Your phone’s bootloader isn’t unlocked, or you aren’t sure

Unlocking your phone’s bootloader is an essential step if you want to install alternative ROMs, beta versions of Android, different operating systems, or get root access for greater control. So it was rather disappointing to hear that LG would be closing its bootloader unlock service at the end of the month.

This news made us wonder just how many readers have a phone with an unlocked bootloader. We included this very poll in our LG bootloader story on Monday and here’s how you voted.

Is your phone’s bootloader unlocked?

Results

Almost 2,000 readers voted in this poll when we posted it on Monday, and it turns out that a slim majority of you (~52%) don’t have an unlocked bootloader. This suggests that most respondents have either never rooted their current phone or installed a custom ROM on it. But it doesn’t preclude the possibility that many of these readers have previously tinkered with older phones.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was that ~37% of polled readers simply said that they didn’t know whether their phone had an unlocked bootloader. This dwarfed the camp who said their phone’s bootloader was indeed unlocked (~10%).

We didn’t see any relevant comments on this poll, so we’re not quite sure why people chose “I don’t know” in particular. Still, LG’s decision to shut its bootloader unlock key service shows how important it is to have this feature in the first place. This way, you can (unofficially) install the latest security patches and system updates when LG eventually stops supporting its phones.

Thanks for voting in this poll. Would you install unofficial updates, custom ROMs, and alternative operating systems on your phone if it were easier to do? Let us know in the comments.