this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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I don't think I've had a locked phone since around 2012.
I'm guessing people still get them because they need financing? Seems like a poor choice most of the time.
I remember when carriers not just locked the phones, they also had custom firmwares filled with bloat and customized skins and even locking down features and all that shit. For example, I had a Sony Ericsson K700i and it had a disgustingly customized FW on it, and aside that it was ugly, I could only play MP3 files that I purchased through Vodafone. Sending them via bluetooth (or even with IR) didn't work, the phone refused to play it back.
(Then of course I found out that Sony Ericssons were pretty moddable phones so I replaced the FW with an original one and that solved all my problems. For some reasons, the fact that I patched the FW with countless of VKP patches and even unlocking it with a patch, didn't void my warranty so whenever I fucked up the FW beyond my abilities to repair it or simply bricked it, I just sent it to Vodafone and they fixed it.)
And they did this even when Android became a thing. (Though, it was a Vodafone branded phone so... it was sort of OK. (technically it was a Huawei though, also pretty moddable phone))
One of the best things about iPhone, carriers can’t touch shit on the OS.
Except disabling WiFi hotspot/connection sharing.