HMD Global is considering unlocking the Nokia 8 bootloader, reveals their Cheif Product Officer on Twitter. This could be a "deal-maker" for a lot of potential new Nokia customers, as pointed out in the Twitter thread.

The initial answer was a clear "no", however, the Chief Product Officer, Juho Sarvikas, later replied to himself that the company will "look at this". This indicates that HMD Global may be willing to unlock the bootloader in the future after some decisionmaking is done.

This is a very welcome message. For a lot of people, a phone is an instant "no buy" unless the bootloader can be unlocked like on Pixel, Nexus and OnePlus phones. Unlocking the bootloader allows the user to easily root their device, replace the OS if needed, and do all sorts of customisation. This also future-proofs devices as developers can easily port newer versions of Android to the handsets, long after the company drops support, which is a common issue in the Android world.

This should all be taken with a grain of salt as Sarvikas only confirmed that HMD Global will look into this, not outright unlock the bootloader. The main reason to not allow unlocking of the bootloader, according to him, is security, which is an important thing for HMD Global with their Nokia-branded phones.

What do you think? Is a locked bootloader a deal breaker and would you buy a Nokia 8 if it had an unlockable bootloader? Let us know in the comments below!

via xda-developers