[Xperia Z Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] charlodroid:
Hi all.

First of all let me explain myself, I am a noob but not a total idiot so I am where I am through rational consideration.

I have renewed my contract on three UK, which has just expired. The number one consideration for me is that I have full, unlimited access to the internet with tethering and the only option for this in the UK is on three, on the contract I was already on. Three have an excellent 3g network and are in the process of giving DC-HSPA access and will get LTE-4g before the end of the year. I am guaranteed to automatically get the higher speeds when they are available, still with unlimited tethering at no extra cost. No other tariff can give me all that in the UK. There are sim-only options but they are all short term and do not guarantee me the unlimited tethering I require into the future, and there is a good chance the cost of these tariffs will increase when 4g is rolled out. In short the only option was to renew my contract.

So, I have renewed my contract and got the XZ. The XZ was the only option really after seeing all the developers struggle with Samsung phones and with all the developer friendly support promised by Sony. Whatever I did with my contract I wanted the XZ and I love it.

I knew when I signed the contract that I was taking a gamble on the locked bootloader, but the best option for me was to renew my contract and if the bootloader is locked sell the phone and use the money to partially fund the buying of a bootloader unlockable XZ. I knew that I would probably have to do this and was ready for it when I got the contract. Anyway the bootloader is unlock:no, so I will be carrying out my plan and this XZ will get sold to fund the purchase of an XZ with unlockable bootloader. I am OK with all that and if I sell the XZ for even half it's current value I won't care and will have still made the most financially sensible choice. I will have to buy a phone off contract, but I will still have the tariff I want. If the phone I have had come with an unlockable bootloader I would have been a couple of hundred quid better off, but I had to have a phone on the contract anyway so whatever phone I got would have had to go to get an unlocked XZ. Even if there was a tariff which gave the same allowances I would have had to pay for the handset anyway, and it would have ended up costing more than it is anyway. There is no such tariff anyway and I have made the sensible choice and am happy.

Now on to my question. Obviously I am working up to selling this phone, and figure it will be easier to sell sim-unlocked. Fortunately I live in the UK and network providers are obliged to allow you to unlock your sim. On three I have to wait thirty days and then they will unlock the sim for me. I have decided that the thirty days older the phone is will be offset by it being unlocked and being easier to sell. I am not in a rush to flash roms yet so I get the phone for a while and sell it for the least effort, hopefully when CM is pretty well ready for the phone.

Anyway, all is well and good and I am content.

However there is one possibility I have only recently considered. I am aware that sim-unlocking is a completely different thing than having bootloader unlockable:yes. But I was curious to know if a byproduct of getting the Sim officially unlocked by Three would be a change to the bootloader unlocking status. I don't know enough about how all this works, and as I say, I understand there is a difference between getting the sim-unlocked and the bootloader thing. But might the bootloader lock be somehow dependant on the sim-unlock status. ????

I only ask this out of curiosity.

I will find out for myself soon enough as I will be getting the sim unlocked ready to sell anyway. It will save me a bit of money and a bit of hassle if the bootloader becomes unlockable and I won't have to part with a phone I have become attached to and know is a good one, it doesn't have any of the issues some people seem to be having with their XZ's.

Either way in a couple of weeks I will have an XZ with an unlockable bootloader as CM has become a must for me.