Official: Nokia Mobile will remove the option to unlock the Nokia 7.2 and Nokia 6.2 bootloader

Unlocked bootloader offers a user a chance to flash the device with a custom ROM, or brick the device. Custom ROMs were quite popular during the Symbian era of Nokia smartphones since it offered a level of freedom to the users. Now the story is a bit different since Nokia Mobile relies a lot on Google’s end product called AndroidOne. That way Google takes care of the software adjustments which saves money for Nokia Mobile. With Nokia 7.2 and 6.2 something changed since the bootloaders of those devices could be unlocked quite easily. Everyone thought that Nokia MObile changed its mind regarding the bootloader unlocking, but things are still the same. We reached HMD Global who is behind Nokia Mobile and got a statement from HMD’s spokesperson about the situation.
Here it goes:

“There is no change to our policy of allowing unlocking bootloader on Nokia phones. This was an inadvertent miss in the case of Nokia 7.2 and we will be issuing a maintenance release to remove the option. We regret the inconvenience and would like to remind our consumers that unlocking the bootloader will lead to the warranty on their Nokia phone becoming void.”

So, if you are going to tamper with the bootloader, do it before Nokia Mobile releases a software update that will block this option. Be aware that the warranty will become void if you do unlock it.

I must say that I’m fine with AndroidOne, mostly because I don’t have time to play with custom ROMs. I do miss the good old Symbian days when I was fine tunning my Nokia 5800 XM or Nokia 701, but that required some skills and also a few bricked phones. I believe that most of the folks don’t mind if the bootloader is locked or not, but I know that some tech-savvy people would like to see it unlocked, and Nokia Mobile being good guys should give them that opportunity. I’m just not sure if there is a safe way to do that, but there are some developers that will find a way to unlock the bootloader.

In the end, I have to repeat that I don’t recommend playing with custom ROMs since you can damage your phone.