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The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 is an amazing smartphone that marks many firsts for the company. You get a front-facing camera below the screen in the device’s 7.6-inch foldable display, along with a triple rear camera setup. And if you like having these cameras, you know, that actually work, then you probably don’t want to unlock your bootloader. Samsung is taking a strange step to prevent people from modifying its phones: if you unlock the Z Fold3’s bootloader, the functionality of the camera will be completely crippled.
Users of the XDA-Developers community noticed the change. And it’s not a bug of any kind – it’s completely on purpose. When you unlock your bootloader, your phone will notify you that continuing the process “cause the camera to turn off and may prevent your phone or apps from working properly. “
The Z Fold3’s camera functionality no longer exists after unlocking its bootloader. Image credits: XDA-Developers
These are big words for any new Z Fold3 owner who is looking to root their phone, and indeed, once the phone is unlocked, the camera will stop working properly. The camera app will not open and apps will not even be able to display a viewfinder. Facial recognition won’t work either. For the record, relocking your bootloader brings back all of the camera’s functionality.
If you have any deja vu vibes, it’s because, yes, Sony was doing something similar as well. In the case of Sony phones, it can be a lottery to make the photos your camera take to look like crap or your camera to stop working altogether. Fortunately, the company stopped doing this after the release of Android 9 Pie.
As for Samsung, well, it has never been the friendliest company towards smartphone modding in general. It has been well known for years that unlocking your bootloader will blow an electronic Knox fuse on your device, permanently disabling the Samsung Pay feature. While the camera doesn’t seem to be tied to that Knox electronic fuse, having a phone with a camera that doesn’t work, even if you can roll it back, is definitely not cool. It’s unclear whether future Samsung phones will also take this step to discourage bootloader unlocking. But it’s definitely a bad move.
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