yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] krabman:
I waited for the exynos, phones have gotten so good nowadays I don't find myself in the must have it today mood with them anymore although I do get a couple a year because I like my tech. I needed a dual sim anyways so the snapdragon was a skip regardless. Agreed though, I liked the Note 7 a great deal and was sad to see it go. I'm hopeful they follow the bootloader locking policy they went to with the Note 7, not that I like it but at least you can just have the exynos shipped and get around it.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] jpinks:
I would pay a small premium to get and unlocked S8 or S8+. If it was a stock android 7.1 and unlocked I would pay a bigger premium as hopefully we could update it ourselves faster than Samsung does.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] Tidbits:
Every device prior to the S, and Note 7 were released were unlockable or unlocked out of the box. I still today believe it was a Samsung move locking the bootloader. T-Mobile Since the Sensation said it's up to the carriers to decide if they wanted to unlock or lock their bootloaders, and to date they have always stuck by that.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] krabman:
I can only go by what i know, there were no unlocked Snapdragon Note 7s. Samsung said they would no longer be making unlockable bootloader phones for the North American market and Tmo did not have an unlocked bootloader for it. Samsung went so far as to patch the phone so that the Sprint engineering​ firmware that leaked could not be installed and Tmo did include that patch in their own firmware and it was blocked there as well. The available evidence indicates that Tmo was actively preventing bootloader unlocking. I'm aware of their former policies, it was one of the reasons I moved over to Tmo years ago. Things change and the tea leaves say right now that there will not be an unlocked Snapdragon variant, Tmo or not. I don't know this, it is my best guess.

---------- Post added at 07:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:10 PM ----------

You should be able to simply buy an unlockable international phone from a wide variety of shops that do that business, Clove, Handtech, etc. As an added bonus the exynos is usually a little better, you skip some bloat, the lions share of development will be there.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] force70:
Not that it matters to us as it wont work in NA but there was a version of the note 7 for Hong kong with the snapdragon and it had an unlocked bootloader.

Samsung is sure doing some strange things these days...

Sent from my Note 7, S7 Edge or S6
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] ZayMoney:
do you really think those peasant csr are gonna give you any info worth something. dont you think people like evan blass would have already leaked that info? they are robots. they read of a script and thats it
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] TRoN_1:
Yes, CSRs are full of Sugar Honey Ice Tea! I don't believe a word they(or any "elevated" engineers) say. Seeing is believing.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] droydr:
The S8/8+ bootloader will not be unlockable, period.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] vibrantliker:
I've been a Samsung loyalist for years but won't buy anymore if unrootable, unless V4a comes out with a non root version. I'll wait for the new one+.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] rafaelpinaf:
Where can I get the Unlocked version in US? I just found it on BestBuy website, but the Pre order starts on May 9th
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] force70:
The exynos will likely be unlocked like on the S7 and note 7.

That's what i will end up buying...no point im buying a locked down snapdragon when the exynos is a better experience and unlocked.

Sent from my Note 7, S7 Edge or S6
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] PuffinNugz:
Rooting is not as important to me as it had been in the past, especially with substratum working with non rooted devices now, but it would be nice to be able to remove unnecessary bloatware. Most important though would be to be able to block ads. I would be happy with a custom recovery to flash MoAB. Was there ever a TWRP or CWM for US GS7?

That, and the added performance have me leaning towards and Intl version.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] force70:
Check out the US s7 development forums..practically ghost towns if that answers your question

Sent from my Note 7, S7 Edge or S6
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] Logan3824:
Love the look of the phone, but I'm on Verizon, and I can't ****ing stand all the bloatware. If it's a true locked bootloader, I guess I'm going to the pixel xl.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] LoliSmith:
Will you be able to have HD calling on Verizon using the international versions?
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] force70:
No idea sorry...im in canada

Sent from my Note 7, S7 Edge or S6
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] skyeking69:
Hey Force

Thought I read Samsung was going to sell refurbished Note 7's ?........you could have your exynos model back!
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] force70:
Looks like they are....i said way back they would...makes sense.

They wont do it here but easy to get online hopefully and ill be all over it lol

You getting an s8?
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] skyeking69:
I'd like to see the S8 plus in hand, But I'm not thinking so right now. Like to get an FD note 7 refurbish as well, depending

on price ( if it's only a couple hundred dollars less than S8....then no) Like to see Pixel 2 ....a buddy has a pixel

and loves it.... No hurry love my S7edge with custom rom & kernel working great...
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] w2830:
Good efforts OP for reaching out. But my money would bet on it will not be unlocked because these people you to talked have absolutely no credibility. The response you received only goes to show how ignorant and untrained these people are. It's no news Samsung does not make specific carrier branded phones anymore, it's not even prelocked. instead it gets locked to the first sim card you put in and carrier specific bloatware would only be installed till then. Even those being sold without contract at Samsung stores are the same and require a unlock code, which are offered by them. So there is no way and no point in making two versions (locked sim and unlocked) of the phone for the market, talking about NA, from the perspective of Samsung given the change they made. Let alone making locked and unlocked boot loaders. Those employees have basically no clue what they are talking about. Customer service and support is the sad part about Samsung. Simply hands down to Apple.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
What exactly does your custom rom/kernel combination afford you that the stock stuff doesnt? You certainly didn't gain any performance or battery life. So what, a few extra tweaks here and there such as changing the color of the status bar? Was that really worth your warranty and samsung pay?

The stock software is highly optimized these days and full of features. There's not much the devs can do to improve upon any of it. The majority of the time they just create bugs and that's it.

There is almost no reason left to root as we have 90% of the solutions without root. That's why I don't understand the people so hung up on rooting and the bootloader.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] maxyoda:
Ads.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
Adguard.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] marclais:
For me, it's the little things. Just off the top off my head I can't stand the high volume warning, I don't want my screen to come on when I plug it in, I like being able to backup, restore and freeze apps, turn off the boot sound? Yes, please. I guess you can disable bloat now? Still I find comfort in removing it. Blocking ads is nice. I use greenify (though I haven't checked how much it helps in a long time). I use an xposed module that allows me to mark as read or delete emails in the gmail notification... And I am CERTAIN that there is more.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
My phone doesn't turn on when you plug it in and that can also be adjusted in the factory developer options as well. The factory software has a wonderful app backup/restore system built right into the software as long as you log into your samsung account. You can freeze any app or service that you like with an app called package disabler pro from the playstore. Doesn't require root. As I mentioned in the last post, you can block ads with adguard, also doesn't require root. Greenify has a non-root version. Xposed doesn't work with Nougat.

Any others?
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] marclais:
All of that is good to know. Thanks.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] LoliSmith:
Was the Note 7 bootloader unlocked or just rooted with the leaked engineering kernel?
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] spongar141:
Thank you. I have no idea why people keep thinking the exynos version is unlocked stock. It was unlocked through an exploit that was from an leaked engineering kernel. Not going to happen again.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] PuffinNugz:
According to the description in the play store, adguard only blocks ads in Yandex and Samsung browsers and nowhere else. If true, that's worthless.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
It blocks every single ad. The playstore version is trash because Google destroyed it. The apk from their website is the full version. Just download and install.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] Xshooter726:
Okay, say one of us gets the device a lot earlier then expected. How could we help out the xda community into looking at possibly future rooting ? Highly doubt a simple Fastboot oem unlock command will do the trick so maybe those who know a bit more can share. Would it be possible to do a full system dump with out going through the setup process? Would it be recommended to do the system dump before inserting a sim? Apparently something in the software changes when you first insert a sim.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] force70:
That is 100% wrong.

Exynos was unlocked right from launch day.

The snapdragon was rooted via engineering firmware but was never unlocked hence no twrp...so wrong again.

Please get your facts straight before posting .

I do agree its prolly not going to happen again though

Sent from my Note 7, S7 Edge or S6
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
You should probably get your facts straight before posting. The exynos version was ABLE to be unlocked from launch. Not pre unlocked. Once you unlocked however the phone was gimped and your warranty was gone. Not a great trade off to get rid of a high volume nag...
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] force70:
Lol....the exynos was never locked...period.

Show me one note 7 thread that mentions how to unlock the BL...you cant because it was never locked.

I had an exynos note 7 ...did you?

I also had 2 snapdragon note 7s...did you?
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
Wtf are you talking about?
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] force70:
Clearly you have no idea what post i was quoting when i was talking about the note 7.

So you added your 2 cents into a conversation without even realizing what it was about lol.

I was responding to post 48.

Sent from my Note 7, S7 Edge or S6
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
Well even if the exynos was unlocked from the start it's useless because as soon at you root or recovery you're toast. There is no way around knox without an engineering build and those have bugs and will never see updates. Rooting a samsung just isn't worth it and everyone just needs to let it go.

---------- Post added at 01:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 PM ----------

PS there is no way the phone was straight up unlocked status right out of the box. It was locked and then the process of flashing something unlocked it.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] force70:
Root and recovery = toast? No idea what that means

Yes once knox is tripped thats it...but who cares?

There was never an engineering build for the note 7 as it was not needed so that is not relevant to this discussion.

We had traditional root and twrp and there were numerous roms to choose from and none of them were buggy.

You obviously didnt have a note 7 or else you would know all this. And since you didnt have one you trying to debate the facts with me about the device is a lost cause for you.

I wont clog up this thread any longer on this as I have stated the facts to ensure no misinformation is spread.

Sent from my Note 7, S7 Edge or S6
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
I had 4 note 7s and have 2 gear VRs and 2 256gb samsung memory cards because of it. The bootloader was not factory unlocked on the exynos version. It was unlockable, not unlocked. If you don't know what I mean when I say the phone becomes gimped when you root, well then you just don't know anything about samsung phones.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] force70:
Okay then please show me an xda thread that explains how to unlock the exynos note 7 bootloader because if we had to unlock it there will be threads on it.

Hell it would be in the first post of any of the rom threads..never saw such a thing

My FD version never required a BL unlock for the record

Sent from my Note 7, S7 Edge or S6
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
Flashing a custom recovery unlocks it and evaporates your warranty and samsung pay in one shot.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] force70:
Yes true about warranty and pay...

Show me anywhere here that says flashing twrp unlocks the bootloader.

You can't because its not true.

To even flash custom recovery on any device ive ever had REQUIRES the BL to be unlocked first.

Again please show me a thread that states twrp unlocks the BL.

Sent from my Note 7, S7 Edge or S6
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
No. Im eating an apple right now which is more important.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] SBERG117:
Why is this thread still open??... The title is a complete lie.....
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] 954wrecker:
Some people think the chat agents have a clue. I had a chat agent today tell me they dont know what bands the T-Mobile version will support because its not released yet! I said how did Verizon and AT&T manage to get that info and list it online? Those chat agents and supervisors are all clueless
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] Goozieman666:
Discuss about s8

How much the s8 would be ?
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] AnubuRe:
Is there a way to FULLY control app permissions like we can with Xposed? Not talking about the crappy built-in android version
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] BarryH_GEG:
Common sense is usually a good harbinger of the future. Why after years of tightening the security noose and with security threats increasing would Samsung go backwards and loosen security on their phones? They've invested tons of money in Knox to pursue B2B and government business. If people on a technology discussion forum can crack Samsung/Android's security in their garages what does that say about Samsung/Android security? Face it. A handful of enthusiasts wanting to turn their phones in to a hobby are completely expendable. And Samsung through their actions have made that pretty clear.

And bad news for modders on the Exynos front...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11149/samsung-announces-exynos-8895-soc-10nm​
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
You need app ops which requires a custom Rom unfortunately. But what would you want to do with it? I haven't found much that it can do that the factory permissions can't.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] force70:
I think as long as the exynos BL isnt locked we will be okay. Im sure as each year passes the devcies will be harder and harder to work on though as I agree the trend of tighter security isnt going to go away.

Sent from my Note 7, S7 Edge or S6
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
Have you read a single post other than your own from this thread? Lol

It's going to be locked and if it's not there won't be any good reason to unlock it, and if you do, the phone will be severely gimped. Just let it go man. Have an apple and let it go.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] chaotic646:
I understand the thread title is likely bs but will there be anyway to remove the Verizon bloatware without root? I used to be very up to date on all this but haven't messed with root/kernels/roms for a couple years now. Based on past experience I'm guessing the answer is no.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] MicroMod777:
Ewwww. I like this thread. Need more popcorn. Keep it going please.....

So as a former LG fanboy where almost every T-Mobile device was unlockable with fastboot commands and or hack, Samsung is gonna be locked down for life??
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
You can completely freeze (disable) any app or service on the phone with package disabler pro, works amazing. You cannot remove the stuff so it takes up memory, but not much.

---------- Post added at 10:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:49 AM ----------

Probably yes. And if somehow you manage to get around it, it will trip knox and you will lose your warranty and samsung pay (and I believe s health too), and Android pay btw. So you have to ask yourself, is whatever the reason you're rooting in the first place worth losing all that.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] ewokuk:
There is nothing new about losing samsung pay and warranty when rooting, that was the case with my s5 3 years ago. you dont lose s health unless something has changed recently, im using the S7 s health on my rooted custom rommed s5 with no issues. so basically you lose nothing worthwhile from rooting it and gain ****loads.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
Nothing worthwhile except your entire warranty on a 900 dollar phone and the ability to pay for things at any atm in the world without your wallet.

Can you please elaborate on the tons of amazing things that you gain from rooting and romming? Viper? Custom kernels that do nothing? Xposed that doesn't work? Come on lay it on me man I gotta know what great things your phone does that mine doesn't while my warranty is sitting pretty.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] MicroMod777:
I'll never loose warranty through T-Mobile. They never check that stuff. Don't need any of that pay stuff as I would never trust my CC info just sitting there on my device unless I had a very secure firewall. As for S health? What the heck is that? Sorry as I was never a Samsung fanboy till posdibly now! :))))
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] jvianney94:
You do realize what forum you are posting in, correct? The number one place on the internet to discuss things like modifying phones. Just thought I'd remind you since you seem to have forgotten. Some of us still enjoy modding and tinkering with our roms, friend. There are all sorts of benefits that I'm not even going to bother explaining to you since you seem to prefer the out of the box experience.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] SBERG117:
Sounds like someone ate a rotten apple.....
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
I prefer having control as well but not when it comes with the tradeoffs I've mentioned before. If you want to mod then it's pixel/nexus, not samsung. Complaining about it here won't change what samsung has done to their phones.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] MicroMod777:
LOL! Yea this is XDA, the largest mobile devices hacking community in the world.

If we all really cared about warranty and other non essential stuff, XDA would of never existed.

We need to have the freedom to do what we want when we want with our devices as we see fit as consumers.

Could you imagine car manufacturers putting solid metal cages around their engines that only the dealer had keys to? Thats what the dang cell manufacterers have basically done and its outrages.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
It's very similar to the car industry actually. If you modify your car and they catch you, your warranty is gone permanately as well. It's just that samsung has figured out a way to catch us every time. Which sucks.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] MicroMod777:
....and does that stop people from putting an aftermarket air Intake, headers, HID lights, exhaust, etc???

Do you want to live in a communist state where all our freedoms are gone?

Long live XDA!!! :))))
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
I do not, as I've stated. However it's what is happening and we can do nothing about it.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] MicroMod777:
Well yes we can do something if we collaborate with the brightest devs to come up with a solution.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] TechnoR1:
question on s8

can you please develop bondavada ROM for s8. developers please consider.

I can also develop the ROM. but I don't know developing, and I dont have this phone. But my girl friend's cousin's friend's sister has this phone. So developers should go for bondavada rom
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] seh6183:
There is no way to go back once knox is tripped. The brightest devs can do nothing about that. They may be able to figure out how to crack a bootloader but it will trip knox and were back to square one.
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] BarryH_GEG:
One thing to keep in mind for people that like to flip their phones is that rooting affects their resale. Unless of course someone looking to buy a phone sees rooting as an advantage. XDA has 7,948,644 members of which 335,192 have been active within the past 30 days. There was 1.4B smartphones sold in 2016. So there are far more people looking for factory fresh phones on the resale market than those that have been rooted. Just something to keep in mind.

From Swappa...
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] Phredeee:
Trying hard to decide which way to go......

My take on all of this... Snapdragon S8 will almost certainly have the BL locked. The high volume nag on my Note 7 sucked, maybe it got fixed. I REALLY like Samsung Pay. Up until the Note 7 I always rooted to get thing the way I wanted them. The Note 7 firmware wasn't so bad, other than the volume nag and a few other minor points.

What I'm not clear on....

The Exynos version appears to support Samsung Pay on the S7. How can this be with an unlocked BL?

Where is this Samsung store people speak of? If I wanted to by the International version, or even a US SIM unlocked, where would I, besides EBAY which scares the bejezus out of me. Best Buy has been said to be offering SIM unlocked phones (May 9) anywhere else?

What is the big advantage of buying a SIM unlocked phone from Best Buy vs. a locked TMo phone then having it unlocked (I pay cash for the phone) Bloatware only? Seems like Disabler Pro will stop it from running (given the large amount of storage having the bloatware stored isn't a big deal as long as it doesn't take resources). The Tmo route also gets me the incentives. I've learned to hate AT&T, Tmo may not be any better IDK.

Performance gains on the Exynos may be worth it (I don't care about CDMA) but only if Samsung Pay works. If I can find somewhere to buy one. Then I have my options open if the nag gets too bad I can always root and lose Samsung Pay, right??
[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] SOCOM-HERO:
Is there any hope at all that a VZW variant will be able to have root?