[Q] How do I tell if I have an unlocked bootloader?

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How do I tell if my bootloader is unlocked?

I just got the pone and haven't done anything to it yet but I'm seeing options I wasn't expecting in a locked phone like the ability to enable USB debugging and the ability to instanll non-market apps. So could that mean my phone already has an unlocked bootloader? How do I check?

No - the phones all have that. These have nothing to do with unlocked B/L. The ADB connectivity doesn't function as root though.

Standard Android settings...

Thanks. Guess that means I still have root the phone sometime. At least I'm on 2.3.3 and not 2.3.4 so I should be able to avoid the battery issue.

No battery issue here...

There is no battery issue with 2.3.4 it only happens when you try downgrading to 2.3.2 I believe (which I am not going to test myself, there is already enough people who have fallen into this trap), you can still root 2.3.4 too with rootxperia, the only thing that's not possible (yet) is doomlords kernel for overclocking and that's it, everything else is good, and 2.3.4 is so much better over 2.3.3. quicker, panorama pictures, and lots more including swipe inbuilt into the firmware :)

I can only root with rootXperia if I have an unlocked bootloader. And to me the process for unlocking the bootloader looks trickier than the process for rooting. So yeah I meant the issue when downgrading to 2.3.2.

It's not too tricky, get alejandrissimo to help you out :) or you can try the offical sony way. but yeah, I forgot that you couldn't use rootxperia without a unlocked bootloader, my bad. it's worth doing though to be honest.

I don't think I can keep a stable enough connection to Mexico for Alejandrissimo to help me out. Also as far as I know SE hasn't made that site yet that they wanted to allow bootloader unlocking (and even if they did it was gonna be region based so my region most likely won't be supported till 2020 or something like that).

At this point however I'm not noticing much I'd like to have and don't that a root would provide me with. I don't want to try custom roms, I'm perfectly happy with stock and my need for a better battery icon is taken care of by a widget so that just leaves better backups (since to full back everything up these apps needs root access)...but the thing is I probably would only need a backup if I wanted to root or flash something in the first place.

Okay fair enough then, yeah I didn't think about the stable connection. well you don't need a real stable connection to get the IMEI code to sony to get the unlock code, the bootloader unlock is here for the neo -> http://unlockbootloader.sonyericsson.com/instructions :) I don't think it is based on regions, however if the phone is locked to a provider, (from experience) I don't think it will work, (is why I couldn't use this method) up to you if you want to give it a shot though. good luck.

Oh wow thanks. I didn't know about that all. Does the bootloader get relocked upon doing a PC Companion update just like the root is lost? Because I notice that says not to do an OTA update after the bootloader has been unlocked that way.