Amazon’s Subsidized Smartphones Get Hacked

Amazon recently introduced two subsidized smartphones for Prime members. The Moto G4 Prime Exclusive and Blu R1 HD Prime Exclusive are sold at a significant discount compared to their normal retail value, the catch being that customers have to put up with ads on the lock screen and notification tray. Both subsidized smartphones have been hacked, meaning that users can root them and even install a custom recovery.

The Moto G4 Prime Exclusive was the first to get rooted, and once it was rooted, it was possible to remove the ads from it. Prime members who did the procedure essentially got a subsidized phone with no ads provided that they did not revert back to stock firmware.

The Blu R1 HD Prime Exclusive has been rooted as well. It’s possible to install a custom recovery on the handset and remove any and all ads from it. The procedure has been posted online by XDA forums user jasonmerc.

Customers always have the option to pay full price for both handsets and get them without any ads, but Prime members can take advantage of the subsidy as long as they’re willing to put up with ads. Now that there’s a way to root these phones I suspect many will be doing the procedure to remove those ads.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Amazon, prime, rooting