Android By Russell Holly May. 6, 2014 12:42 pm
Verizon Wireless and Samsung have announced a developer edition of the Galaxy S5, which is available to purchase outright for $600. The question now is whether or not you should, and that answer should, most likely, be “no.”
There’s been a growing subculture of smartphone users interested in unlocking their phones to accomplish things the manufacturers either don’t want you to do, or feel you shouldn’t be allowed to do without paying extra. For Apple, it’s called jailbreaking, for Android it’s called rooting and flashing alternative versions, but the end goals are almost always the same. Verizon and AT&T lock down many of their phones that are sold on contract to stop this kind of thing from happening, but purchasable unlocked versions are sold to appease those who would jailbreak or root their device. The Galaxy S5 is no exception, and now the unlocked version is available for purchase from Samsung.
Verizon’s version of the Galaxy S5 isn’t just locked down, it’s fundamentally broken to stop you from using the services Samsung announced when the phone was originally launched. The Download Booster function in the phone, which allowed users to pair WiFi and LTE to achieve greater download speeds, was all but removed from the device to stop people from using it. This unlocked version of the phone is the only way you can have a Galaxy S5 on Verizon Wireless and get the features out of the box that Samsung promised when the phone was announced, without their its security features being bypassed by the Android developer community. Since that’s not a guaranteed thing, this developer edition is your only option.
Much like the HTC One M8, this is your only real choice if you want a smartphone on Verizon that isn’t arbitrarily limited. Verizon Wireless is going to continue behaving this way as long as manufacturers continue to comply, and manufacturers are going to continue to comply because that’s how you get your phone sold by the*biggest carrier in the US. The strangest thing is that nothing changes if you buy this phone. If you choose to root and modify your Galaxy S5 Developer Edition, you’re still voiding your warranty such that Verizon could turn you away if your phone is run over by a car or dropped in a lake. It’s a bad scenario all the way around, but for some it’s the only real option available.
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There’s been a growing subculture of smartphone users interested in unlocking their phones to accomplish things the manufacturers either don’t want you to do, or feel you shouldn’t be allowed to do without paying extra. For Apple, it’s called jailbreaking, for Android it’s called rooting and flashing alternative versions, but the end goals are almost always the same. Verizon and AT&T lock down many of their phones that are sold on contract to stop this kind of thing from happening, but purchasable unlocked versions are sold to appease those who would jailbreak or root their device. The Galaxy S5 is no exception, and now the unlocked version is available for purchase from Samsung.
Verizon’s version of the Galaxy S5 isn’t just locked down, it’s fundamentally broken to stop you from using the services Samsung announced when the phone was originally launched. The Download Booster function in the phone, which allowed users to pair WiFi and LTE to achieve greater download speeds, was all but removed from the device to stop people from using it. This unlocked version of the phone is the only way you can have a Galaxy S5 on Verizon Wireless and get the features out of the box that Samsung promised when the phone was announced, without their its security features being bypassed by the Android developer community. Since that’s not a guaranteed thing, this developer edition is your only option.
Much like the HTC One M8, this is your only real choice if you want a smartphone on Verizon that isn’t arbitrarily limited. Verizon Wireless is going to continue behaving this way as long as manufacturers continue to comply, and manufacturers are going to continue to comply because that’s how you get your phone sold by the*biggest carrier in the US. The strangest thing is that nothing changes if you buy this phone. If you choose to root and modify your Galaxy S5 Developer Edition, you’re still voiding your warranty such that Verizon could turn you away if your phone is run over by a car or dropped in a lake. It’s a bad scenario all the way around, but for some it’s the only real option available.
More...
