As promised, Motorola is making at least some of the bootloaders on its new flagship Moto X unlockable, opening the door for relatively easy root privileges, custom recoveries, and aftermarket ROMs. The Sprint, US Cellular, and forthcoming Latin American models of the Moto X can now be unlocked using Motorola's My Moto Care portal. Customers will need to create an account and have their device ID ready.

Naturally, unlocking your device's bootloader will void your warranty, even if you never do anything else with it. There are also some very, very strict terms that Motorola will make you agree to, which can't be negotiated or denied if you want to unlock your bootloader. These include stipulations that you can't sell your device and that you must agree to arbitration if you have some kind of civil claim. The first issue in particular (see item 4 in this PDF document) is probably unenforceable, but the gist is that if your phone malfunctions, dies, explodes, or otherwise fails to be awesome after you go through with the bootloader unlock, don't go crying to Motorola or any of its sales partners.

Of course, Moto X devices sold on AT&T and Verizon (which will certainly be the vast majority of the Moto X phones in the US) remain locked down tight at the request of those carriers. There's also no way to buy an unlockable Moto X through Moto Maker at the moment, and Motorola has thus far failed to produce any Developer Editions (special full-price versions of the phone for AT&T/Verizon with unlockable bootloaders), though the company says that these are coming soon. There's a placeholder on the Motorola website showing the Developer Edition with a special logo and two-tone case design. The promised Google Play Edition is also nowhere in sight. The Rogers edition of the phone sold in Canada can be unlocked using the same tool as the Sprint, US Cellular, and Latin American devices, and we expect the T-Mobile version to show up there eventually.

Psst. Mr. Soni. There are five or six hundred dollars in my bank account just waiting to be handed over for an unlockable Moto X on Verizon. Get that Developer Edition out the door already.

Source: Motorola US, Latin America