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Comment by QuarterReptile | Hacker News Reader

Sony makes an interesting though expensive one. The better answer would be Asus (Taiwan based.) I'd buy the zenfone because of camera and size, but alas I got a crazy trade in for a Samsung last year and now have no reason to change phones.

Edit: Specifically Zenfone 10. Top of the line SoC, 4300mAh battery, only 5.9", apparently good camera set up, and on and on. I don't know anything about the software though.

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I have an older Zenfone, no issues ever. It was easy to replace the OS and root (voiding the warranty though).

Did you physically have to solder something?

It is extremely unlikely that you actually voided a warranty by installing different software unless that software somehow causes physical damage (overheating?).

At least in the U.S. anyway.

It phones home once in the process of unlocking the bootloader.

I think parent is saying that Asus (and everyone else) will try to enforce illegal terms WRT to unlocking voiding your warranty. From what I understand, this is very much the same with car companies trying to tell you that you void your warranty by not getting all service done at their shops (or failing to get timely service on systems unrelated to the covered part failure.)

I see. Well, whether unlocking the bootloader voided the warranty or not didn't matter in my case, since the phone seems very resilient so far. It has fallen in the toilet and had yoghurt spilled directly into the USB port and it's still trucking along.

> The better answer would be Asus (Taiwan based.) I'd buy the zenfone because of camera and size

Oh? Did they turn the bootloader unlock servers back on recently?

AFAIK they only have 2 years of support.

do any of Sony's models work in the US? I got an xperia10 II which had a great form factor, but had to give up on it due to it not working as a phone

Best Buy has an entire section of their US online store for Sony phones, so I’d imagine that they’d work fine in the US as long as you buy US models.

I have a Sony Xperia 10 V (basically the budget model of the Xperia 1 V, costs about $350) and it works well enough on T-Mobile despite missing some of the bands that T-Mobile uses. I live in northern Utah, so your experience may vary depending on which bands the towers in your area are using I guess?

Main reasons I picked it were because it didn't have a camera notch, it has a headphone jack, and it has an SD card slot, all while being good enough power/performance-wise and without costing a fortune. Got it to replace my PinePhone which, sadly, is just not quite "there" as far as software support and other issues go.

nice, I'll have to take another look, that sounds good

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