ZTE will unlock your Axon 7 or Axon Pro upon request

The Axon 7 — the latest in ZTE’s Axon line that debuted last year — has garnered high praise and comparisons to many of this year’s top-of-the-line flagships. After announcing this morning that U.S. models of the Axon 7 (as well as the Axon Pro) are eligible for bootloader unlocking, ZTE has made an already great device even more appealing than before. 

Leading up to the device’s release, tons of people were excited for the Axon 7. What made the launch even more exciting was the fact that, in a live webinar, Peter Shih, moderator of the ZTE community forum, let everyone know that ZTE was working hard to make the Axon 7’s bootloader unlockable. 

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After the launch when users began receiving their devices, many were disappointed to find the Axon 7 bootloader couldn’t be unlocked. In response, a number of users contacted ZTE’s customer service department to ask when they’d be able to unlock the Axon 7 bootloader. The ZTE customer service reps said the company had no intention of making the Axon 7 bootloader unlockable, which obviously conflicted with what Shih’s original plans. To be clear, this would mean no third-party ROMs or other firmwares for the Axon 7.

Shortly thereafter, Shih took to the ZTE community forum to rectify the issue by asserting that the tweet and the customer service representatives were wrong. To further clarify, he said:

We had been planning for a big week next week, sharing with our community, but there goes our big surprise… After several months of hard work [to deliver] several features and milestones for our community, one tweet and several misinformed CSRs can destroy seemingly everything.

Sure enough, ZTE revealed this morning that the U.S. models of the Axon 7 and the Axon Pro would support bootloader unlocking. According to the announcement, those who own the U.S. version of the Axon 7 (or Axon Pro) can unlock their devices’ bootloaders by accessing the request form on the company’s forum. However, unlocking the bootloader voids a device’s Passport 2.0 warranty, so ZTE wants to be sure anyone requesting to unlock his or her bootloader understands this. It’s asked that only those who are experienced with flashing ROMs and Android firmwares attempt bootloader unlocking. Also, the form is a means of obtaining a user’s acknowledgement that bootloader unlocking voids the Passport 2.0 warranty.

Per the announcement, to unlock your bootloader you simply submit the required form and wait to receive instructions for the bootloader unlock process, which should take no more than 72 hours.

What do you make of ZTE’s bootloader unlocking process? Do you think that the canceled pre-orders were the main incentive for ZTE to allow bootloader unlocking? Sound off in the comments below.