that the developmnent of Sailfish OS costs money.

Btw, use this 20% discount on Sailfish X - it's available until December 17th. https://blog.jolla.com/lets-celebrate-independence/

@alain that's a first that I hear of that. But I'm willing to take your word for it. It never happened to me, but I usually got Dutch phones (this one I think came from UK judging by the plug). I'm gonna close and/or delete my rant above, because it seems I might have gotten this wrong completely :-)

Regarding why it costs money, I totally understand, and like I said it is justifiable in my opinion. And like I said I want to support Jolla as well and want to buy their OS (I also think it'll be worth it :))!

I understand Jolla does the best they can, and this is not meant as harsh criticism. I just wished to point out that there is no easy way in which lesser adventurous people can get the OS, (even if you can send a product back, it's a hassle and then there's the warranty and other stuff) which can be a limiter on Jolla's success. I really want them to succeed, but it is slightly off putting imho what steps you need to take to get a phone with their official OS. There has to be a better, more streamlined way. If they could for example get their ROM signed by Sony under the condition of a disclaimer regarding warranty, bootloaders would be a no factor, and suddenly a lot more people can buy their product. Convincing Sony would be difficult (/impossible?). Anyway, have a nice weekend :)

Can you please explain to me what you mean with "support"? We still need to use an exploit to back up the TA partition in order to be able to relock the bootloader ever again. My previous phone, a HTC One, had a bootloader that could be unlocked with a code HTC provides readily to HTC owners. Sony also voids your warranty when you flash anything non-Sony. Just like all the other companies. So how is that support? At least the ability to unlock the boot loader is not permanently disabled on HTC. But also Xiaomi, Oneplus, LG and Samsungs have unlockable boot loaders indiscriminately. The only thing Sony does is sharing their drivers more openly, as far as I understand. But Jolla could cooperate with another manufacturer, just like they did with Intex. Sony's Open Devices Platform therefor doesn't seem essential. BTW, I do have to give it to Sony that their hardware is great. If only Jolla could make a deal with Sony to get their roms signed, without unlocking, like the other Sony roms, that would also be a solution. Maybe my initial statement needs some rephrasing :)

unlocking the bootloader is only one small part of the sony open device program. There's also a reasonably well working AOSP tree maintained by Sony, as well as a maintained unified kernel for all their open devices. Other manufacturers don't supply anything like that.

Alright, you've got a point, but does Jolla need that per sé? They seemed to manage very well with the Intex Aquafish? If anything it seems to have less issues than the X (from what I've seen on videos and updates, I don't own an Intex). Does Intex provide the same a maintained unified kernel? Or is this a case of "Let Sony worry about that so that we can put more people on other parts of developement"?

Intex was a commercial arrangement selling the device with Sailfish OS, this Sony thing is an aftermarket flashable image. They aren't the same thing.

Outside of a commercial arrangement, I don't think the other manufacturers would offer the parts Jolla needs to create a proper sailfishos image. If one of the major android phone manufacturers wanted to sell a Sailfish OS device I'm sure they would be delighted.

Thanks, I didn't know this, and may I ask where you got that information from? I don't recall seeing it on either Jolla's or Sony's websites? My phone has 1302-3046, customized FR, and is not unlockable at least. How do you see in that list what phones are? You can also check that through the service menu btw :)

I found this information on a long ongoing hunt for information, until i found it on this Page. https://together.jolla.com/question/169544/sony-xperia-x-device-variants-and-bootloaderflashing-status/ If you understand german you can give this tutorial a try http://sailfishmods.de/2017/07/howto-sony-xperia-x-teil-1-cda-drm-keys-bootloader/ it's verry comprehensive and well written. In my case it worked like a charm.

best wishes

thanks to carepack: give it a try: In fact, deactivating "my Xperia" delivers Bootloader unlock allowed: Yes after entering the service menue with ##7378423##

starts at the bottom of page 1 https://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xperia-Z4-Tablet/Bootloader-unlock-allowed-No/td-p/1052106

or this

https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1896553