Android Magazine 58 - 2015 UK

Nexus devices have always been the

number one choice of the Android modder

when it comes to hacking. They’re the

easiest to root, the easiest to recover and they

have the most mods and tweaks available.

That’s still true of the Nexus 5X and Nexus

6P, but it’s not quite as simple as it used to be.

With Marshmallow Google is tightening up on

security: encryption is turned on by default

and unlocking the bootloader – a necessar y

step that opens up your device to modifying

and replacing system and other core files –

now needs to be enabled first in the software.

The new Nexus phones are still pretty open,

but you can be sure that completely locked

down handsets will become common once

other manufacturers jump on board with the

release of Marshmallow.

Even the Nexus 6P now blows a hardware

fuse, called the QFuse, when the bootloader

is unlocked. This doesn’t damage the phone

in any way, but it cannot be reversed even if

the bootloader is relocked. The full

implications aren’t yet known and it is

possible it may impact secure functions like

the abilit y to use A ndroid Pay, which could

potentially then have warranty issues so, as

always, proceed with caution.

Still if you’re an early adopter of a Nexus

phone then it’s probably safe to say that

unlocking and rooting are second nature to

you and even with the improvements in

Marshmallow, there are still countless

benefits to doing so.

As always, it’s good to unlock the bootloader

before you set up your phone, but unlocking

wipes your data. Rooting won’t always cause

data loss though, so if you want to hold off on

that for a while you can. Let’s get star ted.

Everything you need to know to get started on

hacking and tweaking the new Marshmallow phones

HACK YOUR

SUPERPHONE

 

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