Got a Nokia Lumia 800 or the budget-minded Lumia 710? Wishing you had a way to load unofficial apps or otherwise tinker with Windows Phone on your device? Well, you’re in luck: forum contributors at XDA have posted instructions that could possibly allow you to jailbreak (or Interop-unlock) your device.
There are a couple catches, however. If you own a Lumia 710, you’re probably good to go. You’ll need to first flash an unlocked Qualcomm bootloader before you can proceed with the unlock, but it’s definitely possible. For the Lumia 800, things get a bit more complicated.
Not all 800s can be jailbroken by following the procedure outlined at XDA. If your 800 sports hardware revision 2.3 and firmware 11141 or lower, you’re good to go. Phones that shipped with revision 2.4, or that have been upgraded to more recent firmware, can’t be unlocked yet as they’ve got a different bootloader and can’t be downgraded the way the Lumia 710 can.
Now that some Lumia 710s and 800s have been unlocked, the real fun begins. There’s a distinct possibility that we’ll see the usual round of operating system ports — Android seems likely, and someone in the Linux community may even try to shoehorn Ubuntu or a derivative onto one of the Nokia phones.
It’s safe to assume that neither Steve Ballmer or Stephen Elop envisioned Lumia owners installing an OS other than Windows Phone on the devices when they released them last year. They’re supposed to be the standard bearers for Microsoft’s operating system, after all.
As always, a word of warning before you attempt to unlock your Lumia: results have been mixed thus far, and there’s a possibility you could end up with a non-functional phone if you decide to flash.
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