Its not looking good for development with the Snapdragon 820

So far every Snapdragon 820 phone released in the US has an encrypted bootloader, Qualcomm secure boot, AND dm-verity checks in the kernel itself.

Samsung won't be reversing course on the S7 and S7 Edge just to placate 0.1% of their users.

The LG G5 bootloader is unlockable but has dm-verity checks so you can't flash anything that isn't signed by LG.

If the HTC 10 uses Qualcomm's secure boot technology, S-OFF will be next to impossible to achieve (and since HTC has worked tirelessly to stop us from getting S-OFF because it enables us to unlock the phone and relock it without leaving any trace that would void the warranty, they likely will be using it as well) but its doubtful HTC will remove their device unlock process on their website. Unfortunately, the 10 drops the ball on everything that made the M9, M8 and the M7 so great, including the front facing speakers and its also only a 5.1 inch display which is just too small these days.

This is going to be a really disappointing year for phones if Google's Nexus isn't compelling. Even if Samsung ships the Note 6 with the Exynos processor, they don't release developer information so you're stuck with TouchWiz and outdated firmware. My Note 5 *still* doesn't have Marshmallow!

The Note 5 isn't suiting my needs anymore... I have 5GB out of 24GB of total usable storage free and that's only because I deleted a lot of apps and downloads. It was all the way down to 450MB the other day and I was unable to update or install any new apps because of it. I'd break a USB OTG solution so that's not an option and I have been invested in the Android ecosystem since the HTC Hero (second Android device ever made) so switching to Apple isn't an option either. Since I have T-Mobile, buying a Chinese phone is a no go because of Band 12 LTE support. I should have just kept my 64GB Nexus 6...

 

Oddly enough, I hear some different rhetoric elsewhere... Exactly the opposite of what you claim, in fact.

To each his own - several people prefer 4-5" smartphones, myself included.

 

We will have to wait and see. What I've seen so far doesn't impress me at all.

I do everything on my phone these days so I need a large screen. I also don't like small phones because they can fall out of the pocket easily. I always put a large case on my phone because quite frankly they have gotten way too thin. To each their own I guess but for my large hands, small phones just don't work well.

 

And what about sony and xperia x series? It would not have unlockable and relockable bootloader like other xperia z's through flashtool? So should stick to my old note 3 maybe...

 

Traditionally rooting the Sony Xperia breaks the DRM keys and thus breaks the camera.

I'm seriously debating the HTC 10. I'm not sure what I'm going to do just yet. I know I'm sick of not having Marshmallow and development for HTC phones is always incredible because unlike Samsung, HTC releases the same software for each model and even generally has exchangeable basebands as well so there's rarely a need for model-specific ROMs while Samsung has always been a pain all the way back to the first Galaxy S

 

HTC is shipping the 10 carrier and bootloader unlocked if you order directly from them so it's quite likely they won't be using secure boot or dm-verity on the GSM models which means it will be my next phone. Obviously HTC has always appealed to the developer crowd and they appear to be doing so again with the 10.