Verizon’s Galaxy S III bootloader-locking antics foiled by developers

It’s fair to say that when Verizon chose to lock the Galaxy S III’s bootloader, it made quite a few people unhappy. While it didn’t stop enterprising users from rooting Samsung’s flagship smartphone, it did prevent custom ROMs such as CyanogenMod from being loaded onto the device. Now, an xda-developers member has uploaded a tool for unlocking the S III’s bootloader, finally putting Verizon customers on par with the rest of the world.

Unlocking the bootloader will void your warranty and prevent you from receiving software updates from Verizon, but the same would be true if you were to install a custom ROM on a factory-unlocked Galaxy S III. The news makes the Verizon Galaxy S III Developer Edition a tough sell, as neither Verizon nor Samsung will offer warranty support for users that root or install a custom ROM on the device anyway. As usual, if you’re looking to unlock your Galaxy S III, make sure you understand the risks involved and give any documentation a thorough read.