this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
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[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 214 points 1 week ago (2 children)

So never buy OnePlus products. Got it. Thanks OnePlus for making the advice so clear!

[–] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 71 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's what I heard. I know Samsung has been doing something like this as well.

[–] Armand1@lemmy.world 83 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Samsung has been blowing fuses in your phone when you root since at least 2015. I know because it happened to me. Never bought one again after that.

[–] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 1 week ago (9 children)

Yep, Samsung Knox is the feature name; does it actually prevent things or is it just "tamper evidence" for corporate devices?

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[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Samsung just does it to trigger Knox and not let you use some security minded things on the phone.

They also, however, have their phones pretty much impossible to root anymore. I don't think most ever get a custom rom, because pretty much no one can get a Samsung phone to except one. I believe my old Note 20 Ultra is still not rootable.

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[–] TheRealKuni@piefed.social 155 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Wow, what happened to OnePlus? They used to be so cool. Hell, the first one ran Cyanogen.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 127 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They're basically being folded into Oppo right now. OnePlus as a company is pretty much dead.

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

“Open” once again being abused as angle to build something for an exit. It sounds like.

[–] Nima@leminal.space 34 points 1 week ago

what has happened, indeed. I still use an 8T and I love it heavily, but good lord. apparently you miss a few models and the whole company changes.

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[–] Mycenaman@lemmy.ml 92 points 1 week ago (12 children)

It's not flashing a custom ROM. It is installing an OS of users choice. Enemy's language shouldn't be used if we want things to change

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 32 points 1 week ago (3 children)

This is why "side load" is annoying to me. It's installing. It is not special or different. They aren't "blocking side loading" they're "restricting what you can install."

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[–] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 87 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Wasn't OnePlus like worshipped because of how much support for custom ROMs wth

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 48 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

The original "One" phone was even supposed to run cyanogemod out of the box at one point.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago

It was shipped with Cyanogenmod for a while.

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[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 72 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (9 children)

If true, this is sabotage of the customers product, and must 100% be illegal in almost any country!!
But my guess is they are limiting this to countries that have absolute shit consumer protection.

[–] darcmage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I haven't read the entire XDA thread but there are a few posts saying it's limited to ColorOS (Chinese version of android that everyone else gets as OxygenOS). Unable to verify.

If they don't reverse course, I'm sure it'll roll out globally eventually. This has to run afoul of EU's strong warranty laws right?

[–] db2@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Things are illegal only when enforced. Otherwise they're a suggestion at best.

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[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 67 points 1 week ago

"...long enough to become the villain."

[–] ramble81@lemmy.zip 62 points 1 week ago

Holy shit. I wanted to say something constructive, but just…. holy shit. Intentional hard brick of a customer owned device….

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 55 points 1 week ago

That means they were making money by people running their os.

If they spend the money on re-engineering their devices not to allow it, there was a cost advantage to selling your data.

[–] stebator@lemmy.world 47 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Many users were buying OpenPlus Pro smartphones solely because of the ability to unlock the bootloader and flash custom ROMs. People value freedom and customization. OpenPlus is shooting itself in the foot.

[–] hume_lemmy@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 week ago

Oppo killed and ate OP a long time ago. They've just been wearing their skin like a suit up to this point, but their true nature is obvious at this point.

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[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 40 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I bought a OP 9Pro just before Oppo decimated the company. They moved from Oxygen OS to a poorly camouflaged version of Oppo Color OS and stripped out some of the features that made Oneplus what it was. Oppo also almost completely stopped fixing bugs, even some really serious ones that had been long documented. I recently bought a new phone and didn't even consider ~~Oneplus~~ Oppo.

It seems to me that the only reason Oppo would do this is to preserve the revenue they get from selling customer data that should remain private. Otherwise why would Oppo care what OS people run on their hardware?

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[–] termaxima@slrpnk.net 38 points 1 week ago

"OnePlus shoots own foot. Likely to blame consumers for it"

[–] defaultusername@lemmy.dbzer0.com 35 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I get why they do this, because downgrade attacks are a thing that are used to exploit devices remotely, but there are other ways to implement this, like what GrapheneOS does. Downgrading can also just be restricted to unlocked bootloaders as well via a software revocation list that gets deleted/bypassed upon unlocking.

There is no good reason for devices to use efuses to block downgrades unless they are trying to restrict user freedom a la consoles.

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 66 points 1 week ago
  • Reasonable: prevent downgrades when the bootloader is locked
  • Sketchy: prevent downgrades when the bootloader is unlocked
  • Unhinged: hard-brick the device when a downgrade is attempted
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[–] ulterno@programming.dev 33 points 1 week ago

In better times, this would at least get a class action.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 32 points 1 week ago (1 children)

so it basically permanently "damages" the phone when you try to root it, seems like they are asking for a lawsuit at some point.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Wanna try suing Samsung before that?

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[–] hornedfiend@piefed.social 28 points 1 week ago (2 children)

One plus joined my short list of "I can't be bothered" companies like Samsung and Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo and some other sub par companies.

[–] ragas@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 week ago

And all that while OnePlus was awesome up until the OnePlus 7 pro.

I had the 5t until last year and it was still awesome.

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[–] eleijeep@piefed.social 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Another company to add to the list.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They have already collapsed and won't be making phones anymore

[–] eleijeep@piefed.social 30 points 1 week ago

Wow I didn’t think my list would take effect so quickly!

[–] lonesomeCat@lemmy.ml 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Seriously are there any Android brands that do not suck and ship everywhere (not limited to the US/EU markets)??

[–] Limonene@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I believe thay all have shitty operating systems. But some of them have an aftermarket OS available. Pick your OS first, then look for a phone that can run it. Here are the ones I know of:

GrapheneOS

CalyxOS (on hiatus)

Crdriod

LineageOS

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[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And yet my LinkedIn is still full of people complaining about how much the EU over-regulates

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[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (4 children)

Well...So did Samsung with Samsung Knox

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

Oh well then... if the bastion of open and customer focused development did it

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